2016-05-20

A selection of artifacts recovered from Caesarea National Park (via Facebook/IAA) (click to enlarge)

Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.

The Israel Antiquities Authority recovered a number of bronze statues, coins, and other artifacts dating from the Late Roman period at the site of the ancient port of Caesarea. The haul is thought to be have been cargo from a sunken merchant ship.

Pyotr Pavlensky was convicted of vandalism and sentenced to 16 months in prison for participating in a pro-Ukraine performance. The artist will not serve the sentence since the statute of limitations has expired, but remains on trial for burning the doors of the Federal Security Service’s Moscow headquarters. Earlier this week, the artist claimed that he was beaten by detainee escort officers at Moscow City Court and suffered from internal bruising, a knee injury, and a cracked rib.

The Brooklyn Museum offered voluntary buyouts to its employees in a bid to tackle its $3 million budget deficit.

George Washington University decided not to renew the contracts of 10 full-time professors at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. According to The Washington Post, enrollment at the school has dropped 24% since the university assumed control of the Corcoran’s operations in August 2014.

A rendering of ABC No Rio’s new building (via abcnorio.org)

ABC No Rio announced plans to demolish its existing building to make way for a new, environmentally friendly structure.

The Palestinian Museum is currently set to open without any exhibitions on display. The museum’s inaugural show, Never Part, was suspended following a disagreement between the board of trustees and the museum’s former director, Jack Persekian.

Art historians discovered 59 Italian Renaissance sculptures that went missing in Germany during World War II. The sculptures were stashed in a flak tower in Friedrichshain to protect them from bombings and were later seized by Soviet troops. “Most of the sculptures were damaged, some are even in fragments,” Neville Rowley, a curator at the Bode Museum, told The Art Newspaper. “But there are plans to exhibit the sculptures at the Pushkin Museum after they’ve been restored.”

Conservators at the Fitzwilliam Museum completed their restoration of Sebastiano del Piombo’s “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (1511–12). The work, which was removed from a wooden panel with acid during the 16th century, took 10 years to restore.

Damien Hirst’s art space, the Newport Street Gallery, opened an exhibition of work of by Jeff Koons. According to the New York Times, all but two of the works on display are drawn from Hirst’s personal collection. In an interview with BBC Newsnight, Hirst revealed that he wasn’t initially a fan of Koons’s Made in Heaven series. “When I first saw it, I just thought ‘that’s not art — it’s completely lost it.’ I didn’t like them. I thought why would you want to go that far? Afterwards — it was about a couple of years later — I was like, ‘oh my god, no, I love them.’ For a while they were my favorite pieces of Jeff’s.”

Installation view of ‘Jeff Koons: Now’ (2016) at the Newport Street Gallery, London (photo by Prudence Cuming Associates, © Victor Mara Ltd, artwork © Jeff Koons) (click to enlarge)

According to The Art Newspaper, the southern Italian regions of Sicily, Calabria, and Campania have failed to spend millions of euros in EU culture and tourism funding. The Art Newspaper‘s report also indicates instances of “chronic mismanagement” and misspending.

Artists held a “sculpt-in” protest at the Victoria & Albert Museum‘s Botticelli Reimagined exhibition in protest over the museum’s sketching policy.

Phillips auction house increased their buyer’s premium rates.

Transactions

Alexandre Calame, “At Handeck” (about 1860), oil on canvas 39.4 x 24.5 cm, presented by Mr Asbjørn Lunde through the American Friends of the National Gallery (© The National Gallery, London) (click to enlarge)

London’s National Gallery acquired two landscape paintings: Alexandre Calame’s “At Handeck” (circa 1860) and Johan Christian Dahl’s “The Lower Falls of the Labrofoss” (1827).

Donna and Donald Baumgartner donated $8 million to the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The Edlis Neeson Foundation, the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation, and the Zell Family Foundation each awarded $500,000 to the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.

Keith and Linda Monda donated $500,000 to The Ringling.

The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art acquired the collection and archives of James R. “Jimmy” Hedges III, including records from his Rising Fawn Folk Art Gallery.

The CIA acquired its first still life painting, a commission by James Dietz entitled “A Contingency for Every Action.”

The Museum of Modern Art received a donation of 162 photographs from the collection of longtime trustee Robert B. Menschel. The gift includes work by William Fox Talbot, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Harry Callahan, and Aaron Siskind.

The Detroit Institute of Arts acquired works by Hank Willis Thomas and Stefanie Jackson.

Transitions

Fortitude, one of the two lions outside the New York Public Library (via Flickr/Dave & Margie Hill) (click to enlarge)

The New York Public Library appointed Ethan Hawke to its board of trustees.

Joseph Rishel was appointed emeritus curator of European painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Pratt Institute president, Thomas F. Schutte, will step down at the end of the 2016–2017 academic year.

Michael Clarke will retire as the director of the Scottish National Gallery and deputy director of the National Galleries of Scotland at the end of September.

Kathryn Kanjo will succeed Hugh Davies as director and CEO of the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.

Cheyenne Westphal will succeed Ed Dolman as chairman of Phillips.

Marcelle Polednik was appointed director of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Rebecca Rabinow was appointed director of the Menil Collection.

Kate Strain was appointed artistic director of the Grazer Kunstverein.

Craig Barton was appointed provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Hunter O’Hanian was appointed executive director of the College Art Association.

Carol Stakenas was appointed executive director of No Longer Empty. [via press release]

Robert Mintz was appointed deputy director of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Jonathan Bober was appointed senior curator of prints and drawings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Suzanne Weaver was appointed curator of modern and contemporary art at the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Dominique Luster was appointed to the newly created position of Teenie Harris archivist at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Daniel S. Palmer was appointed associate curator of the Public Art Fund.

Michele Carlson was appointed executive director of Daily Serving and Art Practical.

New York gallery and artist-run collective Essex Flowers will relocate to Monroe Street in Chinatown.

Accolades

Noelle Mason was awarded the 2016 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art.

Obituaries

The cover of David King’s ‘The Commissar Vanishes’ (1997) (click to enlarge)

Mo Abbaro (1935–2016), ceramicist.

John Berry (1962–2016), founding member of the Beastie Boys.

Guy Clark (1941–2016), musician and country and folk singer.

Darwyn Cooke (1962–2016), comic book artist and writer.

Katherine Dunn (1945–2016), author. Best known for Geek Love (1989).

Nicholas Fisk (1923–2016), writer and children’s author.

Emile Ford (1937–2016), singer.

Norman Gaches (1958–2016), woodcarver.

Geoffrey Godden (1929–2016), historian and ceramic specialist.

Robert W. Gutman (1925–2016), writer. Best known for his biographies of Mozart and Wagner.

Lakshmi Holmström (1935–2016), writer and translator. Specialist on Tamil literature.

Jackie Keen (1937–2016), wife of artist Jeff Keen.

David King (1943–2016), graphic designer and design historian. Collector of Soviet art and photography.

John Krish (1923–2016), film director.

Julius La Rosa (1930–2016), singer.

Jane Little (1929–2016), bassist for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Held the Guinness World Record for the longest professional tenure with a single orchestra.

Bill MacIlwraith (1928–2016), playwright and screenwriter.

Marlene Marder (1955–2016), guitarist for LiLPUT.

Yukio Ninagawa (1935–2016), theater director.

Jimmy Riley (1954–2016), reggae singer.

Morley Safer (1931–2016), reporter and anchor for 60 Minutes. Famously asked: “Yes … But Is It Art?”

Fritz Stern (1926–2016), historian.

Joe Temperley (1929–2016), jazz saxophonist.

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