Vancouver

‘ Beauty, delicacy’ of underwater life captured by glass- blower
Gibsons artist Wayne Harjula’s glass artwork is to dive for. Think: Fluidity and bioluminescence. With the latter present in 90 per cent of deepsea creatures, he realized he could include lights in most of his pieces.  This exhibition at the Circle Craft Gallery is on display until October 5.  Vancouver Sun, September 3, 2010

Link to: The Vancouver Art Gallery & Its - Alex Waterhouse-Hayward
Much has been made of the necessity of the Vancouver Art Gallery to move from its present location and into a new modern gallery by a 'Star Architect'.  Architect Thomas Zimmerman offers his solutions on Alex Waterhouse-Hayward’s blog, September 3, 2010

Victoria

B. C. artists, designers honoured
The provincial government on Thursday announced the three winners of the sixth annual Carter Wosk BC Creative Achievement Awards for Applied Art and Design. The winners are Cathi Jefferson of Duncan for pottery, Natalie Purschwitz of Vancouver for clothing and accessories and Toby Barratt, Pamela Goddard and Nik Rust of Propeller Design of Vancouver for furniture and lighting.  Vancouver Sun, September 3, 2010

Toronto

Accessing the Terracotta Warriors by touch — ROM creates Braille replica warriors
The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto has brought in a number of features to make their Terracotta Warriors show more accessible. They have installed four replica artifacts, along with Braille markings, that people can touch.  Heritage Key, August 26, 2010

Futurists: Guides on the road we'll travel
The Toronto Star reports on the Ontario College of Art & Design's masters program "of design in strategic foresight and innovation." OCAD is the first school in Canada to offer a "futurist" program — a program that challenges students to research current trends in order to make forecasts for the future. Yong Street Blog, September 1, 2010

Seattle

Vancouver Island woodcarver shot dead by Seattle police
News that a talented aboriginal Vancouver Island woodcarver was shot dead by police in Seattle has shocked the man’s friends and family. John T. Williams was crossing a downtown Seattle street Monday afternoon carrying a knife and a piece of wood.  Vancouver Sun, September 3, 2010

Spokane

Interactive technology to enhance museum experience
The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture in Spokane, Wash., announced recently an innovative pilot project, PassPort to Discovery™. It is an interactive exhibit system designed to customize the visitor experience at museums and exhibit venues. Onscreen talking avatars greet visitors by name and can paraphrase the exhibit content. A unique gaming element allows visitors to answer questions and earn points — and high scores are displayed. PRN Newswire, September 1, 2010

Mexico City

Mexico City's Eli Broad? Carlos Slim to Open Museum

"Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, will soon open a new museum in one of the poshest areas of his native Mexico to house his collection of artwork by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, considered the biggest outside France." Reuters, August 31, 2010  

New York

Lee Friedlander’s ‘America by Car’ at Whitney

Lee Friedlander’s “America by Car,” opening Saturday at the Whitney Museum, consists of black-and-white photographs taken from inside cars.  New York Times, September 3, 2010

Corot Theft Maybe Wasn't? (Charges Dropped)

"A New York woman who sued her sales agent over the disappearance of a $1.4 million Corot painting decided to drop her complaint after concluding a convicted art thief in a mug shot was the artwork's co-owner, her lawyer said." Bloomberg, September 2, 2010

Museum of Bad Art, a Celebration of the LowBrow

 “Bad art” — rescued from trash heaps and thrift shops — has become a genre in itself, with its own fans.  New York Times, September 3, 2010

Nashville

Maybe Fisk Univ. Really Has No Choice But to Sell Its Art
"The endowment of the tiny, historic school in Nashville, which opened its doors to newly freed slaves in 1865, is depleted. Every building on the campus … has been mortgaged. Fisk President Hazel R. O'Leary says that the only asset of real value left is the Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Modern American and European Art." The Root, September 1, 2010

Atlanta

‘Dalí: The Late Work’ at High Museum of Art in Atlanta

An exhibition counters the notion that late work by Dalí is bad, and that most Dalí is late work.  New York Times, September 3, 2010  

Great Britain

New British Culture Minister: Museums Will Share Funding Pain

"There will be cuts to the arts and museums. They will not be singled out as easy to cut, but neither will they be overly protected. They will take their share of the pain." The Art Newspaper, September 3, 2010

