Getty Museum receives major gift of 186 photographs from Bruce Berman
The American contemporary photograph collector and film industry executive Bruce Berman has gifted 186 photographs from his collection to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The donation features twenty-six artists, seven of whom will be entering the Getty collection for the first time. Featured artists include Harry Callahan, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, and Camilo José Vergara.
Berman’s affiliation with the museum is strong. Ten years ago Getty’s first photography-centered exhibition featured exclusively his collection, “Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection,” whilst from 1998 to 2009, the chairman and CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures donated 550 photographs to Getty. Details via ARTnews
Camilo José Vergara, South Bronx (1970) | Camilo José Vergara, East Harlem (1970) © Camilo José Vergara
Art Basel’s 19th Baloise Art Prize
The 19th Baloise Art Prize has been awarded to Martha Atienza (b.1981, Philippines) and Sam Pulitzer (b.1984, USA). The CHF 30,000 prize includes Baloise’s purchase of a group of works by the artists, which are then donated to Berlin’s Nationalgalerie —Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Luxembourg’s MUDAM.
Atienza won the prize for her video installation, Our Island, 11°16`58.4" 123°45`07.0"E, which presents a critical and humorous take on both societal problems in the Philippines, and the threat of climate change — to which the country is increasingly exposed to through the warming of the world’s oceans, and rising sea levels.
Sam Pulitzer was awarded the Baloise Art Prize for the precision, depth and virtuosity of the drawings that enquire into the function and meaning of the streams of new images, logos and labels we are confronted with in our daily lives.
Martha Atienza, Our Island, 11°16`58.4" 123°45`07.0"E (2017) | Sam Pulitzer, Now Time for the Ins: A Fool's Guide to Commuting (2016)
Final round of grants awarded by the NEA
The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded $82 million in a final round of grants for 2017. The announcement comes as the NEA prepares to shut down operations after Trump slashes its funding for 2018.
The agency received 2,063 eligible applications for its last round of grant-giving, with 1,196 grants awarded to projects divided into four categories: Art Works II (funding public engagement with art, education initiatives, and community-based projects), Our Town (a creative placemaking program), Research (in support studies), and State and Regional Partnership Agreements. Details via artforum
Upstairs Art Fair to launch in July in the Hamptons
Featuring “serious art” and a “casual atmosphere”, the new Hamptons art fair, scheduled for July 14 through July 16, looks to take art fairs in the region in a new direction. On the heels of the suspension of Art Hamptons and Art Southampton — Harper Levine, the rare-book dealer, and Bill Powers, the founder of Half Gallery, hope to reinvigorate local interest in art fairs with Upstairs Art Fair.
Taking place in Amagansett, on the second floor of an old barn that once served as an art school, the fair promises to produce something relatable, whilst the peculiar choice of venue, Powers hopes, will “bring a level of novelty and stability to an art crowd.” Further information available at UPSTAIRS
