Category: visual

Writer Akwaeke Emezi and photographer Texas Isaiah, with the help of many couples, try to figure it all out. “I have never spent this much time with myself;to become my own favorite companion is a new and strange thing for me. I was always looking for someone else, and now I’m terrified of finding them. Perhaps they don’t exist outside of my imagination.” – The New York Times

The thing is, “Suddenly, an awful lot of work can be done from home and, once you get that idea in their heads, it stays.” What will happen to all of that office space in the central business districts of the cities? – The Guardian (UK)

OK, so, the Center for the Arts’ “Studio 551 initiative was conceived to create opportunities for visual and performing artists in an increasingly expensive city, offering a range of temporary residencies lasting six months to six years.” Sounds good, right? But: “To make way for the program, the organization initially planned to issue evictions by May 2020 for the 40 or so artists with long-term leases.” Sure, the evictions are delayed (again), but … what? – The Boston Globe

Previous research on universal facial expressions has centered largely on similar responses by people from different modern communities. These studies seems to suggest that individuals across cultures classify emotions in similar ways—but the fact that many non-Western communities have interacted with Western cultures (often through colonialism) raises the possibility that participants share surveyors’ understanding of facial expressions not because they’re universal human knowledge, but because they were introduced to the culture in recent history. – Smithsonian

Frans Hals’s Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer (1626) was taken by robbers from a small museum south of Utrecht in 1988 and was not recovered for three years; it was pilfered again in 2011 and was missing for six months. At around 3:30 Wednesday morning, thieves got it again. Amsterdam-based Arthur Brand, the world’s only star art detective, says it was likely “stolen to order.” – BBC

“When a team of archaeologists deep in the deserts of Sudan arrived at the ancient site of Jabal Maragha last month, they thought they were lost. The site had vanished. But they hadn’t made a mistake. In fact, gold-hunters with giant diggers had destroyed almost all sign of the two millennia-old site.” – Yahoo! (AFP)

What if adaptation is not what is needed? What if we are asking the wrong questions? We are asking how to integrate our structures: staff, collections, exhibition schedules, board membership. What if the most important questions cannot be asked of others, but only of ourselves? – Hyperallergic

“The incident took place on December 28, when Shakeel Massey, a Spanish architecture student, punched Picasso’s 1944 painting Bust of a Woman numerous times. He held metal padlocks and wrapped his hand in a scarf to break through the protective glass, ripping the canvas before tearing it off the wall. Museum visitors looked on in shock as security guards detained him. Massey told the guards at the time that the act was a ‘performance.'” – Artnet

“The Whitney Museum of American Art on Tuesday canceled an upcoming exhibition after artists of color objected to the institution’s having obtained their work through discounted sales largely meant to benefit racial justice charities. They have accused the museum of trying to capitalize on their work without properly compensating them.” – The New York Times

“Built in the 1250s as part of Henry III’s rebuilding efforts, the L-shaped structure” — called the Great Sacristy — “housed sacred items, including chalices, altar linens and vestments. … Medieval clergy members may have also gathered in the sacristy to prepare for processions into the main church.” – Smithsonian Magazine