The LA Review of Books examines the career Peter Zumthor this week, and the Swiss architect’s plans for the extended design of LACMA, which boasts one of his signature, stark towers and will connect the museum with the existing Broad Contemporary Art Museum, the Resnick Pavilion, the Pavilion for Japanese Art, the Page Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits. (more…)
Marketplace has an article on Arthena, the startup aiming to encourage investment in fine art through an equity share purchase of a curated art collection. “I’m part of this generation that they’re trying to reach out to, and I realized that this generation looks at art not only from a cultural perspective, but also a financial perspective,” says founder Madelaine D’Angelo. “And it makes sense, because if you look at how many kids my age have student loans, if you put $10,000 into something, you want to make sure it’ll be worth $10,000 the next day.” (more…)
UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed an export bar on the 1762 study of Niagara Falls by military artist Capt. Thomas Davies, the first eyewitness artwork depicting the natural wonder. “I hope that the temporary export bar I have put in place will result in a UK buyer coming forward and that the watercolor will be available for all to better understand Britain’s global role in the 18th century,” Vaizey said. (more…)
Four stolen Andrew Wyeth paintings have been recovered from a pawn shop featured on reality TV, NBC reports, worth about $1 million to $2 million each. The paintings were stolen from a home in Maine in 2013, and traveled cross-country before ultimately being sold at the Beverly Hills Pawn Shop, subject of a program on cable channel Reelz. Two paintings from the collection are still outstanding. “I’m optimistic that one day soon the paintings will be returned to their rightful owner and we’ll bring those responsible to justice,” says Vincent B. Lisi, special agent for the FBI’s Boston Division. (more…)
The Kansas City Art Institute, which has trained or employed a number of major artists, including Robert Rauschenberg and Nick Cave, has received an anonymous gift of $25 million to its endowment, one of the largest gifts ever to an American art school. “I hate to use the word ‘transformational,’ because it’s bandied about so much these days,” says interim president Tony Jones said, “but it’s true in this case. It’s literally a make-the-difference gift in terms of scholarships.” (more…)
NPR has an in-depth profile in Paul Durand-Ruel this week, the 19th century Paris art dealer who first fostered the market for Impressionist works, and the story of his rise to success. “One of his artists came in one day with a young French painter, introducing him and saying, ‘This artist will surpass us all’ — and that artist was Claude Monet,” says curator Joe Rishel, who organized a show on the dealer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (more…)
Forbes has published an eye-opening profile on Elisa Stephens, head of the for-profit Academy of Art University, and her struggles to keep the university’s national chain of schools (which have drawn criticism for poor graduation rates and job placements) afloat. “This industry was the darling of Wall Street,” says Trace Urdan, a research analyst for Credit Suisse. “But you have a federal government that for the last six and a half years has been very hostile to this sector. The re-regulation of this space has depressed valuations.” (more…)
German art historian Eike Schmidt has been appointed director of the Uffizi Gallery, one of seven foreigners heading up some of Italy’s top museums and exhibition spaces, part of a reform program for the nation’s public museums. “The promise held out by autonomy, is that you can do simple things to make the museum more accessible without too much fuss,” James Bradburne, the Canadian-born former director of the Palazzo Strozzi in Milan just appointed as head of Milan’s Brera Gallery. (more…)
Michael Govan has been awarded the Independent Curators International Leo Award for “extraordinary commitment to artists and pioneering contributions to the field of contemporary art.” “It’s an honor to be part of an ICI event,” Govan said. “ICI’s exhibitions and support for independent curators have helped shape the field over many years. And ICI often gives art and artists exposure ahead of the curve.” (more…)
Artist Charles Pétillon has been commissioned to fill London’s Covent Garden market with 100,000 balloons, the first installation the artist has created outside of France. “I want to change people’s point of view, their perspective of a place they see every day and never really look at,” he says. “A swimming pool, a field: if I suddenly put something strange in it like these balloons you will see it differently. I don’t want my works to be seen just as decoration, there is always something they are trying to draw out or question.” (more…)
This year, the Turner Prize is taking to the road in Scotland, with an art gallery on wheels transporting the shortlist exhibition through Scotland. The exhibition also features past winners of the prize, and begins in Edinburgh this Sunday. (more…)
The New York Times looks at the ongoing competition between Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and recent strategy changes that each have taken to gain the upper hand in their decades-long competition. We have been recruiting talent as well as exploring bolder ideas designed to substantially improve our performance in contemporary,” says Sotheby’s CEO and President Tad Smith. (more…)
