Recent links of note:
“Controversial plans to install Jeff Koons’s tulips sculpture in front of Palais de Tokyo in Paris abandoned”
Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper
Back in January, we reported on the maligned plan to install a thirty-eight-foot-tall Jeff Koons sculpture in front of Paris’s Palais de Tokyo. The planned work, a metal “bouquet” of Koons’s signature balloons held by a life-like hand, was designed to commemorate the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. But critics condemned the project as driven by self-interest and careerism on the part of Koons, and they claimed that its garish presence would disrupt the architectural unity of the Palais courtyard. This week, news came that, after significant pushback by artists and academics, the French Ministry of Culture has decided to move the proposed sculpture to a different, yet-to-be-agreed-upon location.
“The Forgotten Man We Need Now for College Writing Reform”
John Maguire, The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal
The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal is a North Carolina–based think tank devoted to increasing diversity of thought and to furthering the teaching of fundamental knowledge in higher education. On their website, John Maguire discusses the essential but underappreciated work of Dr. Rudolf Flesch, who developed a pedagogy of writing based on first principles of readability and simple style. Maguire summarizes Flesch’s method, arguing that its reintroduction to college writing courses would help improve the current dilapidated state of student writing. For more on composition, style, and writing education, read Dominic Green’s piece from the February issue of The New Criterion.
“Munch Museum in Oslo creates online archive of artist’s drawings”
Artforum
The Munch Museum in Oslo, dedicated to preserving and exhibiting the works of the Norwegian artist, recently digitized its entire collection of drawings and published them on its website. The move was said to be partly motivated by an interest in developing public awareness for Munch’s entire oeuvre, rather than for his single-most famous work, the 1893 Scream. The database will prove to be an invaluable resource for scholars and Munch-devotees around the world.
From our pages:
“Roger Kimball introduces the June issue of The New Criterion”