Arts news

• After Raising $25.5 M., London’s National Gallery Acquires Sought-After Orazio Gentileschi Painting

  18-12-2019 20:11 via artnews.com
  
  Since 1995, the National Gallery in London has been trying to acquire the Italian Baroque painter Orazio Gentileschi’s work The Finding of Moses (ca. early 1630s). At long last, after a fundraising campaign and more than 20 years of trying, the museum has finally bought the artwork.
  On Wednesday morning, the museum announced that it had successfully raised the £19.5 million (around $25.5 million) needed to buy the painting. “I congratulate the National Gallery and eve
  
  Read more

• Former Staff at Carpenters Workshop Gallery Allege Sexual Misconduct, Questionable Accounting

  09-06-2024 01:24 via artnews.com
  
  A report published in Air Mail features allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior, questionable accounting, and more at Carpenters Workshop Gallery.The weekly newsletter’s report, published on Friday, draws on “more than a dozen interviews” with former employees of the prestigious design firm cofounded by Julien Lombrail and Loïc Le Gaillard 18 years ago. ARTnews’s attempts to reach Lombrail and Le Gaillard by phone were not successful. When ARTnews reached out to
  
  Read more

• Christie’s Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit Over Client Data After Cyberattack Shuts Down Website

  07-06-2024 23:25 via artnews.com
  
  If there’s one thing wealthy people have access to, it’s lawyers. As a result, a client of Christie’s recently filed an class-action lawsuit against the auction house after it experienced a cyberattack in May. The incident, which Christie’s had previously referred to as a “technology security incident,” shut down its website for ten days before and during the house’s marquee New York sales. The cyber-extortion group RansomHub claimed responsibility for t
  
  Read more

• Mastermind of ‘Canada’s Largest Art Fraud’ Guilty of Peddling Fake Norval Morrisseau Works

  07-06-2024 22:17 via artnews.com
  
  A second suspect has plead guilty to charges of fraud in the case dubbed by investigators as “Canada’s largest art fraud investigation,” according to CBC News. On June 6, David Voss plead guilty to one charge of forgery and one charge of uttering forged documents, in this case the fake provenance materials he used while operating an art fraud ring between 1996 and 2019. Based in the northern Ontario city of Thunder Bay, Voss oversaw the production of thousands of artworks false
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• French Museum Calls Report on Vincent Honoré’s Suicide ‘Exploitation of a Tragic Event’

  07-06-2024 22:02 via artnews.com
  
  MO.CO, a contemporary art museum in Montpellier, France, accused a French art publication of “exploitation” on Friday after it ran a report on the suicide of Vincent Honoré, who formerly served as the institution’s head of exhibitions.Le Quotidien de l’Art reported last week that Honoré’s suicide had been determined a “work accident” by French social security and featured allegations from unnamed MO.CO workers who claimed Honoré had
  
  Read more

• Lawsuit Over Allegedly Nazi-Looted Van Gogh Dismissed

  07-06-2024 21:14 via artnews.com
  
  A federal court earlier this month dismissed a lawsuit against the Japanese company Sompo Holdings surrounding Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888), which the heirs of a German Jewish banker said had been looted by the Nazis.The company bought the work from Christie’s London in 1987 for $39.9 million, a record at the time. The heirs of its previous owner, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy had sought to get it back, claiming that it had been stolen during World War II.According
  
  Read more

• Philadelphia’s UArts Hit with Class-Action Lawsuit Amid Sudden Closure

  07-06-2024 21:03 via artnews.com
  
  Just days after announcing its sudden closure, Philadelphia’s University of the Arts was hit with a class action lawsuit by nine of its employees, including several professors and department directors. The news was first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the city’s federal court and accuses the school, commonly called UArts, of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), a 1988 law that requires most em
  
  Read more

• Dealer Tif Sigfrids Closes Her Gallery, Joins Canada as Partner

  07-06-2024 17:54 via artnews.com
  
  Tif Sigfrids, a dealer who has run a gallery in Athens, Georgia, for more than a decade, has closed up her art space and joined Canada, a blue-chip New York gallery that is well-regarded for its painting shows, as a partner.Sigfrids had since 2021 operated a gallery in New York, making her the second dealer in the city to announce a closure this week, after Simone Subal, who will shutter her 12-year-old Lower East Side gallery this month. News of the closure of Sigfrids’s gallery and her h
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Why Are Robert Mapplethorpe’s Provocative Images Seemingly Everywhere These Days?

