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SF MoMA Acquires Forty Eggleston Photographs
05.09.08 - The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has acquired a group of forty dye-transfer prints by William Eggleston dating from 1969 to 1971, reports Carol Vogel in the New York Times. The photographs—portraits, landscapes, and still lifes—are images of life in places like Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi and were first shown in 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “Until Eggleston, color photography was not taken seriously,” said Neal Benezra, director of SF MoMA. “It was the stuff of fashion.” He added, “This group really strengthens our collection of contemporary photography, giving it a great context.” Joshua Holdeman, an expert in twentieth-century art at Christie’s, sold the prints. While neither Christie’s nor the museum would say what it paid, photography experts estimated that the group is worth about four million dollars.
Charges Dropped for Indian Artist; Haring Foundation Donates to New Museum
05.08.08 - BBC News reports that a court in India has dropped legal proceedings in three cases against M. F. Husain, one of the country's best-known and most controversial artists. Husain has been accused of obscenity in at least seven cases filed against him in a number of Indian states. He is alleged to have offended Hindus with a painting in which he represented India as a nude goddess. In dropping criminal proceedings against the painter, the Delhi court said the painting was not obscene; under Indian laws, obscenity is a criminal offense. "The high court said the ninety-two-year-old painter deserves to be at home, painting his canvases," said Akhil Sibal, Husain's lawyer. In 2006, Husain had publicly apologized for the painting.
In other news, the New Museum has announced that it is the recipient of a one-million-dollar gift from the Haring Foundation; it is the Haring Foundation's largest donation to date. The endowment gift will establish the School and Youth Programs Fund at the museum and also fund the Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs, a position currently held by Eungie Joo. The gift coincides with what would have been the artist's fiftieth year. "With this gift, the Keith Haring Foundation is delighted to initiate what we hope will be a long-term collaboration with the New Museum," said Julia Gruen, the foundation's executive director, in a statement.
Catalogue of Fakes Shake Russian Market; Ambanis Sell Art to Aid Young Artists
05.08.08 - Russia's booming art market is facing crisis as hundreds of paintings have been identified as fakes, said dealers and collectors. John Varoli reports for Bloomberg that about eight hundred works, most still in private collections, are listed in The Catalog of Fraudulent Art Works, now on its fourth volume. There are "possibly thousands more" still to be named, its coauthor Vladimir Roschin said in an interview. The eight hundred pictures wrongly authenticated by venerable institutions include almost one hundred cleared by the State Tretyakov Gallery, its deputy director Lidia Iovleva said in a separate interview. "Sales in Moscow of nineteenth-century Russian art have fallen because of the hysteria over fakes,'' said Georgy Putnikov, vice president of the Confederation of Art and Antique Dealers. The Moscow-based association claimed the catalogue and its sponsors are "destabilizing the market" and "destroying consumer confidence." The catalogue has prompted collectors to return at least fifty-five paintings to dealers, said Roschin, who also estimated that the eight hundred fakes, if they had been genuine, would net one hundred million dollars.
Billionaire businessman Anil Ambani's wife, Tina Ambani, is seeking to raise over $195,000 for her Harmony Art Foundation by selling a dozen artworks at Christie's, which is also exhibiting thirty-two works from the Ambani family's private collection starting on Wednesday, reports India's Economic Times. These include works by M. F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, and S. H. Raza. Scott Reyburn notes for Bloomberg that proceeds will go to Ambani's nonprofit organization, which supports the work of emerging artists.
Mark Wallinger's Steel Racehorse Proposal; Getty Center Hires Goats
05.08.08 - Five months after winning the Turner Prize, Mark Wallinger is one of five artists jostling for the chance to build a towering four-million-dollar landmark in a disused English cement quarry. Reports Farah Nayeri for Bloomberg: His entry is a white steel racehorse that would soar over Ebbsfleet, Kent. Says Wallinger, "I find horses extraordinarily beautiful. The horse stands in the same pose as Stubbs used, as is used today for the stallion books. So it's a recognized stamp of the animal. It's a scarred postindustrial site, with loads of pylons and signage on the road. It needed something that was immediately recognizable within all that. It's thirty-three times the size of an actual horse, so that does something surreal to the landscape around."
In other news, Lawrence Van Gelder notes in the New York Times that the Getty Center in Los Angeles has contracted about sixty goats to eat the brush on its 110 acres. If left unmanaged, the brush could serve as fuel for wildfires.
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