News
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05/23/2012
A painting depicting the South African president, Jacob Zuma, with his genitals exposed has been vandalized, leading to ugly scenes at an art gallery in Johannesburg.
From the Guardian: One man painted a red cross across Zuma's face and penis while a younger man spread black paint over the image. The younger man was reportedly assaulted by security guards. The 1.85-metre-high painting, entitled The Spear, has bitterly divided South Africans, with the governing African National Congress (ANC) describing it as "rude, disrespectful and racist", but others defending the artist Brett Murray's right to freedom of speech.South Africa's Eyewitness news identified one of the vandals on Tuesday as a university professor, and said he "took a small can of red paint and slowly marked two large 'X' symbols over the genitals and the face with a paintbrush.
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05/23/2012
1,600 museums across the United States will waive admission for active members of the military and their families between Memorial Day and Labor Day under the Blue Stars Museums program.
From the Washington Post: The renewal of the Blue Stars Museums program was announced Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The major sponsors are the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and the museums.The program follows the initiatives of first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden to improve the lives of military families. This summer 300 new museums entered the program and the participants include children’s museums, science museums, history museums and nature centers.
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05/22/2012
In an interview with Monopol, Kiev Biennale curator David Elliott asserts he has not experienced corruption or interference while working in politically unstable Ukraine.
From Artforum: Ukraine’s current political situation has been shaky at best, with former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko staging a hunger strike protesting what she says is her politically motivated imprisonment, and various sympathetic countries discussing a possible boycott of the upcoming European soccer championships taking place in Kiev. Responding to these uncertainties,[Elliott] asserted that he had witnessed neither corruption nor any interference with his curatorial work on the government’s part. “We should consider ourselves lucky that the Ukraine is so supportive of contemporary art.” Elliott said he would organize the biennale to explore streams of migration, voyages of conquest, and the country’s long cultural history.
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05/22/2012
Opera News, one of the leading classical music magazines in the country, said it would stop reviewing the , resulting from the Met’s dissatisfaction over negative critiques.
From the New York Times: The decision by the magazine, which is published by a Met fund-raising affiliate, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and which freely reviews companies around the world, troubles some experts. It is also the latest sign of sensitivity from the Met under its general manager, , in the face of criticism over its productions. The move came after a review in April took aim at the Met’s new production of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle — a hallmark of Mr. Gelb’s tenure that has led to a firestorm — and after a top Opera News editor criticized the Met’s direction in a scathing essay in the May issue. Mr. Gelb said in an interview on Monday that he never liked the idea that an organization created to support the Met had a publication passing judgment on its productions.
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05/21/2012
Early reports are in for the seventh Berlin Biennale: many note there isn't a lot of art to look at.
From Artforum: As German and French publications weighed in on the seventh Berlin Biennale, responses seemed surprisingly negative, and many remarked that, beyond the tents and sleeping bags set up by “Occupy” activists at the invitation of the organizers, there aren’t too many actual works present. Opinions on those pieces vary—Łukasz Surowiec’s 320 tree saplings transplanted from the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site, was deemed “goodwill kitsch” by Ingo Arend in Die Tageszeitung. However, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung’s Catrin Lorch applauded the biennale’s curator, Artur Zmijewski, for “successfully forcing art and society into a new relationship.”
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05/21/2012
New York police arrested artist and design Takeshi Miyakawa on charges of planting “a false bomb or hazardous substance.”
From the New York Times: The artist intended it to be a display of his love for the city: white plastic bags stamped with the “I ♥ NY” logo lighted from within and glowing moonlike from lampposts and trees in Brooklyn and beyond. Almost immediately, the installation attracted attention, though probably not the kind the artist expected. The police bomb squad was called and Mr. Miyakawa, 50, was arrested early Saturday...Mr. Miyakawa was charged with reckless endangerment and placing “a false bomb or hazardous substance,” among other charges.
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05/18/2012
They're back! This weekend marks the return of three art fairs to San Francisco: artMRKT, ArtPadSF, and the SF Fine Art Fair.
All three fairs are open to the public through Sunday, May 20, 2012 and are located in San Francisco. artMRT is located at the Concourse Exhibition Center in SoMA and features seventy international galleires. ArtPadSF is located at the Phoenix Hotel in the Tenderloin and features work by mostly emerging and local artists. The SF Fine Art Fair is located at Festival Pavilion in Fort Mason Center and features seventy international galleries. Shuttles are available between artMRKT, ArtPadSF, and the Asian Art Museum. For tickets, hours, and more information, visit the fairs's websites.
