A round up of recent news from the world of art
Katrina Grant
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890),Sunset at Montmajour, 1888. Private Collection. Image via the Van Gogh Museum
A press release from the Australian Academy of the Humanities has cautioned that ‘the Coalition’s proposal to redirect Australian Research Council funds away from projects it deems to be “wasteful” compromises the fundamental principle of funding research based on the criteria of excellence.’ Made last week, pre-election, but, still relevant. A good post-election follow up in the Guardian Australia by Hila Shacher from UWA who writes that “Politicians shouldn’t be allowed to decide what is “relevant” in research any more than they have the right to tell business owners whether they like or dislike their products.” And that “if the waste lies anywhere, it is in the over-bureaucratic and counter-productive sections in ARC grant applications in “which researchers bend over backwards to mollify politicians concerned that somebody, somewhere, might be doing something because it is interesting” or because, horrifyingly, it might contribute to knowledge. We can’t have that in Australia, thinking is for losers.”
Following the discovery of a previously unknown painting by Van Gogh Sunset at Montmajour - apparently held by a private collector for years - a drawing has also been identified. which depicts the head of a boy and was ame while he was learning to be an artist in 1880. Both attributions were made by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. If your weekend is not yet booked up I suggest spending checking your papers or attics in case you too have a lost Van Gogh.
Why the proposal to sell of the collection of the Detroit Institute of Art, to pay back the bankrupt city’s creditors, makes no economic sense. Roberta Smith in the New York Times writes that ‘The Detroit Institute of Arts is one of the few remaining jewels in Detroit’s tattered identity, and is essential to the city’s recovery.’ She argues that since 1929 the city’s actual monetary contribution to the museum has been falling, and that the city is not so much the owner as the steward of the works.
An interview with NGV curator Ted Gott about Gorillas and their representation in art and culture (including the Fremiet Gorilla he wrote about for the Melbourne Art Journal).
Melbourne artist Paul Yore has been formally charged with ‘possessing and producing child pornography’, but says he will keep working. More on the story at Artshub here.
Has a work of art - a ‘drone shadow to be installed at the Queensland State Library as part of the Brisbane Writers Festival that was intended to draw attention to Australia’s proposed use of drones to monitor our borders (amongst other things) - been stalled by Arts Queensland?
‘What does the term ‘gallerina’ symbolize?’ - A Frieze article suggests that it belittles female ambition and intelligence in the art world.
A symposium at the Wallace collection in London to honour leading Baroque scholar Jennifer Montague.
Art History News on ‘museo-phobes’, does preservation trump fun? Well, as Bendor Grosvenor observes, 9 times out of 10 there is no other way ‘Of course, it would be great fun to let visitors handle all the miniatures, and perhaps even wear them or play miniature frisbee with them. But fortunately all those who are lending Cooper’s works are able to do so because, over the centuries, they and other owners have astutely ignored Maurice’s advice, and allowed preservation to trump everything. ‘
This news is a few weeks old now but Art History News (pro Greenwich) and the Grumpy Art Historian (pro NGA) have weighed in on the debate over whether the Stubb’s Kangaroo and Dingo should come to the NGA in Canberra or be added to the National Maritime Collection at Greenwich.
Dawn raids in the UK over recent thefts of Chinese art, including thefts from the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge.
Apparently the Louvre has a fake ticket problem, adding to the museum’s ongoing concern about pickpockets targeting visitors.
Have any news or links you would like to share? Email them to webmaster@melbourneartnetwork.com.au