Art Movements
This week in art news: artists and protesters demanded the removal of a Dana Schutz painting from the Whitney Biennial, an artist received death threats for her anti-Trump billboard, and a man attacked a Thomas Gainsborough painting at the National Gallery in London.
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Over 30 artists and writers have signed an open letter calling for the removal and destruction of Dana Schutz’s 2016 painting, “Open Casket,” amid protests over its inclusion in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. The abstracted, impasto painting depicts the open casket of African-American teenager Emmett Till, who was savagely beaten, disfigured, and lynched in 1955. Written by artist Hannah Black, the letter accuses Schutz of “transmut[ing] Black suffering into profit and fun.” Several news outlets published a letter, allegedly written by Schutz, in which the artist called for the work’s removal. Stephen Soba, the Whitney Museum’s director of communications, confirmed to Hyperallergic that the letter is a hoax.
California-based artist Karen Fiorito received death threats after unveiling a billboard of Donald Trump emblazoned with dollar signs fashioned as Nazi swastikas.
A man was arrested after attacking Thomas Gainsborough’s “Mr. and Mrs. William Hallett” (1785) with a screwdriver at the National Gallery in London. Keith Gregory, a 63-year-old of no fixed address, left two long gashes on the painting. A preliminary report suggests that the damage can be repaired relatively easily.
Corrina Mehiel, an artist and teacher at the Corcoran School of Art & Design, was found bound and stabbed to death inside a rowhouse in Northeast Washington, DC. Police are currently searching for her missing car, a blue four-door 2004 Toyota Prius with a Kentucky license plate numbered 722RMY.
German police are seeking a man captured on CCTV in connection with the murder of Berlin-based artist Ewa Kowska.
Several Republican lawmakers, including Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), and Mark Amodei (NV), expressed their support for the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities.
Shia LaBeouf, Nastja Säde Rönkkö, and Luke Turner’s participatory work, “He Will Not Divide Us,” was “adopted” by the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool in the form of a live-streamed flag emblazoned with the project’s title. FACT announced that they had removed the flag this morning “on police advice.”
The Gemeentemuseum will display its entire collection of work by Piet Mondrian — about 300 pieces — as part of its upcoming exhibition, The Discovery of Mondrian.
UNESCO raised $75.5 million as part of a new fund to protect heritage sites from war and terrorism.
Annette Kulenkampff, Documenta’s CEO and managing director, requested additional funds for the quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. Half of the show’s $37-million budget is publicly subsidized, with the remainder raised by the exhibition’s organizers, a model that Kulenkampff described as “not sustainable in the long run.”
David Fitzpatrick, the president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2058, stated that President Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze was responsible for the shuttering of seven historic sites in Philadelphia, including Declaration House and Benjamin Franklin’s home and print shop.
Christie’s withdrew a painting by the late Iraqi artist Faeq Hassan from an upcoming auction in Dubai. Iraqi authorities claimed that the work belongs to the state and was smuggled out of the country.
Two paintings stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002 went back on display. Octave Durham, who along with an accomplice stole Vincent van Gogh’s “Sea View at Scheveningen” (1882) and “Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen” (1882–84), told a Dutch documentary crew that the theft took 3 minutes and 40 seconds. “When I was done, the police were there, and I was passing by with my getaway car,” Durham stated. “Took my ski mask off, window down, and I was looking at them. I could hear them on my police scanner. They didn’t know it was me.”
Artist Antonio Lee filed a fabricated report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Edgar Database. The report, which Lee filed on February 1, stated that Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., had purchased Lee’s art company in a stock deal that made him richer than Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos combined. According to Bloomberg’s Anders Melin, there is no evidence that Lee profited from the deception, though false filings continue to be an issue for the SEC.
A home movie shot by Lou Henry Hoover is thought to be the earliest known color film of the White House grounds. The footage was discovered by Lynn Smith, the audiovisual archivist at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.
Transactions
The Victoria & Albert Museum acquired nine works by Carl Fabergé and two works by the 18th-century goldsmith, Johann Christian Neuber, through the UK’s Cultural Gifts Scheme.
Imperial Oil Limited donated 38 artworks to 14 Canadian museums, including the National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Alberta.
The Edmond J. Safra Foundation donated $1 million to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The gift will fund a professor post at the museum’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts.
The Mike Kelley Foundation awarded a total of $319,000 in grants to eight Los Angeles–based nonprofits, including La Plaza de Cultura y Artes and the Vincent Price Art Museum.
