Stefan Kalmár will leave his position as director of London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, a post he’s held since 2016. “Directorships should never be for life—fixed tenures should be the norm not the exception,” he said. (more…)
Marian Goodman Gallery has announced a new partnership structure and leadership plan, with Philipp Kaiser, moving from his position as chief executive director of artists and programs to president and partner, while executive directors Emily-Jane Kirwan, Rose Lord, Leslie Nolen, and Junette Teng have all been named as partners. “I am a passionate advocate for my artists,” Goodman says. “I feel a deep sense of commitment to them and have ever since I first opened my business. The creation of this partnership will allow my vision and rigorous program to continue to thrive.” (more…)
Ace Gallery founder Douglas J. Chrismas has been arrested on charges of embezzlement, the LA Times reports. Chrismas is accused of embezzling $100,000 owed the gallery for a sale. (more…)
The art collection of the late Dallas oil billionaire Edwin “Ed” L. Cox Sr. will head to Christie’s, featuring an impressive group of Impressionist masterworks, which the auction house called “the finest and most expensive impressionist collections ever to be sold.” (more…)
Christie’s will open a new, state-of-the-art Hong Kong headquarters in 2024, following the auction house’s strong results in past years in Asia.“We will evolve from primarily hosting two main auction seasons a year, to programming all year-round,” says Francis Belin, Christie’s Asia Pacific president. (more…)
English curator Tanya Barson and head of programs Pablo Martínez are out at Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, creating a conflict among art world insiders. “I strongly believe that a major motivation for the restructuring was a way of effecting our departure from the museum because we had permanent contracts,” Barson says. (more…)
Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery will minting and sell an NFT of William Blake’s Europe Plate i: Frontispiece, The Ancient of Days, and will set the funds aside for “socially beneficial projects.” “The Whitworth decided to embark on this project because it wanted to think about how it could redistribute the wealth of its collections in the most democratic way. This technology offers the opportunity to open up the collections to the broadest possible audience,” says director Alistair Hudson. (more…)
Italy will impose a new “vaccine green card” policy for public spaces and cultural institutions like art museums, The Guardian reports. “But the Delta variant is threatening. It spreads much more quickly than other variants,” says prime minister Mario Draghi. “I invite all Italians to get vaccinated and to do so straight away. Without vaccinations, we’d have to close everything again.” (more…)
The US Treasury has sanctioned Bulgarian collector Vassil Kroumov Bojkov, part of an ongoing investigation that some feel could have repercussions in the art market. “Sanctions compliance is a critical part of due diligence and has been for a long time. Collectors and businesses need to be prudent about reviewing counterparties,” says Nicholas O’Donnell, an attorney at Sullivan & Worcester. (more…)
A piece in the SF Chronicle looks at California’s major increase in budgeting for the arts. “When we look the 2021-22 budget, the words that come to my mind are, ‘This is historic. It’s bold. It’s unprecedented,’” says Ron P. Muriera, board president of Californians for the Arts. (more…)
The UK Government will move forward with a 50% cut to funding for arts and design courses, Art Newspaper reports. “Devaluing the arts disempowers us as a society leaving us poorer, both culturally and economically. Arts education provides not only a place for teaching, but also essential centers of research,” says artist Sarah Kogan. (more…)
Artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden redesign has gotten approval. The design had faced some pushback, but was accepted on its more attentive unification of museum grounds, and its increased exhibition space. (more…)
46 culture nonprofits have been tapped for a $30 million program from Bloomberg Philanthropies, aimed at supporting technology to stabilize and thrive their offerings in the wake of the pandemic. “I think now we’re really taking the time to see what we can do that has longevity,” says Heryte Tequame, assistant director of communications and digital projects at the Queens Museum, and a fellow in the project. “And not just being responsive, but really being proactive and having a real future-facing strategy.” (more…)
A Dutch portrait of a vegetable seller has undergone a two-year restoration, removing the smile from the figure’s face that seems to have been added in the years after the work was completed. “The frame was flaking and very dirty,” says conservator Alice Tate-Harte.“The painting had a very yellow varnish on it and dirt layers … there was an awful lot of overpainting on it too, so it wasn’t the beautiful object it could be.” (more…)
Artist Peter Saul has a profile in the New York Times this month, as he discusses politics, art, and his career. “I’ve always been a kind of isolated person,” he says. “I thought it was a great, luxurious thing to not have to deal with people. It’s a bad sign, mentally, but I seem to be OK. I mean, who knows? Maybe not, really. Don’t care. As long as I have a beautiful woman, I’m satisfied. I don’t need to talk to five other people.” (more…)
A Mexican man has been arrested for allegedly selling fake works by Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, “As alleged, Angel Pereda attempted to sell forgeries of artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, among others, as genuine,” says Manhattan U.S. attorney Audrey Strauss. (more…)
The Siberian industrial center of Norilsk, consider one of the “most depressing cities in the world,” will get its own art museum, Art Newspaper reports. The Arctic Museum of Modern Art “will focus on an Arctic theme and will inspire global reflections not only on Norilsk but the north of Russia as a whole,” says Natalia Fedianina, the director of the Norilsk Museum Exhibition Complex. (more…)
As protests roll through Cuba, the Art Newspaper looks at the group of artists, including Tania Bruguera, who have been protesting against the government in hope of change for years. “People just got tired of being afraid,” Bruguera says, “they realized that this government only cares about staying in power.” (more…)
Land artist Nancy Holt’s archives have been acquired by the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives for American Art. “The depth of historical material solidifies Holt’s position as a pioneer of the movement, revealing the complex research and organizational labour involved in realizing her works, while her writings, interviews and correspondences demonstrate how Land Art was as much a discursive and media practice as a sculptural one,” says Jacob Proctor, the Smithsonian’s Gilbert and Ann Kinney New York Collector. (more…)
Damien Hirst gets an interview in The Guardian this week, as he unveils a series of new paintings. “I think the idea of being a painter has always appealed to me,” he says. “I suppose it’s that old story of Turner being strapped to a mast during a storm so he could paint it – it’s a romantic thing.” (more…)
A stolen Sigmar Polke painting has been found in a Mainz apartment. Details surrounding the work’s theft have “not yet been conclusively clarified” according to German police. (more…)
The newest iterations of London’s Fourth Plinth installation have been announced, with a sculpture by artist Samson Kambalu, based on a 1914 photograph of the preacher and advocate for African independence John Chilembwe. The work will go on view in 2022, and will be followed in 2024 by a sculpture by Teresa Margolles that features the faces of 850 trans people, an “anti-monument” as the artist describes it, which references the violence and cultural erasure against trans individuals worldwide. (more…)
Long-missing paintings by Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso have been found in Greece, after their disappearance from Greece’s National Gallery in 2012. “Two and a half months later, the Gallery heals its greatest wound, the wound of 2012,” Lina Mendoni, Greece’s Minister of Culture and Sports, says. “The work of the great painter, a gift to the Greek people, returns to a new Gallery that has nothing to envy from the respective museums of other European capitals.” (more…)
