Have a minute? Get caught up on the art news people are talking about. Read on for today's art news to know.
Former Knoedler & Co. director Ann Freedman settled out of court with the buyers of a fake Mark Rothko painting on Sunday, February 7, 2016, reported The New York Times. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The buyers, Demenico and Eleanore De Sole, had been seeking $25 million from Freedman and Knoedler & Co., the seller of the fake Rothko painting. The case against Freedman is expected to be dismissed this week while the case against Knoedler & Co. continues, according to the NYT. The trial is now in its third week. Four separate lawsuits from collectors who purchased shady works through Knoedler are still pending. Five additional lawsuits filed by collectors have been settled.
Yale University announced it has hired curator Marta Kuzma as the next dean of its School of Art, replacing curator and critic Robert Storr, reported The New York Times. Kuzma is the first woman to serve in the position. Storr has held the position since 2006. After a sabbatical, Storr is expected to return to Yale as a member of the school's faculty, according to ARTnews. “Ten years is enough. “More than enough,” Storr told the NYT, which first reported the news. Kuzman is currently vice chancellor and rector of the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Prior positions include director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway; establishing director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Kiev, Ukraine; artistic director of the Washington Project for the Arts, in Washington, D.C.; and leader of the international exhibitions program at International Center of Photography in New York.
TEFAF Maastricht plans to launch two new art fairs in New York City at the Park Avenue Armory. TEFAF | New York | Fall will premiere October 22 - 27, 2016 and will focus on art from antiquity to the 20th Century. TEFAF | New York | Spring will premiere in May 4 - 9, 2017 with an emphasis on modern and contemporary art and design. For details, click here.
Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, 1970, is being considered to become Utah's official state work of art, according to ARTnews. If the bill passes, Spiral Jetty will become the first artwork to be declared a state symbol, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. On February 2, 2016, the House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee voted 7-1 to endorse the bill, HB134, and honor the earth artwork, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Few U.S. states have an official state work of art. Spiral Jetty, 1970, is a 1,500-foot series of rocks arranged in a curving shape that stretches from the shore of Great Salt Lake. It can only be seen in its entirety when the water is low, according to ARTnews.
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Robert Smithson, "Spiral Jetty," 1970. Photo by Michael David Murphy. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970.
Palm Beach County cultural leaders have asked for $228 million in public arts funding to be included in a 1 percent sales tax increase, reported the Sun Sentinel. Funds raised by the tax increase would also include school and county needs. In a meeting held today (February 9, 2016), county commissioners voted to move ahead with a proposal to increase the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent for the next 10 years, reported the Sun Sentinel. Voters need to approve the increase before the change would go into effect. How the money would be allotted is still under discussion, according to the Sun Sentinel. Raising the sales tax would result in $2.6 billion in additional revenue, reported the Sun Sentinel. The Cultural Council's request for $228 million would include art galleries expansion, zoo exhibits and other cultural amenities. The request for cultural dollars is a point of contention for some commissioners who say their areas are in need of housing and infrastructure. Click here to read the latest reporting by Skyler Swisher for the Sun Sentinel.
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami announced Gean Moreno as the new Curator of Programs and Stephanie Seidel as assistant curator. Moreno is the on the advisory committee for the 2017 Whitney Biennial. He served as artistic director at Cannonball, a Miami nonprofit cultural organization, from 2014 to 2016, and was the director of programming at Miami’s Locust Projects for four years. Seidel is the former curator of 25/25/25. Both Moreno and Seidel will take up their new positions at the museum on February 8, 2016, according to ICA Miami. The institute is currently in temporary quarters with its new building and sculpture garden slated to open in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami recently started a search for a new museum director, reported the Miami Herald. In late December 2015, the museum fired director Babacar M'Bow for alleged sexual harassment of its staff, according to the Miami Herald. MOCA North Miami was in the news for much of 2014 when a legal battle ensued between the city government and the museum's board of directors, after they resigned en masse, took much of the permanent collection with them and went on to form ICA Miami .
M'Bow joined the museum in April 2014. He succeeded longtime director Bonnie Clearwater, who left in 2013, and interim director Alex Gartenfeld, who was appointed in Clearwater's wake. Gartenfeld is now the Deputy Director & Chief Curator of ICA Miami. Clearwater continues to head Nova Southeastern University’s Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale as director and chief curator. City officials in North Miami, which owns and oversees MOCA, are determined to keep MOCA North Miami going and describe the contemporary art museum as "central to the reputation and future of the city," reported the Miami Herald. Currently, the museum is headed by interim director Natasha Colebrook-Williams. Click here to read the full article by Jordan Levin for the Miami Herald.
A glass artwork by Dale Chihuly has been on a wild ride. Cobalt and Lavender Piccolo Venetian with Gilded Handles by Dale Chihuly was reportedly stolen from the Chihuly Collection Gallery at the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg, FL. It was recovered a few days later by an employee of the Morean Arts Center, inside a box left in front of the art gallery on February 9, 2016, according to the Associated Press and reported by the Miami Herald. The artwork was valued at $25,000.
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