The Canadian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale has been reopened, with a restored interior that The National Gallery of Canada is hoping will improve the working conditions for its chosen artists. “I give always very much importance to the conservation, as much as possible, of the original design,” says designer Alberico Belgiojoso “Nature changes, while architecture stays at it is.” (more…)
A federal appeals court in New York has rejected a claim to a 1908 Matisse painting owned by the National Gallery in London by the grandchildren of the woman in the work. “The alleged taking of the painting was committed by a private actor” not “a sovereign”, the panel of judges said. “The National Gallery’s refusal to compensate appellants for that taking after the fact does not provide a basis for jurisdiction over a foreign sovereign and its instrumentality.” (more…)
Artist Dorothea Rockburne’s immense Soho loft is profiled in New York Magazine this week, where the artist has lived and worked since 1974. “It’s like my work,” she says. “It isn’t tarted up. My work is straightforward, and the answers are there because that’s the answer; there is no other answer. And that’s how this place is.” (more…)
The Menil Collection’s new Drawing Institute will be headed by chief curator Edouard Kopp, Art News reports. “I’m very passionate about the drawing medium and have been for the past 20 years,” Kopp says, “so to join an organization with such a stellar reputation as the Menil’s when they are devoting a new program to the study and celebration of modern and contemporary drawing in an amazing new building purposefully designed for that mission is very exciting.” (more…)
The Art News’s annual power list of the top 200 collectors is out for 2018, with Roman Abramovich once again topping the list. New additions include Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of the Emerson Collective and widow of Steve Jobs, and Elizabeth and Phillip Chun, founders of the art-filled resort Paradise City in Incheon, South Korea. (more…)
Christian Marclay sits down with The Guardian this week, as he prepares for the opening of The Clock at the Tate. “I’m always seeing clocks in films and thinking, ‘Damn, now that would have been great for The Clock!’” he jokes. (more…)
The Al-Thani family of Qatar is reportedly eyeing an exhibition space for its art in Paris, Art Market Monitor reports. Reports note that the family is in negotiations with a private developer representing the French state which has plans to re-develop L’hôtel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde. (more…)
The Tate has reportedly turned to Wikipedia to fill in gaps in artist biographies for works held in its collection, Art Newspaper reports. A Tate spokesperson said it is “working on a partnership with Wikipedia to ensure the biographies for artists in our collection are as accurate as possible.” (more…)
Greenspon Gallery has cancelled a show featuring the work of the alleged Ne0-Nazi Boyd Rice, following stark criticism from across the art world. “Given the issues this show and these artists raise, we will try to use this episode to consider the various meanings and histories of provocation and dissent in art. As contexts, boundaries and political realities continue to transform, so do the the codes of what can and cannot be accepted,” said gallerist Amy Greenspon. “I deeply regret my lack of oversight when I planned this exhibition, and I apologize to anyone the gallery may have offended when we sent out our email announcement.” (more…)
Moritz Wesseler previously director of the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Germany will lead the Fridericianum museum in Kassel, Germany, Art News reports. “My goal is to offer a platform for key players in the realm of contemporary art still largely unknown in Germany,” he said in a statement to press. “In addition, I intend to strengthen the institution’s connection within the city and the local region.” (more…)
The Städel Museum in Frankfurt will publish a series of discussions with leading figures of the West German postwar art scene, looking to create a broader perspective on the era’s art scene. “By publishing both online and in print, we want to enable access for as many people as possible to this unique primary source, and we hope that both interested amateurs and expert readers will make rich discoveries,” says Franziska Leuthäußer, the leader of the project. (more…)
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac will host an installation by artist Tom Sachs during Frieze Week, Sachs’s studio issuing its own version of Swiss passports to anyone who is willing to pay €20. “With this project we break down the borders and eliminate the concept of nationality,” Sachs says. “This comes at a time where our liberal democracies are being threatened, and oppressed people all over the world live in danger and without refuge. Borders are artificial. They are artificially created by governments and the corporations who control them.” (more…)
The estate of Barney Ebsworth, the founder of Royal Cruise Lines, will go to Christie’s in the coming months, estimated at over $300 million, including Edward Hopper’s famed Chop Suey, which is estimated at $70 million. “This is the greatest collection of American modernism ever to come to market,” Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas.
Johannes Vogt Gallery will relocate to the Upper East Side, Art News reports. “If you told me five years ago that I’d be setting up shop on the Upper East Side, I’d have called you crazy,” Vogt said. “What I show is not as well-represented [on the Upper East Side], and that’s very exciting, to me. I can create a new framework for the work I’m showing.” (more…)
Dealer Mary Boone has plead guilty to filing false federal income tax returns, the New York Times reports. “This is the worst day of my life,” she says. “I have learned from my mistake and I am working very hard to put it behind me.” (more…)
The Guardian interviews Ilya and Emilia Kabakov this week as the pair prepare for a retrospective at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and looks back at the artists’ move out of the Sovient Union. “He took all his baggage with him, the cultural stuff that rooted him in the country,” Emilia says. “What saves Ilya is his magnificent imagination. All of his work is based on fantasy, whether he’s in America, France or Russia.” (more…)
Collectors Aaron and Barbara Levine are donating their collection of Marcel Duchamp works to the Hirshhorn Museum, a major acquisition that bolsters the institution’s holdings. “This is the art world equivalent of the Wizards getting LeBron James,” says Hirshhorn board chairman Daniel Sallick. “Any museum in the world would want this collection.” (more…)
A second round of cultural organizations in Baltimore and Denver have been announced as recipients of funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Art News reports. “We’re thrilled that Bloomberg Philanthropies has selected Baltimore for this significant funding that will serve to equip a new generation of artistic leaders with the support and professional training in the essential areas that constitute thriving arts organizations,” says Catherine E. Pugh, mayor of Baltimore. (more…)
New York’s Kasmin gallery has hired Tianyue Jiang, previously of Christie’s as its new director. “It is wonderful to welcome someone of Tianyue’s immense experience to the gallery to lead our ambitions both in Asia and at home here in New York,” the gallery said in a statement. “Her specialized knowledge of the region will be of tremendous importance as we continue to develop our client base and introduce more Asian artists to the gallery program.” (more…)
Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art has announced plans for a second museum, UCCA Dune, in Hebei Province’s Beidaihe District, Art Newspaper reports. “The space is nearly Guggenheimian in its specificity. It would also work spectacularly for a one artist show,” says director Philip Tinari. (more…)
A major fire broke at the National Museum of Brazil has claimed an estimated 90% of the museum’s collection, the Guardian reports. Protests over the fire have blamed austerity measures and budget cuts to fund the Olympic Games and World Cup for depleting government funds to fireproof and protect the museum. “Look at the irony. The money is now there, but we ran out of time,” the museum’s director, Alexander Kellner, told reporters at the scene. (more…)
Richard Hamilton has announced that he is leaving his post as the director of the Tate Americas Foundation, Art News reports. He is now planning “a consultancy to help develop philanthropic strategies for private individuals, foundations, and nonprofit institutions.” (more…)
Photographer Deana Lawson has photographed Rihanna for the 15th Anniversary Issue of Garage Magazine. “Every image maker who picked up a camera for Issue 15 is a woman, and those women took us to Nigeria, Sweden, California, Tokyo, and Harlem, among other locations. Rihanna is perhaps our most human of pop idols—unguarded, miraculously vital, perfect in her imperfections—making her the consummate subject for Deana,” says Mark Guiducci, the magazine’s editor in chief. (more…)