Nam June Paik’s FORTRAN printouts from his piece “ETUDE 1” (Nam June Paik Archive, gift of the Nam June Paik Estate; © Nam June Paik Estate, Smithsonian American Art Museum)
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
A “computer opera” composed by Nam June Paik will be displayed as part of Watch This! Revelations in Media Art exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum next month. The work was discovered within the Nam June Paik archives at the museum by curator Michael Mansfield and former Smithsonian post doctoral fellow Gregory Zinman.
The second edition of the Kiev Biennale was cancelled due to financial difficulties and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Several buildings, including Holy House — the site of the Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) — were damaged in a blaze that swept through Cherry Grove on Thursday. Anyone who wishes to support FIAR’s summer residency can do so via their homepage or through Paddle8’s benefit auction.
Bartomeu Marí, the director of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), resigned in the wake of his cancellation of La bestia y el soberano (“The Beast and the Sovereign”). The exhibition contained a work by Austrian artist Ines Doujak that depicted a sex act between the Bolivian labor leader Domitila Chúngara and Juan Carlos I, the former king of Spain.
A petition titled “Renounce Kenya’s fraudulent Representation at 56 Venice Biennial 2015 & commit to support the realisation of a national pavilion in 2017” currently has 135 signatories. Only 2 of the 12 artists selected to represent Kenya at the 2015 Venice Biennale are Kenyan.
Martín Ramírez,”Untitled (Tunnel with Cars and Buses)” (1954), reproduced as one of five new ‘Forever’ Stamps by the United States Postal Service (© 2015 USPS) (click to enlarge)
The United States Postal Service will issue five commemorative stamps honoring outsider artist Martín Ramírez.
The UN unveiled the “Ark of Return,” a memorial designed by Rodney Leon to commemorate the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.
The Emmett Till Interpretive Center opened in Sumner, Mississippi. The center is located opposite the refurbished Tallahatchie County Courthouse where Till’s murderers, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted by an all-white jury in 1955.
The hardware used to store the NSA files leaked by Edward Snowden will go on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Guardian was forced to destroy the hard drives and memory cards containing the data in the presence of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) technicians on July 20, 2013. The order to destroy the material came directly from British Prime Minister David Cameron.
A visitor accidentally knocked over a sculpture by Cy Twombly at The Menil Collection.
A number of UK cultural institutions, including the V&A and the Arts Council England, have teamed up with TES — the world’s largest network of teachers — to launch a project encouraging access to the world’s online teaching resources.
A 1958 mural by mosaic artist Max Spivak was briefly uncovered during the renovation of the 5 Bryant Park office tower (located at 111 West 40th Street), only to be covered back up again.
Researchers at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland authenticated a disputed Claude Monet painting.
A painting deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum two years ago was declared to be a genuine Peter Paul Rubens by the Rubenshuis, Antwerp.
Charles Salvador (aka ‘Bronson’), “Beast” (undated) (courtesy Zebra One Gallery) (click to enlarge)
A London gallery will display a collection of drawings by Charles Salvador (better known as Bronson), who is referred to by the press as “the most violent prisoner in Britain.” Salvador (born Michael Gordon Peterson) has spent a total of 36 years in solitary confinement, the result of numerous attacks on prison staff and inmates. The Zebra One Gallery plans to auction the works and donate the proceeds to a mental health charity.
The Standard General hedge fund plans to donate RadioShack’s art collection and archival materials to local institutions in Delaware if it wins its bid to purchase over 1,700 RadioShack stores. The electronics retail chain filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February.
Pompeii’s Villa of Mysteries, considered to house the city’s best-preserved frescoes, was restored and reopened. The Italian government is keen to rectify criticisms of the mismanagement and neglect of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Italian American Museum is attempting to evict an 85-year-old woman from her apartment in Little Italy.
An auction lot comprised of 188 daguerreotypes, valued at £80–100, was purchased for £75,000 (~$111,600) after being attributed to art critic John Ruskin.
A watercolor still life by Adolf Hitler was withdrawn from an auction in Los Angeles.
Maria Papadimitriou will represent Greece at the 2015 Venice Biennale.
Transactions
El Greco, “Portrait of a Gentleman” (1570), oil on canvas (courtesy Commission for Looted Art in Europe) (click to enlarge)
El Greco’s “Portrait of a Gentleman” was returned to the heirs of its previous owner, Julius Priester. The work was seized by the Gestapo in Vienna in 1938.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced a 10-year sponsorship deal with Korean car manufacturer Hyundai. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, a spokesman for Hyundai stated that the dollar value of the deal is “not for public disclosure.”
139 artworks seized from individuals associated with the Petrobras scandal were given to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum.
Angus Neill donated an early Renaissance painting — a depiction of Christ carrying the cross — to the National Gallery in London.
Jacob Lawrence’s “Confrontation at the Bridge,” a work depicting the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, was donated to West Virginia University’s new art museum by alumnus Harvey Peyton and his wife Jennifer.
The Meadows Foundation donated $45 million to the Southern Methodist University, $25 million of which is being given to the university’s Meadows Museum.
Donald and Joy Bollinger donated $20 million to the US’s National World War II Museum, the largest private gift in the museum’s history.
The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation donated $5 million to Bennington College.
The UK government gave £1 million (~$1.49 million) to the Battersea Arts Centre. The venue’s grand hall was destroyed by a fire earlier this month.
The Whistler Blackcomb Foundation donated $500,000 to Canadian art collector Michael Audain’s forthcoming Audain Art Museum.
The National Endowment for the Humanities announced $22.8 million in grants to arts organizations around the US.
Transitions
Ingrid Schaffner will curate the 57th Carnegie International. The contemporary art survey is set top open in Fall 2018.
Nicholas Coleridge, the president of Condé Nast publishers, will succeed Paul Ruddock as chairman of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Shannon Stratton was appointed chief curator of New York’s Museum of Arts and Design.
Christine West resigned her post as the executive director of the Lawndale Art Center in Houston.
The Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, which was founded by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, is closing down.
The International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art-North America (INCCA-NA) rebranded itself as Voices in Contemporary Art (VoCA).
Accolades
The winners of Canada’s 2015 Governor General’s Awards were announced.
The American Academy of Arts and Letters revealed its award recipients for 2015.
Obituaries
Bodys Isek Kingelez, “Kinshasa la Belle” (1991), laminate, paper, plastic, and other found materials, 24 3/4 x 21 5/8 x 31 1/2 inches (via Wikipedia)
Robert Clatworthy (1928–2015), sculptor.
Hans Erni (1909–2015), artist.
Howard H. Guttenplan (1934–2015), executive director of the Millennium Film Workshop.
Jytte Jensen (1950–2015), film curator at the Museum of Modern Art.
Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948–2015), artist.
Donald Roberts (1923–2015), artist.
Fritz Wegner (1924–2015), illustrator.