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05/18/2012
The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) and the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) have announced the creation of the ADAA Foundation Curatorial Awards.
from Artforum: These two awards will provide $10,000 to museum curators to develop exhibition projects. The award will be divided between art curtators specializing in two distinct time frames, pre- and post-World War II. Linda Blumberg, executive director of the ADAA, says, “Our goal for the two ADAA Foundation Curatorial Awards is to honor exceptional curatorial visions and help museums get deserving projects off the ground. ADAA and its members are committed to celebrating curatorial excellence and supporting innovative curatorial initiatives."
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05/16/2012
Bruno Mauro, director and founder of Ampersand International Arts, unfailingly generous and enthusiastic supporter of artists, and dear friend to many, including this magazine, passed away on Tuesday, May 15, at home.
It is impossible to write the news of his passing without feeling the profoundest sense of loss. Bruno's ardent support of artists and passion for art was most visibly articulated in Ampersand International Arts, a gallery he ran from his home starting in 1999. The most frequently used format was pairing artists in two solo exhibitions, resulting in often inspired juxtapositions. He was diagnosed with melanoma in 2009 and until recently, most of us thought he would beat it. Working with him at his home, one got to experience the deep love and affection he felt for his family, and our deepest sympathy goes to his wife Surma, and his children Thea, Saskia, and Rafael. - Patricia Maloney
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05/15/2012
At least it didn't sink in this version: the Artists Rights Society claims compensation for use of Picasso reproduction in "Titanic 3D."
From the Art Newspaper: The Artists Rights Society has sent the film director James Cameron a letter claiming compensation because the movie Titanic 3D includes a reproduction of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907. A copyright infringement was filed—and resolved—after the release of the original film in 1997. “A settlement was reached to the satisfaction of both parties pretty quickly,” says Theodore Feder, the chief executive and founder of the society. However, the new 3D version of the film breaches that agreement, he says. The Picasso estate did not give its permission to use the painting, which belongs to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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05/14/2012
The two employees of the Asian art handling company IFAS Solutions that were arrested and charged with "trafficking" last month remain in custody while Chinese customs officials have offered no information regarding their status.
From ArtInfo: The company specializes in art handling, storage, and installation throughout Asia. The two men, one of whom is a Chinese citizen while the other is German, were arrested after customs agents raided the company's Beijing offices on March 30. They were held for questioning for 36 hours, IFAS director Torsten Hendricks said. The exact nature of the charges against them remains unclear.The arrests are another symptom of the great disparities between Western and Chinese business practices, a clash of corporate cultures that has only become more problematic as Chinese authorities have sought to control the flow of art into and out of the country's booming art market.
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05/14/2012
"Mobile Homestead," the final project by the late Mike Kelley, will be realized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Artangel of London, and the Swiss nonprofit, the Luma Foundation.
From the New York Times: The project had been in the planning stages for several years. After his death, the full project was put on hold and there were doubts that it would ever be realized. But construction on the full-size home will begin in June on a vacant lot behind the museum, and the home is expected to open by early 2013. It will function nothing like a traditional museum or gallery and will show none of Mr. Kelley’s work, at his own insistence. The mobile-home part will remain detachable and will sometimes take its leave of the rest and journey through Detroit. The home as a whole will operate as an unconventional community service office, providing things like haircuts, social services, meeting space and a place to hold barbecues and perhaps for the homeless to pick up mail.
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05/12/2012
The Asian Contemporary Arts Week (ACAW-SF), organized by the Asian Contemporary Arts Council, begins today, May 12, and runs through May 19.
This is the inaugural Asian Contemporary Art Week in San Francisco (ACAW-SF). An unprecedented event in connecting cultural institutions across the Bay Area, ACAW-SF features a variety of programs to celebrate the dynamic of Asian contemporary art practice. 2012 marks the inception of this collaborative effort with sixteen participants presenting exhibitions, tours, receptions, screenings, panel discussions and more. ACAW-SF was initiated by the Asian Contemporary Arts Consortium San Francisco (ACAC-SF) with the intention of generating diverse discourses, creating stimulating conversations, building a larger audience group, inviting broader interpretations, and promoting sustainable interests around Asian contemporary arts in the Bay Area. For a full list of events, visit http://www.asiancontemporarysf.org/acaw/
Art Practical is proud to be a media sponsor and a participating organization in ACAW.
