A protest in Paris by the Yellow Vests group led the Musée d’Orsay to close early on Saturday, Art News reports. The closures were caused by fierce clashes between protestors and police, which threatened passerby and visitors to the museum. (more…)
The Stedelijk Museum has issued a cryptic statement that it had come to an agreement with former director Beatrix Ruf “to leave the past behind.” Ruf will not return to her position, but “may however, be invited to be involved in a specific exhibition or in other museum projects, under the responsibility of a future, as yet unappointed, artistic director.” (more…)
Fashion and art collective Vaquera has been tapped by MoMA PS1 for one of its Sunday Sessions this year in Queens. “When MoMA asked us to do a Sunday Session, we were excited to do something new that would allow us to collaborate with a large group of non-fashion creatives. A free-form play seemed perfect,” the group said in a statement. (more…)
rchThe Guardian looks at the growing field of “research architecture,” and how its practitioners are redefining the line between art and architectural practice. “There’s this idea of really working as detectives,” says Lorenzo Pezzani, a professor at Goldsmith College’s Centre for Forensic Architecture. (more…)
Bridget Riley, Quiver 3 (2014), via Spruth Magers
Comprising work made between 1960 and the present, Bridget Riley: Painting Now at Sprüth Magers LA surveys the development of the British artist’s career-long exploration of looking and seeing in relation to the capacities of painting and picture making. Her work, consisting of tightly-interlocked bands of color and explorations of the potential for relief and tension in the presentation of visual stimuli, is presented here in its development of optically-elusive, challenging pieces, ones that make the viewer acutely aware of the act of looking. (more…)
Julia Scher, Wonderland (Installation View), via Esther Schipper
In 1998, artist Julia Scher installed her work Wonderland in New York. Immersing the galley in a theatrical pink and purple light, Scher’s Wonderland is a multimedia environment where visitors are welcomed by the sound of the artist’s authoritative yet soothing voice: ‘Attention. There are live cameras here in Wonderland, recording you… Warning. Your size may change, here in Wonderland. Thank you for coming!’ This hint at the concepts of surveillance, of the reproduction of reality, and of the deconstruction of space and time feel particularly resonant in a new century, and underscore the cutting-edge nature of Scher’s work.
Julia Scher, Wonderland (Installation View), via Esther Schipper
Julia Scher, Wonderland (Installation View), via Esther Schipper
Scher’s work comes on the heels of a recent revival in interest around her work, and a performance of one of her ongoing works, ‘Security by Julia’ at Frieze this year. The Security By Julia series, which began in 1988, uses public space to question the invasion of personal freedom within the public realm, using the tools of the electronic age to critically engage it, specifically a recurring use of security cameras. Here, her reprised work follows a similar logic, provoking questions on the state, its presence in everyday life, and ways of living beside, or outside of it.
Julia Scher, Wonderland (Installation View), via Esther Schipper
At the center of the space are two semi-circular child-sized desks arrayed with complex technical equipment and cabling, vintage computer monitors with live surveillance footage, various ephemera—such as bags of White Rabbit Creamy Candy—and Scher’s signature pink guard caps. Alluding to prior works and dense multi-media narratives, the artist’s selections of objects form a central nervous system of sorts, a series of narrative elements conspiring in their reproduction and reframing of the reality of the gallery space. Referencing both psychedelics and classic literature, as well as her own work, Scher’s pieces here invite a meditation on youth and media. On the walls, complementing the central assemblage of technological apparatuses, large-scale prints depict children, among them American actress and director Lena Dunham aged 10, dressed in the same pink uniforms and caps that are neatly folded on the desks.
Julia Scher, Wonderland (Installation View), via Esther Schipper
Julia Scher, Wonderland (Installation View), via Esther Schipper
Posed here, the artist’s work mirrors the subversions of role-play and power, yet the inclusion of these same images are notable in turn for their place in the gallery today. It’s worth considering that the millennial models used for this piece have now grown into a place of power in the world. Dunham in particular is now a vastly successful writer and filmmaker in her own right. Scher’s work, presented in its new state, is perhaps an even more potent reflection at this point, not only suggesting the distended sense of reality caused by the exercise of state power, but perhaps more notably, the surreal nature of a new generation taking up these weapons, and eventually growing into their own place of power in the world.
The show closes February 9th.