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Vancouver

Once merely condo royalty, Bob Rennie emerges as Vancouver's cool king of modern art

“Bob Rennie, CEO of Rennie Marketing Systems, takes immense risks as a businessman and art collector.  Here Rennie talks about the Olympic Village, the 2010 Olympic Games, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Mayor Gregor Robertson, and the Wing Sang Gallery, where he shows off his riveting collection of modern art.”  Vancouver Observer, August 15, 2010

Minister Krueger Shouldn’t Feel “Threatened

A response by the Alliance for Arts and Culture’s to an interview with Kevin Krueger on CBC’s Early Edition, August 26. Alliance for Arts and Culture (Blog), August 27, 2010

Toronto

Poles Apart

In Plakat: World Cinema Through the Eyes of Polish Graphic Artists, an exhibition timed to coincide with the Toronto International Film Festival, 40 full-scale posters are on loan from the Poster Museum at Wilanow in Warsaw. National Post, September 1, 2010

Fredericton

Artists tell our truths

“Artists work for the common good — they create so we can have leisure and see the world created.  And some I know have literally worked themselves to death for the common good. Without this common good, no utilitarian world would matter much.” --- David Adams Richards. CBC News, September 1, 2010

Montreal

Montreal's UQAM gallery buys Altmejd's Werewolf

The art gallery of the University of Quebec in Montreal plans to buy Canadian artist David Altmejd's Loup-garou 1, or Werewolf, with a $30,000 endowment it has received.  CBC News, August 31, 2010

MSO gets $35.5M from Loto-Québec

The Quebec government has announced a dedicated fund for MSO, the “jewel of Montreal culture” totalling $35.5 million over four years. The money will come from Loto-Québec, making the government's gaming agency the MSO's largest public funder.  CBC News, August 31, 2010

Sacramento

California Passes Stolen Art Bill

"California lawmakers gave final approval Monday night to a bill that would extend the time in which people can sue museums to try to recover what they believe are stolen works of art." The New York Times, September 1, 2010

Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California

This Particular Roadside Attraction Gets Repeatedly Humiliated

A California beachfront town "thought it was honoring surfers when it spent $120,000 to erect a 16-foot tall statue of one riding a wave." No such luck: the sculpture has been variously dressed up like a clown, put in a tutu, devoured by a giant papier-mâché shark. Wall Street Journal, August 31, 2010

Detroit

Detroit: Culture hums under the hood

There's a new engine revving in Detroit's downtown.  This once-gorgeous, battered city is a place of extraordinary Art Deco skyscrapers, palatial industrialists’ mansions and a vibrant arts community.  Globe and Mail, September 1, 2010

Istanbul

Rich Turkish Families Racing To Accumulate, Display Art

"A quiet war is under way among Turkey's richest families to assemble the best and most expensive art collections." The Guardian (UK), August 31, 2010

Baghdad

Zaha Hadid Designs First Project for Her Native Iraq

"Authorities at Baghdad's Central Bank have confirmed that the award-winning architect has been picked to design a new headquarters for the institution. Hadid's new design will replace the bank's previous home," which was destroyed by suicide bombers in June. Artinfo, August 31, 2010

International

How Our Sense Of Memorials Is Changing

"We've stopped putting great men on pedestals and started commemorating their victims. In the process we are losing a sense that human history involved leadership and struggle and, yes, sacrifice." The Spectator, September 2010

Just How Do We Assert The Value Of Artists In Our Culture?

"Though government and academic aims are often different, their views toward the struggling artist are often the same, arrogant without knowing, and dismissive without cause." CBC, September 1, 2010

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Los Angeles

Garage-Sale Ansel Adams Negatives Debunked?

"Rick Norsigian's 10-year quest to prove that he turned up a trove of 'lost' Ansel Adams photo negatives at a Fresno garage sale now has a rival explanation advanced by Norsigian's opponents: They were taken by a heretofore unknown photographer from the Fresno area named Earl Brooks." Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2010

New York

NYC's Drawing Center Abandons Plans to Move

After years of looking for a new downtown home, the Drawing Center has decided to stay put in its SoHo neighborhood. “The economy made us re-evaluate what scale of project we want,” said Brett Littman, the Drawing Center’s director, in an interview on Monday. “We’re like a nice small jazz club — the scale of what we do is intimate, drawings tend to be pretty small. - New York Times, August 9, 2010

