Category: visual

‘Clearly, there are a host of factors at play here, not all of which I am qualified to talk about. I want to add two concepts to the discussion of the competing new pressures museums are under: “context collapse” and “paranoid reading.” ‘ – Artnet

The list includes comments on each work by the panelists who did the choosing: artists Dread Scott, Catherine Opie and Shirin Neshat, journalist Nikil Saval and Whitney Museum of American Art assistant curator Rujeko Hockley. (First on the list, which is in no particular order, is the now-graffiti-bombed and co-opted statue of Robert E. Lee on Richmond’s Monument Avenue.) – T — The New York Times Style Magazine

“Former trustees, committee members, donors and docents of the Baltimore Museum of Art have asked Maryland officials to halt the institution’s plans to sell paintings by Andy Warhol, Clyfford Still and Brice Marden, and to investigate what they describe as irregularities and conflicts of interest surrounding the sales.” – The Washington Post

“The 36-year-old woman, who gave only her first name of Nicole, sent a hand-written confession and apology along with the stolen objects — which include parts of an amphora vase, mosaic tiles, and shards of ceramics — to a travel agent in southern Italy, who then passed them along to officials. … She goes on to explain that she associates her youthful indiscretion with a long run of bad luck, including two bouts of breast cancer, a double mastectomy, and ongoing financial issues.” – Artnet

“The inquiry by Crowell & Moring, hired by the DIA board, came after a June complaint by the nonprofit legal organization Whistleblower Aid was sent to the Internal Revenue Service and the Michigan attorney general. The complaint alleged conflict-of-interest violations tied to the loan of an El Greco painting to the museum by [director Salvador] Salort-Pons‘s father-in-law, Dallas businessman Alan M. May.” – The Detroit News

The last two U.S. representatives to the Biennale — Martin Puryear, also a sculptor, in 2019, and Mark Bradford, a painter, in 2017 — are Black artists, as well. The next edition was originally scheduled for May 2021, but the pandemic forced it to be postponed a year. – The New York Times

“Did you know museums are allowed to support or oppose a ballot measure? An institution may understandably want to get behind a budget increase for the cultural sector, for example. But they can’t let their staff volunteer for a candidate or party during work hours. Museums can serve as polling or voter registration sites and host nonpartisan candidate forums, but they can’t allow only certain candidates or parties to rent their space, or offer them discounted rates to do so.” – Hyperallergic

Medusa is typical of the kind of misguided bureaucracies and good managerial intentions that often result in such mediocrities. Don’t even try to figure out why it now stands across the street from the County Criminal Courthouse. This ooh-la-la monstrosity is sure to be a lightning rod for zealots protesting nudity and a co-star in endless selfies. – Curbed

Munch’s The Scream has been carted off by thieves twice, there are three Dutch Old Masters paintings that have been stolen three times each in the past 50 years, and the poor old Ghent Altarpiece has been taken an unlucky 13 times. Such works become famous, and thus very hard to fence, so why would they be repeat targets? Because, say two experts, stealing them can get the thieves clout — clout of more than one kind. – The Art Newspaper