UK’s Henry Moore Institute Reopens, Bill Viola Dies, V&A Museum Pursues Met Loan Agreement, and More: Morning Links for July 15, 2024

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THE HEADLINES

AS GOOD AS NEW. The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds has opened its doors after the first major redevelopment in its 31-year history, reports The Art Newspaper. The institute, which is situated next to Leeds Art Gallery, stems from the British sculptor’s frustration that he did not have more access to sculpture as a young man. Together with Leeds Art Gallery, the organization looks after one of the greatest collections of British sculpture in the world, as well as personal objects belonging to leading artists, including Lynn Chadwick‘s book collection and Jacob Epstein’s toolbox. The renovation-modernization work is said to have cost more than £500,000. There is a bigger, more open reception and gift shop; a new learning and engagement facility on the top floor for workshops and other events; and a revamped lobby area in the library, with display cases featuring works from the collection.

RIP. Pioneering video artist Bill Viola died on July 12 at the age of 73 in his home in Long Beach, California, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Born in New York in 1951, he studied painting and electronic music at Syracuse University, developed a passion for emerging video art. His first retrospective in France was held at the Grand Palais in 2014. In 2017, at an exhibition in Florence, his partner Kira Perov, who runs his studio, said he was “very influenced by the extreme emotions of paintings” from the Renaissance, evocative of suffering and elevation. In 2019, in London, the Royal Academy mirrored 12 of his video installations with 15 drawings by Michelangelo. The first biography of Viola, entitled Viola on Vídeo, was written by Federico Utrera (King Juan Carlos University) and published in Spain in 2011

THE DIGEST

Estimated at £2.5-£3.5 million, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s “Jane Avril au Divan Japonais” will be one of the highlights of Christie’s next fall auction. The work belonged to the collections of Georges Viau, S. Sévadjian and the great Norwegian collector J.B. Stang, and its sale constitutes a sensational rediscovery. [FIRSTonline]

Saturday, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures launched the Disabilities, Representation and Film program in commemoration of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was signed into law in July of 1990. “Becoming disabled can happen to anyone at any time. When we look at the statistics, one in four people are disabled in this country. It’s a huge demographic that doesn’t get a lot of attention,” said Christiana Ybarra, the director of education and programming. “You don’t see a lot of representation of folks with disabilities on screen. And so I think, as a film museum, it’s our duty to share those narratives.” [Variety]

The V&A has raised £2 million to acquire a long-term loan from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—a walrus ivory carving regarded as an “elemental object of English art”. The sculpture, which shows Joseph of Arimathea tenderly lifting Jesus Christ’s body from the cross, was probably carved in York more than 800 years ago. [The Guardian]

This year marks the 100th year of Surrealism. It’s always time to celebrate the movement with a round-up of exhibitions reconsidering its legacy, from a Belgian blockbuster to a Pittsburgh presentation of Gertrude Abercrombie. Not to mention a Texan exhibition looking at the history of Surrealism in the Caribbean and notions of Afro-Surrealism in the US, inspired by Suzanne Césaire’s essay “1943: Surrealism and Us.” [Artnet]

New York City’s budget for fiscal year 2025 includes a record $254 million for the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), the division of the city government dedicated to supporting culture of New York. Last month, Mayor Eric Adams agreed to restore $53 million in funding to the DCLA for public programming that had been slashed in his previous budget proposals. The city council approved the budget. [The Art Newspaper]The L.C. Bates Museum, founded in 1889 by progressive children’s activist George Hinckley, has announced the retirement of director Deborah Staber, who served as director since 1992 and kick started a collection of natural wonders (fossils, chunks of sulfur, stalactites, preserved mammals, a marlin caught by Ernest Hemingway…) which outgrew its home and moved to its current location in 1920. [Bangor Daily]

THE KICKER

BOOK A ROOM. Recently inaugurated in the heart of Lecce, in southern Italy, the Fiermonte Museum pays tribute to painter Antonia Fiermonte, as well as to the two men who marked her life, sculptors René Letourneur and Jacques Zwobada. It will soon be possible to sleep in this brand-new temple of love and beauty. Antonia Fiermonte was just 17 when she met René Letourneur. She settled in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. However, the sculptor Jacques Zwobada, who lived next to the couple, also fell under the spell of the beautiful Italian… Four thematic rooms will soon be available above a display of the triangle’s works. Stay tuned! [Beaux Arts]