A group of artists including Tomma Abts, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Anish Kapoor, and Jeremy Deller have issued a statement condemning Cuba’s treatment of artist Tania Bruguera, following her performance several weeks ago in Havana.  “In her work Tania Bruguera frequently addresses issues embedded in Cuba’s social, political and economic history. But her aim is not a question of direct political action but to open our eyes to the injustices and social issues in the world and to expose the mechanisms of power and protocol that shape human behavior,” the letter reads. (more…)

Graham Beal, the current Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, has published a letter in the New York Times, asking journalists and analysts to refrain from overt speculation and panic on the future of the city’s museum.  “True, any successful effort to liquidate D.I.A. art would precipitate a series of events likely to lead to its closing, but we are a very long way from actions that would ‘denude its prestigious collection of its most valuable artworks. ‘We believe that a healthy D.I.A. is, in fact, a crucial component in any recovery of the city of Detroit.”  He writes. (more…)

With Dia’s announcement last month that it would deaccession some of its works in order to fund new acquisitions, a number of former leaders and collaborators have spoken against the move.  The sale of works, which will occur this fall, includes a number of works by Cy Twombly and Barnett Newman.  In a June 28th letter to the institution, former Menil Collection Director Paul Winkler writes: “The primary purpose of Dia has been to collect and present bodies of work by a select group of artists in permanent installations and to realize site-specific commissions, also in permanent situations. It is uninformed and disrespectful of your history to equate permanence with mausoleum.” (more…)