Magazine Home  |  News  |  Features  |  Reviews  |  Books  |  People  |  Horoscope  
     
Artnet News
8/1/02

TATE IN SPACE
They're getting a little dotty over in London this summer. The ever-growing Tate gallery, which has split itself into two, Tate Britain and Tate Modern, and opened branches in Liverpool and St. Ives, has now launched Tate in Space. The "radical new location for collection, curation and display," according to Tate programming director Sandy Nairne, is an orbiting earth satellite that supposedly was launched June 6, 2002, circling the earth every 93 minutes or so. "Thanks to something called "microgravity, both artworks and visitors float freely in space in the intergalactic gallery designed by architects Danielle Tinero and Opher Elia-Shaul. The tongue-in-cheek project -- there is no satellite, despite the blurry image of planet earth reproduced on the Tate in Space website -- is the work of artist Susan Collins.

CLASH OVER RUBENS EXPORT
Sotheby's auction house seemed to score a major coup when a painting attributed for over 200 years to Jan van den Hoeke, a pupil of Peter Paul Rubens, was identified as The Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens himself and subsequently sold at auction in London on July 10 for £49.5 million. But now, an anonymous informant has accused the auctioneer of knowingly concealing the painting's authorship in order to export it from Austria without difficulties. The news has hit the Vienna papers, and the city prosecutor has begun an investigation of the matter. Sotheby's called the charges "completely false and unfounded," saying that the extensive research that determined the painting to be by Rubens was undertaken only after the painting arrived in England. Karl Schuetz, director of the Vienna Museum for Art History, which has 40 works by Rubens in its collection, told the London Telegraph that "one doesn't let a Rubens out of one's country."

NEW CHIEF FOR ROYAL ACADEMY. . .
The Royal Academy of Arts in London has appointed Lawton Fitt as its new secretary. Fitt, 49, a managing director of Goldman Sachs in Europe and vice-chairman of the trustee board at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, is the first woman and the first American to have the post. She begins the job in October 2002.

. . . AND CHARLTON TAKES WOLLASTON AWARD
Painter Alan Charlton is the winner of the £25,000 Charles Wollaston Award for 2002, given to the "most distinguished work" in the Royal Academy's "Summer Exhibition," June 11-Aug. 19, 2002. Charlton's Vertical Painting in 20 was selected from among the 1,059 works in the show by a jury that included Matthew Collings, Norman Foster, Allen Jones and Ulrich Ruckriem.

NEW ART SERIES AT MCA SAN DIEGO
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego launches a new "fast-paced" exhibition program called the "Cerca Series" -- "cerca" is a Spanish word that refers to "things nearby and the process of bringing them closer" -- on Aug. 11, 2002, with a show of works by Tijuana-based artist Tania Candiani. Coming up is a DVD projection by Jeremy Blake in October.

ARTNEWS ON EXHIBITION
After a century of taking the measure of art exhibitions, ARTnews magazine is going to be the subject of one. "Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs" opens at the New-York Historical Society, Sept. 27, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003, and subsequently travels to the National Portrait Gallery and other venues. The selection includes portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat by James VanDerZee, Alexander Calder by Agnes Varda, Helen Frankenthaler by Alexander Liberman and Robert Henri by Gertrude Käsebier. The show is sponsored by AXA Art Insurance Corporation.

PAINTING SYMPOSIUM IN BASEL
The Fondation Beyeler and three city museums in Basel, Switzerland, are collaborating on a symposium titled "Between Senses: Structures and Strategies in 20th-century Painting," Aug. 16-18, 2002. Speakers include Brussels-based art historian Thierry de Duve, Harvard art scholar Yve-Alain Bois, artist Luc Tuymans, curator Denys Zacharopoulos and many others. The three-day conference is held in conjunction with "Claude Monet" at the Beyeler and the three-part "Painting on the Move" exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Museum für Gegenwartskunst and the Kunsthalle Basel. For more info, contact Katrin Bucher at kbucher@kunsthallebasel.ch.

