Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson will buy Britain’s third-largest books chain. “The deal secures the future of the chain’s 70 bookshops, which were put up for sale by its American parent six months ago amid increasingly tough trading. Like other booksellers, Borders has been hard hit by competition from supermarkets and internet retailers.”
Tag: 09.22.07
The Finished Freud
How does Lucien Freud know when he’s finished a portrait? “Freud’s criterion is that he feels he’s finished when he gets the impression he’s working on somebody else’s painting. You can see what he means: his own input is complete.”
Remembering Glenn Gould, 25 Years Later
“Glenn Gould has been dead for almost exactly 25 years, and some of his less endearing enthusiasms have been so thoroughly forgiven that many of his fans know nothing about them.”
Getting Down To Details At The Barnes
“If the Barnes is going to move, come hell or high water or last-gasp legal challenges, it would be nice to understand what the trade-offs will be. Is it possible, for example, to create an equally intimate experience in a bustling urban setting? Will the fabled art collection of Cézannes, Renoirs and Picassos be eclipsed by the bookstores, cafes and auditoriums that are de rigueur at museums these days? And how do you preserve the unique charms of the Barnes experience while moving the art from its idiosyncratic neo-Classical setting?”
Judge: Mass MoCA Can Show Unfinished Work
A federal judge has ruled that “the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art has the right to display an immense unfinished installation by Christoph Büchel, a Swiss artist whose relationship with the museum fell apart early this year, leading to a bitter public battle over control of the work and over artists’ rights in general.”
MIT Student’s “Art” Causes Panic
A student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology causes a security panic at Boston’s Logan Airport when an “art project” consisting of a circuit board, battery and some clay sewn into her sweatshirt is mistaken for a bomb.