December 10, 2014: Leonardo da Vinci Painting’s Authenticity Under Question, A £9 Million Gift From Putin to the State Hermitage Museum, and the Cooper Hewitt Museum Reopens This Week
Opening
In New York … “Ellie Ga: Eureka, a lighthouse play” will be performed this evening at The Kitchen, 7 p.m.; “Tactility and Texture” opens at Lower East Side Printshop.
In Berlin … “Zwischen Dix und Mueller” opens at Aurel Scheibler, featuring work by Ernst Barlach, Marcel Breuer, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger, Erich Heckel, George Grosz, Otto Mueller, and others.
In Los Angeles … “Rogue Wave Projects: Chen Man East-West” opens at L.A. Louver.
Today’s Notable News
The version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks housed in The National Gallery, London, has come under question again as to its authenticity. In 2010, after restoring the work, The National Gallery concluded that the painting was completed entirely by da Vinci; however, doubts have risen upon further inspection of the vegetation and geology, as they appear different from those in the original version (at the Louvre) and are inaccurate representations of nature. It is believed that assistants aided in the creation of the duplicate. (via The Guardian)
In honor of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Peterburg’s 250th anniversary, Putin presented the museum with two gifts to add to its collection, one of which is a Fabergé clock-egg valued at £9 million. (via the Art Newspaper)
Influential German art dealer Helge Achenbach is on trial for allegedly falsifying accounts in order to increase his commission from purchases of fine art and classic cars, made on behalf of the Albrecht family. Achenbach could face up to 10 years in prison. (via The Telegraph)
The Cooper Hewitt Museum is set to reopen this week, after a three-year renovation that expanded the museum’s exhibition space by 60%. (via The Art Newspaper)
Best of Instagram
Via @newmuseum: “Ofili began experimenting with sculpture in 2005. Although he created a series of small sculptures with elephant dung in the early 1990s, he had not produced sculptures since then. He has described working with sculpture as similar to drawing in its liberating potential: ‘There’s a bit of freedom in the way that the hand can describe something with a line, and I found that in sculpture too—a way of trying to deal with pure form…the excitement is the feeling that the freedom is developing.’ Image: ‘Chris Ofili: Night and Day,’ 2014. Exhibition view: New Museum. All artworks © Chris Ofili. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London. Photo: Maris Hutchinson/EPW”
Good Reads
“Why Is the Art World Like Social Media? The Sweet Con of Art Basel Miami” (via New York Observer)
“He Was More Than His Madness: Changes at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam” (via The New York Times)
“Hollywood: L.A.’s Next Art Frontier” (via ARTnews)
Want to catch up with the rest of this week’s news? Review past Daily Digests here.
