The Week in Art…After Nyne’s Hot 9
1) Leading figures from the arts hit back at the Brexit revealing shock and anger at the vote to leave the EU (via The Guardian)
Key figures in the art world, including Lucy Prebble, Anish Kapoor ad Ivo van Hove share their shock at the result of yesterday’s EU referendum vote. British playwright Lucy Prebble, author of The Sugar Syndrome, described feeling ‘nothing but rage’ at the result. The critically acclaimed sculptor Anish Kapoor shares Prebble’s despair, stating he was heartbroken and this anger will seep into this art. ‘Art reflects our national consciousness but we’ve just dug a big hole and buried it forever’.
2) 18-year-old’s dreams come true with painting now in Metropolitan Museum of Art (via huffingtonpost)
Cliffannie Forrester, a senior at the High School of Art and Design student has shot to critical acclaim after her artwork has been placed on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, New York. The piece, titled ‘Uganda’ painted in oil, was chosen to appear in the museum after it was selected as a winning painting in a scholarship competition. Forrester states the painting was inspired by an image from her church’s mission trip to Uganda, the piece will be on display until 26th June.
3) Grunge legend Kurt Cobain gives fans a chance to see his imaginative visuals in travelling exhibition (via artnet)
The controversial Nirvana frontman is an icon in the grunge world but many will be unaware of his other creative talents, with Cobain being the experimental visual artist behind the creation of artwork for albums such as In Utero. A collection of paintings, collages and other works produced by the singer will become part of a travelling exhibition organised by Jeff Jampol. The exhibition is said to feature artworks, private possessions and other items from Cobain’s estate, part of what Jampol describes as Cobain’s artistic legacy that will remain ‘relevant for centuries.’
4) Modigliani and Picasso lead in Sotheby’s $151 million art sale in London (via artnet)
An Impressionist and modern art sale by Sotheby’s opened this summer’s fortnight of high-profile auctions, with the 27-lot having an estimated pre-sale of $119 to $149 million. The highlights and most prestigious lots included a cubist Picasso, Femme Assise from 1909 and Amedeo Modigliani’s 1919 portrait Jeanne Hebuterne. Sotheby’s stated the sale of these pieces were the highest prices on the London market for the last five years.
5) BP Portrait award 2016 awarded to Clara Drummond’s Girl in a Liberty Dress (via The Guardian)
The Edinburgh-born artist, Clara Drummond picked up the £30,000 prize for her recent portrayal of fellow painter Kristy Buchanan. The BP Portrait award, one of Britain’s most prestigious portrait prizes, is chosen from 53 paintings as part of one of the National Portrait Gallery’s most popular events. This year the prize received 2,557 entries from 80 countries, with Drummond’s third portrayal of the same sitter, Buchanan depicted in a vintage Liberty dress, winning her the prize for the portrait’s ‘subtle, enigmatic nature’.
6) The Malmö Art Academy due to be evicted, threatening its closure (via artnet)
The Swedish academy will be evicted from the premises it has occupied for the last 21 years, as the municipal government has given Lund University, operators of the academy, one year to vacate the building. The government cited a desperate need for more space to build elementary and high schools as the reason for the eviction, but the art school is now facing possible permanent closure. Founded in 1995, the academy has been given until 30th June 2017 to move to alternative premises but with no interim solution in place the school fears subsequent closure.
7) One of Banksy’s most iconic works to go on sale at Bonham’s London (via Artlyst)
A SWAT van spray-painted by the elusive street artist is to go under the hammer at Bonham’s Post-War and Contemporary art sale on 29 June 2016. The iconic piece carries an estimate of £200,000 to £300,00 and has been only exhibited once in an industrial warehouse in downtown LA, where Banksy made his American debut. The SWAT van epitomises Banksy’s infamous dark humour depicting heavily armed Special Forces agents being hoodwinked by a small boy. Ralph Taylor, Senior Director of Bonham’s Post-War and Contemporary Art department, said of the SWAT Van, 'All of Banksy is on show here: his bravado, his imagination, his technical prowess, his confidence and his willingness to put his head above the parapet and use truth as a weapon.’
8) Artist Gal Weistein selected to represent Israel at the 57th Venice Biennale for Art (via artnet)
The Israeli minister of culture Miri Regev recently notified Gal Weistein of his appointment to take part in the 2017 Venice Biennale. Weistein is a graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and has gained critical acclaim from the early stages of his career. The artist has discussed his plans for the Israeli pavilion in Venice, which will include new site-specific works. Through his artworks Weistein explores the connection between natural and organic phenomena and cultivated, domestic occurrences. Tami Katz-Friedman former chief curator of the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel will curate the Israeli Pavilion.
9) The International Centre of Photography opens its doors in new Midtown Manhattan home (via ArtNews)
After moving sites to the Bowery in Midtown Manhattan, the International Centre of Photography’s first exhibition Private, Public, Secret marks the centre’s reopening. The exhibition features video installations by Doug Rickard, Martine Syms, Jon Rafman and Natalie Bookchin, with all four videos playing simultaneously as the still images become equated with the moving ones. The gallery has dramatically changed its own formula, with some feeling it is an entirely different institution. It seems that this show, the first in over a year since closing its previous location, illustrates a desire to become a cutting-edge contemporary art institution moving away from it’s characteristic photojournalistic approach.
Image: Instagram, Wolfgang Tillmans
