A screenshot of Gutherie Lonergan’s “Built with Indexhibit” on the Hammer Museum website (click to enlarge)
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
The European Court of Human Rights rejected the first-ever legal bid to force the UK to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.
BP cut it cultural sponsorship funding by £2.5 million (~$3.3 million). A spokesperson for the oil company told the BBC that the decision was due to “cutting costs and reducing staff numbers.” The company’s cultural sponsorship program has faced sustained protest and criticism by activist groups including Liberate Tate, BP or not BP?, and Greenpeace.
An animation commissioned for the Hammer Museum website received a mixed reaction, with many users mistaking the work for an advertisement. The artwork, which consists of M&M’s characters spouting artists’ statements sourced from Indexhibit, was created by Guthrie Lonergan for the biennial Made in LA exhibition.
Exhibits at Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History are being “destroyed” by sunlight streaming through the building’s glass roof. UV film was removed from the glass during a recent £2 million (~$2.6 million) restoration project, but not replaced.
Fritz Koenig’s sculpture “Sphere for Plaza Fountain” (1971), which stood at the base of the World Trade Center prior to the 9/11 attacks, is set to be reinstalled in Liberty Park.
Fritz Koenig’s “Sphere for Plaza Fountain” in 1971 (via Wikipedia/ChicagoGeek) (click to enlarge)
Dieric Bouts‘s “St. Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child” will remain in the UK after matching funds were acquired through donations. The government placed an export bar on the work last November.
The Louvre-Lens Museum is working to restore Charles LeBrun‘s “Christ in the Garden of Olives” (1660). The painting, which disappeared during the French Revolution, was recovered in 2008 from the Abbaye de La Trappe.
The world’s last VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) will be produced by Japanese electronics maker Funai Electric Co. sometime this month according to an anonymous spokesman for the company.
The white oak tree featured at the end of The Shawshank Redemption (1994) was felled in Mansfield, Ohio.
Kanye West — whose song “New Slaves” includes the lyrics “Fuck you and your Hamptons house / I’ll fuck your Hamptons spouse / came on her Hamptons blouse / and in her Hamptons mouth” — will perform in the Hamptons this weekend as part of a benefit for the Watermill Center.
Transactions
Ana Mendieta, “Silhueta Sangrienta (Bleeding Silhouette)” (1975), super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media, color, silent Running time: 1:51 minutes (courtesy Nasher Sculpture Center) (click to enlarge)
The Nasher Sculpture Center acquired a group of works by Ana Mendieta.
Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner donated their collection of over 360 peepshows to the UK under the cultural gifts scheme. The works have been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Taikang Life, one of China’s largest insurance companies, amassed a 13.52% stake in Sotheby’s.
The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £4.94 million (~$6.5 million) toward the redevelopment of the Scottish National Gallery.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit received a $120,000 grant from the Ford Foundation.
The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum acquired one of Brompton Bicycle’s folding bikes for its permanent collection
Transitions
The Upper Belvedere Palace, Austria (via Wikipedia) (click to enlarge)
Agnes Husslein-Arco, the director of Vienna’s Belvedere Museum, will not have her contract renewed due to violations of compliance standards and internal codes of conduct.
Diane “Dede” Wilsey will step down as board president and chief executive of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Wilsey’s departure follows a $2 million settlement struck between the board and Michele Gutierrez. The former CFO alleged that Wilsey directed $450,000 in museum funds to a former employee without authorization.
Rashid Johnson was appointed to the Guggenheim Foundation’s board of trustees.
The Pérez Art Museum Miami appointed Barron Channer, George Edwin Crapple, Adri Guha, and Dorothy Terrell to its board of trustees.
Bradford Evans and Bernard Selz were appointed to the Frick Collection’s board of trustees.
Alan Chong was appointed director and CEO of the Currier Museum of Art.
Masha Turchinsky was appointed director of the Hudson River Museum.
Jeff Arnal was appointed executive director of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.
Jonathan Frederick Walz was appointed director of curatorial affairs and curator of American art at the Columbus Museum.
Wanda Nanibush was appointed the Art Gallery of Ontario’s inaugural assistant curator for Canadian and Indigenous art.
Joshua Chuang was appointed senior curator of photography and associate director for art, prints, and photographs at the New York Public Library.
Allies and Morrison published renderings of the V&A East, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s new outpost at the Olympicopolis, the former Olympic site in east London.
Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities is aiming to partially open the Grand Egyptian Museum by mid 2017.
The Louis B. James gallery permanently closed.
The Robert Miller Gallery closed its space in Chelsea. The gallery maintains a private showroom on the Upper East Side.
New York’s Morgan Lehman Gallery relocated to 534 West 24th Street.
The Swiss Institute moved to a temporary space at 102 Franklin Street in Tribeca.
Peter Ballantine founded the Judd-Hume Prize, a £30,000 (~$39,500) annual award for an art writer, philosopher, or architect.
Accolades
An excerpt from ‘March: Book Two’ (2015) (courtesy Top Shelf Productions) (click to enlarge)
Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, and congressman John Lewis received an Eisner Award for March: Book Two. The graphic novel is an autobiographical account of Lewis’ involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
Opportunties
The Smithsonian Food History project at the National Museum of American History is looking to hire a historian to conduct research for a new initiative on American brewing history. Applications are due by August 10.
The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, Inc. announced the first edition of the Baltimore City Public Art Prize — a $30,000 award for an artist or collective living within 100 miles of Baltimore. The deadline for entries is September 9.
Obituaries
Anne Chu, “Rattus No. 1 (Underwater Landscape)” (2015), wood, resin, glass, leather, fabric, 80 x 42 x 29 in (courtesy the artist and Tracy Williams Ltd., New York) (click to enlarge)
Leland Bardwell (1922–2016), poet and novelist.
Anne Chu (1959–2016), artist.
Charles Davis (1933–2016), jazz saxophonist and composer.
Jack Davis (1924–2016), one of the founding cartoonists for Mad magazine.
Bernard Dufour (1922-–2016), artist and writer.
Youree Dell Harris, aka ‘Miss Cleo’ (1962–2016), television psychic.
Luc Hoffmann (1923–2016), co-founder of the World Wildlife Foundation.
Renata Hornstein (Unconfirmed–2016), philanthropist.
Mohamed Khan (1942–2016), filmmaker.
Wendy Snyder MacNeil (1943–2016), photographer.
James Alan McPherson (1943–2016), writer. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Elbow Room (1977).
Dimitri Jakob Müller, aka ‘Dimitri the Clown’ (1935–2016), mime artist and circus entertainer.
James Nederlander (1922–2016), theater owner.
Sandy Pearlman (1943–2016), writer and rock critic. Produced and managed Blue Öyster Cult.
SH Raza (1922–2016), artist.