September 2010

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1. Jeffrey du Vallier d’Aragon Aranita, founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art China in Hong Kong, left the country shortly after the new museum opened last autumn, leaving behind massive debts. Art experts at the time of the museum’s opening were sceptical that Mr. Aranita could obtain funding for even one museum, but MoCA China was opened in October 2008, only to be closed in January 2009. On the pretext of requiring heart surgery and other medical treatment, Mr. Aranita fled to Hawaii, leaving debts of more than HK$2m (£154,196) that he has refused to settle. He has cut off contact with his creditors, and has left behind unpaid salaries and unfulfilled promises to pay artists a percentage of auction proceeds.
- The Art Newspaper article

2. Actor and director Lord Attenborough and his wife plan to sell £2m worth of modern art at a Sotheby’s sale in London. The couple decided that, after 60 years of passionately collecting art, it was time to allow others to enjoy the paintings. The collection, which includes pieces by L.S. Lowry, Barbara Hepworth, and Henry Moore, will go on sale at Sotheby’s on 11 November.
- Telegraph article

3. Concerned about the disproportionately placed focus on reading over drawing, the new Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne has launched a campaign to get children more involved in art. He has pushed for a day to be set aside each year for children to engage in art activities, such as the “shape game,” in which children would take turns improvising on an abstract shape to develop it into a drawing. He hopes to publish the best resulting illustrations in a book to motivate the game’s participants. Mr. Browne’s endeavours are a continuation of the efforts of the previous Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, who also pushed for more creativity in the curriculum and who campaigned against SATs.
- Telegraph article

4. At the British Library in London, around 250 rare images of early photography will be revealed at the library’s first major photography exhibit. Works by William Henry Fox Talbot and Julia Margaret Cameron will be among the highlights of this show, which will focus on the development and social uses of the medium.
- BBC News article

5. Architect Charles Gwathmey, renowned for his geometrically complex buildings, has died in Manhattan of esophageal cancer. An unwavering adherent to Modernism, Gwathmey created thrilling constructions that often met with criticism and controversy. He became a sensation when he designed a Corbusian house consisting of cubes, triangles and cylinders for his parents, and became immensely successful as his clientele included the likes of Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, Jerry Seinfeld and Jeffrey Katzenberg. In New York, Gwathmey was perhaps most famous for his addition of a rectangular 10-story tower to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum. He is survived by his daughter Annie, and wife Bette-Ann Gwathmey.
- New York Times article

6. The Telegraph has reported that the auction house Christie’s is coping well with the recession, thanks to a record-breaking sale of Yves Saint Laurent’s collection in Paris. While other countries have suffered in sales, those in continental Europe have seen a rise of nearly 400% due to the £305 million YSL sale in February, with lots including modern classics by Matisse, Brancusi, Mondrian and de Chirico. By contrast, Sotheby’s witnessed a decline in profit of 87%, though it has been reported that art prices and sales have stabilized since the drop. Its quarterly profit report showed a decrease from $95.3m to $12.2m in net income, a contributing factor being higher taxes.
- Telegraph article
- Bloomberg article

ANNOUNCEMENTS/PRIZES

7. Dr. Bernhard Maaz was appointed as the new director for two museums of the Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections: the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery) and the Kupferstich-Kabinett (Collection of Prints, Drawings and Photographs). Having begun his career in eastern Germany, Dr. Maaz served as the head of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National gallery) and acting director of the Nationalgalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (National Gallery Collection, Berlin) prior to his new role.

8. Former director of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich, Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker has been chosen to serve as the Frye Art Museum’s new director, following the retirement of Midge Bowman. Ms. Birnie Danzker, who is currently an independent scholar and curator, has previously curated ‘The Munich Secession and America’ and ‘Transatlantic: American Artists in Germany’ for the Frye.

9. The board of directors of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum has appointed Carl Brown as the new interim director, following the departure of George G. King, who left after 11 years to lead the American Federation of Arts in New York. Mr. Brown has been the director of finance and human resources with the museum since 2005. He will serve as the interim director while the museum continues a national search for a permanent director.

10. In the United States, a rash of resignations of museum directors has caused shockwaves in the art community. John Wetenhall, executive director of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, resigned abruptly and without a formal explanation. During his tenure, the museum was able to establish a $55m endowment, expand the museum buildings to include several new key buildings, complete a $15m restoration of the Ringling mansion, acquire a large Asian art collection, and earn $150m in gifts and grants. Marshall Rousseau, member of the museum’s board of directors, will assume the role of interim director. An uproar of questions and suspicion erupted a day after Rhode Island School of Design officials formally announced the resignation of museum director Hope Alswang. However, RISD spokeswoman Becky Bermont responded by saying that Ms. Alswang had left ‘to pursue other opportunities.’

11. Kirsten Hileman, currently an associate curator for the Smithsonian Institute’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture garden, has been appointed as the new curator of contemporary paintings and sculptures at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Ms. Hileman has worked for the Hirshhorn for the past eight years and has taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design as well as at George Washington University. She will be replacing Darsie Alexander, who resigned earlier this year to accept the top curator position at Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center.

12. The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri, has appointed Barbara O’Brien as its new curator. Prior to this position, Ms. O’Brien was Assistant Professor of Art and the director for the Trustman Art Gallery at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. For nearly 20 years, she has curated approximately 50 exhibitions of contemporary art, and has also served as Boston’s public art consultant and editor-in-chief of the Art New England Magazine, among other positions at numerous art institutions.
- Art Daily article

13. The Fund for Art and Dialogue has announced the Artadia Awards 2009 Boston, given to seven artists selected from nearly 600 applicants in the metro Boston area. The two recipients of the $15,000 award were Amie Siegel and Joe Zane, and the five recipients of the $3,000 prize were Claire Beckett, Ambreen Butt, Caleb Cole, Raul Gonzalez, and Eric Gottesman. For this year’s cycle, the second following the cycle of 2007, the decisions were made by three jurors – Peter Eleey (visual arts curator, Walker Art Center), Rita Gonzalez (assistant curator of contemporary art, LACMA), and Randi Hopkins (associate curator, ICA Boston) – after a series of studio visits with 15 finalists.
- Artadia article

14. The International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York received a grant of $150,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This grant, given to 167 museums among 433 applicants across the United States, will allow ICP to continue planning for the establishment of a permanent facility.
- Art Daily article

15. The Renaissance Arts Prize, an award honouring young artists based in Italy and the United Kingdom, has announced its 2009 winners: Shoko Maeda and Chris Rain for photography, and Joanna Wodzicka and Riccardo Giacconi for video-art. This year’s edition invited applicants to respond to selected quotes from Futurist manifestos. Created in 2008 by SharpCut Visual Arts Project director Alessandra Masolini and consul general of Italy in London David Morante, it is hosted by the Italian Cultural Institute in London.

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