Man Ray, “Glass Tears (Les Larmes)” (1932), photograph, gelatin silver print on paper, 229 x 298 mm (collection Elton John, © Man Ray Trust/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016)
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Tate Modern will stage an exhibition of work from Elton John‘s photography collection in November. The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection will include over 150 works by artists including Man Ray, André Kertész, Berenice Abbott, and Alexandr Rodchenko.
Police are investigating gunshot damage inflicted on the exterior of the Schwules Museum*, an institution in Berlin dedicated to LGBT culture and history.
French police seized a painting attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder from the Caumont Centre d’Art in Aix-en-Provence after doubts were raised regarding its authenticity.
According to the Financial Times, as many as 240 staff members at Qatar Museums were laid off as part of a series of budget cuts implemented by the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
Francis Bacon’s bisected sketch on the reverse of Tony O’ Maley’s “Currach, Clare Island” and “Evening Landscape Tehidy Hospital” (courtesy Christie’s Images LTD) (click to enlarge)
Christie’s will sell two early paintings by Tony O’Malley, which, when turned over and placed side by side, reveal an unfinished nude by Francis Bacon. The two artists were neighbors in St. Ives in the late 1950s. O’Malley cut the board that Bacon had used in half in order to produce “Currach, Clare Island” and “Evening Landscape Tehidy Hospital.” The paintings are estimated to fetch between £20,000–30,000 (~$) at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art sale on March 17.
Cambridge University will consider repatriating a sculpture of a bronze cockerel after the Jesus College student union voted to return the work to Nigeria. “Okukor” was one of almost 1,000 bronzes plundered by British troops during the 1897 Benin Expedition.
According to Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum, the British Museum purposely avoided shipping its recent loan of one of the Parthenon sculptures through Europe. “Greece believe that it belongs to them and they could have attempted to seize it at some airport en route,” Piotrovsky told The Art Newspaper.
The Walker Art Center will no longer host its wildly popular Internet Cat Video Festival. The museum will donate memorabilia from the festival’s four iterations to the Minnesota Historical Society.
John Cyrlas Williams, “Woman with Red Hair” (ca 1926–27) (courtesy Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw)
A Brief Flowering, an exhibition of works by Welsh artist John Cyrlas Williams (1902–65), will open at the Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw on March 20. In 2004, over 150 of Williams’ works were discovered in the attic of his family home in Porthcawl. Art historian Peter Lord told the BBC that the trove of artworks narrowly avoided destruction. “It turns out that the auctioneers had been clearing the house prior to sale, and that they were about to throw the whole lot on a bonfire in the back garden,” Lord told the BBC.
Aegean Airlines will sponsor Documenta 14, which is being co-hosted by Kassel and Athens, and operate flights between the two host cities.
The Morgan Library and Museum will offer free admission from 7pm on April 15 through closing time on April 17 to mark the 10th anniversary of its expansion.
Transactions
Part of Tim Sayer’s collection in his bathroom (photo by Rosie Hallam, courtesy The Hepworth Wakefield) (click to enlarge)
The Freeman family sold its controlling interest in the auction house Freeman’s, which will be transferred to three of the company’s senior managers — Hanna Dougher, Alasdair Nichol, and Paul Roberts.
Retired BBC Radio 4 writer Tim Sayer bequeathed his art collection to the Hepworth Wakefield. Sayer’s collection includes works by Alexander Calder, David Hockney, Bridget Riley, and Gerhard Richter.
The Mauritshuis acquired Roelant Savery’s “Vase of Flowers in a Stone Niche” (1615).
Developer John Madden donated 120 art works to the University of Denver. The gift includes works by Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Thomas Hart Benton, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Transitions
Tom Finkelpearl returned to his post as commissioner of New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs following his battle with lymphoma.
Martha Tedeschi was appointed director of the Harvard Art Museums.
Krist Gruijthuijsen was appointed director of the KW Institute.
Marc-Olivier Wahler was appointed director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Museum at Michigan State University.
Gabriel Ritter was appointed curator of contemporary art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Robin Reisenfeld was appointed curator of works on paper at the Toledo Museum of Art.
The interior of the Musée d’Orsay (via Flickr/Shadowgate) (click to enlarge)
Guy Cogeval will serve as the director of the Musée d’Orsay for another year. In January, six of the museum’s curators anonymously criticized Cogeval’s leadership in an article published in Le Monde.
Susanne Gänsicke was appointed senior conservator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Diane Chisholm was appointed chief advancement officer at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Dennis Freedman, Roelfien Kuijpers, and Benoit P. Bosc were elected to SculptureCenter’s board of trustees.
Adrian Cheng joined the Public Art Fund’s board of directors.
Bonhams appointed Edward Wilkinson as executive director, Asia, and Ingrid Dudek as head of modern and contemporary art Asia.
A new research center dedicated to the work of Lucian Freud will open at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in September.
Both Gagosian and the John Berggruen Gallery will open new spaces side by side opposite the new entrance of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Team Gallery will close its space at 47 Wooster Street following a rent increase.
Art dealer Emmanuel Perrotin plans to open an “office showroom” in Seoul.
Accolades
(via Facebook/New Cities Future Ruins)
New Cities, Future Ruins, a curatorial initiative spearheaded by curator Gavin Kroeber, was awarded the annual Meadows Prize.
The Canada Council for the arts announced the recipients of its Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Stan Douglas was awarded the 2016 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography.
Lynne Woods Turner received the 25th annual Bonnie Bronson Fellowship Award. [via press release]
Henry Kondracki was awarded the 2016 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize for his painting “The Cowgate.”
Opportunties
The National Endowment for the Humanities put out a call for projects related to the protection of cultural heritage.
The New York Foundation for the Arts is offering one-on-one feedback appointments for Mandarin-speaking artists.
Obituaries
Exterior of the Brunswick Centre, London (via Wikipedia) (click to enlarge)
Ken Adam (1921–2016), production designer. Best known for his work on the Bond series and Dr. Strangelove (1964).
Sunny Balzano (1934–2016), artist and proprietor of Sunny’s.
Jim Clark (1931–2016), film editor.
Pirro Cuniberti (1923–2016), designer.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929–2016), conductor.
Patrick Hodgkinson (1930–2016), architect. Designed London’s Brunswick Centre.
Fred Holland (1951–2016), artist.
Aaron Huffman (1972–2016), musician. Art director of The Stranger.
George Martin (1926–2016), record producer. Honorifically known as the “fifth Beatle.”
Jean Rabier (1927–2016), cinematographer.
Robert Redbird (1939–2016), artist.
Tamuna Sirbiladze (1971–2016), painter.
Marilyn Stokstad (1929–2016), art historian. Author of the widely read textbook, Art History (1995).
Panayiotis Tetsis (1925–2016), artist and academic.
Ray Tomlinson (1941–2016), computer programmer. Credited as the inventor of email.
Michael White (1936–2016), impresario.