
The common perception is that sculpturs in ancient Greek were white, but in reality they were painted in vivid (some might even say tacky) colors. (via Archaeology)
This week, a major museum curator goes commercial, the Hirshhorn director is out, female artists are under-represented in the UK, a digital take on a gallery Jane Austen visited in 1813, the owner of John Currin’s topless Bea Arthur portrait, and more.
“I think it’s going to be quite different in the respect that it will be done on a larger scale, have fewer exhibitions and a combination of selling and non-selling exhibitions,” said Schimmel, who served as MOCA’s chief curator from 1990 until his controversial resignation last summer and has never before worked in a commercial gallery setting.
He said he imagines three to five exhibitions a year that “come out of the Hauser & Wirth program but feel more museum-like in terms of scale, scholarship and complexity.” He also mentioned “museum-like amenities” such as an education program and public events.
“I think Richard was looking for a very broad endorsement, and that didn’t happen. It wasn’t about the Bubble and what it could do architecturally or what it could do for the Hirshhorn. It was much more about finances going forward,” [says Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin].
A portion of the infographic published in The Guardian that demonstrates the underrepresentation of women in the art scene. (via guardian.co.uk)
The power of cinema changed my view of teenage life. The writers, and directors, and studios (yes, even them) protected me. Like a sidekick to my imagination they battled the schoolyard logic that said underdogs can’t win. But most importantly they offered the lesson that the bullies might seem cool, but society isn’t afraid of them.
Why would Ross ever even own a portrait of Arthur? Turns out the two have quite a history, and it’s a nice story. (h/t @heartasarena)
A photo tweeted out by Jeffrey Ross of him holding the John Currin painting of Bea Arthur that sold for $1.9M recently at auction. (via twitter.com/realjeffreyross)
For more than three millennia, Uruk was one of the world’s centers of science, culture and religion. Founded about 4000 B.C., over the course of 800 years it underwent a dramatic shift from an assemblage of small villages to a large urban area with a highly developed administration, bureaucracy and diversified society. By the start of the third millennium B.C., it had grown to two square miles in area and had roughly 40,000 inhabitants. For more than 2,000 years, Uruk was the largest city in the world, surpassed in size only by Babylon in the sixth century B.C.
Taneja and Xiao Wu argue that this shows that the Chinese cluster is no more isolated than other culturally defined markets. And their conclusion is that online behaviour must be more strongly influenced by cultural factors than by censorship.
Required Reading is published every Sunday morning EST, and it is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts or photo essays worth a second look.