News and Writing on Art and Art History | February 2nd 2013
Katrina Grant
‘Don’t mock China’s Eiffel Tower’ - a fascinating article on the hundreds of instances of ‘duplitecture’ in China, where mostly Western European monuments (though there is a Sydney Opera House and the White House is the most popular facsimile), and in some cases entire towns are reproduced as tourist attractions or as towns to be lived in.
What is the deadweight loss of museums? Some musings on the economics of Museums - should they sell their lower tier works? Use more wall space?
Tyler Green on the ‘Baltimore Museum of Arts shameful rentals’ - the museum is apparently ‘renting out’ its most significant works by Matisse, and not just for your usual loan exhibitions, ‘the BMA is simply renting out a substantial selection of its art collection. It apparently hoped no one would notice…’
Also Tyler Green’s recent podcast interview with Christine Sciacca, curator of the Getty’s “Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300-1350” is worth listening to (as are his podcast interviews generally).
UNESCO has released a statement promising to help Mali restore and rebuild its damaged heritage including help to rebuild the mausoleums of Timbuktu and the tomb of Askia in Gao, to preserve the ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu.
Australian businesses should recognise the skills of arts and humanities graduates, especially when several CEOs and other senior figures completed degrees in classics and history, not economics.
‘Pompous paradoxes, plagues of adverbs, endless sentences and strained rebellious poses’ - It’s International Art English! A user’s guide from the Guardian.
Why a fake Rembrandt can sometimes be a good thing from Artful Science.
The ever-popular debate over blockbuster art exhibitions (are they good or bad?) is discussed in the Guardian. Some good points raised including whether institutions shy away from doing something more challenging, and whether blockbusters are necessary to draw in new audiences, but some rather odd statements as well, including that ‘To create a blockbuster exhibition is quite a political statement.’ Really? I can’t think of one, not that blockbuster exhibitions can’t make interesting statements about art, or rethink an artist’s oeuvre, but are these political statements?
Talking of blockbusters there is a preview of the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Turner exhibition in The Australian, the exhibition open on February 8th.
The president of the Modigliani Institute arrested by the Italian art forgery unit after a two-year investigation.
Arrests have been made over the sacking of the Girolamini library in Naples - revealed last year by art historian Tommaso Montanari, who has an update on his blog (in Italian).
A report has also raised concerns over the neglect of Naples artistic and architectural heritage with many churches, palaces, museums and libraries closed, stripped of furnishing and art or missing funds that were meant to pay for restoration.