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Follow the letters    Is the way museums are managed a matter of degree? The qualifications of the four who have so far taken on Te Papa certainly gave an intriguing guide as to what to expect.
Cheryll Sotheran: MA English and Art History
Seddon Bennington : PhD zoology
Michael Houlihan: BA History
Rick Ellis: BCom Econometrics
 

Teaching aids    The artist Tim Wright is the guy who sent two years teaching actor Timothy Spall to paint like JMW Turner. The results as you can see here were not encouraging. Wright’s teaching technique was to “include a study of the 'basics', before moving on to Turner's style”. Makes sense. You can see examples of Wright’s work here including his portrait of Spall.
 

Fruit and Flowers    This time next year Artsdiary will be five years old but why wait until then to heap on some anniversary praise? Aucklanders living more than 20K from K Road probably see only as many of the dealer gallery exhibitions as we do coming up now and then from Wellington. But thanks to Artsdiary (and EyeContact) the what-the-hell’s-going-on problem has all but vanished. And what’s not to like about the Been There section? The hats, the shoes, the weird way other people look at art.
 

Eagle shoot    How's this for feedback on an art work. “If one was given to a class of small children to copy they would in ten minutes produce a much more vital version of your feeble wishy washy colourless and formless mess.”
CherylBerstein tweets a letter sent to Allie Eagle in 1978.

 

Art in the age of etc. etc.    Hard to believe that Auckland’s Jar Space on New North Road has served as a drive-by art installation for eight years. Now on view is a painting machine and its product by Simon Ingram called Radio Painting Station. Check out this recent article on three art machines from the Globe and Mail. Oh, and the Three Laws of Robotics, in case things get out of hand.