[NOTE: as you may have perceived from my irregular postings of these News Digest lists, these "weekly" lists are posted irregularly. -- JR] -----Original Message----- From: H-Museum [Blank] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 3:23 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: NEWS: H-Museum News Digest (USA, UK) [Editor's note: The following articles are published in American and British newspapers and magazines. The H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST service is made available by the editorial staff of H-Museum <[log in to unmask]>.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST (USA, UK) March 15 - March 21, 2004 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- March 15 ++ American newspapers Recasting Treasures as Trinkets The Museum of Natural History lends its stable of scientists to New Yorkers for a day (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-na-whatisit15mar15,2,2112 489.story?coll=cl-art ++ British newspapers Alan Moore: The reluctant hero A museum in Belgium is hosting an exhibition of his work, but the graphic novelist Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen, won't be going (The Independent) http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/interviews/story.jsp?story=501405 -- March 16 ++ American newspapers In Suburbs, Reminder of Horror On a busy street in suburban Detroit, with a Starbucks and an Arby's restaurant as its neighbors, a new museum of the Holocaust has begun to receive visitors. But even before the formal opening of privately financed Holocaust Memorial Center of Michigan, tentatively set for April 5, its architecture is telegraphing what lies inside. The $14 million center, actually a group of three museums, has been designed to evoke a concentration camp (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/arts/design/16HOLO.html A Glimpse of War Surgery A photo exhibit at the National Museum of Health and Medicine has all the blood and gore you might expect from a show entitled "Battlefield Surgery 101: From Civil War to Vietnam." But most of the more than 100 photos disguise the blood to some degree: Until the exhibit reaches the Korean War, all the images are black and white (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61717-2004Mar15.html Max Minmal MOCA's historic survey of Minimalism invites the viewer to walk on. And it's liberating (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-knight16mar16,2,589742 3.htmlstory?coll=cl-art ++ British newspapers Armless sculpture chosen for Trafalgar's plinth A sculpture of a pregnant, armless woman will be the next work of art on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, to be followed by a coloured plastic hotel for its pigeons (The Independent) http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=501673 Obituary: Professor Maurice Larkin Historian of France (The Independent) http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=501648 Museum reopens after £7.5m revamp A museum housing the world's largest collection of British-made cars, motorbikes and bicycles is to re-open after a £7.5m refurbishment (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/3522314.stm -- March 17 ++ American newspapers Obituary: Building Museum Founding Director Bates Lowry Dies Bates Lowry, 80, a leading art and architectural historian who was founding director of the National Building Museum and oversaw its birth in the 1980s, died March 12 at a hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., of complications from pneumonia. Dr. Lowry, a longtime Boston resident, had moved to New York the week before his death (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64904-2004Mar16.html Paris museum for YSL designs opens The clothes are pure Yves Saint Laurent, but they resonate with the influences of Mondrian, Braque, Matisse, Andy Warhol and other Modern art greats (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-e12filler17mar17,2,599 0534.story?coll=cl-art Icons, ancient manuscripts highlight Met exhibit The Metropolitan Museum of Art is mounting its third exhibition on Byzantium in 27 years, presenting icons, manuscripts and other works from the final three centuries of a religious empire whose art and culture influenced the world for more than a millennium (San Francisco Chronicle) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/03/17/ente rtainment1417EST0699.DTL ++ British newspapers Inquiry into conflict of interest The heritage minister ordered an inquiry into alleged high-level conflicts of interest within an agency whose brief is to act as "national champion for architecture in England." (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1170902,00.html East meets West V&A tells story of cultural encounter (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1171008,00.html -- March 18 ++ American newspapers Obituary: Bates Lowry, 80, Head of Building Museum, Dies Bates Lowry, an art and architectural historian who was the founding director of the National Building Museum in Washington and served for a short time as director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, died on Friday in Brooklyn. He was 80 and lived in Boston (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/arts/design/18LOWR.html Illusion and Reality Cozy Up at Tate Modern Donald Judd and Constantin Brancusi share splendid retrospectives at Tate Modern here with Olafur Eliasson's big and stupendously popular installation (to even his surprise) in