Category: visual

More than 70 staff have left the GSA since a second fire devastated the Mackintosh building in June 2018. Last month Gordon Gibb was sacked for breach of contract for giving his views on failings at the GSA. When he gave evidence at the Scottish Parliament’s culture committee, he called for the iconic building to be taken out of the hands of its board following the two fires. – Sunday Post (Glasgow)

As museums face increasing pressure to be responsive to historical intersections and contradictions in their presentation of works, it can be risky to introduce audiences, who otherwise might not seek complexity born out of conflict, to objects that may provoke embarrassment or pain. Yet some institutions still believe generating this tension is a necessary step toward reconciliation. Perhaps there is no more powerful feeling provoked by a museum than shame, which extends beyond the initial encounter with an object and allows for an extended moment of recognition. – Lapham’s Quarterly

The proposal would allow Trump to create a “President’s Committee for the Re-Beautification of Federal Architecture” which would enforce this design mandate, and this panel would exclude “artists, architects, engineers, art or architecture critics, members of the building industry or any other members of the public that are affiliated with any interest group or organization” involved in architecture. Speaking as an architecture critic, this is insane and borderline-totalitarian. – The New Republic

Michael Kimmelman: “It almost seems conceived to provoke supporters of both modern architecture and architectural diversity. It’s a shiny object, Twitter bait. The populists versus the elites. Outrage enraptures President Trump’s base. It’s a win-win for him.” – The New York Times

The critic, Avelina Lésper, shattered the installation by Mexican artist Gabriel Rico with an empty soda can. – The Guardian (UK) (AP)

The Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert “is the great night bird of modern art. Restless, insomniac, and suffering from stomach ulcers from a very young age, he would rise in the small hours and walk the dead streets to the long promenade where Ostend meets the shore. His art is captivated by the unnerving solitude and silence. Image after image shows the empty seafront, the lone gaslights along the pier, the vertiginous steps dropping down to the wide blank sands, the black sea turning over and over.” Perfect for February, really. – The Observer (UK)

Caroline Baumann’s resignation was abrupt on Friday, February 7, and the Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan would give no reason for her departure. “During her tenure as director, she oversaw the $91 million renovation of the museum’s home at Fifth Avenue and East 91st Street, which aimed to make its Gilded Age mansion more inviting to modern-day visitors.” – The New York Times

Frieze Los Angeles goes up in the Paramount Pictures backlot, opening on Valentine’s Day. Sounds cozy. But, says a Frieze co-curator, “Going into 2020, we didn’t simply want to go back to the backlot and be purely celebratory.” That’s why “the curators have commissioned artists to engage the histories that Hollywood frequently overlooks.” – Los Angeles Times

Turns out that “climate crafting has come into its own,” according to cross-stitchers, knitters, and other crafters around the world, whose visual representations of temperature and other data are stirring discussion. One: “I pictured my project as a personal memo of the temperatures of 2020. … However, the further I go the more I can see the impact it can have. I am angry and sad every time I have to stitch a house with a color that shouldn’t be there. … It makes me want to show it more and more so that people can see.” – Slate

The murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi at the purported direction of crown prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2018 led several prominent board members to withdraw from the government-backed event. Now, the participants who remain are left wondering whether the world will be able to see through the shadow of the crime to the art. – Artnet