News from Around the Art World: July 16, 2018
Is the state-owned art at Thompson Center in jeopardy?
Here today, gone tomorrow: Is that the fate of the 150 pieces of state-owned art residing at the James R. Thompson Center? The Thompson Center collection, which contains several valuable pieces by Chicago Imagists—a midcentury school of artists that includes Ed Paschke, Roger Brown, Ray Yoshida and Gladys Nilsson—is part of a state collection launched in 1978 with an initiative that dedicates half a percent of funds appropriated for state-funded public construction projects to art. The 600-piece collection appears in 25 sites around the state. The Thompson Center's artworks represent the biggest concentration, and its future is as uncertain as the fate of the building.
--Lisa Bertagnoli, Crain's Business Chicago
‘Chicago Calling’ offers an inside look at the city’s outsider artists
Outside of a relatively small group of insiders and specialists, many people, including some in the broader international art world, probably don’t realize that Chicago has long been one of the leading centers for outsider or non-mainstream art. Driving home that reality is the core mission of the largest and most ambitious exhibition ever mounted by Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, a 27-year-old museum that has been at the forefront of displaying and promoting such work.
--Kyle MacMillan, Chicago Sun Times
Exploring Nature and Humanity: Young-Il Ahn at Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago
A monographic exhibition of new paintings by Korean artist Young-Il Ahn will open on July 14 at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago. The works on view explores the relationship the artist shares with beauty, nature, and music. “His work is frequently associated with Dansaekhwa, an aesthetic position specific to Korea, which expresses natural processes through a mostly monochromatic palette,” the gallery says. “As a Korean-born painter working in the US, Ahn is unique among Dansaekhwa artists.”
--Blouin Art Info
How a Female-Led Art Restoration Movement in Florence Is Reshaping the Canon
Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to ask the right question.
That is exactly what Jane Fortune did on a visit to Florence 12 years ago. While touring the Renaissance city’s exquisite museums and fresco-covered churches, the American philanthropist began to wonder, “Where are the women?” Her search for an answer set Fortune on a passionate quest to restore the lost legacies and artworks of Florence’s forgotten female artists, digging into museums’ archives and dusty deposits with her organization, Advancing Women Artists (AWA).
--Kate Brown, Artnet News
Programme of paid internships aims to make US museum staff more diverse
In response to the demographic disparity of staff in museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) has launched a paid internship programme aimed at giving undergraduate students from under-represented backgrounds an opportunity to work in the arts.
--Gabriella Angeleti, The Art Newspaper