How To You Preserve The Ephemeral? (Should You?) There was a time when some artists, rejecting the whole art "scene", strove to make art that couldn't be captured, couldn't be collected, couldn't be bought and sold. That was then. "We do live in more conservative times, not just politically but culturally; hence the impulse toward conservation. More poignantly, artists want to be remembered when they're gone. It's easy if you're Rembrandt, even though all things must eventually fade. But it's not so easy if you're a creator of youthfully defiant ephemeral art." The New York Times 04/30/04

Some Museums Suffer With UK's Free Admissions Policy British museums that previously charged entrance fees have seen a 72% increase in attendancesince December 2001. That's 11 million extra visitors. "But the organisation behind May's Museum and Galleries Month says many of England's 1,500 museums and galleries have not reaped the benefit." BBC 04/30/04

San Diego Museum Names New Director "Derrick R. Cartwright, director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, has been named the executive director of the San Diego Museum of Art." San Diego Union-Tribune 04/29/04

Boston Museum Gets Site Approval For Expansion "The projected expansion of [Boston's] Museum of Fine Arts moved forward this week when the Boston Redevelopment Authority unanimously approved the museum's site plan during a key hearing. The approval gives the museum permission to start work on a plan that will nearly double its size, as well as reestablish entrances on the south... The museum is a year away from breaking ground on the first phase of the expansion, which is expected to be completed by 2009. It will add galleries, new courtyards and -- its most architecturally significant feature -- a crystal spine running through and over the existing building. A planned $425 million capital campaign will pay for the project." Boston Globe 04/29/04

Wolbers Wins Beck's Futures "Saskia Olde Wolbers has won the £24,000 Beck's Futures art prize. The 33-year-old was handed the cheque by Yoko Ono last night at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London." The Guardian (UK) 04/28/04

London's Giant Pickle Norman Foster's new skyscraper has "slipped so easily into the London skyline that it comes as a shock to discover that it officially opened only yesterday. That is the trouble with a very, very tall building. It takes so long to go up that, by the time it is finished, you feel you’ve known it for ever." The Telegraph (UK) 04/29/04

Could Picasso Set A Record? Some auction watchers are saying (no self-interest there) that Picasso's "Boy With a Pipe" might set a record sale price. "Dealers and experts are betting that it could fetch as much as $100 million next week, eclipsing the world record set in 1990 when van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" sold at Christie's in New York for $82.5 million." The New York Times 04/29/04

Spam Spam Spam Spam... (It's A Hit) Minnesota's Spam Museum has become an oddball hit. "Opened in September 2001 on the site of an old Kmart, the Spam Museum has become something of a kitsch icon throughout the Midwest. The folks at the museum have taken out billboards up and down I-90 with quirky messages like: "The Spam Museum: Believe the Hype" and "Find Out What's Inside." OpinionJournal.com 04/29/04

Museums Can't Survive On Will Alone "Since it moved into its cavernous new home, the story at [Detroit's] Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History has been one of managerial blunders, lax oversight and financial calamity," according to a newspaper investigation. The museum was pushed and cajoled into existence in the late 1990s with little in the way of realistic planning or appropriate funding, and the city has pumped $13 million into the institution since then. Now, with the museum unable to balance its books and in danger of not making each new payroll, a lack of business sense and basic accountability is being blamed for the mess. Detroit Free Press 04/26/04

We Smell A Seinfeld Tie-In... Thirty-seven Philadelphia art institutions are collaborating on a massive project focusing on... well, nothing. From paintings that are nothing more than white canvas to tours of empty houses to philosphical explorations of 'cosmological black holes,' the collaboration, which has been dubbed "The Big Nothing," will examine the idea of art as a reflection of space. "So much of the universe - so much of us, for that matter - is empty space. The [project] examines in depth the ramifications of that idea." Philadelphia Inquirer 04/28/04

Saatchi: Mindless Critics Are Unfair Charles Saatchi has launched an astonishing and unprecedented broadside against the 'mindless' critics who savaged his most recent show. 'I feel I’ve grown into my role as pantomime villain, but it is mindless to dismiss the art I show just because it’s me that is showing it'." The Scotsman 04/28/04

London: No Place To Show? "In London, we have a simple but serious problem: we don’t have enough room for exhibitions. In view of the scale of the capital’s art establishments – mighty Tate Modern, the grand old Royal Academy – this may seem surprising. But none the less it’s true – or true of some places." The Telegraph (UK) 04/28/04

What's It Take To Make It As An Artist? "There are plenty of painters of real accomplishment working in as modern and abstract a mode as one could wish, who never achieve the support of any public gallery or institution, if they are perhaps a shade too old, their gallery is not quite advanced enough, their work is no longer seen as "cutting edge" or their face don't fit." Financial Times 04/27/04

Regina Gallery Saved By City Council The Regina (Saskatchewan) city council has approved a controversial new library budget Monday that "delays the closures of three branches, the Dunlop Art Gallery and the Prairie History Room, but the new plan came at a price: the resignation of almost half of the library board." CBC 04/27/04

Gordon: Milwaukee Museum On Track Milwaukee Art Museum director David Gordon takes exception to a Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel story painting the museum's financial situation: "We have conditional commitments for over $16m of the $25m target, this being the gap between the $125m cost of the Calatrava, the gardens, the refitting of the permanent collection, and the $100m so far raised. On an operating basis before interest and depreciation we made a surplus for each of the past two years since the Calatrava opened and if we miss a surplus this year it should be by a small margin." ArtsJournal Letters 04/27/04

Milwaukee Art Museum Struggles With Low Attendance, Budget Three years after the Milwaukee Art Museum opened its acclaimed splashy new expansion designed by Santiago Calatrava, far fewer people than expected are passing through its doors, and that's creating new financial challenges for the museum. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 04/24/04

• Gordon: Milwaukee's Museum's Man In the Middle Milwaukee Art Museum director David Gordon has a tough job. "What is clear is that the very traits that made Gordon an attractive choice for director have proven to be trouble, too. He is confident and direct by many accounts but magisterial and abrasive by others. He is considered decisive by some but rash by others." Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 04/24/04

