Arts news

• SFMOMA Head Curator Eungie Joo Fired for Alleged Workplace Misconduct

  20-12-2024 17:09 via artnews.com
  
  Eungie Joo, head curator of contemporary art at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art since 2017, has been fired amid claims of workplace conduct. The news was first reported by the San Francisco Standard.“In accordance with institutional policy on workplace conduct, Eungie Joo was separated from SFMOMA on December 17,” a museum spokesperson told the Standard. “We do not comment on the specifics of personnel matters.” Joo has not made a public statement on the termi
  
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• Stonehenge Possibly Erected to Unite Ancient Farming Communities, Study Finds

  20-12-2024 20:13 via artnews.com
  
  This has been a monumental year for further insight about Stonehenge’s creation. Researchers are now positing that the iconic stone circle may have been erected in an effort to unite ancient farming communities, CNN reported.Earlier this year, experts discovered that Stonehenge’s central six-ton altar stone may have come from more than 450 miles away in Scotland. It was previously known that the sarsen stones came from 16 miles away from the site, in what is now the British town of M
  
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• The Most Discussed Art World Lawsuits of 2024

  20-12-2024 19:27 via artnews.com
  
  Like most years in the art world, 2024 saw a slew of lawsuits wind their way through the courts.There were, of course, the professional relationships that went sour and the family drama that spilled into open court. But there were also stranger disputes, like a discrimination battle over an art installation in Australia. There were also cases that could have long-lasting legal consequences, like the artist who is challenging the U.S. Copyright Office’s rejection of his copyright for an art
  
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• Diriyah Art Futures, MENA Region’s First Hub for New Media Arts, Opens to the Public

  20-12-2024 19:00 via artnews.com
  
  Diriyah Art Futures, the first institution in the Middle East and North Africa dedicated to new media arts, has officially opened its doors to the public. Situated in Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh, Diriyah Art Futures is an international hub, established with the mission of diversifying the emerging field of new media arts by amplifying the voices of Middle Eastern practitioners.Related ArticlesDiriyah Art Futures Announces First-Ever Mazra'
  
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• Year in Review: The World’s Heritage Sites Faced Destruction in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Sudan

  20-12-2024 18:56 via artnews.com
  
  World heritage is rarely exempt from war, as 2024 proved in the cases of Israel and its enemies in the Middle East, and Ukraine and Russia. Amid each clash, monuments, religious landmarks, and ancient ruins—cultural property defined by the Hague as “immovable” sites with immense value to history—were variably threatened, damaged, or outright destroyed. That is to say, UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, had a busy year.This November, UNESCO reported that since
  
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• Ho, Ho, Ho! 15 Festive Photos of Santa Claus to Get You Into the Christmas Spirit

  20-12-2024 14:00 via smithsonianmag.com
  
  It's the most wonderful time of the year, and ol' St. Nick is spreading holiday cheer for all to hear
  
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• George Washington Carver Exhibition Looks at How a Scientific Genius Still Influences Artists Today

  20-12-2024 12:00 via artnews.com
  
  Historically, the relationship between Black Americans and the American South—in both the art world and the world writ large—is reduced to that of oppression and enslavement, with little attention paid to the creative and scientific innovations that both preceded and followed emancipation.The California African American Museum in Los Angeles hopes to change that limited understanding with its current exhibition, “World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project” (o
  
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• Liliane Lijn’s Magical Mechanisms Span Science and Surrealism

  20-12-2024 11:00 via artnews.com
  
  When Liliane Lijn moved to Paris in 1958, she found herself at the tables of the storied Surrealist cafés. By then, she remembered years later, they had become “kind of boring.” André Breton, whose 1924 manifesto had launched the movement, had since “banished all the most interesting people.” The Nazis had, too.Lijn was 19 years old when she arrived on the scene, so few in the cafés really listened to her ideas. Still, there was lots to absorb. Lijn w
  
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• French Painter Claire Tabouret Chosen to Create New Stained Glass Windows for Notre-Dame Cathedral

  19-12-2024 23:10 via artnews.com
  
  French figurative painter Claire Tabouret has been chosen to create new stained glass windows for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which reopened on December 7 after a six-year-long renovation. Tabouret was selected by French president Emmanuel Macron and the Paris archbishop, Laurent Ulrich, and said in a statement to the press that her winning project depicts praying people from different cultural background celebrating the Pentecost.The painter is based in Los Angeles and will collaborate with
  
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• The Oldest-Known Ten Commandments Tablet Sells at Sotheby’s for $5 M.