Industrialist and philanthropist Mark Pigott donated a “major gift” toward the construction of a new Tudor and Stuart gallery and learning space at the National Maritime Museum in London.
The Baltimore Museum of Art acquired works by Mark Bradford, Paul Chan, Norman Lewis, and Ellsworth Kelly.
Transitions
Lourdes Ramos was appointed president and chief executive of the Museum of Latin American Art — the first Latina appointed to the post.
Gail Andrews announced her retirement as director of the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Cathy Ferree will succeed Tom King as president and CEO of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites.
Alex Aldrich will step down as executive director of the Vermont Arts Council next month.
The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London appointed Katharine Stout as deputy director and Richard Birkett as chief curator.
Stephanie D’Alessandro was appointed curator of modern art and curator in charge of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Florian Ebner was appointed head of the photography department at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris.
Manuela Paz was appointed director of development and strategic planning at Independent Curators International.
The National YoungArts Foundation appointed Stacey Glassman Mizener as vice president of development and Dejha Carrington as vice president of external relations.
The Barnes Foundation appointed Barbara Wong as director of community engagement.
Postmasters Gallery announced that it will open a second space in Rome.
Pace Gallery announced plans to open a new space in Hong Kong.
The Buckminster Fuller Institute will relocate its headquarters to San Francisco.
Guernica Magazine will open a second office on the campus of Purchase College, SUNY, as part of a new partnership.
The Centre Pompidou is in negotiations to open a satellite space in Shanghai’s West Bund cultural district.
San Diego Comic-Con International plans to open a museum at the site of the out-of-business San Diego Hall of Champions.
The College Art Association launched a revamped website.
Accolades
The J. Paul Getty Trust will present the 2017 J. Paul Getty Medal to artist Anselm Kiefer and writer Mario Vargas Llosa in November.
Thomas Poulsen (aka FOS) was awarded the 2017 Arken Art Prize.
Romain Mader was awarded the 2017 Foam Paul Huf Award.
Susie Lee received the 26th annual Bonnie Bronson Fellowship Award.
Rachel Corbett was awarded the 2016 Marfield Prize for arts writing.
Two Trees Management Co. announced the recipients of its Cultural Space Subsidy Program.
The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation announced the recipients of its Grants & Commissions Program Award. The foundation awarded its 2017 Achievement Award to Daniel Joseph Martinez.
Grayson Perry received the Royal Television Award for best presenter and best arts program for his latest Channel 4 show, Grayson Perry All Man.
Ericka Beckman and Ian Weaver received the inaugural Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Awards from Washington University in St. Louis.
Opportunities
The New York City Campaign Finance Board launched a competition for the design of a new “I Voted” sticker. The submission deadline is April 14.
The Soze Agency partnered with artists Russell Craig and Jessie Krimes to establish the Right of Return USA Fellowship, the first fellowship dedicated to supporting formerly incarcerated artists. The application deadline is April 21.
The New York Foundation for the Arts launched the first-ever Canadian Women Artists’ Award. The Award is open to Canadian citizens between the ages of 21 and 35 who are living and working (including students in bachelor’s or master’s degree programs) in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Obituaries
Chuck Berry (1926–2017), guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
Shane Patrick Boyle (unconfirmed–2017), founder of Zine Fest Houston.
George Braziller (1916–2017), publisher.
Trisha Brown (1936–2017), pioneering dancer and choreographer. Founder of the Trisha Brown Dance Company.
Walt Cessna (1964–2017), artist, author, and curator.
James Cotton (1935–2017), musician and harmonica player.
Colin Dexter (1930–2017), writer and educator. Creator of Inspector Morse.
Hugh Hardy (1932–2017), architect.
Leonard Manasseh (1916–2017), architect.
Ray Rathborne (1943–2017), photographer.
David Rockefeller (1915–2017), arts benefactor, philanthropist, and head of Chase Manhattan Corporation. Grandson of industrialist John. D. Rockefeller.
Robert Silvers (1929–2017), editor of The New York Review of Books.
Richard Wagamese (1955–2017), author and journalist.
Derek Walcott (1930–2017), poet, author, and artist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
Paul Walter (1935–2017), art collector.
Skip Williamson (1944–2017), underground cartoonist.
Bernie Wrightson (1948–2017), comic book artist.