Louvre: Mona Lisa Is Deteriorating The Louvre said Monday that the Mona Lisa is deteriorating much more quickly than previously thought. "The thin, poplar wood panel on which the artwork is painted has become deformed since conservation experts last evaluated the condition of the painting, the Louvre said. The artwork is inspected every 1-2 years. The Louvre said the condition of the Mona Lisa was causing "some worry" and that a new study has been launched, but one that will allow the painting to remain in the public eye." BBC 04/26/04

Rinder Leaves Whitney... More To Leave? awrence R. Rinder, curator of contemporary art at the Whitney Museum of American Art for four years, has resigned to become dean of graduate studies at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco." It looks like there may be further curatorial changes to come at the Whitney. The New York Times 04/26/04

Auction Sales Fall In 2003 Sales of art at auction in 2003 were down by as much as 17 percent. Of course, the figures aren't nearly so clear cut as that... The Art Newspaper 04/23/04

MoMA's Art Sale The Museum of Modern Art could raise almost $30 million when it sells nine works of art from its collection at auction. "The museum is ostensibly raising funds for new acquisitions to display when it moves back into its expanded, midtown building next year. But the decision to sell paintings by artists whose works fit squarely within the museum’s collection will meet with some controversy." The Art Newspaper 04/23/04

Chicago Waits For The Great Northern 'Bean' "In three months, downtown Chicago will get one of the most significant additions to its outdoor gallery of public art in decades, yet while the abstract sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor has been in the works for five years, few people in town know much about it beyond its lighthearted nickname -- 'The Bean.'" Chicago Tribune 04/25/04

Forgey: Long-Overdue Memorial Worth Waiting For The long-awaited World War II memorial being installed on the Mall in Washington, D.C. is nearly complete, and Benjamin Forgey is impressed with its solemn design and "abiding sense of place." The design may be a bit classically stiff, but it uses the massive space well, and "though the memorial does partially block a pedestrian's passage on the long walk between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, it is a pause with a big payoff: the memorial itself." Washington Post 04/25/04

Calder Gets A Cleaning "The National Gallery of Art has removed its overarching signature Calder mobile from the central court of the East Building this week for a top-to-bottom refurbishment. The gallery took down the 76-foot, 920-pound artwork before the building opened on Monday. A crew of 24 people, including engineers, curators and a film crew, started work at 5 a.m. and finished six hours later." Washington Post 04/24/04

Absolut Art When Andy Warhol first told the Absolut vodka company that he admired the design of their bottle, and wanted to paint it, no one suspected that a Swedish booze company would become the subject of one of the most widely-viewed pop art collections of all time. But 25 years and countless Absolut ads later, the collection is taken quite seriously not just as a successful ad campaign, but as a legitimate collaboration between commerce and art. Oh, and in case you ever wondered: yes, the campaign sold a heck of a lot of vodka over the years. Toronto Star 04/24/04

Enjoy the Art, But Please Don't Muss Up The Bed Visitors to a New York nightclub this season are getting an unexpected dose of art, and a bonus shot of the artist himself. Painter/photographer Peter Tunney spent nearly a month installing his work in the 1000-square-foot space provided by the Crobar club, and then installed his bed and himself in the middle of it all, creating a sort of living exhibition, open to the public. The stunt has been something of a celebrity draw for the club, and has done wonders for Tunney's work ethic: he is said to have created 100 new pieces since moving in. New York Post 04/24/04

Trading Up "In 1972 the Anderson Fine Arts Center in Anderson, Ind., which has about 25,000 visitors a year, was given "Damage," one of Mr. Ruscha's signature word paintings, by the American Federation of the Arts. At the time it was valued at $3,000. Now the Anderson is offering the painting at Christie's sale of contemporary and postwar art on May 11. It is estimated at $1.8 million to $2.5 million." The New York Times 04/23/04

Art By Plastic Surgery French performance artist Orlan practices her art by altering her body cosmetically with plastic surgery. "For Orlan, plastic surgery isn't tummy tucks, liposuction, breast reduction or lip augmentation. It's an expression of the sublime and grotesque, eccentricities carved into human flesh and sculpted in living bone." Miami Herald (AP) 04/23/04

Brit Art Plays Well In Teheran You might have thought that a show of contemporary edgy British art in Teheran might have set off a few fundamentalist fireworks. But "the mullahs kept quiet, and the show ended last week after a noisily popular run. Thousands crowded in during the first few days; thereafter it drew a record 600 visitors a day on average." OpinionJournal.com 04/23/04

The Art Of The Expat "The histories of American writers and composers who went to Paris between the world wars have been examined so frequently that it's almost unthinkable the same should not have been true for artists. But [a] new exhibition at the Terra Museum of American Art, purports to be the first to examine the phenomenon in all its diversity, and that has made for a complex, often revelatory experience." American artists drawn to Paris for its comparatively eclectic style and freedom of artistic thought "defined themselves by looking to currents outside their native country even after they returned home, as nearly all of them did." Chicago Tribune 04/22/04

Vettriano Prices Don't Indicate Quality The sale of Jack Vettriano’s painting at a major-league price doesn't mean its great work. "They are not connected to any enduring artistic value, only to current commercial success and that is a very different thing. Remember when, at the Millennium, the greatest musician of all time was chosen by popular vote? It turned out to be Robbie Williams. He left Mozart, Beethoven and all the rest standing. You can’t compare Vettriano to the great Scottish painters just because of his fancy prices any more than you can compare Williams to Mozart." The Scotsman 04/22/04

Albert Hall Fans Protest Building Plans London's Royal College of Art is planning an extension. But fans of the Albert Hall next door are protesting. "Campaigners claim the Royal College of Art extension - nicknamed 'The Ellipse' - will "disrupt" views of the Hall and "detract" from its historic setting. More than 9,000 people have signed a petition calling for a public inquiry into the proposed six-storey building." BBC 04/21/04

