Documenta Head Resigns amid Scandal; and Two More Art Stories from Around the 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!

Documenta head resigns amid antisemitism scandal

The director general of Documenta, one of Germany\’s most renowned exhibitions of modern art, resigned on Saturday amid an antisemitism scandal.  The shareholders and supervisory board mutually agreed to terminate Sabine Schormann\’s contract at short notice, a statement from the organization said. The decision follows an outcry about the imagery used in a large artwork by an Indonesian collective that had to be taken down just days after the exhibition — in the sleepy central German city of Kassel — opened in June. Schormann had originally defended the piece, named \”People\’s Justice,\” despite the international outcry, saying the exhibition\’s artistic directors were free to curate the show as they wished. Deutsche Welle reports.

 

About Rome’s new museum for recovered treasures before they return home

Last month, Italian officials inaugurated the Museo dell’Arte Salvata, or the Museum of Rescued Art. It aims to showcase the myriad ways in which artworks can be salvaged — from thieves, from the rubble of earthquakes and other national disasters, from ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean or from the ravages of time by Italy’s expert restorers. The museum’s first exhibition — which runs through October 15 — focuses on the recovery of looted art and pays tribute to Italy’s crack art theft police squad — the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. The unit is credited with having returned to Italy thousands of art pieces, effectively thwarting “the black market in archaeological artifacts,” explains a panel on display. The New York Times explores in great detail.

 

London exhibition to examine surrealism’s influence on design

An exhibition at the Design Museum in west London — Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 —will examine surrealism’s influence on the design world and how it revolutionised art and design, from decorative arts and furniture to interiors, fashion, photography and film. Nearly 350 objects will be on show, including artwork by Salvador Dalí, surrealism’s best-known artist. His work will be displayed alongside his contemporaries Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Leonora Carrington, as well as pieces by Dior, artist Sarah Lucas, musician Björk and fashion photographer Tim Walker. Nearly a third of objects displayed will be from the last 50 years. The exhibition opens on 14 October. Tickets are on sale now, and the exhibition will run until mid-February 2023. The Guardian tells you more.