the museum's Turbine Hall: a smoke and mirror extravaganza of fog machines and a fake sun (yellow lights behind a semicircular screen beneath a mirrored ceiling) (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/18/arts/design/18KIMM.html Perception, deception: beyond model homes ReModeling" examines how three-dimensional architectural models shape perception (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-museums18mar18,2,16928 33.story?coll=cl-art Lively show brings a lot to the table The internal dynamics of "The Not-So-Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture" claims that still life is a living, evolving genre (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-ollman18mar18,2,149732 0.story?coll=cl-art For Neff, an era of glamour came first He was the architect to the golden age stars, creating elaborate European-styled homes such as Pickfair. His houses are still on the A-list, sheltering Pitt, Aniston and Keaton (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-hm-earrefer18mar18,2,7762 367.story?coll=cl-art America gets first view of ancient Buddhist sculptures found in China America will get its first look Saturday at 1,500-year-old treasures of Buddhist sculpture, dug up in northern China with much of the original gilding and coloring intact (San Francisco Chronicle) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/03/18/nati onal1533EST0692.DTL Awards Honor Custodians of German-Jewish History (Aufbau - The Transatlantic Jewish Paper) http://www.aufbauonline.com/2004/issue04/7.html ++ British newspapers Artist's 19th century daguerreotypes to be auctioned A series of dazzling daguerreotypes, by a French amateur recognised half a century after his death as a master of the earliest days of photography, will be auctioned in May (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1171696,00.html -- March 19 ++ American newspapers Obituary: Milton Resnick, Abstract Expressionist Painter, Dies at 87 Milton Resnick, a New York painter known for dour, thickly impastoed near-monochrome canvases, died on March 12 at his home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He was 87 and also had a home in Cragsmoor, N.Y. (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/arts/design/19RESN.html The Emperor's, and Warriors', Ornate Clothes In the fourth century, Khitan tribesman living in what is now Manchuria thought the horse was their kingdom. Without horses, they had nothing. The Khitan was a confederation of nomadic tribes living on the Mongolia steppe. Khitan is also thought to be the origin of the word Cathay, which is what Marco Polo called China in his journals after living there from 1275 to 1292 (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/arts/design/19ANTI.html The Undying Smile of Enlightenment At the very last minute, just as the young Indian monk was about to take the spiritual step he had prepared for through countless lives, a voice blasted through the little grove of trees where he sat deep in meditation. "Who can prove that this man has earned a victory over me?" (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/arts/design/19COTT.html A Thousand-Year Treasury of Chinese Masterpieces It's hard to believe that the almost mythical hunk of horseflesh known as Night-Shining White really existed. But this powerful, sexy, all-white steed with lustrous eyes and bristling mane was actually a favorite mount of the eighth-century Chinese emperor Xuanzong. The portrait of Night-Shining White, from the idealizing brush of Han Gan, a leading horse painter of the Tang dynasty (active 742-756) - the George Stubbs of his day, so to speak - is intended to evoke a dragon in disguise, a celestial being with supernatural powers (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/arts/design/19DILL.html Islamic Collection to Visit the U.S. The current spate of renovations in museums around the world has produced an interesting cross-pollination of exhibitions. While the Museum of Modern Art's home on West 53rd Street is closed for its expansion and renovation, more than 200 works from the permanent collection are on view at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/arts/design/19INSI.html Under Rauschenberg's Spell, Mundane Turns Uncanny "Robert Rauschenberg: Current Scenarios," an exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art here, touches on just three distinct moments in the long career of one of the most influential artists of the last 50 years. It includes a series of prints based on collages of newspaper clippings, produced in 1969-70; a set of large sculptural assemblages made of junk metal in 1986-87; and, from 2003, a series of expansive photomontages (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/arts/design/19JOHN.html Delirious Decay From a Prolific Jack-of-All-Arts A word of caution before you wade into the dissonant, oceanic survey of the work of Dieter Roth, the German-born, Swiss multimedia dynamo, at the Museum of Modern Art in Long Island City, Queens. Expect to be bewildered and even put off: Roth is as irksome as he is awesome, but ultimately awesome wins out. This long overdue exhibition introduces Americans to an artist who not only erased the line between art and life but also pulverized the two into a single process (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/arts/design/19SMIT.html West to Meet East At Exhibition of Rare Islamic Art Starting in July, the National Gallery of Art will display rare Islamic art from the