Category: visual

David Hammons’s Gansevoort installation is expected to feature a ghostlike image of the original Pier 52 building on that site, according to those who have been briefed on the project — an open minimalist framework of what had originally been there, like a pencil line drawing in space. The project would rest on 12 pilings — five of them on the peninsula, with a sixth out at the end of it and another six in the water to the south.

“Gates is a fitting choice at a time when the United States has immersed itself in a re-examination of race and the divisions it spawns in American society. He doesn’t shy from taking on civil rights as an issue in his expansive portfolio, which [Nasher Sculpture Center director Jeremy] Strick said is tied ‘to the most traditional kinds of object-making and the most traditional materials.'”

“Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art founder Alice Walton has established a nonprofit foundation to focus on sharing American art across the country through collaborations with museums and institutions. Art Bridges, which was announced Wednesday, will develop and fund exhibitions to expand access to American art. Walton’s new venture is separate from the Crystal Bridges museum in Bentonville but is aligned with the museum’s mission.”

“The acquisition gives the university a gracious formal parlor a few blocks from its Broad Street campus in a neighborhood populated by many of the city’s most generous arts donors. … The change marks a bittersweet epoch for the Art Alliance, which had once brought to the city the likes of Man Ray, Martha Graham, and Andrew Wyeth, but which lost a good deal of its cutting-edge sheen in recent decades. Its six small galleries now mostly exhibit contemporary crafts and design.”

“Critics — some of whom had also demanded the impeachment of the president — accused the artists of promoting pedophilia and child pornography. Rowdy protesters harassed museumgoers outside and inside the exhibition and posted a video that was seen by more than 1.4 million viewers on Facebook. On Sunday, Santander Bank unexpectedly closed the exhibition, which is at its cultural center in the southern city of Pôrto Alegre, a month ahead of schedule. The curator found out when a friend of his sent him a text message.”

More than 200 artists, including Nairy Baghramian and Nikhil Chopra, have subsequently backed the curatorial team in an open letter. “Criticisms of Documenta 14 have been expanded to suggest that a deficit in the operating budget is primarily due to the Athenian chapter of Documenta. We are concerned about this urge to put ticket sales above art,” the letter says.

Art historian Brian T. Allen: “Understanding American art doesn’t necessarily require special training. There’s lots of insider baseball and tons of nuance, to be sure. It’s a big, complex country well into its third century. More than the art of most countries, though, it’s accessible by instinct. Basically, it’s about what makes Americans tick.”

“The Barbican Centre is ‘in discussion’ with the City of London Corporation about how to preserve the two murals by the British street artist Banksy that appeared near the gallerySunday. The works pay homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was originally a graffiti artist and is the subject of a major show opening at the Barbican this week–almost 30 years after he died.”

“Located on the grounds of the Ayers Rock Resort in the Northern Territory, this remarkable exhibition” – titled Field of Light Uluru in English and Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku (“looking at lots of beautiful lights”) in the language of the indigenous Pitjantjatjara people, to whom Uluru is sacred – “from artist Bruce Munro has already drawn some 120,000 visitors since it opened in 2016.”

The works, near the Barbican Centre, mark the opening of an exhibition by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.