Some of the stories, reviews and discussions we’ve spotted online this week:
Jewish Museum shooting suspect arrested
A 29 year old man was arrested in Marseilles this week following the fatal shooting at the Musée Juif de Belgique on 24 May.
Matisse, the mud and the flies
‘I wholly disapprove of Matisse’s ingredients, but can’t stop liking and disliking the result.’ The reception of Matisse’s cut-outs at Tate Modern has been uniformly positive, but T J Clark won’t give in to them easily. In a review for the London Review of Books, he grapples with the complexities and compulsion behind the artist’s late, decorative work.
Loans to Leighton House
Works by the Victorian painter Frederic Leighton will return to the artist’s London home, now Leighton House Museum, for the first time since their completion. They form part of a display of 19th-century paintings from the collection of Juan Antonio Pérez Simón.
More candidates for Civilisation
Art historian Griselda Pollock has been put forward as another possible candidate to present the BBC’s remake of Civilisation. Can she beat the apparent favourite, Mary Beard?
The whale in the room
The Fitzwilliam Museum has found a beached whale in one of its paintings. The creature resurfaced (as it were) during restoration work on an otherwise unassuming Dutch landscape painting.
Back on the billboards: Art Everywhere and weather-responsive displays
Art Everywhere is back and inviting votes for the next batch of British masterpieces to grace advertising hoardings across the UK. Meanwhile, Tate Britain has taken over two digital billboards in Hammersmith that will display works in response to the weather – we wonder how they coped with this week’s passing storms.
Gallery Gadgets: Google Glass
If wall labels and catalogues aren’t your thing, you could soon access all the information you need about a museum exhibit via these snazzy spectacles, currently on trial at Manchester Metropolitan University.
‘Van Gogh’s new ear on display in Germany
Artist Diemut Strebe has grown a copy of Vincent van Gogh’s ear using genetic material from his brother’s great-great-great grandson… now, who to send it to?