The exhibition "#SocialMedium" is currently open to the public at the Frye Art Museum. (Courtesy Frye Art Museum's Twitter)
Crowdsourcing
shows at museums to the public, and putting out open calls to amateur
curators, is creating a shift in the curatorial power structure at major
museums. Shows like “#SocialMedium” at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, a
show of 40 paintings chosen by the public, and “Boston Loves
Impressionism” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the institution’s
first crowd sourced exhibition, are proving that it's possible “disrupt”
just about any industry—thanks tech kids. [Wall Street Journal]
Today in brilliantly executed loans, Pat Hardy was able to secure Monet’s Charing Cross Bridge, London
(1902), which was once a present to Winston Churchill from a friend and
normally hangs above his desk at his Kent country home, owned by the
National Trust. But the real kicker is that she was able to borrow it
for the exhibition “Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will
Never Die” at the Museum of London. Why, you might ask, did she want a
Monet for a show about the famous literary detective? It’s all about the
fog, my dear Watson. [The Art Newspaper]
London
is celebrating black history month with an unprecedented eight
exhibitions by black artists. On view at the some of the city’s premier
private and public galleries is work by Steve McQueen, Rotimi
Fani-Kayode, Glenn Ligon, David Hammons, Kerry James Marshall, Wangechi
Mutu, Carrie Mae Weems, and a show of historic photographs at Rivington
Place titled “Black Chronicles II.” It’s worth noting that the series of
shows coincided with Frieze, and there is quite a lot of imported
talent from the U.S. on that list. [The Root]
Starchitect Frank Gehry had a moment at a press conference on Thursday
in Oviedo, Spain—a very bad moment. When asked by a journalist if his
architecture was all about spectacle he responded by giving the reporter
the finger. Then he went on to say, “In this world we are living in, 98
percent of everything that is built and designed today is pure shit.
There’s no sense of design, no respect for humanity or for anything
else. They are damn buildings and that’s it.” Later, he apologized and
blamed the outburst on jet lag. [Guardian]
Artist
and writer Farheem Haider takes issue with James Trainor’s recent essay
for Artsy about how artists and dealers from the big city can save the
scene upstate. In his op-ed for Hyperallergic he points to the Hudson
Valley’s rich history of cultural innovators, movements like the Hudson
River School, and how influential work like that of renowned landscape
architect Frederick Law Olmstead has left its impact on New York City.
His feelings summarized: Upstate doesn’t need saving, and recent art
world transplants are doing nothing new. [Hyperallergic]
Joseph
Grima has been appointed the first director of the New Museum’s Ideas
City biennial. Mr. Grima served as the director of Storefront for Art
and Architecture and is the former editor of Domus. The New Museum’s
director Lisa Phillips said, “It’s developed so much momentum, and we
have so many opportunities in front of us with so many cities asking if
we could come to them, that we really needed someone who could run the
whole program.” [New York Times]
The L.A. Islam Arts Initiative (LA/IAI) kicks off on Sunday
with participation from 30 arts institutions citywide. The initiative's
creator, L.A. department of Cultural Affairs project manager Amitis
Motevalli, saids, “People under the umbrella of Islamic culture may
include Sikhs, Armenians, Jewish people living in predominantly Islamic
countries. But people mistake the culture as something that’s
singular—and sometimes, a culture of violence or victimization…So we
want to switch it up and show multiplicities.” Its two central
exhibitions, “Doris Duke’s Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and
Islamic Art” and “Shangri La: Imagined Cities” can be seen at Barnsdall
Art Park, and features the work of contemporary artists Charles Gaines,
Mariam Ghani, among others. [L.A. Times]
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