Have a minute? Get caught up on art news to know. Keep reading to discover news people are talking about including a major gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Sotheby's personnel changes plus awards, appointments and new public art.
Sotheby’s reported a $11.2 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2015, reported the New York Times. The lost was within expected projections as Sotheby’s had anticipated a loss in the neighborhood of $10-$19 million for their fourth quarter, according to the NYT. The loss was chalked up, in part, from repatriating foreign earnings which resulted in a $65.7 million non-cash income tax charge along with an after-tax charge of $23.6 million, according to an announcement by Sotheby’s. They also expect a loss for the first quarter of 2016, according to chief executive Tad Smith, reported The Art Newspaper.
In other news, Sotheby’s has announced a flurry of personnel changes. Michael Goss has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and will take the helm on March 28, 2016. Several impending departures of key department chairs have also been announced or reported. Click here for details.
French sculptor Bernar Venet has won the 2016 Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, awarded by the International Sculpture Center based in New Jersey, reported Artforum. The award recognizes sculptors who have made major contributions to the field of sculpture. Past recipients include Magdalena Abakanowicz, Fletcher Benton, Louise Bourgeois, Sir Anthony Caro, Elizabeth Catlett, John Chamberlain, Christo and Jeanne-Claude and others.
Today, March 3, 2016, Venet unveils a 25-foot sculpture Disorder 9 Uneven Angles in Union Square in New York City. The sculpture remains on view through June 2016. Venet’s work is included in collections held by MoMA, Guggenheim, Centre Pompidou and more.
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"Disorder: 9 Uneven Angles" by Bernar Venet, 2015. Steel. 25’. © 2016 Bernar Venet/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery.
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Dia Art Foundation announced an expansion of its board of trustees with the appointment of two new members. Joining the board are Jane Skinner Goodell and James Murdoch. Goodell has spent 20 years as a television reporter and anchor, most recently for Fox News Channel. Murdoch is the Chief Executive Officer of 21st Century Fox and has held a succession of leadership roles in the 20 years or so he has spent with the company, according to Dia.
The board expansion aligns with Dia’s aim to “expand and strengthen” its programming at all its locations as well as its off-site projects and installations, according the appointment announcement. Dia Art Foundation locations include the Dan Flavin Art Institute in Bridgehampton, N.Y.; Dia: Beacon in Upstate New York; and Dia: Chelsea in New York City.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art received a donation of $10 million and over 50 artworks, including its first artwork by Edward Hopper, reported the New York Times. The funds and artworks were both donated by Daniel W. Dietrich II, a philanthropist who died in September 2015. The $10 million donation was slated for an endowment to support the art museum’s work in contemporary art.
The trove of art includes works by 12 works by Thomas Eakins and art by Paul Thek, Cy Twombly, Philip Guston, Eva Hess and others. In addition to Hopper’s Road and Trees, 1962, works by other important modern artists in Dietrich’s bequest include Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Horace Pippin as well as earlier American works by Thomas Cole and Albert Pinkham Ryder, reported Philly.com (powered by The Inquirer & The Daily News).
Hopper’s Road and Trees is now on view at the Philadelphia art museum in Gallery 124. The painting last publicly appeared in a 2013 exhibition organized by The Whitney Museum of American Art, according to Philly.com.
The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, announced that Thelma Golden is the recipient of the 2016 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. Golden is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, a position she has held since 2005. Golden rejoining The Studio Museum in 2000 after a decade spent at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The award will be presented at a gala held April 6, 2016y at Capitale and presented by Glenn Ligon.
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced it will allow the public at large to reproduce Rauschenberg’s art works under its new Fair Use Policy. The new Policy eliminates royalty fees, permissions and license agreements for those reproducing Rauschenberg artwork images for “noncommercial, scholarly and/or transformative purposes," according to a foundation statement. This now allows for the free usage in Social Media, in artwork when the art is transformed, creative writings, online teaching tools and study guides. The decision to ease its fair use policy stems from increased use of Rauschenberg images in the public domain during a pilot program altering its previous Fair Use Policy extended to museums. Click here for details.
Boca Raton is getting its own Art Fair Week, courtesy of art fair producers David and Lee Ann Lester, founders of Next Level Fairs, which produces Art Palm Beach and SeaFair. The inaugural Art Boca Raton art fair will take place March 18 – 21, 2016 and will feature 50 art dealers selected by a curatorial committee, according to the announcement. By way of transforming a single art fair into an Art Fair Week, special programming and events will be held throughout Boca Raton, F.L. and in Lake Worth, F.L. to create an art week to notice. Click here for details.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art released its fifth season of The Artist Project, an online video series created by the art museum featuring a series of artists discussing a selected artwork that sparks his or her imagination. The entire series will be presented in six seasons with 20 episodes each season. The fifth season, released on February 29, 2016, includes Kamrooz Aram, Ali Banisadr, Barbara Bloom, John Currin, Edmund de Waal, Maureen Gallace, Rashid Johnson, Alex Katz, Lee Mingwei, Lee Ufan, Josiah McElheny, Laura McPhee, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Sopheap Pich, Martha Rosler, James Siena, Eve Sussman, Betty Woodman and Dustin Yellin. Click here to discover more about Season Four which premiered December 2015.
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