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The “Breakfast with ARTnews” newsletter with morning links is now available as a Spoken Edition on iTunes, Spotify, and other platforms.
Art and Activism
Tim Rollins, a cofounder of Group Material whose collaborative work with middle school students in the Bronx beginning in the early 1980s was widely collected and exhibited, has died of natural causes at the age of 62. On the first day of class, he reportedly announced, “Today we are going to make art, but we are also going to make history.” [ARTnews]
Public Art
A silver-and-gold-colored statue of the Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan member Nathan Bedford Forrest in Nashville, which was roundly mocked by many as debate around such monuments entered the mainstream media earlier this year, was vandalized, according to FOX 17 News, with unknown individuals covering it in pink paint. [Fox 17]
Money Matters
A Texas woman has been accused of causing more than a million dollars worth of damage in the home of a Houston attorney after allegedly “tearing down two original Andy Warhol paintings” and throwing other sculptures, according to KHOU. She has been charged with criminal mischief for the alleged behavior, which prosecutors claim occurred during a first date. (Interestingly, this is the same attorney who earned the consternation of some neighbors last year after parking a tank in front of his home: long story.) [KHOU]
Sarah P. Hanson and Anna Brady have examined 2017 auction records and present the top lots of the year in various collecting categories in the Art Newspaper. Man Ray grabs the top two slots in photography, and Diego Giacometti holds four of the top five slots in design, but number one goes to François-Xavier Lalanne by a wide margin. [The Art Newspaper]
Museum Directors
The Berkshire Eagle reports that, after a two-month medical leave, Van Shields is back at work as director of the Berkshire Museum, which is currently in the midst of a legal battle over a plan, spearheaded by Shields, to sell off work from its collection. [The Berkshire Eagle]
Birmingham magazine profiled the new director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, Graham C. Boettcher, who “became a local icon when he appeared at events dressed as George Washington, in an effort to promote” an exhibition titled “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” [Birmingham]
After 26 years at the University of Wyoming Art Museum, Susan Moldenhauer has retired as its director, the Associated Press reports, citing a story in the Laramie Boomerang. Her departure follows a $2.6 million donation made to the museum in May. [AP/Cody Enterprise]
New Discoveries
It is a time for year-end lists, and over at Atlas Obscura, Sarah Laskow and Vittoria Traverso have a great one: a map of the 50 “Greatest Finds of 2017” from a list of hundreds that ranges “from lost cities and sunken continents to unusual alligators and rare artifacts.” Among the gems uncovered this year are a previously unknown photograph of Harriet Tubman and a new state of matter. [Atlas Obscura]
Out There on the Internet
Art critic and beer aficionado Tyler Green took to Twitter last night to share his 14 favorite beers from 2017. In the number-two slot was the Low & Slow rauchbier brewed by San Diego’s Monkey Paw brewery. “I know this isn’t going to sound like much, but: thick campfire smoke aroma followed by flavors of smoke, lager yeast, something vegetal and some chili,” Green wrote of that beverage. “Just trust me.” You’ll have to head over to his feed to read his number-one pick. [@TylerGreenDC/Twitter]
Also on Twitter, writer and curator Brent Burket reminded us all that the grave of Andy Warhol in the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, can be seen online at all times. This morning it’s surrounded by snow, a few impressive holiday decorations, and, of course, cans of Campbell’s Soup. Have a look! [Figment/The Andy Warhol Museum]