Dia: Beacon Is A Hit The Hudson Valley art center, which opened last summer, has already exceeded its visitor projections. "Our original expectation was 60,000 visitors for the opening year; then we upped the number to 100,000. We've already hit our target, and it's been open less than six months." The New York Times 10/31/03

Selloff - Museum Chooses Art Of The Future Connecticut's Aldrich Muwseum is selling off its collection. "Aldrich officials say the sale is not about money because they expect to clear less than $50,000 after expenses. That is far less than the $200,000 for which the collection is insured and hardly material for an institution with a $1.5 million annual operating budget and a $7.5 million renovation and expansion under way. The usual taboos about selling art from a museum were hard to square with the mission of an institution devoted to art of the moment." The New York Times 10/31/03

Below The Mirror, We're All Art Tate Modern's new large installation has visitors gawking. "Nothing prepares you for the almost psychotropic transformation of human social behaviour that is currently taking place where the turbines of Bankside power station once roared. Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project only opened a couple of weeks ago, but it is already a legend. Visitors seem to think they are at some storied 60s festival - barriers are melting, frosty politeness traded at the door for cockeyed mysticism and love, love, love. Under a vast blazing sun, in clouds of dry ice, revellers lie, looking up at what must surely be the biggest mirrored ceiling in the world, and conclude that, hey, maybe we really are all made of stars. The scale is so excessive, it is hard to experience Eliasson's artwork as art - it is more like nature itself, and we, down below, make the art." The Guardian (UK) 10/31/03

Riopelle Sale Worries Historians The estate of the late artist Jean-Paul Riopelle is "putting 40 of the abstract painter's works up for sale at an auction in Montreal in November, and some art historians are concerned about the impact of the sale on the international reputation of the Montreal painter." CBC 10/30/03

Smithsonian To Close A&I Building Early The Smithsonian's Arts & Industries building, which long fuctioned as the institution's main museum, will be closing for repairs several months ahead of schedule, and may not reopen until the end of the decade. "Constructed between 1879 and 1881, the building has a leaky and decaying roof, as well as other structural problems. A series of canopies in the main public areas now catch peeling paint and chips from the ceiling and roof." Funds for the renovation have yet to be authorized by Congress, and no one seems quite sure when the money will be forthcoming. Washington Post 10/30/03

The Best Turner Line-Up In Years? "The predictable affectations of horror are already being expressed. But this year's exhibition is one of the best Turner displays I have seen," writes Adrian Searle. "There is an air of calm and seriousness, almost a terseness about the show - however volatile some of the subject matter and content." The Guardian (UK) 10/29/03

Aboriginal Artists Low-balled By Gallery? A group of central Australian Aboriginal artists who were brought to Melbourne for a month by a gallery, where they "produced an estimated 62 paintings said to be worth about $134,000, have been asked to accept $7000 or less each as payment for their work" by the gallery. When they refused, the artists were asked to sign a statement which reads in part: "We regret telling the media lies and apologise to Alexis and Tony Hesseen for the problems we caused them". The Age (Melbourne) 10/30/03

Dead On Unable to gain traction in New York galleries, artist Patricia Cronin created a sculpture for a cemetary north of Manhattan. "At Woodlawn, often called 'America's Père Lachaise,' or 'our most prestigious cemetery for men and women of accomplishment,' Cronin's strategy of not fitting in turns fascinating. Cronin's is now the third most visited grave site at Woodlawn, behind only Miles Davis and Duke Ellington." Village Voice 10/28/03

U-Michigan Names Museum Architect "Brad Cloepfil's Allied Works Architecture based in Portland, Oregon, has been chosen for the $35 million expansion and renovation of the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor. The project will include a 55,000-square-foot addition to the museum, which is housed in Alumni Memorial Hall, a Beaux-Arts landmark, located in the heart of the main campus. The hall itself will undergo a complete renovation. When everything is complete, the museum will more than double in size from 41,676 square feet to 95,396. Construction will begin when a fund-raising campaign winds down next year." Detroit News 10/29/03

Art Saved From The Damned Yanks (So?) An exhibition of "saved" art in London is a tedious self-congratulatory affair, writes Jonathan Jones. "Quite what art needs to be saved from is not made clear but, as this exhibition documents a century of the National Art Collections Fund, whose mission is to purchase for British galleries "treasures" that would otherwise be sold abroad, I think we all know that the villain of the piece smokes a big cigar, wears a Stetson and waves a bunch of dollars about. Thank God, we are supposed to say, that Titian's Venus Anadyomene never ended up in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Te argument is plain enough." The Guardian (UK) 10/28/03

Turner Prize: Going For Gruesome (And A Health Dept. Warning) This year's Turner finalists (surprise, surprise) are out to shock again. The Chapman Brothers' entry depicts oral sex and incorporates decaying bodies. "The controversy threatens to dwarf even the rows that have engulfed the Turner Prize over its past 20 years when Death goes on display on Tuesday. Grayson Perry, one of the other nominees for the award, said the Chapman brothers 'are going for the shock horror jugular'." The Observer (UK) 10/28/03

• In It For The Shock Value (And This Is A Surprise?) The Turner Prize always seems to find new ways of being controversial. "It ought to be impossible, in this, the 19th year of its art world stranglehold, to create controversy by any means at all, short of eating a human baby. Whereas in fact, the Chapman brothers, shortlisted this year for their piece Death, are already at the centre of a storm over some garden-variety oral sex. The Turner prize does feel gimmicky and hollow - and there is a reason for this." The Guardian (UK) 10/28/03

• Forget Controversy - This Year's Turner Is Great Stuff Too bad for the Chapman controversy, writes Richard Dorment. "This has become a Turner Prize tradition, one I am sorry to see. Because, otherwise, the exhibition of the shortlisted artists is curiously coherent. In their different ways, they all share a pessimistic view of nature, history, sex and society, expressed in work that is often beautiful, always compelling."
  The Telegraph (UK) 10/29/03

Yerba Accident: Don't Call 911! An overturned truck on the steps of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center looks like an accident has just happened, and has prompted passersby to call 911. "Open at the back, the truck holds about two dozen video and computer monitors, some of which flicker with chopped-up animation, scrambled convenience-store surveillance tapes and footage of a man rolling paint over graffiti on an outdoor wall. The man has a Sisyphean counterpart in real space: a mechanized wood cutout figure who brandishes a spray can up and down, up and down, reminiscent of Jonathan Borofsky's famous Hammering Man." San Francisco Chronicle 10/28/03

