Art News from Around the World

Visual Arts Fri, 03 May 2024 21:01 London’s National Gallery May Get A Rethink For Its Third Century That’s right, it’s 200 years old – and its director welcomes the opportunity to reconsider how to present art to a public that, occasionally, greets that art with hammers or paint. – The Art NewspaperSource: Visual Arts Fri, 03 May 2024 20:01 The Glass-Fronted Architecture Of The Proposed New NFL Stadium In Chicago Perhaps unsurprisingly, “the design and necessity of the new stadium have faced objections from the community. It has an estimated to cost over $4.2 billion, with … approximately $1.5 billion, [to be] be drawn from state taxpayers.” – DezeenSource: Visual Arts Fri, 03 May 2024 15:31 Ghana Puts Crown Jewels, Looted By Britain, On Display “’This is a day for Asante. A day for the Black African continent. The spirit we share is back,’ said Asante King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.” Of course, Britain has only “loaned back” the looted items for three years. – BBCSource: Visual Arts Fri, 03 May 2024 14:02 Why Are So Many Mid-Century Modern Houses Being Torn Down? Blame Americans’ Lust For McMansions “Historic houses across the United States are targeted for teardowns every week, often under cover of night with little to no warning. Increasingly, preservationists say, these demolitions are not driven by changing tastes but rather by (the) ravenous desire for larger and larger homes.” – The Washington Post (MSN)Source: Visual Arts Fri, 03 May 2024 12:36 A Bugger, Better Light Show Is Coming Back To San Francisco’s Bay Bridge “The team responsible for the beloved Bay Lights art installation, which dimmed 14 months ago, announced on Thursday that it secured over $10 million in funding to illuminate a 1.8-mile section of the bridge. … The revived installation will boast 50,000 LEDs, doubling the count from the original.” – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)Source: Visual Arts Thu, 02 May 2024 21:31 Wall Street’s “Fearless Girl” Sculpture Lawsuit Settles The 250-pound bronze statue was commissioned by State Street Global Advisors to express its support for gender diversity in the corporate world. State Street sued the artist, Kristen Visbal, in 2019, alleging that she had committed breach of contract and trademark infringement by selling replicas of the sculpture. – The New York TimesSource: Visual Arts Thu, 02 May 2024 14:05 Biden Cancels Billions In Student Debt To Bankrupt Art Institute Chain “President Joe Biden has cancelled $6.1 billion in loans taken out by students at the Art Institutes, the network of for-profit colleges that shuttered in September 2023, … (at which point its remaining campuses were) in Miami, Atlanta, Tampa, Virginia Beach, … Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.” – ArtnetSource: Visual Arts Thu, 02 May 2024 13:32 EU Court Approves Italy’s Attempt To Seize Looted Greek Statue From Getty Museum “‘Victorious Youth,’ a life-sized bronze dating from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C., … was pulled from the sea in 1964 by Italian fishermen and then exported out of Italy illegally. (It) was purchased by the Getty in 1977 for $4 million and has been on display there ever since.” – APSource: Visual Arts Wed, 01 May 2024 20:01 Astonishing Ancient Construction Found In France Researchers from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) unearthed the monument while excavating a prehistoric site in the eastern commune of Marliens. – SmithsonianSource: Visual Arts Wed, 01 May 2024 19:31 Art Gallery Of Ontario Strike Revealed A Class Divide If the union made scant material progress, the strike looks mainly like a huge strategic error on the AGO’s part. — The Globe & MailSource: Visual Arts Wed, 01 May 2024 14:01 Climate-Protesting Art Vandals In Paris Arrested Before They Could Vandalize Art “Two people were arrested on Sunday morning at the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay for being suspected of attempting to damage classified property. … When they were arrested, they were ‘in possession of a white liquid – glue and a viscous whitish mixture – and were wearing” t-shirts of an environmental activist group. – ARTnewsSource: Visual Arts Wed, 01 May 2024 12:00 Toronto’s Largest Art Museum Reopens After Monthlong Strike “The Art Gallery of Ontario, which closed to the public on March 26 as more than 400 unionized workers went on strike, (reopened) on April 30. The employees, whose ranks included curators, archivists, designers, researchers, technicians, and front desk staff, … had sought wage increases and protection for part-time workers.” – ArtforumSource: Visual Arts Tue, 30 Apr 2024 18:32 Marrying Arts And Tech In The Building So They Can Feed Off One Another At the new gateway to the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology the 180,000-square-foot Student Hall for Exploration and Development offers views into two nearly transparent cubes. In one, actors rehearse a theater performance; students are practicing their moves in a dance studio in the other. – BloombergSource: Visual Arts Tue, 30 Apr 2024 18:05 Nigeria’s New Museum Of Yoruba Culture Is Not Like Other Museums Architect Seun Oduwole: “This museum pops with colour and sound.” Curator Will Rea: “It is very different to a European museum, you walk in a soundscape and it’s noisy, it’s performative, you have to move your body the whole time.” (It also has a public swimming pool.) – The GuardianSource: Visual Arts Mon, 29 Apr 2024 13:15 Natural History Museums Get A Redesign In part, that’s meant to feature the “gateway drug to natural history” – the dinosaur skeletons. – The New York TimesSource: Visual Arts Mon, 29 Apr 2024 11:45 The Rebirth Of King’s Cross In London May Not Be Quite Complete The changes since 2004 have been dramatic. “It has created, in its 50 new and restored buildings, about 1,700 homes, more than 40% of them affordable, 30 bars and restaurants, 10 new public parks and squares, 4.25m sq ft of offices and capacity for 30,000 office jobs.” – The Observer (UK)Source: Visual Arts Sun, 28 Apr 2024 19:30 Colleges Are Adding ‘Value’ With Massive Museum Expansions The extreme college workout facility is passé – now it’s cool, newly renovated and/or expanded museums that attract undergrads and their tuition-paying parents. – The New York TimesSource: Music Fri, 03 May 2024 21:31 The Legacy Of Morteza Mahjoubi’s Pianism His Persian style lives “on account of something internal to his virtuosity: a sublime rubato that penetrates beneath the level of surface and releases melodies that cultivate and nourish the soul.” – Van MagazineSource: Theatre Fri, 03 May 2024 19:28 Eddie Redmayne Has Some Things To Say About Audience Interaction In The New Cabaret Redmayne, just nominated for a Tony, explains, “We’ve had sort of moments where the audience interaction can get a bit too vocal … and we’ll have to sort of clamber through and improvise around the situation but that, again, keeps us on our toes.” – The Hollywood ReporterSource: Words Fri, 03 May 2024 19:01 The Asian American Literature Festival Returns, Big – Without The Smithsonian The collective putting it on could use an equivalent funder, but they don’t trust the Smithsonian after last year’s sudden, unexplained cancellation weeks before the kick-off. – Washington Post (MSN)Source: