Art Movements
This week in art news: Joel Goodman's photograph of British New Year's revelers went viral, a representative of Beyoncé denied that the singer is planning to star in a biopic on Saartjie Baartman, and 30 museums in Southern California will offer free admission on January 30.
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
A new plaque dedicated to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting misspelled the name of slain cartoonist Georges Wolinski. The satirical magazine marked the first anniversary of the killings with a cover featuring a bloodied depiction of God armed with an AK47. The illustration is accompanied with the headline, “One year on: the assassin is still out there.”
Babacar M’Bow was fired as the director of Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art following allegations of sexual harassment. According to the Miami Herald, an investigation into the director’s conduct revealed several instances of inappropriate language and sexual innuendo. M’Bow has denied the allegations.
The ongoing trial of the Wildenstein family was delayed after Guy Wildenstein’s defense lawyers argued that simultaneous criminal and civil proceedings into the case may be unconstitutional. Prosecutors claim that the estate of art dealer Daniel Wildenstein owes over $600 million in taxes.
Joel Goodman‘s photograph of drunken New Year’s revelers in Manchester, England became a viral hit after Twitter user @GroenMNG applied a Fibonacci spiral to its composition.
The Stiftung Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste (German Lost Art Foundation) replaced the much criticized task force responsible for examining the provenance of the Gurlitt art hoard.
A representative for Beyoncé denied rumors that the singer plans to star in a self-produced biopic about Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman (1789–1815), an enslaved Khoikhoi woman who was forced to tour freak shows across Europe under the stage name ‘Hottentot Venus.’ An unnamed representative told Gossip Cop that “Beyoncé is not connected to this project, but this is a very important story to be told.” Chief Jean Burgess of the Ghonaqua First Peoples told News24 that Beyonce would lack “the basic human dignity to be worthy of writing Sarah’s story.” He added: “I can only see arrogance in her attempt to tell a story that is not hers to tell.”
Thirty institutions in Southern California — including the Broad and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — will offer free admission on January 30. The event is an initiative of SoCal Museums, a consortium of museum marketing and communications professionals.
Armed visitors who possess a concealed weapons permit can now enter the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Israel’s high court declined to overturn legislation requiring antiquities dealers to document their entire inventory online.
Local historians and campaigners successfully lobbied Uzbekistan’s government to scrap plans to demolish a 700-year-old minaret in the city of Andijan
A network of tunnels underneath Clapham South tube station were opened for public visits by Transport for London (TfL) and the London Transport Museum. Built during the Blitz, the tunnels were also used as temporary accommodation for immigrants after the war.
BD Égalité called for a boycott of the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Not a single woman has been nominated for the festival’s grand prize. A number of nominees have complained about the award, including artists Daniel Clowes and Milo Manara who wish to have their nominations withdrawn.
A number of Bushwick residents took to Facebook to voice their frustration at the inclusion of a real estate sub-section on the “Bushwick 200.” Produced by Fuchs Projects, the “comprehensive list” consists of individuals who are “shaping the neighborhood of Bushwick.”
A number of historians have criticized the City of Nuremberg’s plans to refurbish the Zeppelinfeld, the arena used for the Nazi party’s rallies between 1933 and 1938.
An annotated version of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (1925) was released in Germany following the expiration of the work’s copyright. The new critical edition is supported by several Jewish groups and historians.
The BBC posted a fascinating short documentary on Jerry Lewis’ unrealized film project, The Day the Clown Cried (1972). The film, which Lewis vowed never to release, centers on a circus clown imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp.
Rutherford Chang, the artist best known for his project We Buy White Albums, will play Tetris live on camera as part of Real Live Online (January 10–13). Chang has so far uploaded over 1,500 videos of his gameplay onto Youtube.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that a giraffe’s tongue, a polar bear’s claws, and ten war medals are among the items that have been stolen, damaged or have gone missing at the National Museums of Scotland since 2000.
