Takashi Murakami Lands His First Show in the Middle East, Watch Banksy's "Jackass"-esque TV Special, and More Must-Read Art News
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Takashi Murakami Lands His First Show in the Middle East, Watch Banksy's "Jackass"-esque TV Special, and More Must-Read Art News
AFP
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami will have his first solo show in the Middle East this February.
Published: October 7, 2011
– Qatar Scores Big Murakami Show:Theexhibition, to be held from February 9 to June 24, will be theJapanese artist's first solo show in the Middle East. Curated by New Museum darling Massimiliano Gioni, the show promises to "immerse visitors in afantasy world... capturing the way Murakami channels the ecstasy andanxiety of contemporary culture." It will feature more than 60 worksmade from 1997 to the present, including several new works created specifically for theshow. As part of an ongoing series of exhibitions devoted to building bridgesbetween cultures, the Qatar Museums Authority will simultaneously host a show of Chinese artist CaiGuo-Qiang at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Do we detect theinfluence of Edward Dolman, the Christie's chairman who left his postin June to work for the QMA? [Press Release]
– Watch Banksy's "Jackass"-Esque TV Special: We can always trust Banksyto get his material to the masses. Though the elusive street artist's latest project, an hour-long TV special in Britain, is not airing in theU.S., the show has mysteriously found its way online. "Antics Roadshow"follows a disparate group of raffish prank-happy hooligans, from a guywho once broke into Queen Elizabeth II's bedroom to a man who threw a pie at Bill Gates. It also shares the same producer as the Banksy documentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop," and is viewable here. [LAT]
– A Mere $350 Million in Art at Frieze: The estimate, byspecialist art insurer Hiscox Ltd, is below last year's estimate of$375 million, and in a different category altogether than the $1.75billion estimate for Art Basel 2011. Robert Read, fine art expert at Hiscoxsaid, "The wealthy are hoarding cash as the world's developed economieslurch from one crisis to another. It will be interesting to see if theywill be tempted, at Frieze, to buy the cutting edge contemporary art onoffer — in what has been and continues to be the most volatile andspeculative sector of the art market." [4-traders]
– Surprise! The Barnes is Still Moving: A judge in Montgomery County Orphans Court ruled yesterday that there is no reason to revisit his 2004 decision allowing the Barnes Foundation's highly disputed move to a new museum in downtown Philadelphia. An attorney for the protest group called Friends of the Barnes,which had asked the judge to revisit his ruling, said it will appeal the decision and if necessary take the case all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. As it stands, the Barnes will proceed with the transfer, and the new, $150 million museum is scheduled to open May 19. [LAT]
– Biloxi to Aid Its Mad Potter Museum: The Biloxi city council has overwhelmingly voted in favor of providing financial assistance to its struggling Ohr-O'Keeffe Museum of Art, stepping in to save the legacy of George Ohr, aka the "Mad Potter of Biloxi." [Sun Herald]
– Upstate NY Town Embraces Chagall: Seven local residents of the Catskill town of High Falls, N.Y. have researched, funded, and put together an exhibition devoted to the two years Marc Chagall lived there after escaping the Holocaust in Europe. "If we did a show like this in New York City, they'd throw us in the East River," said Rik Rydant, one of the locals behind the show. The modest exhibition has received accolades from the senior curator at the Jewish Museum as well as Chagall's own granddaughter, who made the trek upstate from Manhattan to see the show and visit Chagall's former house. [NYT]
– Richter's Market: The Economist takes a look at the market for Gerhard Richter in light of his current retrospective at the Tate Modern — and immediately following his public commentscalling the art market "daft." Richter commanded the highest prices at auction of any living artist in 2010 — $76.9 million worth of his work was sold, with many works going to Russian and Chinese buyers. Top sellers are "candle paintings," followed by his "Abstrakte Bilder" series, then the "capitalist realism" works from the 1960s. [Economist]
– New Museum Visitors Are in for a Bumpy Ride: Put on your helmets. The German artist Carsten Höller will install a 40-foot-high, 102-foot-long slide inside the New Museum,to be unveiled October 26. (Previous Höller slides have been constructed in Berlin, Milan, São Paolo, and London.) "Installing it involves removing portions of the floor and ceilings," said Lisa Phillips,the New Museum's director. "And since the slide can't go straight through the center of the building because of structural issues, it willtake twists and turns." [NYT]
– Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art to Reopen in March: Theopening date of March 31, 2012, was announced yesterday by MCA director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor.She has raised all but $1.4 million of the $53 million needed for themuseum's extension and refurbishment, which will increase MCA's totalsize by almost 50 percent. [Daily Telegraph Australia]
– Forgotten Paintings from URI Unveiled: Murals from the Depression era by RISD graduate Gino Conti were unveiled Tuesday in the foyer of the auditorium at the University of Rhode Island's Providence campus. The paintings, created under the sponsorship of the WPA, had been covered by sheet rock for decades and were only uncovered last year. [South Kingstown Patch]
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– Nikon Photo Prize Announced: A blade of grass, a cancerous cell, and the venation network of a quaking aspen leaf were among the stunning finalists in this year's micro-photography competition. Coming in first was German photographer Igor Siwanowicz's portrait of a green lacewing larva, magnified by a factor of 20. [Wired]
– A Prize for "Zionist-Oriented" Art: Israel culture minister Limor Livnathas introduced a NIS 50,000 ($13,444) prize that will reward a work "pertaining to Zionism, its history, goals, central character or contemporary Zionist activity in cinema, theater, literature, dance, music, and plastic arts." [Haaretz]
– Walters Museum Images Unleashed:Copyright restrictions on more than 10,000 art work images — a third ofthe collector of Baltimore's Walters Art Museum collection — are now available to download and share freely online. Director Gary Vikan says that the museum is "demonstrating its belief that openness and transparency are key components to holding artworks in the public trust." [Art Daily]
– HassanHajjaj Wins First Pan-African Prize: The Moroccan artist has beenawarded the inaugural 2011 Sovereign African Art Prize. He will receive$25,000 and the opportunity to take up a three-month residency at theNirox Foundation in the Gauteng Provence, South Africa. [Artslink]
– Occupy Wall Street Gets its Own Biennial: Participants in the protest group Occupy Wall Street are soliciting artwork for their very own biennial, or "Wall Street Occupennial." [ITA]
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