That's No Way To Balance A Budget "The Museum of North Arizona has elected a new board of trustees and named an acting director after revelations that the former director and trustees had sold 21 weavings and paintings from the permanent collection to help pay for the institution’s operating expenses caused an uproar among museum members." Worse, the sale of the objects netted the museum far less than what the objects were actually worth, according to a museum donor who spearheaded the protest against the board's actions. The new acting director of the museum is Max Oelschlaeger, who says that his top two priorities will be to shore up the museum's finances, and find a permanent director. The Art Newspaper 10/28/03

Art: Not Fade Away (And Yet...) Much contemporary art is made of materials that are deteriorating. "The technical term is inherent vice, insurance jargon meaning the certainty of future decay because of the materials used. Inherent vice is the timebomb ticking away inside private and museum collections of contemporary art all over the world. The first conference held to consider the problem is bringing together conservators, collectors, lawyers and, above all, art insurance experts, in London." The Guardian (UK) 10/28/03

Nude In Grand Central Station Spencer Tunnick's latest project brought 450 women to pose nude in New York's Grand Central Station Sunday morning. "For his latest, he said, he first sought permission to use the New York Public Library and the Museum of Natural History but was rebuffed by both. He's also been arrested several times in New York for previous projects." USAToday 10/26/03

Malaga's New Picasso Museum Fulfilling a longheld wish by the artist, a new Picasso Museum has opened in Malaga, Spain. "Yesterday Malaga was festooned with bunting heralding the new museum and events organised to "receive the maestro". A bullfight, with leading toreros, advertised with a suitable Picasso painting, will be held this afternoon and six bulls will be dispatched in his honour. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia will open the museum." The Telegraph (UK) 10/27/03

Choosing The Next Whitney Biennale Three curators have chosen 108 artists for 2004's Whitney Biennale. "While the 2004 biennial may be considered more conservative than biennials of the recent past, with its balance of midcareer and senior artists and unknowns, the mix has been intentional. 'We deliberately set out to be very intergenerational. The last biennial focused on so many younger people, but some midcareer and senior artists we discovered are making the best work of their careers." The New York Times 10/27/03

Narrowing What It Means To Be Warhol (Only Originals Count) The Andy Warhol Authentication Board has decreed that any artworks the artist did not directly create will no longer be considered Warhol originals. "Andy Warhol often left assistants to 'mass produce' many of his most famous pictures, among them images of the Campbell soup tin. The decision means many art collectors are left with Warhol works which are now considered copies and therefore worth much less, and some are threatening to sue the board." BBC 10/26/03

Christie's Denied Wrongdoing In Stolen Painting Case Christie's says it alerted the seller of a painting thought to have been stolen by the Gestapo. The auction house says it was not obliged to tell heirs of the painting of its whereabouts or the authorities. "We do not have the legal right to breach our duty of confidentiality by contacting third parties without the vendor's permission, nor did we have the right to withhold the painting from the vendor."
BBC 10/26/03

• Christie's Accused In Nazi Painting Case "Christie's is refusing to disclose the likely location of an 18th century masterpiece stolen by the Gestapo and being claimed by the heirs of its original Jewish owners. It is the second case uncovered by the Guardian in which the London auction house is accused of failing to help families whose property was looted by the Nazis." The Guardian (UK) 10/25/03

History - The Good And The Bad A public art specialist working on a brochure for a historical walking tour for a town in Florida discovers some of the town's racist history. Should he include it in the brochure? The town leaders aren't so sure. "Glenn Weiss said he wants to clarify and showcase black history, not to ignite racial hostilities but to acknowledge an important part of the past." The Sun-Sentinel (South Florida) 10/18/03

Archiving For The Future The National Archives reopens in Washington DC. "The Declaration and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the documents the Archives calls the Charters of Freedom, are back on display in the Rotunda of the Archives building after being away from public view 2 1/2 years. The building has been extensively renovated to make the documents more accessible to visitors, especially the handicapped, and the Charters have been re-encased after minute and painstaking conservation treatment. The entire project is estimated to have cost as much as $136 million." Baltimore Sun 10/26/03

"Power 100" List Demotes Saatchi, Promotes Dentist ArtReview Magazine's new "Power 100" list of the most influential collectors of art contains a few surprises this year. Charles Saatchi will be knocked from first place to sixth. But perhaps just as surprising is the man who ranks No. 100: the dentist who fixed the teeth of the Young British Artist set. Artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin gave their dentist work in trade for his tooth care. "Emin has regularly sung his praises, telling interviewers: 'My dentist is the best in Britain!' She said last night: 'He's a really good and kind dentist who took my teeth on when no one else would go near them with a barge pole'." The Observer (UK) 10/26/03

The Turner's New Outrage...(Really?) "This week, art's most respected competition, the Turner Prize, invites its biggest controversy with a display of a graphic and sexually explicit sculpture by two of Britain's foremost artists." The Observer (UK) 10/26/03

Germany's Crisis In Architecture German architects have little to do. "There is certainly no future in the inner cities, where all museums, government buildings, company headquarters and shopping streets have already been completed. The crisis in German architecture is not just an economic problem, but also an issue of ideology." Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10/24/03

Is Art Gallery Of Ontario Cynically Keeping Visitors In The Dark? The Art Gallery of Ontario has a Degas show that is deeply suspect. Rather than explain some of the complications to the public, the AGO says nothing. "Following the Royal Ontario Museum's 2001 display of Auguste Rodin plaster casts that were repudiated by the Musée Rodin in Paris, the show reveals a depressing willingness from leading Canadian museums to abandon their educational role and fudge ethical standards to move bodies through the turnstile." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/25/03

Collectors Snared On Tax Charges "More than 100 wealthy buyers of art, jewelry and antiques have been forced to make good on unpaid sales taxes as part of a continuing investigation of New York's art world that was sparked by last year's arrest of Tyco International Ltd.'s former chief executive, L. Dennis Kozlowski." Arizona Repubic (WSJ) 10/24/03

