International News Digest
PINAULT TO PART WITH CHRISTIE’S?
It’s only a rumor, but it seems to have traveled from France to Germany and a few open ears along the way. Citing an article in the French Journal des Arts, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Angelika Heinick reports that the owner of Christie’s François Pinault is allegedly discussing the possible sale of his auction house with the Qatar royal family and Qatar Holding. Heinick is intrigued by the rumor. “It’s not totally improbable,” she writes, “since Pinault needs money for the maintenance of his foundations in Venice.”
JONATHAN FRANZEN
The American writer Jonathan Franzen has become a fresh member of Berlin’s Akademie der Künste (AdK). As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, Franzen was elected to the arts institution along with writers Ulrich Peltzer, Lutz Seiler, and Sibylle Lewitscharoff, as well as the artists Silvia Bächli, Mirosav Baka, Richard Deacon, Katharina Grosse, and Mona Hatoum. The new members were chosen during an early spring session of the AdK and have now accepted their membership.
MONA HATOUM WINS
Mona Hatoum has more than her membership in the AdK to celebrate. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the artist has been awarded the Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis for 2010 by the AdK. The prize, which is doted with $15,500, will be awarded to Hatoum during an official ceremony on July 30. The jury praised Hatoum’s heterogenous and comprehensive oeuvre, which positions the human body between violence, power, and vulnerability. Born in 1952 in Lebanon to Palestinian parents, Hatoum currently splits her time between London and Berlin.
GOLDEN LION FOR REM KOOLHAAS
The Dutch star architect Rem Koolhaas also has something to celebrate. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the sixty-five-year-old will be awarded the Golden Lion for his life’s work at this year’s Architecture Biennial in Venice. The organizers of the biennial praised Koolhaas for broadening the horizon of architecture “by concentrating on the relationships between people and space.” “He creates buildings which stimulate the interaction between people,” said Kazuyo Sejima, the director of the upcoming twelfth edition of the biennial. Another Golden Lion will be awarded posthumously to the late Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara. The Venice Architecture Biennial takes place from August 29 to November 21.
DANIEL SPOERRI DONATES WORK
Daniel Spoerri has made a generous gift of $4.5 million worth of his own art to Niederösterreich (Lower Austria state) in Austria. As Der Standard reports, the gift, thirty-nine artworks in total, comes with a few strings attached, namely, the creation a foundation for the preservation and support of Spoerri’s oeuvre. Lower Austria will cover the maintenance costs of the foundation with an annual $220,000 contribution. Apart from highlighting Spoerri’s work, the foundation will also concentrate on the presentation and the mediation of contemporary art creation for school children and young people. There are already talks and events planned on the theme of “Kulinart” (Eat Art), which Spoerri himself invented. The Romanian-Swiss artist, who recently celebrated his eightieth birthday, made an early start on the foundation by transforming two houses in Hadersdorf am Kamp into event and exhibition sites.
ROMANIAN CULTURE: COMMUNIST OR MEDIEVAL?
What is the state of the contemporary arts in Romania? Eurotopics cites a surprising assessment written by the economic policy expert Mircea Cosea in the business blog Standard. For Cosea, the state’s culture policy has served to marginalize both Romanian art and artists. “If I may say so, the culture market has a connotation that is part communist, part Medieval,” writes Cosea. “It is communist because art and artists are subject to an egalitarian-collectivist vision in which artists are assessed according to how many years they have been working rather than the individual merits of their work.” The medieval side comes from the financing and the labor relations. “[The culture market] is an untaxed, Medieval-type market because in this country we have many barons of change who can afford to maintain their own ‘personal artists.’” Just what does a “personal artist” do, apart from making art? According to Cosea, the artist makes “appearances” with the patron “at weddings, baptisms, and private parties for a select circle of friends.” Sounds more like Art Basel and Medieval Art.