ART

Canada’s National Gallery Panned: Canada’s National Gallery has been panned by the national culture czar for spending too much on an American abstract painting. The Ottawa gallery spent $1.8 million Canadian (about $1.5 million U.S.), or two-thirds of its annual acquisitions budget, on Barnett Newman’s “Voice of Fire.� Felix Holtmann, chairman of the House of Commons culture committee, complained on a radio program that the funds could have been better used to support Canadian artists. “I’m not exactly impressed. It looks like two cans of paint and two rollers and about 10 minutes would do the trick,� Holtmann said of the 16x8-foot painting, a red stripe on a blue background.