Another week, another newsletter. I had a hard time getting this one started and an even harder time trying to keep these titles going. Yet here we are. There are still two weeks left of December, but it feels as if everyone has already checked out for the remainder of the year. Maybe it’s just me. Perhaps I just want to stay at my friend’s beautiful cabin in the Catskills until 2022. I digress. Lots of year-end type links scattered into the newsletter this week, and I’m sure these won’t be the last of them. But let’s kick it off with some art stuff.
Art critics of The Times select their favorite art books from the year
New York City arts organizations receive $51.4M in grants
After years of activism, the Sackler name will be removed from the Met
Caving to legal pressure, the Louvre has agreed to reverse significant changes it made to a room with a Cy Twombly mural
Mondrian’s heirs are suing the Philadelphia Museum of Art for a $100M painting they claim was stolen by the Nazis
Rijksmuseum seeks $170M from Dutch government to acquire Rembrandt painting
Setting an all-time record, Sotheby’s has sold $7.3B worth of art in 2021
Drawing bought at estate sale for $30 may be worth $50M
The Brooklyn Museum’s new Andy Warhol show casts the pop artist in a spiritual light
Remembering Warhol’s early 80s trip to China
A new exhibition of Marisol’s art alongside Warhol’s fails to give her the acknowledgment she deserves
When Hallmark commissioned Salvador Dali to create holiday cards (shown below)
Whitney conservators describe the process of restoring Alexander Calder's Circus
Nam June Paik exhibition arrives at National Gallery Singapore
Luxembourg exhibition explores the aesthetics, paradoxes, absurdities, and ethical questions posed by the economics of technologies we all criticize but find ourselves unable to ban from our lives
$300,000 NFT accidentally sells for $3,000 because of a misplaced decimal point
Why are people spending millions of dollars on JPEGs?
The curious dream to build the world’s first NFT museum in a supertall on Manhattan’s billionaires' row
Even in the metaverse, not all identities are created equal
Will we be happier in the metaverse?
United Nations wants to ban killer robots, but the U.S. won't comply
How might we build on the Moon?
Last and First Men film by late Icelandic composer uses brutalist architecture to explore humanity’s end
Zaha Hadid Architects transitions to employee ownership
Why do new buildings look so basic?
Affirmation Tower is New York's most exciting real estate project
San Francisco high-rise is rapidly leaning to one side
Multiple skyscrapers in downtown San Francisco are causing the entire area to slowly sink
New York becomes largest U.S. city to ban gas hookups in new buildings
A one-acre farm grows atop a convention center in NYC
A Manhattan rooftop penthouse to be replaced with a two-story modernist glass structure
Inside the luxurious apartments in Brooklyn’s tallest residential tower
A new co-living building in Bed Stuy provides furnished apartments starting at $1,270 a month
Net-zero residential building in downtown San Jose will allow residents to custom-design affordable living spaces
An apartment block in London purpose-built for creatives with rents that will get cheaper over time
A new concrete office tower in Switzerland
A new tower in Beirut is a spatial reading of the history of the worn, torn city
The hidden bias of architectural preservation
Albert Frey’s forgotten Cree House in Palm Spring is back on the market
Fresh touches bring new life to a midcentury modern house in California
A Harry Weese–designed home with a conversation pit asks $899K outside Chicago
The story behind Joe Colombo’s beloved Elda chair
A romp through the wonders of the Vitra Campus
A photographer’s tribute to late Brazilian modernist master Ruy Ohtake
Melbourne’s iconic midcentury Featherston House gets a refresh
A granny flat in Byron Bay celebrates the Australian lifestyle
An architect invites her mother to live in an adjoining brownstone in Brooklyn
An architect’s home in Sydney
A Victorian-era home in Sydney is restored
Founders of Brooklyn studio renovate a historic townhouse for themselves
A neat, cozy residence for a couple in Mexico
A collector’s apartment in London
A minimal residence in Chiba, Japan
A brutalist home in Puerto Rico that’s resistant to weather
The top interior design trends of 2021
Dwell's design trend predictions for 2022
It's time to reconsider the whole color of the year carnival
Well, that does it for this carnival. I appreciate you for reading this far. Hopefully, you found something worthy of a read. Why not forward this to a friend? It’ll be like an early holiday gift.
Thomas