Art Movements

Sir Edward Burne-Jones, album of illustrated letters from Burne-Jones to Mrs Gaskell (1893–8); one drawing of a bird in flight; one drawing of Burne Jones and Mrs Gaskell taking tea (detail shown right); one fragment in pencil with a drawing of a baby bird; writing paper, mounted onto an album page (© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)

Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.

The FBI released surveillance footage recorded at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the night before the heist that took place on March 17, 1990. The footage apparently shows a guard — identified as Richard Abath by the Boston Globe — letting an unauthorized guest into the museum.

A seven-year-old boy got his leg stuck in a public work of art. “In twenty-one years in the fire service,” Captain Dave Bell of the Hilton Head Fire Department told WJCL News, “I never had an extrication from an art piece, so that was a first.”

The Ashmolean Museum acquired an archive of correspondence between Pre Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Helen Mary (“May”) Gaskell. The artist had a romantic, platonic affair with the married society hostess. According to Josceline Dimbleby, Gaskell’s great-granddaughter, the pair corresponded up to five times a day.

A number of journalists and human rights activists criticized the investigation into the murder of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa. According to Mexico City prosecutor Rodolfo Ríos Garza, burglary is being considered as a motive in Espinosa’s death, despite the fact that the photojournalist was reportedly being harassed by state officials.

Johnnetta Betsch Cole, the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, published an article defending the museum’s decision to keep Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue — an exhibition of work loaned by Bill and Camille Cosby — open.

The British Library (completed 1997) became one of the youngest buildings in Britain to be designated Grade I listed status.

The British Library, London (via Wikipedia)

Marek Maďarič, Slovakia’s culture minister, filed a criminal complaint against an unnamed individual in connection with Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s marble bust of Pope Paul V (1621). The work was recently acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that $6.2 million in grants will be distributed to 16 historic sites that still require repairs in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

A fire damaged the Pietro Griffo Archeological Museum in Sicily. The site, which is one of Italy’s 51 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, contains the ruins of six Greek temples.

UNESCO signed an agreement with Iraq to conserve the remains of Samara City. Under the terms of the agreement, $873,000 will be invested in protecting the World Heritage Site.

According to The Art Newspaper, the Public and Commercial Services Union asked incumbent National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi to “intervene” in the ongoing dispute over staff privatization.

The World of Lygia Clark Foundation ceased its authentication services due to a legal battle between the artist’s sons, Eduardo and Alvaro Clark.

Antoine Pesne, “Girl with Dove” (1754), oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm (via Wikimedia)

US District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected Poland’s request to extradite Russian art dealer Alexander Khochinskiy. The dealer has been accused of knowing that Antoine Pesne’s “Girl with Dove” (1754) was stolen by the Nazis from the National Museum in Poznan when he acquired it.

Philip Kennicott, the Washington Post‘s art and architecture critic, opined that Melissa Chiu’s decision to hold the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s 40th-anniversary gala in New York “is a snub” to the Washington arts crowd.

Two contractors were injured following a “partial wall collapse” at a construction site at 210 Bowery, New York. The Andrew Edlin Gallery, whose new location is directly next-door, postponed a performance by Brent Green following the incident.

A stolen Stradivarius was returned to the daughter of its former owner after a California woman brought the instrument to violinmaker and dealer Phillip Injeian for appraisal.

The board of the Tubman African American Museum voted to keep Alfred Conteh’s work “The Preacher Pimp” on display following complaints by local clergy members.

A Banksy mural that was removed from the Packard Plant in Detroit is estimated to fetch between $200,000 and $400,000 at auction.

Marshall University faces thousands of dollars in potential fines for allegedly failing to provide an inventory of Native American artifacts to federal officials.

The lawyer representing artist Danh Vō in his ongoing legal dispute with collector Bert Kreuk has withdrawn from the case.

Art dealer Magda Sawon claimed to have rejected a consignment of two prints by the Suicide Girls. Back in May, the Suicide Girls published prints of their Instagram posts in protest over Richard Prince’s appropriation of their images.

(via @magdasawon/Twitter)

The Saint Arnold Brewing Company produced a new IPA inspired by Houston’s annual Art Car Parade.

Cindy Sherman will play a character inspired by opera singer Maria Callas in a new film by artist Francesco Vezzoli.

Rome’s mayor Ignazio Marino launched a €50,000 (~$55,000) initiative to clean the city’s most prominent fountains.

The Clark Hulings Fund will accept applications for their Business Accelerator Grants beginning September 1. The grants are given to artists “who have secured tangible prospects for advancing their careers but lack the financial resources to capitalize on these opportunities.”

(via thepenguinpostcardproject.wordpress.com)

David Brook, the editor, speaker, secretary, and press officer of the D.H. Lawrence Society, resigned from his posts in protest over a petting zoo that will travel to the D.H. Lawrence Heritage Centre.

The OPAL Community Land Trust launched a Kickstarter campaign to save and transport the former home of Edith Macefield. The house was the inspiration for Carl Fredricksen’s so-called “balloon house” in the Pixar movie Up.

Future Artefacts, a three-day fair dedicated to “physical objects in media” (books, magazines, LPs etc.) will debut in London in October.

Transactions

The National Gallery of Art acquired work by Mary Cassatt, Jan Miense Molenaer, Arshile Gorky, and Lewis Carroll.

The Portland Art Museum announced that it will return 18 medicine bundles that were taken from Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation.

The Newseum in Washington, DC, acquired the set of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The New-York Historical Society acquired 15 Hudson River School paintings from the late Arthur and Eileen Newman. The acquisition includes works by Thomas Cole, Martin Johnson Heade, Frederic Edwin Church, and Joseph F. Cropsey. The museum also acquired Ed Ruscha’s “Fanned Book” (2013), a gift of museum trustee Sid Lapidus and his wife Ruth.

Thomas Cole, “On Catskill Creek, Sunset” (ca. 1845–47). New-York Historical Society. Collection of Arthur and Eileen Newman, Bequest of Eileen Newman (courtesy New York Historical Society) (click to enlarge)