First they license the name from the Louvre for $700m and then Frank Gehry announces that he is going to build the biggest Guggenheim yet in the oil rich emirate. What’s next Robert Rauschenberg moves his island studio off the coast? Isn’t Nermal the cat already there partying hard with the nuevo riche.
Gulf Louvre deal riles French art world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6421205.stm
My Abu Dhabi adventure
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2007/03/my_abu_dhabi_adventure.html
Operations Manager at Bad at Sports
Christopher Hudgens is the Operations Manager for BaS and works in various other capacities for other organizations in the Chicago Art & Culture scene. Most recently as Business Operations Manager for the Bridge Art Fair and currently an advocate for all things art & technology.
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Sounds like the UAE will be THE place to go. After a day of art at the Louvre and Guggenheim, one can take a trip to Dubai for some indoor skiing.
http://www.skidubai.com/
I’m in Dubai right now. Beautiful place. Like Miami, but without the raunch.
another Franchise…the Mcdonaldsization of art is complete?
I don’t take the Guggenheim to seriously anymore sadly since it is financially so shaky. He can expand all he wants but it feels less about art and more about real estate.
That is to say until he expands into Chicago and builds the new structure in Cicero revitalizing the area for the 21st Century.
Dubai and Sharjah fun fun from Burtonwood-Holmes:
http://www-us.flickr.com/photos/burtoholmes/
M
I’ve been to Abu Dhabi, had a great time. That was B.M.A., “Before Much Art” — but they were already interested in interacting more with the west. I still have ties to the place, friends there. I hope these new institutions stimulate their local art, of which there is not much. There is only one contemporary art gallery in the whole country, if I recall correctly. The Emirate people have always been very hospitable to me. I hope it goes well, Hamduallah.
Amazing things going on there. The Burj Dubai (sp??) alone is awe inspiring, or will be when complete. From a museum perspective, imagine any major museum in the world (The Louvre, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, the Henry Ford, the Met) and just plan for a likeness in Dubai. The appreciation for and the money to support is there.
If I were a real painter, I would paint, using rendered pig fat, coal for black, powdered French ultramarine and masticated Tibetan / Pakistani migrant worker bones for white, a poitrait of this cultural crossroads. It would be a tropically informed depiction of leathery skinned nubile German men in banana hammocks, chased Benny Hillish ‘cross the sands and Deco life guard stands of South Beach. Leading the pursuit would be scimitar wielding Bedouins, monochromatic -somewhere between Masami Teraoka, that moochromatic red hued painting of the Europeans handing over power to the NY school, and a Mad Magazine back page fold-together. In leiu of time, and effort I will fill a mason jar of sand, a mason jar of blood and call it palms as seen from outer space. Interesting how it is about the locus of marketing power now and not about the transience of ideas…
THE BEST CITY IN THE WORLD ITS CANCUN MEXIC
Puh-Leez, it is Sheboygan, Wisconsin. No wait, that place sucks.
Maycumber — what a great idea for a painting!
image of abu dhabi
Abu Dhabi is the big art place and for sure any one who will be in Abu Dhabi the city of joy will have the great great great time ever. So AD GOD PLACE YOU CITY .
Hey…Russell May!!!! Are you Jurassic Park Russell???
Russel, I stongly admire the way you write and express your ideas but you are completly wrong and your vision of the UAE makes me think of you as a very jealous, media influenced rebel.
Comme visit us and we’ll see how uncomfortable you ll fell when the people you despite open their home to you even if they know what you think, having only one thing on their mind .. Haram , he just doesn t understand us, he fears us because he doesn t know us, he hates us because it’s easier than trying go beyong cultures and realize our similarities … meskin, give him some tea and he ll relax
I would go, learn about horses and falconry and the telling of tales. Check out Saadiyat and see what is going on. This place is going to be the new Art capital of the world….it is just getting started. Too bad , I’m not rich!
what’s the art scene like there?