Using Old Materials to Put a New Face on a Museum

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

The Museum of Arts and Design’s first exhibitions at 2 Columbus Circle, “Second Lives” (including Jean Shin’s “Sound Wave,” above), “Permanently Mad” and “Elegant Armor,” open Saturday. The shows, Roberta Smith writes, reflect an institution “wild with delight” at having a building of its own.
Art Review | 'Second Lives'

By ROBERTA SMITH

Published: September 25, 2008

Bring on the T-shirts that read, “I survived the opening shows at the new Museum of Arts and Design.”

Untethered

A sculpture garden of readymades
September 25 - October 25, 2008
Opening: Thurs., Sept. 25, 6PM
540 W. 21st St.

Read the review on We Make Money Not Art

New Media Seoul

I saw some great pieces of media art in Seoul and they put the emphasis on 'art' rather than 'media'. media_city Seoul is the only major biennial I've heard of that is entirely dedicated to media art. It doesn't take place in a gallery or in one of those ueber-trendy disused industrial spaces outside the city. It is located in a very official, big, and bright art institution: the Seoul Museum of Art.
from We Make Money Not Art
Read this blog and the follow-up blog and reflect on these questions: What is media art? Why is it different from conventional art?

The Changing Face of Beijing

In Changing Face of Beijing, a Look at the New China "...Critics have incessantly described these high-profile projects as bullish expressions of the nation’s budding global primacy. Yet these buildings are not simply blunt expressions of power. Like the great monuments of 16th-century Rome or 19th-century Paris, China’s new architecture exudes an aura that has as much to do with intellectual ferment as economic clout..."

See a multi-media slide show of 5 new architectural monuments in Beijing.

Composer Charles Ives on Beauty and Inspiration

"Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently, when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep. "

"Every great inspiration is but an experiment."

Peter Plagens Reviews the Louise Bourgeois Retrospective

'Seduction and Rejection': Bourgeois; an untitled watercolor from 1986; spider sculpture in London
If you are in New York after June 27th, go to the Guggenheim to see the works of one of the most important sculptors of our time! Read the review by art critic, Peter Plagens.
Watch the trailer for the new movie on Louise Bourgeois.
Seoul has one of her Spider sculptures too. Do you know where it is?

Jeff Koons Retrospective in Chicago

As a contrast to the work of Annette Messager, please read the review
in the New Yorker of the Jeff Koons retrospective at the MOCA Chicago.
Koons is a contemporary Andy Warhol and has long been an 'art star'. I think you'll find that what the art critic Peter Schejeldahl, also an artworld 'star', says is quite bold.

Consider his opening statement: "Major artists X-ray the cultures that give rise to them."

Check out the Art is Alive blog, with a Jeff Koons spot.