Friday, June 5
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Receives $2 M. Gift
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia has received a $2 million gift from its national trustee Ken Woodcock. The funds will endow the institution’s curator of historical American art position, which is currently held by Anna O. Marley. In a statement, PAFA director Brooke Davis Anderson said that the gift will help the museum in its aim “to tell the full and sweeping story of American art.”
Thursday, June 4
Children’s Museum of Manhattan Names CEO
The Children’s Museum of Manhattan has appointed Aileen Hefferren as CEO and director, beginning September 15. She currently serves as chief executive for at Prep for Prep, a New York–based leadership and education nonprofit, and has more than 20 years’ experience in educational advocacy.
Wednesday, June 3
Danese/Corey Announces Permanent Closure
The New York–based gallery Danese/Corey revealed on Wednesday that it would end its exhibition program and close permanently. In an email announcing the closure, the gallery said that it had “withstood a number of hardships over the past few months, the most significant of course being the passing of Renato Danese,” who ran the enterprise with Carol Corey for more than two decades. Corey’s next endeavor will be opening Carol Corey Fine Art in Kent, Connecticut.
Tuesday, June 2
Van Doren Waxter Now Represents Estate of Jack Tworkov
The New York–based gallery Van Doren Waxter now exclusively represents the estate of Jack Tworkov, an Abstract Expressionist painter and key figure of the postwar avant-garde. On Tuesday, in its online viewing room, the gallery put up for sale Tworkov’s painting Ending (1967–72), which has not been shown publicly singe 1991. Dealer Dorsey Waxter said of the artist in a statement, “Tworkov was endlessly experimental and never content with a ‘style.’ There is a renewal of interest in the artist, and we look forward to revealing the range and fullness of his compelling oeuvre.”
Monday, June 1
Frith Street Gallery Now Represents Estate of Nancy Spero
In collaboration with Galerie Lelong & Co. and the Nancy Spero and Leon Golub Foundation for the Arts, Frith Street Gallery in London now represents the estate of Nancy Spero. The feminist artist is best known for her paintings centering social and political issues. Spero, whose work was the subject of a recent solo show at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and MoMA PS1 in New York, was an active member of the group Women Artists in Revolution, which worked to dismantle racism and sexism in the art world. Frith Street Gallery will present an exhibition of Spero’s work in 2021.
Tate Appoints Next Chairman
Roland Rudd will succeed Lionel Barber as the next chairman of the Tate museum network in London. He will begin his tenure January 20, 2021. Rudd, the founder and executive of the London-based public relations firm Finsbury, has served as a trustee since 2017 and has been a patron of the museum for more than 20 years.
Michael Bloomberg Mourns Christo
Various figures have issued statements to remember Christo, the artist behind massive wrapping sculptures who died on Sunday at 84. Among them is Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, who helped usher Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates sculpture into being in 2005. “Yesterday we lost one of the true visionary artists of our time, my friend Christo,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Along with his partner, Jeanne-Claude, Christo conceived of projects that seemed unimaginable, and together they redefined what’s possible.”
Zona Maco Names New Artistic Director
Mexico City’s leading art fair Zona Maco has hired independent curator and writer Juan Canela to be its newest artistic director, succeeding Tania Ragasol. Canela worked with Zona Maco for its 2020 edition, serving as curator of the fair’s Zona Maco Sur section, which focuses on art from the global south and, in particular, the Americas. He is also a cofounder of the Barcelona-based curatorial collective Bar Project, and served as a research associate for the inaugural edition of the OsloBiennalen (2019–24).