The Montreal Biennale close to bankruptcy
There will be no Montreal Biennale in 2018. Facing a deficit of over $200,000 following the 2016 edition, the event is seeking solutions. The cost of lodging artists, providing transport and shipping and installing work risks putting the biennale in a difficult financial position, for Cédric Bission, head of the Biennale’s administrative board has made a statement saying “at the present moment we do not have any concrete solutions to resolve our deficit.”
Some are pinning their hopes on the Montréal contemporary art museum which is currently undergoing works to expand their space, and may consequently be able to organise the biennale for 2020. More details via La Presse.
Photographer Hashem el Madani has died
Born in 1928 the photographer Hashem el Madani took over one million portraits of the inhabitants of the Lebanese port town Saida in his studio, Shehrazade. Over recent years his work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern, the New Museum in New York and at the Photographer’s Gallery in London. His passing was announced by the Beirut/Hamburg-based gallery Sfeir Semler.
More on Hashem el Madani via the New York Times.
Hashem el Madani, courtesy Sfeir Semler Gallery
Hashem el Madani, courtesy Sfeir Semler Gallery
An iconic Man Ray photograph to hit the auction block
On November 9 Christie’s Paris will host the auction “Stripped Bare: Photographs from the Thomas Koerfer Collection” which includes a prized lot — Man Ray’s Noire et Blanche, published in Vogue in 1926. The image is the first to feature Man Ray’s muse Kiki de Montparnasse, holding a tribal mask. The piece is estimated to fetch between €1 and 1.5 million. More via Blouin.
Man Ray’s Noire et Blanche
