News and Writing on Art and Art History

Katrina Grant

The Art Gallery of New South Wales has chosen not to replace Senior Curator of Asian Art Jackie Menzies after she retires, a decision that has surprised many, considering the gallery’s large collection of Asian Art (there will continue to be two curators of Asian Art). Perhaps, though, this role is to be absorbed into the recently advertised position for a Director of Collections at AGNSW.

Liberal arts degrees may not come with a job description attached, but you are just as likely to end up employed and probably a more well-rounded person as well - Nicolaos Jones On the Liberal Arts and the Advantages of Being Useless (may need to be logged into academia.edu to read)

The problem of inflation in academic reference writing - should academia follow most other areas of employment and only seek references at the final stages?

‘Walsh is explicit about what his museum is not: it’s not a rich man gratefully giving back to his community. It’s not an attempt at immortality, as he frankly admits that his collection may be deemed worthless in another decade. It is a theatre of strange enchantments…’ Richard Flanagan in the New Yorker on David Walsh.

An update on last year’s Caravaggio ‘discovery’ (when a group of Peterzano drawings were controversially re-attributed to Caravaggio) the comune in Milan is now taking the two art historians to court to sue for civil damages ‘in relation to the explosive events’, a translation (thanks Mark Shepheard!) of Il Giorno article Peterzano drawings (word doc).

The Art Newspaper also reports that Milan is putting a Michelangelo sculpture in a prison to ‘have a positive impact on the psyches of the inmates’ - Michael Savage disagrees with the move.

Wall labels are a source of constant discussion - and frequent frustration - amongst art historians, artists and anyone who regularly visits museums. Angus Trumble writes that ‘There are labels that swagger; labels that boast; labels that snigger, scold, or prevaricate; labels that sit determinedly on fences. Some labels are too bossy, too chatty, or too starchy. Some labels cause you indigestion; others send the visitor empty away.’ While the Grumpy Art Historian bemoans some below par labels as the Ashmolean.

‘Museums Grapple With the Strings Attached to Gifts’ - Patricia Cohen in the New York Times on the issue of donor’s restrictions on major gifts.

No self-respecting historian could have missed the hullabaloo about the University of Leicester’s announcement that they believe that the skeleton excavated from beneath a car park is that of Richard III. Some healthy scepticism coupled with enthusiasm from Art History News.

An export ban has been placed on some paintings by George Stubbs of kangaroos, after an Australian buyer expressed interest. The Australian seems to be under the erroneous impression that because the paintings represent something Australian that Australia is their ‘home’ , but they were painted in England by an English artist.

Medieval frescoes in Albania have been irreversibly damaged after thieves tried to pry them from the wall, sad photos in this article.

Jed Perl in The New Republic asks if Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei is a wonderful dissident, but a terrible artist.