Well this just made my morning. I just read that this commissioned Matisse ceramic has been donated to LACMA’s permanent collection. This is quite the destination piece.
hyde or die
Rob Fischer
Man, The Hammer has been knocking it out of the park exhibition wise lately. First the Valentine-Adelson Collection, then the Burchfield, then R. Crumb, Nic Hess is still in the lobby, and now Rob Fischer? Stop, it’s too much! Just kidding, it’s never too much.
Brooklyn-based artist Rob Fischer finds furniture, windows, mirrors, books, flooring, car parts, and other abandoned materials and reconfigures them to create large-scale sculptural environments that are like monuments to a forgotten past. Fischer’s use of these found materials is a commentary on the lifecycle of objects and how those discarded things will inevitably be reclaimed by nature. While his constructions contain an aura of melancholy and we feel the loss and the weight of the lingering presences of those who used these objects, the sculptures simultaneously acknowledge the possibility for transformation and regeneration. via…
Sam Francis, Mantis
Another week, another awesome email from MOCA.
To celebrate MOCA’s 30th anniversary and the exhibition Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years, you will receive an image of a featured work or works from the museum’s world-renowned collection of postwar art each week for 30 weeks to preview and share with your friends
LONDON.- The V&A today announced that visitors to its website can now find online over one million records detailing objects in its collections ranging from well known treasures such as Tippoo’s “Tiger” to less familiar paintings and ceramics. People using Search the Collections, at collections.vam.ac.uk, will find images of more than 100,000 objects with more images and details to follow as they become available.
The online records vary from detailed studies written by curators to more basic inventory information which might include the maker, provenance, production technique and style. Visitors can also look up whether an object is on display and where in the Museum it can be found. via…
There goes any chance of me being productive.
More than ever, the seemingly sexy world of art crime is basking in the spotlight. In the last few months alone, a new program in Italy promoted itself as the world’s first devoted exclusively to international art crime studies, an ARTnews investigation concluded there is more fake than real modern Russian art on the market, the New York Timeslooked into the ongoing problem of art authenticity in Vietnam, and a recent lawsuit filed in Oakland County, Michigan, formally accusedPark West Gallery of selling fakes to unsuspecting customers on a cruise ship last year. While these examples illustrate the rising recognition of unscrupulous behavior by the perpetrators, they also raise a question: Why are individuals of means, often extraordinarily savvy in their other financial dealings, so vulnerable when it comes to the acquisition of art? What is it about art that causes buyers to take such leaps of faith, often only to discover that simple research could have easily uncovered any snags or malfeasance?It’s a very trusting relationship a buyer has with his dealer, or the auction house, or that guy on the street in Venice.
» Manchester Hermit Continues his Quest to Challenge the Importance of Museum Archives
Since entering The Manchester Museum’s Gothic tower on 27th June, Ansuman Biswas has identified a separate object on each day of his residency, calling on the public to reassess the value of museums’ hidden collections, and encouraging debate around the issues of conservation and extinction.
Presenting objects including a human skull, beautiful diatoms (microscopic algae), a malaria-bearing Anopheles mosquito and even snail shells collected after a takeaway meal, the Hermit has questioned whether museums need to keep such large collections, many of them rarely if ever seen by anyone, and has addressed much larger themes of the fragility of ecosystems and the necessity to protect all vulnerable forms of life.
The “hermit” has one of the more interesting blogs I have ever read in my life, www.manchesterhermit.wordpress.com, even moreso than mine (if you can believe it). Moment of honesty? Mine would be more interesting if I was locked in a museum for an extended (weeks) amount of time with full access to the permanent collection too. So no judgements, ok?
Also, if any museums would like me to take up residency in their storage facilities and blog for them I will. I’m looking at you, and you, and you, and you. Not neccessarily in that order.
Finally, after forever two-years of arguing and amending and talking and debating and designing and so on, the Fishers are not going to build their museum in Presidio Park.
That night, Don Fisher announced he would discontinue his efforts to build his museum at the Main Post. Fisher’s proposal was terminated, however, after two years of planning and the outlay of $2.8 million in public funds.
This determination by the Presidio Trust in no way diminishes the importance of the Fisher collection or its value to San Francisco. It is simply not appropriate to this historic site. via…
I didn’t see that coming like a Decepticon plowing through a bridge…mmm…Transformers…Sorry, got distracted. Anyways, I am now looking forward to another 2 years of spirited debate about where in San Francisco the Gap people will be plopping their collection down.
Wim Delvoye, Torre, 2009.
This tower is installed at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and will remain up through the end of November.
Even though the “gothic” tower is actually a contemporary piece made this year, the juxtaposition of the two architectural styles reminds me of all the controversy regarding the Ara Pacis in Rome.