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05/11/2012
The Berkeley Art Center has a call for entries for its annual juried exhibition. Curator, critic, and educator Glen Helfand and gallerist Katrina Traywick are the guest jurors.
The exhibition dates are July 28 to September 9, 2012. Berkeley Art Center's annual juried exhibition, BEAUTY, is open to artists working in all media and living in California. The theme is a suggestion to artists to consider how beauty resonates in their work both literally and/or figuratively. Creative interpretations are welcome. There is a $5 fee to all applicants that goes directly to SlideRoom; additional charges apply to non-members: $35 for three images, $10 each additional image up to five. Deadline for submissions: June 11, 2012. For more information, visit http://www.berkeleyartcenter.org/
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05/10/2012
President Obama endorses same-sex marriage even as North Carolina passes a constitutional amendment banning it, the thirty-first state to do so.
From the New York Times: A sitting United States president took sides in what many people consider the last civil rights movement, providing the most powerful evidence to date of how rapidly views are moving on an issue that was politically toxic just five years ago. Mr. Obama faces considerable risk in jumping into this debate, reluctantly or not, in the heat of what is expected to be a close election. Mitt Romney, the probable Republican presidential candidate, was quick to proclaim his opposition to gay marriage after Mr. Obama spoke. And however much national attitudes may be shifting, the issue remains highly contentious among black and Latino voters, two groups central to Mr. Obama’s success.
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05/10/2012
After 22 years with the Asia Society, Vishakha N. Desai will step down as president and chief executive in September.
From the New York Times: Ms. Desai will join the Guggenheim Foundation as a senior adviser for global policy and programs, a new consulting position. She is also talking with several universities to develop an initiative focusing on the intersection of culture and international relations. She had overseen the development of two new multimillion-dollar buildings, one of which opened in Hong Kong in February, the other in Houston last month. During her tenure, Asia Society also expanded its New York headquarters and established new offices in India and South Korea.
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05/08/2012
"And he sailed off through night and day/ and in and out of weeks/ and almost over a year/ to where the wild things are." Children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak died on Tuesday at age 83.
From the New York Times: , widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche, died on Tuesday in Danbury, Conn. He was 83 and lived in Ridgefield, Conn. The cause was complications from a recent stroke, said Michael di Capua, his longtime editor.
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05/07/2012
Collector sues sculptor Robert Indiana after the artist states he did not make the knockoff work the collector purchased.
From Artforum: The Washington Post reports that an art buyer from Monaco has filed a lawsuit against artist Robert Indiana. Joao Tovar brought the suit against Indiana, claiming Indiana’s actions made Tovar’s investment in versions of the “LOVE” sculptures with the word Prem—Hindi for love—that he thought were created by Indiana and paid $1.5 million, worthless. According to the lawsuit, the artist did not actually make the works.
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05/04/2012
Holland Cotter reflects on how he'd spend $120 million on art. He wouldn't buy "The Scream."
From the New York Times: If I were suddenly handed the same amount of money for art, is that the way I’d spend it? No.
After studying and writing about art for 40 years I see too many other options, options that would allow me to put together an encyclopedic mini-museum for the same dollars. That museum, filled with art that could be bought, even in these over-the-top times, for comparative bargain prices. It would begin with early Indian Buddhist art and go on to French illuminated manuscripts, African sculpture, tons of old master paintings and drawings—art that a new generation of collectors, fixated on thoroughly branded modern and contemporary art, doesn’t even know exists.
But even if I focused on modern and contemporary, I know where I’d spend. My museum would focus on, for starters, work produced by women, internationally, over the past fifty years. Some of the artists I’m thinking about call or called themselves feminists, though many don’t or didn’t. A huge percentage of current art comes right out of their work. Together it would be more than a collection; it would be a force.
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05/04/2012
Great Britain’s most generous philanthropist is artist David Hockney, who has donated twice his net worth in paintings valued at $124 million.
From the Los Angeles Times: David Hockney landed at the top of the nation's annual Giving List by donating more than twice what he’s worth to his own art foundation. The Giving List is compiled by Britain’s Charities Aid Foundation in partnership with London’s Sunday Times newspaper. Hockney, worth an estimated $55.2 million, transferred paintings valued at $124.2 million to his David Hockney Foundation, and kicked in an additional $1.2 million in cash to help fund the foundation’s operations, according to a Sunday Times report this week. The rankings were based on donations made in 2010.
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