Roundup: More on Washington’s new museum, Obama and the arts, the Rams video that is definitely performance art
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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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