NEED-TO-READ
Wadsworth Atheneum Responds to Court Filing by Former Admin – The Connecticut museum filed a response in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut refuting the claims of former curatorial administrator Kate Riotte, who says she was fired for questioning the Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion policies. The museum says that Riotte broke Connecticut law by surreptitious recording phone calls without consent,. (ARTnews)
Show Explores Tension Between Frank Lloyd Wright & Heiress – The famed Hollyhock House, Wright’s first major California-based project, which sparked a lengthy legal battle between the architect and the house’s owner Aline Barnsdall, is the site of a new exhibition featuring contemporary artists Louise Bonnet and Adam Silverman, who are married. The duo’s work plays on the fraught creation of the house and the inherent tensions in any relationship. (L.A. Times)
Chinese Artist Huang Yongyu Dies at 98 – The artist, considered a “national treasure,” was best known for his playful ink paintings of animals, most memorably the monkey stamp he created for the Lunar New Year in 1980. The artist fled to Hong Kong amid political strife in mainland China, and worked as the arts editor of the local newspaper and magazine; he later became a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. ()
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Rembrandt Returns to Rijksmuseum – After an international tour, Rembrandt’s (1636) is returning home to hang permanently next to (1642). Though the Dutch museum has more than 40 paintings by the Old Master, is one of the first works Rembrandt ever made after settling down in Amsterdam. ()
Damien Hirst Survey Planned for Germany – The YBA artist’s first major survey in Germany opens this October at the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art in Munich. “The Weight of Things” will include some 40 works from the past four decades of the British provocateur’s career. (Ocula)
Destination Crenshaw Announces Conservation Plans – The “largest commissioning project ever undertaken for Black artists” will unveil its first public space at Sankofa Park this fall, ahead of an official project opening slated for early 2024. A “collections care program” has also been announced, to look after and conserve the more than 100 public works due to be installed along the corridor, helmed by Ariana Makau, the founder of Oakland-based Nzilani Glass Conservation. ()
FOR ART’S SAKE
A Memorial to Displaced Black Residents – Nekisha Durrett’s powerful monument was unveiled in Arlington, Virginia this week. The 35-foot-tall tower made from reclaimed brick honors the 903 residents of a historic Black neighborhood that were forced out of the area in the 1940s to make way for the Pentagon building. Durrett worked with Black ceramists to fill the work’s interior with tear-shaped vessels, “to tell unseen stories, redefine and sculpt community, and reauthor trauma,” the artist said on Instagram. (Washington Post)
