Category: visual

Ten million people visited the Louvre last year, before France’s lockdown in March, and no museum can become so crowded without cancelling its own purpose, or replacing it with another purpose—the purpose of a dutiful hajj, of having been there. There are too many people looking to allow anyone to see. – The New Yorker

“The newly identified likeness is a Nazca Line — one of hundreds of ancient drawings created in the Peruvian desert by removing rock and soil to produce a ‘negative’ image in the sand. … Dated to between 200 and 100 B.C., the geoglyph is thought to be older than any others previously discovered in the region.” – Smithsonian Magazine

“The exhibition, whose English title is ‘Uninvited Guests’, explores how artworks bought and celebrated by the Spanish state between 1833 and 1931 treated women as people and artists. … [The show has] faced criticism from some female artists and academics, who have accused the museum of echoing the very misogyny it has sought to expose by focusing on many works by men rather than celebrating those by women.” – The Guardian

That’s probably good; who wants museums to be responsible for the spread of more Covid-19? And yet it’s also challenging for certain museums. Not great right now: “In recent years, however, governments in many countries, including the Netherlands, have been cutting support of museums, as politicians have encouraged the ‘American model’ of funding, with more reliance on earned income.” – The New York Times

The artist says that she’s been gaining comfort from doodling in her journal, not to mention new drawings and sculpture. But, in opposition to the offensive retraining advertisements the British government tried to put out a couple of weeks ago, she says that for young artists, “It is important they don’t give up on their dreams, and they follow through with what they have trained for.” – The Observer (UK)

Pindell’s video Free, White, and 21 remains a commentary on the pervasive whiteness of second-wave feminism, but her new Rope/Fire/Water has more to say about the traumas of childhood experiences of racism. And the artist is, finally, getting some of her due. – The New York Times

The claims are 75 years old, and much of the collection disappeared into the maw of the post-War Soviet Union. The remainder is mostly in Hungary. Hungary’s lawyer says “Hungary owns the artworks at issue through lawful purchase, gift, and the uniform application of property laws.” – The New York Times

Maya Husseini had celebrated her birthday and was feeling pretty good about her future as a retired artist when the explosion at a port in Beirut ripped the city, and her work, to shreds. “‘Thirty years of my professional life were gone,’ she said in an interview after the blast in her workshop near Beirut. ‘Dust!'” – The New York Times

The artist admitted it on social media. In Nottingham, not everyone gets it … or cares. “Within hours the council had rushed to protect the piece by placing clear plastic sheeting over it. Vandals have spray-painted over the plastic two or three times already.” – The Guardian (UK)