New York Mag Art Critic Open-Sources Book

Last week, Jerry Saltz announced (via his enormously popular Facebook page) an open call for "guest artists" to send in their own 100-word submissions. This being the art criticism business, Saltz stressed that "there's no money in this for you whatsoever." New York Observer, August 9, 2010

Charlotte Posenenske Installation at Artists Space

Works by the little-known German Minimalist Charlotte Posenenske are on view and ready for adjustments at the newly renovated Artists Space.   New York Times, August 19, 2010

Atlanta

The Lust for Late

“While the art market is scouring for undervalued works by major artists, museums are seeking new material for blockbuster shows and Dalí is getting a longer look. On Saturday, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta will open "Salvador Dalí: The Late Work." Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2010

Dortmund

Yukon artist to show DEW Line project on world stage

An art installation by Yukon artist, Charles Stankievech, which explores environment and sovereignty in the North will be displayed at art festival in Germany thanks to funding from territory’s government. Globe & Mail, August 10, 2010

London

Lehman’s blue period

Hundreds of artworks from failed bank’s collection to be auctioned off to pay creditors.  Globe & Mail, August 10, 2010

Chengdu, China

Leading Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Says Police Attacked Him

Creator of Beijing's Bird Nest stadium, also commissioned to create an installation for the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, says he was attacked while trying to report a previous assault by security forces The Guardian (UK), August 10, 2010

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Vancouver

What's done with Larwill Park must please the citizens
Are we ready to make a decision on the Vancouver Art Gallery's possible move or on Larwill Park, a historically significant property?  (Letter to the Editor)  Vancouver Sun, August 6, 2010

Langley, B.C.

History revived from archive

Langley Centennial Museum is adding old news photos to the historic record. Piecing together the history of Langley should be easy, if you have a vast archive of photos stretching back decades - Unless those photos are largely unlabelled, sometimes undated, and unsorted. The Langley Centennial Museum is now trying to put some order into the chaos of Langley Advance photo archives from the 1950s to the 1970s. Langley Advance, August 5, 2010 http://www.langleyadvance.com/History+revived+from+archive/3341518/story.html#ixzz0vqBs3kmx

Victoria

Maritime museum has new director
Kevin Carlé has been appointed as executive director of the Maritime Museum of B.C., taking over from Shirley Vickers, who has served as interim executive director for six months.  Victoria Times-Colonist, August 5, 2010

Fredericton, N.B.

Dali painting from N.B. on the move

A popular painting at Fredericton's Beaverbrook Art Gallery has taken a road trip.

Salvador Dali's Santiago El Grande is part of an exhibition of the artist's work at Atlanta's High Museum of Art.

The exhibition, which begins Saturday and runs until January, will feature more than 100 works done by the celebrated Spanish surrealist after 1940.  CBC, August 6, 2010   

Las Vegas

At Cosmopolitan Resort in Las Vegas, Yoko’s on View  

A public art project at the new Cosmopolitan resort in Las Vegas has Yoko Ono, among others, on the marquee.  New York Times, August 5, 2010

New York  

The Brooklyn Museum Challenge

"How to appeal to a new generation in a climate of persistent financial pressure and the ambition to grow, to do more, to expand its audience? By some measures it has succeeded. By others, including attendance goals articulated by the museum itself, it has not." The New York Times, August 6, 2010

Small Shows at the Metropolitan Museum

Forget the Picassos for now: the small, gemlike shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are worth a good, long look. The New York Times, August 6, 2010

‘Inspired’

Photographs often are inspired as much by other photographs as by what they picture. Organized by the art collector Beth Rudin DeWoody, “Inspired” makes this explicit. The New York Times, August 6, 2010

9/11 Memorial And Museum: Not Just Another Museum?

