China: Swiss collector Uli Sigg has donated 1,463 Chinese contemporary works, valued at $163m, to M+, Hong Kong’s museum of visual culture, which will open in 2017. The museum will pay $23m for another 47 pieces from Sigg, whose collection features works by artists such as Ai Weiwei and Zhang Xiaogang.
Germany: The 13th edition of the quinquennial exhibition Documenta opened in Kassel, central Germany, in June. Among the 200 artists featured at the exhibition, which runs until 16 September, are Pierre Huyghe and Tarek Atoui.
Lebanon: Local retail magnate Tony Salamé is to spend about $20m on a 4,000 sq m waterfront gallery in the town of Jal El Dib. The gallery will house Salamé’s collection, including works by Glenn Ligon, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami.
Singapore: The Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore will be the first of seven venues for the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition, Encounter: The Royal Academy in Asia. Opening in September, it will include about 100 works in a variety of media by 25 Royal Academicians and 25 high-profile Asian artists.
South Africa: The Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg was forced to remove from display a painting by Brett Murray, entitled The Spear, showing South African president Jacob Zuma with his genitalia exposed. The government also demanded that the painting be removed from various media websites. The painting has been classified as suitable only for over-16s.
Switzerland: About 300 galleries participated in the 43rd Art Basel modern and contemporary art fair in June. There were several million-dollar sales including Gerhard Richter’s A.B. Courbet (1986) by New York’s Pace gallery, which had an asking price of $20m.
US: The Barnes Foundation opened its Philadelphia campus in May. The move has been mired in controversy, with opponents arguing that its founder, Albert Barnes, stipulated that the study collection remain in Merion, Pennsylvania. The new $150m building houses the foundation’s holdings of works by Renoir, Cézanne, Picasso and Modigliani.
Seen in the Economist, Art Newspaper, New York Times and Associated Press
Germany: The 13th edition of the quinquennial exhibition Documenta opened in Kassel, central Germany, in June. Among the 200 artists featured at the exhibition, which runs until 16 September, are Pierre Huyghe and Tarek Atoui.
Lebanon: Local retail magnate Tony Salamé is to spend about $20m on a 4,000 sq m waterfront gallery in the town of Jal El Dib. The gallery will house Salamé’s collection, including works by Glenn Ligon, Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami.
Singapore: The Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore will be the first of seven venues for the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition, Encounter: The Royal Academy in Asia. Opening in September, it will include about 100 works in a variety of media by 25 Royal Academicians and 25 high-profile Asian artists.
South Africa: The Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg was forced to remove from display a painting by Brett Murray, entitled The Spear, showing South African president Jacob Zuma with his genitalia exposed. The government also demanded that the painting be removed from various media websites. The painting has been classified as suitable only for over-16s.
Switzerland: About 300 galleries participated in the 43rd Art Basel modern and contemporary art fair in June. There were several million-dollar sales including Gerhard Richter’s A.B. Courbet (1986) by New York’s Pace gallery, which had an asking price of $20m.
US: The Barnes Foundation opened its Philadelphia campus in May. The move has been mired in controversy, with opponents arguing that its founder, Albert Barnes, stipulated that the study collection remain in Merion, Pennsylvania. The new $150m building houses the foundation’s holdings of works by Renoir, Cézanne, Picasso and Modigliani.
Seen in the Economist, Art Newspaper, New York Times and Associated Press
