Danish Museum To Acquire Muhammad Cartoons
The Royal Library in Copenhagen will house controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which were published in a Danish newspaper two years ago and created global protests by Muslims. More than 50 people were killed in Afghanistan and Somalia because of the cartoons. Danish and European embassies were attacked in the Middle and Far East.
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Art Is Helping Chronic Kidney Patients
Art in hospitals are becoming very popular lately. The Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock (Scotland) started an innovative art project for chronic kidney patients forced to endure gruelling five-hour dialysis sessions. To lighten up the pressure and boredom of the sessions, they are able to draw and display their inner art. Some patients even learned to draw with their left-hand because their right art was attached to the machine.
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Five Artists Shortlisted For "Angel Of The South"
Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger has been shortlisted for a £2m commission to design a public sculpture in Kent twice as high as the Angel of the North. Wallinger and fellow British artists Rachel Whiteread, Richard Deacon and Christopher Le Brun, and the French artist Daniel Buren, have been tasked with creating what will be Britain's largest public art commission for the new Ebbsfleet International station in Kent. The resulting 50 metre-high sculpture will sit in the Ebbsfleet Valley between Dartford and Gravesend and will be seen from road, rail and air.
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HP And Barry Humphries Join Forces For Online Art Project
HP is giving people the chance to personalise their own art through an unprecedented collaboration with the artist Barry Humphries and his superstar alter-ego, Dame Edna Everage. From this month and as part of its global "What do you have to say" campaign, HP customers will be able to go online, choose between artwork by Barry Humphries or Dame Edna, and put their own stamp on it, for free.
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Bruce Nauman Representing USA At Venice Biennal 2009
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is pleased to announce the selection of Bruce Nauman as the artist to represent the United States at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs selected Nauman following the unanimous recommendation of the Federal Advisory Committee on International Exhibitions (FACIE) that reviewed proposals received through an open competition. Carlos Basualdo, Curator of Contemporary Art, and Michael Taylor, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, will serve as the U.S. Commissioners and will organize the exhibition from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Federal Agents Raid Four California Museums
Federal agents raided four museums and an art gallery in Southern California as part of a probe into looted Southeast Asian and Native American artifacts. Search warrants were served this morning at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena's Pacific Asia Museum, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, and the Silk Roads Gallery in Los Angeles. The gallery owner, Jonathan Markell, and an alleged art smuggler, Robert Olson, are the major targets of the five-year investigation.
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Islamic Art Museum To Open On November 22
Qatar will open its Museum of Islamic Art at a grand function slated to be held on November 22 this year. The Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and distinguished political and academic guests from around the world will attend the function, said Abdulla Al Najjar, Acting CEO, Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) yesterday.
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Nigel Carrington to Head University of the Arts London
Nigel Carrington has been appointed as the new Rector of University of the Arts London. He will succeed Sir Michael Bichard who leaves the post in August 2008 after seven successful years.
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Huge Art Collection Stored In Samsung Group Warehouses
Investigators on Monday found a massive volume of artwork in the warehouses of Samsung's Everland Resort, an amusement park located in a suburb southeast of Seoul. This was part of a probe into whether its parent the Samsung Group operated a huge slush fund. The group is suspected of having stashed expensive paintings at the warehouses after purchasing them with the slush fund.
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Queen Rania Tours Saadiyat Museum Exhibitions
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, on Sunday, visited Abu Dhabi where she was briefed on the designs of several projects the emirate plans to implement on Saadiyat Island, which seek to transform the area into a cultural hub on the regional and international level.
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Authorities Trying To Shut-Down The Sao Paulo Museum
Sao Paulo state authorities filed a court request to shut down the Sao Paulo Museum of Art because it has been operating over the last 40 years without formal permission from the city, police and fire services. This started last month when the museum was hit by a robbery of a US$50 million dollar artworks, later recovered.
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Michelangelo´s David Might Be Relocated
Florence´s head of culture, Paolo Cocchi, has sought the permission of Italian culture minister, Francesco Rutelli, to move Michelangelo´s "David" from the Accademia gallery to a new concert hall outside the city centre as "it attracts too many tourists". Just a few steps from the city's famed cathedral, the museum housing the "David" is one of the city's main attractions with long lines of tourists outside.
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Paul McCartney To Exhibit Photographs By Late Wife Linda
Sir Paul McCartney is displaying an exhibition of photographs by his late first wife Linda on April to mark the 10th anniversary of her death. Their photographer daughter Mary helped putting the final touches to the exhibition at the James Hyman Gallery. The photographs will include works from 1960s until the late 1990s, illustrating portraits of Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Janice Joplin, among others.