"Far from being the toothless, tasteful tribute to American greatness many expected after an earlier incarnation, the International Freedom Center, was abandoned five years ago, the revamped museum promises an unblinking account of the violence and terror of Sept. 11, 2001." New York Observer, August 5, 2010

Abstraction at Manhattan Galleries

Abstract art is unusually visible in galleries around Manhattan this summer. The New York Times, August 6, 2010

Nigeria

Nigerian Collectors Rescue, or Maybe Create, the Nation's Art Scene

In a country where public galleries can't even count on a steady electricity supply, some oil and mineral tycoons "put their own money into gathering and cataloguing thousands of works of art." Says one major collector, "For me, this is a philanthropic act." The Economist, July 29, 2010

China

Chinese Culture Chief Says Building Boom Is Destroying National Heritage

“Shan Jixiang, who heads the government's administration for cultural heritage, told state media, "Bulldozers have razed many historical blocks. The protection of cultural heritage in China has entered the most difficult, grave and critical period." Shan made a point of criticizing the waste of building materials and the "boring" new cityscapes.” The Guardian (UK), August 4, 2010

Japan

Japanese Architects Create Eye-Catching Homes For Really Small Lots

"Few Americans would consider a parking-space-sized lot as an adequate site to build a house. But in Japan, homes are rising on odd parcels of land, some as tiny as 300 square feet" - spaces for which inventive architects are designing "unorthodox and visually stunning houses." NPR, August 3, 2010  (includes slideshow)

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Vancouver

In the art of the city  (watch for this article on Saturday)
Vancouver Art Gallery’s proposed move to Dunsmuir Street is far from a done deal.  As the gallery campaigns for public support, there’s much you need to know.  Jeff Lee investigates.  Vancouver Sun, July 30, 2010

Victoria

Curator offers tour of Emily Carr exhibition
“Emily Carr made a conscious choice to live here, in Victoria, on the edge of Canada so close to nature and the aboriginal cultures that were her inspiration,” explains Mary Jo Hughes, chief curator of the current show at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.  Victoria Times-Colonist, July 29, 2010

Ottawa

Residential school commission calls for art

Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on residential schools is inviting submissions of art work that relates to experiences at the schools, or to the legacy of those experiences.  CBC, July 30, 2010

Toronto

Artist Shary Boyle gets 3-city show
Toronto's Shary Boyle, who challenges preconceptions of beauty in her sculptures, paintings and art installations, will have major exhibits of her work in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The show is a recognition of her 2009 win of the Iskowitz Prize, which goes to an artist who has made a significant contribution to Canadian art. CBC, July 30, 2010

Rochester, New York

The Return of Colorama, Great Ghost of Kodak Past

Eighteen feet high and 60 feet wide, billed by Kodak as "the world's largest photographs," Colorama transparencies impressed passersby at Grand Central Station for 40 years. George Eastman House has assembled a touring exhibition of these goliaths in honor of their 60th anniversary, NPR, July 28, 2010  (includes slideshow)

A Requiem for Kodachrome

"Kodachrome slide film wasn't just another commercial photographic product. There was something truly special about it. The dyes and emulsions produced an effect comparable to Technicolor motion picture film. It was hyper-real, but only slightly." Salon, July 28, 2010

New York

New Photography 2010’ Coming to MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “New Photography 2010” will feature works from four artists: Roe Ethridge, Elad Lassry, Alex Prager and Amanda Ross-Ho.  New York Times, July 30, 2010

MoMA’s ‘Original Copy,’ Photos Meet Sculpture

“The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today,” which opens at MoMA on Sunday, is brainy and bookish and gives us new ways of looking at art.  New York Times, July 30, 2010

At New Museum, Brion Gysin’s First Retrospective

The first retrospective of Brion Gysin’s art in the United States brings together his widely scattered works, including his magnum opus, “Dreamachine.”    New York Times, July 30, 2010

Egon Schiele's "Portrait of Wally" - Hostage To Money

"The distortion of artworks through their use as icons of money, power and politics has a long and notorious history." The Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2010

Fairfield Porter

The sunlit paintings in this small show at Michael Rosenfeld — landscapes, still lifes and a few portraits — won’t disappoint.   New York Times, July 30, 2010

Ragnar Kjartansson: ‘The End — Venice.’

Ragnar Kjartansson produced one painting per day for the six-month run of the 2009 Venice Biennale. The fruits of his labors now cover the walls at Luhring Augustine.  New York Times, July 30, 2010

Philadelphia

A Restored ‘Gross Clinic’ at Philadelphia Museum

An exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art shows Thomas Eakins’s “Gross Clinic,” an 1875 masterpiece that has recently been restored.  New York Times, July 30, 2010

Rome

Colosseum restoration seeks sponsors

The Italian government is looking for private sponsors to help it restore one of Rome's ancient landmarks — the Colosseum.Ads will start appearing in major newspapers next week in a six-week appeal to raise money for a restoration that will cost an estimated $34 million.  CBC, July 30, 2010

