Displaying items by tag: Contemporary Art

The most famous bed in contemporary art, a tangle of stained and rumpled sheets bearing expensive witness to a time of heartbreak for the artist Tracey Emin, is coming to the Tate gallery on long loan from its new owner, the German businessman and collector Count Christian Duerckheim.

Although Emin described the Tate as "the natural home" for her 1998 "My Bed," the gallery couldn't afford to bid at the recent Christie's auction where it eventually sold for £2.54m, more than twice the top pre-sale estimate.

A building that once housed the pharmacy of French King Louis XIV has recently brimmed with activity again—this time, involving blown-glass orbs, steel pipes and curious nozzles. Since January, the Paris-based sculptor Jean-Michel Othoniel has turned this vaulted chamber on the periphery of Versailles' grounds into his makeshift studio.

When the artist finishes installing the three resulting fountain-sculptures later this summer, they will become the  in the palace's gardens in more than 300 years.

Since 2008 Versailles, the lavish regal complex about 18 miles west of central Paris, has held temporary art exhibitions inside its 17th-century gilded ballrooms and manicured gardens. These shows have featured contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. Mr. Othoniel's commission—part of the total renovation of a garden originally designed by the famed royal landscaper André Le Nôtre —is meant to stand the test of time.

The Museum of Contemporary Art appears to be headed toward a potentially unpleasant speed bump on the road to recovery from several years of well-documented troubles: Its upcoming exhibition program is a mystery.

A big, challenging retrospective of mixed-media works by the late, hugely influential Los Angeles artist Mike Kelley closes Monday at MOCA's warehouse space in Little Tokyo. Then the building will be temporarily shuttered for some unspecified roof repairs.

A reopening date has not yet been set. But when it is, eager museum visitors can look forward to seeing — well, what they'll be seeing is hard to say. At the Geffen Contemporary, MOCA's future exhibition schedule is blank.

For the second year in a row, Dior will sponsor the Guggenheim International Gala.

The annual benefit is a two-night event that is scheduled to take place on Nov. 5 and 6 in New York City. This year, the event, which is often referred to as GIG, will honor Carrie Mae Weems, whose retrospective was on view at the Guggenheim last spring, as well as Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker of the German artist group Zero and Beijing-based contemporary artist Wang Jianwei, WWD reported. Zero's work will be featured in "Zero: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-60s" from Oct. 10 to Jan. 7, and Jianwei will be the focus of the exhibition "Wang Jianwei: Time Temple," which will be on view from Oct. 31 to Feb. 16.

On July 18, the High Museum of Art unveiled a large-scale, interactive design installation “Mi Casa, Your Casa” by contemporary Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena in the center of the Woodruff Arts Center’s campus on the Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza. The site-specific work launches a two-year initiative to activate the outdoor space with performances, art-making activities, and other special events.

“Mi Casa, Your Casa” draws its inspiration from a basic form recognizable and relatable to all—the home. The project features 36 three-dimensional, open frames in the shape of a house installed in a large grid on the Piazza, with four singular forms placed around the Woodruff Arts Center campus.

The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) is planning to expand, Art In America reports. As part of the expansion plans the city will lend the neighboring Convent dels Àngels to the museum for an unspecified period together with the Plaça dels Angels square, which is located between the 16th century cloister and the museum.

Although MACBA has frequently used the chapel for performances and site-specific installations, by lending the additional 21,500 square foot space to the museum on a longterm basis, the city, “Reaffirms its commitment to making Barcelona one of the world capitals in contemporary art and culture,” according to its statement.

The Lombardy region of northern Italy is known for its many “villas of delight” — the “ville di delizia” that aristocratic Milanese families built in the 17th and 18th centuries as summer escapes and settings for lavish entertainments. Varese, in the foothills of the Alps, was a magnet for these estates, several of which are clustered on the parklike hill of Biumo Superiore. At its crest sits the Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza, the most storied, thanks to its longtime owner, Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, the Milanese businessman whose adventurous tastes and ardent appetites made him one of the most important art collectors of the last century.

“It’s not bad,” admitted his daughter, Maria Giuseppina Panza di Biumo, a smile escaping her lips as our eyes swept across eight acres of topiary and fountains.

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced the two appointees who will inaugurate new curatorships within the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. Both positions were established this spring through a generous gift from Daniel Brodsky, the Museum’s Chairman, and his wife Estrellita B. Brodsky, an art historian and specialist in Latin American art.

Iria Candela will become the Estrellita B. Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art in the fall, focusing on the art of 20th- and 21st-century Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. And Beatrice Galilee, the new Daniel Brodsky Associate Curator of Architecture and Design, began working at the Museum in late April. Both will work closely with the modern and contemporary curatorial team, under the leadership of Sheena Wagstaff, the Museum’s Leonard A. Lauder Chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art, on researching and developing the collection and devising the program for both the main building and the Marcel Breuer-designed building that the Met will occupy once the Whitney Museum moves downtown in 2015.

Damien Hirst’s art complex in south London, which was initially due to open this year, will take a little longer to complete. A spokeswoman for Science Ltd, Hirst’s company, says that it is now due to open “in May or June” next year. The centre, which is designed by Caruso St John architects, runs the length of Newport Street in Vauxhall. The former theatre carpentry and scenery production workshops will become six galleries. Office space and a restaurant are also planned.

Early in 2012, Hirst announced plans for the ambitious new venue which, he said will provide a place to show his collection of contemporary art. Hirst is now looking to hire a collection and exhibitions co-ordinator who will be based at the Newport Street complex.

Spain’s Museo del Prado has lost 885 artworks, according to El Pais. The newspaper, citing a report by Spain’s Audit Court, claims that the Madrid-based institution was missing 926 works at one point, 41 having been found between 2008 and 2012. Those works had been misplaced during a restructuring period of the country’s national collections held at the Prado and the Reina Sofia museum of contemporary art.

In their report, the court cites, “Lack of sufficient human resources,” as the culprit behind the missing artworks. They have demanded an internal review and continued searches within the museum’s collections and its lending history to identify the whereabouts of the missing art.