The art world has a reputation as free-thinking and tolerant, if not overly so. But in recent weeks, there have been several instances, far more than usual, of alleged censorship involving some of the bigger names in the field. What’s going on?
To recap:
On Tuesday, Dec. 14, the Arabian nation of Qatar opened Mathaf, the huge new 59,000-square-foot Arab Museum of Modern Art. The nation’s emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, hosted the ceremonies at Doha’s Education City complex.
If the name sounds familiar, it should. From about 1997 to 2005, Sheikh Saud Al Thani, the emir’s Read More
The decades-old rivalry between Gagosian Gallery and Pace Gallery is being fought in new arenas: in London and at the poker table.
Pace Gallery earlier this month announced that it will open a space in London, where its rival has long had a thriving space. And last week, Pace director Marc Glimcher sat down across Read More
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Art Awards were given out last week at Webster Hall. Artist Rob Pruitt’s witty, performance-art pastiche of an Oscars-style awards ceremony, now in its second year, began to look a bit like a run-of-the-mill awards ceremony, though with perhaps a more insular guest list. Imagine the Oscars, for example, if Read More
What’s next for the man ranked by Forbes as the 50th richest on the planet? Possibly his own museum.
The investment company of art collector and Russian businessman Roman Abramovich has won a tender for New Holland, an 18-acre, long-derelict island adjacent to St. Petersburg. Mr. Abramovich, 41, won’t technically own the island, a former Read More
New York has another Gates project.
Veteran Pop Art artist Kenny Scharf has been commissioned by an entity called the Gatescapes Project to decorate dozens of roll-down storefront shutters around New York. What sounds like an alternative project for the pioneer Pop Art and graffiti artist is in fact, something of an eye-popping ad campaign. Read More
New York art adviser Nilani Trent’s tweet a few days before Thanksgiving said it all. “David Ganek’s hedge fund was raided by the FBI according to NYTimes. Boy is this going to shake up the art world.”
News that Mr. Ganek’s Level Global hedge fund, plus two other hedge funds founded by fellow alumni of Read More
Alexandra Munroe has been named the “Samsung Senior Curator of Asian Art” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The Korean company is underwriting the position, in its first-ever endowment of a curatorial job. While positions named after individuals are common in the art world–Adam Weinberg is “The Alice Pratt Brown Director” of the Whitney Museum Read More
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced plans to renovate the plaza that extends in front of its building from East 80th to 84th streets. But, before actually beginning construction, the museum must navigate a maze of zoning, planning, cultural and environmental agencies, seeking approval from each. And, based on opposition in the past from Read More
Strong prices for Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein at the big fall contemporary art auctions last week obscured the runaway success of works by some younger, or lower-profile, artists. At Phillips de Pury in particular, at the firm’s little-noticed daytime sale of “cheaper” art, bidding for emerging artists took off.
Thirty-year-old Dan Colen’s Untitled Read More
