news March 23, 2010

International News Digest

König Contract Extended; Bomb Threat at Pompidou; Guernica to Stay Put; Most French “Curious” about Contemporary Art; AFP Ends Dispatches on Museums and Exhibitions; More Diversity Behind Louvre Exhibitions?; Porn-for-One Is Not Culture-for-All

KASPER KÖNIG’S CONTRACT EXTENDED

Kasper König will continue to direct the museum Ludwig in Cologne for another two years. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the city of Cologne extended its contract with the curator until November 2012. König’s original contract was due to end November 30, 2010.

BOMB THREAT AT CENTRE POMPIDOU

The Centre Pompidou in Paris was evacuated on Sunday after a bomb threat. As Agence France-Presse reports, the national museum evacuated visitors and personnel at noon after an anonymous caller alerted the police from a public telephone booth. “Bomb experts came and found

news March 16, 2010

International News Digest

Rebecca Horn Honored; Valencia Museum Director Steps Down; 350,000 Percent Markup on Caspar David Friedrich; Polaroid Auction Put on Hold?; Artist Hangs Own Work Next to Boltanski; Leipzig Painter Makes Papal Portrait

REBECCA HORN HONORED

Rebecca Horn has been awarded the Hessian Cultural Prize for 2010 in Germany. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the sixty-five-year-old was praised as “one of the outstanding visual artists” in the country. Among her many accomplishments, the multitalented Horn was the first woman to be awarded Goslar’s Kaiserring prize in 1992. The prize is accompanied by approximately sixty-three thousand dollars.

VALENCIA MUSEUM DIRECTOR STEPS DOWN AFTER CENSORSHIP

The director of the Museum Valencian of Enlightenment and Modernity (MUVIM), Ramâ de la Calle, has resigned to protest an act

news March 08, 2010

International News Digest

Prizes for Calle and Hatoum; Tàpies Foundation Reopens; Stalin Portrait Causes Uproar

PRIZES FOR CALLE AND HATOUM

Sophie Calle and Mona Hatoum have been recognized for their work with awards. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, Calle has won the Swedish Hasselblad Prize for Photography for 2010 from the Hasselblad Foundation in Gothenburg, while Hatoum was awarded the German Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis for 2010 from Berlin’s Akademie der Künste.

In Calle’s case, the jurors praised the “groundbreaking” and “original” work of the fifty-six-year-old French artist, who has explored the relation between text and photography for three decades. The Hasselblad prize, which comes with a $140,000

news March 01, 2010

International News Digest

Palais de Tokyo—the Sequel?; a “Monumenta” Success—with Anish Kapoor Next; Christoph Büchel’s Swingers Club; Pamuk Pays Back State Subvention for His “Museum of Innocence”; Vancouver’s Cultural Funding Extinguished with Olympic Flame?

PALAIS DE TOKYO—THE SEQUEL?

Architects are descending on the empty spaces in the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. As Agence France-Presse reports, eighty-eight architectural teams responded to the call to transform the unused parts of the vast building into an integrated contemporary arts center. The existing Palais de Tokyo Site de Création Contemporaine—which was opened in 2002 under the directorship of Jérôme Sans and Nicolas Bourriaud and has been run by Marc-Olivier Walher since 2006—takes up only eighty-six thousand square feet of the building, while the remaining ninety-seven thousand square feet

news February 22, 2010

International News Digest

Israel Criticizes Sculpture at ARCO fair; UNESCO Launches International Year of the Rapprochement of Cultures; Director Leaves Prague’s National Gallery; After Censorship, Chinese Artist’s Work Reinstalled at Paris Beaux-Arts

ISRAEL CRITICIZES SCULPTURE AT ARCO

The Israeli embassy in Spain has qualified a sculpture shown at ARCO in Madrid as “offensive.” As Agence France-Presse reports, the sculpture—created by the Catalan artist Eugenio Merino—features a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew praying on top of one another. In a press release, the embassy stated that Merino’s work includes “elements [that are] offensive to Jews, Israelis, and no doubt for others,” while noting that “values such as the freedom of expression or artistic liberty sometimes serve as a simple disguise for prejudices, stereotypes, and pure provocation

news February 17, 2010

International News Digest

Chinese Artist Censored—in France; Immendorff Fakes Immendorff; Grässlin Family Wins Award; Delvoye’s Pigs Make for Controversy in Nice

CHINESE ARTIST CENSORED—IN FRANCE

If the Chinese artist Ko Siu Lan had expected more democracy by studying in France, he must have been gravely disappointed by an incident of censorship that raises questions about the country’s dedication to freedom of expression. As Le Monde and Agence France-Presse report, the thirty-two-year-old student at Paris’s art academy Ecole des Beaux-Arts hung a set of banners on the academy’s facade that play on a 2007 election slogan from president Nicolas Sarkozy: “Travailler plus pour gagner plus” (Work more to earn more). By contrast, Ko’s black banners feature

news February 09, 2010

International News Digest

Susanne Gaensheimer to Curate German Pavilion at Venice; Herr Professor Gursky; “Elles” Prove Popular at the Center Pompidou; Paris “Arts Hill” Ready for FIAC? Eiffel Tower Ready for Artists?

