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This Artist Emerged From COVID’s Early Days Of Isolation With An Instagram Following, And Then A Gallery

Danielle Mckinney had "spent her entire professional life pursuing photography without showing in a commercial gallery, but soon she had dealers on both coasts, solo shows lined up and a waiting list of collectors and institutions interested in acquiring her paintings. She was excited and perplexed." - The New York Times

How The Met Is Bringing The Harlem Renaissance Back Into The Spotlight

The last Harlem show at the Met, in 1969 (!), contained no Black artists. This one is going to be different. Some works were stored in family members’ basements, for instance, and needed serious renovation. - The New York Times

The ‘Glass Church’ In LA, Designed By Frank Lloyd Wright’s Son, Shuts Amid Landslide Fears

The Wayfarers Chapel "sits on the Palos Verdes peninsula, which is prone to landslides. Cracks had begun to appear in the structure, and several panes of glass had broken in recent months.” - The Guardian (UK)

LACMA’s Looted Art Problem

For experts in museum ethics, LACMA’s handling of the situation — which partisans see as a proxy battle in a larger war over evolving ideas of power at the nexus of art, justice and globalism — is unsurprising yet unfortunate. To them, the prevailing ethos is catch-me-if-you-can. - The Hollywood Reporter

Insurers Say The Biggest Danger To Museum Artworks Is — Well, Not Climate-Protesting Art Vandals

It's "a scourge of selfie-takers backing into paintings and other objects. As many visitors are increasingly more interested in stunting for the ’gram than having an ecstatic art experience, art insurers hope to promote more rigorous protections." - Hyperallergic

Royal Ontario Museum To Redesign, Make First Floor Free Admission

"We call it OpenROM, a transformative project that will both literally and figuratively open the museum up even more, creating a thriving cultural and civic hub in the heart of the city and province." - MSN (CP)

A Transformative Calder Gift To The Seattle Art Museum

Last April, the Shirleys donated 48 works by Alexander Calder to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). While Calders proliferate in museums across the globe, these are particularly major ones—the group of works was valued at $200 million by a Christie’s higher-up. - ARTnews

13th-Century Fresco By Cimabue Has Been Restored And Revealed

The painting, in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, is of the Madonna and Child with angels and St. Francis himself. The project has restored some bright colors that were darkened in the painting's last conservation (1973) and repaired some damage suffered in the 1997 earthquakes. - Artnet

OMG, Looks Like The Saudis Have Actually Started Construction On That 100-Mile-Long Building

Many onlookers have been skeptical that The Line, Prince Muhammad bin Salman's planned glass-clad behemoth 170 kilometers long, 1,640 feet tall and only 660 feet wide, will ever really be built. But the project's CEO has now released photos of the initial excavation. - Dezeen

Tate Modern Has 12.5 Million Social Media Followers. Here’s How

"We try to strike a careful balance between experimenting with TikTok and posting on Instagram, as Instagram remains our most reliably steadfast channel. It’s been our widest-reaching and most actively engaged audience for years, and accounts for around three quarters of our total video views." - The Art Newspaper

Russian “Artist” Threatens To Dissolve Picassos, Rembrandts, In Acid

Andrei Molodkin claims to be sealing original works of art by Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, Sarah Lucas, Andres Serrano and more in a safe designed to destroy them all with acid. - The Guardian

Taggers Cover Stalled LA Tower With Graffiti

“This was a giant building that a community of people is finding use in. It’s people making use of the things that others neglect or leave behind.” - Los Angeles Times

Notre-Dame’s New Spire Is In Place As Reconstruction Forges Ahead

"Scaffolding surrounding the spire came down this week, revealing the restored structure in a landmark moment for the cathedral, which was ravaged by a fire in April 2019. The soaring spire, crowned with a cross and golden rooster, peeks out of a dense grid of support beams." - The Washington Post (MSN)

Now Climate-Protesting Art Vandals Have Struck Botticelli’s “Birth Of Venus” (At Least They Didn’t Throw Soup)

"Two activists from Last Generation pasted images of a flooded Tuscan town over the goddess's giant shell on the 15th-century work (at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) before being escorted to a police station." - AFP (Yahoo!)

Rijksmuseum To The Mob: Please Give That Frans Hals Painting Back, We Have An Exhibition Coming

The show will include 50 works by Hals — but not Two Laughing Boys With a Mug of Beer, which was stolen (for the third time) from the Museum Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden in Leerdam in August 2020. Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbets has asked publicly for its return. - The Guardian

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