February 24, 2015: Cuban National Museum Refuses Claim on Seized Art & Artis Receives Anonymous $1 Million Gift

Daily Digest: Top Art News
Feb 25, 2015 12:00AM

Opening

In New York … Zoë Buckman: Present Life” opens at Garis & Hahn; “Michael Alan, Immortal Equations: The Living Installation” opens at Tanja Grunert; “Duologues On Kawara: Tom McCarthy and Simon Critchley,” part of a series of talks in conjunction with the current exhibition “On Kawara — Silence,” will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Guggenheim Museum.

Untitled 9 (Present Life) , 2013
Garis & Hahn
Untitled 5 (Present Life), 2012
Garis & Hahn
Inside prayer, 2014
Tanja Grunert

Today’s Notable News

Despite the recent lessening of tension between the U.S. and Cuba, Havana’s National Museum of Fine Arts is still refusing to honor restitution of an exiled citizen’s claims on an artwork bought in the 1950s and allegedly seized by the Cuban government. (via The Art Newspaper)

An anonymous donor has gifted $1 million to Artis, which will be used to expand the non-profit’s grantmaking, staff, and general mission to make Israeli contemporary art more visible. (via ARTnews)  

British Labour Party politician Ed Miliband has promised that if he wins England’s May 2015 election for Prime Minister, he will fight for the arts by establishing a Prime Minister’s Committee on the Arts, Culture and Creative Industries. (via The Art Newspaper)

The descendants of Nazi-era Jewish art dealers have filed a lawsuit against the German government and a German museum for the return of the Welfenschatz, or “Guelph Treasure,” estimated to be worth $226 million. Allegedly sold under duress to the German government in 1935, the collection includes medieval period pieces over 800 years old, has been on view in Berlin since the early 1960s, and is currently on display at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts. (via The Telegraph) 

The potential purchase of Constantin Brancusi’s sculpture The Wisdom of the Earth, considered a Romanian national treasure, remains in limbo until the Romanian government releases its rights to the piece. (The Guardian)

At the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, Cornelia Parker is offering buyers the opportunity to purchase items associated with her “War Room” exhibition in exchange for a miniscule donation to the British Legion. (via The Art Newspaper)

Rudi Fuchs, the former director of Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, will be the curator for ArtZuid 2015. The outdoor sculpture biennale in Amsterdam will feature pieces from artists such as Ai Weiwei, Georg Baselitz, James Lee Byars, Tony Cragg, and KAWS. (via ARTnews) 

After the Brutalist building that was home to the Berkeley Art Museum closed in December 2014 due to unmet seismic structural regulations, the future of the building remains uncertain. (via Artforum)   

Best of Instagram

Via @pacegallery: “Hidden Gem: Discover one of James Turrell’s light installations tucked away in Crystals Mall at the MGM Grand in Sin City, Las Vegas. Entitled “Ahkob”—ancient Egyptian for pure water—the installation comprises four large-scale “space division” pieces that occupy geometric apertures cut into a sharply angled wall, transforming viewers’ perceptions. Photo by Florian Holzherr. #TechTuesday #JamesTurrell #PaceGallery

Good Reads

Four Million Images from the World’s Endangered Archives(via Hyperallergic)

BitchCoin: A New Cryptocurrency for Buying Art and Investing in the Artist(via Wired)

Smashed Conceptual Art Water Fountain Will Flow Again(via Hyperallergic)

Artists of the Day

Born on this day in 1836, Winslow Homer is known for his landscape paintings but also depicted genre scenes of post-Civil War America. Though disparate in motivation, his choice to draw upon the mundane realities of his time is of a piece with the work of Richard Hamilton, the British forerunner to pop art’s American iteration who, born on this day in 1922, referenced consumer products and popular media in his pastiched appropriations. Interestingly, Homer begun his professional life as a commercial illustrator, creating the types of sources Hamilton would later use as artistic fodder.

Want to catch up with the rest of this week’s news? Review past Daily Digests here.

Daily Digest: Top Art News