Tate Modern's Problem Haze An artificial fog created as part of an installation at Tate Modern has sparked concern. "A chemical haze created for Olafur Eliasson's spectacular apocalyptic installation, the Weather Project - which has provoked near-religious awe in the crowds flocking to see it in the museum's Turbine Hall - is slowly creeping into the galleries. Attendants, who have to spend from eight to 12 hours in the fug, claim they are becoming disorientated." The Guardian (UK) 10/24/03

Christie's Nazi Coverup "Christie's covered up its discovery that an Old Master painting it had hoped to auction had been looted by the Nazis, failing to alert art market authorities or the heirs of the original owners of the picture, a Guardian investigation has established." The Guardian (UK) 10/24/03

Tomb Raider Or Archaeologist? Sir Aurel Stein sent back 40,000 artifacts back to the British Museum from China. His feats were described by one of his contemporaries as the most daring and adventurous raid upon the ancient world that any archaeologist has attempted. While his life's work is celebrated in the western world, he is remembered in a very different way by countries whose heritage he 'looted'. The heritage taken is China's parallel to the Greek claim on the Elgin Marbles - priceless friezes taken from the temple of the Parthenon in the 19th Century: both are unique cultural relics taken away by Europeans." BBC 10/23/03

Yet Another Reason To Not Be A Bigot "Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, is getting a valuable painting by Rembrandt that might otherwise have come to Montreal if the donor, Alfred Bader, had not been refused admission to McGill University in 1941 because he is a Jew. The painting, estimated to be worth millions of dollars, is the latest bequest to Queen's from Milwaukee philanthropists Bader and his second wife, Isabel... [The] gift, titled Head of an Old Man in a Cap, was painted about 1630. It is one of only four paintings in Canada by Rembrandt van Rijn." Montreal Gazette 10/23/03

Art "Saved" By A Nation To avoid letting important artwork be bought and shipped out of Britain, Britons have bought many artworks over the past century. The Saved! show at the Hayward Gallery in London features some 400 artworks "saved" in this manner. The show features work by Michelangelo, Velasquez, Boticelli, Picasso, Mondrian, Rodin and Titian. "It is dedicated to sculptures, paintings and treasures saved by the National Art Collections Fund over the past 100 years." BBC 10/22/03

Saving California's Missions California's historic missions are falling down. So the US House of Representatives has passed a bill to spend $10 million on repairs. "The missions have been ravaged by the passage of time and the invasion of natural pests, such as the beetles that are gnawing their way through the redwood beams and statuary in San Francisco's Mission Dolores. Two centuries of California earthquakes have left many of the buildings with seismic troubles. Irreplaceable artwork desperately needs preservation work." San Francisco Chronicle 10/22/03

Disney Hall - A French Curve In A T-Square World Herbert Muschamp writes that LA's new Disney Hall is more than a building. "It's a home for everyone who's ever felt like a French curve in a T square world. Disney Hall is a riotous rebirth. Not just for downtown Los Angeles, where the building is situated, and not just for the whole sprawling mixed-up La-La. What is being reborn is the idea of the urban center as a democratic institution: a place where voices can be heard." The New York Times 10/23/03

• Disney Hall's Great - But Where's Money For The Poor? Disney Hall's opulent opening may herald a redefined downtown for Los Angeles. But nearby homeless and advocates for the poor see Disney as a symbol of catering to the rich. "It's fine to have a music centre, but this has cost $276m and, if you add the $200m that the cathedral cost, that's almost half a billion dollars to provide services for the rich. Where's the half billion for the poor?" The Guardian (UK) 10/23/03

OCAD's New Look The Ontario College of Art & Design has a new building rising in downtown Toronto, and Lisa Rochon is already impressed with the "flying box" design and "hallucinatory" architecture. "In this scenario, technology has been twisted into art to produce an exhilarating building. A public square has been rammed directly into the architecture, sending sparks flying from the impact... Fully executed and carefully resolved, the building and civic square at OCAD could become Canada's version of the Centre Pompidou." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 10/22/03

Escher Museum Opens In The Hague MC Escher, who always said that he was as much mathematician as artist, has a new museum dedicated to his work. The Escher Museum, based in the Netherlands, "arranges Escher's prints and drawings chronologically, with early realistic sketches, linoleum cuts, and some commercial designs on the first floor and most of the masterpieces of perspective and optical illusion that made him famous in the 1950s and 1960s grouped thematically on the second, main floor. The museum also adds a modern touch with a 'virtual reality' display on the third floor that turns some of Escher's best-known works into moving holograms." Boston Globe (AP) 10/22/03

V&A Museum Launches Glossy Mag The Victoria & Albert Museum launches a new glossy magazine for museum members. "It's an ambitious and risky project. As a general-interest art magazine, containing a lavish 82 pages of editorial complemented by only 30 pages of up-market advertising, it appears far superior to anything on the commercial market. The dummy issue I saw looked pacey, imaginative and stylish, with plenty of strong words as well as beautiful pictures." The Telegraph (UK) 10/22/03

Hermitage To Go Dutch The Hermitage Museum plans to open a branch in Amsterdam next year. "Located in a 17th-century canal-side building, the Hermitage Amsterdam will be much more than a boutique satellite operation; once finished, it will be larger than the city’s Stedelijk Museum." The Art Newspaper 10/18/03

Thieves Who Appreciate Good Contemporary Art Thieves have stolen nine works from Sergei Bugayev's house outside St. Petersburg. "The missing works, valued at $250,000 by experts at the Russian Museum in St Petersburg, include works by Bugayev himself, who is also known as 'Africa', and by other leading local artists, such as Timur Novikov. The thieves destroyed about 140 other works of art, as well as rare antique furniture and books, the charred remains of which were found in the house’s back yard. 'The mastermind behind this crime knows contemporary art, Bugayev told The Art Newspaper, “They took the best works'." The Art Newspaper 10/18/03

Saving Raphael For God And Country A prominent curator attacks the British government for not stepping up to keep Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks from being sold to the Getty and moved to the US: "Can anyone seriously suggest that the country would not be much much poorer without the great works of art in this exhibition? The National Gallery is the greatest place in the world for the study of early works by Raphael, and that's where the picture should be. For God's sake! If it's not Raphael then it must be the work of some even greater artist whose name is currently unknown to us. Of course it's a Raphael." The Guardian (UK) 10/21/03

