VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Big Money
Edward P. Bass has donated $160 million to Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. The funds will go to the museum’s renovation. [The New York Times]
Amid protests against institutional sponsorship from fossil fuel companies, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis museum in the Hague have ended their relationships with Shell. [The Art Newspaper]
New York
With a major New York gallery show and a commission for the city’s High Line park in the offing for Simone Leigh, the New York Times profiles the artist, whose work focuses on African-American people and traditions that “for whatever reasons, have been left out of the archive or left out of history,” she says. [The New York Times]
Ahead of taking the reins at the Drawing Center in New York, Laura Hoptman discussed her career, and what made her take the director job. “After the 2016 election, I felt the impulse to get closer to my community,” she said. “I wasn’t born in New York, but I’ve lived here 38 years. So I thought, where do I think I can make more of a difference than I can at a huge institution with almost 100 curators and a huge budget?” [Artnet News]
Social Media
Kanye West could not stop tweeting about Kerry James Marshall yesterday. After posting 18 of the artist’s paintings, West thanked Marshall for “the amazing work you put in the world.” [Twitter]
German Happenings
An art festival in Wiesbaden, Germany, is generating controversy because of its centerpiece: a statue of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. [The Washington Post]
Meanwhile, in the capital of Germany, the artist group DAU is planning to rebuild a section of the Berlin Wall as part of the city’s Festspiele event. To see the installation, visitors must buy “visas” online in advance. [Fox News]
Oops!
A mother and her daughter have “dismantled” a Sean Matthews sculpture at the Susquehanna Art Museum in Pennsylvania. “The women walked under the swing set, grabbed the swings, and pulled them down,” according to one report. [PennLive]
Museums
Faulty equipment may have caused London’s National Portrait Gallery to underreport its attendance figures last year. The museum is currently working to get its hands on new equipment to ensure an accurate count. [The Art Newspaper]
The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in California has named Christina Koppes, formerly the assistant curator of the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, California, as its new curator and director of public programs. [Press Release]
Evan Moffitt: “Why Has the Whitney Tried to Sanitize David Wojnarowicz?” [Frieze]