Architect Norman Pfeiffer Dies at 82, European Court Rules Against Russia Over Pussy Riot Attack, and More: Morning Links for August 30, 2023

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The Headlines

RIOT ACTION. The European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia to pay $100,000 to members of Pussy Riot for failing to halt and investigate an attack on the dissident punk band and art collective by Cossack militia members during the 2014 Winter Olympics, Courthouse News Service reports. The assault took place some 20 miles from the games, for which the militia members were acting as an informal police force. Some Pussy Riot members were treated at a hospital, and went on to perform in Sochi, the center of the Olympics, the next day. Russia has failed to pay judgements from the court, which is based in Strasbourg, France, on other matters, making it unlikely that it will pay the damages this time. Also: Following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe, which oversees the court.

NORMAN PFEIFFER, the acclaimed architect who created cultural buildings throughout Southern California, died last Wednesday at the age of 82, the Los Angeles Times reports. Born in Seattle, Pfeiffer relocated to Los Angeles in 1986 to start a branch of the firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer. That same year, his Robert O. Anderson Building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened to the public, with an “unmistakably 1980s glass brick facade,” Shane Reiner-Roth writes. Building the forthcoming Peter Zumthor–designed building at LACMA involved demolishing that structure. Pfeiffer also renovated and expanded the Los Angeles Central Library and the Griffith Observatory. A colleague, Jean Gath, told the Times that Pfeiffer “was able to think beyond the edges of a building to consider what a building can do for a community.”

The Digest

Gagosian has tapped Jiyoung Lee to leads its operations in South Korea, Daniel Cassady reports. Lee has previously worked for powerhouse galleries like Sprüth Magers, Esther Schipper, and PKM, and begins immediately—perfect timing, with Frieze Seoul on deck next week. [ARTnews]

An 8-year-old boy from Bremen, Germany, found an ancient Roman coin in a school sandbox that has been dated to the second century. However, there is a tough break for the young Indiana Jones (who was identified only as Bjarne): German law dictates that his find automatically belongs to the state. [Page Six]

The family of the late Samsung chairman and art collector Lee Kun-hee donated to South Korea two stone statues that stood in front of Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty (which ended in 1910). They depict mythical animals, and will be used as part of an ongoing restoration of the site. [Korea JoongAng Daily]

Cecilia Alemani, who organized the delectable central exhibition at last year’s Venice Biennale, provided some tips for navigating the floating city. What neighborhood does she recommend that visitors stay in? Sant’Elena, behind the Giardini. Built in the 1920s, “it feels very different from the rest of Venice,” she said. [Cultured]

Burning Man is currently running in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, and is set to conclude on Saturday. Behold these photographs of the many art installations that are part of the festivities. [USA Today]

ARTnews Senior Editor Alex Greenberger has a rundown of “The 100 Greatest New York City Artworks,” from Cecilia Vicuña’s Sidewalk Forests (1981), the 100th entry, to Florine Stettheimer‘s New York/Liberty (1918–19), the 36th, to . . . let’s not spoil any more here. [ARTnews]

The Kicker

BRAIN DUMP. Artist Mandy El-Sayegh will soon have no fewer than three exhibitions on view—one with the Tichy Ocean Foundation in Zurich is on into November, one is coming to Thaddaeus Ropac in London on September 1, and one (with Kader Attia) arrives at Lehmann Maupin in that same city on September 21. The Financial Timescaught up with El-Sayegh, who makes wild, alluring, violence-tinged paintings and installations, at her London studio, which was filled with what sounds like a thrilling mass of materials. “I can’t make the work if I don’t have a mess,” the artist told the paper. “The studio is like a big brain really.” [FT]