An article in The Guardian this week looks behind the veneer of Andy Warhol’s New York cool, showing an artist who loved weightlifting, jewelry and his family life. “When we were all together as a family, my mom would sometimes question Uncle Andy about his art,” says nephew James Warhola. “You know, ‘What’s that meant to be?’, or even ‘Why are you wasting your time on this?’ And he would give as good as he got – not in a hostile way, but saying that this was his work, it had value and importance for him. He had studied art and was very knowledgeable.” (more…)
Melva Bucksbaum, the vice chairman of the Whitney Museum, and a trustee of the Aspen Institute, the American friends of the Israel Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, has passed away. Bucksbaum had a reputation for her charitable support of artists and institutions. “They support artists, even new ones. They buy according to their hearts, and they have good ones,” artist Pat Steir said of Bucksbaum and her husband. (more…)
As new information surfaces on the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist, Slate looks at why so many art heists go unsolved, and why recovering these works often proves so difficult, including long storage times for stolen works and the difficulty in keeping trained police to investigate these crimes. “The art crime team still exists—it’s managed by a trained archaeologist, not an FBI agent—but turnover is rampant,” says Robert Wittman, who previously headed up the FBI’s art theft investigations. (more…)
The New York Times notes the challenging path ahead for Berlin’s proposed modern art museum in the Kulturforum neighborhood, where years of negative feedback and divergent plans have made the area highly contentious. “For 30 years in Berlin, this place has been discussed only with bitterness and anger and aggression,” says Manfred Kühne, head of urban development and planning in the city’s Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment. (more…)
(starting September 5) will display art in six underground chambers that were once used to store explosives and ammunition. Solo projects will be set up in the Magazine, which are former storerooms that are turning into exhibition spaces. “There’s something about the commandeering of military spaces for art, they just lend themselves to that. We keep joking: ‘Make art, not war’”, said Antony Zito of 4heads, a non-profit artists group that coordinates the fair.
The US has returned a $15 million Pablo Picasso to France, which was stolen over a decade ago before being seized late last year from a New Jersey airport. “There’s a tremendous feeling of accomplishment when we return a piece of art like this,” says Sarah Saldaña, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (more…)
The Knockdown Center, located on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, has opened a month-long exhibition which invites viewers to pilot drones around its gallery, which has forty-foot high ceilings. The drones can fly in between the artworks, while a flat screen TV plays what is captured by the drones-cams. Fascinated with humans’ connection to this piece of technology, the curator of the show, Vanessa Thill says “ drones have a really weird presence. They seem emotional.”
Artist Danh Vo has left Bortolozzi Gallery in the midst of appeals for his case against collector Bert Kreuk. As a result, Vo has appointed a new lawyer in his case, Maarten Haak, who replaces Gert-Jan Van den Bergh. “In the appeal case the interests of the artist and his [former] gallery may be different,” Haak says. “This was a pressing reason for Van den Bergh to withdraw from representing both parties in the appeal.” (more…)
Artist Cai Guo-Qiang has initiated an ambitious new fireworks performance in Quanzhou, China. Titled Sky Ladder, the work features a climbing line of flames towards the moon. “It carries affection for my hometown, my relatives and my friends,” the artist says. “For me, this not only means a return but also the start of a new journey.” (more…)
Christie’s has announced plans to auction the collection of Arthur and Anita Kahn this fall, a series of 400 works that are valued collectively at $50 million, including 80 works by Alexander Calder, a friend of the family. “For years and years, I went by [their] apartment and I never knew what was up there, and when I learned, it was, ‘Well, I’ll be darned,’ ” said Paul R. Provost, deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas. (more…)
W Magazine takes an inside look at Havana’s vibrant arts scene, as diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States get underway. “Everything is very slow here,” says artist Adonis Flores. “It’s very difficult for artists to get materials. And life, in general, is hard.” (more…)
The New York Times looks at the operations of The Poly Culture Group, a state-backed Chinese conglomerate that runs the world’s third largest auction house, and holds an indelible sway over the nation’s contemporary art market. “Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s reputation in mainland China is relatively new, and they haven’t had the time to properly root themselves,” says Anders Petterson, the managing director of ArtTactic. “So when market confidence is weakening, the newcomers are likely to be more exposed than the key domestic players.” (more…)