The $3.6 billion Traveler Holding Pen Is there any structure more depressingly predictable than an airport? How much would a truly envigorating airline terminal be worth to travelers? Would it be worth, say, CAN$3.6 billion? The city of Toronto is hoping so, since that's what its new Terminal 1 cost to build. Lisa Rochon is impressed, if not overwhelmed: "So laborious has become the experience of travel that we no longer expect to find in it moments of pleasure. But at the new Toronto terminal there are delights to be had... Many who have lost faith in the power of public art will find themselves happily restored at the new terminal." And really, isn't a bit of post-travel restoration worth a few billion? The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/21/04

Vettriano Sells In The Big Leagues Critics don't think much of painter Jack Vettriano's work, but the public likes it. And there's a market for it. "The Singing Butler, the Jack Vettriano painting - arguably Britain's most popular art image but loathed by critics - last night entered the financial territory occupied by the world's great contemporary artists when it sold at auction for £744,800." The Guardian (UK) 04/20/04

Bellevue Museum Delays Reopening Because Of Money The Bellevue Art Museum, which surprised the art world when it closed suddenly last fall, has delayed its reopening from July to October. Why? "Six months later, money is still missing in action. BAM has raised $180,000 and can't reopen until it has at least $2.8 million." The museum says it has a plan though, and the money to reopen will follow. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/20/04

• Bellevue Museum Plans Artistic Departure The Bellevue Art Museum's revival plan "unveiled yesterday marks a significant artistic and financial departure from the museum's earlier incarnation as an unconventional exhibitor of contemporary art. The plan also hinges on some big unknowns, including whether the museum can raise $2.8 million by the planned opening Oct. 28." Seattle Times 04/20/04

• Previously: Why Did The Bellevue Art Museum Suddenly Close? The Bellevue Art Museum, in a suburb of Seattle, had a signature architect and significant community support when it opened three years ago. So why did the $23-million museum suddenly close its doors this fall and its managers declare the organization was out of money? "The museum's unexpected closure left Bellevue leaders stunned and arts patrons baffled that a cultural institution serving some of the country's wealthiest communities could fold for lack of money. Even the timing of the closure was bizarre, announced just two days before a new exhibit opened." Seattle Times 11/16/03

The New Brooklyn Musem - "I Miss The Grandeur" The new improved Brooklyn Museum is getting a lot of good press. But John Perreault isn't so impressed. "Although the intention to make the entrance more welcoming is not all bad, I fear that looking like a ferry terminal in Scandinavia is not quite right. That glassed-in aquarium effect! Those tilted masts! True enough, the old entrance, consisting of stingy doors leading to the stygian lobby, was off-putting. We will now enter through the best party room in Brooklyn, but at the expense of grandeur." Artopia (AJBlogs) 04/19/04

Koolhaas Steps Out Front Rem Koolhaas' new Seattle Library could confirm his reputation as the most influential architect in the world. "While Frank Gehry remains the most famous architect in the world, for more than a decade Koolhaas, who is 59, has been the most influential. A few architects have a sharper theoretical edge than Koolhaas, and a few create more exciting spaces. But nobody—not even Gehry—produces buildings that are simultaneously so intellectually ambitious and so shamelessly populist." Slate 04/19/04

Many Iraq Artifacts Recovered, Many Archaeological Sites Plundered A year after the Iraq National Museum was looted, many of its artifacts have been recovered. But "in terms of archaeological losses, the looting of the museum may well be dwarfed by the continual destruction of archaeological sites all over Iraq by looters. This looting has touched upon well-known sites such as Nippur, home of an archaeological expedition of the Oriental Institute, Umma, Lagash, and Isin, but many more unexcavated sites are destroyed by the unsystematic onslaught of pick axes used by the looters throughout the country. The loss in archaeological data is impossible to quantify but clearly has reached disastrous dimensions. Although coalition forces have taken measures to protect some of the key sites in Iraq, archaeologists contend those measures have been inadequate." University of Chicago Chronicle 04/19/04

A New Idea For The Barnes? A large piece of property next to the Barnes Collection is about to be sold. Could the property represent a solution to the Barnes' financial woes? "Were it to acquire a slice of Episcopal's campus for a short access road, the Barnes could open an entrance on busy City Avenue, solving at a stroke the intractable traffic and parking disputes that have dogged the institution for years. Add a parking lot, and thousands more paying customers could see the foundation's unrivaled collection of Renoirs, Matisses and Cezannes in the original halls designed by founder Albert C. Barnes for his collection. With a few other simple changes, the operating deficits that have plagued the Barnes for years would be gone." Philadelphia Inquirer 04/18/04

Koons Crack Challenges Restorers When Seattle collectors Virginia and Bagley Wright unpacked their Jeff Koons piece "John the Baptist" for a show at their gallery, they discovered a large crack. "Produced in an edition of three with an artist's proof, "Saint John" is one of the most prominent pieces from Koons' celebrated 1988 "Banality" series of large-scale, ceramic sculptures. "Saint John" would be worth millions today were it not for the crack and might be worth millions in spite of it. That's a serious appreciation, considering that Bagley and Virginia Wright purchased it in 1991 for $150,000." Seattle Post-Intelligencer 04/19/04

The Curious Mindest That Puts Brooklyn On The Fringes "When people talk about N.Y. as the cultural capital of the world, they usually mean Manhattan. The rich institutions in the other four boroughs live marginalized lives, always clamouring for a sliver of mindshare and deeply resenting the inertia that keeps people stuck on the island in the middle of the city. Take the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Built more than a century ago as an expression of the manifest dreams of Brooklyn, which was still its own city, at 560,000 square feet it is the second-largest museum of art in the city, and one of the largest in the United States, with an outstanding collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/18/04

