Art Movements
This week in art news: The artwork that ended John Ruskin's friendship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti is to go on sale at Sotheby's, Lego ended its partnership with Shell following a viral campaign by Greenpeace, and director David Lynch announced a third season of Twin Peaks.
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Documenta 14 will be held in Athens and Kassel. The upcoming edition of the quinquennial exhibition will open in 2017.
The city of Paris unveiled its €30 million renovation of the Eiffel Tower. The refit includes a glass floor and an installation of solar panels.
New York’s Historic Districts Council opposed the Frick Collection’s planned expansion. In a statement, the council concluded that the expansion would “destroy the design intent of Thomas Hastings’ residential composition and John Russell Pope’s graceful museum transformation.”
Lego ended its partnership with oil company Shell following a viral campaign by Greenpeace. A YouTube video by the environmental organization, featuring characters from The Lego Movie and Game of Thrones, has over 6 million views (see image at top of post).
Choreographer, dancer, and actor Geoffrey Holder passed away at the age of 84. He is best known for his portrayal of Baron Samedi in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973).
Iranian photographer Newsha Tavakolian reaccepted a €50,000 prize that she rejected last month. The reversal follows assurances by the Fondation Carmignac that it will introduce safeguards protecting artistic integrity. Tavakolian initially rejected the prize citing editorial pressure over the presentation of her work. See Hyperallergic’s previous coverage here.
The Eduardo Paolozzi Foundation donated several hundred boxes of the artist’s work and ephemera to the Tate. The Scottish artist is best known for his monumental sculpture of Sir Issac Newton outside the British Library, as well as for his mosaic designs at Tottenham Court Road tube station.
38 paintings by Sir Winston Churchill have been offered to the U.K. in lieu of inheritance tax. The British prime minister produced over 500 paintings during his life.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HTF) donated a £5 million grant to 23 U.K. libraries and museums. The grant is to be spent on the acquisition of new artifacts.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “Venus Verticordia” (1864–8) is to be auctioned by Sotheby’s. The painting’s overt eroticism reputedly brought an end to the artist’s friendship with John Ruskin. The work hasn’t been seen in public since 1886.
Bonhams withdrew a Roman marble head from auction after a researcher connected the sculpture to Gianfranco Becchina, an Italian antiquities dealer convicted of fraud.
The Metropolitan Museum purchased 37 Egyptian antiquities from Bonhams. The auction house withdrew the 37 objects — all part of a single lot — from public auction.
The Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History will be inaugurated by the University of Texas on October 29. The new institute was founded through a $17 million gift by arts patron Edith O’Donnell.
Maya Lin was awarded the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. The $300,000 award will be presented to Lin at the Museum of Modern Art on November 12.
DCKT Contemporary will close by the end of the month.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research announced a $5.25 million project to digitize its holdings. The bulk of the collection was saved during the war by Jewish laborers who risked their lives hiding items in their homes and in secret bunkers.
The Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago is planning an “initiative” focusing on the city’s historic contribution to art and design. The Art Newspaper‘s deputy editor, Javier Pes, has compared the project to the Getty’s celebrated Pacific Standard Time initiative.
Je Huk Lee, a student at Vanderbilt University, identified a statue on campus as a rare 17th century Korean tomb figure. The granite sculpture, which sat outside the Peabody campus for over 45 years, has been removed for restoration.
Anthony Michael Kallio, a former student of the Art Institute of Atlanta, was arrested after emailing a threat to the institution. Kallio’s email stated “Columbine 2014 will go down today.”
Seward Johnson’s sculpture “Unconditional Surrender” has been criticized for being sexually aggressive. On loan at a war memorial site in Normandy, the sculpture is based on Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square.
David Lynch announced that Twin Peaks (1990–1991) will return for a third season, joyous news for fans haunted by the second season’s cliffhanger finale. Hyperallergic’s Allison Meier recently reviewed the director’s latest exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, David Lynch: The Unified Field.
