"The funds — which amount to the single largest naming gift the museum has ever received — come from longtime art collectors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed. The new building, which will bear their name, will … showcase modern art from the 19th and 20th centuries." - WBEZ (Chicago)
"He has held the top post since 1995. When it was revealed in 2018 that he planned to continue through 2025, (when his contract ends,) the museum parted with one of its cardinal rules: that 'chief curators and other senior managers' retire at age 65." (Lowry is now 69.) - ARTnews
“We saw museums leaning into reactionary methods: colleagues doing token hires, museums using artists as cover, and others being ousted from museum associations. There was no desire to look at root causes and issues. There was a vast delta between what the workers were saying and the approach of those at the administrative level.” - ARTnews
The new home for the museum's permanent collection, designed by starchitect Peter Zumthor and named the David Geffen Galleries, was initially scheduled to open in 2023 but has suffered several delays. LACMA's permanent collection has been in storage since 2019. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
For market participants who entered the game after 2020, all this turbulence may come as a surprise. Auction prices for some young artists have crashed as much as 90 percent since the peak of demand in 2021. Auction houses’ revenues are down significantly. - Cultured Magazine
“The most difficult products are the ones that have a human face, because getting skin tones and the shadows and all that stuff can be challenging. Once the paint is figured out, we make sure it functions the way we originally intended it to.” - Slate
A new exhibition shows how local architects in Ghana and India took the British idea of tropical modernism and turned it into a symbol of postcolonial self-determination and self-rule. - Hyperallergic
In 2022, a commander told Gamlet Zinkivsky to put down his guns and start painting because “the power of his art is much stronger than him taking a machine gun and assaulting or defending trenches. His art could empower the people defending the city.” - The New York Times
The current state of our knowledge on aesthetics, and specifically what we consider beautiful, is a mosaic of empirical discoveries. For over 150 years, psychologists have run carefully controlled experiments to determine whether an attribute, such as a particular colour, shape or melody is beautiful. - The Conversation
"The Arch of Constantine, a giant ancient Roman arch next to the Colosseum, was damaged (by a lightning strike) after a violent storm hit Rome, conservation authorities said on Tuesday. … The triumphal arch was built in the 4th century AD to celebrate the victory of Constantine ... over his rival, Maxentius." - Reuters
Las Vegas is the largest city in the US without a major art museum; casino magnate Elaine Wynn and LACMA director Michael Govan intend to change that. The Las Vegas Museum of Art won't start out with a collection; artworks, curation, and exhibitions will come from Los Angeles. - The New York Times
“Our program needs about three days to learn the characteristics from around 700 training images, and less than five minutes to calculate the probability of the authenticity of an artwork.” - ARTnews
With the layoff of all three curatorial staffers plus one patron-facing worker and the resignation of three more employees (one a senior manager), NAM has lost half its staff since August 1. The museum in the wealthy Rhode Island seaside town has had only one year without a deficit since 2011. - Hyperallergic
"Nearly seven months after launching an emergency fundraising campaign to stave off a 'dire' financial crisis, the Bellevue Arts Museum is closing its doors indefinitely, museum officials announced Wednesday afternoon. … It is unclear at this time whether the closure is permanent. The museum has filed for receivership." - The Seattle Times
