News from Around the Art World: January 29, 2018
The National Gallery of Art Cancels a Chuck Close Show After Misconduct Accusations
The National Gallery of Art in Washington has canceled a Chuck Close exhibition, planned for May, because of accusations of sexual misconduct that have engulfed the artist in controversy.
Anabeth Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the National Gallery said that museum officials made the decision to cancel the show this month because of “allegations of misconduct” made against Mr. Close. In December, The New York Times published a report that Mr. Close had asked women who visited his studio to undress and made unwelcome explicit comments.
“We have never made a decision to cancel a show because of allegations of this kind before,” Ms. Guthrie said.
--By Colin Moynihan and Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times
Foundations shaking things up
For the last four decades, Chicago-based Terra Foundation has quietly gone about its business of supporting American art locally and globally. This year, it's making a bigger splash.
Terra is spending $6.5 million on Art Design Chicago, a yearlong celebration of American art and design taking place at 60 cultural organizations around the city. Art Design Chicago took five years to pull together and has a total cost of about $8 million. It has connected Terra with about 15 new organizations, among them the South Side Community Art Center, which received a $50,000 grant from Terra for "Change the Canvas, Change the World: A Landscape of Cultural Discovery," opening at the Bronzeville center Nov. 3. Masequa Myers, executive director, calls the grant "big money" for the center and adds that the collaboration with Terra carries considerable marketing potential. "It really raises the bar for us," she says.
--By Lisa Bertagnoli, Crain's Chicago Business
Algorithmic Installation Transforms Neighbourhood Scenes Into Impressionist Abstractions
Tasked with creating a new experience in the vast, gallery-like lobby of 515 North State St, Chicago, ESI design played on the typical old-school approach of installing an abstract painting and instead created a unique 14-foot-wide-by-23-foot-tall digital art installation that constantly ‘paints’ new color compositions. titled ‘canvas,’ the site-specific work deconstructs original video footage of life in chicago’s vibrant river north neighborhood into a piece of art that is always evolving.
--By Ed Purver, designboom
Can Digital Technology Open Up the Art World?
LONDON — Regardless of whether you’re a multibillion-dollar investment banker, or someone who wants to spend just a few hundred on something nice to hang on the wall, it’s difficult not to be intimidated by the art market.
But surely the digital revolution has brought some much-needed transparency to this most opaque of luxury businesses? Presumably, by now, paintings and drawings are being bought online as routinely as music and books?
--By Scott Reyburn, The New York Times
The Four Tribes of Art Collectors
The most enjoyable part of leading the art division of a private bank is working with the great characters of the art market. In my experience, serious collectors tend to fall into one of four “tribes,” each with their own behaviors, insecurities, strengths, and motivations for seeking, acquiring, and appreciating art.
--By Evan Beard, Artsy Editorial
