Vancouver

The ART of the city
From the full-page newspaper advertisements, coffee house chats and pronouncements about “ our new location,” you might reasonably conclude that the Vancouver Art Gallery’s decision to move to Larwill Park on Dunsmuir Street is a done deal.  Vancouver Sun, July 31, 2010

The battle of Larwill Park rages on A landmark museum
From its earliest history, Larwill Park was a place marked by contest and conflict. Boots of the volunteer artillery corps stomped in drill. The dusty parade ground housed men in tents as they enlisted to fight in the Boer and First World wars.  Vancouver Sun, July 31, 2010

Selected timeline of the Vancouver Art Gallery
1925 Henry Stone and five other founding members offer Vancouver city council $ 100,000 toward a new permanent collection if the city would give them a building and site for the new Vancouver Art Gallery.  Vancouver Sun, July 31, 2010

Toronto

AGO to showcase female post-war artists

At Work will feature pieces by Eva Hesse, Betty Goodwin and Agnes Martin.  Globe and Mail, August 3, 2010

‘The artists are reaching for something inside’

“Being Scene” - At Hart House at the University of Toronto

There is no more tiresome, circular or pointless question than What is Art? Worse yet is the corollary question, Is this or that Art? In the postpostmodern info-stream relativist image flux we now live in, the only reasonable answers are: nothing, everything, and always.  Being Scene, an exhibition of works by artists who have experience with mental health or addiction issues, is a perfect example of how the above dynamics inform and distort our perception of art vs. less-than-art.  Globe and Mail, August 3, 2010

Kleinberg, Ontario

Head of renowned McMichael Gallery unexpectedly resigns

Thomas Smart, director of McMichael collection steps down after four years.  Globe and Mail, July 31, 2010

Canada

Cultural organizations jump into social media

Virtually every Canadian arts organization, large or small, now has some social media presence and is starting to channel its audiences through a variety of venues, all relying more on conversation than pushiness. But a continuing dialogue requires time and resources. Tweeting every third day just isn’t going to cut it, Joel says. “People sort of fall into that ‘get me one of those’ strategy,” he says. “The hardest part, really, is the maintenance of it.”   Globe and Mail, July 31, 2010

New York

Brion Gysin is an artist celebrated outside his country

he New York Times has reviewed the exhibition “Brion Gysin: Dream Machine,” the first American retrospective of Mr. Gysin’s art, bravely mounted by curator Laura Hoptman at the New Museum. In the review, his sui-generis legacy is assiduously examined, his art described as “shape-shifting,” his methods deemed “outside the pantheon of recognized mediums,” before there comes a declaration that Mr. Gysin’s “reputation as an ‘unsuccessful artist’ is being overturned.”  Globe and Mail, August 3, 2010

Philadelphia

Fifth Time Around, Restoration Of Eakins Masterpiece Gets It Right

"The fifth such intervention, just completed, not only restored the masterpiece to something close to how it looked when it left the artist's studio, it also proved that Weil's aphorism isn't absolute. History might have been compromised years ago, but to a large extent it has been revived in one of America's greatest paintings." Philadelphia Inquirer, August 1, 2010

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brazil police find Portinari work, make arrest

Police in Brazil have recovered a painting by one of the country's most revered artists, Candido Portinari, two weeks after it was stolen from a museum.  CBC, August 1, 2010

International

On The Trail Of Art Thieves

“Art crime is on the rise, "easily outpacing efforts to police it," Wittman writes. "The $6 billion a year figure is probably low because it includes statistics supplied by only a third of the 192 member countries of the United Nations. Art and antiquities theft ranks fourth in transnational crime, after drugs, money laundering, and illegal arms shipments." ARTnews, July 2010