The Week in Art...After Nyne's Hot 9
1. Arts Council uses Pokémon to lure new visitors (via Telegraph)
Arts Council England turns to one of the biggest crazes currently sweeping the nation to draw new visitors into galleries. Instead of advertising special exhibitions, The Arts Council invited the public to catch Pokémon, using Twitter to highlight the buildings where people had found and caught Pokémon via the gaming app.
2. Director of El Museo del Barrio to step down (via Art News)
Last week it was announced Jorge Daniel Veneciano, the director of New York’s El Museo del Barrio will step down. “It’s truly been an honour to lead El Museo, a storied and monumental institution, and alongside it’s dedicated staff and engaged Board. As a team, we have been able to elevate the museum’s stature and lift its service capacities to new heights,” Veneciano stated. After being executive director at the popular cultural institution Veneciano states he will be pursuing new opportunities.
3. Curators of Australian gallery use robot as gallery guide (via Al Jazeera)
The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth aims to broaden the age of visitors with robot called Aggie hosting gallery tours. As an attempt to help revitalise visitor numbers, the gallery picks an unconventional route to attract younger visitors.
4. War photographer Gerda Taro images vandalised in Leipzig (via The Art Newspaper)
An open-air exhibition of the influential war photographer Gerda Taro was reportedly vandalised in Leipzig. The photographs, displayed as part of f/stop festival, depict scenes of conflict from the Spanish Civil War, were covered in black paint. “How a work of art is handled in the public space is always a litmus test for the state of a community. Unlike the ‘protected space’ of a museum or gallery, a work in the public realm is under the protection of us all,” a festival organiser stated.
The scared statue currently on view at the British Museum has become part of a campaign launched by a group of Chilean filmmakers. The group believe the statue, Hidden or Stolen Friend, should be returned to its native Chile. Currently on display at London’s British Museum, the statue is one of the museum’s main attractions. The makers of a new documentary on the statues state returning the pieces to Easter Island could help regenerate the island.
6. The story behind Olympic aquatics venue artwork (via BBC)
As part of number of installations across the city that celebrate hosting the 2016 Olympics, Rio-born artist Adriana Varejo designed the artwork adorning the Olympic aquatics venue. The aquatics venue stands out amongst the other Olympics sites with the turbulent waves inspired by Portuguese titles that Varejo recreated on a larger scale.
7. New book explores the relationships in Modern art history (via Artnet)
The Pulitzer Prize winning writer and art critic Sebastian Smee explores key four relationships in Modern art history in new book The Art of Rivalry. Smee turns his attention to the obscure friendship between Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, along with Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso by articulating anecdotal accounts.
8. Final paintings of surrealist artist Dorothea Tanning to be exhibited in London (via artlyst)
London’s Alison Jacques Gallery has announced it will be exhibiting final works from the Surrealist painter Dorothea Tanning. The exhibition will be the first time these paintings have been displayed together since 1999 featuring the imaginary blooms. Now nearly 20 years after the paintings were first created the gallery will display six of Tanning’s pieces that remained in her collection at the time of her death in 2012.
9. High street retailer accused of plagiarism by artist (via Artnet)
The British high street brand Topman has been accused of copying the designs of artist Faig Ahmed. The artist has claimed a t-shirt launched by the ‘fast-fashion’ retailer is almost identical to his piece Oiling (2012), which features a woven carpet sculpture. The item has now been removed from the website and Ahmed who has reportedly reached out to the retailer is yet to receive any explanation.
