News and Writing on Art and Art History | June 29
Balchik-Obrochishte, Akyazili Baba meydanevi, Balchik, Bilgaria from Kiel Archive
Can bad people make good art? Charles McGrath in the New York Times ponders the question.
Newly launched image database of the photographic archive of Machiel Kiel’s photos by Ottoman-Islamic architectural monuments in the Southeast-European countries, mostly made between 1960 and 1990.
A New York Times article on Polish royal palaces with some terrific photos of the interiors.
Ben Eltham on the cuts to arts in Victoria, including Arts Victoria itself - ‘tough, but not killer’.
Reports on the Raphael Symposium in Madrid by Hasan Niyazi of the 3 Pipe Problem site - part 1 and part 2. I wish more conferences were reported on like this. There are so many interesting conferences but no way that we can attend them all. Conference proceedings often take some time to appear after the event and so a first-hand account of each paper is very welcome as an overview of current research on the area. More academics should be writing up reviews or reports of conferences they attend.
Sketches by Constable found in the back of a cupboard, they include several prepatory drawings for some of Constable’s most famous paintings.
The battle to stop a massive rubbish dump opening near Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli continues - Ingrid D. Rowlandhas written on the issue in the New York Review of Books ‘Trashing Hadrian’s Villa’.
And nearby in Rome custom’s officials have reported that hundreds of tourists are purloining bits of Ancient Rome as souvenirs. There has reportedly been surge in x-ray scanning’s revealing cobblestones, marble mile markers and bits of mosaic.
Is art a good investment? The common question is given an interesting slant in the Financial Times who have worked out the ‘real’ cost of putting your money into art using the example of Constable’s The Lock soon to be sold at Christie’s. Bendor Grosvenor has given his own view and the answer seems to be no, maybe, yes, depends.
And to the even more perennial question ‘What is Art?’ The Atlantic presents a few famous definitions from Antiquity to Today.
Rupert Myer is to be appointed chairman of the Australia Council as the arts funding body faces possible restructure.
Italian art historians resumed a search for the remains of a Renaissance noblewoman who is believed to have been the inspiration for the Mona Lisa.
The Getty Iris asks ‘Why have their been no great (wikipedia articles) on women artists?‘ Apparently wikipedia’s main conributors are men (91%) and on top of that their interests are skewed towards maths, science, and pop culture. Aftertweeting this one follower pointed out that she had created a timeline of Australian feminist art on wikipedia and new contributions were welcome.
Calls for Papers
The 8th Savannah Symposium: Modernities Across Time and Space (Feb. 7-9, 2013) - deadline July 15, 2012.
The Middle Ages in the Modern World, St Andrews, (25-28 June 2013) - deadline 31st August.
Annual Conference of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (April4-7th, 2013) - deadline 15th September.
Symbolism and the Modern Allegorical Body, Boston (21-24 Mar 2013) - deadline September 30th.
Jobs and Funding
Lecturer in History of Art or Architecture (C18th-C19th) or Photography, The University of Manchester - closes 9th July.
Curator (Maternity Leave replacement), Australian Centre for the Moving Image - closes 4th July.
Head of Exhibitions, Australian Centre for the Moving Image - closes 20th July.
Director of Museum Collections Unit & Senior Lecturer in Museum & Gallery Studies, University of St Andrews - closes 31st July.
Lecturer in Art History, University of Sussex - closes 19th July.
Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, University of Sydney - closing date 10th August.
Kluge Fellowships for study in the Library of Congress.