A Sculpture That's 200,000 Years Old Archaeologist Pietro Gaietto has found what he believes to be the earliest evidence of art. "Gaietto believes the sculpture is 200,000 years old, and would have been used in rituals. He says it would have been made by an extinct species of human called Homo erectus, of which there is evidence in the region. Gaietto's claims are controversial because hominids such as Homo erectus are not thought to have been capable of the symbolic thought needed to create art." BBC 10/20/03

Greek PM To Tony Blair: Return Marbles, Re-elect Me The Greek Prime Minster Costas Simitis is being attacked after TV cameras recorded him telling British Prime Minister Tony Blair that England's returning the Parthenon Marbles would help his re-election chances. "It is sad for him to use a national issue, such as the return of the Parthenon marbles, for petty party-political ends." BBC 10/20/03

Retailer Attacked By Shareholders For Buying Art Some shareholders of the fashion retailer Monsoon have criticized the company for adding to its art collection and not paying out the money to shareholders. "They are prepared to pay money adding to what they have on the walls of their headquarters but are not prepared to give anything to long-suffering shareholders." The Guardian (UK) 10/20/03

Museum Looting Report From Baghdad The lead American investigator of the looting of Iraq's National Museum says that more than 10,000 artifacts are still missing. "What we are finding is well known and otherwise respected members of the art community are in fact authenticating stolen pieces for a fee. The second point of this is many of these items are either destined for less scrupulous museums or art dealers or are placed with art dealers in transit, as the middle location. We need the art community first to stop that." Archaeology 10/20/03

Art Market Downturn The new Art Sales Index reveals a downturn in art sales in the past year. "This massive annual worldwide survey shows that the international art auction market shrank by 10 per cent from £1.63 billion to £1.45 billion in the 12-month period that ended in August. In the US auction turnover was down by 11.7 per cent, while in Britain the decrease was 18 per cent." The Telegraph (UK) 10/20/03

Japan's New Modern Art Palace (Atop A Bank Building) Tokyo's new Mori Museum could reinvent the Japanese modern art world. "The 30,000 sq ft museum covers two floors at the top of the 54-storey Mori Tower. To help lure visitors, the £8 admission charge includes access to the observation floor, which commands staggering views all the way to Mount Fuji. The challenge is to get visitors as interested in the art as the scenery. The Japanese public remains wary of contemporary art and has traditionally been interested only in the big names of Western art: Monet, Manet, Renoir, Picasso." The Telegraph (UK) 10/20/03

Naked Butts Draw Crowds An exhibition of photographs of 600 human posteriors has caused a stir in Argentina. The "Carne de Identidad" (a play on the Spanish words for "identity card" - "carnet de identidad" and "flesh of identity" - "carne de identidad") exhibition has been drawing in the crowds in Buenos Aires. Its next stop is Chile and then, if the civil unrest there dies down, Bolivia. BBC 10/20/03

The Fashion Of Art Does an Armani fashion exhibit belong in the British Academy? "Prejudice, fear and suspicion still surround the status of fashion within many galleries. This sometimes takes the form of fashion being tolerated as a form of entertainment which will pull in the crowds, with no acknowledgement of the serious contribution it also makes to the educational role of the museum. More than anything else, however, it is fashion's slippery nature that helps to perpetuate the prejudice." The Guardian (UK) 10/18/03

Getty: No To Taking Over Barnes Last Sunday, LA Times art critic Christopher Knight suggested that the Getty step in to rescue the Barnes Collection in suburban Philadelphia so it wouldn't be moved to downtown Philly. But Getty president Barry Munitz flatly turns down the idea. "It can't generate enough revenue, and why squabble incessantly with the neighborhood when you can have a new facility in the company of other great cultural institutions along that corridor? This keeps the collection intact and keeps the hanging pattern intact, and it will have the educational philosophy still at the core." Philadelphia Inquirer 10/18/03

The Disney As Grace Note LA's new Disney Hall is "indeed a dynamic sculpture in the cityscape, but it entices rather than asserts. Its lilting abstract geometries flow seamlessly into one another, and its billowing walls, pieced together out of 10-by-4-foot sheets of stainless steel, seem alternately to reflect and absorb the changing natural light. And then there is the 2,265-seat concert hall itself, a surprise within a surprise, a spacious cocoon of rotund wooden forms with seating all around the orchestral stage." Washington Post 10/19/03

Goya's Secret Self-Portrait Siri Hustvedt was as surprised as anyone when she realized that he had discovered an apparently unknown self-portrait of Goya hidden in the corner of on of the artist's best-known works. The painting, titled "The Third of May," depicts a bloody peasant massacre conducted by Napoleon's soldiers, but a shadowy portion in the lower left of the canvas hides an unmistakable image of the artist. "It's a simple rendering - large eyes, flat nose and open mouth, but it includes the artist's signature leonine hair flowing out from around his jawline. I turned away, thinking I had really gone crazy. After a moment, I looked back. He was still there." The Observer (UK) 10/19/03

Bactrian Hoard Uncovered In Kabul "It lay hidden for 2,000 years in Afghanistan, eluded the Taliban and escaped dozens of adventurers and bounty hunters. Now the Bactrian hoard, one of the world's greatest archaeological collections, has been found. President Hamid Karzai discovered the 20,000 gold coins and artefacts, worth tens of millions of pounds, in a sealed vault under the main palace in the capital, Kabul, after ordering it to be opened earlier this year." The Observer (UK) 10/19/03

Well, That's One Way To Get Exhibited A well-known British graffiti artist snuck one of his own works into the Tate Britain museum this week, and glued it to the wall, along with a typical title card describing the work. "The picture consisted of a rural scene with an image of police tape stencilled on to it," and the card explained that the artist "argues that ruining the work in this way reflects how our nation has been vandalised by an obsession with crime and paedophilia." No one at the Tate noticed the unscheduled addition to its collection until the painting came unglued and crashed to the floor several hours later. BBC 10/17/03