A monumental golden statue of Chairman Mao was erected in Henan province, China. Recent photographs suggest that the sculpture, which reportedly cost 3m yuan ($453,000) to build, has since been destroyed.
The nonprofit group Desert X is looking to establish an art biennial in the Palm Springs area to overlap with Modernism Week and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2017.
The Stephen Petronio Company launched a $3 million campaign to establish a choreographic residency program in Pawling, New York.
The opening of the Custot Gallery‘s Dubai space was postponed to March 14. According to Artforum, Stéphane Custot’s office and residence suffered “extreme damage” during last week’s fire at The Address Downtown skyscraper.
An Etsy vendor produced their own t-shirt in response to the controversy over Old Navy‘s “Young Aspiring Artist” shirts.
Transactions
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art acquired 46 photographs by Brett Weston.
The Stained Glass Museum, Ely, purchased two medieval stained glass windows removed from Ulverscroft Manor in Leicestershire. According to the museum’s press release, it is not known where the panels originated from.
The Italian government pledged to invest €300 million ($322 million) into cultural heritage projects, which will include the restoration of Nero’s Golden Palace and Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” (1494–1499).
The Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, pledged to donate $1 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a $600,000 grant to Rhizome. The gift will fund the development of Webrecorder, a tool to archive the dynamic web.
Transitions
Xavier Dectot stepped down as the director of the Louvre-Lens museum in order to head the art and design department at the National Museum of Scotland.
Rob Stein will step down as deputy director of the Dallas Museum of Art to become senior advisor for the National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University.
Leigh Robb was appointed the Art Gallery of South Australia‘s curator of contemporary art. Rebecca Evans was appointed the gallery’s curator of European and Australian decorative arts.
Lloyd DeWitt was appointed chief curator and curator of European art at the Chrysler Museum of Art.
Laurie Anderson was appointed guest director of the fiftieth Brighton festival.
Lacy Schutz was appointed executive director of the Shaker Museum.
Tina Kukielski was appointed executive director of ART21.
Jess Wilcox was appointed director of exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park.
The Phoenix Art Museum appointed Kirsten Peterson Johansen as deputy director, advancement.
Jonathan M. Wright was appointed deputy director for horticulture and natural resources at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Alexander and Bonin Gallery will relocate to 47 Walker Street in Tribeca this summer.
Art Héritage France, the parent company of the Pinacothèque de Paris — one of France’s few private museums — went into receivership.
Gluckman Tang Architects unveiled their designs for the Global Contemporary Art Museum (GCAM), a nonprofit museum spearheaded by former Guggenheim director Thomas Krens.
Accolades
The College Art Association (CAA) announced the recipients of its 2016 Awards for Distinction.
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation awarded grants to 46 New York City organizations as part of its Art and Social Justice initiative. Recipients include Participant Inc., Visual AIDS, and the Franklin Furnace Archive.
Coco Fusco will receive the 2016 Greenfield Prize in Visual Art on April 2.
Laura Owens was awarded the 2015 Robert De Niro Sr. Prize.
Obituaries
Robert Berlind (1938–2015), painter.
Paul Bley (1923–2016), jazz pianist.
Pierre Boulez (1925–2016), composer and conductor.
Natalie Cole (1950–2015), singer. Daughter of Nat King Cole.
Eva Fuka (1927–2015), photographer.
Olwyn Hughes (1928–2016), literary agent. Sister of Ted Hughes.
Gilbert Kaplan (1941–2016), conductor and philanthropist.
Alan Moore (1914–2015), war artist.
Peter Rice (1928–2015), stage designer.
Allen Sapp (1928–2015), artist.
Richard Sapper (1932–2015), industrial designer.
Eugenie Schwartz. Aka ‘Ersy’ (1951–2015), artist.
Elizabeth Swados (1951–2015), musician, composer, writer, and theatre director.
Donald Weinstein (1926–2015), Renaissance historian
Vilmos Zsigmond (1930–2016), cinematographer. Best known for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Deliverance (1972).
