- Painterly Projections "One of the National Gallery's most extraordinary paintings, Jan van Eyck's Portrait of Arnolfini and His Wife, is at the centre of an increasingly ugly debate between scientists over whether the Flemish artist employed optical projections to help him paint it." The Telegraph (UK) 07/29/03
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Gehry's Next Project "Frank Gehry, the architect who created the stupendous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, has been given the go ahead to build the most outrageous set of tower blocks ever conceived for [the UK] on Brighton seafront." [Editor's Note for American readers: 'Tower block' is English for 'high-rise apartment complex.'] The buildings are said to look like "four giant transvestites caught in a gale," and will be built in the city of Hove, which has something of a history with cutting-edge architecture. The Guardian (UK) 07/26/03
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A Painting Worth $20 Mil - Or Five Bucks. We're Really Not Sure. Back in the early 1990s, truck driver Teri Horton purchased a drip painting for $5. Now, she wants to sell it: for $20 million. "This is the estimated value of what one forensic art expert has pronounced a Jackson Pollock. However, the prestigious International Foundation for Art Research does not think it genuine... Ms Horton, who is 70 and lives in Costa Mesa, southern California, thinks it is ugly. She kept it only because it would not fit through the front door of the friend for whom she bought it from a thrift shop." The Age (Melbourne) 07/27/03
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What It Means To Copy (And What's Allowed) Is copying a movie or music outright theft (piracy) as the movie and music industries claim? Maybe. But maybe not. There are lots of misconceptions as to what is stealing, what is fair use, and what is infringement of copyright. Here's a primer on what is allowed and what isn't. The Register 07/28/03
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California Eviscerates Arts Funding California slashes its arts funding from $18 million to a token $1 million, effectively shutting down the agency. "The new budget translates to less than 3 cents per person statewide. California will now rank dead last in per capita state spending for the arts. The national average is $1.10 per person." San Francisco Chronicle 07/31/03
