Outpost in Shanghai for Centre Pompidou
Reportedly, plans are well under way for Paris’s Centre Pompidou to set up a branch in Shanghai’s West Bund cultural district — following years of speculation as to the opening of a Chinese outpost for the museum.
Driven by the Shanghai-based West Bund Development Group, managing real estate in the area, the project is in collaboration with Xuhui district government. Xuhui has already invested around $3 billion in turning the former industrial area into a 11km-long “cultural corridor” along the Huangpu river. Other institutions look set to include The West Bund Art Museum, designed by British architect David Chipperfield, and Tank Shanghai, an art centre being developed by the collector Qiao Zhibing in disused oil tanks.
No opening date has yet been set. The Centre Pompidou declined to comment.
The Long Museum West Bund, another institute located in Shanghai’s West Bund cultural district. Courtesy of Long Museum
Christie’s Unveils $35m Twombly Leda & Swan for May
A major Cy Twombly work, “Leda and the Swan” (1962), will feature as a highlight at Christie’s May 17 Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale in New York. The work is estimated at $35-55 million.
With another version part of the permanent collection at the MoMA New York, and in light of the recent groundbreaking retrospective at the Centre Pompidou Paris, the painting looks set to soar. Having had only two private owners, the work has never appeared at auction, and is completely fresh to the market. For the full announcement, see Christie’s.
Cy Twombly, "Leda the Swan" (1962) Courtesy of Christie's
Honorary MoMA Chairman, David Rockefeller, passes away at 101
David Rockefeller – banker, philanthropist and lucrative arts collector – passed away yesterday at his home in New York. An imposing a figure on the economic world stage, Rockefeller served as an extremely influential figure in the art world. His personal collection includes hundreds of paintings, furniture and works on colored glass, porcelain and petrified wood.
Cemented by his contributions to MoMA, Rockefeller’s art-world legacy looks set to stand the test of time. In 2005, Rockefeller pledged a $100 million bequest to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Whilst that same year, in the event of his 90th birthday, he drew 850 people paying as much as $90,000 for a table to a fund-raising gala at the Museum. His support was instrumental to the museum’s growth, securing significant collections, such as Gertrude Stein’s, as well as loaning his own paintings by Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso.
The museum's director Glenn Lowry said in a statement, "Generous, passionate, and endlessly curious, he inspired generations of trustees and staff at the Museum of Modern Art by his belief in the singular importance of Modern art and his love of beauty." See The New York Times, for a full obituary.
David Rockefeller
ICA London Appoints New Deputy Director and Chief Curator
This Spring, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London will see Katharine Stout begin as deputy director, with Richard Birkett as chief curator.
Stout has headed the ICA’s programming since 2013 – curating exhibitions by Richard Hamilton, Tauba Auerbach, Hito Steyerl, Prem Sahib, Betty Woodman, and Sonia Boyce. Prior to the Institute, she served as curator of contemporary art at Tate Britain from 1999–2013. The following year, her book Contemporary Drawing: 1960s to Now was published. She also co-founded the Drawing Room, a non-profit gallery in London in 2001.
Birkett previously held a curatorial position at the ICA from 2007-2010. In 2011, he moved on to New York, as curator of Kalmár’s Artists Space. Since 2016, he has been the curator at Yale Union in Portland, Oregon, and will continue to collaborate with the organization in 2017. Details via ARTnews.
Katharine Stout, Courtesy of Culture Whisper
New director of development at ICI New York
Tomorrow, Manuela Paz will begin at the Independent Curators International in New York, as the new Director of Development and Strategic Planning.
She previously worked at NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) for four years, following eight years at the Armory Show, where she began as an assistant and worked her way to VIP Relations Director. Renaud Proch, ICI Executive Director, said in a statement: “Her energy and experience will help further ICI’s mission to advance curatorial practice, and foster international engagement.” More via ARTnews.
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