An article in the Washington Post this week highlights one favorable effect of the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s merger with the National Gallery: permanently free admission to the museum collection. As of today, the merger is official, making the Corcoran collection part of the National Gallery, and open to all visitors. (more…)
The Miami Herald reports that, after months of tense relations, staff from the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami have decided to break ties with the city and relocate to Miami’s Design District as the Institute of Contemporary Art. Among the museum’s staff who have elected to move is interim director Alex Gartenfield, whose appointment over the city-approved Babacar M’Bow has been one of several sources of contention between the museum and the city. Whether MoCANoMi’s permanent collection, whose ownership has been hotly contested, will follow the staff to their new location or remain with the city is unclear. (more…)
The North Devon District Council has approved Damien Hirst‘s plan to build an entire town in the area. Known as the South Extension, the development will include shops, offices, a school, and over 750 residential homes. While the plan’s supporters point to the construction opportunities the development will bring to the area, critics are more focused on the longterm repercussions, expressing concern over the future town’s effect of the environment and calling it “an unemployment black spot”. (more…)
In response to the efforts of Lucian Freud‘s son, Paul McAdam Freud, challenging the secrecy of the painter’s will, a High Court judge has ruled that the will’s contents are to remain undisclosed to the public and most of his 14-odd children. When he died in 2011, Freud left behind his estate equally to his solicitor and one of his daughters, with the understanding that they were to hold the estate in trusts for undisclosed recipients. The secrecy of the will has been a point of contention among his many children and beneficiaries. (more…)
The New York Times reports that the Brooklyn Museum will offer free admission to visitors under twenty, beginning on September 3rd. The museum also plans to raise the suggested general admission from $12 to $16, the first increase since 2011. The decision to admit children and teenagers for free is part of an effort by the museum to make the institution more available to a younger audience, whom director Arnold Lehman believes “represents the future of all museums”. (more…)
As the Whitney prepares to relocate its collection to lower Manhattan, American artist Alex Katz will christen the neighborhood in September with a 17-by-29-foot print of his painting “Katherine and Elizabeth” (2014). The mural, which will adorn the building directly across from the museum’s future home, is the product of a collaboration between the Whitney, High Line Art, and TF Cornerstone that plans to fill the space with public art installations over the next five years. (more…)
August 4th will see New York City’s billboards, subways, newsstands, and more inundated with major works of art, including pieces by Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close, as part of Art Everywhere U.S.. This new campaign is the product of a collaboration between the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and five American museums which will result in 58 works of American art being displayed on over 50,000 sites across the country. The campaign hopes to recreate the success of Art Everywhere U.K., a similar movement that launched last year, and spread the importance of American art and artists to a greater number of viewers.
The New York Times reports that Emily Rafferty will be retiring next spring after ten years as President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and almost forty at the institution. She first joined the Met in 1976 in the development department before rising through the ranks to become the Met’s first female president in 2004. As president, Rafferty has been in charge of the museum’s administration, working on the financial, legal, and developmental issues that provide the backbone to the museum’s extensive collection and popular shows.
A new contemporary art gallery is coming to Mayfair in September 2014. Ben Tufnell and Matt Watkins, the former directors of Haunch of Venison, have partnered with Nicholas Rhodes, the director of the London gallery Master Piper, in the creation of Parafin, which will feature works by contemporary artists such as Nancy Holt, Katie Paterson, and Uwe Witter. (more…)
The New York Times reports that a Detroit creditor has ordered an appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Art‘s collection in hopes that the Institute’s works, which includes pieces by Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, and Vincent Van Gogh, might be sold to cover the city’s debts. Although this appraisal valued the collection at up to $8.5 billion, an earlier appraisal placed the value between $2.7 billion and $4.6 billion, with the additional caution that, because of external factors like donor lawsuits and lack of demand for certain periods, actual sales will probably be around $800 million.
6.2 million domestic and international visitors made their way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art during this past fiscal year, making it the third year in a row that the museum’s attendance has exceeded six million visitors. This number is comprised of visitors to both the Met as well as the Cloisters in Upper Manhattan, which attracted 350,00 visitors of its own, a marked 50% increase from the previous year. These high numbers are due in part to the Museum’s recent decision to open seven days a week as well as to popular exhibitions such as PUNK: Chaos to Couture and Balthus: Cats and Girls-Paintings and Provocations. (more…)
A new gallery is scheduled to open in 2016 at Goldsmith College, University of London, which will showcase art created by the college’s current students and alumni, who include Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, and Sarah Lucas. The gallery will be housed in the renovated water tanks of the early twentieth century Laurie Grove Baths, a project which will cost 1.8 million pounds. Sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, who announced the plans alongside architect Sir David Chipperfield, called the future gallery a “resource for the university and for London.”
