A new issue of the Journal of Art Historiography is out. Sven-Olov Wallenstein (Sodertorn): Space, Time, and the Arts: Rewriting the Laocoon. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (La Trobe): Last Trope on the Left: Rape, Film and the Melodramatic Imagination. From TED, David Byrne on how architecture helped music evolve. From Prospect, why is so much contemporary art awful? We’re living through the death throes of the modernist project — and this isn’t the first time that greatness has collapsed into decadence. Ana Finel Honigman reviews Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century). Arthur Danto on art, action and meaning. From Inside Catholic, a schema for discussing Christian Art. Through the Internet, video games, YouTube, Twitter, et al, original art is sampled and re-envisioned by anyone who can master the computer skills — but where does art end and amateurism begin? Big Game Hunter: Battered by controversy, Marc Meyer, the director of the National Gallery of Canada, goes art shopping in Holland. Fascist Seduction: One can be fervently anti-fascist and still admire — indeed savor — aesthetics for their own merits. Will the openness of Wiki-culture lead to a great glut of mediocre art, and will it then lead to a lowering of the bar, as well as stakes? What is the most important piece of architecture built since 1980? Vanity Fair’s survey of 52 experts, including 11 Pritzker Prize winners, has provided a clear answer. Unrealities: Is the art world any realer than reality TV? The Mark of a Masterpiece: Peter Paul Biro is the man who keeps finding famous fingerprints on uncelebrated works of art. Taking stock of the moment, Artforum has sought a number of perspectives, asking some of today’s foremost architects, artists, curators, museum directors, and theorists for their thoughts on the museum.
