Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Roma Capitale, Rome’s contemporary and modern art museum, is planning a new extension of the institution, which will feature works exclusively on loan from its next door neighbor, the Gagosian Gallery. The museum is also planning an outdoor exhibition space that will feature sculptures by artists like Jeff Koons and Franz West. (more…)
The Hammer Museum has announced the price winners for its “Made in LA” Biennial, which is running through Sept. 7, with the $100,000 Mohn Award going to Alice Könitz for her mobile exhibition platform The Los Angeles Museum of Art. Other prizes were awarded to Michael Frimkess and Magdalena Suarez Frimkess (a lifetime achievement prize), and to Jennifer Moon, whose work was selected by popular vote. (more…)
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is preparing to undergo a major expansion project, doubling its North Adams, MA exhibition space to 260,000 square feet. “The expansion is unquestionably good for the region and the community; the challenge is to pull it off,” said Stephen C. Sheppard, director of nearby Williams College’s Center for Creative Community Development. “They will need to connect with people who share their vision and who’ll support it.” (more…)
Performance artist Istvan Kantor was arrested yesterday at the Whitney Museum‘s Jeff Koons exhibition, after he splashed his own blood on the wall of the space, and signed the name “Monty Cantsin” on the wall, a nom de plume for artists involved in the Canadian “Neoist” movement. Kantor has a history of vandalizing major exhibitions, and was actually awarded a Governor General’s Award by the Canadian government for his work. (more…)
The Whitney Museum will keep its doors open on Mondays next month, providing visitors an extra day to visit the vast Jeff Koons retrospective before the institution closes its uptown space for its move to the Meatpacking District. The new hours are in effect until the exhibition closes on October 19th. (more…)
Barbara Kruger (Installation View), all images courtesy Modern Art Oxford
On view at Modern Art Oxford through August 31st is a major solo exhibition of recent work by American conceptual artist Barbara Kruger. Kruger, who is best known for her paste-up works, black-and-white photographs with declarative phrases in bold letters laid on top, has created a site-specific architectural wrap of the museum’s Upper gallery space in a similar style.
Sarah Sze, Triple Point (Planetarium) (2013), All Images Via Kelly Lee for Art Observed
Just over a year ago, Sarah Sze brought her eye-catching assemblages to Italy as the U.S. representative to the 2013 Venice Biennale. Puzzle-like contraptions snaked in and around the building façade, even allowing and supporting a huge boulder to balance on top of the pavilion’s roof. A myriad of fake rocks, water bottles and other miscellaneous objects were scattered across the space, offering only a small taste of the deceptively hazardous mess that awaited visitors inside. It was widely praised as a stand out work, and brought Sze to a new level in her artistic recognition. (more…)
As the final details of Detroit’s bankruptcy plan begin to take shape, bond insurer Syncora (the same group that slapped the Detroit Institute of Arts with a massive subpoena months ago) has filed a formal objection over the management of out-of-court settlements in the city’s exit from bankruptcy. The complaint, filed this week, stated that chief mediator Gerald Rosen made several statements that he felt it was his duty to get the best possible deal for Detroit’s pensioners, rather than maintain impartial judgements in the settlements. (more…)
Lygia Clark (Installation View), via Art Observed
The Abandonment of Art is an ambitious name for an exhibition at MoMA, even if the work happens to be the medium-pushing sculptures and objects of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, who over the course of her career constantly sought new modes of encounter, interpretation and perception in the space of art. Clark’s long-anticipated MoMA retrospective, taking up half of the museum’s top floor, welcomes this expansion, moving through the artist’s career from her early canvases to her later innovations in sculpture and performance. (more…)
The New York Times notes the differing approaches to the internet embraced by local museums, studying the Brooklyn Museum and The Met’s outreach programs and online exhibition supplements in an attempt to understand how modern museums are moving online. “Most of the people who are interested in art aren’t going to get on a plane and come here,” says Met chief digital officer Sree Sreenivasan. “It would be great if they came. But it’s O.K. if what we’re doing is reaching them in just a digital way.” (more…)
The Bronx Museum is reportedly in talks with the organizers of next year’s Havana Biennial in Cuba to plan a possible exhibition during the event, which would make it the first major show by a US museum in the country. The talks are also centered around a possible show of Cuban artists at the New York Museum. (more…)
Ai Weiwei at Brooklyn Museum, via Art Observed
Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei’s 2012 survey exhibition “According to What?” has made its way to the Brooklyn Museum after showings at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. and the Perez Art Museum in Miami. This blockbuster show is the artist’s first major international retrospective, and one which aims to bring together his ideals about life and art, which inescapably lead him to reflect on the nature of contemporary, and especially Chinese, politics. A balance that is often so hard to achieve through aesthetic means, the exhibition reveals Ai’s poignant installation work, which allows the viewer a rare experience into his world. The Brooklyn Museum show is enhanced by two installation pieces completed in 2013: S.A.C.R.E.D., exhibited at the Venice Biennale last year, and Ye Haiyan’s Belongings, a new piece installed specially in New York. (more…)
