Architecture

Abu Dhabi’s next mega museum is back on track—now with a director

UAE’s withdrawal from a disastrous and costly war in Yemen means it can refocus on an ambitious cultural agenda including the opening of Zayed National Museum

Crystal Bridges plans an expansion that will boost its size by 50%

The design of new galleries and other spaces is overseen by Moshe Safdie, the Arkansas complex’s original architect

Solace through conservation: World Monuments Fund makes strides in restoring war-damaged sites in Yemeni city

Amid debilitating war, conservation of mausoleum and museum palace in Taiz is now complete

Frank Gehry’s twisting tower for Luma Arles to open its doors in June

Patron Maja Hoffmann is driving the ambitious cultural project in southern France

Podcastspodcast

Old Masters meet Brutalism: inside Frick Madison in New York

Plus, the story of a notorious forger and artist Collier Schorr on August Sander

Hosted by Ben Luke. with guest speaker Vincent Noce. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack, Aimee Dawson and Henrietta Bentall

Mexico City’s planned cultural complex in Chapultepec Park loses architect

While local activists have long resisted the $440m project, especially at a time when the country’s existing museums are in crisis, the city’s governor recently rejected a design for ambitious pedestrian bridge that did not meet technical criteria

‘They’re kind of impolite’: the artist Carol Bove ruminates on her steel and aluminium sculptures for the Met’s façade

Artist’s installation, delayed for months by Covid-19, playfully engages with the museum’s classical architecture

Designnews

Richard Rogers-designed drawing gallery hangs dramatically off a French hillside

One of the architect’s final commissions before his retirement is the newest addition to the art- and architecture-studded Chateau La Coste vineyard in southern France

Podcastspodcast

The fight against Putin: artists on the frontline

Plus, India reconstructs its history and Navid Nuur on Walter de Maria

Saga of Picasso murals ripped from Oslo building continues as heirs head to court

Family of artist Carl Nesjar—who collaborated on the works with Picasso—say they have a copyright claim and should help decide where the pieces are relocated

Paris news

Champs Élysées—one of Paris’s most polluted roads—to be transformed into ‘extraordinary garden’

The major avenue will undergo a €250m makeover to restore its former splendour, following the 2024 Summer Olympics

US Capitol’s works of art survive amid right-wing rampage in Washington

The authorities say that cleaning and conservation will be needed, however, after art was damaged by tear gas, pepper spray and fire extinguishers

Volunteers plan to return ‘Albert Hall of the North’ to its glory days

After years of neglect, ornate Victorian auditorium in northern seaside town of Morecambe is being saved

Indianews

India's Supreme Court approves Modi's £2bn 'vanity project' to redevelop Delhi parliament complex

The reconstruction of the Central Vista is a significant step in the prime minister's efforts to sever the nation from its colonial past

Major museum openings and expansions in 2021

From the much-anticipated Grand Egyptian Museum to the Frick’s move to a Brutalist landmark, here are the building projects aiming to change cultural landscapes around the world

Once greeted as a sensation, 1931 aluminum-clad house gets a boost for relocation at the Palm Springs Art Museum in California

$100,000 grant will advance an effort to reassemble and display Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher’s Modernist Aluminaire House

Berlin’s residents rally to save city’s Brutalist building that was once a laboratory for animal experiments

Thousands signed petition to protect bleak concrete structure—nicknamed the Mouse Bunker—from demolition

Indianews

'New Hindu India': Narendra Modi begins £2bn overhaul of Delhi's colonial parliament buildings

Politicians and cultural leaders have questioned the use of state funds for prime minister's "vanity project" during Covid-19 crisis

Kunsthaus Zurich counts down to ‘quantum leap’ for Swiss art scene after Chipperfield expansion

City hopes the $230m new building will raise its profile as an art destination to match Basel

New hope that Istanbul orphanage—Europe's largest timber building—can be saved from ruin

After decades of neglect, a fundraising drive could restore Prinkipo Orphanage as an environmental research centre

Artists and architects ask MoMA and other institutions to remove Philip Johnson’s name citing his racist views

The famous architect attended Nazi rallies in his youth and openly made anti-Semitic and white supremacist comments

Architect Emilio Ambasz’s foundation donates $10m to MoMA to create a green architecture institute

New entity will spur research on the relationship between architecture and nature and work toward “environmental justice”, the New York museum says

Challenges overcome as Houston's Museum of Fine Arts completes $450m campus expansion

Delayed by just three weeks amid the pandemic, new Kinder Building will dramatically increase space for Modern and contemporary art

New York preservation group launches online mapping tool to champion former haunts of artists and activists

Organisation hopes the city will protect former home of Jackson Pollock and other buildings south of Union Square by designating a new historic district

Heritagecomment

Confronting the allure, and the dangers, of 'fake heritage'

Monetary gain is one reason people create counterfeit heritage—but political power, personal fame or the imposition of beliefs are equally compelling motivations

Space race: how the pandemic is pushing museums to rethink design

Experts predict bigger galleries, a stronger connection to the outdoors and an end to the expansion juggernaut

National Trust for Historic Preservation lists 11 most endangered historic sites in US

Locations range from the Chicago church where Emmett Till’s body was viewed, galvanising the civil rights movement, to a ‘Hall of Waters’ in Missouri

Stone, bronze, glass, pathways: Princeton University Art Museum unveils David Adjaye's design

Pavilions linked by transparent “lenses” will dispense with hierarchies and display renowned collection on a single level

Siah Armajani, the Iranian-American conceptual artist, has died, aged 81

Artist and exploratory thinker delved into architectural imagery, including revitalised bridges and poetic farm buildings