The Week in Art...After Nyne's Hot 9
1. Turner Prize 2016 stirs positivity and confusion amongst audiences (via The Guardian)
One of the most debate fuelling exhibitions in the art calendar returns with what has been described as the most peculiar collection of work to date. This year’s exhibiting artists, Michael Dean, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde, collectively capture arts current mood. An exhibition that has both confounded and excited critics with the artists telling stories through a whimsical and quite frankly bizarre collection of objects.
2. Sacramento celebrates new Jeff Koons sculpture (via Sacbee)
The 18 feet tall sculpture by Jeff Koons was erected outside the new Golden 1 Center, as part of the largest investment in public art the city has ever seen. The Golden 1 Center becomes Sacramento’s newest arts centre, with the colourful and striking Koons piece a defining part of the new centre.
3. A copy of Flemish masterpiece found to be original worth £3 million (via Artnet)
The painting titled by 17th century Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens was discovered in a storeroom of Swansea Museum in Wales. Swansea Museum has owned the piece for nearly 150 years and what was always thought to be a copy was revealed to be worth £3 million. The piece will be unveiled in the main gallery later this month after experts at London’s Courtauld Institute stating the frame was dated back to between 1619 and 1622.
4. Moscow gallery closes photography show after attack of vandalism (via The Art Newspaper)
The exhibition by the US photographer Jock Sturges housed at a Moscow-based photography gallery has been taken down, after Sturges’ was accused by pro-Kremlin activists and officials of promoting paedophilia. The gallery was raided by police and uniformed activists on 25th September, with one activist pouring urine over Sturges’ work. Sturges’ images that often feature nude children and adolescents have previously caused controversy in the US and the negative reaction his work in Russia forced the galley founders to shut the exhibition.
5. The British Museum acquires rare group of Picasso prints (via Artdaily)
London’s British Museum closed the gap in its representation of Picasso’s achievements as a printmaker by acquiring sixteen lithograph prints and three aquatint prints. The artworks cover the post-war period from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, with the prints being produced in Paris when Picasso worked closely with the printer Fernand Mourlot. One of the lithographs was inspired by the youthful beauty of Francoise Gilot, who Picasso was fostering a relationship with at the time. The British Museum’s director Hartwig Fischer stated, ‘
6. French sculptor Pierre Huyghe named winner of Nasher Prize (via Artnet)
It was announced that the prestigious Nasher Prize for Sculpture 2017, which recognises those in the realm of contemporary sculpture, would be awarded to Pierre Huyghe. The work of Huyghe is characterised by a complex interaction of time-based materials such as fog, computer programmes and even microorganisms, as part of expanding what the medium can encompass. Huyghe’s intimate and imaginative sculptures stood out for pushing the boundaries of the medium, being selected as the winner by a jury of influential peers including sculptor Huma Bhadha.
7. British Museum announces Farideh Lashai digital showcase (via The Art Newspaper)
The exhibition presents work by Iranian artist Farideh Lashai, inspired by Francisco de Goya’s series (1810-20), as part of a major exhibition at the British Museum in 2018. The showcase entitled (2013) combines digital elements in the form of video and 80 original photo-intaglio prints. Venetia Porter, the assistant keeper and curator of Islamic and contemporary Middle East at the British Museum stated, ‘All the figures in Goya’s prints were animated and placed within three layers of video on each other. In the finished result, as a spotlight bounces from one print to another, various parts of the animation briefly appear and disappear.’
8. Contemporary art market feels the squeeze (via Telegraph)
In the lead up to Frieze reports suggest the contemporary art market appears to be contracting judging from the results of the Frieze week auctions. Last October 884 lots were crammed into the week with a minimum estimate of £185 million but this year there are only 746 lots with a minimum estimate of £131.5 million (a drop of 29.9 per cent). These reports sit amidst stirrings of a sense of foreboding as contemporary art sales in New York have seen some artists prices falling by 90% in what has been described as a ‘slumping market.’
9. Musical legend’s art collection on view in New York (via Artdaily)
Artworks collected by rock legend David Bowie were displayed in New York in the lead up to an auction of the collection, featuring pieces by Damien Hirst. Bowie was an avid follower of the art world acquiring hundreds of pieces, with the core of his collection 20th century British painting as well as having an interest in outsider art. The auction of Bowie’s private collection will include more than 350 items, which are also being previewed in London, LA and Hong Kong.
