International News Digest
NEO RAUCH DONATES WORKS TO ASCHERSLEBEN
Neo Rauch, the star of the New Leipzig School of painting, has donated his complete graphic oeuvre to the German city of Aschersleben. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk report, the gift includes forty paper works—lithographs, etchings, and photo-engravings—with a value estimated at $130,000. The fifty-year-old Rauch has also promised to give any future paper works to the city. While the painter was born in Leipzig, he grew up with his grandparents in Aschersleben after his parents were killed in a train accident. Aschersleben plans to create a permanent Rauch exhibition, which will open in Spring 2012.
NEW MUSEUM FOR MESTRE
The German architectural group Sauerbruch Hutton has won an international competition to build a new museum, M9, in Mestre, an official district of Venice located on the coast. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, M9 will host long-term exhibitions and include space for temporary exhibitions, a media center, an archive, and an auditorium. Sauerbruch Hutton won against the London office of David Chipperfield. All of the proposals can be seen at “M9—A New Museum for a New City” at the Venice architectural biennial, which continues until November 21, 2010.
PINAULT SPACES POPULAR IN VENICE
Mega-collector and Christie’s shareholder François Pinault’s holdings in Venice are doing well with the public. As Le Monde and Agence France-Presse report, the Dogana has welcomed 375,000 visitors since it opened in June 2009. Martin Bethenod, the former FIAC head and the new Dogana administrator since June 2010, called the visitor numbers “quite remarkable” for an exhibition of contemporary art. “We welcome 800–850 visitors per day,” said Bethenod. “The countries most represented are Italy and France, followed by the Americans and the English.” The Palazzo Grassi, which Pinault opened four-and-a-half years ago to show his private collection, is even more popular. The combined visitor numbers for both the Palazzo and the Dogana add up to 1.3 million. “This idea of showing today’s art in the context of Venice is something that’s becoming a very, very strong identity trait of the city.”
FRIDA KAHLO AND DIEGO RIVERA’S NEW FACE
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are the faces of Mexico’s brand new 500-peso bank note. As Agence France-Presse reports, the announcement was made by the Central Bank of Mexico last week. The 500-peso note, which is the equivalent of $37.50, features self-portraits by the country’s renowned artists who marked the last century with both artworks and political engagement, including welcoming Leon Trotsky to their home in 1937 when the USSR revolutionary had been banned by Stalin and had received political asylum from then-president Lazaro Cardenas.
LARRY GAGOSIAN’S COLLECTION IN ABU DHABI
The dealer Larry Gagosian will be exhibiting seventy-two works from his collection in Abu Dhabi. As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s Swantje Karich reports, “RSTW” opens on September 22 at the Manarat Al Saadiyat exhibition house on Saadiyat Island. The show takes its title from the initials of the last names of the assembled artists: Rauschenberg, Ruscha, Serra, Twombly, Warhol, and Wool. Saadiyat Island is the future home to branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi, which led Karich to note that the Gagosian is not exactly distancing himself from the art market. Since “RSTW” ends in January 2011, the show can be seen in November during the Abu Dhabi Art Fair, where Gagosian has had a presence since 2009.
Anne Baldassari, curator and chairman of the National Picasso Museum in Paris and long active in Abu Dhabi, has been invited “as a curator to interpret” Gagosian’s collection. “But are the announced works really what Gagosian wants to preserve from dealing?” wonders Karich. “Or is it closer to a colorful mixture from his gallery inventory, just like the exhibition at the last Abu Dhabi fair in 2009?”