The Week in Art...After Nyne's Hot Nine
1) As Tate Modern opens the doors to the new extension, is this latest expansion helping to pioneer public art experience or simply expanding its reach into culture Tourism? (via The Independent)
Opening to the public on Friday 17th June, the Tate Modern’s £260m new extension creates up to 60 per cent more gallery space. Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning duo Herzog & De Meuron, Switch House is a 10-storey extension seeking to create an all-inclusive art experience, reinventing the gallery scene. The message behind the launch campaign “As Art Changes, So Do We” hints at Tate Modern’s history of pushing art’s boundaries, yet only three of the 10 new levels will be for art. The new extension will demonstrate Tate Modern’s evolution with the inclusion of more international art and female artists, yet could this just be a further push towards the tourist attraction it at times seems?
2) Since the 2008 financial crisis art has been a popular investment, yet with signs of a falling art market are things turning ugly? (via MoneyWeek)
Investments in art, especially contemporary art, have proved lucrative causing the market to boom, seeing some record auction prices being achieved including a Jackson Pollock for $200m and a Willem de Kooning for $300m. The European Fine Art Fair, the most widely cited survey of the global art market, reported the market contracted by 7% in 2015. This year the downward trend seems to be continuing as sales in London saw markedly less bullish trading volumes and prices. The nervousness in the market is being driven by the growing sense that the opacity of the art market makes it a legalised form of insider trading, attributing to an increasingly vulnerable marketplace.
3) Chinese artist Ai Weiwei set to launch a new career in Hollywood after signing with the influential talent agency that represents household names such as Benedict Cumberbatch (via iNews)
Rebellious Beijing-born artist Ai Weiwei is regarded as one of the most important contemporary artists, renowned for work such as his Sunflower Seeds installation at the Tate Modern. Weiwei will be taking his career one step further by exploring scripted and documentary film opportunities after teaming up with United Talent Agency (UTA). The Chinese artist will follow in the footsteps of Steve McQueen, the Turner Prize-winner-turned-film director. UTA is home to influential directors including the Coen Brothers and has created a Fine Arts division designed to partner stars of the gallery world with Hollywood powerbrokers. The first big-screen project for Weiwei is The Human Flow a documentary about the global refugee crisis.
4) The London Underground Logo is given a splash of colour by artist Michael Craig-Martin (via artlyst)
The iconic London Underground symbol has been reimagined at Southwark station in collaboration with Tate Modern and Art on the Underground as part of the launch of the new Tate extension. Craig-Martin used his characteristically vibrant palette for the opening weekend of the Tate Modern, with the artworks welcoming visitors at Southwark station’s platforms. “Michael’s artwork will be a fantastic addition to the weekend with the roundels being the first artwork people encounter when they travel to Southwark station. We are always looking at innovative ways to take art beyond the gallery walls and this fits the bill perfectly,” Frances Morris, Director of Tate Modern stated.
5) The European Biennial of Contemporary Art launches Manifesta 11 in Zurich under title What People Do for Money: Joint Ventures (via After Nyne)
On 11th June 2016, Manifesta 11 opened in Zurich with 30 new productions, which are the result of encounters between international artists and representatives of Zurich-based occupations. The productions follow the format of a joint venture between the artists and their chosen ‘hosts’ who are representative of different occupations. The results of these encounters will be exhibited at the hosts’ respective workplaces, the so-called satellite venues, as well as at the main Manifesta venues in well known Zurich art institutions such as Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst and Helmhaus. Each edition of Manifesta reacts to the diversity of social, political and geographical conditions in contemporary Europe. Since the first Manifesta twenty years ago, the initiators have always placed critical thought, scientific research and artistic experimentation in the foreground.
6) New York’s Throckmorton Fine Art to exhibit a series of photographs documenting the turbulent changes in Cuba’s culture (via artdaily)
The New York gallery Throckmorton Fine Art will display a show of vintage photographs of Cuba captured over a period of seven decades from the early 1930s by acclaimed artists. The exhibition will run from June 16 – September 17 with the title Under the Cuban Sun presenting the consequences from periods of the country’s political upheaval. The photographers featured include Liborio Noval and Alberto Korda, as well as contemporary Cuban photographer Juan Carlos Alum who shot Cuba after the turn of the century.
7) Works by key figures in the history of British Modernist art top sale of £8.2 million at Bonhams (via artdaily)
The sale, amounting to a total of £8,282,350, included important works from the Reddihough Collection by artists of the St Ives School. The pieces in the Bonhams Modern British art sale on 15 June came from the private collection of Cyril Reddihough, with every lot finding a buyer. Some of the pieces sold included ‘Reclining Figure’ by Henry Moore that sold for £1,818,500.
8) The Andy Warhol Museum appoints Danielle Linzer as its curator of Education and Interpretation (via artdaily)
The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh has selected Danielle Linzer as the new curator for Education and Interpretation. Linzer has previously undertaken roles such as Director of Access and Community at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. In this position Linzer was recognised for her contribution to developing and implementing a number of community outreach projects.
9) Renowned artist Lucian Freud exhibits unseen works at the National Portrait Gallery (via artnet)
London’s National Portrait Gallery is exhibiting a selection of works by the legendary British artist Lucian Freud. The display that spans from 1940s to 1990s features a newly discovered self-portrait by Freud along with 47 sketchbooks and a collection of 162 childhood drawings. The portrait, which experts have dated as being from the mid-1980s, is a rare fragment of the unfinished paintings by the artist. The exhibition Lucian Freud Unseen runs from 13 June until 6 September 2016.
