News
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05/03/2012
A petition is circulating protesting Sotheby's eight-month long lockout of its forty-three unionized art handlers. The entire union contract totals $3.2 million.
From Change.org: Rather than negotiating a fair contract with its employees, the company has issued a set of demands: the gutting of the art handlers’ union, the elimination of health insurance and other benefits, and the replacement of full-time skilled workers with temporary unskilled laborers. There have been no negotiations. In meeting after meeting, Sotheby’s has stalled, preferring instead to extend the lockout in the hopes that their workers might eventually capitulate to demands designed to exploit them.
To learn more and sign the petition, visit: https://www.change.org/petitions/sotheby-s-offer-your-art-handlers-a-fair-contract#
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05/03/2012
The pastel on board version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" sold at a Sotheby's auction for a record $119.9 million.
From the New York Times: It took twelve nail-biting minutes and five eager bidders for Edvard Munch’s famed 1895 pastel of “The Scream” to sell for $119.9 million, becoming the world’s most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction...Gasps could be heard as the bidding climbed higher and higher, until there was a pause at $99 million, prompting Tobias Meyer, the evening’s auctioneer, to smile and say, “I have all the time in the world.” When $100 million was bid, the audience began to applaud.
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05/01/2012
In the "What-the-hell-does-that-accomplish?" category, protestors vandalize Mission District stores.
From SF Gate: Broken glass littered several streets in San Francisco's Mission District after protesters vandalized cars and buildings Monday night, including a police station. The vandals were in a group that marched from Dolores Park shortly after 9 p.m., following a rally in advance of Tuesday's planned Occupy general strike, police said. Traveling down 18th Street and onto Valencia Street, the black-clad, masked protesters smashed windows with crowbars and signs, threw paint on buildings and spray-painted anarchy symbols on the hoods of parked cars.
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05/01/2012
The J. Paul Getty Trust cuts thirty-four jobs from its museum staff to fund acquistions.
From the Los Angeles Times: The J. Paul Getty Trust announced Monday that it was cutting thirty-four jobs in its museum division, with the expected annual savings of $4.3 million to be redirected to art acquisitions. There will be no reductions in the exhibition schedule or public programs, the Getty said, and no cuts to curatorial and art-conservation staffs. The museum's education department will take the brunt of the cuts to be implemented by May 9, its staff falling from fifty-one employees to thirty-two.
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04/30/2012
David Weiss, the Swiss artist who began collaborating with Peter Fischli in 1979, has died at the age of sixty-six.
From Artforum: The artists, noted for their wry wit and deadpan irony, gained prominence for adapting a plethora of media, including sculpture, film, and photography, into a body of work that manipulated representations of their daily experiences, causing the incidental to become poetically iconographic.
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04/30/2012
The co-founder of the Frieze Art Fair, whose participants seek top dollars from sales of art works, says it is unrealistic for artists to expect to earn a living from making work. She blames reality TV for the warped perception.
From the Guardian: Frieze co-founder Amanda Sharp says she's not necessarily against the Occupiers, but senses the protest is based on false expectations. "Over the last 10 years, the art world has tracked global economic change. In America there is a more politicized awareness of inequality between class and wealth. At the same time, more people have decided that art can be a career. They've seen art reality TV shows and they think they can make a career purely out of their work. That's an unrealistic expectation so a lot more people feel disenfranchised," she says.
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04/26/2012
Cooper Union in New York has announced that it will start charging tuition for graduate students, changing its no-tuition policy.
From the New York Times: After months of agonized debate about its 110-year-old tradition of free education, will begin charging graduate students next year while maintaining, at least for now, its no-tuition policy for undergraduates, the college’s president said Tuesday.Cooper Union, in the East Village, will also expand its graduate and other programs to generate more income as it searches for a way out of a deepening financial hole.
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04/24/2012
The Axis Gallery, in Sacramento, has a call for entries for its seventh National Exhibition, juried by Apsara DiQuinzio, assistant curator at SFMOMA.
The exhibition dates are August 4–26, 2012. This 2012 competition is open to artists residing in the United States. Contemporary, original two-dimensional and three-dimension work in any media—including painting, prints, drawings, photography and digital images—is accepted. All work must be original, produced within the last two years, and not previously shown at Axis Gallery. The deadline for entries is May 28, 2012. For more information and to download the competition prospectus, visit http://www.axisgallery.org/Axis/Home.html
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04/24/2012
The Occupy Wall Street movement is planning to protest the “the rampant financialization of art” at Frieze New York, May 4-7, 2012.
From the Art Newspaper: Following on the heels of a labour dispute brought against Frieze Art Fair by the New York City and Vicinity District Council of Carpenters, the Occupy Wall Street movement has revealed that it is planning a full-on demonstration of the London-based art fair. Members of the subgroup Occupy Museums, the self-described visual arts “affinity group of Occupy Wall Street”, aim to protest what they call “the rampant financialisation of art”. Occupy Museum members say their action is a criticism of the one-sidedness of the art economy.
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04/23/2012
W.A.G.E.'s 2010 survey of artists who exhibited with nonprofit art institutions in New York City found that 58% who responded received “no form of payment.”
From Hyperallergic: W.A.G.E. has partnered with Artists Space to explore the development of a self-regulatory model, mandating the implementation of a fee schedule within the institution. Presenter A.K. Burns explained one of the rationales for artists fees, “nonprofits get money from different sources for public education, and the artist is the educator. We are wondering why the artist isn’t being paid?” That artists should be remunerated for their cultural value in capital value is one of W.A.G.E.’s positions from its statement and one that remains controversial.
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04/20/2012
Elizabeth A. Sackler announced a seven-figure donation to support the establishment of a permanent curator of feminist art for the Brooklyn Museum.