  19-12-2024 22:31 via artnews.com
  
  The world’s oldest-known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments surpassed expectations at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday. Expected to sell for an estimated $1 to $2 million, the tablet fetched a whopping $5 million.“The result reflects the unparalleled importance of this artifact,” Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts, told the New York Times. “To stand before this tablet is an experience unlike any other — it offers
  
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• The Ramallah Art Fair Returns with a Theme of Resilience

  19-12-2024 21:09 via artnews.com
  
  Zawyeh Art Gallery, the organizer and sole venue of the Ramallah Art Fair, wants it known that the name of the event is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, the works in its newly opened fourth edition are for sale—and at purposefully affordable prices—but here the market comes second. This is foremost a showcase of Palestinian stories.Titled “Voices of Resilience,” this iteration of the Ramallah Art Fair (RAF) features more than 100 artworks across a diverse range of medi
  
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• The Year in Self-Taught Artists: 2024 Expanded the Canon

  19-12-2024 19:59 via artnews.com
  
  2024 has been marked by the exponential presence of self-taught artists in museums, galleries, and art fairs. Increasingly sought by collectors from various horizons, represented by a vast community of art dealers, and included in a broader spectrum of art history curriculums, these artists have secured the attention of educators, art critics, and museumgoers—suggesting a new normal as to who counts as an “artist” in the first place.As a curator at the American Folk Art Museum
  
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• Zilia Sánchez, Painter of Erotically Tinged Shaped Canvases, Dies at 98

  19-12-2024 19:12 via artnews.com
  
  Zilia Sánchez, an artist known for her shaped canvases that bulge outward, has died at 98. The San Juan–based aritst’s death was announced on Thursday by the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, which did not state a cause.Sánchez’s erotically tinged paintings alluded frequently to the female body, which she abstracted beyond recognition. Using a palette of muted grays and blues, she created spare canvases that were stretched taut over wooden frameworks. Those armatures,
  
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• Roberto Chavez, Iconic Artist Who Influenced Generations of Chicanx Artists, Dies at 92

  19-12-2024 19:09 via artnews.com
  
  Roberto Chavez, a major figure within US Latinx art history whose work has influenced generations of artists that followed, died on December 17 of natural causes in Arivaca, Arizona. He was 92. The news was confirmed by the artist’s daughter, Sonna Chavez, in an email. Chavez was part of a generation of Mexican American artists working in LA beginning in the early 1950s, before the Chicano Art Movement that they would come to influence. That cohort, including Chavez and five other artists,
  
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• Felix LA Names 64 Exhibitors for Upcoming 2025 Edition

  19-12-2024 18:12 via artnews.com
  
  Felix LA, the art fair that each week during Frieze LA takes over the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, will bring together 64 galleries for its upcoming 2025 edition, which will run February 19–23.For its seventh edition, around half of the exhibitors will be showing at Felix LA for the first time. Among these are ILY2 from Portland, Oregon; COMA from Chippendale, Australia; and sobering galerie from Paris. They will join Felix LA fixtures like 56 Henry, Charlie James Gallery, Document, L
  
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• Sotheby’s Reverses Course on Fee Structure Announced in February after Challenging 2024

