Weekly News Round-up
Adelia Sabatini, Friday, 11th December 2009
1. Richard Wright wins 2009 Turner Prize:
Glasgow-based painter Richard Wright, 49, was announced the winner of the 2009 Turner Prize on Monday (pictured above). The artist used the painstaking techniques of Renaissance fresco-makers to make his gold-leaf fresco for the Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain in London. In keeping with Wright’s insistence that his works be destroyed after being exhibited, his latest fresco will be painted over when the show closes on 3 January 2010. Judges described Wright’s paintings as rooted in the fine art tradition yet ‘radically conceptual in impact.’ Wright beat the three other finalists, Roger Hiorns, Enrico David and Lucy Skaer, to the annual £25,000 prize.
Art Daily
2. Van Dyck painting sells for a record £8.3 million:
A self-portrait by Anthony van Dyck, the last-known portrait of the painter, sold for £8.3 million – more than double its £3 million pre-sale estimate – at the sale of Old Master & British Paintings at Sotheby’s in London. Painted by Van Dyck in London in 1640, the painting broke the previous auction record of £3.06 million for Van Dyck’s A Rearing Stallion. The self-portrait was purchased by Alfred Bader in partnership with Philip Mould. Mr. Mould said: ‘This is the most important 17th-century British portrait to come on the market in the last two decades. It was an opportunity we could not miss.’
BBC News
3. New prize for artists under 35 created by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation:
Ukrainian billionaire and art collector Victor Pinchuk has created a $100,000 new international contemporary art prize for artists under the age of 35 years. The Future Generation Art Prize will be awarded every two years and is open to any young artist who applies online. The Prize’s board includes fashion designer Miuccia Prada, American collector Eli Broad, Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota, MOMA director Glenn Lowry and singer Elton John. Established artists such as Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami will serve as mentors to the prize-winners.
Mr. Pinchuk said: ‘I am hoping that the Future Generation Art Prize will help promote the Ukraine and Kiev as an important contemporary art center.’
The New York Times
4. Pompidou curators side with striking workers:
Twenty-one curators of the Pompidou Centre in Paris have written to French culture minister Frédéric Mitterand to justify their opposition to the government’s plan to cut staff in national museums. It is argued that the plan to replace only every second retiring employee, which has already caused widespread strikes in French museums in the last few weeks, would have a particularly devastating impact on the Pompidou Centre, causing it to lose 44% of its staff by 2020 if it is put into action.
Art Forum
5. Rembrandt painting fetches record price on London:
A Rembrandt portrait unseen in public for almost 40 years, Portrait of a man, half-length, with his arms akimbo, sold for a record £20.2 million at Christie’s in London on 8 December. The auction house declared that the painting had been bought by an anonymous client bidding via telephone. The record price for a Rembrandt was previously set in 2000, when Robert Noortman paid £19.8 million for Portrait of a Lady, Aged 62 at Christie’s in London.
Art Daily
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