Roundup: Banksy’s identity revealed (maybe), Calatrava’s transit hub opens, Met Breuer debuts
An artwork tribute to Banksy — referencing Europe’s refugee crisis — opposite the French embassy in London.
Have data miners found Banksy? Will LACMA close in 2018 to begin construction on a Peter Zumthor-designed building? Why are galleries flocking to L.A.? So many questions, even less answers! Plus, reviews are starting to come in on Santiago Calatrava’s transit hub and the new Met Breuer in New York. So much art dish, so little time. Here’s the Roundup:
— Scientists at Queen Mary University of London claim to have found Banksy’s true identity through “geographic profiling,” a form of statistical analysis.
— According to an interview with LACMA’s Michael Govan in the Larchmont Chronicle — helpfully unearthed by William Poundstone — the museum’s William Pereira-designed buildings could close as soon as 2018 for demolition and construction of a new Peter Zumthor-designed structure. Speaking of which, it sure would be nice to see those Zumthor grand plans any day now…
— Galleries are flocking to L.A. because our town is all the rage, but, more importantly, so that galleries don’t lose their important L.A. artists to competing galleries. (Some of which I touched on in a conversation with Madeleine Brand on KCRW’s “Press Play” last week.)
People gather in the lobby of the Met Breuer during the new museum’s press preview in New York. The museum opens to the public later this month.
— The reviews are starting to come in on the new Met Breuer. Jason Farago of the Guardian comes in with a mixed review, as does Roberta Smith of the New York Times, who describes the exhibition “Unfinished,” about incomplete works, as being “in a hermetically sealed Eurocentric bubble.” In the meantime, the Times’ Holland Cotter asks, “Why?”
— That blackest black that Anish Kapoor seemed to have cornered the market on? It appears there is a black that’s even blacker.
— Two teachers, a software engineer and the owner of a performance art venue want to erect a monument to Divine in Baltimore. Yes, there is a Kickstarter.
— Artist Tania Bruguera will give you the password to her Instagram account — for $350.
— Germany will continue to fund efforts to establish provenance of works in the collection of the late Cornelius Gurlitt, the collector whose father was an art dealer to the Nazis.
— A look at the shimmering, elaborate world of Aztec feather art during the age of colonialism.
— Sometimes it’s all about the headline: “Thomas Schütte Sculpture Beheaded During Removal.”
— Star Montana’s poignant photographs capture her family’s life in Boyle Heights.
— Downtown L.A.’s old Red Car subway terminal is about to be redeveloped as retail. My guess: Expensive retail.
— And there will be an arts plaza under the 6th Street Bridge.
The first portion of Santiago Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub, known as the Oculus, in New York opened to the public March 3.
— And since we’re on the subject of transport: Karrie Jacobs over at Architect Magazine looks at the state of two important stations in Manhattan — the new Santiago Calatrava-designed hub and the plans to redo notoriously awful Penn Station. Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times also gives the Calatrava a going-over: “At first blush, Mr. Calatrava’s architecture can almost — almost — make you forget what an epic boondoggle the whole thing has been.”
— The U.S. Bank Tower in downtown L.A. — the crenelated skyscraper that pretty much defines the downtown skyline — is undergoing renovations that will add an outdoor “Skyslide” that will swoop visitors from the 70th to the 69th story in a glass tube. It’s so like an April Fool’s joke, except it’s not.
— “I’m a woman which is a problem to many people, I’m a foreigner -- another problem, and I do work which is not normative.” — Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, in an interview with the BBC. Interesting fact: Hadid is a fan of Drake’s “Hotline Bling.”
— The first schematics of Bjarke Ingels’ design for the new Serpentine Pavilion.
— Curbed has put forth ideas for architectural emoji. Sadly, it is missing the Petersen Automotive Museum, the sort of icon I would use to express everything.
— News from Japan: The art of the solo wedding. Who says you need a groom to get great wedding pictures?
— And, last but not least, first-date ideas for conceptual artists. (Weisslink)
Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
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