Roundup: More on Washington’s new museum, Obama and the arts, the Rams video that is definitely performance art
Parsing Washington’s new African American museum. Obama’s record on the arts. The new Mecca and old Palmyra. Plus: Dubya the painter, Facebook and censorship, and a tribute to that cheap plastic chair that inhabits every backyard. Here’s the Roundup:
— The reviews are trickling in for the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Art critic Holland Cotter describes it as “a data-packed, engrossing, mood-swinging must-see.” While architectural writer Oliver Wainwright says that it’s a building that “embodies its complexities and contradictions.” New York Times, The Guardian
— Plus: Writer Kriston Capps looks at what the museum might mean to Washington, D.C.’s African American residents. CityLab
— How the L.A.-based architectural firm wHY is helping reshape Chicago’s Jackson Park, where Obama’s presidential library will reside. The Architect’s Newspaper
— Speaking of which, critic Philip Kennicott parses Obama’s record on the arts — and concludes it ain’t all that. The Washington Post
— From the Department of Better Late than Never: The National Portrait Gallery in D.C. has commissioned its first portrait of an American Latino. NY Arts
— The $150 million stairway to nowhere. Otherwise known as: Thomas Heatherwick is losing his architectural mind. Somebody please stop the installation called “Vessel” — and use the dough to build affordable housing or cure cancer or stop global warming. New York Times
— A pair of stories about how the holy city of Mecca has become a city of real estate developers and the rich. The Guardian, CityLab
— A stunning historic and architectural tour of the ruins at Palmyra employing the 19th century photographs in the Getty’s collection. This is pretty great. New York Review of Books
— A William Pereira-designed building in Echo Park is denied landmark status. Curbed
— Mark Moore Gallery in Culver City to close after 33 years. “Young people don’t seem to have the interest or inclination to collect,” Moore stated. Artnet
— South L.A. may get artist housing. Curbed
— Hamza Walker, co-curator of the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. biennial, has been appointed director of LAXART. ARTnews
— The Getty Research Institute acquires artist Harmony Hammond’s archive, an important chronicle of feminist and queer art. Getty Research Institute
— Patrick Martinez’s retro Pee-Chee folder paintings memorialize victims of police violence. KCET Artbound
— Former President George W. Bush has a book of paintings coming out. Hyperallergic
— Zombie art history. New York
— “Would Nick Ut’s picture have become iconic, had Facebook been around in 1972? I actually don’t think so.” Photography critic Jörg Colberg on the Facebook censorship problem. Conscientious
— Considering the monobloc plastic chair: “A modernist’s dream, the chair makes up for its lack of personality with its ability to be mass produced using a minimal amount of materials.” Dwell
— Artists Zak Smith and John Mejias have a new art podcast called We Eat Art. First guest: Painter, cartoonist and set designer Gary Panter — who discusses painting, comics, narratives in art, hippie head shops and the dire state of New York tacos. (Full disclosure: I’m on the lineup too.) We Eat Art
— And last but not least, a high point from L.A.’s ignominious football history: “We’re rockin’ L.A., so let’s Ram it today. Let’s Ram it.” If this doesn’t make you proud to live in this town, I can’t help you. YouTube (via Citylab)
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