Liechtenstein Museum Reopens For First Time Since WWII The Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna recently reopened. "The collection is one of the largest and most valuable private collections in the world, and belongs to the royal family of Liechtenstein, the tiny country wedged between Austria and Switzerland. The museum closed on the eve of World War II in 1938 and since then the artwork has remained hidden behind castle walls in Liechtenstein. Until its closure the museum was regarded as a must-see among Vienna's cultural wealth." Chicago Tribune 04/18/04

Close Quarters - Art All Around Washington DC's Renwick Gallery has hung paintings in the way of old - stacked one atop another, cheek by jowl. "They knew how to blow minds back then. And their trick still works. Paintings palpitate inches apart, in skylit orgies of imagery that revives the now-forgotten aesthetics of the sublime, in particular the sublime of being overwhelmed and transported by sheer mass: by Niagara Falls, by world's fairs or by molding-encrusted public rooms crammed with oil paintings -- everything that the puritans of modernism would oppose." Washington Post 04/18/04

Designing A Museum: A Campaign Of Ideas Winning a high-profile competition to design a public building is as much a campaign as a proposal of ideas. Mary Voelz Chandler observes the process of choosing an architect for the new Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver. "It's not a comparison of negatives, but a comparison of positive matches with the organization's goals. All these people could deliver a beautiful building." Rocky Mountain News 04/18/04

A Bad Row At London's British Academy "Reports this week of a conflict at the Royal Academy between the head of exhibitions, Norman Rosenthal, and the secretary, Lawton Fitt, may be the most serious crisis a British gallery has faced since 1988, when an inexperienced director at the V&A caused an international outcry by dismissing five of the museum's senior keepers." Richard Dorment observes that "the president and council of the Royal Academy would be mad even to contemplate sacking a man of Rosenthal's stature. Is it possible that they have forgotten what he has done for the Academy - or, for that matter, done for this country?" The Telegraph (UK) 04/18/04

How Is The Value Of Art Decided? What makes a Van Gogh painting worth $82.5 million and another good painting worth millions and millions less? "The art world has capitalized on the fact that most people believe they can't really understand why a work of art is worth what the market is asking. It helps to realize that the process of setting value is different for dead artists such as Van Gogh, whose works now trade more like commodities, and living artists, whose worth is still being determined, particularly if they are young." Christian Science Monitor 04/16/04

Getting In To Affordable Art The Affordable Art Show movement is taking off. The shows are "now a regular event in London and New York and six months ago he tested the water in Sydney, attracting 13,000 visitors and selling more than $4 million worth of art. Now it's Melbourne's turn, with the Royal Exhibition Building playing host to works from 120 galleries, 500 artists - and nothing more than $5000." The Age (Melbourne) 04/18/04

Photos - Does Size Matter? There was a time - not all that long ago - when photographs were small and handheld. But "photographs have been steadily expanding in size, along with their importance in the eyes of critics and their value in the marketplace." Is there a relationship between size and importance? The New York Times 04/18/04

Ancient Jewelry Reveals Creative Thought "In a handful of pierced seashells found in a South African cave, scientists believe that they have discovered the world's oldest known jewelry and the earliest reliable evidence of creative symbolic thought at work." Los Angeles Times 04/17/04

Latin American Antiquities Endangered The plundering of archaeological sites, tombs and churches for pre-Columbian and colonial objects in Latin America is now so widespread that officials are now saying that "these antiquities can be considered the art world's endangered species. 'Countries in Latin America are deprived of their history at an alarming rate'." Washington Post 04/16/04

Bellevue Museum Postpones Reopening The Bellevue Art Museum (just outside of Seattle) has decided to postpone its reopening from July until October. "The museum closed last September after nearly running out of cash. That came less than three years after the museum moved with much fanfare into a new, $23 million building in the heart of downtown Bellevue." Seattle Times 04/16/04

Indian History Turns Up In Shops "As works of art and artifacts continue to disappear from Indian temples, smaller museums, art galleries, and from the country's numerous palaces, often with the help of local communities, India is fast turning out to be a rich and inexpensive picking ground for antiques. It is easy to get hold of a piece of Indian history: all one needs to do is visit the souvenir shops." Asia Times 04/16/04

Saving Titanic Efforts are beginning to save the wreck of the Titanic as an underwater museum. "Hundreds of tourists and salvagers, explorers and moviemakers, have assailed the Titanic since the team of American and French scientists discovered its resting place more than two miles down. Partly as a result, the vessel, the world's most famous shipwreck, is rapidly falling apart. 'The world's oceans are the museums of the deep. It is in the interest of all peoples to protect and conserve both wrecks of recent history as well as submerged sites of antiquity'." The New York Times 04/16/04

How Will LA Make A Downtown That Works? Civic boosters for years have been trying to transform Grand Street downtown into a proper city center. Yet another plan as emerged - this one to cost $1.3 billion. Will it succeed? “Paris has its Champs Élysées. New York has its Rockefeller Center, Times Square and Central Park. Now, Los Angeles will have at its center a grand boulevard and urban park.” LA Weekly 04/15/04

Brooklyn Museum's New Face To The World The Brooklyn Museum's $63 million makeover goes far in redefining the museum's face to the world, write Ariella Budick and Justin Davidson. "Its new face represents not just an institutional rebirth but also a full- blown Brooklyn Renaissance." Newsday 04/15/04

• A New Star In Brooklyn "With the completion of the Brooklyn Museum's new entrance pavilion, the city has gained one of the most attractive public spaces to be found anywhere in town. It will be fascinating to watch as the neighborhood discovers how to use it."
  The New York Times 04/16/04

• Open House Brooklyn "After a protracted identity crisis, the Brooklyn Museum has decided that local, not global, is the direction it should take. Rather than struggling in vain to put itself on the map for a Manhattan audience, it is joining the campaign to make a gentrified Brooklyn the place to be. The museum points to its new front entrance on Eastern Parkway as evidence of this grassroots connection. So, too, is "Open House," which, in its casual way, posits Brooklyn-ness as a cultural ethnicity." The New York Times 04/16/04

