GUGG CANCELS BARNEY SHOW, MALEVICH
Revenue shortfalls have led the Guggenheim Museum to cancel planned shows of work by New York avant-gardist Matthew Barney and the Russian Constructivist painter Kasimir Malevich, according to a story by Celestine Bohlen in the New York Times. Museum attendance is down to about 13,000 a week, a 50 percent drop since last year, said deputy director Lisa Dennison. The museum will extend the current "Brazil: Body & Soul" show, and then probably fill its schedule with selections from the permanent collection, said museum insiders. The Gugg is also planning to trim its staff of ca. 400 people, beginning with exhibition installers, who were told of the layoffs shortly after last week's opening of "Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People." Whether the museum plans to leave vacant the curatorial post held by Matthew Drutt, who departed earlier this year for the Menil Collection in Houston, remains to be seen.
BIG BUCKS FOR HOUSTON MUSEUM CHIEF, ASSISTANT
Everything's big in Texas, even payouts to museum staff! The Houston Museum of Fine Arts board of trustees voted a $1.7 million bonus for museum director Peter C. Marzio and an additional $424,000 for assistant director Gwendolyn H. Goffe, according to a report by Dan Feldstein in the Houston Chronicle. The reward is for heading a fundraising drive that raised a total of $237 million for art and construction costs for the museum's new Audrey Jones Beck Building, which opened in 1999. Former trustee chairman Alfred C. Glassell Jr. told the paper that outside consultants ordinarily charge huge sums to run such campaigns, and since Marzio and Goffe had worked overtime to do an enormously successful job themselves, they deserved a prize. Marzio's bonus came on top of the $525,000 (plus $77,000 in benefits and expenses) he was paid by the museum in 2000.
"FAST FWD: MIAMI" ON TAP
A new art fair has moved into the December art-fair void left when Art Basel Miami was cancelled. Dubbed Fast Fwd: Miami, the fair is slated to include almost 50 dealers in rooms at the Nash Hotel on Collins Avenue in South Beach, Dec. 14-16, 2001. Also planned are four or five rooms with special curated exhibitions and stations for magazines and publications in the lobby. Proceeds from the gala opening on Dec. 13 are earmarked for the I LOVE NY Art Benefit. The fair is still in formation; for more info contact Laurie De Chiara at office@dechiaragallery.com.
Meanwhile, don't let these doings confuse you about the 12th annual Art Miami, which is still slated to open at the Miami Beach Convention Center, Jan. 4-8, 2002. Over 100 galleries from 24 countries are attending, said Art Miami director Ilana Vardy. The fair also features a "Currents" show of new work and special "Project Rooms." Daily admission is $12; $9 for seniors and students.
NEW YORK ARCHITECTS
The hip design world is looking to New York Architects 01-02, a new directory of over 180 New York-based architects and landscape designers that is published in both book and website forms. The list ranges from Aardvarchitecture to Weisz + Yoes, and includes a list of available jobs in the field as well. The site is part of PSA Publishers, which runs similar sites for architects in Austria, Japan and Switzerland; for more info, contact newyork@psa-publishers.com.
E.H. GOMBRICH, 1909-2001 Ernst Gombrich, 92, world-famous art historian who wrote The Story of Art (1950), Art and Illusion (1960) and Meditations on a Hobby Horse (1963), died in London on Nov. 3. Born in Vienna, Gombrich studied art history and archeology and wrote his dissertation on Giulio Romano. In 1936 he moved to London and began teaching at the Warburg Institute. During World War II he worked for the BBC monitoring German radio broadcasts. After the war he became director of the Warburg and professor at London University (1956-76). He became one of England's great scholars (though the Story of Art, in keeping with its time, included neither women nor non-Western art), was knighted and received many other honors.
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