Category: visual

Eat your heart out, Anish Kapoor. At least sixteen species of deep-sea creatures “have evolved a different and devilishly clever way of going ultra-black with incredible efficiency: One species the researchers found absorbs 99.956 percent of the light that hits it, making it nearly as black as … Vantablack, the famous human-made material that absorbs almost all the light you shine at it.” – Wired

Roughly nine minutes. In famously low-crime Japan, no less. Organizer Tota Hasegawa, owner of the Same Gallery in Tokyo, had expected the “Stealable Art Exhibition” to run for ten days, but so many aspiring thieves showed up for the midnight start time last weekend that he had to open the doors half an hour early. (The cooperative Japanese crowd did obey the requests to take only one artwork per person and to steal quietly.) – Yahoo! (AFP)

Although the museum calls Hiroshi Sugimoto’s design a “revitalization” of the sculpture garden, its critics feel it is much more than that. They are especially concerned with the proposed changes to the core of the garden, the portion with the reflecting pool. Under the current plan, the pool would be replaced with one more than double its size with a stage at its center. – The New York Times

Gary Garrels is the fifth senior official at SFMOMA to depart over the past few weeks. Also gone are Nan Keeton, deputy director of external affairs; Marisa Robisch, director of human resources; Cindi Hubbard, manager of recruitment; and Ann von Germeten, chief marketing and communications officer. But the departures are not enough to assuage an activist group that calls itself xSFMOMA. In an open letter published Wednesday, July 15, the group of unnamed former employees demanded that the board also remove Benezra for his own culpability. – San Francisco Chronicle

When Kristin Makholm took the helm in July 2009, the museum was virtually bankrupt and had been closed for about 18 months after losing its lease at the Ramsey County Government Center. But she soon found a new space at the historic Pioneer Endicott building, where it celebrated a grand reopening in December 2018. – The Star-Tribune (Mpls)

“You may have heard of the Blue Mustang, the infamous giant blue equine sculpture outside Denver International Airport. But the Blue Mustang is only one of many conspiracy theories circling the DIA’s artwork. When Leo Tanguma painted a series of murals for the Denver International Airport, he had no idea that they would become a lightning rod for conspiracy theories and controversy over the murals’ perceived meaning; despite his attempts to explain the true meaning behind the murals, the firestorm of negative conjecture continues to roll on.” – Atlas Obscura via YouTube

Under its new ownership, Yale Union will be christened the Center for Native Arts and Cultures, serving as the new national headquarters for the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. “This repatriation is symbolic in that it’s not often, or perhaps has never happened, where the owners just hand over a building to a Native organization,” T. Lulani Arquette, the CEO of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, told Artnet News. – Artnet

“The government examined the first draft of a law … which legislates that specific items known to have been looted must be returned permanently to their places of origin within one year. … The objects the law would see deaccessioned from French collections include 26 objects taken from the royal palace of Abomey in 1892, which are currently held at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac.” (There is also a historically important sword that would be returned to Senegal.) – Artnet

The sculpture of Jen Reid was erected on Wednesday but removed by Bristol City Council just over 24 hours later. Ms Reid had been photographed standing on the empty plinth after the Colston statue was pulled down during protests. Mayor Marvin Rees said it was up to the people of Bristol to decide what would replace Colston’s statue. – BBC

If such monuments do have a connection to history, it is because they attempt to shape it, not reflect it. To believe we can learn history from them is like a judge choosing only to hear testimony from the defence. Public statues are political acts; when the politics change, so must the statues. – The Art Newspaper