5 Art World Updates
Just the things you need to know this week.
1. ARTnews & Art in America Merge
This week, ARTnews announced that it will be merging with fellow art publication Art In America. Both the 113-year-old ARTnews and 102-year-old Art in America have struggled as print media in a digital age but maintained themselves as major brands in art journalism.
Following the merger, ARTnews will begin to publish solely “themed issues” while Art in America will move to ARTnews’ offices and begin to focus its efforts on digital and online content, although both publications will share digital content on ARTnews’ website. The deal still requires approval from ARTnews’ shareholders while their management is trying to trade the conglomerate on the German stock exchange (it is currently listed on Poland’s stock exchange). But the merge may work to preserve two important voices in the world of art coverage, even if they now speak as one.
2. Paul Allen, a Major Force in Seattle’s Budding Art Scene
Seattle’s art scene is making strides to put itself on the map of international art destinations. And Microsoft co-founder turned major art collector Paul Allen is a central part of the efforts. He co-produced the first ever Seattle Art Fair, happening this weekend, which included 60 galleries such as Pace, David Zwirner and Gagosian and anticipated 16,000 visitors.
While it is hard to yet assess the success of the fair’s sales, there is already word on Allen’s next move in Seattle’s art world: founding a new art nonprofit, Pivot Art + Culture. Allen has hired Minneapolis-based curator Ben Haywood to oversee a two-room gallery within the Allen Institute for Brain Science that will be dedicated to the exhibition of pieces from Allen’s personal collection. Heywood told Minnesota’s Star Tribune that the new space, “…will combine alternative programming with traditional museum practices.”
3. Georg Baselitz Revokes Artwork Amid Dispute with German Minister
Georg Baselitz continues his face-off with Germany’s cultural minister. The renown German painter made good on his earlier threat to remove all his artwork on loan to German museums. The artwork removal is in reaction to legislation by the German cultural ministry that would attempt to control the movement of older and high-worth pieces of artwork created by German artists.
While the ministry proposed the new regulations as an attempt to keep German’s cultural heritage within the country, major artists believe that the rules would give a government with little art market knowledge control of their livelihood and legacy. Although recent amendments have been made to loosen the restrictions of the rules imposed, it is still to be decided who will finally triumph in this face-off over artist rights.
4. Tate Britain Hires New Director
Alex Farquharson has been appointed as the new director of Tate Britain. Farquharson currently serves as executive director of London gallery Nottingham Contemporary, which he founded in 2007, and is a member of the Arts Council Collection’s acquisitions committee.
Farquharson is credited with leading the efforts that solidified Nottingham as one of London’s leading galleries. He also previously served as a visitng tutor and research fellow at the Royal College of Art, London and was a part of the committee that selected to display work from Steve McQueen in the British Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale. He will replace current Tate director, Peneople Curtis, who will become the director of Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon.
5. Zaha Hadid-Designed Museum Opens in Italy
Zaha Hadid Architects’s latest museum has opened to the public — and it does not disappoint. The structure is the lastest in a network of six museums built on the South Tyrol peaks in Corones. The connected museums celebrate famed mountaineer Reinhold Messner, who, among other achievements, was the first man to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.
The museums include both art that Reinhold has collected in his lifetime and a glance into the world of mountain climbing. Visitors even get a taste of what a mountaineer might see after a long climb through the building itself; the structure organically interacts with its moutain location for a breathtaking museum-going experience.
This post was written with the help of Alice Mahoney, from www.artlist.co
