Rummaging up Baroque relics

Italian anthropologists have been searching for the remains of the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio–who, after a contentious life, died in 1610–and have narrowed the search to an underground crypt in Porto Ercole. After sorting through roughly 40 sets of remains, and by means of carbon dating, CAT scans and DNA analysis, scientists believe they have pinpointed the artist’s resting place.

Claremont Museum of Art closing

Claremont Museum of Art will close its doors 27 December after the Board of Directors voted to discontinue operations. Fundraising had begun in earnest to raise donations for the 2010 operating budget but was ultimately unsuccessful. The plan is to close,  “restructure and rebuild”.

via the LA Times blog Culture Monster

Photographer Larry Sultan has died

Larry Sultan, the photographer who focused on Southern California, has died.   His work frequently examined suburban life in San Fernando Valley, particularly the adult film industry there.   Mr.  Sultan received his BA (in Political Science) from UCSB.   Read the LA Times obituary here.

LACMA overhaul revived

An overhaul of the LA County Museum of Art complex is again on the table.  After the failure to get a 2/3 majority vote on a 2002 bond measure that would have paid for a Rem Koolhaus re-design, dreams of a vast renovation were put on hold.  But now the LACMA board is working with Pritzker Prize winning Swiss architect Peter Zumthor on another new design with hopes that this one will get enough public support.  Read more here in the LA Times.

Related LA Times article: Peter Zumthor, Michael Govan plot LACMA’s future

Former MMA director Thomas Hoving has died

Thomas Hoving, the former director (1967-77) of the Metropolitan Museum of Art has died.   He transformed the museum by, among other things, introducing the “blockbuster” show.   The King Tut exhibit was the first of such shows, now a staple in museum exhibition calendars.  Mr. Hoving was only 35 when he took over as the director of the Met.  Read the full NY Times obituary here.

UCSB’s ARTstor contribution of African field slides

We’re getting closer to realizing our first big contribution to ARTstor – “Herbert Cole: African Art, Architecture, and Culture (University of California, Santa Barbara)”.   Visual Resources Collection staff have worked with ARTstor to contribute 1,026 images from “Skip” Cole’s field research in the 1960s and 70s in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.   The collection should be fully available online in another three months. You can read more about these wonderful images here on the ARTstor news site.

Santa Barbara image content in MDID

We now have over 500 images relating to Santa Barbara in our VRC image database (MDID), and continue to add more images regularly.  These include historic and contemporary images of architecture, historic sites, murals,  UCSB buildings,  and architectural plans and drawings.

To search, select “Records with Images” under Search Options, and in the Title Field put “Santa Barbara”.