Category: visual

Cypris Materials has created a paint inspired by blue morpho butterfly wings, which get their color from blue lightwaves reflecting off the nanostructure of the wings themselves (up close you’ll see they’re actually translucent). Like butterfly wings, Cypris’ paint works through reflection, so color comes from particular lightwaves that reflect off the nanostructure of the paint. In short, this paint functions through structural color rather than chemical pigments or dyes. – Fast Company

Considered to be a national treasure, “The Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John” (c. 1504–1505) is the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in the country. – Hyperallergic

While researchers initially expected Tigranakert to be a predominantly pagan and Hellenistic site, excavations have shown it to also be a major hub for Early Christianity. – Hyperallergic

To establish greater equity among artworks and subvert the presumed patriarchal and Eurocentric prejudice of LACMA collections, he is resorting to the hard and expensive corrective—architecture—rather than managing and expanding the collections, making them more complex and inclusive, and simply upgrading the existing buildings (which he had allowed to deteriorate). In Govan’s scenario, design would solve the problem by making the collections disappear. Intending to save the museum, Govan is destroying it. – New York Review of Books

The Baltimore Museum of Art’s board of trustees voted Thursday night to have Sotheby’s auction house sell three significant — and, it could be argued, irreplaceable — modern artworks later this fall in an effort to expand ongoing diversity initiatives. – Baltimore Sun

Removing works with problematic content won’t improve historical understanding, but keeping them on the wall without addressing their historical context doesn’t help either. Their fundamental meanings need to be faced head-on, no matter how ugly the content or how charming the painting. – San Francisco Chronicle

In 1870, the Met’s founding signaled America’s cultural ascendance from provincial to international, from the sweaty work of building a nation from scratch to a time when enrichment of the mind was seen as not only possible but essential to a good life. – National Review

The group’s demands, issued on its Instagram page with the hashtag #NoMuseumOctober, stipulate that until every institution publicly announces that frontline workers will be provided hazard pay and benefits for their labour until a Covid-19 vaccine is available, the museum-going public should “refrain from providing these ‘democratic’ institutions the admission dollars they so desperately crave”. – The Art Newspaper

The layoffs are the first permanent staff cuts made by the world’s largest museum organization since it was forced to close its sites March 14 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The Smithsonian lost $49 million — from store and restaurant revenue as well as canceled ticketed events, classes and tours — between March and September, spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas said. – Washington Post

The enormous contemporary art show that had been planned for next spring was put off for the sake of the artists themselves (the pandemic has interfered with their access to materials and studio space) as well as to make room in 2021 for the major shows — of work by Julie Mehretu, Salman Toor, Dawood Bey, and the Kamoinge Workshop — that had been scheduled for this year and for the big Jasper Johns retrospective. – The New York Times