Vancouver
This week in history: In 1948, a look at an extraordinary collection of First Nations and Oriental art Mary Lipsett started collecting native artifacts in 1900, focusing on the northwest coast. A couple of decades later, she got into Oriental art. She had a good eye. When she was profiled in The Vancouver Sun’s Magazine Supplement on March 20, 1948, the headline read “Lipsett Oriental Art Collection is Canada’s Best.” Vancouver Sun, March 22, 2014
Safdie hoping to see his library vision fulfilled Nearly 20 years after Library Square first opened, architect Moshe Safdie is excited at the possibility that his full vision for the place is going to be realized. Plans are under way to create a public roof garden, a key element of Mr. Safdie’s original design. Globe and Mail, March 23, 2014
Bending the rules gives rise to tower with a twist Ingels was in Vancouver for the media preview of Gesamtkunstwerk. Pronounced Geh-ZAHMPT-kunst-verk, it’s a German word that means a total work of art where everything is considered and chosen so that all the parts work together to achieve whatever effect is intended. Vancouver Sun, March 20, 2014
Calgary
Old Calgary Planetarium May Become Art Gallery – Canadian A Calgary’s old planetarium—originally opened in 1967 as a centennial project and abandoned in 2011 for a new science centre building—may become a contemporary art gallery. This month, the City of Calgary announced that Contemporary Calgary—a new entity that recently merged MOCA Calgary, the Art Gallery of Calgary and Institute for Modern and Contemporary Art—is the highest rated candidate for its planetarium redevelopment plan. Canadian Art, March 20, 2014
Edmonton
The joys of cross-contamination The U of A’s Enterprise Square gallery, once again, has the most interesting art exhibit in town. Edmonton Journal, March 24, 2014
Toronto
Visual artist Adam David Brown’s Roncey home studio comments The multidisciplinary artist lives in Roncesvalles, where the top level of his house has been transformed into a studio and where for one reason or another — or sometimes for no reason at all — he has kept some of his pieces of art scattered around the room. “Kind of like an island of lost toys,” he says, adding that the studio is very much like an extension of his brain. Toronto Star, March 24, 2014
Crimes of the art Last month, thieves stole work from a collective of Toronto artists. OPP officer Mark Collins is doing what he can to get it back and build some respect for a criminal realm worth $6 billion a year. Toronto Star, March 22, 2014
Inuit-Art Show in Venice Targeted by Renewed … – Canadian Art Inuit Art Quarterly, a publication which folded two years ago, returned this winter thanks to a revived Inuit Art Foundation. According to William Huffman, the IAF’s director of development and stakeholder relations, the magazine is just one project of the renewed foundation—which is the sole national body mandated to promote Inuit artists and art within Canada and internationally. The group recently created a biannual residency prize for Inuit artists; it is in the process of finding an exhibition, office and event space in Toronto; and it is exploring the possibility of creating an official Venice Biennale project related to Inuit and Arctic art. Canadian Art, March 22, 2014
Montreal
John Pohl: Collecting close to home Few art collectors go as far as Bernard Landriault and Michel Paradis did in building a house to display their prized possessions, but many would probably agree with them on the benefits of living with art in their homes. “Art is a dialogue, an experience of life,” Landriault said in an interview at the 2,500-square-foot post-and-beam, wood-and-glass construction in the country near Drummondville. Montreal Gazette, March 21, 2014
Halifax
Art collection becomes a lifeline for a loyal housekeeper It was an unusual bequest from the dashing Second World War hero, General Robert Moncel, to his loyal housekeeper, Aleida Englehard – a $340,000 trust fund and his collection of English watercolours, including one believed to be by Thomas Gainsborough and another by John Constable. Globe and Mail, March 20, 2014
Los Angeles
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is going full speed ahead Canadians Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman key donors in campaign to build a movie museum in former May Company department store in L.A. Toronto Star, March 22, 2014
New York
Lobbyists Set to Fight Royalty Bill for Artists Sotheby’s and Christie’s have spent about $1 million in the last couple of years to fight a bill that would give visual artists a cut of the profits when their work is resold at auction. New York Times, March 24, 2014
Laure Prouvost: Spam Aesthetics and Landscapes of Desire
Melding emails from ersatz African bankers with Western ad-industry tropes, Laure Prouvost’s first solo museum show in the US—at New York’s New Museum—has fun with, and makes fun of, consumerist excess. Jill Glessing reviews. Canadian Art, March 20, 2014
What a Camera Caught, a Painter Transforms In “Regrets,” a new show at the Museum of Modern Art, Jasper Johns has based a cohesive group of nearly two dozen paintings, drawings and prints on a photograph of Lucian Freud. New York Times, March 22, 2014
Battle Lines for Change “Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties,” at the Brooklyn Museum, is a vivid record of a volatile era. New York Times, March 21, 2014
‘Tibet and India: Buddhist Traditions and Transformations’ Floating high in a small gallery above the Metropolitan Museum’s South Asian and Southeast Asian galleries is a jewel of a show. New York Times, March 21, 2014
Bath
King of Color Takes on a Gray World The Kaffe Fassett exhibition at the American Museum in Britain tracks the Californian designer’s half century of textile work. New York Times, March 24, 2014
Norway
Norwegian Museum to Return Matisse Looted from French Art Dealer by the Nazis A Norwegian museum has agreed to return a painting by Matisse that had been looted by the Nazis from a well-known Parisian art dealer during World War II. New York Times, March 21, 2014
Pompeii
Ancient Fresco Stolen Off The Wall In Pompeii “An initial theory that the fresco had been taken away for conservation was quickly disproved. Another wall painting fragment, from the House of the Orchard, was previously stolen from an on-site laboratory during restoration, the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports.” The Art Newspaper, March 23, 2014
Venice
Eyes Alighting Between the Canals A small but exquisite show at the Bellarmine Museum examines the way Whistler’s unconventional response to Venice influenced other printmakers working there. New York Times, March 21, 2014
Afghanistan
No One Can Agree About The Site In Afghanistan Where The Taliban Destroyed Ancient Buddhas “The debate has roiled Unesco and many of its donors, which years ago appointed an Expert Working Group that has been meeting annually for a decade on the fate of the site, and that so far has been able to agree only to preserve the niches where the statues stood and stabilize them against further damage.” New York Times, March 22, 2014
International
What Does Curating Mean In The 21st Century? “Before 1800, few people went to exhibitions. Now hundreds of millions of people visit them every year. It’s a mass medium and a ritual. The Guardian, March 23, 2014
Cheryl Siegel
Librarian/Archivist
Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Hornby St. Vancouver BC, V6Z 2H7 604-662-4709
Vancouver Art Gallery Library & Archives 