The Last Regent One of the last grand hotels in central London is in danger of being torn down. "The 89-year-old, French baroque Regent Palace - built and still run as a "people's palace" hotel only 30 seconds' walk from Piccadilly Circus - would be replaced by a modern block of offices and shops under a £400m scheme put forward by the crown estate." The Guardian (UK) 04/16/04

The Real Underground Art Movement Most people wouldn't think of a subway car as artistic inspiration, but apparently, there are more than a few individuals who do. "It turns out that New York's subways have long been associated with art, and have themselves even been considered art, ever since the first IRT train rolled down the tracks in 1904." From the subway's original turnstiles to long-forgotten ads exhorting the public to use the service, to the stations themselves (no, not all of them,) art is everywhere in the New York underground, if you can just see through the grime. Chicago Tribune 04/15/04

Przybilla Leaving Atlanta Museum The curator of contemporary art at Atlanta's High Museum has resigned in order to study for her Ph.D. at nearby Emory University. Carrie Przybilla had been at the High Museum since 1988, and was responsible for the acquisition of an importantg collection of Ellsworth Kelly paintings, which will have their own gallery in the new building being constructed for the High. The museum will conduct a national search for a new curator. Atlanta Journal-Constitution 04/15/04

Art Or Advertising - Hmnnn.... "As fine art's conceptual leanings are increasingly difficult to distinguish from the facile surfaces of advertising, this ironic fusion of art and commerce is perhaps an inevitable progression.
Yet, despite the irony, fine art is faced with a very real problem presented by a rapidly evolving technological world, which means, in effect, a rapidly changing commercial world. What actually distinguishes "fine" art from the advertising techniques that it parodies and appropriates?" The Guardian (UK) 04/15/04

The London That Never Was (Or Will Be) "The game of what-ifs in architecture is addictive. The organisers of a new Hayward Gallery touring exhibition had the brilliant idea of exploring the never-never land of building, drawing on the collections of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Victoria and Albert museum. So many of these visions are a great deal more exciting than the buildings we actually got." The Guardian (UK) 04/15/04

Britain's 13,000-Year-Old Culture "The discovery of 13,000-year-old rock paintings in Nottinghamshire last year rewrote ice-age history in Britain. Today, archaeologists from all over Europe are in Creswell to discuss how the finds form part of a continent-wide culture known as the Magdalenian." The Guardian (UK) 04/15/04

Sci-Fi Museum - Beam Me Up Paul Allen's Science Fiction Museum in Seattle is getting close to opening. "Despite some forward-looking, hopeful exhibits, like “SETI Fiction and Fact,” which will explore the Paul Allen–funded effort to receive communications from actual ETs, SFM will essentially be, like any museum, retrospective. It will celebrate a past when geniuses could envision happier futures and it will chronicle sci-fi’s evolution into negativity, including the bleakness expressed in Planet of the Apes (the costume of Dr. Zaius will be on display)." Seattle Weekly 04/14/04

Taking Comfort It was the sweltering summer of 1951 when artist Charles Comfort spent 58 days creating a 20-meter mural on the back wall of a Toronto Dominion Bank branch in Vancouver. The resulting artwork stayed in place for half a century, and became known as one of British Columbia's most important works of public art. "When the bank branch closed in 2002 and the space was taken over by a pharmacy, the bank was determined to find a way for it to stay in the province. It wasn't such an easy task. The size of the mural was certainly an issue. And the restoration needed to remove layers of tobacco smoke and grime was extensive. More troubling, however, was the controversial history of Comfort's murals in Vancouver." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/14/04

Installation Art 101 Eleven Colorado high schools are taking part in "Design and Build 2004," an annual program sponsored by the Denver-based Museum of Outdoor Arts which is designed to give students a chance to experience firsthand the challenges of designing, building, and installing a major piece of public art. The students create "technical drawings, topographical maps and conceptual statements" of their proposed installations, then consult with the museum on feasibility, cost, and other minutiae. Finally, their fully constructed works are mounted at various high-profile sites throughout the Denver metro, with all the attendant fanfare of a "professional" installation. Denver Post 04/14/04

Some Lessons On Memorials From Berlin Are there lessons to be learned about the WTC Ground Zero project from Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin? Michael Kimmelman observes that: "in Berlin, as at ground zero, the architecture was chosen before a decision was made about how to fill the building. The balance between form and content has been a vexing issue. Neither the Jewish Museum nor ground zero is immune to box office pressure. Both dubiously equate populism with civic duty." The New York Times 04/14/04

Grave Robbers Destroy 1000-Year-Old Mural Grave robbers in Peru tried to steal a 1000-year-old mural, but destroyed it in the process. "They probably used picks or wooden poles in a futile effort to steal the mural — a black, yellow and white dragon in sculpted relief on a painted red background — but only succeeded in destroying it." Yahoo! (AP) 04/12/04

Denver Contemporary Chooses Adjaye To Design Building Denver's Museum of Contemporary Art has chosen a rising star over established names to design its new building. "A year after revealing tentative plans to build its first permanent home, the 8-year- old institution announced Monday its choice of London architect David Adjaye from among six international finalists to oversee the design." Denver Post 04/13/04

Imagining A Park For The 21st Century A competition asks planners to imagine what Chicago's lakefront park ought to be in the 21st Century. "The thesis is simple but profound: We don't live the way people did 100 years ago. Our parks should be designed accordingly." Chicago Tribune 04/13/04

Scotland Dropping 800 Historical Sites "Around 800 archaeological sites, including forts, carved crosses, standing stones and cairns, could be dropped from Historic Scotland's official schedule. Critics said the plan was a 'betrayal of Scotland's heritage', which would allow developers to build on protected sites. The change follows a decision to restrict protection to sites deemed of 'cultural significance' and 'spiritual value'." The Daily Record (UK) 04/12/04

Sharp: Making Denver An Essential Museum When Lewis Sharp arrived as director of the Denver Art Museum in 1989, the talent for a good museum was in place but not realized. In the past 15 years, Sharp has transformed the museum, and raised $63 million for an addition designed by Daniel Libeskind. "I hope that the building will allow us to create such a presence within this community and within the country that the Denver Art Museum will not be overlooked. Simply by the presence of that building, people will say, 'When you go out to the American West, you ought to go to Denver and see that incredible building by Daniel Libeskind."' Denver Post 04/11/04

