Category: visual

The Art Students’ League of New York turns 130 this year, and its history is chock full of legendary artists and impressive anecdotes. More importantly, the school has amassed an extensive collection of works by its former students, and many of the pieces are on display this fall at the school’s West Side headquarters. “And it won’t be partying alone. As an anniversary salute, more than a dozen Manhattan art galleries have organized smaller shows, some already on view, devoted to artists associated with the institution.”

The Taubman family, which has owned controlling interest in Sotheby’s auction house, is reducing its investment to minority shareholder status. “The deal, which ends years of speculation about the Taubmans’ intentions for their holding, ends a dual share structure that had allowed the family’s 22% stake to carry 62% of the votes. The family will continue to hold 7.1 million shares, which will give them the same power as other investors in the company.”

“According to documents filed in an Arizona court, Jean-Emmanuel Renoir, great-grandson of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, has lent his name to what one lawyer claims could be the ‘biggest art fraud in history’, a plan to market hundreds of thousands of works inspired by Renoir-Guino sculptures to which the artist’s descendant does not hold copyright. Projected revenues are over $1 billion.”

New York’s Museum of Modern Art has a new Matisse in its collection. The Plum Blossoms, from the artist’s last series of paintings, was purchased for MoMA by its new president and her husband for an amount estimated to be $25 million. The painting’s whereabouts had been unknown for more than 30 years until a Manhattan dealer approached MoMA on behalf of the anonymous collector who owned it. It was last put on public display in 1970, and because it has always been in private collections, it is reportedly in extraordinary condition. MoMA hopes to have the painting on its walls within a week.

An 18th-century painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds will remain in the UK despite its having been sold last year to a foreign institution. Keeping important works of art in country has become a crusade in Britain in recent years, and “the government slapped a temporary export ban on the sale to give the [Tate Modern] time to raise the necessary £3.2m” to buy the painting back. “The London gallery managed to meet the figure through a combination of grants, donations, the Tate’s own collection fund and £500,000 raised by the gallery’s own members.”

35 of Italy’s top architects have signed an open letter to the government asking for an immediate cessation of all building projects designed by foreign “star” architects, and calling for a return to Italy’s traditional architectural standard. “The writers warn of the ‘architectural mongrelisation’ of Italy, and say Italian architects are ‘an invaluable cultural resource that cannot continue to be thwarted and ignored’.”

“Trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Art have been mum on the search for a new director. But that hasn’t stopped one current and one former candidate from talking. Charles Venable, the museum’s deputy director for collections and programs, acknowledged publicly last week that he’s one of a small number of candidates under consideration. Meanwhile, Michael Shapiro, director of the High Museum in Atlanta, said he withdrew, as he put it, ‘before an offer was finalized.'” The museum would like to have a new director in place by the time ground is broken for its massive expansion and renovation on October 1, but isn’t setting any firm deadlines for the process.

A major painting by Titian is being put up for sale, and the National Gallery, which last year prevented Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks from being purchased by a foreign bidder with an emergency infusion of cash from the government, hoped to do the same with the Titian. But the Heritage Lottery Fund, which grudgingly ponied up for the Raphael, calls the acquisition of art a “low priority.” Adding to the intrigue is the consenseus opinion of art experts that the Titian is a more significant work than the Raphael.

“The burgeoning reputation of Bristol as a buzzing centre for cutting-edge contemporary culture took another leap forward when the doors of Arnolfini, its modern arts centre reopened yesterday. After a two-year refurbishment, the warren of corridors and rather cramped galleries at the converted 19th-century tea warehouse have gone, replaced by wide open, inviting white spaces. The re-birth of Arnolfini is also a further boost for the city’s waterside area, which has undergone a transformation in recent years into a major tourist destination.”