The Miami Herald reports that, after months of tense relations, staff from the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami have decided to break ties with the city and relocate to Miami’s Design District as the Institute of Contemporary Art. Among the museum’s staff who have elected to move is interim director Alex Gartenfield, whose appointment over the city-approved Babacar M’Bow has been one of several sources of contention between the museum and the city. Whether MoCANoMi’s permanent collection, whose ownership has been hotly contested, will follow the staff to their new location or remain with the city is unclear.  (more…)

Storming back from its brush with financial insolvency earlier this year, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has announced that it has raised over $50 Million in the past month, bringing its total endowment past $75 Million.  The new contributions come from a number of prominent names, including new board member Bruce Karatz, Jeffrey Soros, and Eli Broad.  “The level of support we have received is fantastic. There is a new energy and excitement about MOCA’s future and its leadership role in the art world,” says Eugenio Lopez, co-chair of  the endowment campaign. (more…)

In a strongly titled article, “A Los Angeles Museum on Life-Support” The New York Times analyzes the recent fall-out and standing of LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, examining director Jeffrey Deitch‘s role in the recent happenings.

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S.A.C Capital founder and art collector Steve A. Cohen joins Museum of Contemporary Art’s board of trustees, in addition to his current duties at the Painting and Sculpture Committee of the Museum of Modern Art [AO Newslink]

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An hour by hour, interactive feature on a typical day of Jeffrey Deitch, Director of LA MoCA [AO Newslink]

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Ed Ruscha, Baby Jet, 1998. Photo by Paul Ruscha, courtesy of Moderna Museet.

Currently on view at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, through September 5, is Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years of Painting. This exhibition, which is a collaboration with Hayward Gallery in London, shows more than 70 paintings. It spans the period from 1958, five years prior to his debut in 1963 at the legendary Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, to the present day. Curated by Lars Nittve and Ann-Sofi Noring, the installation groups Ruscha’s works in chronological order so as to allow the viewer to see the development of the artist’s various motifs and styles over time.

The exhibition’s overarching theme, of course, is words and their constantly shifting relationships with context and message. As the curators explain, “In all his paintings there are tensions and frictions at play: between foreground and background, between text and image, and between how words look and what they mean.”

Installation shot, Ed Ruscha: Fifty Years Of Painting. Photo by Ã…sa Lundén, courtesy of Moderna Museet.

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The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Via MOCA

Ending a week of speculation, Jeffrey Deitch has been named the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA– becoming the only art dealer and commercial gallery owner to take on the leadership of a major American museum. The decision marks a kind of turning point from the more traditional approach whereby museums draw their directors from pools of established curators or academics. Deitch stated this afternoon that “(…) it’s my goal to position MOCA as the most innovative and influential contemporary art museum in the world.  I am excited by the opportunity to play a role in making MOCA and Los Angeles the leading contemporary art destination.” Founded in 1979, MOCA occupies two buildings in downtown LA and is renown for its collection which includes around 6,000 pieces of international artwork produced in the past 70 years. Jeffrey Deitch, 57, founded his own gallery, Deitch Projects LLC, in 1996 and operates from three different spaces–two in Soho and one in Long Island City. Known for having experimental projects and programs in his galleries–sometimes crossing over into music, theater and other disciplines– Dietch started his career as a Citi Group Vice President, where he developed an art advisory and art financing business. “He will cease to be involved with any commercial activity by June 1st,” MOCA’s Director of Communications, Lyn Winter, has stated (Bloomberg).

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Jeffrey Deitch, the new director of MOCA. Via LATimes

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Dan Graham, Girls Make-up room, 1998-2000. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

Dan Graham’s first U.S. retrospective is currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The artist’s work has been highly influential since the 1960’s.  He has close personal and professional ties with Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin and Mel Bochner and as of yet his work has been seldom collected or recognized in the U.S. The show features a comprehensive sampling of his body of work in media including installation, text pieces, performance and site specific sculpture. At the core of his work, Graham is investigating public and private cultural systems and the extent to which his playful, often comic, interference can alter the way individuals relate to their surroundings, themselves and others.

Dan Graham: Beyond [Whitney Museum of American Art]
Dan Graham: Be My Mirror [Art in America]
Retrospective of Pioneering Artist Dan Graham Opens at Whitney Museum [ArtDaily]
Dan Graham: Artist’s Talk 2007 [Tate Modern]
Interview with Dan Graham [Museo Magazine]
Dan Graham: A Round Peg [NY Times]
Dan Graham – Whitney Museum of American Art [ArtForum]

Dan Graham, Figurative,1965; published March 1968 in Harper’s Bazaar. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

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Zhan Wang – Ornamental Rock No. 71, on view at Saatchi Gallery, London – The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art via Saatchi Gallery

When the new Saatchi Gallery’s inaugural show closes it will have drawn over half a million visitors [GuardianUK]
How artists are replacing some aspects of the role of dealers [TheArtNewspaper]
Christie’s lowers estimates  by more than 10% also stating “It’s not our intention to offer any guarantees until we have a better idea of where the markets are” [ArtInfo]
MOCA agrees to Eli Broad’s $15 million match contribution [LATimes]

‘the Farm’ by Joan Miró (1893-1983) via the Wall Street Journal

A detailed look into Joan Miró’s ‘the Farm” [WallStreetJournal]
Boston Lawyer hiding stolen art including a $26 million Cezanne sentenced to 7 years [ArtDaily]
Top ten outstanding moments in the art market for 2008 [TelegraphUK]

Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, via NY Times

The Museum of Contemporary Art has been beset by financial troubles that threaten its sustainability. The museum went through all $20 million of its unrestricted funds several years ago, and its endowment, which stood at around $40 million at the beginning of the decade, is now at $6 million, a number which compromises the covenants upon which it was established. Its financial cushion has been further eroded by the financial crisis and a decrease in donations. MOCA, founded in 1979, is considered to be one of the world’s premier contemporary art museums, and is now on the brink of insolvency.

Los Angeles Museum Agrees to Accept Rescue Deal [NY Times]
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa makes a plea to MOCA [LA Times]
Director Strick said to be latest casualty at MOCA [LA Times]
Los Angeles Museum Proposes to Save Another [NY Times]
Thinking About MOCA [Time, Looking Around]
Making sense of a total mess (or not) [Modern Art Notes via C-Monster]

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