Kota Ezawa, “Chez Tortoni” (2015), part of a series inspired by the artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 (courtesy Murray Guy Gallery)
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Protestors gathered at the Museum of Modern Art to demand the removal of Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, from the institution’s board. Fink was one of a number of CEOs invited to discuss economic policy with President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Two more works found in Cornelius Gurlitt‘s collection — a drawing by Adolph Menzel and a painting by Camille Pissarro — were returned to the heirs of their Jewish owners.
Artists and campaigners will protest in London this weekend to demand the closure of the LD50 gallery in Dalston. According to the Guardian, the gallery has hosted a number of events involving white supremacist and far right speakers including Brett Stevens, whose writing inspired Anders Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 attacks in Norway.
A bipartisan group of 24 United States Senators signed a letter urging President Trump against slashing or abolishing federal funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities (NEA and NEH).
Rotherwas Project 2: Kota Ezawa, Gardner Museum Revisited opened at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. The exhibition consists of Ezawa’s digital drawings of the 13 artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, as well as a six-minute animation based on security footage recorded the night before the robbery. The footage was released by the FBI in 2015.
Guercino, “Madonna with the Saints John the Evangelist and Gregory the Wonderworker” (1639) (via Wikipedia)
Italy’s Carabinieri art crime squad recovered a Guercino painting stolen from a church in Modena in 2014. Three men were arrested after they attempted to sell “Madonna with the Saints John the Evangelist and Gregory the Wonderworker” (1639) to a collector in Casablanca for around £800,000 (~$1 million).
Vjeran Tomic, a cat burglar dubbed the “Spider-Man,” was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing five paintings — works by Amedeo Modigliani, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso — from the Paris Museum of Modern Art on May 20, 2010.
A wrought iron gate bearing the Nazi slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”) was returned to the Dachau concentration camp two years after it was stolen.
Approximately 7,700 tributes left in the streets of Paris in the wake of the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks were digitized and made publicly available by the Archives de Paris.
Jenny Heinz, a longtime patron of the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic, was denied entry to a performance at Lincoln Center after she refused to remove an anti-Trump sign attached to her jacket.
Shia LaBeouf, Nastja Säde Rönkkö, and Luke Turner ceased their participatory artwork, “He Will Not Divide Us,” after gunshots were reportedly fired near its new location at the El Rey Theater in Albuquerque. The Museum of the Moving Image announced on February 10 that it had closed the work in order to “restore public safety.” In a statement, the artists attributed the closure to “political pressure.” LaBeouf was arrested and charged with assault after an altercation outside the museum last month.
Shia LaBeouf, Nastja Säde Rönkkö, and Luke Turner, “HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US” (2017) (via thecampaignbook.com)
Arts patron and philanthropist Shelley Rubin filed a lawsuit against Nisha Sabharwal and her husband, Mohit. Rubin claims the couple, who she met at an event at the Asia Society in 2009, conned her into buying $18 million in knockoff jewelry.
A tract of Roman road was discovered during the construction of a McDonald’s in Marino, Italy.
Bath and North East Somerset Council approved a 100% cut to its small project grants for the arts in order to save £433,000 (~$544,000) by 2020. The decision was condemned by Equity, the UK’s trade union for actors, stage managers, and models.
Transactions
Aidan Koch, Alternate Paris Review 213 cover (2015) (Anne Koyama Collection of Comic Art, the Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum)
Annie Koyama donated over 250 pieces of original artwork by contemporary American cartoonists to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.
John and Anna Sie donated $12 million toward the remodeling of the Denver Art Museum’s North Building.
The Moody Foundation donated $2.1 million toward the Museum of Street Culture in Dallas.
The Pérez Art Museum Miami received a $200,000 matching grant from the Knight Foundation for its PAMM Fund for African American Art.
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa received significant, undisclosed gifts from the Roger Ballen Foundation and the Eiger Foundation.
The New-York Historical Society acquired the personal effects of late New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham.
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts acquired two works by Sarah Anne Johnson.
Sarah Anne Johnson, “Untitled (Schooner and Fireworks)” (2012), expanded polyurethane foam, plastics, LED lights, stove paint, acrylic paint, wood, balsa, cotton canvas and string, silicone resin, 635 cm approximate diameter, gift of the Cirque du Soleil (courtesy Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
Transitions
Miguel Falomir was appointed director of the Museo Nacional del Prado.
