“Embarrassingly ‘twee’” Design for Kensington Palace Axed

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Planning Council rejected a design last week for a new entrance to Kensington Palace.  Daniel Moylan of the Council described the design as ““decoratively overelaborate and almost embarrassingly ‘twee’  ”.  What’s incredibly interesting is that the design was supported by the Prince of Wales’ architecture charity, The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.  Prince Charles has often been accused of interfering in architecture projects around London that do not fit his aesthetic views, so this is a turn of the tables for him.

East and South Asian Update

Back from my tour of the eastern and midwestern United States.   Things obviously happened while I was away.

For instance, the India Art Summit was held from 19-22 August.  Interestingly enough, I seemed to hear more about how M. F. Hussain wasn’t at the Summit than about what was shown.  Short article on that from NYTimes Arts Beat.

Also, the first non-government biennale opened in China.  Beijing’s 789 Biennale was mostly arranged by Chinese art journalist and seems to have had its share of problems.  However, it’s good to see that private citizens are starting to take a major role in the Chinese art fair scene.  Here’s an article on the 789 Biennale by Chris Gill from The Art Newspaper.