Author: Juddy Miller

Hong Kong politicians first mooted the idea of ​​developing a world-class arts center on reclaimed land on the Kowloon peninsula in 1998, shortly after the former British colony was handed over to China. Advocates hailed Hong Kong as a “golden opportunity” that would put it on a par with other major cities, silencing criticism that it was a “cultural desert”. In 2008, the Hong Kong government provided the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority with an advance grant of HK$21.6 billion (US$2.8 billion) for the realization of the art center. The megaproject is now one of the largest cultural districts in…

Hong Kong’s art season kicks off this week with the city’s first international cultural summit, bringing together influential figures from art, architecture, life sciences, gaming and technology. Organized by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) on March 24-26, a series of panel discussions are taking place at three venues: M+, Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) and Xiqu Center. The summit – aimed at cementing Hong Kong’s reputation as an art hub for East and West – also shone a spotlight on M+, which opened in 2021 when the city was essentially shut off from the world during the Covid-19…

West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD)—the arts district at the southern tip of Hong Kong’s Kowloon Peninsula, on the shores of Victoria Harbor—is making its mark on the world’s cultural scene. This week, the WKCD is hosting a major summit that brings together more than 20 directors and commissioners from 12 countries, along with 1,000 delegates (Linking cultures/High bridgesMarch 24-25). At the summit, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, the organization behind Hong Kong’s art hub, signed a number of memorandums of understanding with more than 20 cultural institutions from around the world to foster relationships with other institutions and cultural…

Hundreds of artists, cultural workers and activists gathered on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on New York’s Fifth Avenue on Sunday (March 24) to publicly call for the most visited museum in the US to call for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. and undertake to preserve the cultural heritage of Palestine. Demonstrators unfurled a 30-by-50-meter quilt with designs sewn, painted and printed by more than 60 artists expressing solidarity with the Palestinians. The quilt was organized by an international group of artists inspired by the Names Project Aids Memorial Quilt., started in 1987 as a…

Van Gogh’s self-portrait is the perfect cover for many books about the painter. It illustrates not only the art, but also the artist. But, unfortunately, even major publishers and their famous expert writers have occasionally been tricked into choosing a misleading image: at least four fake self-portraits have been included on book covers. The will to live The will to live, Irving Stone’s best-selling novel, has shaped the way we perceive Van Gogh since its publication in 1934. It has been reprinted hundreds of times and extensively translated into dozens of languages. Ninety years later, it’s still in print all…

The foundation of legendary minimalist artist Donald Judd (1928-94) is suing entrepreneur and reality TV star Kim Kardashian and Los Angeles interior design firm Clements Design, alleging that the firm misrepresented tables and chairs furnished for Skkn’s offices. Kim, Kardashian’s company, as the actual design of Judd. The Judd Foundation’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday (March 27) in California’s Central District Court, accuses Kardashian and Clements Design of trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition, false advertising and false endorsement. The Judd Foundation seeks any profits that Kardashian and Clements Design may receive from the alleged false representations of the tables and chairs…

This week, the British Museum in London launched legal proceedings against one of its former curators, Peter Higgs, accused of stealing up to 2,000 objects from its collection. The archaeologist who first saw the stolen items, however, described the legal action as “locking the stable door after locking the horse”. Higgs was curator of the museum’s Ancient Greek collections and acting head of the Greece and Rome department. It was released last year after revelations that scores of objects had been damaged or disappeared, and this week the museum sued Higgs for the return of the remaining artworks in its…

An enormous canvas made as part of the high-profile collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat will be one of the highlights of the spring auction season at Sotheby’s in New York. With an estimate of around $18 million, it is expected to set a new record price under the hammer for a work from the series when it is offered at the auction house’s contemporary art evening sale this May. The untitled 1984 painting is one of 160 works created by the two artists together over a two-year period, which would include some of the last years of their…

In 2016, American multidisciplinary artist Mike Bouchet hired a German perfume expert to distill the scent of the US dollar and spent almost a year extracting the chemical compounds from the pressed banknotes. Cotton and linen were infused with more than 100 chemicals, including ink, metal and sweat, before Bouchet’s new sculpture appeared at New York’s Marlborough Chelsea Gallery in early 2017. Tender, the “synthesized scent of US bills,” filled every corner of the gallery’s 45,000 cubic feet. When art patron, collector and activist Rachel Verghis read Bouchet’s interview in The Wall Street Journal, she was shocked. “It was like…

The debate over Morocco’s national pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, after three artists and curators were suddenly replaced in January, has taken another turn: the country will not have a national pavilion at all. It started as good news for the North African country. In July, Morocco’s culture ministry announced that the country would participate with a national pavilion for the first time. Artist and writer Mahi Binebine was appointed curator, and commissioned three artists to participate: Majida Khattari, Safaa Erruas and Fatiha Zemmouri. The artists were working on their pieces for a deadline of January 11, but in…