News from Around the Art World: October 16, 2017
The U.S. Is Withdrawing from UNESCO—What Happens Now?
In a short statement that spoke volumes about American engagement with the international community, the United States announced on Thursday that it will withdraw from United Nations cultural organization UNESCO at the end of the year. The Trump administration has justified the withdrawal in part due to what it claims is UNESCO’s “anti-Israel bias.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s move and followed suit. Cultural policy experts have been left shaking their heads.
What does the withdrawal actually mean for UNESCO? Is the “anti-Israel bias” the administration’s main reason for pulling out? And can the organization survive without the United States?
What does UNESCO do?
--Via Isaac Kaplan, Artsy Editorial
Basquiat’s ‘Red Skull,’ Sold at Christie’s in London for $21.5 M, Will Fund New Charter Schools in New Jersey and Miami
There was one bit of good news to come out of the last week’s auctions in London: the anonymous consignor of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Red Skull (1982), which sold for $21.5 million at Christie’s contemporary evening sale Friday night, announced that he or she would donate all the proceeds after taxes to the the New Jersey chapter of the Knowledge Is Power Program, a nonprofit that helps open new public charter schools.
Today, KIPP New Jersey announced how it was planning to spend the funds, which after seller’s fees and taxes amount to somewhere between $7 million and $9 million.
--Via Nate Freeman, ARTNEWS
Anish Kapoor, ‘Cloud Gate’ artist: ‘I call it “The Bean,” too’
Anish Kapoor, the artist who dreamed up “Cloud Gate” — the sculpture phenomenon in Millennium Park better known as “The Bean” — hasn’t seen his internationally recognized work in person since it was dedicated in 2006.
But he’ll get another look Tuesday when he’s back in Chicago, flying in from his home in London, to be honored at the Grant Park Music Festival’s Advocate for the Arts Awards benefit.
--Via Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
Art History Professor Stephen Eisenman on His New William Blake Exhibition
The Northwestern faculty member and curator of William Blake and the Age of Aquariusdiscusses William Blake, 1960s artists, and more.
--Via Christian Belanger, Chicago Magazine
50 artists and 50 wards: New public art brings new life, reflection to city
The city of Chicago continues to make good on its declaration that 2017 would be the Year of Public Art. Fifty new murals, paintings, sculptures and other art forms, one for every ward of Chicago, are being rolled out through Nov. 1.
The final installations of 50x50, a public art project announced in June, will come with the help of the Department of Family and Support Services, the CTA, One Summer Chicago, DCASE and the Chicago Park District, along with other businesses and venues.
--Via Erin Ben-Moche, Chicago Tribune
Are those pants or sculpture? Chicago auction house takes couture beyond the runway
One morning last week, a man roughly the size of an NFL linebacker shoved me aside so he could exit a crowded subway car first. As we rode the narrow escalator to the street, his broad, meaty back rising like a wall in front of me, I thought, “I bet that wouldn’t have happened if I were wearing the pants.”
The pants I had in mind were a pair I had seen a fewlesldays before: blood-red trousers designed by Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons. One might best describe them as overalls, because they hang from shoulder straps.
--Via Cindy Dampier, Chicago Tribune
