Have a minute? Get caught up with art news people are talking about. In this edition, a federal judge rules in favor of graffiti as protected art, a Hamptons gallery defends a suit over ownership of a portrait, Berlin Art Week changes dates, a cache of Winslow Homer paintings are gifted and more art news to know.
A federal judge in Brooklyn awarded $6.7 million to 21 graffiti artists whose work was obliterated overnight in 2013 by whitewashing from the exterior of the 5Pointz complex in Long Island City in Queens, NY on order of property owner Jerry Wolkoff in Long Island City in Queens, reported The New York Times. In the decision rendered on February 12, 2018, federal judge Frederic Block upheld the jury's decision in the verdict from the trial in November 2017, stating that Wolkoff violated the Visual Artists Rights Act (V.A.R.A) when he destroyed the street murals.
V.A.R.A. had been applied previously to protect public art of "recognized stature" created on someone else's property, reported The New York Times. At the time of the original ruling, the jury found 36 artworks met the stature. On Monday, Block increased the number of works to 45 and awarded the maximum amount possible, reported The New York Times.
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View of exterior of 5 Pointz on January 20, 2013. By Ezmosis - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24062983. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
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A relative of the Beale family of Grey Gardens fame has filed suit against Hamptons gallery owner Terry Wallace, alleging that he possesses a stolen painting depicting a young Jackie Kennedy Onassis that was burglarized from the East Hampton home in the sixties, according to The New York Times. Filed in Federal District Court last week by Bouvier Beale Jr., a cousin of Jackie Onassis and the Beale Estate executor, the lawsuit disputes Wallace's position that he rightfully owns the painting, having purchased the artwork in the late 1980s from a "very reputable" art and antiques dealer, according to Newsday. Click here to read the full story.
Berlin Art Week will be held two weeks later than expected in order to coordinate with other fairs, according to Monopol. It will now be held from September 26 to 30, 2018 and will coincide with the new art fair, Art Berlin, which held its first edition in 2017. Still unclear is whether Positions Art Fair can delay its 2018 edition until the end of September, reported Monopol. Currently, it is slated to be held September 13 - 16, 2018.
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation announced its artist recipients for its 2017 biennial grants. Thirty artists were selected with each receiving $20,000 to produce new work with nearly half of this year's winners located in the New York Metropolitan area. In May 2018, the recipients’ artworks will be documented for a catalogue published by the foundations.
Artists selected are Kathy Butterly and Tomas Vu-Daniel (New York); Niv Acosta, Raque Ford, Julianna Huxtable and Jessica Sanders (Brooklyn); Cameron Rowland (Queens, NY); Peter Pincus (Penfield, NY); Kazumi Tanaka (Beacon, NY); Matthew Solomon (Lake Huntington, NY); Titus Kaphar (New Haven, CT); Nina Chanel Abney (Jersey City, NJ); Abigail DeVille (Fort Lee, NJ); Sondra Perry (Perth Amboy, NJ); Tiona Nekkia McClodden (Philadelphia); Studio, and the Prout’s Neck Community (Maine); Regina Scully (New Orleans, LA); Ebony G. Patterson (Lexington, KY); Beatriz Santiago Muñoz (San Juan, PR); Zachary Meisner and Beverly Penn (Austin); Kaneem Smith (Houston); Kahlil Joseph, Sean Raspet, Jesse Stecklow and Martine Syms (Los Angeles); Rafa Esparza (Pasadena, CA); Karon Davis (Ojai, CA); Candice Lin (Atladena, CA) and Ellen Lesperance and Wendy Red Star (Portland, OR).
Twelve significant paintings by American artist Winslow Homer have been gifted to the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in Maine by the Berger Collection Educational Trust (BCET), according to ArtForum. The donation was made in honor of the museum's efforts to preserve the artists's studio, which sits on the rocky coastline of Prout's Neck, Maine. Homer lived and worked there until his death in 1910 with the museum purchasing the Studio from the family in 2006. The gift of paintings includes both oils and watercolors. Among the works are "Returning from the Spring," 1874, "Young Farmers (Study for Weaning the Calf)," 1872-1874 and others. The artworks are currently on view in the museum's art study room. BCET is a major private collection, housed at the Denver Museum of Art, and made up of mostly British art, according to ArtForum.
This Sunday, Ellsworth Kelly's final artwork opens to the public in Austin, Texas with the unveiling of a sculptural building that the artist gifted to the Blanton Museum of Art in 2015, months before his death, reported Architectural Digest. The original design was completed in the 1980s and placed on hold until Kelly could find the right institutional partner, which turned out to be the Blanton. Set on the University of Texas campus, Austin, as the building is titled, is 2,715 square feet and made of limestone and colorful stained glass. The building is the only permanent structure in Kelly's oeuvre. Click here to see images of the building. To read more about the work (and to see images), check out "Unveiling Ellsworth Kelly's 'Austin'" published by Texas Monthly. Austin by Ellsworth Kelly opens to the public on February 18, 2018.
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