The Centre Pompidou may be expanding yet again, with plans to open a temporary satellite in the northern town of Maubeuge, close to the Belgian border. The extension has yet to be confirmed by the Centre Pompidou, but the Art Newspaper reports that Maubeuge mayor Arnaud Decagny has pledged €500,000 for the project annually. (more…)
The Wall Street Journal recaps the early days of the trial surrounding the potential dismantling of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the outcome of the hearings last week in Washington, D.C. Despite ample testimony and comment on the state of the museum and its board, the newspaper notes that no one on hand made any statement regarding the future of the art in the museum collection. This point is significant when considering the museum’s mandate, as any attempt to break up the Corcoran collection would fly in the face of its founder’s request for “the perpetual establishment and maintenance of a Public Gallery and Museum.” (more…)
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed Municipal ID card plan has added benefits from the city’s art museums. A plan currently underway with the Mayor’s office would offer free membership at The Met to card holders, and shows the city’s reliance on the impact these institutions have on the city. “The city’s coming to us and saying, ‘Will you help solve this?’ ” said Susan Lacerte, executive director of the Queens Botanical Garden. “It recognizes that we have great constituencies, we have reach in the communities.” (more…)
The new 5th avenue home for The Museum for African Art was planned as an elegant and impressive addition to Museum Mile and a cultural contender to neighbors such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Neue Galerie. Unfortunately, the planned move and expansion have been fraught with budgeting and funding problems, forcing the museum to downsize its dream and echoing the struggle faced by many smaller art institutions. (more…)
The Smithsonian Institution is reportedly in talks to build an expansion in London’s Olympic Park, a project that would become part of Mayor Boris Johnson’s plan to build a massive cultural center on the grounds of the 2o12 Olympics. “The mayor has made clear his ambitions for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with a view that it becomes home to a range of prestigious higher education, cultural and technological institutions,” said Johnson’s spokesperson. (more…)
Detroit retirees have passed a vote resolving to allow the Detroit Institute of Arts to spin-off as its own institution, and to accept pension cuts, reflecting what many believe to be the popular opinion towards the city’s art collection and its ability to recover. “The voting shows strong support for the city’s plan to adjust its debts and for the investment necessary to provide essential services and put Detroit on secure financial footing,” said Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr.
The New Museum has promoted curator Massimiliano Gioni to the position of Artistic Director, putting him at the forefront of the institution’s short-term and long-term planning. “Widely recognized as one of the most influential and admired curators working today, Massimiliano represents the New Museum around the world at major art events and through his lectures at many international venues,” says Director Lisa Phillips.
A 30-inch statue representing the god Sekhemka broke the world record for highest auction price of an Egyptian artwork last Thursday at Christie’s London. The statue, sold by the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, was estimated to sell for $7 to $11 million, but sold for over double its estimate, going to an anonymous bidder for $27 million. The museum has drawn criticism over the decision to sell the statue to fund a future expansion. “No other items from the museum’s collection will be sold off. “Sekhemka was an exceptional case,” said David Mackintosh of the Northampton Borough Council.
MoMA PS1 Curator Christopher Lew has been hired on at the Whitney Museum as the institution’s new associate curator. Lew has earned a reputation for groundbreaking shows of young and rising artists, and his group shows at PS1 had earned considerable praise. “The Whitney is enjoying an exciting time of growth and I am thrilled and honored to join the museum as it prepares to return downtown,” he said in a statement. (more…)
The costs and logistics of the Guggenheim’s Helsinki expansion plans are causing a backlash against the museum in the Finnish capital, the New York Times reports. “I felt some defensiveness and some very developed hostility to us, a fear which I was empathetic toward,” says Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong, “that the distinct local character of Helsinki would somehow be amalgamated into some sort of gigantic industrial apparatus.” (more…)
A recent article by collector Ronald Lauder in the Wall Street Journal traces the number of claims over Nazi-looted art currently dogging museums in the U.S. and abroad, and advocates for a swift return of disputed works. “Refusing to return stolen art because of the passage of time—not yet 70 years since Auschwitz was liberated—deprives museums of any claim to moral high ground,” Lauder writes. (more…)
Pierre Huyghe, L’Expédition scintillante, Act III (Black Ice Stage) (2002), via Museum Ludwig
Working in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Museum Ludwig is showing a major retrospective of Pierre Huyghe, containing over 60 works and projects. When the exhibition was previously set up in Paris, Huyghe took the layout of the previous show, dedicated to Mike Kelley, and transformed it by moving and cutting walls inside the space. When the show moved to Cologne, he cut the pieces out of the walls of Pompidou and reassembled them in a sort of collage. This dissection and reassembly reflects Huyghe’s exploration of the reliance of art on time and specific events. The works he displays carry with them their own physical timelines. (more…)