  07-06-2024 17:00 via artnews.com
  
  When photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 at 40, his immediate reaction was to destroy the work he would leave behind. After overcoming the initial shock, however, he settled on the idea of planning his estate, which led to the establishment of Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in 1988, the year before his passing.Related ArticlesFrom the Archives: Read What ARTnews Critics Said About Robert MapplethorpeLGBTQ+ Artists Having Institutional Shows This Pride Month
  
  Read more

• Despite Economic Uncertainty, Gallery Weekend Beijing Left Dealers Feeling Optimistic

  07-06-2024 16:53 via artnews.com
  
  Toward the end of a particularly turbulent May, China made global headlines for its military drills around Taiwan, done in response to the island’s newly elected leader. This past weekend, China’s defense chief affirmed the “threats of force” at Asia’s biggest defence summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. This did little to mitigate growing concerns about the economic and security implications of rising tensions between China, the US, and Taiwan.But back in
  
  Read more

• After More Than 75 Years, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Eyes Its Future with an Expansion

  07-06-2024 16:00 via artnews.com
  
  Despite being the country’s fourth most-populated city, Houston is in many ways a very well-kept secret when it comes to its art scene. What outsiders often misunderstand as a lack of culture here is rather a lack of a centralized culture. With a kind of schizophrenic miasma, its seemingly endless snarl of concrete and shopping centers and no-zoning laws lend the metropolis a simultaneous feeling of culture-less sprawl while also brimming with a sincere, can-do spirit for limitless possibi
  
  Read more

• Navajo Artist Melissa Cody Reclaims a Sacred Symbol That the Nazis Weaponized

  07-06-2024 13:00 via artnews.com
  
  A version of this essay originally appeared in Reframed, the Art in America newsletter about art that surprises us and works that get us worked up. Sign up here to receive it every Thursday.In Melissa Cody’s 2014 weaving Good Luck, a figure known as Rainbow Man is represented as an electrical cord, his lower half culminating in a two-pronged plug. His tubular body encircles the phrase GOOD LUCK, and beneath those words, there’s a somewhat unexp
  
  Read more

• Orlando Museum of Art Responds to Amended Countersuit from Ex-Director

  06-06-2024 21:31 via artnews.com
  
  The Orlando Museum of Art has responded to an amended lawsuit filed by its former director, Aaron De Groft, denying his allegations of defamation. The museum has also voiced support for its board chair, whose public statements regarding De Groft’s involvement in the 2022 Basquiat forgery scandal were cited in the lawsuit.“OMA denies it committed any of the unlawful actions alleged in the Amended Counterclaim and denies De Groft is entitled to any of the relief sought,” reads th
  
  Read more

• Blue Shrine Room with Frescos Depicting Female Figures Unearthed at Pompeii

  06-06-2024 20:17 via artnews.com
  
  An ancient Roman shrine room was discovered during recent excavations by archaeologists at the Pompeii Archaeological Park.The 86-square-foot sacrarium features painted blue walls decorated with female figures depicting the four seasons of the year, along with allegories of agriculture and shepherding. The room’s color is notably rare, and would have demarcated it as a place of importance for ritual activities and storing sacred objects.“Pompeii is truly a treasure chest that never c
  
  Read more

• An Exhibition in Mumbai Looks at India’s ‘Liminal Gaps’

  06-06-2024 18:00 via artnews.com
  
  At the center of Mumbai is a sterilized development called the Bandra-Kurla-Complex (BKC) that was built over marshy land and surrounded by (now) depleted rivers. Today, it commands the highest real estate rates in India, and continues to develop as the commercial colossus within the country’s financial capital, home to the largest number of billionaires in Asia.And at the center of the BKC is the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, opened last year by art patron Nita Mukesh Ambani, whose
  