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Waterfalls In NYC East River
The city of New York will have a new exhibition of four giant waterfalls on the East River. Danish artist Olafur Eliasson was commissioned to build "New York City Waterfalls" at four locations in the river this summer. The project represents the collaboration between the city and the Public Art Fund, which is a non profit organization. The project is estimated to cost around $15 million and is from private funds only.
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The Bowes Museum Acquires JMW Turner Watercolour
A watercolour by one of Britain’s most important painters has been acquired by The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle. "Bowes Tower, Yorkshire", by JMW Turner, was purchased at auction for £30,500, with the help of The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity; the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of The Bowes Museum.
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Pensioner Finds Stolen Art In Loft
A pensioner found in the loft of his Dunbartonshire flat five stolen paintings worth £250,000. The 67-year-old man who found the paintings thought they belonged to a previous tenant. He took some photographs and sent them to be examined by the Fine Art Society in London.
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Fondation Cartier Will Display Art By Patti Smith
The Fondation Cartier is hosting a major solo exhibition of the visual work of American artist and performer Patti Smith. Drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007, it strives to provide an insight into her lyrical, spiritual and poetic universe. Her expressive voice serves to magnify the installations created specifically for the exhibition: a synthesis of photographs, drawings and films.
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Art Gallery Of South Australia Mourns William Bowmore
The Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Christopher Menz, today expressed sadness and regret at the passing of William Bowmore AO OBE, one of the Gallery’s greatest benefactors, who died yesterday aged 98. William Bowmore was the most generous donor to the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation, adding extensively to the Gallery's international collections since 1990. His substantial gifts to the Gallery are now valued in excess of $17 million and have transformed the collections of European and Islamic art.
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Stolen Paintings Recovered In Brazil
Brazilian police recovered 2 paintings stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art on December 20. Pablo Picasso´s "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and Candido Portinari´s "Coffee Worker" are valued in US$55 million. Since the theft, the museum received US$1.7 million for investments in security for example.
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Six New Proposals For Fourth Plinth Unveiled At The National Gallery
The six shortlisted proposals for the next commission for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square were unveiled today at the National Gallery. The exhibiting artists are Jeremy Deller, Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Yinka Shonibare and Bob & Roberta Smith. Each artist has produced a maquette of their proposed artwork for the empty plinth.
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Stolen Disney Paintings Recovered
Two valuable Walt Disney Co. watercolors of Mickey Mouse have been recovered after they were stolen from a cartoon museum two decades ago. The paintings were part of five pieces stolen in 1991 from a collection on loan at the International Museum of Cartoon Art in Rye Brook.
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Nurse-In Protest For Banned Mother Artwork
An unusual protest held at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas. 30 mothers, some of them breast-feeding their babies, protest a city decision to ban two drawings from an art show. This act was organized by the Lubbock Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Last month, two pencil-sketched images of a mothber breast-feeding and a nude pregnant woman were banned from the Buddy Holly Center art exhibition.
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University Of Virginia Returns Rare Archaic Sculptures To Italy
Two acroliths (images of the goddesses Demeter and Kore, created about 525 B.C. of cloth, wood and Greek island marble) will be returned to Italy by the University of Virginia. In 2002, the sculptures were donated to the University with the approval of the Italian authorities, with the understanding that after a five-year period, required by the terms of the gift, they would be repatriated. During this period the sculptures have been displayed at the University of Virginia Art Museum.
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Successful Museum Director Appointed To Lead Milwaukee Art Museum
An experienced and highly successful museum director and arts leader has been selected to become the director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, it was announced today. Following an international search for a new director of the Milwaukee Art Museum conducted by Korn/Ferry International, the Museum’s Board of Directors has appointed Daniel T. Keegan, a Wisconsin native, to take over leadership of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Keegan joins the Museum after a successful career at several arts organizations, most recently as executive director of the San Jose Museum of Art in California. Keegan will succeed David Gordon who announced in May of 2007 that he will be leaving in 2008.
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Italian Designer, Ettore Sottsass, Dies In Milan
Italian designer, Ettore Sottsass, died on Monday in Italy at the age of 90. The architect, designer and founder of the postmodernist Memphis Group died of heart failure at his Milan home after battling the flu. A consultant for Olivetti from 1958 to 1980, Sottsass created the iconic portable red Valentine typewriter in 1969.
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Israel Museum Explores Fate of Artworks Stolen in France during WWII
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, presents "Looking for Owners: Custody, Research, and Restitution of Art Stolen in France during World War II", an exhibition tracing the story of works of art looted by Nazi forces in France during the Second World War. Organized by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture and Communication, in collaboration with the Israel Museum, this landmark exhibition draws from the collection of works of art in France known as Musées Nationaux Récupération (MNR).
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