Keeping The Nasher Collection Local One of the world's finest collections of sculpture is located in Dallas, Texas. This is a fine thing for Dallasites, but such remote outposts of great art have a way of rankling the artistic glitterati in New York, London, and other 'glamour cities,' and for years, various museums and collectors have schemed and plotted various courses of action by which they might acquire the Nasher Collection. "But to the relief of home fans, Mr. Nasher, having thoroughly enjoyed the wooing, rejected the suitors... [This week,] the $70 million Nasher Sculpture Center, a smashing combination of indoor museum and outdoor environment built and owned by the Nasher Foundation, opens to the public." The New York Times 10/19/03

• Nasher's Garden: A Story Of Love & Art "On the one hand, the opening of the magnificent Nasher Sculpture Center and garden is a public event of international significance... But the sculpture center is also an intensely personal story of the marriage of Patsy Rabinowitz, daughter of a Dallas businessman, and Massachusetts-born Raymond Nasher, a self-made man, the son of Russian immigrants. It is the culmination of their remarkable collecting partnership that ended prematurely with Patsy Nasher's death from cancer in 1988 at age 59." Fort Worth Star-Telegram 10/19/03

The Next Big Thing In Art? Look East. "A powerful argument can be made that the most exciting art in the world is being made by Chinese artists - most younger than 40 - who work in their homeland or have immigrated elsewhere... China has emerged from the intellectual repression of the Cultural Revolution to become an economic tiger ready to assert its place in the world. And that sometimes tumultuous transformation has sparked an incredible explosion of creativity." Denver Post 10/17/03

Looking To The Future In Baltimore A new $20 million art education center on the campus of the Maryland Institute College of Art is big, futuristic, and chock full of the kind of cutting-edge sub-disciplines that didn't even exist a decade ago. The just-completed Brown Center "will house newly created departments in fields such as digital imagery, video, animation, interactive media and graphic design... With the Brown Center, administrators aim to position MICA as a leading art school for art and digital technology studies." Baltimore Sun 10/17/03

Amazing What You Can Find In A Basement "A collection of 18th century paintings featuring Canadian landscapes has been discovered in a basement at Oxford University. It will go to auction next month. The paintings - possibly the earliest renderings of Quebec in existence - were the work of British army officer Major-General Benjamin Fisher." The watercolors were painted in the late 18th century, when Fisher was instructed to survey the Canadian shore, and send documentary evidence of its contours back to Great Britain. The paintings are of more historical than artistic significance, but they are expected to fetch as much as CAN$100,000 at auction. CBC Arts Report 10/17/03

An Artist's Grassy Knoll An artist has covered a church in London in grass. From the inside. "The walls of the church - indeed, every vertical surface, including doors and the railings around the organ loft - are covered in grass. It is a pelt-like, sensual second skin, and the first thing you want to do is reach out and touch it. The blades are superfine and delicate, damp and slightly resistant to the touch. This is nothing like a groomed, respectable, well-kept British lawn, nor a disciplined, close-shaved grass court or golf course. It is something altogether wilder and stranger." The Guardian (UK) 10/17/03

The New Corporate Art "Pardon visitors to this King County library branch if they can't quite get a fix on the new addition to the art collection: One minute it's a Winslow Homer, a few minutes later it's a Cezanne, and then a Latour. They're among the first to experience high-resolution digital art delivered by Seattle startup RGB Labs through its just-launched GalleryPlayer, a software-hardware service that provides secure delivery of copyright art directly to plasma screens. Designed primarily for corporate or public-space use, for $195 a month... the GalleryPlayer service delivers digital galleries of art displayed in intervals of 15 to 25 minutes." Wired 10/16/03

Art of Catharsis The Rev. Paul R. Shanley is one of the Boston priests who has been charged with child sexual abuse, and he is living in the trendy Cape Cod burg of Provincetown while awaiting trial. The new arrival didn't sit well with one Provincetown artist, who was very nearly one of Shanley's victims as a child. So when Mike Ware "heard of a proposal to create site-specific art installations in the Meadows Motel... he decided to furnish a room for 'this one person who really affected my life.' So Ware designed his contribution to the exhibit, which opens tomorrow in Provincetown: a jail cell for the Rev. Paul R. Shanley." Boston Globe 10/16/03

Growing Pains - The Morgan Gets Bigger Charles Pierce, director of the Morgan Library in New York, has just moved into temporary offices while the library is being expandedIt's now so common to see museums shut, turn into construction sites and reopen a few years later that one can easily assume that the whole process is that simple. Yet as I surveyed my new office, I realized how complex, unsettling, and even difficult the last three years have been. There were, as I learned only after we had started, four major challenges involved in our goal of remaking the Morgan Library." OpinionJournal.com 10/16/03

World's Most Endangered Monuments This year's World Monuments Watch list of 100 Most Endangered Sites includes structures from every continent. Archaeology 09/24/03

Prisoner For A Day - Manchester Installation Shows You What It's Like A recreation in Manchester of the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba invites civilians to become prisoners for a day. "The worst thing was the sensory deprivation. When I couldn't see or hear anything I wanted to panic. I jumped if someone touched me and the ground was so uneven I was scared I'd fall down. I felt euphoric whenever my mask was taken off." The Guardian (UK) 10/15/03

Chair Sells For Record Price An 18th century chair bought for £300 50 years ago, has set the world record for an English chair when it sold for £386,400, almost twice the highest estimate, at a Sotheby's auction. The Guardian (UK) 10/15/03

Glasgow's Conspiracy Theory: They Hate Visual Artists? A conspiracy theory is ripping through Glasgow's visual arts community. "It goes something like this: Glasgow City Council, which owns Tramway, has secretly agreed to let Scottish Ballet make the building its new home, even though this will mean the closure of Tramway 2, one of Europe’s most striking exhibition spaces and, its supporters argue, vital to Glasgow’s reputation as a centre of excellence in visual art. Why? Because, one well known artist told me, 'It’s very clear that they [the council] don’t care about the visual arts and would rather be rid of it. What they’ve done with the Tramway visual arts programme is slowly strangle it.' This was one of the more measured responses. Naturally, Glasgow City Council denies this." The Scotsman 10/13/03

Laban Center Wins Stirling The new Laban dance center in South London has won this year's Stirling Prize for architecture. "The Laban centre, designed by the Swiss team Herzog & de Meuron - who gave Bankside power station a new lease of life as Tate Modern - has brought glamour to an old London district which for many years has been in need of cultural or indeed any kind of investment." The Guardian (UK) 10/14/03