From the New York Times: Elizabeth A. Sackler, the art collector and philanthropist, announced a major donation to the Brooklyn Museum at its Brooklyn Ball gala benefit on Wednesday evening, where she was an honoree. Ms. Sackler, whose gift created the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art five years ago at the museum, announced a seven-figure donation to support the establishment of a permanent curator of feminist art for the institution.
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04/20/2012
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, performance artist, arts activist and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts director of performing arts, has received a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
From Artforum: The Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, a program launched by Creative Capital and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, announced its first class of Doris Duke Artists. Each members of this class is awarded an unrestricted cash grant of $225,000, and as much as $50,000 more in “targeted support for retirement savings and audience development.” The group was selected from 175 eligible artists who have won at least three designated national grants, awards, accolades, or fellowships over the past ten years.
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04/18/2012
Sweden's culture minister comes under fire after cutting up a cake baked into the shape of a cartoonishly stereotyped African woman.
From CNN: A group representing Swedes of African descent has called for Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth to resign over that it called a racist caricature. But Liljeroth defended her participation, saying the cake was designed to "challenge the traditional image of racism." The artist who designed the cake, Makode Linde, is of African descent himself and said the piece was aimed at condemning the practice of female genital mutilation. Pictures from the Sunday exhibition showed Liljeroth slicing into the cake from the "genitals" and feeding it to Linde, who told CNN he made himself the head of the figure and screamed in pain when it was cut.
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04/18/2012
The director of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum in Naples, Italy has started burning its artworks in protest of budget cuts.
From the BBC News: Antonio Manfredi set fire to the first painting on Tuesday."Our 1,000 artworks are headed for destruction anyway because of the government's indifference," he said.The work was by French artist Severine Bourguignon, who was in favour of the protest and watched it online. Mr Manfredi plans to burn three paintings a week from now on, in a protest he has dubbed "Art War". Artists from across Europe have lent their support, including Welsh sculptor John Brown, who torched one of his works, Manifesto, on Monday.
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04/16/2012
The , a major supporter of shows devoted to performing arts and independent documentaries, is proposing substantial cuts in their financing.
From the New York Times: "Collectively, the cuts, which will not be official until April 25, would strip more than $1 million in federal production aid from PBS shows, which have been hard-pressed for financing in recent years. The money falls under the N.E.A.’s 2012 Arts in Media grant program. The N.E.A. began notifying applicants by mail late last week of the grant amounts they could expect. According to public television executives apprised of the numbers, who would not speak for attribution because the figures were confidential, “Great Performances” and “American Masters” were told they would receive $50,000 each in the 2012 financing cycle, down from $400,000 each in 2011. The 2011 figures are in the public record."
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04/14/2012
Hou Hanru, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs, has announced his resignation from the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), effective June 30, 2012.
from SFAI: Hou joined SFAI in 2006, bringing a significant, new international voice on contemporary art and cultural difference to San Francisco. The recent book Paradigm Shifts: Walter and McBean Galleries Exhibitions and Public Programs, San Francisco Art Institute (2006-2011) chronicles notable programming during his tenure. Hou’s final exhibition at the Walter and McBean Galleries will be Lin Yilin: Golden Journey which documents new San Francisco-based work by Chinese performance artist Lin Yilin.
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04/12/2012
Artist Edgar Arceneaux has resigned as executive director of the Watts House Project, an artist-driven neighborhood redevelopment project in Los Angeles.
From Artforum: Arceneaux founded the project in 2009. Will Sheffie, who was hired as managing director last year, will take over his role. Said board president Channing Henry of the announcement: “Edgar Arceneaux has graciously stepped aside as executive director while the organization takes measures to effectively address the challenges it has faced in its recent growth. We remain committed to working with local and internationally known artists to maintain the artistic vision of the organization, and are devising an artistic director role that will help lead the project in defining a replicable, sustainable model for arts-based community redevelopment.”
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04/12/2012
Carlos Villa, a faculty member in the San Francisco Art Institute's (SFAI) painting department since 1969, has received a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship.
From the SFAI website: “I am absolutely thrilled that Carlos has been honored with this fellowship,” said SFAI President Charles Desmarais. “His work as an artist engages essential questions of cultural identity, and has been central to expanding our understanding of multiculturalism. Over more than four decades at SFAI, he has also proved deeply committed to his role as a teacher, and the hundreds—if not thousands—of student artists he has mentored further speak to his passion, integrity, and influence.” Villa’s body of work encompasses painting, collage, performance, curating, cultural activism, and community actions, often exploring his identity as a Filipino American.
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04/09/2012
California College of the Arts announces the Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program, a continuation of their Photography Lecture Series.
This program pays tribute to the visionary artist, educator, and CCA faculty member Larry Sultan, who passed away in 2009. Each year this series brings to campus photographers and other artists, writers, curators, and critical thinkers to give public presentations, critique student work, and participate in events and projects. The newly renamed program is realized through the collaborative efforts of CCA, Pier 24 Photography, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Estate of Larry Sultan.
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04/08/2012
Check out: "Mike Kelley (1954-2012): Ten Tributes: friends and collaborators remember his life and work" in the April issue of frieze magazine.
By John C. Welchman, co-director of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts: "Artist, noise musician, writer, benefactor and Catholic misfit, Mike Kelley was a wholehearted and cantankerous sage with an indelible blue-collar background, who was sometimes so wired-in to the elemental stakes of the American vernacular that during certain on-song weeks he generated enough ideas and imaginings to last another sort of artist an entire career. While his day job transformed him inexorably, sometimes painfully, into a high-end artist, even into a minor celebrity, he never relinquished his preferred role as a counter-culture warrior fighting for the release of the voices and skills he always felt that mainstream institutions kept in positions of muteness or invisibility."
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