Building A Case For War Historically, wars have influenced the architecture of their times. And is the current war finding its way into our buildings? "It is fascinating to see these concerns translated into architectural styles: unselfconsciously, as in the Cambridge Crown Court; and flamboyantly, like the mock castles built at the time of the Napoleonic wars, or the concrete bunkers built during the cold war." The Guardian (UK) 04/12/04

Brooklyn Museum's New Building, New Focus The Brooklyn Museum unveils a $63 million renovation this week. But it's also unveiling a new focus. "It has all but abandoned efforts to lure visitors from Manhattan and is now, with the help of an image consultant, concentrating almost exclusively on its own backyard — the 2.5 million residents of Brooklyn." The New York Times 04/12/04

Prado Gets New Autonomy Madrid's Prado Museum is getting more independence and flexibility in the management of its affairs. "These Spanish moves follow similar initatives in France designed to give greater autonomy to State museums: since January the Louvre has kept all revenues from ticket sales—previously 45% went to the State—and it is now entirely responsible for its exhibition policies and budgets. Previously, both of these had been managed by the government." The Art Newspaper 04/11/04

Glamorizing The Whitney Biennial This year's Whitney Biennial is a hit with public and press alike, says Peter Goddard, "because some of it reflects a new kind of thinking about art. But that brings us back to glamorizing. Is there such a word? There should be, to point to how much otherwise indescribable stuff is going on at the Whitney Museum of American Art." In addition to the new embrace of art that's hard to "get," there is also a distinct sense of generational turnover about the Biennial, and the subtle air of competition between young and old, old and new, has given the whole event a feeling of renewed vigor. Toronto Star 04/10/04

The Apartment Building That Made Your City Boring "At first glance, it is an apartment building like countless others around the world. A medium-height slab made of concrete and glass, it occupies an anonymous site surrounded by parking lots and a shopping mall. Appearances can be deceiving. This is Unité d'habitation, arguably the most famous apartment building ever constructed. Designed by Le Corbusier, the celebrated and enormously influential apostle of modernism, this is the building that would save mankind and lead us into the future." What it actually did was lead urban planners around the U.S. "to an appalling and unprecedented urban sterility and homogeneity." Toronto Star 04/10/04

Picasso To Go "In Germany, you don't have to shell out thousands of dollars to live with an original Andy Warhol. As you would a book from the library, you can check out original art from one of 140 publicly funded "art libraries," or artotheken. Born in the 1960s to increase Germans' contact with art, "art libraries" are now an established tool of municipal cultural policy, and one which, for many, act as a door opener." Christian Science Monitor 04/09/04

Iraq Art Treasures Deteriorating In Storage Some of Iraq's most valuable antiquities are deteriorating in storage. "The exquisitely carved Nimrud Ivories have been suffering from dampness, following flooding by sewage-contaminated water last April, during the fighting. It is now clear that this has already caused some fragmentation and mould." The Art Newspaper 04/09/04

The Educated Museum - Cause For Concern? In recent years museums have become more and more involved with arts education. "To all those of us who value museums and education this may seem like a good thing. But on closer examination there is cause for concern. There are problems with spelling out and dictating a relationship between museums and education. There should be no school ties." The Spectator 04/08/04

Greek Court Gives Go Ahead To Acropolis Museum Construction Greece's highest court has ruled that work can proceed on a museum at the Acropolis. "Court sources said the Council of State dismissed arguments that construction work would damage ancient building remains found on the plot earmarked for the 94-million-euro museum." Kathimerini (Greece) 04/06/04

Christo And Jeanne-Claude In Central Park Next February, Central Park will be home to a Christo and Jeanne-Claude. "After two and a half decades of refining the work and banging on official doors for a hearing, they are about — thanks to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's approval — to achieve their goal, with a project called "The Gates." It is logistically one of the team's most complicated to date, and certainly, at 25 years, the longest in gestation." The New York Times 04/09/04

• How Do You Judge A Christo? How do you judge Christo and Jean-Claude's project to build gates in Central Park? Is it "possible for the project, once completed, to fail aesthetically. Is there a wrong way to arrange 7,500 gates in Central Park? If not, then in what sense is its realization an artistic success? Proposition: If difference in a work of art does not affect its value as art, then maybe it isn't art to begin with. If Beethoven had written di-di-di-deem rather than di-di-di-dum, the result would have been not merely different but discernibly worse. If Shakespeare had written "Should I or shouldn't I" rather than "To be or not to be," the result would have been not merely different but worse. And if Raphael had painted Plato and Aristotle out of proportion with the rest of the figures in The School of Athens, or if he'd painted Aristotle gesturing up and Plato gesturing down, rather than vice-versa, the result would have been not merely different but worse." National Review 04/07/04

Natural History Staff Charges "Culture Of Fear" At Museum Staff at London's Natural History Museum are charging that a "culture of fear" has taken over the museum. "Twenty-five keepers, professors and managers have written to museum trustees reporting a 'breakdown of trust at all levels' caused by the suspension and reinstatement of three maintenance staff. They were suspended in December, six months after an internal audit was unable to account for £1.8 million alleged to have disappeared from the museum's budget." London Evening Standard 04/07/04

Artist Smuggles Rat Into Museum "The graffiti artist Banksy has managed to smuggle in his latest work, a dead rat in a glass-fronted box, into the Natural History Museum where it was exhibited on a wall for several hours. Staff did not notice that the rat was out of place amid the museum's usual fare of dinosaur bones and artefact from the animal kingdom." The Guardian (UK) 04/08/04

