Art News & Articles

Many public art installations have been created in support of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer, including street murals appearing on the streets of cities across the country after the words were painted in bright yellow on the street behind the White House on June 5. While some examples have been powerful because of their timely reaction to current events, some communities are emphasizing the importance of taking the time to have community input before creating anything and to ensure that those involved with the public art projects are committed to the issue for which the art is seeking to promote.  When the New York City Public Design Commission (which has jurisdiction over all buildings and art proposed on city-owned property in Manhattan) set out to paint their own street mural, they slowed the process and listened to the community: “We actually took the time to have the conversations with people that are in the actual Black Lives Matter movement,” says Justin Garett ...

Museums and Galleries, Cultural Heritage Sites, Photography studios and Auction houses are all exempt from wearing masks indoors. Of course, it is up to the individual gallery to decide if they will require masks to be worn to protect their staff and visitors and many have already stated that all entering their premises must wear masks. The UK Government has brought in new laws which will fine people flouting the rules by slapping them with a £100 penalty charge. Police have stated, this will only be a last resort. The new guidance states: No one can enter a buildings such as shops without a mask which covers your face and nose unless you have a reasonable excuse. Face coverings must be worn in: Shops and shopping centres, Banks, building societies, credit unions, short-term loan providers, savings clubs and currency exchange offices and anywhere that transmits money by cash or cheque, Post offices, Takeaway food establishments. The requirement to wear a face-covering also app...

The Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania is putting in storage a collection of more than 1,000 skulls, including some that belonged to enslaved peoples, following an outcry from students. The crania, which were held in a private classroom, belonged to the collection of Samuel George Morton, a 19th-century Philadelphia-based physician known for his “broadly white supremacist” views, according to the institution.  Last year, a group of students at the university discovered that 53 skulls in the Morton Cranial Collection came from individuals enslaved in Havana, Cuba, while two others belonged to enslaved Americans. They presented their findings at a symposium hosted by the Penn & Slavery Project, an initiative tasked with probing the school’s “ historical connections with the institution of slavery .” The museum, which reopened to the public today for the first time following a four-month shutdown, is currently working to repatriate or re-bury the crania, it said in a...

The artist Petrit Halilaj has withdrawn from the Belgrade Biennial after the organizers of the exhibition dithered over how to present his nationality in accompanying materials. Halilaj is from Kosovo, and the biennial is organized and hosted by the Cultural Centre of Belgrade in Serbia, a country that does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state. He pulled out of the show after he was unable to agree with the organizers about how his country of origin would be named in the list of participating artists. Halilaj, who is based in Berlin, has written an open letter detailing his experience with the exhibition, which is officially called the 58th October Salon: Belgrade Biennial.  Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and there is a fraught history between the two nations. During the Kosovo War of 1998–99, fought between the two nations,   Halilaj himself was displaced and spent more than two years living in refugee camps.  In his letter, Halilaj recalls how...

In a royal first, Queen  Elizabeth II  became a part of a virtual unveiling of a self-portrait that happened via a video call on July 25, 2020. Painted by Miriam Escofet, the portrait was commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as a “lasting tribute to Her Majesty’s service” to diplomacy,  The Guardian  reports. The report also mentions that upon seeing the portrait, the Queen even pointed out jokingly how the tea cup placed on the table next to her was actually empty. The painting was shown to the Queen for the first time on a computer screen, amid the restrictions in the country because of the  pandemic , after which she spoke to the members of FCO about their work during the  coronavirus  health crisis. According to  The Guardian , this virtual unveiling was hosted by Sir Simon McDonald, who is the permanent under-secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs, and head of the Diplomatic Service. He had joined the art...

