arts north
News Roundup: COVID-19 Impact Continues to Be Felt
Papier Art Fair has been moved to June, there are layoffs at the Banff Centre and Glenbow Museum, and other postponements. Plus: updates on new spaces in Calgary and Halifax
In Wake Of Van Gogh Theft, Expert Says ‘I’m Concerned For All Museums Right Now’
Sixty hours ago, Van Gogh’s oil The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring was stolen from the Singer Laren museum in the Netherlands. I am certain that it was not what Van Gogh would have wished for his birthday; Monday was the 167th anniversary of his birth.
COVID 19 forces Galleries
to Close
A Message from the National Museums of Canada
Due to the COVID-19 virus, the national museums have made the decision to close the museums across Canada to visitors and all other groups, effective Saturday, March 14 and until further notice.
We regret the impact of this decision on the individuals, families and groups who use our facilities. However, we believe that this decision is in the best interests of all the communities we serve.
This message is from the Canadian Museum of History, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Canadian War Museum, Ingenium and the National Gallery of Canada.
AI Is Blurring the
Definition of Artist
With artificial intelligence (AI) becoming incorporated into more aspects of our daily lives, from writing to driving, it’s only natural that artists would also start to experiment with it.
Indeed, Christie’s recently sold its first piece of auctioned AI art—a blurred face titled “Portrait of Edmond Belamy”—for $432,500.
The piece sold at Christie’s is part of a new wave of AI art created via machine learning. Paris-based artists Hugo Caselles-Dupré, Pierre Fautrel, and Gauthier Vernier fed thousands of portraits into an algorithm, “teaching” it the aesthetics of past examples of portraiture. The algorithm then created “Portrait of Edmond Belamy.”
The painting is “not the product of a human mind,” Christie’s noted in its preview. “It was created by artificial intelligence, an algorithm defined by [an] algebraic formula.”