Freaks, Fires, and Czarina's Erotica

Memorial Day is many things for many people. More often than not, we get in our cars to see new places, to meet old friends or just to get away. No such distractions for me this time. Had to spend a few days at home nursing a nasty cold. The good thing is that I could catch up on a lot of reading. A good friend of mine, knowing my admiration for Diane Arbus, whose splendid exhibition at LACMA closed over the weekend, loaned me an excellent

biography

World War II Memorial was officially open to honor the veterans with, unfortunately, a less than first-rate public artwork - short on inspiration, long on banalities. Makes you worry about the upcoming memorial for the

World Trade Center in New York.

And talking about memories - hundreds of contemporary artworks disappeared in a huge fire in London last week. Stored in a specialized art warehouse in East London, there were collections belonging to museums and private individuals, including Charles Saatchi, known for launching the careers of many young British artists, such as Damien Hurst, Tracy Emin and Chris Ofili, many of whose works were lost in the fire.

The Art Newspaper, in its May issue, reports on the status of the much delayed construction of the new exit for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, known here in L.A. for his MOCA building on Grand Avenue. Much needed to alleviate the Uffizi's notorious congestion, the work on the new exit was halted when authorities were alerted about important archaeological discoveries on the site. More important is that another Uffizi proposal was given the green light by the Italian government whose Prime Minister Berlusconi is attempting to create his own legacy of Grand Projects. Since World War II, there have been talks about increasing available display space for art in this 16th century building, designed by Giorgio Vasari. Currently, collections are displayed only on the second floor, where no more than 4500 visitors are allowed per day. After dragging their feet for what seems like an eternity, authorities finally removed the State Archive of Florence from the first floor of the Uffizi building, so by 2006 the gallery will occupy both floors, thus doubling its space, reducing endless waiting lines and displaying, for the first time, 800 paintings kept in storage for centuries.

The Art Newspaper also reports on the Montreal Festival of Film on Art, where I found a delicious mentioning of the film, The Lost Secret of Catherine The Great, "an enquiry into the fate of the Czarina's notorious collection of erotica," kept in the rooms of her palace. During the Stalin era the rooms were ordered shut so as not to offend the public. Today, the whereabouts of this collection is unknown, since the Nazi's who occupied the palace during World War II dismantled it and, along with the famous Amber Room, shipped it out to a secret location.