news September 07, 2010

International News Digest

Neo Rauch Donates Works; New Museum for Mestre; Pinault Popular in Venice; Kahlo and Rivera’s New Face; Larry Gagosian’s Collection in Abu Dhabi

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

news August 30, 2010

International News Digest

Resistance to Murakami at Versailles; Gagosian in Paris; Who Chewed the Gum?; Rem Koolhaas’s Plans for Venice.

RESISTANCE TO MURAKAMI AT VERSAILLES

For his exhibition at the Château de Versailles, Takashi Murakami is facing as much public resistance as his forerunner Jeff Koons faced two years ago. As Agence France-Presse reports, a number of petitions are already circulating against Murakami’s exhibition at the former royal residence of the “Sun King” Louis XIV, outside Paris. There’s also the threat of legal action as well as a protest planned for the opening on September 14. According to the president of the public castle, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the protesters come from “extreme right fundamentalist

news August 23, 2010

International News Digest

After Schlingensief’s Death, Questions about the German Pavilion; Trouble at Germany’s Istanbul Academy; FIAC Celebrates Record Number of Applicants; Bob Dylan at the Statens Museum

QUESTIONS UNANSWERED ABOUT GERMAN PAVILION

In the wake of Christoph Schlingensief’s death, many are wondering what will happen to the German Pavilion at the next Venice Biennale in 2011. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Barbara Gärtner reports, Schlingensief’s nomination last May to represent Germany raised more than a few eyebrows—not least from Gerhard Richter, who called his participation “a scandal.” Susanne Gaensheimer, the German pavilion curator and the director of Frankfurt’s Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), did not offer many details about the near future. “Now, we have to discuss things

news August 16, 2010

International News Digest

Visitor Records at German and Italian Museums; Stolen Polke Works Found; Prizes for Walther and Ullman.

VISITOR RECORDS AT GERMAN AND ITALIAN MUSEUMS

German and Italian museums are enjoying long lines outside their doors. As Der Standard and APA report, exhibition success stories in Germany include the Neo Rauch shows at Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne and Leipzig’s Museum der Bildenden Künste, the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner exhibition at Frankfurt’s Städel Museum, and the Frida Kahlo retrospective at Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau. The Kahlo retrospective, which opens on September 1 in Vienna’s Bank-Austria-Kunstforum, welcomed 200,000 visitors.

Italian museums registered eighteen million visitors for the

news August 09, 2010

International News Digest

France’s “Cols Rouges” Under Investigation; Is the Internet Better for Art Information than for Art Market?; Photography, Fine Art, and Popular Practice

FRANCE’S “COLS ROUGES” UNDER INVESTIGATION

The French guild of auction warehouse clerks at the Paris auction house Hôtel Drouot, also known as the “cols rouges” (red collars) for the distinctive collars on their uniforms, are under investigation for robbery and other charges. It seems that some guild members have taken advantage of their proximity to artworks and other valuables. According to a report in Le Quotidien, French police discovered a Gustave Courbet painting, Marc Chagall prints, a Picasso drawing, diamonds, and other valuables while searching the residences of “cols rouges” in December

news August 02, 2010

International News Digest

Looking into the Stendhal Syndrome; Hamsters in the Museum; Security Camera Art; Dog Days of August

LOOKING INTO THE STENDHAL SYNDROME

Does the Stendhal syndrome really exist? As Der Standard reports, Italian researchers want to take a closer look at the syndrome named after the French writer Stendhal who swooned after seeing too much beautiful art during a trip to Florence in 1817. The team of researchers––including doctors and psychologists from Florence and Pisa––want to measure the physical bodily reactions that occur when people look at impressive artworks. The researchers set up a multi-sensory path in a hall painted by the seventeenth-century artist Luca Giordano (1634–1705) in the Medici

news July 26, 2010

International News Digest

Italian Cultural Sector Faces Budget Cuts; Is the Venice Biennale too Pricey for Estonia?; A German at the British Architecture Pavilion; New Dates for Contemporary Istanbul Fair; Leopold Museum Sells Schiele to Pay Victim of Nazi Theft; Museum Ludwig and Suchan Kinoshita Honored

ITALY CULTURE CUTS RUN DEEP

The Italian government’s massive cuts to its own budget, thirty-two billion dollars for 2011–2012, are now being felt in the cultural realm. Le Monde’s Philippe Ridet focuses primarily on cuts to the performing arts––from theaters to operas––which will have to make do with one-third less of their annual budget, which has been slashed from 582 million dollars to 388 million dollars for the next year. “Many foundation and cultural associations will receive no further financing from the state starting in 2011,” writes Ridet.

