Have a minute? Get caught up on the art news people are talking about. Read on for today's art news to know.
The Art Students League is facing a lawsuit filed by some of its voting members, questioning the school’s 2014 sale of air rights above its 1892 headquarters, according to the New York Times. The $31.8 million sale to Extell Development paved the way for the company to begin a 1,500 foot tower next door, which would make it “one of the tallest residential towers in the world,” according to the NYT. The lawsuit was filed by nearly 300 of its 3,945 voting members against the 140-year-old nonprofit art school located on West 57th Street, according to the NYT. The school has a storied list of artists who studied or taught there, including Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, Georgia O'Keefee, Eric Fischl and others.
Tate Modern announced Frances Morris will become the London art museum’s new director. Chris Dercon, the Tate Modern’s director of five years, will leave the museum later this year. Morris has been with the Tate since 1987. Most recently, she holds the position of director of collection, international art.
In other Tate Modern news, it was announced that Louise Bourgeois will be among the first artists featured at the Tate Modern’s new ten-story building, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, when it opens on June 17, 2016. Bourgeois’s work will displayed in Artist Rooms, a new gallery focused on the contemporary art collection jointly owned by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, according to The New York Times.
The new Tate Modern building is to include several floors of galleries, flexible spaces designed for performance pieces and a balcony with a 360-degree view of London. Herzog & de Meuron also designed the Tate Modern’s space. Closer to home, the architecture firm designed The Parrish Art Museum's new building in Water Mill.
The Pritzker Architecture Prize named Alejandro Aravena as its 2016 winner. The Chile-based architect will receive $100,000 as part of winning the world’s most important architecture prize. Aravena is directing this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale.
The New York Public Library announced 180,000 out-of-copyright images and materials are now free for downloading. Available for use, without permission, are high-resolution images, documents and other resources from its digital collections no longer subject to copyright. The library's release of the digitized material is meant to facilitate sharing, research and reuse by artists, scholars, educators, publishers and whomever might find inspiration and use, according to its announcement.
Artis—Naples received a 15 million dollar donation from Kimberly K. Querrey and Louis A. Simpson representing the largest single gift in its twenty-seven-year history, reported USA Today’s News Press. The non-profit plans to use the fund to help kick off a fundraising campaign to raise its current endowment from $60 million to $100 million and raise another $10 million for other needs, according to News Press.
The wish list includes expanding their art collection at The Baker Museum, located on Artis-Naples 8.5 acre campus, creating new programming for resident orchestra Naples Philharmonic and starting a public process to re-imagine Artis—Naples and its role for the future, reported News Press. Querrey has been a member of the Artis—Naples board since 2012. The couple previously donated $1 million to Artis-Naples to develop programming and audience outreach, according to New Press.
Bruce High Quality Foundation has left Manhattan for Brooklyn, reported ARTnews. The non-profit artist organization is now located a sixth-floor studio space in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which was acquired by the group in 2012, according to ARTnews. Bruce High Quality Foundation (BHQFU) is a self-described free art school and "learning experiment where artists work together to manifest creative, productive, resistant, useless, and demanding interactions between art and the world. Expect to see some of BHQFU's art exhibited in The Hamptons in the group show "Radical Seafaring" at The Parrish Art Museum from May 8 to July 24, 2106, curated by Andrea Grover.
"Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection" travels to the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. where it will be on view from February 6 to May 8, 2016. The exhibition features 39 landscape masterpieces, spanning five centuries, that are on loan from the collection of philanthropist and entrepreneur Paul G. Allen. The exhibition opened at the Portland Art Museum in October 2015. Click here to see some of the art in the exhibition.
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