Today’s art birthday:  Henry Moore, 1898

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Vancouver

Portraitist captures ‘little life moments’ for Vancouver anniversary exhibit

“Tim Van Horn is on a quest to put a face to the city of Vancouver.  His democratic sensibility calls to mind the late Foncie Pulice, the proprietor of Foncie’s Fotos who hustled on bustling downtown sidewalks from 1934 to 1979.” Globe & Mail, July 28, 2010

Montreal

A merger of art, philanthropy

Dick Evans, the former CEO of Alcan, has co-founded an online photography gallery, In Transit Images, that showcases fine photography, offers photographers increased exposure and supports emerging artists. Montreal Gazette, July 28, 2010

Charlottetown, PEI

Arts school needed to carry on P.E.I. tradition

Prince Edward Island needs a post-secondary arts school in order to renew an aging population of artists, says a new study. CBC News, July 28, 2010

Beverly Hills, California

Lost Ansel Adams negatives resurface at garage sale

Purchased 10 years ago for $45 at a garage sale, the prints are now worth at least $200-million.  Globe and Mail, July 28, 2010

Atlanta, Georgia

Patriotism Deficit: America's National Museum of Patriotism Closes

The institution, whose jaunty slogan is "Come for a memory, leave with a mission", is the latest victim of the economic downturn. The Art Newspaper, July 28, 2010

London

'What I Learned From Caravaggio'

Martin Scorsese, David LaChapelle, Peter Doig and three more artists "explain how Caravaggio's prophetically cinematic paintings inspired them." The Observer (UK), July 25, 2010

A Stand For Funding The Arts. It's Obvious This Time

"This is the first time artists have had access to sound, well-evidenced arguments for the economic value of the arts. It's no longer in question: the arts are affordable and the arts are profitable. If the government is interested in saving money, it would be idiotic to cut them." The Guardian (UK), July 27, 2010

The Politics Of Cutting UK Arts Funding

"Arts leaders warn that threatened cuts - 25% or more - mean one in four of the 200 Arts Council-funded bodies will close, theatres will go dark, museums will shut for part of the week, with few blockbuster exhibitions or new commissions." The Guardian (UK), July 28, 2010

Pisa, Italy

The Amazing Story Of How They Saved The Leaning Tower Of Pisa

And why did it lean in the first place? "By a quirk of local geography, Pisa's water-table rose higher on the tower's north side, often reaching within one foot in rainy season, and this gave the tower an annual ratchet southward." The Telegraph (UK), July 28, 2010

Beijing

For jailed artist’s family, Chinese justice is little more than revenge

Even in the often-dark world of Chinese police work, it is an unusual perversion of justice. An artist goes into a local police station to raise a complaint about a friend’s landlord, is detained and beaten for his trouble, and then is himself charged with obstructing justice. Calgary native Karen Patterson finds herself struggling to make sense of exactly such a Kafkaesque turn of events. Her husband, avant-garde artist Wu Yuren, is now awaiting trial and could spend up to three years in jail after accompanying his friend to the police station in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on May 31. Globe & Mail, July 26, 2010

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Vancouver

Visions of Queertopia find their form
The Roundhouse Community Centre might seem like a queer place to find Utopia, and it is. For the next 2 ½ weeks, the centre is home to the Queer Arts Festival, a heady melange of fine art, music and theatre, affectionately dubbed Queertopia.  Vancouver Sun, July 27, 2010

The Top 5 Patios in Vancouver
At 750 Hornby Street at the Vancouver Art Gallery, The Gallery Cafe is by far my favourite.  Vancouver City Guide, July 25, 2010

Toronto

Great bright NORTH
David Vasquez had the kind of childhood that’s most often recounted in horror films. Born in the Dominican Republic, he was exiled to Haiti as a young man and worked as a slave labourer in the sugar fields. “My family and I spent three months sleeping out in the rain.” Vasquez is just one of the 50 painters currently showing at “From the Soul”, a new exhibit of African-Canadian art at the Royal Ontario Museum.  National Post, July 27, 2010

Frank Gehry unfazed by plans to demolish childhood home in Toronto

Renowned architect says Beverley Street row house was unremarkable – but he’s no fan of what’s poised to take its place.  Globe and Mail, July 27, 2010

New York

MuseumDirectors page

The American Association of Museum Directors has launched the Museum Directors page and the AAMDIndy tweets site.  Kaywin Feldman, new president of the Association has said that her institution, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, will post pending de-accessions on their website.  AAMD, July 2010   

Painter Doug Ohlson, 73

"[His] work astutely fused aspects of Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting and Minimal Art on a grand scale; his paintings sometimes measured as much as 23 feet across. The staple of his formal vocabulary was repeating vertical bars that seemed, increasingly, to levitate before clouds of vibrant contrasting color." New York Times, July 25, 2010

Los Angeles

'Pacific Standard Time': The Art Extravaganza That Will Devour L.A.