At the beginning of June, a demonstration was

news July 20, 2010

International News Digest

Pinault to Part with Christie’s?; Jonathan Franzen; Mona Hatoum Wins; Golden Lion for Rem Koolhaas; Spoerri Donates; Romanian Culture: Communist or Medieval?

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

news July 14, 2010

International News Digest

Hershman Leeson Wins 2010 d.velop digital art award; Gilbert and George: XL; Manifesta 8 Delays Opening; Sarkozy Photographer Booed at Arles Festival; Art History of World Cup; Cat Missing––Mummified.

HERSHMAN LEESON WINS 2010 D.VELOP DIGITAL ART AWARD

The American artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson has been awarded the d.velop digital art award (ddaa) for 2010. As Artfacts.net reports, the prize is awarded every two years by the Digital Art Museum in Berlin and comes with $25,500 as well as a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bremen. Hershman Leeson, who lives in San Francisco, directs the film faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute and is a Professor Emeritus for digital art at the University of California, Davis. Active in media art since the 1970s, the artist is behind technological

news July 05, 2010

International News Digest

French Museums Look to Security and Budget Cuts; New Cancer Diagnosis for Schlingensief; Berlin's Postfuhramt Sold; Gallerists Head to Reykjavik; Palais de Tokyo Architects Chosen; South London Gallery Expands; England Reveals Salaries; Finns Have a Basic Right to Internet

FRENCH MUSEUMS LOOK TO SECURITY AND BUDGET CUTS

After a spectacular robbery six weeks ago at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the French minister of culture Frédéric Mitterrand has sent out a massive group e-mail about security to the country’s museum directors. As Le Monde reports, Mitterrand said that the prevention of robberies is “a priority in the heritage policy of France” and urged directors to recognize “the importance of inventory, checking, and documentation of the collections.”

Mitterrand’s group e-mail does not seem to include information about financing the measures to

news June 28, 2010

International News Digest

French “Art” Pavilion Censored in Shanghai?; Germans Ponder Tearing Down Pavilion in Venice; The (Art) World According to Obrist; Zobernig Honored.

FRENCH “ART” PAVILION CENSORED IN SHANGHAI?

The French pavilion at the Shanghai Expo seems to have been unofficially censored. As Le Monde’s Emmanuelle Lequeux reports, there is no official act of censorship, nor complaints and retributions. Yet the entrance to one of the French exhibitions has been restricted, its entrance blocked by a guard. The exhibition in question features artworks by the finalists for the 2009 Marcel Duchamp prize: the winner Saâdane Afif as well as Nicolas Moulin, Philippe Perrot, and Damien Deroubaix. Deroubaix’s work, a sculpture showing a grotesquely large head swallowing

news June 21, 2010

International News Digest

Museum Salaries Withheld Unless Quotas Met; Otto Muehl Apologizes; Judith Butler Refuses Civil Courage Prize; Green Touch for Documenta 13.

MUSEUM SALARIES WITHHELD UNLESS QUOTAS MET

There’s a new pressure to perform for the directors of municipal museums in Hamburg. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Till Briegleb reports, the next work contracts will tie the salaries of museum directors to goals set by the city’s cultural authority. Hubertus Gaßner, the director of Hamburg Kunsthalle, is cited as an example. Under the terms of the next work contract beginning in 2011, a full 20 percent of Gaßner’s salary will be withheld unless the director meets the preset goals of the municipal cultural authority. In this case, the goal is to reduce

Jennifer Allen