California Literary Review

Maya Lin’s earthly concerns: The growing degradation of the natural world haunts Lin — celebrated as the creator of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the reinventor of the American memorial genre — as she pulls together the plans for what she says will be her “last memorial.” The title of this work-in-progress, like many of the details, is evolving: Perhaps “What is Missing,” perhaps simply “Missing.” But the theme is clear: Lin’s finale will grieve for the animals, birds and plants driven into extinction — and warn of the urgency of acting now to halt the devastation. [LA Times]

Will you be in my tribe?: Together with the stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek, Versluis has spent the past 14 years travelling the world to identify and document modern tribes, focusing his anthropological eye on groups as diverse as Brazilian beach honeys in matching bikinis and Dutch grannies in identikit beige macs. The project is titled Exactitudes, and its contention is that all of us, intentionally or otherwise, wear uniform. [New Statesman]

Art museums struggle with provenance issues: The first inkling of trouble came when a customs agent arrived at the door of the San Diego Museum of Art in 2004. The agent carried a subpoena and, to the museum’s chagrin, news that one of its 18th-century paintings was stolen property. [CSM]

China’s hot young artists well schooled in market savvy: For better or for worse – depending on whom you talk to – Beijing’s state-run Central Academy of Fine Arts has been transformed into a breeding ground for hot young artists and designers who are quickly snapped up by dealers in Beijing and Shanghai. [IHT]

An Asian Art Moment: Indonesia’s Contemporary Painters Ride a Market Bubble: Ronald Manullang, an Indonesian artist, with a painting in his home in Jakarta. Asian collectors of art seek so much Indonesian work these days, he said, “I just worry about how greedy I am.” [NYT]