  Read more

• New York’s 47 Canal, a Longtime Chinatown Gallery, Decamps for SoHo

  06-06-2024 17:36 via artnews.com
  
  New York’s 47 Canal, a gallery that was founded in Chinatown in 2011 and has remained there ever since, will leave the neighborhood it has long called home, reopening in SoHo next month. The gallery announced the news in an email blast Thursday.Founded by Margaret Lee and Oliver Newton, the gallery, one of the most closely watched commercial art spaces in Chinatown, has been located at 291 Grand Street since 2014. It officially opened in 2011 on Canal Street, though the gallery grew out of
  
  Read more

• Disputed Malevich Painting Tied to Disgraced Dealer Itzhak Zarug Presented as Genuine in Private ‘Exhibition’ at Centre Pompidou

  06-06-2024 16:30 via artnews.com
  
  A highly disputed painting attributed by some to Russian modernist Kazimir Malevich was presented as genuine this past January at a private event at France’s top modern and contemporary art museum, the Centre Pompidou.Organized by the Paris-based business network Groupement du Patronat Francophone (GPF), the event was billed in promotional materials as an “exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art Paris” celebrating Malevich. No such museum exists, though the Centre Pompidou is ge
  
  Read more

• Armory Show Names Exhibitors for Upcoming 30th Anniversary Edition

  06-06-2024 16:00 via artnews.com
  
  The Armory Show has named the more than 235 galleries that will take part in its upcoming 30th anniversary edition, scheduled to run at the Javtis Center from September 6–8, with a VIP preview day on September 5.Several changes will be introduced to this year’s fair, including a new floor plan and a new lead sponsor, American Express. The 2024 edition also marks the second iteration since the fair was acquired, alongside Expo Chicago, by Frieze and the first to be planned completely
  
  Read more

• New York’s Simone Subal Gallery to Close After 12 Years

  06-06-2024 15:00 via artnews.com
  
  Simone Subal Gallery will shutter later this month, becoming the latest New York gallery to announce its permanent closure this year.Founded in 2011, the Lower East Side gallery currently represents artists such as Julien Bismuth, Baseera Khan, Anna K.E., Florian Meisenberg, and the late Brain O’Doherty. Its current show, a solo exhibition for painter Nova Kiang that closes on June 22, will be the gallery’s last.“I personally came to the conclusion that this was the right time
  
  Read more

• A First Look at the Big Ticket Artworks that Galleries Are Bringing to Art Basel

  06-06-2024 14:40 via artnews.com
  
  Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.If one were to liken the marquee New York auctions in May to the homecoming game between rival high schools, then Art Basel is certainly the art world’s prom. Next week, 287 galleries from around the world, including the four biggest, will jet to Switzerland, closely followed by the traveling circ
  
  Read more

• Claire Bishop’s New Book Argues Technology Changed Attention Spans—and Shows How Artists Have Adapted

  06-06-2024 13:00 via artnews.com
  
  IT’S AN EPIDEMIC. Umpteen open browser tabs, endless push notifications, and a relentless news cycle are inducing widespread symptoms of ADHD in even the most chemically balanced of brains. It’s changing everything, including the ways we look at art.This is the subject of a new book by art historian Claire Bishop, titled Disordered Attention: How We Look at Art and Performance Today. Bishop posits that our phones have become a kind of “prosthesis for viewing” art, and her
  
  Read more

• Two 17th Century Paintings Looted By Nazis Are Donated to the Louvre By Jewish Heirs

  05-06-2024 22:28 via artnews.com
  
  Two 17th century paintings were recently donated to the Louvre Museum in Paris after experts identified the descendants of the original owner. Floris van Schooten’s Still-Life with Ham and Peter Binoit’s Food, Fruit and Glass on a Table had been part of the Louvre’s Nordic collection for several decades and held under the “National Museum Recuperation” programme for stolen works whose owners are unknown, according to France 24. The two paintings had also been on dis
  
  Read more

• British Museum Says It Wants ‘Realistic Solutions’ to Parthenon Marbles Restitution Debate

