Anish Kapoor has opened his new installation of works at Versailles to controversy this week, after the artist noted his new work Dirty Corner, as a reference to the sexual organs of Queen Marie Antoinette as she rose to power. “I know it is a composition, but let’s say that this is ruining the perspective that visitors of the castle may have,” says retired professor Pierre Dhainaut. (more…)
Controversy has struck at the Venice Biennale this year, after the Kenyan government officially denounced its national pavilion at the exhibition this year, and accused the curators awarded to the space of misrepresenting themselves as affiliated with the nation’s arts community while presenting a predominantly Chinese body of artists. “We hereby declare that the artists are in no way Kenyan,” a statement from the Kenyan government states. “Neither through birth nor naturalization and have no business using OUR NAME or flying OUR FLAG at the art Olympics. We demand that the government act by not only stopping the use of the Kenyan name and flying of the Kenyan flag at the Venice Biennale but also demanding the false information be pulled down from all publicity material including the Venice Biennale website.” (more…)
In the wake of the controversy over its canceled Hermann Nitsch show, Mexico City’s Museo Jumex has appointed Julieta González as chief curator and interim director, replacing the departed Patrick Charpenel. “Although Patrick is now moving on, the bonds between him and Museo Jumex are indissoluble,” said Jumex heir Eugenio López Alonso. “I am certain we will have the opportunity to collaborate with him in the future.” (more…)
Continuing what could arguably be the most controversial series of Christmas-themed public artworks, Paul McCarthy this past week installed Tree, an enormous inflatable sculpture on Place Vendome in Paris that bears a striking resemblance to both a Christmas tree or a sex toy. The work has already garnered considerable controversy, with one man slapping McCarthy as he viewed the work. “Does this kind of thing happen often in France?” McCarthy reportedly asked shortly after being attacked.
Since being installed, the sculpture has been repeatedly attacked by vandals, and has ultimately been removed from Place Vendome.
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Lee Yong-woo, President of Korea’s Gwangju Biennial and one of the exhibition’s founders, has resigned from his post after a painting by arist Hong Seong-dam, depicting Korean president Park Geun-hye attacked by victims of the MV Sewol disaster, was removed from an exhibition at the Gwangju Museum, causing a major uproar and the withdrawal of several artists from the show. “I am taking full responsibility for what happened,” Yong-woo said. (more…)
The New York Times reports that two young German artists have come forward as the perpetrators in the Brooklyn Bridge flag swap. On July 22nd, Mischa Leinkauf and Matthias Wermke scaled the Brooklyn Bridge and replaced the traditional American flags atop its towers with white versions of the flag, a switch that prompted embarrassed city officials to reevaluate security on the bridge. The article reports that, although the swap has garnered publicity as a possible anti-American stunt, the two artists intended the white flags to honor the bridge’s history and especially the birthday of its German-born architect, John Roebling.
The Telegraph reports that “Piggyback” (1997), a sculpture by Jake and Dinos Chapman has been removed from the MAXXI contemporary art museum in Rome by Italian officials. The sculpture depicts two nude girls, one straddling the other’s shoulders, and had been flagged by the Italian Observatory on the Rights of a Child as “paedopornographic”. Although MAXXI elected to remove the sculpture from public display, the museum maintained their support of the brothers’ and other artists’ freedom to create controversial art. (more…)
A recent article by collector Ronald Lauder in the Wall Street Journal traces the number of claims over Nazi-looted art currently dogging museums in the U.S. and abroad, and advocates for a swift return of disputed works. “Refusing to return stolen art because of the passage of time—not yet 70 years since Auschwitz was liberated—deprives museums of any claim to moral high ground,” Lauder writes. (more…)
The Guggenheim Foundation has responded to the lawsuit filed by descendants of Peggy Guggenheim, calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and contradictory. The original suit criticized the Foundation of using Peggy Guggenheim’s Venice home, donated to house her collection, as the site of numerous outside exhibitions, a charge the Foudation dismisses wholehandedly. “They insist that no works other than Peggy Guggenheim’s be exhibited in the palazzo or the garden,” the statement says. “Yet between 1999 and 2013, they were instrumental in organising 14 exhibitions of works entirely foreign to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.” (more…)
