At the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark, James Turrell’s As Seen Below – The Dome completes a major expansion and enters into a dialogue with another permanent collection work that is also part of the museum’s architecture.
Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian, 2019, banana and duct tape, 7 ⅞ by 7 ⅞ by 2 inches (installation dimensions variable), image courtesy of Sotheby’s
At Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, Maurizio Cattelan presented a work of art that captured public attention and has kept it, now five years later, past any expiration date. It was deceptively simple—a banana duct-taped to a wall and titled Comedian—but it was a provocation that became the subject of discussions about the value of art.
On January 4, 1966, the conceptual artist On Kawara made a painting recording that day’s date. The work, Jan. 4, 1966, with white letters and numbers on a solid blue background, was begun and finished that day, signed on the reverse, and placed in a handmade box with a clipping from the New York Times.
Santiago Arau, Puebla desde el Iztaccíhuatl, 2016, color digital print, image courtesy of Museo Amparo
For seven years, a man explored the length, width, and height of the territory of Mexico. He traveled 33,302 kilometers, documenting the borders, cities, mountains, and volcanoes that shape the country. The explorer, Santiago Arau, is a photographer and filmmaker whose project, Territorios, is the subject of an exhibition at the Museo Amparo in Puebla.
In October 2019, the Louvre opened an unprecedented exhibition of works by Leonardo da Vinci. The show marked 500 years since the death of the Renaissance master and it was the largest-ever collection of his works brought together in one place. After more than ten years of research and planning, the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition offered an exhaustive catalogue of da Vinci’s oeuvre and set a record for attendance. One excluded painting, though, is a problematic footnote.
Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Villa Ventura, 2011; photo by Iwan Baan, courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
At the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, The Architect’s Studio – Tatiana Bilbao Estudio is the third installment in a series of monographic architecture exhibitions that explore globalization, sustainability, and social challenges. With drawings, collages, models, and materials, the exhibition reveals the philosophies and processes of the Mexico City-based architecture team.
In Paso Robles, California, a hillside meadow is illuminated each night with thousands of colorful glowing orbs. The temporary installation, Field of Light, is the latest and largest version of the itinerant project by Bruce Munro.
In the summer of 2016, 11.5 million documents from the world’s fourth largest offshore banking law firm were leaked by an anonymous source, exposing financial and attorney-client information of more than 214,000 offshore companies. The Panama Papers, as they are known, reveal some of the complex structures that allow the extremely wealthy to exploit offshore banking and shell corporations to commit fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and other crimes.
On Viðey Island, near Reykjavík, Iceland, a beam of light shines up into the sky, penetrating the clouds up to an altitude of at least 4,000 meters. The light comes from the Imagine Peace Tower, a work conceived by Yoko Ono as a memorial to John Lennon and dedicated to peace.
In Paris, the iconic pyramid that serves as the main entrance to the Musée du Louvre seems to have temporarily disappeared. The illusion is the result of an anamorphic installation by the street artist JR.
Bruce Munro, Field of Light, Uluru, 2016; photo by Mark Pickthall
In the Australian outback near Uluru, a temporary art installation has been created near one of the world’s most recognizable natural landmarks. The project, Field of Light, opened at sunset on April 1.
Anish Kapoor has acquired exclusive rights to use a new material known as Vantablack. The substance was developed by Surrey NanoSystems for potential uses in optics and military applications, but will be used creatively, and exclusively, by the British artist.
At the Winter Palace in Vienna, a selection of works by Ólafur Elíasson forms a site-specific exhibition titled Baroque Baroque. More than a dozen works, created during the last twenty years, are installed within the architecture of the 18th century palace. The contrast of Elíasson’s contemporary works inside grand Baroque staterooms alters perceptions of space and history for an experience that supersedes both.
At the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, My Generation: Young Chinese Artists presents works by artists born in mainland China after 1976. They are products of China’s one-child policy and have grown up during a time of rapid urbanization, globalization, and cultural transition.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1500 – 1505, oil on oak panels, 220 x 389 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of at least eight triptychs by Hieronymus Bosch, an early Flemish painter active from the late 15th century. Triptychs were typically produced as didactic altarpieces, and those in the style of the Northern Renaissance frequently incorporate allegory and moralizing narratives.