Art Movements

Alberto Giacometti and his sculptures at the Venice Biennale, 1956 (archives of the Giacometti Foundation, courtesy Tate)

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

Cho Yoon-Sun, South Korea’s culture minister, resigned after being arrested for allegedly drafting a blacklist of around 10,000 artists who criticized impeached president Park Geun-Hye.

The Museum of Modern Art discarded a sculpture by Pat Lasch without informing the artist, according to a report by the New York Times.

A book purporting to chart Donald Trump’s life and presidential campaign was pulled from the National Museum of American History‘s gift shop after The Washington Post reported that it included a number of blatant falsehoods.

A number of institutions, including the New-York Historical Society, the Bishopsgate Institute in London, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, are looking to preserve some of the placards and artworks created for the US presidential inauguration and the international women’s marches last week.

Spain’s Interior Ministry announced the arrest of 75 people in connection with art trafficking late last year. Around 3,500 stolen archaeological artifacts and artworks were recovered as part of the pan-European operation— code-named Pandora — though officials have yet to release an inventory of the objects recovered.

Alberto Giacometti‘s group of six plaster sculptures, the “Women of Venice,” will be reunited as part of the Tate Modern’s upcoming retrospective of the artist’s work.

Anthony van Dyck, “Portrait of Adriaen Moens” (1624)

German food manufacturer Dr. Oetker will return a portrait by Anthony van Dyck to the heir of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker. The company appointed a provenance researcher in 2015 to vet its corporate collection for works that may have been looted by the Nazis.

Shia LaBeouf was charged with assault and harassment following an altercation with a man who took part in “He Will Not Divide Us,” an art project at the Museum of the Moving Image created by the actor in collaboration with Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner.

Cuban authorities freed Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado Machado. The artist, who received the support of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, had been detained since November 26.

Three artists withdrew their work from Our Lady, an exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, in protest over the inclusion of work by Zwelethu Mthethwa, who remains on trial for the 2013 murder of sex worker Nokuphila Kumalo. The show’s partnering institution, the New Church Museum, subsequently withdrew its loans to the exhibition.

Christo abandoned plans to create “Over the River,” a massive public art project in south-central Colorado that he and Jeanne-Claude, his late collaborator and wife, first conceived in 1992.

Iowa-based artists and arts organizations urged state lawmakers to preserve a $6-million cultural trust fund dedicated to supporting the arts.

More family members will be able to visit the graves of relatives buried in the potter’s field on Hart Island, as part of a settlement announced between New York City and the New York Civil Liberties Union. Over 1 million people are buried on Hart Island, the site of the largest mass grave in the US.

(courtesy Royal Mail)

Royal Mail plans to issue a set of special edition stamps dedicated to David Bowie. According to its press release, Bowie is the first “individual music artist or cultural figure” to be honored on a Royal Mail stamp.

Bronx resident Noëlle Santos launched an Indiegogo campaign in order to open an independent bookstore in the South Bronx. According to Gothamist, the borough lost its last general interest bookstore when Bay Plaza’s Barnes & Noble closed last month.

The art collective Luzinterruptus placed 400 LED breastfeeding nipples outside Facebook’s Madrid headquarters to protest the social media giant’s anti-nudity policies.

The College Art Association stated that it offers its “complete and total opposition” to the Trump administration’s reported efforts to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). “Given that the respective budgets of the NEA and NEH represent only a tiny fraction of the entire federal budget, their planned elimination cannot logically be seen as a cost-saving measure,” the statement reads. “Rather, it appears to be a deliberate, ominous effort to silence artistic and academic voices, representing a potentially chilling next step in an apparent effort to stifle and eradicate oppositional voices and cultural output from civic life.”

Transactions

George Peter Alexander Healy, Frederic Edwin Church, Jervis McEntee, “The Arch of Titus” (1871) (courtesy Newark Museum)

The Newark Museum was awarded a Bank of America Art Conservation Project grant for the conservation of George Peter Alexander Healy, Frederic Edwin Church and Jervis McEntee’s “The Arch of Titus” (1871) [via email announcement].

Sheldon and Leena Peck donated seven Rembrandt drawings to the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of an estimated $25 million gift.

Canadian heritage officials repatriated the fossils of a 220-million-year-old Saurichthys and a 250-million-year-old Ichthyosaur to China.

The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation revealed the 47 grant recipients from its second annual Art and Social Justice open call.

Transitions

Sarah Arison, Andrew Cogan, Karen Kiehl, Joel Mallin, Victoria M. Rogers, Ellen N. Taubman, and Susan Weber joined the Brooklyn Museum‘s board of trustees.

Deana Haggag was appointed president and CEO of United States Artists.

Stephanie Stebich was appointed director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Daina Augaitis announced that she would step down as the chief curator and associate director of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Gonzalo Casals was appointed director of the Leslie–Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art.

Sara Gabriela Baz Sánchez was appointed director of the Museo Nacional de Arte.

Jessica Ludwig was appointed deputy director of the Morgan Library & Museum.

Elena Ochoa Foster was appointed chair of the Serpentine Galleries council.

Ira Goldberg will step down as executive director of New York’s Art Students League at the end of the month.

Susan Krane will resign as executive director of the San Jose Museum of Art at the end of the month.

James Merle Thomas was appointed executive director of Vox Populi.

Wim Pijbes was appointed managing director of Stichting Droom en Daad (Foundation Dream and Do).

Jeremy G. Shubrook was appointed director of festivals, performance, and public programs at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

November Paynter was appointed director of programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada.

Brandy S. Culp was appointed curator of American decorative arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Emily J. Peters was appointed curator of prints and drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Lisa Çakmak was promoted to associate curator of ancient art at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Meredith Gray was appointed director of communications at the Chrysler Museum of Art.

Marcela Guerrero and Rujeko Hockley were appointed assistant curators at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Art dealers Jay Gorney and Lisa Cooley joined Paula Cooper Gallery.

Phillips promoted Peter Sumner to the role of deputy chairman, Europe, and senior international specialist, 20th century and contemporary art. Dina Amin was appointed senior director and head of the 20th Century and contemporary art department, Europe.

Eloy Torrez‘s 1985 mural of actor Anthony Quinn, “The Pope of Broadway,” was protected with anti-graffiti coating following a four-and-a-half month restoration project.

Eloy Torrez, “The Pope of Broadway” (1985), Los Angeles (via Flickr/Ian Muttoo)

Accolades

Sedrick Huckaby was awarded the 2016 Moss/Chumley Award.

The Foundation for Contemporary Arts announced the recipients of its 2017 awards. Liz Waldner received the Foundation’s inaugural Dorothea Tanning Award.

Absolut announced the finalists for its 2017 Absolut Art Award.

Opera North and the University of Leeds announced the shortlist for the Dare Art Prize.