SCHACHTER CONTEMPORARY OPENS IN WEST VILLAGE. . .
Wes Anderson, Jimmy Fallon, Chloe Sevigny and Harper's Bazaar editor Glenda Bailey were spotted in the crowd that showed up for the June 27 opening of Kenny Schachter ConTEMPorary, a new 1,200-square-foot gallery at 14 Charles Lane in the West Village. The two-story building, originally an 1832 carriage house, has been completely rearchitected by famed Body Artist Vito Acconci, in what is his first New York project. The asymmetrical, deconstructivist space features a swooping, free-form video projection screen and sectioned steel-mesh walls that fold down into benches and shelves for exhibiting sculptures and architectural maquettes. This is the first permanent space for Schachter, a freelance curator who has organized perhaps 50 shows in the last 12 years. Currently on view is "Architecture," June 27-Aug. 10, 2002, a group show featuring works by Acconci, Frederick Kiesler and 10 other designers; coming up in the fall are exhibitions of Elke Krystyufek and ceramics by Mary Heilman. For more info contact Schachter@mindspring.com.

. . . AS DOES PLANE SPACE
Another new gallery on the art-lover's circuit is Plane Space, which opens on Aug. 28, 2002, with an exhibition of sculpture by John Bisbee. Located on the ground floor of a former 1855 firehouse at 102 Charles Street, the 1,200-square-foot space was designed by New York architect Deborah Berke. For more info email info@plane-space.com.

MOMA'S LITTLE-KNOWN BOON FOR ARTISTS
Artist Lane Twitchell points out a little-known fact about the Museum of Modern Art -- artists can get in for free, almost. The museum allows artists to buy an annual pass for $20 upon presentation of a letter from the gallery or an announcement for one of the artist's shows within the past two years. Now, if only it were good for a subway ride to Queens, too.

SCULPTURE CENTER WEBSITE
Besides having a new space in Long Island City -- currently under construction -- the New York City Sculpture Center also now has a redesigned website at www.sculpture-center.org (not to be confused with www.sculpturecenter.org, which is in Cleveland). The site contains info on submissions for the "In Practice" project, in which artists can propose works for the new facility.

HAMPTONS BENEFIT
Artists have been enlisted in the "7th Annual Artists against Abuse Plate Auction" on Aug. 10 at the Channing Daughters Winery in Bridgehampton, N.Y. Donald Baechler, Ross Bleckner, April Gornick, Red Grooms, Peter Reginato, Keith Sonnier and Tom Wesselmann are among some 125 artists and celebrities who have made ceramic plates for the auction, which benefits The Retreat, a domestic violence shelter on the East End. Tickets are $75 in advance and $100 at the door. Contact (631) 329-4398. For examples of some of the plates, go to ihamptons.com.

NEW FAIR FOR NEW YORK
Add a new art fair to the fall lineup in New York City: the Connoisseur's Antiques Fair, Nov. 22-24, 2002, at the Gramercy Park Armory, organized by the Art and Antique Dealers League of America and Caskey-Lees. The fair was originally scheduled for 2001 but was cancelled following the events of 9/11.

PHILLIPS COLLECTION SHUT FOR AUGUST
The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., closes its main building on Aug. 6 for the installation of "Pierre Bonnard" Early and Late," a 130-work blockbuster, which opens there on Sept. 22.



More works by
Peter Paul Rubens
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Alan Charlton
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Jeremy Blake
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Jean-Michel Basquiat
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
James VanDerZee
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Alexander Calder
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Helen Frankenthaler
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Robert Henri
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Luc Tuymans
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Vito Acconci
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Mary Heilman
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Lane Twitchell
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Donald Baechler
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Ross Bleckner
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
April Gornick
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Red Grooms
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Keith Sonnier
in Artnet Galleries

More works by
Tom Wesselmann
in Artnet Galleries