The Tate is facing protests against job cuts that trade unions and others say will disproportionately affect black and minority ethnic staff as it reopens its doors for the first time in four months. A socially distanced demonstration will take place outside Tate Modern in London on Monday as the institution welcomes back the public. As many as 200 jobs are at risk in its commercial arm – which operates retail, publishing and catering – where a higher proportion of staff are BAME, according to the PCS union. “Many of these colleagues will be amongst the lowest-paid staff on the Tate estate, with some at risk earning little more than the national minimum wage, and in some of the most diverse teams across Tate,” said the union. It comes after attempts by the Tate to express support for Black Lives Matter on social media sparked a backlash, with critics circulating a selfie by the Tate’s controversial benefactor,  Anthony  d’Offay , in which he is holding a golliwog. The Tate res...

Sunrise by Rob Ottesen Kinetic Pointillism  is a technique used in  painting , where an image is created with points of color applied in patterns of movement, with the intention of reinforcing the message of the artwork. Founder of the technique is Rob Ottesen, who first showed works made from the technique in 2013,  and who focused on teaching the technique to adolescent students.  Mediums used include paint, ink, and other mediums.  An aspect of the technique includes the use of cultural images and spelled-out words. Light House by Rob Ottesen Jesus by Ganesh Kelagina Beedu Shenoy                                             Bhagavad Gita by Ganesh Kelagina Beedu Shenoy Exhibitions of the artwork have been shown at the  Port St. Lucie  Civic Center Art Gallery.  Ottesen’s personal work has been shown at the  Gutenberg Museum  in...

An art critic has accidentally destroyed a contemporary work at an art fair in  Mexico . Avelina ​Lésper, who is known as a provocateur, said she shattered the installation – a sheet of glass with a football, a stone and other random objects suspended inside – by Mexican artist  Gabriel Rico , after she placed an empty drink can near it to express her dislike of the piece. “It was like the work heard my comment and felt what I thought of it,” Lésper said in a video statement for Melenio, a media group that publishes her columns. “The work shattered into pieces and collapsed and fell on the floor.” She was then reportedly told the work, titled “Nimble and Sinister Tricks (To Be Preserved Without Scandal and Corruption)” was valued at $20,000 (15,477). She denied deliberately damaging the work – on display at the OMR gallery in Mexico City – or attempting to leave the scene of the accident. The OMR gallery, which was displaying the piece, criticised Lésper’s behaviour as unprofe...

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) has suspended an exhibition of work by  Jon Rafman , a high-profile artist from Montreal whose work appeared in last year’s Venice Biennale. Over the past decade, Rafman has been considered one of the most important artists of his generation for video-based work that explores the darkest corners of the internet. His 2014 video work  Mainsqueeze , which includes footage of a woman killing a live crawfish, has been widely exhibited. Rafman’s show, which featured two video works  Disasters Under the Sun  (2019) and  Poor Magic  (2017), has been suspended “until further notice,” according to a message posted last week on the museum’s website. Asked about the development, a spokesperson for the museum told  ARTnews  on Friday, “For the time being, the MAC won’t comment any further on the matter.” The museum reopened to the public in late June after a temporary closure due to the coronavirus. Rafman’s exhib...

Ed Gilbert , owner and director of  Anglim Gilbert Gallery  in San Francisco , died over the weekend at the age of 67. A spokesperson for the gallery identified the cause of death as cancer. Beginning in the 1980s, Gilbert championed California formative art movements, including work among the Beats and Bay Area Conceptualists. He was a tireless promoter of West Coast experimentation at a time when the evolving art scene around it was viewed with indifference—or even contempt—by New York’s cultural arbiters. Gilbert served as the long-time director of Gallery Paule Anglim and, following the death of its founder, Paule Anglim, in 2015, assumed leadership.  The enterprise was subsequently renamed Anglim Gilbert Gallery, and a second gallery space was opened in 2016 in San Francisco. Though maintaining an international roster of artists, the gallery specializes in Gilbert’s foremost interest in art from California. Gilbert moved there in 1980, following a year in New York an...