SUSANNE GAENSHEIMER TO CURATE GERMAN PAVILION AT VENICE

Susanne Gaensheimer has been selected as the curator for the German pavilion at the fifty-fourth Venice Biennale in 2011. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the German Department for Foreign Affairs report, Gaensheimer is director of the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt—a position she took over in 2009 from Udo Kittelmann. German federal minister Guido Westerwelle also took the opportunity to thank Nicolaus Schafhausen for his work as curator of the German contributions for the fifty-second and fifty-third Biennales.

HERR PROFESSOR GURSKY

news February 01, 2010

International News Digest

UNESCO Moves to Protect Haitian Heritage; Philanthropist Donates Art to Cuba; Vienna’s Kunstforum to Close?; Berlin’s Tacheles Fights Closure; François Morellet at the Louvre

UNESCO MAKES MOVE TO PROTECT HAITIAN HERITAGE

UNESCO has called for a ban in the trade and transfer of cultural goods and artifacts from Haiti. As Agence France-Presse reports, the specialized branch of the UN Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization will be taking an active role in the struggle to prevent the country’s heritage being pillaged in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 12. UNESCO’s director-general, Irina Bokova, made references to the “past experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq” in launching the campaign, which will also protect “collections of art presented in

news January 25, 2010

International News Digest

Lars Nittve Leaving Moderna Museet; Vittorio Sgarbi to Curate Italian Pavilion in 2011; Raymond Pettibon Wins Oscar Kokoschka Prize; Jablonka Closes Berlin Gallery; Forgeries on View at V&A; Fake Tracey Emins and a Fake Penck

LARS NITTVE LEAVING MODERNA MUSEET

Lars Nittve will be leaving his position as the director of Stockholm’s Moderna Museet on October 31. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Gunnar Herrmann reports, there is nothing dramatic about Nittve’s departure. According to the regulations of the Swedish cultural ministry, the director must step down after nine years of service, which Nittve will have completed this year. Slightly more dramatic is the anticipation surrounding Nittve’s successor. Although the Swedish state has not yet chosen a new director, several possible names are already circulating in the

news January 19, 2010

International News Digest

Europe’s Response to Deitch Appointment; Helmut Newton’s SUMO Shelved?; Photographer Burns Negatives in Protest; Presidential Photograph Sells for $1.7 Million; An Art Market Heads Toward a Barter Economy

EUROPE’S RESPONSE TO DEITCH APPOINTMENT

There are mixed reactions in Europe to the recent appointment of Jeffrey Deitch as the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Le Monde’s Harry Bellet reminds us that the passage from art dealer to museum director is not entirely new, at least in the United States. “At the end of the 1950s, another gallerist, Walter Hopps, had quit business to direct—successively—the Pasadena Museum, the Washington Gallery, and then the Menil Foundation in Houston,” writes Bellet. “Former experts at auction houses have become very respected curators,”

news January 11, 2010

International News Digest

Takashi Murakami at Versailles; Moderna Museet Malmö Opens; a “Google Tax” to Support Culture?; Mona Lisa’s Cholesterol

NEXT UP AT VERSAILLES: TAKASHI MURAKAMI

It looks like there’s a nostalgia for the boom years—and the boom artists—still lingering in France. As Agence France-Presse reports, the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami will make his mark on Château de Versailles between September 12 and December 12. What better place to highlight the death of the glam years than the old abode of the Sun King, Louis XIV?

It will be the first retrospective in France for Murakami. The artist, who was born in 1962, follows Jeff Koons and Xavier Veilhan, who took on the castle in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Murakami will

news January 05, 2010

International News Digest

Christian Boltanski to Represent France in 2011 Venice Biennale; “Homoerotic” Exhibition Causes Stir in Poland; Swedish Call for Royal Poems Goes Sour

BOLTANSKI TO REPRESENT FRANCE IN VENICE

France is getting a head start—not on 2010 but on 2011. As Agence France-Presse reports, France has chosen the artist Christian Boltanski to represent the country at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. The announcement was made by a branch of the Ministry of Culture and by the organization Culturesfrance, which is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Born in 1944 in Paris, Boltanski is currently preparing for an exhibition that will open on January 13 at the Grand Palais, and another that will open January 15 at the contemporary art museum Mac/Val de

Jennifer Allen