Baltimore's First Great Building Of The New Millennium The Maryland Institute College of Art has a new building-size sculpture for a home. "Designed by Ziger/Snead and Charles Brickbauer to put MICA on the map as a center for digital art and design, Brown Center is that rare work of architecture that lives up to its billing. It is, quite simply, the first great Baltimore building of the new millennium - a world-class home for art in the Mount Royal cultural district." Baltimore Sun 10/12/03

Museums As Art, Or Buildings, Or Social Agents... Or Whatever... A show in Miami brings together designs for 25 museums built in the past decade. "It's a confounding mandate. Museums can no longer be temples-on-the hill, built by and for a tiny elite, but they must serve a larger and more diverse public without compromising artistic standards. The architecture must not be inaccessible, and yet it must be exceptional, enough to draw public interest and attract crowds with architecture that is both part of and apart from the city. All these are fodder for thought, and the 25 projects on view certainly can lift the level of dialogue." Miami Herald 10/12/03

The Underground World Of Art-Assisting You know, of course, that many artists don't literally "make" all of their work. Enter the assistant. "Being an artist's assistant is an underground thing. I didn't know how it worked at all, that most artists have them. I couldn't do what I'm doing without full-time assistants. Nor could I do it without a computer. But even without, I'd still be an artist and I'd still make things. That's my nature - just like a fish that grows to the size of the tank, assistants allow us to grow our work yet remain the same'." The Observer (UK) 10/12/03

Artist Recreates American Prison In Inner City Manchester A performance artist recreates the American prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, in the inner city of Manchester. It's a bit of a shock. And why do it? "There is nothing complicated about it. This is a fully-operational miniature version of the US internment camp at Guantanamo Bay. What is the point of painting a picture of it or showing photographs or a video of it? People have seen those and are immune to them." The Guardian (UK) 10/11/03

The 'David' Beneath The Dirt "Slowly but surely, despite concern in the international art world over whether anyone should be touching one of the world's most admired statues at all, Cinzia Parnigoni has stripped 130 years of grime from the statue's perfectly proportioned left elbow, providing a glimpse of what is to come. By spring next year, in time for his 500th birthday, she aims to have cleaned every nook and cranny of this famous but filthy marble man." The Observer (UK) 10/12/03

Christo Wraps Doghouse Christo has wrapped a dog house - "Wrapped Snoopy House" in honor of his friend and Charlie Brown creator Charles M. Schulz. "In 1978, the cartoonist memorialized Christo's work in his daily strip, with the beagle pondering what the Bulgarian artist would do next. The final panel on the strip has Snoopy standing before his wrapped doghouse - a prediction of the latest sculpture." San Francisco Chronicle 10/11/03

A Chrismas Tale Doug Chrismas is something of a mystery in the art world. "As director of Ace Institute of Contemporary Art, he’s provided a home for some of the world’s most demanding art since 1966. The subject of dozens of rumors alleging that he stiffs artists, has produced and sold unauthorized fabrications of sculptures, poaches artists from other dealers, and occasionally sells artworks that he fails to deliver to the buyer, Chrismas has become something of a local legend, partly because nobody really seems to know much about him." LAWeekly 10/09/03

Massachusetts Gallery Sues NY Dealer Over War Loot The Springfield, (Massachusetts) Library and Museum Association has filed a lawsuit against New York art dealer Knoedler for $3 million, after it had to return a painting to Italy because it was discovered to be war loot. "In June 2001, the Springfield Museum returned the oil painting 'Spring sowing' by Jacopo da Ponte, known as Il Bassano, to Italy, after having been shown evidence that the work had disappeared during World War II from the Italian Embassy in Warsaw while on loan from the Uffizi Gallery. Knoedler had sold the painting to the museum in 1955 for $5,000." The Art Newspaper 10/10/03

Assessing Baghdad Museum Damage "A report on emergency conservation needs at Baghdad’s National Museum has concluded that the damage caused by the war was 'substantial', primarily to ivory, stone and ceramic objects." The Art Newspaper 10/10/03

Anderson Responds When the Village Voice's Jerry Salz published a scathing critique earlier this week of Maxwell Anderson's tenure as director of the Whitney Museum, Anderson felt the need to set the record straight: "As the Whitney's former director, freed for a time from the well-meaning restraints of publicists, it's a pleasure to respond on behalf of all museum directors who are congenitally obliged to hold their tongues... Too few critics are informed enough about the realities of running a museum to write about the museum - as opposed to its manifestation through exhibitions accounting for only a portion of its energies and budget." AJ Letters 10/10/03

Toe Nail Queen (At Least They're Talking About Art?) Winnipeg artist Aliza Amihude makes jewelry. But her materials are a bit unusual - mouse droppings, toenail clippings, dead insects and pubic hair. And her work has stirred a wave of protest after she got a $5,000 grant from the provincial arts agency. "It is a pure waste of taxpayers' money, yet it is out there on public display, no doubt available for children to see," said the provincial opposition party's culture critic in a debate on the art in the legislature. Yahoo! (Reuters) 10/09/03

The State Museum Jostling The Hermitage The State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg has been on an expansion tear. "Since 1988, when Vladimir Gusev became its director, the museum has expanded to take in four palaces around the city: the Mikhailovsky Palace, the Engineers' Castle, the Stroganov Palace and the Marble Palace. 'The Hermitage is begining to feel uneasy about our expansion'."
St. Petersburg Times (Russia) 10/10/03

Kramer: Lamenting The Barnes Deal While some are celebrating the imminent move of the famed Barnes Collection to Philadelphia, Hilton Kramer writes that the deal is a dark one with big implications. "The enemies of the late Albert C. Barnes (1872-1951) are about to achieve their fondest desire: the 'legal theft,' as it has been dubbed, of Dr. Barnes’ great collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings." New York Observer 10/08/03

Russians, Germans, Meet To Discuss Stolen Rubens Russian and German leaders are meeting to discuss the fate of a Rubens painting looted in World War II. "The painting, Tarquin and Lucretia, is believed to have been stolen from Germany by a Soviet officer in 1945. It has resurfaced after being offered for sale by a Moscow estate agent." BBC 10/08/03

