Trevor Paglen, “Trinity Cube” (2015) (via Paglen.com)
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Trevor Paglen unveiled a new sculpture entitled “Trinity” (2015). The work’s exterior is formed with glass collected from Fukushima’s exclusion zone, while the center consists of Trinitite, the mineral that was first created at the Trinity nuclear test site in 1945. According to a post on Paglen’s website, the work has been placed inside the Fukushima exclusion zone and will only become accessible once the zone is reopened sometime “between 3 and 30,000 years from the present.”
James P. Cinque, an attorney for the Basquiat Estate, requested that Animal New York remove a post featuring nude photographs of Jean Michel Basquiat. In a screenshot of Mr. Cinque’s email request — published on Ratter — the attorney asks that the images “be immediately taken down … as they disparage Mr. Basquiat and are prurient in nature.” The photographs, which were taken by Basquiat’s ex-girlfriend Paige Powell, were exhibited at the Suzanne Geiss Company gallery last year.
A Federal judge ordered that two cases related to the Knoedler Gallery’s alleged sale of forged Abstract Expressionist paintings are to go to trial.
London’s National Gallery and the Public and Commercial Services union resolved their dispute over the privatization of parts of the museum’s visitor services.
Luc Tuymans and photographer Katrijn Van Giel reached an “amicable” settlement regarding Tuymans’s use of Van Giel’s photograph of LDD (Libertarian, Direct, Democratic) leader Jean-Marie Dedecker to create a painting entitled “A Belgian Politician” (2011).
The red-tinged waters of Utah’s Great Salt Lake (photo by Kemy Lin for Hyperallergic)
The three organizations responsible for the upkeep of Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” (1970) will not intervene to protect the land art work from current environmental conditions. Water levels at Utah’s Great Salt Lake are at an all-time low due to a severe drought. “The current thinking by most is that Robert Smithson would have loved to see the environmental changes that occur around his artwork,” Bonnie Baxter, the director of the Great Salt Lake Institute, told the Art Newspaper.
The Royal College of Art cancelled the first year intake of its Design Interactions course. RCA rector Paul Thompson attributed the cancellation to the departure of three staff members who did not work their notice period.
DCI Rebecca Reeves, the head of an investigation into the death of Sebastiano Magnanini, stated that she does not believe that the art thief’s murder was motivated by his alleged links to organized crime. Magnanini’s body was found bound to a shopping trolly in London’s Regent Canal last week.
The Association of Art Museum Directors established new guidelines for the protection of endangered antiquities.
The building materials used to construct Banksy’s Dismaland will be dismantled and sent to Calais in order to build shelters for refugees.
An electrical fire destroyed a room and damaged surrounding apartments at the Silent Barn art space in Bushwick.
The archives of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts were severely damaged by a flood.
The groundbreaking ceremony for “Austin,” a chapel designed by Ellsworth Kelly, will be held at the Blanton Museum of Art on October 31.
The Dia Art Foundation abandoned plans to construct a new building in New York City.
Anish Kapoor‘s “Dirty Corner” (2011–15) was vandalized again. The word “blame” was inscribed upon a portion of gold leaf that Kapoor recently applied to the sculpture in order to obscure anti-semitic graffiti.
Transactions
Benjamin West, “Portrait of Prince William and His Elder Sister, Princess Sophia” (1779), oil on canvas, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund for American (photo by Travis Fullerton, © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) (click to enlarge)
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts acquired Benjamin West’s “Portrait of Prince William and his Elder Sister, Princess Sophia” (1799). The painting was commissioned by King George III.
The Myles and C. Jean McDonough Foundation donated $4 million to the Worcester Art Museum.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art acquired Robert Crumb’s The Book of Genesis (2009).
The Getty Museum acquired a rare medieval alabaster sculpture of Saint Philip (ca. 1420–30) by the Master of the Rimini Altarpiece. The sculpture was sold at Sotheby’s last year for $848,579 (including the buyer’s premium).
After much negotiation, France and the Netherlands agreed to dually purchase a pair of wedding portraits by Rembrandt for $180 million.
The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Akron Art Museum will divide a gift of over 700 photographs from collectors Fred and Laura Bidwell.
Collector Eli Broad donated his archive to the University of California, Los Angeles.
Photographer and curator Jack Shear donated 500 photographs to to the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. The gift includes works by Eugène Atget, Richard Avedon, Nan Goldin, Bruce Weber, Carrie Mae Weems, and NASA.
NASA, “Apollo 11” (1969), chromogenic print (courtesy of the Tang Teaching Museum, photographed by Arthur Evans) (click to enlarge)
Transitions
Maxwell L. Anderson will step down as the director of the Dallas Museum of Art to take up the position of director of grant programs at the New Cities Foundation.
Deborah Berke was appointed dean of the Yale School of Architecture.
The Dia Art Foundation appointed James Meyer as its new deputy director and chief curator.
Zachary Kaplan was appointed executive director of Rhizome.
Veronique Le Melle was appointed executive director of Artpace in San Antonio.
La Frances Hui was appointed an associate curator of the Museum of Modern Art’s film department.
Gagosian Grosvenor Hill, Gagosian’s new London space, will open on October 10.
Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill (courtesy Grosvener Properties)
The Gotham Chamber Opera will close following the discovery of a large, undisclosed deficit.
Georgetown University is preparing to build the de la Cruz Gallery of Art, which is slated to open in the fall of 2017.
Christine Tohmé will curate the 2017 Sharjah Biennial.
Baltimore’s Freddy gallery is closing just 16 months after opening.
Accolades
Nicole Eisenman and LaToya Ruby Frazier were among the 24 winners of this year’s John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowships (aka the “genius grants”).
Doris Salcedo was named the winner of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s inaugural Nasher Prize.
Obituaries
Catherine Coulson as the Log Lady (via twinpeaks.wikia.com)
Ian Clarke (1962–2015), architect.
Roland Collins (1918–2015), artist.
Honey Lee Cottrell (1946–2015), photographer and filmmaker.
Catherine Coulson (1943–2015), actor. Best known as the “Log Lady” in Twin Peaks.
Brian Friel (1929–2015), playwright. Best known for Translations (1980).
John Guillermin (1925–2015), film director. Best known for The Towering Inferno (1974)
Milton Howard (1927–2015), architect.
Daniel Levins (1953–2015), ballet dancer.
Paul Reed (1919–2015), artist. Member of the Washington Color School.
Carl E. Schorske (1915–2015), historian. Best known for Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture (1980).
Ionel Talpazan (1955–2015), artist.
