– Maya Lin's Latest, And Possibly Final, Memorial is Online-Only: Over three decades after creating her famous Vietnam Memorial, architect and artist Maya Lin has created a powerful new work memorializing a very different type of loss. Her Web-based "What Is Missing?" project, which is now live, provides an archive of the globe's endangered species. "It’s my last memorial," Lin says, "but I’ll be contributing to it for the rest of my life." [Bloomberg]
– Forget the Silver Spoon: Celebrity couple David and Victoria Beckham have done their infant daughter, Harper Seven, one better: They've gifted her a bespoke baby monitor designed by death-obsessed artist Damien Hirst. (The former Posh Spice also has a pair of "Spot Painting"-themed boots — but that's another story.) [Daily Mail]
– Chinese Artifact Crime Wave in Britain: Not two weeks after objects worth over $2 million were taken from Durham's Oriental Museum, another cache of Chinese artifacts was stolen from Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum. The robbery took place Friday evening, and the culprits made off with 18 items, most of them jade sculptures, estimated to be worth millions of pounds. [ARTINFO UK]
– U.S. Court Returns Painting Stolen During WWII: A federal court in Tallahassee returned the 16th-century Romanino painting "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue" to the descendents of Frederic Gentili di Giuseppe. The heirs plan to sell the painting, which was originally sold at a 1941 auction when the family fled France to escape the Nazis, at Christie's in June. It is estimated to be worth as much as $3.5 million. [WaPo, HuffPo]
– Bureaucracy vs. Ai Weiwei: The dissident Chinese artist has hit an unexpected roadblock in his quest to sue the Chinese government over his festering tax case. According to the court, Ai must produce his company's special seal, used on all official documents in China, in order to proceed with the lawsuit. Here's the catch: That seal was confiscated by police during his detention last year. [Reuters]
– L.A. Critic Gone Gallerist: The Los Angeles art critic Mat Gleason, whose Goagula Art Journal has been covering the local art scene for two decades, will open a new gallery in L.A.'s Chinatown, Coagula Curatorial. The space will debut with a solo installation by Tim Youd and photographs of Joseph Beuys performances on April 21. [Artweek L.A.]
– NASA Outsources to Art and Design Students: The U.S. space program is kaput, due to budget cuts. But perhaps science's loss is art's gain: NASA is teaming up with eight MFA candidates at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to create user interface for software that will allow astronauts on the International Space Station to remotely control a four-wheeled robot on Earth. [Wired]
– When it Comes to Public Art, Chicago Can't Catch a Break: After being forced to endure a towering (and vaguely lewd) sculpture of Marilyn Monroe, residents of the Windy City must now welcome an ornate metal sculpture of former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. But at last this artwork comes with a practical application: It doubles as a BBQ smoker. [HuffPo]
– CAM St. Louis Appoints New Director: Lisa Melandri has been appointed director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis following a five-month international search. Melandri currently serves as the deputy director of exhibitions at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. [Press Release]
– RIP John Golding, Painter, Art Historian, Critic, and Curator: The influential British artist and thinker, who died on April 9 at age 82, has been described as "Cubism's Vasari." Golding taught at London's Courtauld Institute of Art, where he wrote much of his influential scholarship on Cubism, Surrealism, and other Modern movements. His Abstract Expressionist paintings circulated almost as widely as his writings; he showed in many London galleries from the '60s onwards, and at New Haven's Yale Center for British Art. [WSJ, NYT]
VIDEO OF THE DAY
As Art Cologne 2012 opens, take a walk through the fair with Vernissage TV:
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