Tag: 09.26.17

The works, all by conceptual Chinese artists, came under fire last week when activists characterized them as “instances of unmistakable cruelty against animals in the name of art.” The criticism erupted after a measured preview of the show ran in The New York Times, titled “Where the Wild Things Are: China’s Art Dreamers at the Guggenheim.” The comments on the article, however, reflected the distress many experienced even before the show’s opening.

“Why should humans all choose roughly the same places to identify transitions, when color is just photons, irreducible quanta of light on a continuous spectrum of wavelengths? Linguists might say it’s because language creates cultural norms. Anthropologists might say it’s because some colors have more cultural relevance than others. Neuroscientists and physiologists might say it’s because of the specific light-sensitive cells in the primate eye tuned to pick up red, green, and blue wavelengths and send signals to the visual cortex—trichromatic vision.”

“Inspired by the 19th-century world’s fairs and exhibitions in London and Paris, VDNH began life in 1939 as an agricultural showcase for the Soviet Union, with dozens of elaborate pavilions representing the different republics and industries. In the 1990s, the site lost state funding and became a flea market. Now, like much of Moscow, it is in the throes of a massive reconstruction programme backed by the city government.”

“Louvre Abu Dhabi is a neighbourhood with its streets, squares and terraces, where the works of art are shown inside the galleries as well as outside. It is also a palace, with palatial proportions; a peninsula, with its own mystery, shaped by light and water, the archetype of a micro-city devoted to a spiritual mission that you can only guess at from the outside and only discover by entering.”