  19-12-2024 16:52 via artnews.com
  
  In a letter sent to clients on Thursday, Sotheby’s announced that the auction house was ditching the overhauled fee structure announced in February and enacted in May, and returning to its previous “bespoke” fee terms for sellers. The buyer’s premium will range from 15 percent to 27 percent of the hammer price, depending on the work’s monetary value.The new terms are a stark reversal from the plan announced in February when the house said that it was standardizing t
  
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• London’s Groucho Club to Reopen Following Alleged Rape on its Premises

  19-12-2024 15:10 via artnews.com
  
  London’s Groucho Club will reopen in January following an allegation of rape on its premises. The members-only had its license temporarily suspended last month amid a police investigation into the claim. Artfarm, a hospitality company set up by Hauser & Wirth dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth in 2014, has majority owned the club for the last two years. The firm reportedly bought its stake in the institution, which is frequented by A-list celebrities, for $50 million. The Groucho is run se
  
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• London’s Groucho Club Reopens Following Police Investigation Into an Alleged Rape on Its Premises

  19-12-2024 15:10 via artnews.com
  
  After being forced to temporarily close last month due to a police investigation into an alleged rape on its premises, London’s Groucho Club has reopened.Artfarm, a hospitality company set up by Hauser & Wirth dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth in 2014, has majority owned the club for the last two years. The firm reportedly bought its stake in the institution, which is frequented by A-list celebrities, for $50 million. The Groucho is run separately to the other operations owned by Artfarm,
  
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• The Year in New York: Galleries Played It Alarmingly Safe While Museums Showed Signs of Change

  19-12-2024 11:00 via artnews.com
  
  By just about any measure, this was a tumultuous year for New York’s close-knit art scene. Beloved galleries shuttered—not just the small ones, like David Lewis, Simone Subal, and Jack Hanley, but also bigger, more blue-chip outfits, like Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Beloved New York artists died, from Frank Stella to Faith Ringgold to Lorraine O’Grady. Even one beloved museum director, MoMA’s Glenn Lowry, said he would step aside after 30 years in the role.But even amid al
  
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• Phillips Chairman and Deputy CEO Step Down Amid Leadership Reshuffle

  18-12-2024 23:44 via artnews.com
  
  Phillips has named Martin Wilson as the house’s new chief executive officer amid another leadership shuffle, succeeding Ed Dolman, who held the dual position of CEO and executive chairman over the last year, and is now departing from the house after ten years. Wilson previously served as Phillips’ chief legal officer.The move coincides with the departure of Amanda Lo Iacono, the company’s deputy CEO, a position she held for only a year. Lo Iacono moved in the position just last
  
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• Nicholas Galanin Wins Crystal Bridges Museum’s $200,000 Prize

  18-12-2024 22:41 via artnews.com
  
  The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has named Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit-Unangax̂) as the recipient of this year’s Don Tyson Prize for outstanding achievement in American art.A press release called Galanin “a renowned figure in the art world” for his multidisciplinary practice, which blends traditional Tlingit art forms with modern techniques and themes. The biennial cash prize of $200,000 was established in 2016 by the Tyson family in honor of the former chairman an
  
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• MrBeast to Rent Ancient Egyptian Pyramids to Explore Parts ‘That No One’s Seen Publicly’

  18-12-2024 22:38 via artnews.com
  
  The Egyptian government has yet again rented out the pyramids to the highest bidder—this time to American YouTuber MrBeast.“We got all three of the pyramids of Egypt for 100 hours. I’m gonna do a video where they let me explore anywhere I want in the Pyramids,” MrBeast revealed during the “Beyond the Records” podcast with Noah Lyles.MrBeast is known for organizing and filming extreme challenges and prize giveaways.“I’d never been inside of [the pyr
  
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• Year In Review: 2024 Saw a New Level of Interest in Indigenous Art—the Market Response Has Been More Complicated

  18-12-2024 21:44 via artnews.com
  
  In January, several industry insiders predicted there would be more attention paid this year to Indigenous and Native art. That month, Phillips was gearing up to hold “New Terrains,” its first selling exhibition of contemporary Indigenous and Native art at its New York headquarters. Quickly, it became apparent that the predictions made around the time of the Phillips show were correct. Later that month, the Venice Biennale would announce its artist list for the main exhibition, &ldqu
  
