Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
The city of Paris plans to construct a 2.4-meter (~7.9 feet) wall of bulletproof glass around the base of the Eiffel Tower. The €20 million (~$21.3 million) project is intended to prevent individuals or vehicles from launching an attack on the site.
Protestors demonstrated against the closing of the Barbur Gallery in Jerusalem. The nonprofit space was shut down at the behest of culture minister Miri Regev, who opposed an event titled “Breaking the Silence,” a discussion led by an Israeli veterans’ anti-occupation group that collects testimonies from soldiers serving in the Palestinian territories.
The UK’s culture minister, Matt Hancock, placed a temporary export bar on Parmigianino’s “The Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist” (ca 1535–40). The Getty Museum worked with Sotheby’s to file an export application for the work last year. The work will leave the UK unless a resident buyer can match the £24.5 million (~$30.6 million) asking price.
The Davis Museum at Wellesley College removed and shrouded works created or donated by immigrant artists in its collection in protest over President Trump’s January 27 executive order that banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, will stage a public screening of Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-nominated film, The Salesman (2016), in Trafalgar Square on Oscar night. Farhadi announced that he would not attend the Oscars following President Trump’s proposed travel ban on individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Victoria Coates, an art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance studies, was appointed the National Security Council’s Senior Director for Strategic Assessments.
The youth wing of Norway’s Labour Party proposed moving the site of a planned memorial dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Norway attacks. A group of locals near Utøya sued the state last year in a bid to block the project. The planned memorial, entitled “Memory Wound“, was designed by Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg.
Artist Moses Amik Beaver was found dead at Thunder Bail Jail in Ontario. It is not known why the artist, who was known to suffer mental health issues, was being detained. Mary Wabasse, Beaver’s sister, was killed in a car crash two days after the renowned First Nations artist was found dead.
Over 470 South Korean artists filed a lawsuit against impeached president Park Geun-Hye, former culture minister Cho Yoon-Sun, and former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon, over a government document of “blacklisted” artists.
Hands Off Our Revolution, a coalition of over 200 artists united against right-wing populism, launched its website and is planning exhibitions and other events later this year. Its members include Adam Broomberg, Hank Willis Thomas, Hito Steyerl, Maya Lin, Yinka Shonibare, and the Otolith Group.
The heirs of Nazi artist Erich Klahn won a court battle to ensure that his work continues to be displayed in a convent in northern Germany.
Thieves stole over 160 rare books from a warehouse in London, including works by Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Leonardo da Vinci. A source connected to the case told the Guardian that a sole collector may have organized the theft. “They would be impossible to sell to any reputable dealer or auction house,” the source said. “We’re not talking Picassos or Rembrandts or even gold bars — these books would be impossible to fence.”
Cooper Hefner, the son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and the new chief creative officer of the magazine, decided to reintroduce nude photography, despite a highly publicized decision to scrap the practice in 2015.
Greece’s Central Archaeological Council rejected a request by Gucci to stage a 15-minute catwalk show on the Athens Acropolis. The fashion brand offered to pay the council a total of €56 million (~$59.8 million) to film at the site.
The Arts Law Centre of Australia, the Indigenous Art Code, and Copyright Agency | Viscopy issued a joint statement in support of proposed legislation to ban the production and sale of fake Aboriginal art.
Beate Reifenscheid, the curator of an Anselm Kiefer exhibition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Beijing, described a joint statement issued by Kiefer’s dealers (White Cube, Gagosian, and Thaddaeus Ropac) as an attack on her curatorial freedom. Kiefer denounced the show, arguing that it was staged “without [his] involvement or consent.”
Bern’s Kunstmuseum and Bonn’s Bundeskunsthalle will stage concurrent exhibitions of Nazi-looted works recovered from Cornelius Gurlitt‘s art collection.
New York City’s 115th Street Library was renamed after entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte.
An art history student raised concerns over mold at the Picasso Museum in Paris. The museum completed a five-year, $30-million renovation two years ago.
Transactions
The Nationalmuseum acquired a 1683 botanical watercolor study by Herman Saftleven.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art jointly acquired two prototype chairs made by Donald Judd between 1979 and 1980.
Transitions
Nancy Spector was appointed artistic director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum.
Karol Wight, the president and executive director of the Corning Museum of Glass, was appointed to an advisory post on the US State Department Cultural Property Advisory Committee.
Pamela Joyner was elected to the J. Paul Getty Trust’s board of trustees.
Isaac Julien was appointed to the Art Fund’s board of trustees.
Jay Sanders was appointed executive director and chief curator of Artists Space.
Ulysses Grant Dietz will step down as the chief curator of the Newark Museum at the end of the year.
Benjamin T. Simons was appointed director of the Academy Art Museum, Maryland.
Anne Hilde Neset was appointed director of Oslos’s Kunstnernes Hus.
Heather Saunders was appointed director of the Ingalls Library at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Debra Simon was appointed director of public art at the Times Square Alliance.
Elvira Dyangani Ose was appointed senior curator of Creative Time.
The estate of photographer August Sander is now represented by Hauser & Wirth and Galerie Julian Sander in Cologne.
Mary S. Walker was appointed director of development at the the Knoxville Museum of Art.
Paddle 8 announced a second round of layoffs following its split from art auction startup Auctionata.
Andrew Goldstein was appointed editor-in-chief of artnet News.
The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport plans to open a gallery dedicated to the UK’s Government Art Collection.
Egypt’s Museum of Islamic Art reopened three years after it was damaged by a car bomb.
The Blanton Museum of Art unveiled its newly renovated and reinstalled permanent galleries.
The Seattle Asian Art Museum will close its doors on Monday, February 27, for a six-month renovation.
Accolades
Burhan Ozbilici won the 2017 World Press Photo Award for his photograph of the assassination of Andrey Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey.
The Canada Council for the Arts announced the recipients of the 2017 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.
Eva and Franco Mattes were awarded the third annual Prix Net Art.
Obituaries
Svend Asmussen (1916–2017), jazz violinist.
Hilary Bailey (1936–2017), writer. Best known for the Fifty-First State (2008).
Stanley Bard (1934–2017), manager and part owner of the Hotel Chelsea, Manhattan.
Richard Burton (1933–2017), architect.
Barbara Caroll (1925–2017), jazz pianist and singer.
Gervase de Peyer (1926–2017), clarinetist.
Max Ferrá (1937–2017), founder and first artistic director of the Intar Hispanic American Arts Center.
Bobby Freeman (1940–2017), singer. Best known for “Do You Want to Dance” (1958).
Nicolai Gedda (1925–2017), tenor.
Barbara Gelb (1926–2017), author and journalist. Co-authored the first biography of Eugene O’Neill.
Barbara Harlow (1948–2017), author and scholar. Best known for Resistance Literature (1987).
Al Jarreau (1940–2017), jazz, R&B, and pop singer.
Harvey Lichtenstein (1929–2017), former president and executive director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Lev Navrozov (1928–2017), translator and Soviet dissident.
Jiro Taniguchi (1947–2017), manga artist.
Veljo Tormis (1930–2017), composer.
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