Wait, if you let yourself be photographed for a feature story, aren’t you already out of the running for being the “Banksy of” anything? Well, it’s Vegas, y’all. Frankie Aguilar says that on his canvas, he creates “Neon, colorful, dinosaurs, giant robots and fun stuff. It’s a big playground for your eyes.” – Las Vegas Weekly
Category: visual
The Sceptered Isle And Its Many (Many) Historically Important Buildings
Historic England has released a new list of 500 additions to the built environments it accords “enhanced” or new status. Why does anyone care? “They grow not only ever more surprising – our sense of what constitutes our built heritage is expanding incrementally – but more joy-sparking, too. What loveliness, and what fascination. Look at the buildings that have made the grade and not only does the sweep of history wash over you in an invigorating wave.” – The Guardian (UK)
Smaller Museums And Galleries Pay Artists Better Than Larger Ones: Study
Research released by Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) “shows an inverse relationship between institution size (based on operating budget) and the amount spent on artist fees, and … there is evidence that small- and medium-sized institutions spend the most on programming and pay the bulk of artist fees.” – ARTnews
Smithsonian Finds Four Yayoi Kusama Paintings In A Manila Envelope In An Archive
“Archivist Anna Rimel came upon the four pieces, executed in watercolor, ink, pastel, and tempera paint, in a manila envelope while sifting through the [Smithsonian American Art Museum’s] Joseph Cornell Study Center, where they were hidden among correspondence and ephemera.” – Artnet
In The Next Decade There Will Be A Massive Transfer Of Wealth Between Generations. What Will This Mean To Art?
There was a cultural difference between pre-boomer collectors, motivated by “connoisseurship and aesthetic appreciation,” and subsequent generations, who had “more of an awareness of the financial component of art.” As a result, boomer collectors have been less inclined to donate art to museums, either public or private, and lose a leverageable asset. – The New York Times
Restoration Of Ghent Altarpiece Reveals Stunning Details
Conservators working on the five lower central panels discovered that the Van Eyck brothers’ original work had been painted over as early as the mid-16th century; removal of those additions (as well as the centuries’ accumulated grime) uncovered an unsuspected level of naturalism. Says the project’s head, “Botanists can actually identify every plant in there. The ones that couldn’t be identified — those were overpaintings.” – The Art Newspaper
3,500-Year-Old Royal Tombs Uncovered In Greece
“Among the findings inside the tombs were evidence of gold-lined floors, a golden seal ring and a gold pendant with the image of the ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. The amulet suggests that Pylos” — which is mentioned in The Odyssey — “traded with Egypt during Greece’s Mycenaean civilization, which lasted roughly between 1650 and 1100 B.C. Homer’s epics are set in the latter stages of this period.” – NPR
Mellon Foundation Pulls Grant After University Of North Carolina Makes Deal With Neo-Confederate Group
In a Letter to the Editor published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander confirms that funding was rescinded in direct response to the settlement. The university’s decision to protect and display the Confederate statue was especially jarring in light of the proposed grant’s intended purpose: “to develop a campuswide effort to reckon with UNC’s historic complicity with slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and memorialization of the Confederacy.” – Hyperallergic
Paris Bets On Ambitious New Contemporary Art Complex To Activate Suburbs
Collectively, the dealers hope, Komunuma’s mix of programs will make it a destination, especially as the greater Paris region seeks to shore up activity in the capital’s suburbs. They foresee “a plurality of centers with multiple, distinct identities. The development of Grand Paris will lead to a redistribution of the geography of contemporary art.” – Artsy
Museums Ponder Virtual Reality As An Art Experience
Virtual reality and augmented reality (AR)—which overlays digital elements on the real world rather than creating a fully immersive alternative—are “unbelievably promising” for the future of communication, says Daniel Birnbaum, who left his post as the director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm to lead the London-based VR and AR production startup Acute Art early this year. But he points out that major museums such as the Louvre have concentrated on the educational uses of the technology, neglecting its own potential as an artistic medium. – The Art Newspaper