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• Previously Unknown Giorgione Painting Found at Alter Pinakothek in Munich

  18-12-2024 21:22 via artnews.com
  
  A painting by Venetian Renaissance artist Giorgione (1473/74–1510) has been found among the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich, Germany. The double portrait of the young Giovanni Borgherini from Florence with his teacher and Venetian polymath Trifone Gabrieleau has been on display at the Green Gallery in Munich since 2011. After a comprehensive analysis by art historians and a technological investigation, three other compositions were discovered hidden beneath the surface of the
  
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• Previously Unknown Giorgione Painting Found at Alte Pinakothek in Munich

  18-12-2024 21:22 via artnews.com
  
  A painting by Venetian Renaissance artist Giorgione (1473/74–1510) has been found among the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich, Germany. The double portrait of the young Giovanni Borgherini from Florence with his teacher and Venetian polymath Trifone Gabrieleau has been on display at the Green Gallery in Munich since 2011. After a comprehensive analysis by art historians and a technological investigation, three other compositions were discovered hidden beneath the surface of the
  
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• 10 Under-Recognized Artists Who Got Their Due in 2024

  18-12-2024 16:03 via artnews.com
  
  The Venice Biennale has traditionally been viewed as a survey of the present, but this year, it was arguably an exhibition about the past. More than half the 331 participants were dead, as sure a sign as any that a long-running trend for canonizing the uncanonized may finally have reached its apex. Many of those artists were from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the South Pacific, and that too is proof that the Western art world has officially begun undoing its Eurocentric bias.How permanent wil
  
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• Knight Foundation Announces Grant Recipients for 2024 Knight New Work in Detroit, Miami, and Akron

  18-12-2024 16:00 via artnews.com
  
  Today’s artists are navigating a landscape where digital technology blends the physical and virtual worlds, offering new ways to create, communicate, and collaborate. While technology can sometimes seem daunting, designed by a few for the many, artists now have unprecedented access and agency to harness these tools. By skillfully integrating digital technologies, creators can deepen experiences, reach new audiences, and design a collective future that reflects and connects communities in p
  
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• Janet Olivia Henry’s Dark and Playful Sculptures Made of Toys Are Gaining Widespread Recognition

  18-12-2024 16:00 via artnews.com
  
  Do you want a plastic shopping cart small enough to be pushed around by a doll? Go right ahead, and Google it—you’ll turn up many carts of that kind. But not so long ago, it wasn’t so easy to find objects like this on demand, the artist Janet Olivia Henry pointed out recently. She can still recall the thrill of the chase that she felt while shuttling around Manhattan several decades ago, looking for toys to be used in her sculptures.During the ’70s, Henry began making her
  
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• Nour Mobarak’s Polyphonic Opera Dissects the Power and Limits of the Human Voice

  18-12-2024 13:45 via artnews.com
  
  A well-known story from Ovid’s first-century narrative poem Metamorphoses goes something like this: after the sun god Apollo kills the snake-dragon Python, the god of love Cupid seeks revenge on Apollo by striking two arrows. The first causes Apollo to fall madly, irrevocably in love with the nymph Daphne, while the second causes Daphne to revile Apollo, forcing her to transform into a laurel tree to escape his advances. This ancient Roman story of unrequited love and conquest was the basi
  
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• Guggenheim Museum’s Naomi Beckwith to Curate Documenta 16

  18-12-2024 13:39 via artnews.com
  
  Naomi Beckwith, the Guggenheim Museum’s deputy director and chief curator, will curate the 2027 edition of Documenta, a closely watched art exhibition that takes place once every five years in Kassel, Germany.She is the first Black woman ever to curate the show in its 69-year history, as well as the second American-born curator ever to helm the art festival, after Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, who did the 2012 edition.Her appointment comes after a lengthy selection process that not long afte
  
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