  05-06-2024 22:07 via artnews.com
  
  The British Museum said it is interested in “realistic solutions” to its ownership dispute with Greece over the Parthenon Marbles following a UNESCO conference in which a representative of Turkey took aim at England’s claim to the contested sculptures. The London institution has long claimed gave British forces permission for the removal of art from Athens in the early 19th century. According to the Greek newspaper Ekathimerini, the Turkish representative at the UNESCO conferen
  
  Read more

• These Chefs Are Elevating African and Caribbean Cuisines From Carryouts to Fine Dining

  05-06-2024 20:18 via smithsonianmag.com
  
  More Americans are eating and learning about dishes such as fufu and curried goat in establishments recognized by the highest echelon of the culinary world
  
  Read more

• Art Basel Branches into the Lifestyle Sector with New Retail Shop Concept

  05-06-2024 18:09 via artnews.com
  
  Art Basel will launch of a concept retail store, called the Art Basel Shop, during its Swiss fair next week. The store, which marks the brand’s first push into the retail/lifestyle sector, will feature exclusive and special edition collectibles, clothing, design pieces, and published works curated by Sarah Andelman, founder of the Parisian concept store Colette. The store will be open to both visitors to the fair and the general public starting on June 11; the fair begins its VIP previews
  
  Read more

• Ben Vautier, Fluxus Artist Who Famously Proclaimed That ‘Everything Is Art,’ Dies at 88

  05-06-2024 16:52 via artnews.com
  
  Ben Vautier, a French Fluxus artist whose humorous paintings and performances imploded the division between life and art, earning laughs and admiration alike from critics, has died at 88.Vautier, who often worked under the artistic moniker Ben, was found dead in his home in Nice on Wednesday, less than a day after his wife died following a stroke. The Nice prosecutor’s office said that his body was discovered with a gunshot wound; the office said it would open an investigation to determine
  
  Read more

• LGBTQ+ Artists Having Institutional Shows This Pride Month

  05-06-2024 15:30 via artnews.com
  
  Like last year, 2024’s Pride celebrations come at a time when LGBTQ+ rights are under threat, made all the more alarming by the upcoming presidential election, in which the very existence of American democracy is at stake. That has yet to still the political and cultural voices of the queer community, and indeed the latter are on full display, particularly in the realm of visual art, where LGBTQ+ artists have been exhibiting in greater numbers than ever. Below we recommend Pride-related sh
  
  Read more

• A Tech Accelerator Helps Major Museums Develop Blockchain Projects to Stay Relevant to Younger Audiences

  05-06-2024 14:03 via artnews.com
  
  Last week, a group of 10 major museums, including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam unveiled a series of blockchain projects through Web3 for the Arts and Culture (WAC) Lab.During the livestreamed demo on May 30, the museums presented projects aimed at establishing new kinds of relationships with museumgoers, from innovative fundraising models to live “minting” experiences. The ai
  
  Read more

• President of Philadelphia’s University of the Arts Resigns After School’s Sudden Closure

  05-06-2024 02:59 via artnews.com
  
  The president of Philadelphia’s 148-year-old University of the Arts resigned as the school prepared to wind down operations ahead of its sudden closure.The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Kerry Walk left her post as president on Tuesday, just days before the university is set to shutter, leaving the future of many current students uncertain. Walk had only become president of UArts in April of last year. A UArts spokesperson did not respond to ARTnews’s request for comment on the
  
  Read more

• French Culture Minister Tweets About Pursuing New Policy To Deter Climate Activists

  05-06-2024 00:29 via artnews.com
  
  After a climate activist covered Claude Monet’s 1873 painting Poppies at Argenteuil with a large sticker at the Musée D’Orsay on Saturday, French culture minister Rachida Dati responded on X calling for a new law punishing activists. “Once again, a cultural institution and a work of art are targeted by iconoclasts: the painting “Les Coquelicots” by Claude Monet at @MuseeOrsay!” Dati wrote on Saturday. “This destruction of art by delinquents cannot
  
  Read more

Follow @Nws_Arts on Twitter!