"When the many-headed exhibition extravaganza 'Pacific Standard Time' opens in October 2011, some 40 Southern California museums and nonprofit galleries will offer shows focusing in one manner or another on the origins of the art scene here, from 1945 to 1980." Now the Getty Trust, the project's lead funder and organizer, is making the event even bigger. Los Angeles Times, July 26, 3020

Washington, D.C.

'Towering Ambition' - Recreating Emblems of Architecture in Lego

An exhibition at DC's National Building Museum features facsimiles, by "Lego master" Adam Reed Tucker, of such icons as the Empire State Building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the Gateway Arch, Fallingwater, and Calatrava's never-built Chicago Spire. "The Lego brick … [is] the perfect toy for the age in which it was introduced, which helps explain why Tucker's models have a cultural power that ordinary architectural models might not." Washington Post, July 23, 2010

London

Arts Council England Avoids Cuts in 'Bonfire of the Quangos' "Arts Council England has emerged unscathed from a major 'efficiency' review of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's arm's length bodies, which has seen both the UK Film Council and the Museums , Libraries and Archives Council abolished." The Stage (UK), July 26, 2010

Rome

Disputed Caravaggio unveiled

A painting recently touted by the Vatican's newspaper as a possible new work by Caravaggio was unveiled in Rome Tuesday, but experts quickly rejected the canvas as a creation of the baroque master.  CBC, July 27, 2010

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Delta, B.C.

Museum, Archive Society get $ 25,000 donation
The Delta Museum and Archive Society is getting a $ 25,000 shot in the arm from the Museums Assistance Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The money will help the society add to the documentation of the collections and build a shared database for museum and archive collections.  Vancouver Sun, July 23, 2010

Southampton, Ontario

Sewer project halted by aboriginal history find

Evidence suggests Ontario site was of ‘great cultural and ceremonial significance’.  Globe and Mail, July 23, 2010

Montague, P.E.I.

Canada Tree sculpture returns to storage

The Canada Tree, a 10-metre-high sculpture made with wooden objects donated by hundreds of Canadians, has been removed again from display in eastern P.E.I.  CBC, July 23, 2010

New York

Art Review: Riffs on Photography (I Am Not Always a Camera)

Several overworked trends in photography have been gathered together in “Perspectives 2010” at the International Center of Photography. The first in what will be an annual show, this five-person exhibition includes pictures of old medical specimens, diaristic images by a professional skateboarder, riffs on truth and fiction in generic commercial photography, a video installation about Vietnam and a sculptural assemblage by an artist who is not a photographer at all.  New York Times, July 23, 2010

Inside Art - Jury Selected for YouTube Play Videos, Richter on Paper, Met hires Curators

• The jury selecting work for the video biennial YouTube Play is a group of international, multidisciplinary artists including Laurie Anderson and Takashi Murakami.
• Richter on Paper
• A little over a year ago the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it had completed a major round of layoffs.  New York Times, July 23, 2010  

Washington, D.C.

US Says It Will Speed Up Visas For Foreign Artists (Hallelujah!)

"Addressing years of complaints about slow and inconsistent processing of visa applications for foreign performing artists, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services told arts groups this week that it was making an effort to speed up and improve its visa operations." New York Times, July 23, 2010

Salisbury Plain, England

Woodhenge find redefines Stonehenge
A wooden version of Stonehenge has been unearthed a few hundred metres from the famous monument, a stunning discovery that sheds new light on an ancient place of worship.  Vancouver sun, July 23, 2010

Another StoneHenge Discovered

"Archaeologists said Thursday they have discovered a monument similar to Stonehenge near the ancient stone circle, dubbing it the most exciting find at the site for 50 years." Discovery, July 22, 2010