Victoria and Albert Museum, its first major display of art from the Arab world in 17 years (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6625-2004Mar18.html Getty Museum features photographers whose work shaped art form The J. Paul Getty Museum, drawing from one of the largest photo collections in the country, has opened a new exhibit featuring photographers who helped shape the art form (San Francisco Chronicle) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/03/19/ente rtainment1441EST0665.DTL -- March 20 ++ American newspapers Where how is preferred over what "Traces of India" at UCLA's Fowler Museum invites us to observe the ways others observed the country (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-pagel20mar20,2,7331114 .story?coll=cl-art Would the real Warhol please rise? If Andy Warhol is arguably the best-known artist of the last century, the familiarity is based on an improbably small body of work. Furthermore, most of those icons - the "Soup Cans," "Marilyns," "Flowers" and "Electric Chairs" - date from the early 1960s, when the artist first polarized the art establishment. His later works, thematically rich and formally diversified, have received comparatively little exposure, despite the ambitious retrospectives held on both sides of the Atlantic since his death in 1987 (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=511126&owner=(International%20Herald%20T ribune)&date=20040319180757 To Russia with love: the Forbes Fabergé collection Where will the eggs be displayed? Two museums are in the running (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11605 Boston Museum of Fine Arts sends its Monets to Las Vegas The institution is renting 21 paintings by the French artist to a gallery run by PaceWildenstein (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11603 Malevich heirs claim paintings-again A claim has been filed in US federal court in Washington, DC against the City of Amsterdam by the heirs of the 20th-century Russian artist Kazimir Malevich for 14 of the artist's works. The heirs say these works are "in the wrongful possession" of the City at the Stedelijk Museum (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11602 One of London's greatest Palladian interiors opens to the public The Royal Academy (RA) is to open its Fine Rooms from 13 March, allowing regular public access to one of London's finest Palladian interiors. Long hidden behind closed doors, visitors will now be able to see the suite of six rooms which face the courtyard of Burlington House. These are now hung with around 50 pictures from the RA's permanent collection (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11601 Chicago's future icon -- a new marvel by Anish Kapoor (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11604 ++ British newspapers The traveller's guide to England's world heritage sites The historical and cultural diversity of the 15 protected sites across the country makes for many fascinationg days out (The Independent) http://travel.independent.co.uk/uk/story.jsp?story=502990 Play and display England boasts an unusual array of fine museums, featuring monsters, mines, milliners and much more (The Independent) http://travel.independent.co.uk/uk/story.jsp?story=502993 -- March 21 ++ American newspapers Dresden's Tenacious Treasures Because Dresden's portable museum treasures were hidden in caves, they survived the 1945 firebombing of the city. They were taken to Russia after the war and returned to Dresden in 1958. In August 2002 frantic efforts saved them from the worst flooding of the Elbe River since 1845. Some 400 of these treasures are now on loan from the fabulous Green Vault in the State Art Collections in Dresden to "The Glory of Baroque Dresden" (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/21/arts/design/21WEID.html The Sun Sets at the Tate Modern The Tate Modern in London recently suggested extending the wildly successful six-month run of Olafur Eliasson's installation in the museum's vast Turbine Hall. An instant cult site of mood-altering atmospherics, both gloomy and eye-popping, "The Weather Project" consists of a fake sun (yellow lights behind a huge semicircular screen, below a mirrored ceiling) and pumped-in mist (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/21/arts/design/21KIMM.html An Uptown Museum Wonders if Downtown Is the Answer The Hispanic Society of America, the museum and library in Washington Heights that gets few visitors but is known for its prized works by Goya and Velázquez, among others, is considering options to heighten its profile, including a move to Lower Manhattan (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/21/nyregion/21goya.html Woman Wins Pritzker Architecture Prize Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi-born architect who struggled for years to get her audacious and unconventional designs built, won the prestigious 2004 Pritzker Architecture Prize on Sunday, the first woman to receive the profession's highest honor (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Pritzker-Prize.html Mixing art and commerce Traditionalists scoff at Paris' new private museum, which is charging a hefty fee to view works from the collection of Picasso's widow (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-hohenadel21mar21,2,732 5448.story?coll=cl-art --- H-MUSEUM H-Net Network for Museums and Museum Studies E -Mail: [log in to unmask] WWW: http://www.h-museum.net __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]