Manuel Borja-Villel to Direct Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum

MADRID—Manuel Borja-Villel, currently director of the Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum (MACBA), has been selected from among 29 candidates as the new director of Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum, reports TypicallySpanish.com. The choice was made by an international committee of experts and was announced by the committee's president, Pilar Citoler, and the Spanish Minister of Culture, Cesar Antonio Molina.

Farewells
NEW YORK—Art dealer Stephen Radich died December 18 at the age of 85, the New York Times reports. Radich, born in Mountain View, Calif., operated the Stephen Radich Gallery from 1960 to 1969 in Manhattan, where he became known for his victory in a legal case surrounding an exhibition of works by Marc Morrel in 1966 that protested the Vietnam War using American flags turned into such objects as a corpse and a penis. Radich was convicted of “casting contempt on the American flag,” prompting an outcry from others in the art world and inspiring the “People’s Flag Show” protesting the conviction, which resulted in the arrest of three artists. A federal judge overturned Radich’s conviction in 1974. Before opening his own gallery, Radich worked for several New York dealers including Weyhe Book Store and Gallery, Curt Valentin Gallery, and Martha Jackson Gallery. He worked as a private dealer after closing Stephen Radich Gallery.

MILAN—The Italian postmodernist designer Ettore Sottsass had died at the age of 90, the Guardian reports. Hailed as “the greatest Italian designer of the last half century,” Sottsass's sundry creations include an airport interior, limited edition ceramics and furniture, and everyday objects such as silverware and television sets. He is credited with starting the Memphis movement in 1981, “an explosion of color and energy that was a revolt against complacency and conventional good taste.”  Trained as an architect, he also built apartments and designed a golf resort for the People's Liberation Army in China. The Design Museum in London mounted an exhibition celebrating Sottsass’s 90th birthday last year.