Arata Isozaki, architect behind MOCA L.A., dies at 91; Insights from art world

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

The art workers continued to unionize and strike for their rights

Momentum for unions and unionization efforts in art museums, art institutions, and art schools continued in 2022, as workers bargained for better conditions, held strikes, and even ratified contracts. In the past decade, workers at large institutions like the New Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles have formed unions. They’ve often sought higher wages, better job security, and a voice in institutional policies like safety protocols, and have typically joined groups like the Local 2110 Union of Auto Workers (UAW) and local councils of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The continued unionization movement now includes non-tenure track arts faculty at the School of the Art Institution of Chicago. In May, around 200 lecturers and non-ranked adjuncts at one of America’s biggest art schools signed a letter announcing their intention to unionize. Read more on Art news.

National Portrait Gallery buys former Victorian public lavatory

London’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG) has made a most unexpected acquisition: a ticket kiosk on a small traffic island just outside its new entrance. But it is the hidden space below street level that is important: a former underground Victorian public lavatory, which closed in the 1970s. This unusual site will offer a unique opportunity to create what will in effect be a new NPG annexe. With a separate entrance, it could open longer hours than the gallery, attracting evening visitors from the West End’s entertainment quarter around Leicester Square. Although the elegant hexagonal kiosk at the Trafalgar Square end of Charing Cross Road, at the junction with Irving Street, may look Edwardian, it dates from the 1980s and was used for selling theatre tickets. After closing a few years ago, it was put on the property market in 2021. Details on UK Daily News.

Arata Isozaki, architect behind MOCA L.A., dies at 91

Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, a Pritzker Prize winner who designed the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, died this week at the age of 91 on December 28. The Okinawa-based designer had an internationally renowned career that included major structures and several books. The printed volumes showcased how he combined and interpreted Eastern and Western traditions and Japanese building customs, as well as his architectural influences. Isozaki never repeated himself in his work. The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles was Isozaki’s first international commission. However, it was complicated when a building committee forced Isozaki into a design he didn’t like, enough for him to tell the media. “I had to quit or be fired,” he said at the time. Read more on The Washington Post.

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