29 March 2020
The coronavirus has been responsible for a major crisis in the art world. Museums and galleries have slammed their doors shut. Increasingly the only way to look at art, in the present situation, is to look at it on a computer screen – or, at a pinch, on the screen of your mobile phone. This is creating a ‘viral’ phenomenon.
26 March 2020
Well well, we all knew this was coming. TEFAF Maastricht is currently under fire for infecting the upper echelons of the art world with up to 50 cases of the Coronavirus. It has been linked to over 300 international exhibitors who unwittingly took the virus back to their home countries.
25 March 2020
Manifesta 13, the European Nomadic Biennial which originated in the early 1990s in response to the political, economic, and social change following the end of the Cold War, has been postponed because of the COVID-19 crisis. It was due to take place at various venues in Marseille, France 7 June – 1 December 2020
25 March 2020
The Genesis Foundation today announced Rebecca Salter, President of the Royal Academy of Arts, as the winner of the 2020 Genesis Prize.
24 March 2020
The London-born dealer PAUL KASMIN (1960–2020) has died in New York after a protracted illness. The gallery released the following statement.
Marina Abramović made a statement to the people of Italy in association with Palazzo Strozzi as part of project IN TOUCH. The international artist joined Ai Weiwei and Tomás Saraceno in sending a message of solidarity and encouragement emphasising how Italians are demonstrating “great courage and a great feeling of community and humanity” and that the COVID-19 crisis represents an emergency now global
Cass Art has shut all of their stores leaving artists to scramble for supplies. All professionals and students looking to stock up on materials are now being referred to the Cass website to purchase items for home delivery.
As the contemporary art world goes dark, and as galleries – official spaces and commercial ones – slam shut their doors, one inevitably starts to wonder what the art world will be like once all this is over—the British art world, and also the global one.
20 March 2020
The unveiling of the Fourth Plinth commission, a giant soft-serve dollop of whipped cream topped with a cherry, a fly and a drone by Heather Phillipson has been postponed due to the current public health crisis. The sculpture in Trafalgar Square central London was to replace The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist by Michael Rakowitz […]
18 March 2020
Frieze has announced the cancellation of the ninth edition of the Frieze New York art fair. It falls in line with health and safety guidelines regarding the spread of the coronavirus (COVID19) with restrictions on gatherings of more than 50 people.
First, the Louvre in Paris closed. Then the galleries in London started to shut their doors, one by one, like the “lamps going out all over Europe” as the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey remarked on the eve of the First World War, adding “We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
The Tate has just released a press statement informing that it will be closing up shop until May due to COVID19 virus. The Serpentine and Hayward Galleries have made a similar announcement.
16 March 2020
The National Gallery has unprecedentedly cancelled their highly anticipated Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition, scheduled to open on 4th April. The ICA, Wellcome Collection, South London Gallery, Camden Arts Centre, Beaconsfield, and Modern Art Oxford has also suspended opening to the public.
15 March 2020
If you think UK galleries are safe while everyone is panicking from the COVID19 virus think again. Three valuable paintings have been stolen from a University of Oxford art gallery. The haul included a work by 17th century Flemish artist, Anthony Van Dyck.
15 March 2020
Arts Council England has released a statement outlining support for the arts during the COVID 19 crisis. In a statement released today (Sunday 15 March) the organisation is spearheading a programme of support.
15 March 2020
The South London Gallery, a popular, public, cultural oasis has decided to close until further notice. This is the first, with many to follow in response to increasing concerns relating to the spread of COVID-19 (or Coronavirus). The gallery states on their website, “In order to protect the health and wellbeing of our staff, partners […]
14 March 2020
Gagosian, the largest chain of commercial galleries in the world, has shuttered until further notice. The following message was released this morning.
13 March 2020
Tate Modern has announced that Anicka Yi will create the next annual Hyundai Commission, an annual event at the gallery. Her new site-specific work for the Turbine Hall will be open to the public from 6 October 2020 to 10 January 2021. Anicka Yi has developed a reputation for highly innovative work – Frances Morris […]
The Metropolitan Museum in New York has announced, it is to Close Temporarily Starting today, March 13. It will close all three locations—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters—starting tomorrow, March 13, to support New York City’s effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. The Museum will undertake a thorough cleaning and plans to announce next steps early next week.
The Max Mara prize 2020 has been awarded to Emma Talbot. The award supports UK-based female artists who have not previously had a major solo exhibition.
7 March 2020
Francis Bacon’s late large-format Triptych Inspired by the Greek tragedy Oresteia of Aeschylus, will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s. This will be the highlight their Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on 13 May 2020, when it will be offered with an estimate in excess of $60 million.
The 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale has been postponed due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus and will now be held from Saturday, August 29th through Sunday, November 29th,
The Art Dubai organisers have postponed the 2020 fair indefinitely. This is the second major to be canceled this Winter along side Art Basel Hong Kong in February.
Frank Uwe Laysiepen, AKA Ulay, Conceptual artist and long-term creative partner of Marina Abramović, has died age 76. Born in Germany and based in Ljubljana since 2009.
Penny Macbeth has been appointed as the new director of the Glasgow School of Art. Following a tumultuous week of uncertainty, as reported by Clare Henry on Artlyst, the institution has been in flux needing a pair of safe hands to sort it out.
Administrators from the London-based firm ReSolve, have been called in to sort out the financial mess at Blain|Southern, one of London’s top art galleries. A meeting of all creditors, including some of the artists, has been scheduled for this week.
Today’s terrible news, a local Glasgow council is closing Mackintosh’s iconic Scotland Street School Museum. I despair. Soon there will be nothing Mackintosh left in Glasgow. Ironically the city needs Mackintosh as a focal point for culture and tourism. Glasgow’s love affair with Mackintosh is far from over.
The Russian dissident Performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky, 35, is to face invasion of privacy charges after leaking a graphic sex tape of Parisian mayoral candidate Benjamin Griveaux. The politician is a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party La République En Marche.
There have been few iconic institutions more beloved that Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art.
A new artwork that appeared on the side of a house in Bristol yesterday has been confirmed as the work of the elusive street artist Banksy. The Banksy Valentine mural features a stencil-artwork of a girl firing a slingshot of red flowers made with spray-painted ivy. Banksy published picture of the work on his Instagram page at midnight on Valentine’s Day.
12 February 2020
After a tumultuous six months, Blain|Southern has decided to call it a day.