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!
Car hits $3M Damien Hirst statue owned by Mega collectors
Courtesy- Art News
A sculpture by Damien Hirst was the subject of a different kind of spectacle last month, after a woman drove her Rolls-Royce sedan onto the property of its owners. According to a police report, on March 31 a 66-year-old woman drove her blue and gray luxury car through a driveway on Canterbury Lane, hit a curb, kept driving, and hit a “coral art sculpture”. It then drove through a landscape fence and onto the beach. That sculpture was Hirst’s 2017 work Sphinx, which intended to conjure the impression of a 2,000-year-old art and artifacts recovered from a shipwreck adorned with the barnacles, patination, and coral growth. The work was displayed at the Venice Biennale in 2017 as part of the artist’s exhibition “Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable“. (The show was located in collector François Pinault’s palatial spaces, the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana.) It was a generally panned presentation, with ARTnews reviewing it as disastrous and “one of the worst exhibitions of contemporary art staged in the past decade”. Details on Art News.
Italy pushes for fines on Climate change activists who damaged cultural sites
The Italian culture ministry is advocating for a law that would impose a large fine on individuals found to have vandalized the country’s monuments or cultural sites to cover repair costs. The move follows protests staged by climate activists in Italian squares. During a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, Italian lawmakers approved the culture ministry’s proposed legislation. The fine for potential violators of Italy’s cultural sites is proposed at a range between 10,000 and 60,000 euros ($11,000–$65,000). The proposal is expected to be approved by the right-leaning Italian parliament. Read more on Free Republic.
Workers denounce ‘Rule of Terror’ at Brussels museum
Courtesy- Art News
Last year, employees of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels accused its director, Michel Draguet, of frequent inappropriate behavior including sexist and racist remarks. Those complaints have since been forwarded to Thomas Dermine, the Brussels Secretary of State for science policy, via a cosigned letter that denounces Draguet’s “rule of terror,” according to the Brussels Times. According to the letter the museum staff are “preaching in the wilderness [while their] leaders turn a deaf ear [and the workers] survive in a general malaise.” The letter claims the museum suffers from “psychosocial risks in technical services and exhibitions,” multiple cases of “burn out and depression,” unequal treatment between employees and a general lack of “equity and basic justice.” Details on Art News.