Lotty Rosenfeld , who through the simple act of creating a line on a street in Chile mounted an important artistic and political intervention against an oppressive government, has died at the age of 77. The cause of death was lung cancer, according to the Chilean newspaper  La Tercera , which  first reported  the news. Rosenfeld might best be remembered for her 1979 performance work,  Una milla de cruces sobre el pavimento  (A mile of crosses on the pavement). In a video documenting the performance, Rosenfeld is seen kneeling along Santiago’s Avenida Manquehue as she measures a piece of cloth against the street’s dotted dividing lines. She then turns her fabric to be perpendicular with the lines and adheres them to the street, creating crosses. Rosenfeld repeats the action over and over again until Avenida Manquehue’s traffic lines are rendered illegible—a system of control made useless. The piece was a response to the 1973 military coup in Chile that deposed of...

Acknowledging the art market’s dim forecast, Pace Gallery informed some of its previously furloughed employees on Thursday that they would not be returning to work. The layoffs affecting what the gallery said is fewer than 20 workers come after a quarter of the gallery’s New York workforce was furloughed in early April. “The economic situation caused by the global pandemic means we cannot sustain our previous level of staffing,” said Pace spokeswoman Amelia Redgrift. “This decision was taken after every other measure to ensure we are prepared for an extended period of financial uncertainty and to protect as many jobs as possible in the long-term.” The news comes after a string of downsizing moves for the gallery industry, including earlier this month when David Zwirner Gallery laid off nearly 40 employees while predicting a 30 percent drop in sales. Earlier this week, another shakeup occurred when the gallerist Gavin Brown announced that he was closing up shop and joining the blue-chip...

Artist Soumya Ranjan Samal have received national award for his painting " promotion and protection of human rights ". In year 2018 he received his national award from National Human Rights Commission. According to him his painting is based on the hopes and ways to protect human rights. We all are humans and we all should take care of each other instead of harming others rights.

In an open  letter  addressed to the Getty Board of Trustees, current and former staff members of the  J. Paul Getty Museum,  the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the Getty Research Institute called out the institution for its patterns of racism and for its half hearted response to the police killing of George Floyd. Signed by 167 current staffers, and more than 100 former staff members and visitors, the letter reads, in part: Racism abounds, from insensitive comments made by management and frequent microaggressions experienced by staff and visitors of color to collecting practices and exhibition programs that glorify the work of white heterosexual cisgender male artists to the exclusion of others. The letter also addresses the museum’s newly formed DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) council and task forces, stating that members of the council are tasked with “balancing their full-time positions without budget, work release, additional compensation, or benefits.” It goes...

Sotheby’s will offer works from billionaire investment mogul Ronald Perelman’s collection as part of its upcoming London evening sale “Rembrandt to Richter,” scheduled to take place on July 28th. Among the works on offer from Perelman’s collection are two paintings, one by  Joan Miró  and one by  Henri Matisse , which have a combined pre-sale high estimate of £42 million ($53.3 million). Miró’s  Peinture (Femme au Chapeau Rouge)  (1927) leads the sale with an estimate of £20 million to £30 million ($25.4 million–38.1 million). The work, part of Miró’s lauded “dream paintings” series, previously belonged to  Alexander Calder , and was last displayed publicly in 1984. Matisse’s  Danseuse dans un intérieur, carrelage vert et noir  (1942) carries an estimate of £8 million to £12 million ($10.1 million–15.2 million). Perelman acquired the two works in the late 1980s from the late Zürich-based dealer Thomas Ammann. The paintings are part of a wide range...

A new  survey  by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) has found that one out of every three museums in the United States may close permanently due to the economic fallout from COVID-19. That would represent some 12,000 institutions shuttering permanently. The survey data was collected throughout the month of June from more than 750 museum directors and confirms a similar  projection  the AAM made when they  reported  to Congress that up to 30 percent of museums could shutter without immediate governmental aid. Laura Lott, president and CEO of AAM, said in a press release: Museum revenue disappeared overnight when the pandemic closed all cultural institutions, and sadly, many will never recover. Even with a partial reopening in the coming months, costs will outweigh revenue and there is no financial safety net for many museums. The distress museums are facing will not happen in isolation. The permanent closure of 12,000 museums will be devastating for com...