British Museum - Art Palace Or Coffee House? "Has the British Museum gone a cafe or two too far? Ever since the V&A found itself at the centre of a storm in a teacup with its Saatchi-devised 'An ace caff with quite a nice museum attached' campaign of 1988, museums have taken over where the 18th-century coffee house left off. More than mere icing on the cake, they have become the bread and butter (or perhaps that should be ciabatta and olive oil) of many visits." The Guardian (UK) 04/08/04

New Dispute Over Shroud Of Turin Archaeologists are upset over a TV documentary that claims the Shroud of Turin might be authentic. "Experts have widely considered the 14-foot-long linen sheet, which has been kept since 1578 in a cathedral in Turin, Italy, a forgery since carbon-dating tests were performed in 1988. Those tests placed its origin at A.D.1300." USAToday 04/07/04

Library of Congress To Receive 4,000 Artifacts The Library of Congress will announce today that it is to be the beneficiary of a major gift from Florida real estate mogul Jay Kislak, which includes a $4 million map of the New World dating from the 16th century, as well as 4,000 other early American artifacts. The map, known as the Carta Marina, is a matching piece to another similar map purchased by the library last year. "Items in the collection date back as far as 1200 B.C. and primarily involve what is now the southeastern United States, the Caribbean and Mesoamerica." No official monetary estimate of the value of the donation has been released, but Kislak's complete personal collection has been assessed at over $100 million. Washington Post 04/07/04

So That's $450,000 Per Centimeter, Right? "One of the art world's most significant -- and expensive -- trials... concluded yesterday at the High Court in London with the judge reserving decision until later this month. The trial, which began March 10, pitted Taylor Thomson, 45, (née Lynne Lesley Thomson), the only daughter of Toronto businessman Kenneth Thomson, who is one of the world's 15 wealthiest men, against venerable Christie's auction house and the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, 43. The British media estimates legal costs of the trial exceeded $4.5-million. The dispute has revolved around a pair of allegedly 18th-century urns, each about 5 centimetres tall." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/07/04

The New Old MoMA Takes Shape The Museum of Modern Art will reopen November 20 after its $858 million makeover. "The new museum encompasses about 630,000 square feet of new and renovated space on six floors. The total exhibition space will increase to 125,000 square feet from 85,000 square feet, with galleries nestled around a 110-foot-tall atrium, which has views of the city from each floor." The New York Times 04/07/04

Where Are The Women? Women artists are badly represented in British museum collections. And they don't fare much better in the contemporary art markets either. "Only eight women are responsible for 12 paintings in the National Gallery: they are outnumbered by around 400 male artists responsible for more than 2,300 works. And while women artists may appear, at first glance, to be a strong presence in Tate galleries - a survey of the entire collection undermines this view. In 2000, Tate owned work by 316 women, and nearly 2,600 men. A total of just under 11% of Tate artists are women, and their works make up approximately 7% of the collection (leaving out the 30,000 Turners)." The Guardian (UK) 04/07/04

Hughes: Freud Is First Robert Hughes declares Lucien Freud is Britain's greatest living artist. "There is a lot more humour and sweetness in Freud than he is credited with - it's just that his unsparing wit and pitiless judgment, which allow the sentimental no room, tend to crowd them out of his never very accommodating public image. He finds many people banal, often unbearably so. He has, in abundance, the sheer mercilessness that Baudelaire attributed to the dandy as a type. People looking for art that will appease their expectations of warmth and unearned self-esteem do well to steer clear of him." The Guardian (UK) 04/06/04

The $5 Painting Worth A Million A 29-year-old actor goes to a garage sale, finds a painting he likes and buys it for $5. Later he goes on the internet and discovers it is a Joseph Decker and might be worth something, contacts a gallery and when it arrived at the gallery, "I knew immediately it was a great find. It just looked right. I called him and told him it’s probably worth something in the vicinity of a million dollars. We offered it to the National Gallery. They acted quickly. A curator came in. They own two Deckers. They bought it in February.” ARTnews 04/04

Understanding Islam Through Art In Europe there is more and more serious interest in presenting Islamic art. The Louvre is spending $60 million on new Islamic art galleries, and in London, the Victoria & Albert Museum is introducing a new Islamic wing. "Obviously, this has a political dimension. It's a way of saying we believe in the equality of civilizations. Many immigrant youths do not fully adhere to our culture, nor do they know their own culture of origin. It's good to show that the republic respects, displays and studies this culture." The New York Times 04/06/04

Billion-Dollar Suit Filed To Recover Nazi-Looted Art An American lawyer is suing for $1 billion to recover art looted by the Nazis. "The suit, brought by a new group calling itself the Association of Holocaust Victims for the Restitution of Artwork and Masterpieces, calls on two leading Austrian banks, the Austrian government and Sotheby's auction house to return paintings and other works allegedly sold without the permission of their original Jewish owners. 'Not one painting has been restored -- not one,' Edward Fagan said, contending the missing artworks include paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Delacroix and other Impressionist masters. 'These victims are suing to recover their property'."
CBSNews.com 04/01/04

Getty, World Monuments Fund, Team Up To Help Iraq's Cultural Heritage "The World Monuments Fund and the Getty Conservation Institute are to collaborate with Iraq’s Ministry of Culture and State Board of Antiquities and Heritage to repair the damage sustained as a result of the 2003 war. The initiative will not deal with the restoration or protection of Iraq’s museums, but with endangered buildings and archaeological sites. The goal is to mobilise international resources to help repair Iraq’s cultural heritage and to help build the infrastructure and expertise that are required in the country’s conservation and heritage management sectors." The Art Newspaper 04/02/04

Chicago - The Buildings That Worked (And Those That Didn't) City downtowns are the accumulation of building ideas that survive to be built. But there's a shadow history too - the buildings that for one reason or another didn't make it past the idea stage. "Lost opportunities like that make you cringe, and there are others, including unbuilt residential towers that blow away the monotonous condo high-rises now deadening the cityscape." Chicago Tribune 04/04/04

The New Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum will soon reopen after a $63 million overhaul. "The project includes a new lobby, a multistoried new front entrance pavilion and a breathtaking public plaza with dancing-water fountains, cherry trees and a "front stoop" of public seating, all of it extending a common-people-friendly welcome mat to the borough of Brooklyn." New York Daily News 04/04/04