Art-Marking Looking to permanently identify that piece of art you're fond of? New marking systems bring technology to bear. "One is the microchip, which can be embedded in the piece, but the company also makes a synthetically-produced DNA, which can be a powder, liquid or glue. This can be applied directly or during conservation, for instance as a small area of varnish on a painting. It can also be incorporated into microdots." The Art Newspaper 10/04/03

The Whitney - Digging Out Of A Hole The Whitney Museum is deep in trouble. "Adam Weinberg, its former curator of collections, recently director of Andover's Addison Gallery, returned as its director on October 1. Weinberg is an encouraging choice; he's smart, convivial, knows the board, and loves art. In order to save this ailing institution, however, he must do several thorny things while standing up to its pesky trustees." Village Voice 10/08/03

Turners Rescued By Newspaper Reader A fan of JMW Turner gives £13,000 to the Victoria & Albert Museum to repair two of the artist's paintings after reading in the paper that they were disintegrating. The BBC 10/07/03

Artist Sues Company To Keep Work Intact In 2000, artist David Phillips created his biggest work - a park installation for a big insurance company in Boston. Two years later, the company wanted to add some trees and sidewalks, but Phillips protested that the plan would change his work. Now the artist and the company are in court. Phillips wants to prevent the company from changing anything; the company wants to remove the work altogether... Boston Globe 10/07/03

British Museum: Absolutely, Positively No Return Of Parthenon Marbles The British Museum has slammed the door on any hopes of Greece getting back the Parthenon Marbles. The museum says that "it was the museum's duty to preserve the universality of the marbles, and to protect them from being appropriated as a nationalistic political symbol. But with half of the marbles still in Greece, and with a museum being built to house them at the foot of the Acropolis, campaigners for their return said that they found the British Museum's attitude insulting". The Guardian (UK) 10/06/03

Saving St. Paul's (Really?) Restoration of Christopher Wren's flawed but historic St. Paul's Cathedral in London, is controversial, even after years of debate. "What a circus! This is a seriously misconceived restoration, technically insane, with reckless levels of chemicals, and a historical fraud. We've come to learn that the bigger the restoration, the more ambitious the project, the greater the funding, the more out of control these things get." The Guardian (UK) 10/06/03

Dali Gang Comes To Justice A prison worker at New York's Riker's Island has admitted his role in stealing a Salvatore Dali sketch earlier this year. "Last week, a former assistant deputy warden admitted his role in the March 1 robbery at the Rikers Island jail and implicated his co-workers in the role-reversing rip-off. The plot's alleged mastermind and the two other members of the 'Dali gang' are all due in court this month." Toronto Star (AP) 10/06/03

The Biennale Of Florence - Tangled In Paperwork "When the first Florence Biennale was held, more than 40 years ago, it was a trailblazer for the international art market, attracting scores of foreign dealers, 120,000 paying visitors and another 40,000 invited guests. But in the decades that followed, it lost ground to rivals as the Paris Biennale established a reputation for chic glitz and the small Dutch town of Maastricht attracted the world's most important dealers, collectors and curators to its art fair." Italy's draconian art export laws are so tough, they have played havoc with the biennale. The Telegraph (UK) 10/06/03

Tokyo's New Art Palace The new Mori Museum of contemporary art opens in Tokyo in two weeks. It is being touted as the most significant art development in years in the capital. "The museum will act as an interface between contemporary art, which is in a constant state of change, and a broad audience. The mission is to introduce things to people with which they are not yet familiar and to make the unfamiliar seem attractive. It is a challenge." Financial Times 10/03/03

I.M Pei And The National Gallery (A Love Story) The National Gallery's I.M. Pei-designed East Building turns 25 this year. "Pei has staked his career on bold visions and controversial stands. Architects have voted the building one of the 10 best in America. Pei has just admitted to 'great affection' for his creation, as well he should. The East Building's extraordinary geometries and modern spirit established Pei as a 20th-century master. Success here also propelled him on to the challenge of his career, the historic remaking of France's grand Louvre museum." Washington Post 10/05/03

• The Other Side Of I.M. Pei "There is another side to I.M Pei's work in the capital. By the time he received the National Gallery commission in 1968, Pei's name already was attached to seven Washington buildings, with another two on the way. This early work is altogether a mixed legacy, yet it is too good or too interesting to be lightly dismissed. Dismissal or even denial, however, is more or less the architect's own attitude." Washington Post 10/05/03

A New Picasso Museum A new Picasso Museum is about to open in Malaga, Spain. "Christine Ruiz-Picasso, the widow of Picasso’s eldest son Paulo, has donated 133 works to the museum and her son Bernard has given another 22. Another 49 works are on loan from other relatives for 10 years." The Art Newspaper 10/04/03

The Raphael - Picture, Picture, Who Gets The Picture? The status of Raphael’s “Madonna of the pinks” is growing increasingly murky. The Getty Museum has offered £35 million for the painting, and would export it to the US. But if the painting was valued at £20 million plus taxes for the owner and the money were forthcoming in the UK, the painting would stay in England. But should it be valued at £20 million? And the taxes? The Art Newspaper 10/04/03

Artistic Illiteracy: Not Just For Americans Anymore! A new survey indicates that the average Briton knows about as much about great works of art as the average American, which is to say, not much. Nearly 10% of the UK identified Monet's famous Water Lilies as having been painted by the Australian Rolf Harris, and fully half of respondants couldn't say who painted the Mona Lisa. Presumably, they all knew who won the latest edition of Big Brother, however. The Guardian (UK) 10/04/03

Looted Art and Technology's Limitations "The recent unveiling of a new Web site listing artworks that may have been looted by the Nazis had at least two unintended consequences, experts say. First, it underscored how much stolen art falls outside the purview of the new venture -- the vast majority. Second, it reminded Holocaust survivors who are trying to reclaim stolen art how far the issue of property restitution has fallen from public consciousness and political discourse." Chicago Tribune 10/05/03

Reliving The Good (Bad?) Old Days New York is unquestionably better off as a city than it was a quarter-century ago. But with the urban revitalization of Gotham has come a devotion to to glittering development and expensive cultural monuments that threatens to bury forever the city's rich history of populist art. The graffiti that covered the city's subway trains in the dismal 1970s may have been a symbol of blighted urbanity, but it was also the mark of a populace that had art flowing in its veins. And if there is any good to be found in America's extended economic slump, it may be that New York is beginning to rediscover some of its old city grit. New York Times Magazine 10/05/03