— D. Creahan
Read more:
Julia Scher: Wonderland [Exhibition Site]
The increasing attention to African-American modernism has led to increased efforts at counterfeiting the work of artists like Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas and more. “It’s a whole generation: you could go from A to Z through the list, from Charles Alston to Charles White. I am seeing fakes attributed to all of them,” dealer Michael Rosenfeld says.“You simply can’t go back to the source any more, and there is only a handful of people who worked first-hand with a lot of these artists while they were alive,” he says. (more…)
Christie’s will sell a series of works from the collection of dealer Richard L. Feigen this spring, Art Newspaper reports. Many of the works are expected to achieve record prices for the artists on sale. “Feigen has made countless and startling discoveries throughout his career and continues to champion the field of Old Masters,” says Francois de Poortere, head of Christie’s Old Masters department. “It is an honor to be offering several of his most cherished paintings.” (more…)
Hirshhorn Museum Board Chair Daniel Sallick has commented on the closure of the Smithsonian during the shutdown as a look at a “life without some of our essential culture.” “The lesson we kept returning to at the end of the day is that the public wants and needs our government to work,” he says. “And that applies no less to government-sponsored cultural institutions.” (more…)
The 60-foot tall demon statue centerpiece from Damien Hirst’s Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable has been sold to the Palms Casino, Art News reports. While the sale price was not disclosed, the piece’s price tag in Venice was $14 million. (more…)
The settlement of a lawsuit over the paintings of filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman has cleared the way for a major retrospective at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin in November. “We don’t know Derek Jarman the painter, but that was his primary practice,” says Sean Kissane, the curator at IMMA. (more…)
Phillips is planning to add a selling exhibition of African American artists to its calendar this winter, featuring work by Fred Wilson and Kehinde Wiley, among others. “It gives proper recognition to these extraordinary artists of the mid-20th and early 21st centuries alongside their contemporaries,” says Arnold Lehman. (more…)
Lauren Wittels has been named a partner at Luhring Augustine, promoted up from her position as the gallery’s senior director. “Lauren’s contribution to the gallery program and her dedication to the artists and clients of the gallery certainly warrants such well-deserved recognition, and we congratulate her and look forward to many more fruitful years of collaboration,” says Roland Augustine, a co-owner of the gallery. (more…)
Artist Nicola L., known for her feminist practice in sculpture, videos, and performances, has passed away at the age of 81. Curator Ruba Katrib confirmed her passing. “Nicola was dedicated to art and politics, never concerned with prescriptive modes of making,” Katrib said. “She embedded her singular vision into hybrid-forms of sculpture, painting, clothing, performance, furniture, and early interactive pieces, while also making films and writing plays.” (more…)
The Louvre has shattered all ticket office records last year with more than 10 million people viewing its collection, the result of foreign tourists and an added bump in visits following the release of a Beyoncé music video filmed at the museum. (more…)
The Chinese nation’s persecution of its Uyghur peoples has led to a number of artists being imprisoned. “So many have been taken away,” says Tahir Hamut, a Uyghur poet and film-maker who escaped to the US. “Most of the more famous cultural figures have all been arrested. Their families won’t say for certain, because their families are afraid.” (more…)
The latest victim of the US Government shutdown, the National Gallery of Art has shuttered, one day after the Smithsonian network of musuems, which includes the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden closed due to lack of funds. (more…)
The Municipality of Amsterdam has appointed four new supervisors to the board of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, including Carla Aalse, Henriëtte Prast, Maarten Doorman, and Homme ten Have. “In the best interests of the museum, it is time to bring the recent turmoil to an end and start afresh,” interim board chair Madeleine de Cock Buning and Jos van Rooijen said in a letter, referring to the departure of former director Beatrix Ruf. (more…)
A long-running legal battle in France over artist resale royalties has been decided in favor of Christie’s efforts to shift responsibility for payments to the buyer, after the Supreme Court allowed the auction house to charge the buyer of paintings at auction for the royalty rates. “The Cour de Cassation handed down its decision on 9 November 2018 regarding the SNA case,” says a Christie’s spokesperson. “It agrees with the Christie’s France reasoning and overturns the judgments of the Court of Appeal of Versailles in this case.” (more…)
The New York Times has a piece on the collection of Harlan and Olivia Fischer, which focuses heavily on the use of glass in sculpture. “When Olivia and I started collecting glass, the feeling was similar to how I felt in high school when I discovered jazz,” Harlan says. (more…)
Seth Price, Hell Has Everything (2018), via Petzel
In the past several months, artist Seth Price has taken to making and posting mixtapes on his personal SoundCloud page. Described in a recent Art News post as “soundtracks for painters,” his mixes (and the article itself), underscore Price as an inveterate consumer of media and information, embracing a constant stream of data that he often delves into or twists up into the language and production of his works. This compilation of information sits at the core of Hell Has Everything, the artist’s first show of work at Petzel Gallery in New York in six years.
(more…)
Chiharu Shiota, Me Somewhere Else (2018), via Blain Southern
Japanese-born, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota brings her signature techniques in environmental installation to bear at Blain|Southern this fall for her first exhibition at the gallery’s London space. Compiling a selection of new works that include a new site-specific installation, along with sculpture and works on canvas, the artist’s show, Me Somewhere Else, underscores her practice in attempting to connect and reframe the operations of her own memory in exchange with the world around her. (more…)