Art Movements
This week in art news: two men were charged with involuntary manslaughter for the Ghost Ship warehouse fire, Dakota Nation members suspended plans to burn Sam Durant's "Scaffold," and the Rijksmuseum's 10-millionth visitor spent the night under Rembrandt's "The Night Watch."
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world. Subscribe to receive these posts as a weekly newsletter.
The Rijksmuseum invited its 10-millionth visitor, Stefan Kasper, to sleep beneath Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” (1642). Kasper, a resident of Haarlem, is the first person to have ever spent a night at the museum.
Derick Ion Almena and Max Harris were charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter over the fire that killed 36 people at the Ghost Ship arts space in Oakland. Prosecutors claimed that Almena and Harris, the warehouse’s property manager and creative director, respectively, “knowingly created a fire trap” by failing to provide adequate safety equipment and exits.
Members of the Dakota Nation suspended plans to ceremonially burn Sam Durant’s 2012 sculpture, “Scaffold,” in order to “slow down and allow more voices” in the debate regarding the work’s dismantling and destruction.
French police shot a man who attacked an officer with a hammer outside Notre-Dame Cathedral. Farid Ikken, a 40-year-old Algerian journalist, reportedly shouted “this is for Syria” during the attack.
British art dealer Timothy Sammons, the former director of Sotheby’s Chinese art department in New York, could be jailed for 25 years for allegedly stealing over $10 million from clients. Sammons is expected to fight a US extradition request approved by a UK judge.
The Canadian government will formally request the repatriation of the remains of Chief Nonosbawsut and his wife, Demasduit, from the National Museum of Scotland.
An investigation concluded that Sarasota city official Mark Lyons intentionally steered a $100,000 public art commission to his son-in-law, Mark Krucke.
Andrea Fraser plans to publish a book detailing the political donations of museum trustees.
Michael Moi filed a lawsuit against his former employer, renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, and demanded $21 million in compensation as well as status as a joint creator on a number of works.
An exhibition of works from the Hispanic Society of America has attracted over 150,000 visitors to the Museo del Prado since it opened on April 4. The New York museum receives fewer than 25,000 visitors a year, despite owning works by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Goya, and El Greco. “It’s an extraordinary collection, but the difficulty is that the museum is at 155th and Broadway,” Philippe de Montebello — the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the chairman of the society’s board of trustees — told the New York Times. “Manhattanites are extraordinarily provincial, and they need more incentive to come.”
Alex Farquharson is spearheading an initiative to rehang Tate Britain‘s collection and provide more detailed wall texts and labels according to The Telegraph.
Banksy cancelled a promotion to offer free prints to anti-Tory voters following a warning by the UK’s Electoral Commission.
Laurence Weiss, a former Goldman Sachs partner, is leading a resident’s petition to permanently change the name of Trump Palace on the Upper East Side.
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation discovered the writer’s incomplete dictionary of slang. The author is best known for A Clockwork Orange (1962), for which he devised a fictional register named ‘Nadsat.’
Christie’s announced that it will auction off David and Peggy Rockefeller’s collection in the spring of 2018.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art launched its first-ever Kickstarter. The museum is looking to raise $75,000 to build a replica of the Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Guatemala’s first and only contemporary art museum. The small, egg-shaped structure will tour locations in Guatemala, Mexico, and Southern California.
The NYPD apprehended the muggers of a 21-year-old art student after she provided them with a detailed sketch of one her assailants. Robert Yarbrough, a convicted rapist, and his nephew were both handed prison sentences. “I love being able to tell the story and say, ‘Art helped me put a rapist behind bars,'” Laura Murray told the New York Post.
Transactions
The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, acquired the archive and art collection of Suzan Shown Harjo.
Pierre Rosenberg, the former director of the Louvre, announced plans to donate his art collection to the town of Les Andelys in northern France.
Houston’s Project Row Houses received an $85,000 grant from the California-based non-profit Metabolic Studio.
The Delaware Art Museum announced that it acquired 61 artworks by 37 artists over the last 18 months, including pieces by Carl Chiarenza, Stan Smokler, William Holman Hunt, and Gretchen Moyer.
Transitions
Karole P.B. Vail, the granddaughter of Peggy Guggenheim, was appointed director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and the Guggenheim Foundation director for Italy.
Katie Hollander stepped down as executive director of Creative Time.
Lauren Kelley was appointed executive director of the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and Storytelling in New York.
André Delpuech was appointed director of the Musée de l’Homme.
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi was appointed curator of African art at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Valerie Cassel Oliver was appointed curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Boris Oicherman was appointed curator for creative collaboration at the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota.
Zara Stanhope was appointed curatorial manager of Asian and Pacific art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.
The Vancouver Art Gallery appointed cheyanne turions as its new director of education and public programs.
Katelijne De Backer will succeed Helen Toomer as director of the Pulse Contemporary Art Fair.
Jason T. Busch was appointed director of the Jason Jacques Gallery in New York.
The first major restoration of Philip Johnson’s Sculpture Gallery was completed.
Los Angeles’s Acme gallery is set to close.
Lisson gallery closed its Milan space.
Art Hamptons and Art Southampton cancelled their 2017 fairs.
The Frick Collection expanded its pay-what-you-wish admission hours.
The Linda Pace Foundation broke ground on its new $16 million building designed by David Adjaye.
The National Gallery of Canada will open its new Canadian and Indigenous Galleries on June 15.
Van Doren Waxter and its “sister gallery” 11R will merge on September 1, 2017.
Hauser & Wirth now represents the estate of Piero Manzoni.
Accolades
Pope.L (aka William Pope.L) was named the recipient of the 2017 Bucksbaum Award.
Regina Agu and Kaneem Smith were named the winners of the 2017 Houston Artadia Awards.
Maeve Brennan and Imran Perretta were named the winners of the 2018 Jerwood/FVU Awards.
The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada announced the finalists of the 2017 Sobey Art Award.
The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program named its 2017–18 residency awardees.
Obituaries
Jiří Bělohlávek (1946–2017), conductor.
Eric Broadley (1928–2017), race car designer.
Benjamin Cho (1977–2017), fashion designer and artist.
Helen Dunmore (1952–2017), post and novelist.
Sara Ehrman (1919–2017), feminist and activist.
Gina Fratini (1931–2017), dress designer.
John Freely (1926–2017), writer. Best known for Strolling Through Istanbul (1973).
Neil Gordon (1958–2017), author and academic. Best known for The Company You Keep (2003).
Juan Goytisolo (1931–2017), writer.
William Krisel (1924–2017), architect.
Elliot Martin (1924–2017), theater producer.
Peter Sallis (1921–2017), actor and the voice of Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films.
Jack Shirreff (1943–2017), artist and printmaker.
Charles Simmons (1924–2017), novelist.
Sir Jeffrey Tate (1943–2017), conductor.
Sergei Vikharev (1962–2017), dancer and ballet master.
David Wulstan (1937–2017), scholar and musician. Director of the Clerkes of Oxenford.
