Denver To Launch Biennial Of The Americas
In the historic tradition of Venice and Sao Paolo, the world's newest international contemporary art biennial is coming to Denver, Colorado. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper announced the city has received a $2 million grant from the Colorado-based Boettcher Foundation to help launch the Mile High City's inaugural Biennial of the Americas. Scheduled for the summer of 2010, the two-month-long curated event will be a celebration of contemporary art and ideas from throughout the Americas. The Biennial will feature two major cultural exhibitions, one focusing on the contemporary arts of the Americas and a secondary program, an "ideas pavilion," that will explore themes ranging from science to urban planning. Each program will be led by a respected curator.
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Rock Legend Patti Smith First Paris Exhibition
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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Daniel Hug New Director Of ART COLOGNE
Daniel Hug has been named the new Director of ART COLOGNE. Hug's assignment is to further develop the artistic and strategic aspects of ART COLOGNE and to ensure close personal support for galleries and top collectors. Assisting Hug will be Meyer Voggenreiter and Kathrin Luz, who will be intensely involved in the fair's conception and planning as well as in exhibitor acquisition and visitor marketing.
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Plans Unveiled For Frank Gehry´s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2008 will give London the first example of Frank Gehry´s spectacular architecture. The highly articulated structure (designed and engineered in collaboration with Arup) comprises large timber planks and multiple glass planes that soar and swoop at different angles to create a dramatic multi-dimensional space. Part-amphitheatre, part-promenade, these seemingly random elements will make a transformative place for reflection and relaxation by day, and discussion and performance by night.
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$1M Gift Enhances Ringling Museum’s Plans For Asian Art Galleries
Florida State University, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art announced receiving a US$1 million gift from the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation to create an endowment to support Asian art. In honor of this gift, galleries that were formerly in the Museum’s west wing will be renovated and named in honor of the Chao Foundation. The renovation will be in conjunction with plans for the Dr. Helga Wall Apelt Asian Art Galleries.
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Tate Launches Campaign For Rubens Banqueting House Sketch
Tate Britain, with the help of The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, is actively seeking support to raise £6 million to save the very first sketch Sir Peter Paul Rubens made for his magnificent ceiling paintings in the Banqueting House, Whitehall.
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Seven Accused Of Selling Fake Art Prints
An international investigation of the production and sale of counterfeit limited edition fine art prints of renowned artists, has resulted in federal criminal charges against seven defendants, including three Europeans and residents of Florida, New York and Illinois, U.S. and Spanish law enforcement officials announced. Two separate indictments allege that the defendants sold thousands of counterfeit prints to victims in the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and Japan. The indictments allege that the defendants together reaped more than $5 million in illegal proceeds from the separate, but overlapping fraud schemes. In both cases, investigators tracked the distribution of bogus works, purportedly by such artists as Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miro, Andy Warhol and others, from counterfeit distributors to an art dealer in north suburban Northbrook, who allegedly sold the inauthentic prints to victims, primarily through eBay, an internet auction web site.
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Whitney Museum Receives US$131M Gift
The Board of Trustees of the Whitney Museum of American Art today announced that The American Contemporary Art Foundation, Inc., of which Leonard A. Lauder is the President, has presented the Museum with a gift of US$131 million - the largest cash gift in the Whitney’s history. Of the total, $125 million will go to the Whitney’s endowment - one of the largest endowment gifts ever made to a New York museum. It will substantially increase the Whitney Museum’s total endowment, thereby helping to secure a greater platform for the Museum’s future growth. The balance of the gift, $6 million, will be used for Museum operating expenses.
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Liechtenstein Cancels Art Loan To Germany
Liechtenstein announced that it would not loan any more works of art to Germany until the "basic principles of the rule of law" is clarified. This announcement made by the royal family is part of problems between the countries which started after Germany paid to an informant account details from a Liechtenstein bank owned by the monarchy.
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Ken Livingston Plans Art Fund
London is leading the way internationally, according to "London – A Cultural Audit", the first quantitative comparison of London's cultural environment with four other major world cities - New York, Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai. With more museums and galleries, more theatres and concert halls, and more music venues and cinemas, London is ahead on many indicators, from "high art" to popular culture.
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UNL Art Gallery Changes Its Name
The American art museum on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus will be renamed "Sheldon Museum of Art," and its dedicated support organization will become "Sheldon Art Association." Previously the names were "Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery" and "Nebraska Art Association."
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Sydney Artist Wins Archibald Prize
Sydney artist Del Kathryn Barton has won the 2008 Archibald Prize for her painting "You are what is most beautiful about me", a self portrait with Kell and Arella. The Archibald prize is now in its 87th year. Kathryn receives a prize of $50,000. Del Kathryn Barton’s self-portrait depicts her with her son and daughter, Kell and Arella.
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Banksy Joins Plastic Bag Campaign
Following Gordon Brown´s warning last week that retailers may be forced to cut down on plastic bags if they do not do so voluntarily, guerrilla artist Banksy, left an image on the wall of a pharmacy in Essex Road, Islington. The painting depicts two children saluting a supermarket Tesco plastic bag instead of a flag.
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Bonhams Break Three World Records At Middle East Auction
Bonhams, the UK-headquartered international fine art auction house established since 1793, broke three world records at its inaugural Middle East art auction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The auction achieved total sales of over US$13 million – almost three times the expected result, with a phenomenal 94% of lots sold.
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"Scream" And "Madonna" Re-exhibited At Munch Museum
The main attractions of the Munch Museum’s summer exhibition 2008 will be the paintings "Scream" and "Madonna". The process of restoring them will by then be completed, and they may again be presented to the public.
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Jeffrey Weiss Resigns As Director Of Dia Art Foundation
Dia Art Foundation announced the resignation of Director Jeffrey Weiss, effective March 2008. Mr. Weiss, former curator and head of the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., assumed his post as director in June 2007. He has decided to return to a curatorial and scholarly career.
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Worker Dies At UM Expansion
A masonry worker fell about 40 feet from scaffolding at the addition of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Work was suspended last Friday as an investigation started. Construction management company, Skanska, said the worker was not wearing a safety harness but one was not requires in this case.
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Artist Rauschenberg Sues Gallery And Artist
American artist Robert Rauschenberg has filed lawsuits against artist Robert Fontaine and the HW Gallery of Naples, FL. Rauschenberg accused them for selling an artwork under his name, complete with bogus certificates of authenticity, after pulling discarded pieces from Rauschenberg´s trash.
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