Roundup: Possible discord at Jeff Koons’ studio, Luis Barragán becomes a diamond, Dede Wilsey leaves Bay Area museums
A prominent board member departs the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Allegations of labor tumult in the studio of Jeff Koons. An artist has transformed architect Luis Barragán into a precious stone — literally. Plus: Museum expansionism in the age of uncertainty, the Hammer Museum’s digital M&Ms and more troubles for London’s Garden Bridge. Here’s the Roundup:
— The embattled and socially connected board head of San Francisco’s De Young and Legion of Honor museums, Dede Wilsey, has resigned from her post after allegations that she misspent museum funds.
— Honolulu’s Bishop Museum is facing possible financial troubles and allegations that researchers have been blocked from using its archives.
— A New Mexico senator has sponsored a bill to prevent the overseas sale of sacred American Indian artifacts.
— Sources say Jeff Koons has laid off 14 studio workers amid reports they were trying to unionize.
— Researcher who said Damien Hirst’s sculptures emitted cancerous formaldehyde fumes retracts claim.
— The Museum of Modern Art isn’t having any trouble lining up the dough for a $450-million expansion — just months after launching a voluntary employee buyout program.
— Which of course raises the very good question about what’s motivating all of these splashy museum expansions. Ben Davis has just the piece addressing this issue, in the New York Times: “For museum executives, the dirty secret of expansions has been that they are often motivated by the need to have some exciting new thing to rally board members and interest potential patrons.”
— When Nazi loot was returned … to Nazis.
— Artist Jill Magid turns famed Mexican architect Luis Barragán into a diamond as a work of art — a gesture that may have the effect of rescuing Barragán’s archive from total obscurity. This is a fascinating story.
— “Marianne [Stockebrand, Donald Judd’s partner when he died] wanted me to work inside. I didn’t want to because that’s what you do when you’re in New York, you don’t do that in Marfa.” — Robert Irwin talks to the Art Newspaper about his new installation in Marfa, Texas.
— The Hammer Museum explains that the animated artspeak M&Ms currently popping up on its website are a Net art project by Guthrie Lonergan — not advertising or a hack.
— Photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has a techno album.
— Artnet evaluates Google’s new art app, which feels like a “trophy museum” that is “built by robots.”
— The Detroit Museum of Art has launched a multimillion-dollar initiative to acquire African American art.
— The writer who squatted James Baldwin’s house in France.
— In the Baffler, reconsidering Susan Sontag’s 1960s essay about the “new sensibility,” from her 1966 book “Against Interpretation” — about the function of art in a society where artists draw equally from the worlds of culture and science, the high and the low.
— Curbed’s Alissa Walker looks at contemporary street furniture design, such as the innovative bus stop shade kits designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy for Santa Monica. Someone, feel free to copy that idea for the rest of L.A. My local stops are sun-baked concrete deserts.
— Looking at the role of art in gentrification: Carribean Fragoza writes on the question of art and Boyle Heights for KCET.
— Problems (even more of them!) for London’s Garden Bridge: A new report claims that taxpayers may be stuck with some maintenance costs on the pricey proposed park.
— And last, but not least: A free digital archive of Russian futurism, featuring works by Mayakovsky, Malevich and more.
Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
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