Paris

'Routes of Arabia' Exhibition at Louvre Is Startling

Hundreds of artifacts never before seen outside Saudi territory are included in a show tracing a range of archaeological sites sprinkled across the peninsula's deserts.  International Herald Tribune, July 23, 2010

Berlin

Henry Moore's Biggest Sculpture Restored

Henry Moore's heaviest bronze sculpture, Large Divided Oval: Butterfly, has been restored in Berlin. Weighing nearly nine tons, it was his final major work, completed just before he died in 1986. The Art Newspaper, July 21, 2010

Venice

Hylozoic Ground  Take a look at Canada's mesmerizing entry to the Venice Biennale

Toronto architect Philip Beesley’s visionary exhibit Hylozoic Ground is a startling blend of art, fancy and high-tech engineering.

The project heads to Venice this summer as Canada’s entry at the 12th International Architecture Biennale, an annual forum for new ideas in architecture and design that runs Aug. 29 to Nov. 21, and is expected to attract more than 130,000 visitors. Beesley plans to fill the 2,000-square-foot Canada Pavilion in Venice with otherworldly columns, spirals and organisms that interact with the people who pass through.  CBC, July 15, 2010

Shantou, China

China’s Cultural Revolution museum a well-kept secret

It is barred from publicizing itself, curator explains. Globe and Mail, July 23, 2010

Art and Technology

'I Looked Into the Heart of an Artichoke': Making Art From MRI Scans of Fruit

"Presumably, Andy Ellison's artichoke didn't feel the terror I did when he laid it down to a nice magnetic resonance bath, but the images he got of it - and 14 other fruits and vegetables so far in his project Inside Insides - are stunning." Salon, July 21, 2010

Today’s Art birthday:  Philipp Otto Runge, 1777

 Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Vancouver

Jamelie Hassan's At the Far Edge of Words explores the cultural power of language

As you’re approaching the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, you’ll see a billboard mounted high on its façade. It’s been there for a while, yes, but serves now as a terrific introduction to the Jamelie Hassan retrospective on view inside the building.  Georgia Straight, July 22, 2010

Douglas Coupland goes techno-pop to punk up Roots

If there’s one thing Roots does really, really well, it’s rustic Canadiana. And if there’s one thing Generation X author Douglas Coupland does really, really well, it’s multidisciplinary postmodernism. Put these two Great White North icons together and you get one of the coolest odd-couple collaborations in Canuck fashion history.  Georgia Straight, July 22, 2010

Queer Arts Festival's Queertopia is open to wide interpretation

Painted ironing boards, supersized paper dolls, and wall-mounted chairs: the search for identity takes a wild array of forms in the visual-arts exhibit at this year’s Queer Arts Festival. The show, at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre from Tuesday (July 27) to August 14, has grown, along with the multimedia festival, from a small community exhibit more than 10 years ago to a juried, 23-artist production with installations that will fill the facility’s sizable exhibition hall. Georgia Straight, July 22, 2010   

Toronto

Nuit Blanche plans art that rocks

Dan Graham, a New York artist known for his mirrored cubicle installations, is building a new work that he promises will recreate the quasi-hallucinogenic effects of rock show light displays.  CBC, July 22, 2010

Books For $75,000 Anyone?

It's "a trend that has seen book publishers creating evermore insanely expensive collector's items - usually very large coffee-table picture books about celebrities or the kinds of luxury items only the very rich can feel devoted to - printed in small batches."  Globe & Mail, July 22, 2010

Los Angeles

SF-MOMA Selects Architect For $250M Expansion: Snohetta

"Can an art museum in this economic climate raise $480 million for an ambitious expansion and endowment campaign without a world famous architect like Frank Gehry or Renzo Piano attached to the project? SFMOMA has just placed a very big bet that it can, by selecting the critically acclaimed but not so commonly known Oslo-based firm Snøhetta," which is best known for Norway's new national opera house. Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2010

YouTube Removes Work Of Art For Nudity

It's Susan Mogul's landmark 1973 video, "Dressing Up". "Please understand that this work has been shown world wide and is in countless museum collections. This is a work of art that uses the artist and her body as the work. This is an important issue in the preservation of important art made in the late part of the 20th century and should not be wrongly presumed to be offensive." LAWeekly, July 19, 2010

Cleveland

Cleveland Museum Of Contemporary Art Gets Design Approval

MOCA's design was one of five presented to the commission for the district, a $150-plus million development project in University Circle. Akron Beacon-Journal, July 22, 2010

London

UK Culture Funder To Lose Half Its Staff?

