Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Rêvolutions (2015), French Pavilion, via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

Running concurrently with the Central Pavilion’s curated exhibition, the respective National Pavilions on view at the Giardini and Arsenale are one of Venice’s defining aspects.  Featuring important solo exhibitions for both emerging and career artists, carefully-curated group shows and special projects, each pavilion’s focus allows the international perspective of the Biennale to truly take shape. (more…)

The shortlist for the 2014 Turner Prize will be announced on May 7th at the Tate Britain.  The award, given annually to an artist born or working in Britain with an exceptionally outstanding exhibition in the past year, includes a £25,000 prize.  All of the shortlist nominees will be invited to show their work at the Turner Prize exhibition later this year. (more…)

An article in The Art Newspaper analyzes the potential vote on Scottish Independence this year, and the potential impacts an independent Scotland may have on the nation’s art collection.  If Scotland changes its tax structure to more heavily impact the wealthy, some are worried that lending collectors are likely to remove their works from Scottish museums, moving them south.  The National Galleries of Scotland board chair Ben Thomson, however, is more optimistic. “We are extremely confident that we will continue to enjoy very positive support from the Scottish government for our ongoing collaborations with private collectors,” he says. (more…)

Las Meninas, the classic work by Diego Velázquez which hangs at the Prado Museum in Madrid, may in fact be a later version of the work, a Spanish art expert argues.  At a recent event at the Royal Academy of Art in Spain, Dr Matías Díaz Padrón maintained that a version hanging in Dorset, England may be an earlier version of the painting, overturning current opinion that the work was in fact a copy.  “Today, the moment has arrived to revise these judgments, and restore the painting’s authorship to Velázquez.” Díaz Padron said.
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Smithsonian Institution director G. Wayne Clough has announced his intentions to step down as the head of the national museum and research network next year, providing the institution with time to find his successor.  “When I became secretary in 2008, I believed strongly that the Smithsonian had enormous untapped potential, especially in digital technology, to reach millions of people and serve as a resource for those who cannot visit Washington,” He said. “I am confident that with our initiatives under way in bioconservation, education, digitization and fund-raising, this is the right time to announce my plans for next fall so that an orderly transition can begin.” (more…)

James Turrell, Aten Reign (2013) (Installation View) © James Turrell, Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

The highly anticipated James Turrell exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, which opened last month, and remains on view through the summer, has renewed the ongoing debate surrounding contemporary artworks of Disney-esque proportions, especially considering whether or not these spectacle-inducing affairs are worthy of the attention they often command. Like his ongoing work-in-progress, Rodin Crater (a massive naked-eye observatory built within an ancient crater near Flagstaff, Arizona), Turrell’s multi-venue comeback is not exactly a modest undertaking, with concurrent exhibitions on view at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. At the Guggenheim, Turrell joins Matthew Barney, Nam June Paik, Maurizio Cattelan, and others who have mediated Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic rotunda through Turrell’s site specific Aten Reign, which uses an ingenious system of stretched fabrics and LED lights to create the illusion of billowing clouds of color that unfold in concentric rings through the rising levels, with visitors invited to watch the dizzying light show from the rotunda floor. Four other historical projected light works, three of which date to the 1960s, are also on view in adjacent galleries along with a selection of thirteen aquatints that, with expert lighting and position, appear to emit a soft glow. However, it is Aten Reign that has generated the most buzz, both good and bad.

James Turrell, Aten Reign (2013) (Installation View) © James Turrell, Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York  (more…)

President Barack Obama’s administration has announced the winners of the 2012 National Medal of Arts, including Ellsworth Kelly on the list of recipients.  Kelly, who turned 90 this year, is currently in the spotlight for a trio of New York shows this spring and summer, spanning the range of his career, and will accept the award tonight in Washington, DC.  Other recipients include landscape architect Laurie Olin. (more…)

Artist James Turrell will open three shows in the next month, bringing his light works to viewers nation wide.  The artist has major retrospectives scheduled to open at the Guggenheim, LACMA, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.  The ambitious series exhibitions has called for challenging constructions at the museums, recreating spaces from Turrell’s exacting specifications.  “We have trained our dry-wallers that they are working with art, not drywall,” says Bradley Johnson, chief architect for the construction project at LACMA.  (more…)