The Guggenheim Museum seems to have won its dispute with Paul McCarthy and Mike Bouchet. The artists’ Bilbao photo installation (featuring a photo of the museum as a battleship) has been removed removed after the Guggenheim stated its disapproval. The Guggenheim has stated that it “respects the artists’ rights and it likewise protects its own image rights.” (more…)
A recent installation by Paul McCarthy and Mike Bouchet in Bilbao, Spain has raised the ire of the Guggenheim Museum. Depicting the museum’s Frank Gehry-designed facade covered in guns as if it was a battleship, Powered A-Hole Spanish Donkey Sport Dick Drink Donkey Dong Dongs Sunscreen Model has drawn a removal notice from the museum, which claims copyright over the museum’s image. “We believe that the image displayed on the said property includes connotations that discredit this institution, so we urge you to withdraw the said canvas ASAP,” Alba Urresola, the Guggenheim’s associate director of legal and internal control, said in a notice sent to Bouchet’s gallery. (more…)
The Museum of Contemporary Art has announced that artists Catherine Opie, John Baldessari and Barbara Kruger are all returning to their positions on the museum’s Board of Trustees. The artists had previously left their posts over friction with then-director Jeffrey Deitch’s vision for MOCA. Painter Mark Grotjahn has also been elected to a fourth artist seat on the board, previously occupied by Ed Ruscha. “I’m very excited about the prospects for MOCA with Philippe leading us and I want to be supportive,” John Baldessari said in a statement. (more…)
Jonathan Meese, Selbstportrait mit eisernem Kreuz (2001), all images courtesy MdM
On view at the Museum der Moderne Münchsberg is a unique exhibition of paintings by contemporary German artist Jonathan Meese, whose works are mainly focused on controversial issues within contemporary German history.
The Tate Gallery is the subject of controversy, after including work by one of its trustees, the Turner Prize-winning artist Tomma Abts. “This is all very wrong. There are tens of thousands of artists in this country who would give anything to have their work at the Tate. It seems blatant favouritism that works by their own trustees should be repeatedly selected,” said artist Charles Thompson. “And it goes without saying that having a painting exhibited at a prestigious national gallery can only enhance the artist’s earning power.” (more…)
The recent discovery of what may in fact be the last painting Jackson Pollock created before his untimely death has placed Pollock experts against forensic investigators, with many art historians debating the work’s origins. “I don’t think there’s a Pollock expert in world that would look at that painting and agree it was a Pollock,” says Francis V. O’Connor, a co-editor of the definitive Pollock catalog. (more…)
The Banksy painting donated to benefit Housing Works several weeks ago has caused a small storm of disagreements and controversy over its sale. The winning bid, which took the painting for $615,000, has already defaulted on his payment, and a number of top bidders are complaining over the way the sale was handled. Even so, the painting has found a buyer. “We were happy with the sale,” says Matthew Bernardo, chief operating officer of Housing Works, “we were happy with the process which we closed with, and it’s at a very good home.” (more…)
A set of classical Greek statues have been returned to the Greek state from Qatar, after a recent disagreement between Greek and Qatari officials. While visiting the Middle Eastern nation, Greek Cultural Minister Costas Tzavaras noticed that the nude statues had been covered to avoid offending visiting females. Refusing to uncover the statues, the Qatari government opted to return them to Greece. “In a society where there are certain laws and traditions authorities felt women would be scandalised by seeing such things, even on statues,” added an official present at the event. “The minister, of course, said while he totally respected local customs he couldn’t accept the antiquities not being exhibited in their natural state. They were great works of art and aesthetically it was wrong.” (more…)
The Keith Haring Foundation is moving forward with a lawsuit over the exhibition of 165 works falsely attributed to Keith Haring. While the organizers of the offending event, Haring Miami, agreed to remove all falsely attributed works, the organization said in a statement: “The Foundation plans to continue to pursue this lawsuit, carrying the message that it will enforce the Foundation’s rights and protect the artist’s legacy in every case of suspected fraud.” (more…)
