Category: visual

When Maar died at 89, Le Monde forgot to give her an obit until 10 days later, and The Independent said she’d be remembered forever as Picasso’s muse and his Weeping Woman. Now the photographer is getting her own shows, and they’re big – and meaningful: “The sense is of a curtain being pulled back. Forget those Picasso portraits: here is how Dora Maar actually wanted to be seen.” – The Guardian (UK)

Goldin joined another group at the protest: “About 30 protesters arrived at the recently redesigned £2m entrance in Kensington, London, and placed bottles of pills and ‘Oxy dollar’ bills stained red on the handmade porcelain tile flooring. … To a steady drum beat, the campaigners called out the slogans ‘Sackler money, blood money’ and ‘Abandon the Sackler name.'” – The Observer (UK)

There are festivals just about all of the time now, and that means there’s waste. “Garbage has long been the uncomfortable fallout of the festival world, and as these gatherings multiply like glow sticks at a Phish concert, stretching the season into a year-round party (hola, Costa Rica), its impact has roused young artists and activists.” – The New York Times

“One or more intruders broke in to Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London late on Wednesday and removed two paintings from the Rembrandt’s Light exhibition. Police were called and following a search of the area officers challenged a suspect running from the scene. … Neither painting left the gallery grounds and remain in the gallery’s care.” – The Guardian

“Though Italy is gearing up to declare a state of emergency over the flooding that has engulfed Venice in the past two days, many of the city’s art institutions have somewhat miraculously reported that their artworks are unscathed, with minimal damage to building infrastructure. The Venice Biennale, in particular, fared remarkably well.” – artnet

LACMA’s crumbling infrastructure is a genuine predicament. But weak philanthropy, a longtime but misleading L.A. stereotype, is not the reason the museum’s funding campaign has stalled. Instead, the weakness is in a poor idea that has met escalating costs. – Los Angeles Times

Xi Jinping’s support is just one measure of the growing affinity between the countries, underscored by a two-day visit during which their leaders signed 16 new agreements, and China committed millions more in investments in Greece. – The New York Times

The Penn Museum (officially, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology) has theoretically been available to visitors since its opening in 1887, but it was actually used almost entirely by researchers until 2012. Since then, attendance has risen to about 180,000 a year — a figure which should leap dramatically starting this weekend, when 10,000 square feet of new exhibition space will house hundreds of items never before shown to the public. – The New York Times

The Museu de Arte do Rio, opened in 2013 in the Praça Mauá on the city’s waterfront, has not been receiving its scheduled payments from the Rio de Janeiro prefecture government; all 126 employees, who haven’t been paid since September, received the legally required advance notice for layoffs this week. – The Art Newspaper

Yes, scofflaw diplomats have been a problem for ages (ask any New Yorker who’s been clipped, or worse, by a UN delegate’s car), but over the past few years, artworks have been disappearing from certain embassies in Cairo, DC, Moscow, and other capitals. Some appear to have vanished without trace, and others have turned up at auction houses. – The Art Newspaper