" 19 20th-century abstract expressionist and European masterworks — including those by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning — from the Lang Collection, once owned by the late Medina philanthropists Jane Lang Davis and Richard E. Lang. The gift also includes an additional $10.5 million in dedicated funds for the museum." - The Seattle Times
"A Street Scene In Montmartre has been owned by a French family for most of the time since it was painted in 1887. Sotheby's estimates it could fetch up to eight million euros (£6.9m) when it is sold at auction next month." - BBC
"Every decision made by Charles Venable over the past decade seemed to be in service of remaking a museum founded in the 19th century into an income-generating attraction, when in fact it is a peer of other great Midwestern art museums that are open to the public for free and pursue an educational mission rather than masquerading as amusement...
"The Prado paid €70,000 (around $85,000) for La Boulonnaise, a 1929 work by the Spanish painter María Blanchard. … But the move has riled some commentators, who point to a 1995 law dictating that any works created after 1881 belong in the collection of the Reina Sofia ." - Artnet
"Museum and gallery leaders in England have expressed anger, disappointment and bafflement at why commercial art galleries – which count as non-essential shops – can open five weeks before them. 'It is just nuts' said Rebecca Salter, the president of the Royal Academy of Arts which, like other public galleries, has been told it can reopen no sooner than...
After 101 years of reproducing the Group of Seven’s art to the point of saturation, it feels like the time has come to give other, contemporary voices the same opportunities. - The Walrus
“The Smithsonian was always about how it could help the country reimagine itself, understand itself,” said Bunch, a historian and founding director of the popular National Museum of African American History and Culture. “The work we did with early aviation, even the way we collect history, which was always trying to ensure future generations understand how we got where...
Several places in Italy and Great Britain are considering the question, and a few memorials have already gone up. " are not intended as sweeping monuments to the historical moment, but simple places to grieve and reflect." - The New York Times
"A nearly-life-size depiction of a kangaroo — realistic genitalia included — is the oldest known rock painting in Australia. Scientists recently pinpointed its age to 17,300 years ago with a technique that had never been used on Australian ancient art before: measuring radioactive carbon in wasp nests from rocks near the artwork." - Live Science
To Musa Mayer’s dismay, her father, an antiracist and the son of immigrants who had fled antisemitic persecution, was now having his complex images misrepresented and their subject matter rendered simplistically provocative. - The Guardian
The museum in Washington, DC, founded by Duncan and Marjorie Phillips, was a sensation when it opened as a museum of modern art, and it's been a refuge and inspiration since, including, at times, during the pandemic. "Dorothy Kosinski, director of the museum, tells a story: 'I was standing outside of the Phillips in the fall when we were...
Dalí, art historians say, was "very deliberate" in his art - and sketches of unfinished works also show how he combined complex mathematical calculations with artistic license in his finished paintings. - The Observer (UK)
Looks like the mystery's been solved - and the writer was (drumroll) ... the artist himself. "The text, 'Could only have been painted by a madman,' isn’t large enough for most people to notice, especially when it’s presented in the museum behind glass, Guleng said. To study it, the researchers needed to use infrared photography to make it more...
Pretty much, yes. "Downtown Christchurch isn’t empty because of COVID. It’s empty because of twin catastrophes: Ten years ago an earthquake leveled much of the city—and then the local and national government botched the rebuild, squandering a golden opportunity to transform Christchurch." Here's what happened. - Slate
Juliet Ames couldn't resist decorating her first salt box, back in December. Then she got permission from the city. "In the past two months, more than 100 of the decorated salt boxes have appeared around Baltimore, including more than 25 adorned by Ames herself. The boxes celebrate such iconic Baltimore figures as the filmmaker John Waters, the Natty Boh...
