Tag: 06.27.00

The Venice Biennale’s architecture show is the most expensive and extensive ever mounted. The exhibts have brought out “thrilling use of film and photography, accompanied by an astonishing number of superb models. Never before has it been possible to represent cities so vividly, sometimes on a scale approaching life-size, as in the fantastic 1,000ft-long screen in the old Ropery of the Arsenale, where full-size trains flash down the vista.” – The Times (UK)

An indigenous arts organization in Australia has warned Australia could be flooded with fake Aboriginal artwork in the lead-up to the Olympics. “People have been importing from Indonesia and other places thousands of didgeridoos already made up and then getting other people, backpackers, to paint them up here.” – The Age (Melbourne)

Richard Feigen is one of the foremost dealers in Old Master paintings – and a famously difficult personality. His new book illuminates some of the more shadowy corners of the art world. “There is, for example, a scathing account of the shenanigans several years ago at the Barnes Foundation, the fabled museum outside Philadelphia, when trustees attempted to sell off holdings in violation of its founder’s will – an attempt Feigen all but single-handedly scotched. Or there’s his comparing the exhibitions policy at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, with its ‘random mixture of box-office frivolity with serious art,’ to ‘a nice girl of good family who just once in a while goes out and turns tricks for some pocket change.'” – Boston Globe