An article in the New York Times reports on a recent wave of high-profile announcements from some of the world’s most prominent auction houses in attempt to gain the upper hand in the upcoming fall sale season. Among these announcements is the news that Sotheby’s will partner with eBay while Christie’s will expand with a house in Shanghai and Phillips de Pury will unveil a impressive new space in Mayfair. While these announcements might project an attractive appearance of prosperity and growth, the article contrasts them against the inherent instability of public sales, comparing the auction market to a “Baked Alaska dessert — firm and shiny on the top, but soft in the middle and on the bottom.” (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…)
Three artists in Germany have used the fat from Joseph Beuys‘ work Fettecke (1982) to distill their own liquor, and to serve it to visitors during a performance. The performers, professor of art in Bremen Markus Löffler and artists Andree Korpys and Dieter Schmal, combined the fat with blue pigment from a Yves Klein work, and created a home distilled drink. “The taste is reminiscent of Parmesan,” says Löffler. (more…)
A new study has found an interesting link between a synthetic dopamine used to treat Parkinson’s Disease, and sudden bouts of intense creativity. “I started painting from morning till night, and often all through the night until morning. I used countless numbers of brushes at a time. I used knives, forks, sponges … I would gouge open tubes of paint–it was everywhere,” says one patient. “But I was still in control at that point. Then, I started painting on the walls, the furniture, even the washing machine.” (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…)
The New York Times takes a look inside Mana Fine Arts and Mana Contemporary, the nearly one million square foot art storage and exhibition space in Jersey City, which has become one of New York’s best kept secrets, and which is owned by moving magnate Moishe Mana, whose business has grown alongside New York’s art world. “I remember moving artists in the early days,” Mana recalls. “And when they said they couldn’t afford my rate, I told them if they couldn’t make a living from their art, then they should find real jobs and keep art as a hobby.” (more…)
US Museums are joining forces with the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force to assist in the preservation of the country’s cultural heritage against the tide of its ongoing civil war, training civilians in preservation techniques and strategies for securing important art objects and artifacts. “Local communities are best equipped to identify heritage in need of preservation and protection, and this is precisely what is happening in Syria,” says Richard Leventhal, the executive director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. (more…)
Partnering with Beijing’s Tsinghua University Art and Science Media Laboratory (TASML) and the Center for Art and Technology at CCIA (CAT/CCIA), Rhizome has announced a $10,000 cash prize to one Internet artist. The award will be handed out annually three times total over the course of the next three years, through 2016. “Internet art remains less recognized, less supported,” the organization said in a statement. “This prize gives a boost to those who continue to make art on the Internet, and emphasizes the unique cultural importance of such work.” (more…)
FIAC has announced a new event set to take place during the larger fair this October, titled (OFF)ICIELLE, and focused around promoting young galleries and artists on the international circuit. The event will present 50 galleries from around the world in Paris, opening for a private viewing on October 21st. (more…)
The Art Newspaper investigates the current payscales for independent curators, from Milan Expo 2015’s €750,000 salary for Germano Celant, to much lower rates for small-scale fairs and biennials. “We’re not talking about the kind of field where you say, ‘A senior vice-president makes this and a schoolteacher makes that,’” says consultant András Szántó. “One of the interesting things about the art world as a labour market is that it is so fragmented.” (more…)
The use of 3D Printing in contemporary art is growing, and this week, the International Foundation for Art Research will host a special event investigating the impact and use of the advanced technology in current studio practices. “The technology, which facilitates replication, has legal implications, such as patent and copyright infringement and, down the road, possibly also forgery and fraud”, says Ifar Executive Director Sharon Flescher. (more…)
Bloomberg examines the record sale of Tracey Emin’s My Bed at Christie’s this past month, and notes its success as part of a growing trend towards higher prices for female artists on the secondary market. “Historical corrections are in vogue,” says former Christie’s exec Amy Cappellazzo. “There are more women artists who are getting their due.” (more…)
