Art Movements
This week in art news: CBC News host Evan Solomon was fired for secretly brokering art sales, MCA Australia cancelled its Marina Abramović retrospective, and the world's earliest known cello went on display at the Met Museum.
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
The world’s earliest known cello, the Amati “King,” went on public display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Egyptian police foiled a suicide bomb attack at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor. Two civilians and two policemen were injured after one of three attackers detonated an explosive device.
CBC News fired host Evan Solomon after an investigation by the Toronto Star found that he was brokering art sales with guests who appeared on his shows. In one instance, Solomon pocketed a $300,000 commission for the sale of several works of art, a fact that he did not disclose to the buyer. The Telegraph reported that Solomon sold artwork to Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, who he referred to as “the Guv” in email correspondence.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia cancelled its upcoming Marina Abramović retrospective. Abramović cited two other concurrent shows in Australia and financial issues as the reason for the exhibition’s cancellation.
According to the Globe and Mail, art collector Frans Broersen purchased 2,500 works by North Korean artists between 2005 and 2010.
The Hague Museum’s “Saul and David” was reattributed to Rembrandt following an eight-year restoration project.
A United States District Court judge ruled that a Camille Pissarro painting, which was sold to a Nazi art appraiser by force in 1939, should not be returned to the heirs of its original owner. Judge John F. Walter ruled that Spanish law applied to the case as the work is currently housed at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.
BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) unveiled its designs for 2 World Trade Center, whose primary tenants will be 21st Century Fox and News Corp. Read Hyperallergic’s coverage here.
The National Gallery of Ireland’s board stated that they haven’t been given an acquisitions budget since 2010. The revelation came about after the board expressed interest in acquiring some of the Old Master paintings of Russborough House, which are due to be auctioned at Christie’s next month. News of the sale sparked an outcry among Irish arts organizations, academics, and members of the public earlier this month.
New York Central Art Supply, the 110-year-old art supply store whose customers have included Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning, is offering discounts of up to 50% on its supplies today.
The Chicago Park District board unanimously approved admission fee increases for the Art Institute of Chicago.
Artist Nadia Plesner’s new book, Simple Living, alleges that employees of fashion brand Louis Vuitton threatened to destroy her career unless she ceased producing images using the company’s products. Plesner’s work includes an image of an emaciated African child clutching a Louis Vuitton handbag.
The Mike Kelly Foundation for the Arts will award $250,000 in grants to arts organizations producing “compelling, inventive, and challenging projects by visual artists or artists’ collectives working in any medium.” The deadline for letters of inquiry is August 5.
Philanthropist Jim Hill purchased an empty lot in Calgary for $1.15 million in order to prevent the construction of an office complex that would have blocked the skyline views from the Esker Foundation Contemporary Art Gallery. Hill founded the gallery in 2012.
Artist Robert Sestok transformed an empty lot in Detroit into a showcase for his welded sculptures.
Roger Hiorns will bury a decommissioned Boeing 737 under derelict land outside of Birmingham, England, next Summer. The Boeing 737 will be just one of a number of planes buried around the globe. In a statement sent to Hyperallergic, Hiorns clarified that “the Birmingham buried plane is a single node in the wider network of buried planes, and its use is to be interpreted within a western art cultural environment. That is to say, not all planes are buried for the intention of being an artwork. A small number will occupy that role.” The Turner Prize-nominated artist is best known for “Seizure” (2008), an installation in which he pumped 75,000 liters of copper sulphate solution into a flat in South London.
France’s culture minister Fleur Pellerin bestowed “national treasure” status upon a number of items that were due to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in September. The order prevents the objects from leaving France or being auctioned, allowing the government 30 months to purchase the objects for the state’s collection.
The American Institute of Architects voted in favor of resolution 15-1, “Equity in Architecture,” which calls for the organization to tackle gender and racial disparity amongst its membership and leadership.
Chicago will house “Sky Landing,” Yoko Ono’s first permanent public art installation in the United States, which is scheduled to open next June.
Belfast’s newest theater, the Metropolitan Arts Centre, may have to close if £1 million ($1.56 million) cannot be secured for repair work. The venue, which has been shortlisted for the Art Fund Prize Museum of the Year, has been open for just three years.
The directors of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of California made a bet on the NBA finals.
A court order provided temporary protection to “200 Years of Freedom” (1976), the iconic mural painted on the Prado Dam spillway in Corona, California.
One of the world’s rarest stamps, the sole surviving example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta (1856), went on display at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum.
The Strong Museum established a World Video Game Hall of Fame. At present, six titles — including Pong, Pac-Man, and Tetris — have earned a place in the museum’s collection.
The first two episodes of The Van Gogh Show, starring viral sensation and Vincent van Gogh doppelgänger Robert Reynolds, debuted on YouTube.
Transactions
Leonardo DiCaprio will donate a large installation by John Gerrard to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) acquired five prints by Pablo Picasso.
The Wichita Art Museum is spending $3 million on an outdoor space named the Art Garden.
The Woodruff Arts Center raised $13.4 million for its 2014–15 annual corporate campaign, a record for the institution.
The New York Post reported that Alberto Giacometti’s “L’Homme au doigt (Pointing Man) (1947), which sold for $141.3 million at Christie’s last month, was purchased by hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen.
A Banksy stencil of the Grim Reaper went on display at Bristol’s M-Shed museum. The work, a “long-term” donation from music promoter DHP Family, was extracted from the floating concert venue the Thekla.
Transitions
In a tumultuous week for Cooper Union’s management, the school’s president Jamshed Bharucha resigned a day after five of the school’s trustees quit their posts.
Jeff Harrison, the chief curator of the Chrysler Museum of Art, will retire on June 30.
Allison Agsten was appointed the director of a new contemporary and design museum in Los Angeles. The unnamed museum is unofficially being referred to as the Old Bank District Museum.
The National Academy Museum appointed Maura Reilly (a Hyperallergic contributor) as chief curator.
Kelly Baum was appointed curator of postwar and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Rubin Museum of Art hired Risha Lee as exhibitions curator.
Vin Cipolla was appointed to direct the capital campaign for the Lincoln Center’s soon to be named David Geffen Hall.
Interdisciplinary gallery Proteus Gowanus will permanently close its doors on June 28.
Accolades
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced the recipients of its 2015 Art + Technology Lab grants.
Obituaries
Paul Bacon (1923–2015), book designer. Designed iconic jacket covers for Catch-22, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Portnoy’s Complaint, and Slaughterhouse-Five.
Alan Bond (1938–2015), former billionaire property developer. Famously purchased van Gogh’s “The Irises” (1889) for a record-breaking sum in 1987.
Robin Page (1932–2015), artist and member of Fluxus.
Gwilym Prichard (1931–2015), artist.
Peter Sisam (unconfirmed–2015), photographer.
Hermann Zapf (1918–2015), type designer. Renowned typefaces included Palatino, Optima, and Zapfino.