Utah Museum Returns Looted Painting The Utah Museum of Fine Arts has returned a small painting - "Les Jeunes Amoureux" by François Boucher to the son of the man it was looted from in Paris. It was "part of a collection of hundreds that disappeared after a Jewish art dealer, Andre Jean Seligmann, fled with his family to the United States. The painting was donated to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts by a collector in 1993." The New York Times 04/04/04

Emin Makes Up With 8-Year-Olds Artist Tracey Emin has patched up things with the class of eight-year-olds she's been battling with the past week. "After demanding the return of an artwork she made with a group of eight-year-old pupils, Ms Emin has now told the school it can keep it - and has offered to pay the cost of a frame." The Guardian (UK) 04/02/04

• Previously: Emin Vs. The 8-Year-Olds, Part II Tracey Emin worked with a school class of 8-year-olds to create a quilt. The school wants to sell it, but Emin says it's not technically her artwork (thus making it less valuable). Nonetheless, she wants the school to give the quilt to her rather than sell it. And she's angry over the request to sell: "As a result of this incident Tracey has since declined any further requests to work with schools or with young people." The Guardian (UK) 03/30/04

In Iraq: Destroying The History Of Civilization "Protecting antiquities remains a low priority for both the Iraqi and the occupation authorities, according to Iraqis and foreigners involved. Archaeological sites in Iraq have been looted since the end of the Persian Gulf war in 1991, often with the involvement of the government of Saddam Hussein. But in the lawless aftermath of the current conflict, thieves invaded Iraq's archaeological sites in large numbers and stole artifacts from the ancient buried cities of Mesopotamia. Almost a year later, thieves continue to plunder the sites and to erase the tangible record of the world's earliest civilizations." The New York Times 04/04/04

The Source - Looking At The Business Of Succeeding Art The first drafts of art history are written not by the art historians, but by those in the business of art - the dealers and collectors. But how is it that some artists/art works grab a toe-hold in this world, while others fail? The Getty is in the middle of a year-long exploration... The New York Times 04/04/04

Minimalism - Maximum Impact Minimalism seems to be everywhere these days, including a new retrospective show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. "Someone might surmise from all this that Minimalism's time has come, but it has always been around in architecture, music, dance, theater, literature, the ascetic impulse hard-wired in us. That is an implicit message of "A Minimal Future?," which includes Dan Graham's 1966 photographs of postwar tract housing, all of it identical except differently colored, illustrating how the Minimalist aesthetic of serial form is just out there, waiting to be noticed." The New York Times 04/02/04

The Kidnapped Sculpture - "Don't Go Breaking My Art!" Last week a sculpture was "kidnapped" off a London street. "The kidnappers, who call themselves AK47, have headlined their ransom note: "Don't go breaking my art" - believed to be a cryptic reference to the Elton John/Kiki Dee No 1 hit from 1976. They state: "We are AK47. We have captured Rodin's Drinker - a conceptual statue by art terrorist Banksy. Is it art or is it kidnap?" A second series of images shows the kidnap taking place. The sculpture has a strip of gaffer tape across his eyes and mouth. It is loaded on to a van and transported to what looks like a warehouse. The final picture is blurred, but it seems to show a hand holding a gun to the statue." The Guardian (UK) 04/02/04

Anish Kapoor To Create 911 Memorial Anish Kapoor is creating a sculpture to the British victims of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. The sculpture will be placed in a square near the WTC site. "The sculpture will be crafted from a block of black granite into which a vertical chamber is carved of approximately 1m [3.3ft] by 2.5m [8.2ft] by 80cm [2.6ft]. The inner chamber is polished to give a mirrored surface," said the Bombay-born artist. The chamber reflects light so as to form a column, which hovers, ghost-like, in the void of the stone." BBC 04/01/04

The Internet Art Crash The trouble with being an artist on the cutting edge is that when you discover that the trend you're leading has just become a passe fad, it's easy to become very irrelevant very quickly. "Internet art may have little direct connection to the dot-com financial bubble, but its reputation has suffered as the Internet itself has lost cachet. Many who work in the Internet art world report a sense of digital exhaustion." The New York Times 03/31/04

Portrait Of A Troubled Art Collection "As the McMichael Canadian Art Collection prepares to host its second annual '100-per-cent Canadian' fundraiser tonight at Toronto's art-moderne masterpiece the Carlu, the art gallery is poised to undergo big changes in the months ahead." But change is nothing new to the McMichael, which throughout its history has endured seemingly constant and "tumultuous disputes over the gallery's governance and mission. Everyone, it seems, has gotten in on the debates at one time or another -- the McMichaels first and foremost, governments, scholars, artists, art critics, auditors, lawyers, opposition politicians, and the courts." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 04/01/04

Big Plans In Baghdad In the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, the looting and ransacking of the Iraq Museum was viewed as a very avoidable tragedy indicative of the inability of the occupying forces to protect the country's national treasures. But "ten months after its looting, the Iraq Museum has recovered nearly half of the artifacts stolen. Many of those treasures, like the museum itself, are in need of extensive restoration. And a more ambitious goal has emerged, as well: of returning the museum to a role it has not played in a generation, as a center of scholarship and as a place to display Iraq's priceless archaeological heritage." The New York Times 03/31/04

Envy Not The 9/11 Curator As national tragedies go, the 9/11 terrorist attacks stand out for the visual images left in the minds of everyone who watched the horror unfold, either in person or on television, so the idea of creating a museum to memorialize some of the objects found in the wreckage of the World Trade Center was a natural. But what objects should make the cut? "At the beginning, with memories so fresh and personal and abundant, the most difficult curatorial choices will have to be made. If the museum were to draw on nothing more than the artifacts... that are now stored in Hangar 17 at Kennedy International Airport, it would have to winnow the collection by about 20 percent just to fit in the designated space." The New York Times 03/31/04