Courtney J. Martin was appointed deputy director and chief curator of the Dia Art Foundation.
The Drawing Center appointed four new trustees: Andrea Crane, Amy Gold, David Salle, and Waqas Wajahat.
Sara Reisman was appointed executive and artistic director of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Alexander Gardner was appointed executive director of The Treasury of Lives, a non-profit founded by the Foundation.
Caitlín Doherty was appointed director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.
Susan Greenberg was appointed director of collections at the Brooklyn Museum.
Mari Spirito will step down as director and curator of exhibitions at Alt after February 28.
Risa Shoup was appointed executive director of Spaceworks.
Christina Rees was appointed editor-in-chief of Glasstire.
Andrea Rosen announced that she will close her gallery and co-represent the estate of Félix González-Torres with David Zwirner.
Parkett will cease publication after the release of its special issue this Summer.
The Washington Art Consortium announced its decision to disband.
The Obama Foundation appointed Ralph Appelbaum Associates to lead the exhibition design for the Obama Presidential Center’s museum.
The International Fine Print Dealers Association announced the appointment of three new members: Galerie Maximillian, Hauser & Wirth, and mfc-michèle Didier.
The Royal Academy of Arts launched Mayfair Art Weekend, a rebranding of Brown’s London Art Weekend. The new partnership involves over 60 London galleries.
Accolades
Serpentine Pavilion 2017, designed by Francis Kéré, design render, exterior (© Kéré Architecture)
Diébédo Francis Kéré was commissioned to design the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion.
Performance artist Taylor Mac and musical director Matt Ray were awarded the 2017 Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, for their 24-hour work, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.
Naima J. Keith was awarded the 2017 David C. Driskell Prize by the High Museum of Art.
Lawrence Weiner was announced the recipient of the 2017 Aspen Award for Art.
Sarah Forrest received the 2017 Margaret Tait Award.
Wendy Yao, the founder of the Los Angeles–based bookstore Ooga Booga, received the 2017 White Columns / Shoot the Lobster Award.
The American Craft Council announced the recipients of its 2017 Emerging Voices Awards.
Jenny Sabin Studio was named the winner of The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s 2017 Young Architects Program.
Opportunities
Lisa Oppenheim, “APPLAUSE” (2016), at the entrance of Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, New York (photo by Allison Meier for Hyperallergic)
Socrates Sculpture Park announced an open call for its 2017 Broadway Billboard series. Proposals should be sent to democracy@socratessculpturepark.org and are due by April 15.
Obituaries
Alan Aldridge (1943–2017), artist and illustrator. Best known for his Pop imagery of the 1960s and ’70s.
Edward Barber (1949–2017), documentary and portrait photographer.
Dick Bruna (1927–2017), illustrator and children’s book author. Creator of Miffy.
Larry Coryell (1943–2017), guitarist.
Tony Davis (1930–2017), folk and jazz singer. Frontman for the Spinners.
Frank Delaney (1942–2017), author and broadcaster.
Sofia Imber (1925–2017), journalist and arts administrator. Founder of the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art.
Jannis Kounellis (1936–2017), key figure of the Arte Povera (“poor art”) movement.
Installation view of Jannis Kounellis’s “Untitled (12 Horses)” (1969) at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, June 2015 (photo by Allison Meier for Hyperallergic)
Thomas Lux (1946–2017), poet. Best known for Split Horizon (1994).
Junie Morrison (1954–2017), funk musician and producer.
Ivor Noël Hume (1927–2017), archaeologist. Director of archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg between 1957–1988.
Michael Rainey (1941–2017), owner of the London boutique Hung on You. Dressed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Eileen Ramsay (1915–2017), photographer.
Richard Schickel (1933–2017), movie critic, author, and filmmaker.
Clyde Stubblefield (1943–2017), drummer. Best known for his contribution to James Brown’s “Funky Drummer” (1969).
Seijun Suzuki (1923–2017), filmmaker. Best known for Branded to Kill (1967).
Abba Tor (1923–2017), engineer. Collaborated with architects such as Eero Saarinen and Louis I. Kahn.
