Indian art goes to MoMA, and Indian Art Fair gets a new director

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!

India Art Fair gets a new director

The India Art Fair is often touted as the country’s premier gathering of artists, gallerists, curators, auctioneers, art charities, cultural institutions, dealers and collectors. And now, Jaya Asokan, the fair’s former head of exhibitor relations, has taken over as director of the IAF. A graduate of the Parsons School of Design in New York, she has more than 20 years of experience in sectors that span the arts, culture, design, fashion and luxury. Hindustan Times has more about the development.

The sickle is her sharp metaphor

Artist Shambhavi Singh’s oeuvre from the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 — in which 294 iron sickles were arranged in an installation at the main venue — has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. In her art, Shambhavi has used the sickle, its shape and the object itself, to pull together a range of meanings. Made strange yet familiar, the sickle blade is both tool and weapon. The Indian Express elaborates on the news.

UK may refuse an Indian art collection over its origins

The exquisite collection of Indian paintings and drawings belonging to artist Sir Howard Hodgkin are in the eye of a small storm, after the Ashmolean museum in Oxford has rejected the offer to house them, as they are unsure of the provenance of several of these pieces. As a result, trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have discussed the possibility of acquiring these works, thought to be worth more than £7.2m. The Guardian thrashes out the controversy.

92-year-old Japanese artist’s works feted in NYC

The incredible sculptures by 92-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama have been placed across the 250-acre grounds of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, in a major exhibition that was delayed by a year due to the pandemic. Peonies, zinnias, pumpkins, sunflowers dominate the inspiration here, as an ode to the artist’s own childhood. Today, she is in a wheelchair and hardly leaves home, but continues to paint daily, and observers hope this exhibit will inspire its audience anew, amid a difficult phase. Japan Today brings us a glimpse.