Category: visual

Street artists get their juice from the urban landscape. But performers don’t have crowds to perform for. And while street painters have plenty of urban canvas, there’s not many out to see it. – The New York Times

The coin shows an artist’s rendering of the coronavirus overlaid on a world map, and reads (with characteristically Trumpian capitalization), “World vs Virus: We Fought the Unseen Enemy. Everyday HEROES Suited Up. Everyday CITIZENS Did Their Part.” The other side features the presidential podium, where Trump until recently delivered his controversial daily press briefings. – Artnet

“The Forbidden City, past home to China’s emperors, is allowing just 5,000 visitors daily, down from 80,000. And parks are allowing people to visit at 30% of the usual capacity. … Large-scale group activities remain on hold and visitors must book tickets in advance online.” – AP

“Pictures which are interpretable, and which contain a meaning, are bad pictures.” A good picture “takes away our certainty, because it deprives a thing of its meaning and its name. It shows us the thing in all the manifold significance and infinite variety that preclude the emergence of any single meaning and view.” – New York Review of Books

“The Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research (ATHAR) Project … has found an uptick in posts on Facebook groups involved in buying and selling looted objects from the Middle East and North Africa in recent months, as many countries went into lockdown.” – The Art Newspaper

The next phase is set to start on May 4, with museums slated to welcome visitors again on May 18. They must follow safety guidelines drawn up by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, which requires that all tickets be purchased online and visitors must practice social distancing in the galleries. – Artnet

“The Brooklyn-based artists and designers behind MSCHF purchased a $30,000 Damien Hirst spot print and cut out all 88 of its dots. Starting today, they’re selling the dots for $480 each.” (That’s $42,400 in total.) “Meanwhile, the original print, now just a piece of paper with 88 holes and Hirst’s signature, is up for auction for a minimum of $126,500.” (Wow, they really are like Bain Capital.) – Artnet

“An outpouring of support and encouragement from potential partners and charitable organizations — along with protests by students, faculty, alumni and staff — convinced the Board to take extreme measures to keep SFAI open,” the press release states. – Inside Higher Ed

Of the 28 proposals submitted, the jury — which included a retired LACMA curator — selected six as the “leading ideas.” The winning studios will each receive $1,500 prizes. Nan Goldin declined to say who is funding the competition: “It’s the same anonymous donor who has bankrolled the ads that we’ve taken out.” – Los Angeles Times

“[Archaeologists’] study of the three oldest stone enclosures at Göbekli Tepe” — a site in present-day Turkey whose monoliths are thought to be 11,500 years old — “has revealed a hidden geometric pattern, specifically an equilateral triangle, underlying the entire architectural plan of these structures. … Thus, thousands of years before the invention of writing or the wheel, the builders of Göbekli Tepe evidently had some understanding of geometric principles and could apply them to their construction plans.” – Haaretz (Israel)