Saturday 21 October 2017

Reading list, 21 October 2017

The New Zealand Labour party's Arts, Culture and Heritage election manifesto

Why fancy restaurants have Aesop soap in their bathrooms

Artsy previews the 2017 Culture Track report: "The number one barrier to all forms of cultural participation? “It’s not for someone like me”."

Article of the week: Philip Kennicott on the best gallery bench placements in Washington.

'Wim Wenders on his Polaroids – and why photography is now over'

A great article about outreach at the world's first museum of Somali culture, in Minnesota

Beatrix Ruf resigns from the Stedelijk Museum after media stories about her conflicts of interest around deals with collectors and her art advisory business: New York Times and artnet news.



Saturday 14 October 2017

Reading list, 14 October 2017

Wesley Morris for the New York Times, on three months spent listening only to albums by women, inspired by NPR's 'Turning the Tables' list.

Former Canadian art curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario Andrew Hunter explains why he quit his job. (Sort of. I mean, it's never really stated in terms of "I quit so that X would hopefully happen." It's more "I couldn't effect any more change so I left". I think.)

The Julian Schnabel comeback machine.

Kickstarter has started facilitating commissioning alongside crowdfundraising.

On sleeper hunters (curators, dealers and connoisseurs who haunt auction websites looking for mis-attributed works).

A brutal (and somewhat relieving) take on Instagram influencers.

"My problem is what it represents as a first corporate commissioned artwork of sorts that is designed to open the way for a market invasion of 3D geo-tagged branding entertainment and advertising." Artist Sebastian Errazuriz finds a way to digitally vandalise Jeff Koon's Snapchat sculptures.

Saturday 7 October 2017

Reading list, 7 October 2017

On architecture

Rowan Moore looks at the Bilbao effect and its original context, 20 years on.

Oliver Wainwright with a somewhat unsympathetic take on the extension to Tate St Ives. (Wainwright is unimpressed with the decision to preserve housing at the cost of adding more presence to the building: based on recent conversations with people about museums in towns and cities with low numbers of permanent residents but high holiday-home owners and tourism numbers, I can see where the local council was coming from. A letter from a local makes this point.)

David Chipperfield on restoring and adjusting (as invisibly as possible) Mies van der Rohe's New National Gallery in Berlin. Right down to the carpeted galleries.

On branding and promotion

Echoing a bunch of pieces I've linked to previously, on a topic I've written about quite frequently: Brands and the Museumification of Everything.

An extract on Artsy from a new book by three economists (Robert Ekelund, Jr., John Jackson, and the late Robert Tollison) on the political and market conditions that led to American painting taking pole position in post-WWII Western art.

The strategic reasoning underlying the greasy photos Domino's posts on social media.

Condé Nast is launching a new "mission-driven, multi-platform" LGBTQ-focused publication.

More than you ever possibly needed to know about tote bags.

On collecting and deaccessioning

As Baltimore Museum curators prepare a touring exhibition based largely on her collection, Pamela Joyner is profiled by Vogue on her decision to build a collection focused on black abstract artists.

Felix Salmon covers the Berkshire Museum deaccessioning plans (to raise $40 million for capital projects and their endowment by selling artworks at auction) for The New Yorker.

On MOMA's new fashion show (the first in 70 years)

Paola Antonelli and Michelle Millar Fisher assemble 111 items for what they tell us about fashion and clothing.

Roberta Smith for the New York Times

Alexandra Lange for The New Yorker

In Jeff Koons news

Snapchat has launched an augmented reality art platform, pinned on Jeff Koons' shiny balloon dogs and other baubles.

Just good writing

K. Emma Ng's 'Hey, You There! Tactics of Refusal in the Work of Luke Willis Thompson', for The Pantograph Punch.