Art Movements
This week in art news: Syrian troops were accused of looting the ancient city of Palmyra after recapturing it from ISIS, Spain refused to extradite a suspect in the Knoedler forgery scheme, and artist Ciara Phillips paid homage to the razzle dazzle camouflage designs of WWI.
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, claimed that Syrian regime troops have been looting the ancient city of Palmyra since recapturing it from ISIS.
Spain’s national court ruled that José Carlos Bergantiños Díaz, an alleged member of the Knoedler gallery forgery ring, should not be extradited to the United States for health reasons.
Ciara Phillips‘s “Every Woman,” a dazzle design commissioned for the MV Fingal, was unveiled to mark the centenary of the Battle of Jutland. The Turner Prize nominee is the fourth artist commissioned by 14–18 NOW to create a dazzle design for a ship. Dazzle camouflage, also known as “razzle dazzle,” was extensively used during World War I in order to frustrate the enemy’s estimation of a ship’s speed and heading.
A number of art world figures — including billionaire art collector Eli Broad, and the Louvre’s director, Jean-Luc Martinez — criticized the use of freeports in an article published by the New York Times.
Kraftwerk lost their lawsuit against hip-hop musician Mozes Pelham. The German Constitutional Court ruled that the impact on Kraftwerk of Pelham’s sampling of the band’s 1977 song, “Metal on Metal,” did not outweigh “artistic freedom.”
The Public Art Fund announced that David Shrigley’s “Memorial” — a 17-foot-tall, granite sculpture of a shopping list — will be the next public artwork to be installed in Central Park’s Doris C. Freedman Plaza.
Los Angeles music and arts venue The Smell received a building demolition notice from the city.
The British Library digitized a number of notebooks and manuscripts by authors including Sylvia Plath, George Orwell, and J. G. Ballard.
Artist Natalie White settled her lawsuit with photographer Peter Beard. White claimed that she spent over $100,000 to help Beard produce a series of Polaroid collages of various supermodels, and that she was only given 16 of the 50 original artworks that she was allegedly promised in return. Beard countersued, claiming that White deceived him into signing an agreement at a “dimly lit nightclub, with music playing and the drinks flowing.” The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
Cindy Sherman will introduce a screening of Office Killer (1997), her sole feature-length film, at Film Forum tomorrow (June 4). The artist will be joined by Dahlia Schweitzer, author of Cindy Sherman’s Office Killer: Another Kind of Monster (2014).
Transactions
The Courtauld Gallery acquired The Seasons, a series of prints by Jasper Johns.
The Detroit Institute of Arts‘s Founders Junior Council announced a gift of $1 million to the museum.
The Montclair Art Museum acquired “Virginia’s Lynch Mob” (1998), a large-scale wall installation of silhouette cut-outs by Kara Walker. [via press release]
Transitions
Daniel H. Sallick was appointed chairman of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden‘s board of trustees. The museum also announced that art collector Adam Singer was appointed to the board.
Stuart Ashman is stepping down as president and chief executive of the Museum of Latin American Art in order to take up a leadership position at the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe.
Taco Dibbits will succeed Wim Pijbes as general director of the Rijksmuseum.
Xavier Bray was appointed director of the Wallace Collection.
Nancy Noble was appointed director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Vallejo Gantner will step down as artistic director of Performance Space 122.
Michael Goodson was appointed senior curator of exhibitions at the Ohio State University’s Wexner Center.
Karen Brooks Hopkins was appointed the second National Center for Arts Research Nasher Haemisegger Fellow.
Stanford University professor Alexander Nemerov will be the 2017 speaker for the National Gallery of Art’s A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts series.
Jarrett Gregory, an associate curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Eric Shiner, the director of the Andy Warhol Museum, will curate the 2017 Armory Show‘s “Focus” and “Platform” areas respectively.
New York’s Clifton Benevento gallery permanently closed its doors.
Andrea Rosen Gallery appointed four new partners: Trina Gordon, Teneille Haggard, Cory Nomura, and Samantha Sheiness.
Anton Kern Gallery is leaving its Chelsea space to relocate to Midtown Manhattan.
Accolades
Brenda Draney, William Robinson, Jeremy Shaw, Charles Stankievech, and Hajra Waheed were shortlisted for the 2016 Sobey Art Award.
Obituaries
Malvina Cheek (1915–2016), artist.
Thomas Fekete (1988–2016), guitarist for Surfer Blood.
Adrian Flowers (1926–2016), photographer.
Gyula Kosice (1924–2016), artist and pioneer of Kinetic art.
Baroness Marion Lambert (1943–2016), philanthropist and art collector.
Frank Modell (1917–2016), cartoonist for the New Yorker.
Peter Owen (1927–2016), publisher.
Nanette Rainone (1942–2016), radio reporter and programmer. Produced early feminist shows such as “Womankind,” “Electra Rewired,” and “Consciousness Raising.”
John Rowlands (1931–2016), art historian.
