Art Movements
This week in art news: The Tate recreated two paintings in Minecraft, the Whitney Museum's new building has an opening date, and "Whistler's Mother" is traveling to the United States.
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
The Whitney Museum‘s new building is slated to open on May 1. The inaugural exhibition will be the first ever comprehensive installation of works from the museum’s collection.
Sotheby’s chief executive William F. Ruprecht is stepping down “by mutual agreement.” The resignation announcement comes after record-setting auction results and the apparent resolution of an extended campaign by activist investor Dan Loeb to implement reforms at the company. (See Hyperallergic’s previous coverage here.)
Actors Brad Pitt and Peter Capaldi are spearheading a campaign to raise £20 million (~$31.4 million) for the restoration of the Glasgow School of Art after part of the school caught fire last May (read Hyperallergic’s coverage here). Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the building is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture in the world.
Board members of the Kunstmuseum Bern are to meet this weekend to discuss Cornelius Gurlitt‘s decision to bequeath his Nazi-looted collection to the museum.
Catalan photographer Colita (Isabel Steva Hernández) turned down a €30,000 (~$37,000) National Photography Prize. The photographer wrote a letter to Spain’s culture minister describing the state of the country’s arts and education programs as “shameful, embarrassing and heartbreaking.”
The Tate has recreated two paintings from its collection in Minecraft; the maps containing the works will be available for download next week. The recreation of André Derain’s “The Pool of London” (1906) and Christopher Nevinson’s “Soul of the Soulless City (New York – an abstraction)” (1920) follows two months after the British Museum announced plans to recreate the entirety of its public collection in the video game (Image at top of post & video below).
Transitions
The contemporary art competition Art Prize will expand to Dallas, Texas. The first Dallas-based contest will be held in April 2016.
A new Miami Beach arts center designed by Rem Koolhaas, Faena Forum, will open in December 2015.
The Prince’s Drawing School in London, founded in 2000 by Prince Charles, is to be renamed the Royal Drawing School.
MASS MoCA entered the final phase of its refurbishment which will double its current gallery space. Upcoming programs will include projects by James Turrell and Jenny Holzer.
The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture held a preview for its soon-to-open New York space. The building, based in Chelsea, was designed pro bono by architect and Skowhegan trustee Alan Wanzenberg.
Nancy Yao was appointed director of the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA).
Libby Rosof, one of the founders of The Art Blog, retired from daily operations.
Amada Cruz was appointed director of the Phoenix Art Museum.
James McNeill Whistler’s “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1” (1871), popularly known as “Whistler’s Mother,” is to be exhibited at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California.
The trustees of the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum appointed John B. Ravenal as the museum’s next executive director.
Don Bacigalupi is stepping down as president of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to lead the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago.
Elissa Auther will join the Museum of Arts and Design as Windgate Research Curator.
Phillips auction house appointed Lisa King as chief of staff.
Stephen Haller Gallery and Stux Gallery are merging to form Stux + Haller. The new venture will be based in a 4,000-square-foot space on West 57th Street.
Transactions
A felt hat worn by Napoleon sold for $2.4 million at auction.
George Bellows’s “Two Women” (1924), one of the artist’s last figural paintings, sold for $1,265,000 at Bonhams.
Accolades
Artist Paul Chan was awarded the 2014 Hugo Boss Prize.
Paris and Dakar–based curator Eva Barois De Caevel received Independent Curators International’s 2014 Independent Vision Curatorial Award at the organization’s annual gala in New York.
The Nam June Paik Art Center awarded its annual prize to London-based artist Haroon Mirza.
Quebec-based artist Nadia Myre won the $50,000 Sobey Art Award.
Crime
David William Noll, a California resident who pleaded guilty to defacing two murals by Banksy, was sentenced to five years probation.
Obituaries
Los Angeles–based printmaker Richard Duardo (1952–2014).
Film critic Charles Champlin (1926–2014), former arts editor of the Los Angeles Times.
Photographer Lucien Clergue (1934–2014), co-creator of the Rencontres d’Arles and a close friend of Pablo Picasso. Joseph Nechvatal’s recent tribute to the artist in Hyperallergic can be read here.
