Pace Wildenstein to Represent Sol LeWitt’s Estate

NEW YORK—PaceWildenstein has won exclusive representation for the Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt’s estate, reports the New York Times. Pace, which has handled LeWitt’s work since 1965, has been vying with several other galleries since the artist’s death in April. Pace chairman Arne Glimcher said the gallery is planning a special LeWitt show, “Exchanges,” for the summer of 2009.

TEMPE, Ariz.—Arizona State University Art Museum’s director and chief curator Marilyn A. Zeitlin is retiring to focus on research, writing, and freelance curatorial work. Zeitlin, who has been at the museum since 1992, will step down on December 31, 2008, following a one-year research leave. During her tenure Zeitlin became known for growing the museum’s collection and for her ground-breaking exhibitions launching the careers of emerging artists. Zeitlin also served as the U.S. Commissioner to the Venice Biennale in 1995.

NEW YORK—The artist James Rosenquist, curator Laura Kruger, and philanthropist Jack S. Silver have joined the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (AFTAM) board of trustees. AFTAM is a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to raise money and secure works of art for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and raise awareness of the museum nationwide. The museum, which holds the largest collection in the world of Israeli art from the 1920s to the present, currently is undergoing a $45 million expansion.

Farewells
PALAFRUGELL, Spain—The Spanish artist Modest Cuixart has died at the age of 81, the Guardian reports. Cuixart “challenged the Franco dictatorship and reignited artistic creativity after the stagnation of the war years,” according to the newspaper, and “was one of those who fought to free themselves, not only from Franco's oppression and censorship, but from his heavy-handed attempt to bring the nation's artists under his wing.” Born in Barcelona, he studied medicine until 1944, but took up art full time in 1947. In 1948, he founded the Dua al Set group—alongside his cousin and painter Antoni Tapies and the poet Joan Brossa—which became famous for its criticism of the dictatorship through surrealist paintings and poetry. Cuixart was catapulted to fame in 1959 when he was recognized as the best painter at the Sao Paolo Bienal in Brazil, beating out other shortlisted contestants including Francis Bacon. By the early 1960s, his abstract works were sought-after and exhibited from the Guggenheim in New York to the Tate in London. He spent much of his life in France but moved to Palafrugell, Spain, in the 1970s.