SFMOMA Picks Up Some Expensive Snapshots "The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has added 100 works by 45 artists to its already sweeping photography collection. The pictures, valued at more than $6 million, come as promised and fractional gifts from museum trustee Carla Emil and her husband, Rich Silverstein, co-founder of the Bay Area advertising firm Goodby, Silverstein and Partners." San Francisco Chronicle 10/03/03

A New Engaging History Of Art Noted historian Paul Johnson undertakes a history of art. "The book is really an extended and engaging work of art criticism rather than a strict history, with many fresh points of view and many eccentric ones. In places, it is deeply flawed. But it always has the virtue of a strong and opinionated intelligence guiding its arguments and prose." OpinionJournal.com 10/03/03

Seeing Beneath The Surface "Knowing what lies beneath the surface before the trowel hits the soil has long been the dream of many an archaeologist. As well as saving time in determining where to dig, it would enable archaeologists to answer questions with a minimum of destruction—and potentially none at all. This dream is slowly becoming a reality, as a result of improvements in non-destructive surveying techniques. Archaeology has never been a wealthy discipline, but by borrowing tools developed for more well-endowed professions, archaeologists are developing X-ray vision—or, to be precise, infra-red, microwave and magnetic vision, which are even better. Such tools enable archaeologists to identify and target small areas of interest, and to move away from the complete excavation of sites towards a more selective approach." The Economist 10/03/03

Glasgow Gallery Programmer Fired The visual arts programmer for Glasgow's Tramway arts space has been fired. The center has been under fire lately becasue of a plan for Scottish Ballet to take over the space. "We are not attacking the ballet – we support all art forms – but why should it be at the expense of such an important arts space? To pit two communities against each other in the arts world seems ridiculous." Glasgow Herald 10/03/03

• Previously: Scots Ballet's Movement Problem The Scottish Ballet wants to move. But it "has attracted widespread condemnation from the visual arts world after revealing it is applying for lottery cash to convert Tramway 2 - an internationally respected exhibition space which launched the careers of artists such as Roderick Buchanan and Christine Borland - into rehearsal space." The Scotsman 09/21/03

Take The Art Test A survey in the UK showed that art literacy is very low. Okay, so it's easy to ridicule the high percentage of know-nothings who took the survey. But how would you do? The Guardian put together its own art test... your AJ editor scored 75 percent (six of eight) ... and you? The Guardian (UK) 10/03/03

• Previously: What's A Monet Between Harrises? Know your art? Most Britons, it seems, don't. "In terms of knowing their masterpieces from their modern day art, most of the British public can't, confusing works by Monet and Rolf Harris. An Encyclopaedia Britannica poll published today finds that 7% believe that Water Lilies was painted by the Australian with the wobble boards instead of by French Impressionist Claude Monet." The Guardian (UK) 10/02/03

Three More Architecture Stars For The WTC Project The World Trade Center site project is becoming some kind of Hall of Fame for architects. Now Norman Foster, Fumihiko Maki, and Jean Nouvel have been recruited to design towers ringing the memorial site planned for the southwest corner of the new World Trade Center. Already working on the project are Daniel Libeskind and Santiago Calatrava, who is working for the Port Authority to develop a transit hub on the site. New York Observer 10/02/03

Bellevue Art Museum Post Mortem Seattle arts groups are struggling. But it was still a surprise when the Bellevue Art Museum abruptly closed the doors of its new buildin. "Last week, the Bellevue Art Museum made the stunning announcement that it was closing its doors through at least the end of this year, only two and a half years after opening a $23 million, 36,000-square-foot Steven Holl-designed facility intended to be downtown Bellevue's cultural anchor." Seattle Weekly 10/02/03

Koolhaas' Cool New House Rem Koolhaas's new building for the the Illinois Institute of Technology is a winner, writes Herbert Muschamp. The "$48.2 million project is a bazaar of a building, a souk of sensations that stands in vibrant contrast to the immaculately modern desert around it. Situated on the main campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, this is the Dutch architect's first completed building in the United States. If you want to know what all the fuss over Mr. Koolhaas has been about, this student center is an exemplary place to start. It's Koolhaas à go-go, a masterwork for the young and curious." The New York Times 10/02/03

• Previously: Kamin: Koolhaas Could Have Done Better "Five years ago, when the celebrated Rotterdam architect Rem Koolhaas won a much-hyped design competition for a campus center at the Illinois Institute of Technology, there was breathless talk about the sexy new building, and how it would devise a new architecture for the 21st Century... Now the future has arrived, complete with a sensuous, 530-foot-long, stainless steel tube that wraps around the elevated tracks and swallows Chicago Transit Authority trains. It's a wild, often wonderful vision of urban life, a bit like entering an oversize pinball machine. It is, as advertised, full of brilliant concepts. But it is not a brilliant work of architecture." Chicago Tribune 09/28/03

What's A Monet Between Harrises? Know your art? Most Britons, it seems, don't. "In terms of knowing their masterpieces from their modern day art, most of the British public can't, confusing works by Monet and Rolf Harris. An Encyclopaedia Britannica poll published today finds that 7% believe that Water Lilies was painted by the Australian with the wobble boards instead of by French Impressionist Claude Monet." The Guardian (UK) 10/02/03

National Gallery's Dire Straits London's National Gallery says the museum's lack of money is seriously compromising the institution. "Already staff shortages have forced occasional closures for a few hours on the gallery's main floor, where its principal collection is displayed. The situation is already dire in the lower galleries, which also hold hundreds of important paintings. Although members of the public make appointments to view, a general public opening is now only guaranteed on Wednesday afternoons." The Guardian (UK) 10/01/03

How To Be A Collector So you want to get yourself some art, hmm? But the world of galleries and artists and collectors seems so far removed from your everyday life that you hardly know where to begin. And besides that, you're on a budget. The solution may just be simple education, and a new group known as Art Mob, based at the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, seeks to provide it, with lectures on collecting, tours of artists' studios, and one-on-one chats with curators and museum directors. St. Paul Pioneer Press 10/01/03