A two-part essay by Ben Davis in which he considers (Part One) what exactly it is about a work that can give someone the physical response he calls "aesthetic chills" and (Part Two) why visual art doesn't seem to induce those chills as often as other art forms do. - Artnet
While the exact terms of the deal—or the company’s new valuation—were not disclosed, a Sotheby’s spokesperson said that $800 million of the cash injection has been earmarked for paying down the auction house’s $1.65 billion long-term debt. - ARTnews
Most scholars believe that the enormous embroidery, which depicts the Norman Conquest, is missing a key scene: the coronation of William the Conqueror as King of England on Christmas Day 1066. Hélène Delprat has been selected to create what she describes as "neither a restoration nor a reconstruction." - Artnet
"Could the Hirshhorn be a major institution? These days, Director Melissa Chiu says it should assume its role as 'the national museum of modern and contemporary art.' The notion would have invited laughs in 1974." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"Everyone who works (in the job) has stories about the expensive, delicate, sacred and impossibly large things they’ve had to pack into a crate and ship somewhere:" weird things such as an electric chair, and difficult things like a 3,000 pound pre-Columbian artifact amidst an ice storm. - The Washington Post (MSN)
"While the home is modest in size, researchers say that its decorations — including erotic scenes — are equal to those of much larger nearby residences. Found during recent excavations in the central district of the city, the painted dwelling also exemplifies a shift in Roman building styles." - Smithsonian Magazine
It is a figurative sculpture, rooted in realism, that shows an improbably large pile of human poop on the desk of Nancy Pelosi, then the highest ranking woman in the democratic system, who had to flee for her life while rioters besieged the building. - Washington Post
What comes through overall is a sense that collectors’ behaviors are are starting to shift, and not just in relation to the current market climate. - Artnet
"Le Corbusier’s dream was of vast blocks of buildings as 'machines for living.' His bare modernism took hold of architecture schools and town-planning departments” - and his acolytes nearly destroyed most of the cities in the UK. - The Guardian (UK)
That’s the idea at the (former) New York Historical Society, now just New York Historical. The museum’s chief content officer knows the name isn’t perfectly grammatical, but he "likened it to the former Apple marketing campaign, 'Think different.’” - The New York Times
Curators figured out that "Gothic architecture and medieval painting influenced modern art, and began to conjecture which works, shown together, would best exemplify this trend’ - including a Van Gogh of a skeleton smoking a cigarette. - The New York Times
The Iranian-German photographer called Israel a “Zionist apartheid state” and said “Free Palestine” in her minute-long award acceptance speech. - Hyperallergic
Digital programming, online classes, offline pop-ups, and construction tours keep museums that are undergoing renovations in the eyes, and lives, of the easily distracted public. - The New York Times
At the University of Chicago, “students have about one week to peruse the collection and identify their favorites among the color lithographs by luminaries such as Joan Miró, Marc Chagall and Yves Tanguy, iconic prints by Gordon Parks and Jenny Holzer, and even a couple of Picassos.” - NPR
That’s April, 2026. “LACMA has likened Zumthor‘s design to a kind of living organism. Indeed, the raw concrete is already showing signs of weathering, with water stains and other irregularities.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