"Cuts to staff numbers of between 35 and 50 per cent are expected after all departments were told by the Treasury to slash budgets by up to 40 per cent." The Guardian (UK) July 21, 2010

Vienna

Gun sculpture exhibit altered after complaint

Creators of an art installation featuring The Gun Sculpture, by Edmonton artist Wallis Kendal, are 'gobsmacked' that part of the exhibit was removed because of a complaint from China.  CBC, July 22, 2010

International

Why Are Museums Allowed To Sell Off Their Work? "This is not the time to forget the true value of our collections: a historical and aesthetic resource held in care for future generations. Let's keep the doors open to the public but closed to the salesman. Losing these treasures is too high a price to pay for short-term financial gain." spiked-online 07/22/10

Today’s Art Birthday:  Alexander Calder, 1898

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Vancouver

Video: The Art Emporium: Vancouver's Oldest Art Gallery

A tour of Vancouver's oldest art gallery. The gallery hosts a wealth of stellar works by Canadian masters.  Vancouver Sun, July 21, 2010

Ottawa

Cyprus mission earns place in war museum

Canada's longest-running peacekeeping mission now has its own section in the Canadian War Museum.

The Ottawa-based museum has set up a permanent display on the mission in Cyprus, where 30,000 Canadians served between 1964 and 1993.  CBC, July 21, 2010

Ungava Peninsula, Quebec

Carving of face gives hints of Dorset culture
 A Quebec archaeologist has unearthed the ghostly carving of a face left buried on a remote Arctic island inhabited 1,000 years ago by the extinct Dorset culture — the native people who mysteriously vanished from Canada’s North.  Vancouver Sun, July 21, 2010

Nain, Labrador

Inuit bones from ancestral site to be repatriated

Inuit remains that were taken from an ancestral burial site on Labrador's north coast more than 80 years ago by an American archeologist are to be returned to Canada.  CBC, July 21, 2010

San Francisco

I Went To The Blockbuster Impressionists Show And...

"The boon of blockbusters is also their curse: too many people. The Impressionist show was by no means the worst; the Palace of the Legion of Honor does an even worse job of traffic control. I have literally been held motionless by a crowd at a Mayan exhibition at the Legion. I just stood there and prayed that Brownian motion would take me safely to the next room." San Francisco Chronicle, July 21, 2010

Waltham, Mass.

Artists Boycott Brandeis Museum

Three prominent artists have withdrawn from a show at the Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University because of a decision made last year to consider selling parts of the museum’s permanent collection. New York Times, July 21, 2010

New York

Marina Abramovic Disses Theatre - All Of It "To be a performance artist, you have to hate theatre. Theatre is fake: there is a black box, you pay for a ticket, and you sit in the dark and see somebody playing somebody else's life. The knife is not real, the blood is not real, and the emotions are not real. Performance is just the opposite: the knife is real, the blood is real, and the emotions are real." The Guardian (UK) July 20, 2010

London

Proposition: John Szarkowski Was The Most Important Post-War American Photographer

"Szarkowski was a good photographer, a great critic and an extraordinary curator. Like all good critics and curators, Szarkowski was both visionary and catalyst." The Guardian (UK) July 21, 2010

Vienna

Vienna museum to pay $19M for Nazi-looted work

Vienna's Leopold Museum has agreed to pay $19 million US and display a 1912 painting by expressionist Egon Schiele with an acknowledgement that it was stolen from a Jewish art dealer.  CBC, July 21, 2010

Jerusalem

Israel Museum Completes Three-Year, $100M Renewal

"For the last 45 years, the Israel Museum has been both the crown jewel of this country's cultural heritage and a bit of a mess," giving visitors "a feeling of being overwhelmed by quantity and mildly perplexed about substance." Beginning next week, "[t]here will be far fewer objects on display, with twice the space to view them, as well as richer links and explanations. … The idea is not simply to make the museum easier to navigate but also to suggest interesting connections among objects and between the particular and the universal." New York Times, July 21, 2010

Cheryl Siegel | Librarian | Vancouver Art Gallery | 750 Hornby St. | Vancouver, BC | V6Z 2H7 | 604-662-4709  | fax 604-682-1086 | www.vanartgallery.bc.ca