COURTESY THE ARTIST
A Change in the Met’s Admissions Policy
In a conversation published yesterday by the New York Times, Roberta Smith and Holland Cotter did not mince words when it came to their thoughts on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s change in admissions policy, which now requires out-of-towners to pay a mandatory $25 fee and those who are eligible for discounts to show ID. “I worry that the Met’s plan is classist, and nativist,” Smith tells Cotter. [The New York Times]
For Vulture, Jerry Saltz also addresses the Met’s new admissions policy, writing, “We all have imagined, at one time or another, that the pay-what-you-wish policy could eventually erode the museum’s finances, and indeed that ‘eventually’ has now arrived.” But he notes that the reasons for that arrival are not so simple as they may seem—perhaps it has to do with larger issues with how the museum is run. [Vulture]
Changing Institutions
Newfields, the Instagram-friendly campus in Indiana that now includes the Indianapolis Museum of Art, has faced criticism since it was first announced last year, including from Kriston Capps, who, in a CityLab editorial, called it the “greatest travesty in the art world in 2017.” IndyStar reports that Newfields director and CEO Charles Venable has responded to those criticisms, noting that the campus is “a new brand for a new type of an organization” and that it offers “exceptional experiences with art and nature.” [IndyStar]
Los Angeles alternative space Machine Project will close after 15 years in business, Carolina A. Miranda reports in the Los Angeles Times. “One thing is for sure: Machine Project leaves behind a vibrant legacy,” Miranda writes. [Los Angeles Times]
Following French President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to return stolen African artifacts to their rightful countries, the Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac in Paris has said they’ll play ball, the Art Newspaper reports. Yesterday, in an announcement that surprised many across France, museum president Stéphane Martin called Macron’s pledge an “awesome challenge.” [The Art Newspaper]
Market
ARTnews revealed the NADA New York art fair exhibitor list this morning. This March’s fair will convene 100 galleries from 17 countries; 33 of those spaces are first-time exhibitors. [ARTnews]
Frieze has developed a proposal to start an arts district in the South Bronx, according to Artnet News. The project will not be pursued, Frieze cofounder Matthew Slotover said. Frieze had apparently thought of the district as something akin to what Chelsea and SoHo used to be. [Artnet News]
Ambitious Projects
Rhizome has added Jon Rafman’s Nine Eyes of Google Street View to its Net Art Anthology. For the project, Rafman scoured Google Earth for weird odds and ends, including images of a nude woman looking out at the ocean and a man running up a water-filled road, and re-printed them, to show that virtually nothing escapes the view of modern-day technology. [Rhizome]
For 4Columns, Eva Díaz reviews the current Prospect.4 triennial, which she says makes many of the same mistakes as past editions. She notes that while the triennial doesn’t necessarily feel committed to the city in which it is based, New Orleans, “in terms of place,” there is some good art that connects different locales and different histories. [4Columns]
Slashed, Broken, Damaged
On Vice, there is a nice retrospective of 2017’s most notable damaged artworks, including a slashed Christopher Wool painting, a broken Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture, and two Andy Warhols that were tampered with by a drunk person on her first date. [Vice]
Melting and Evaporating
Start your weekend on a peaceful note by looking at Yale Alumni Magazine’s Twitter, which has a pleasant picture of the university’s Isamu Noguchi sculpture covered in snow. [Twitter]
Mashable has a video of the artist Thomas Kovachevich creating paper works that, when he places water vapor on them, curl, bend, and contort. “We are witnessing the power of evaporation,” Kovachevich tells Mashable. [Mashable]