Category: visual

In the year of the 500th anniversary of Raphel’s death, a 3-D reconstruction of his face, using a plaster mask of his skull, provides what may be “concrete proof that the skeleton exhumed from the Pantheon in 1833 belonged to Raffaello Sanzio and [may open] the paths towards possible future molecular studies aimed at validating this identity.” – The Guardian (UK)

Paint what you see – including virtual realities that might just be based on paintings. – CBC

Artist Ngarralja Tommy May, a Wangkajunga-Walmajarri artist, has won the major prize at the (streamed) National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art awards. Said another winner (for painting), “I love the ability to make sure that people like myself feel included in the visual national identity of Australia.” – The Guardian (UK)

The tourist, on a trip to celebrate his 50th birthday, was visiting an art museum in northern Italy last week when he posed with the statue of a reclining Pauline Bonaparte. Her husband had commissioned the seminude sculpture by the Italian artist Antonio Canova in the early 19th century. It is known as Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix. What happened next might be attributable to the reckless exuberance that big birthdays often bring. – The New York Times

Over the past decade, and at almost every step — from the design competition to the groundbreaking in 2017 — the project was dogged by controversy, subject to congressional hearings and, at one point, effectively defunded by the government. – Washington Post

The vote tally was 181 to 22. “While organizers said there were many reasons behind the union drive, complaints against two Art Museum supervisors provided the movement with energy. Organizers hoped that union representation would ’empower staff in the face of incidents of harassment and discrimination like those publicized in January of this year.'” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

“The need for accessible streets and sidewalks has utterly reshaped the contemporary cityscape, and the most profound change is also the most modest: the curb cuts that you’ll find now at many street corners in cities all over the world. The revolution in street corners seems like an obvious civic good now, a common‐sense softening at the edges of the built environment, a simple solution to buffer the concrete shape of a world built with homogenous users in mind. But it would not have happened without disability activists’ long, hard fight.” – Bloomberg

Being unable to see real works of art in person for months has made me realize just how much I have come to depend on seeing works online—and how I get more from that experience than I’d been willing to admit. I have not felt much desire to delve into the online offerings of galleries and museums, but nonetheless I have been seeing lots of art onscreen—it’s just that I’ve been getting it straight from the artists, mainly via their Instagram accounts. I’ve liked that. – The Nation

The artwork appearing on the toonie honouring his legacy is known as Xhuwaji, Haida Grizzly Bear. Reid painted it in 1988 on a ceremonial drum belonging to the Sam family of Ahousat, B.C. – CBC