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The Headlines
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A NEW LEADER. Les Arts Décoratifs—the institution that oversees the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris—has a new director, Centre Pompidou chief curator Christine Macel, WWD reports. Macel has been with the Pompidou for more than two decades, and organized the 2017 Venice Biennale’s central exhibition, “Viva Arte Viva.” She takes the place of Olivier Gabet, who in June announced that he would step down to head the decorative arts department at the Louvre. Les Arts Décoratifs is also in charge of two schools, the École Camondo and the Ateliers du Carrousel. Macel said that she aims to have the organization continue to pursue interdisciplinarity in its programming.
MILITARY ART. A federal panel recommended that West Point—a.k.a. the United States Military Academy—in Upstate New York rename buildings named for Confederate officers and remove images of them from artworks there, the Associated Press reports. The school said that it will review the commission’s report and work with the Army to make changes. Meanwhile, artist Peter Seaton, whose street-art name is CTO, said that, following criticism, he painted over a mural he created in South Melbourne, Australia, of a Ukrainian soldier and a Russian soldier hugging, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia had called the piece “utterly offensive.”
The Digest
The latest stop for glue-wielding climate activists: the House of Commons in London. On Saturday, three members of the group Extinction Rebellion glued their hands together to form a chain around the Speaker’s Chair there. [The Art Newspaper]
Closed since 2013 for renovations, the Paulista Museum in São Paulo will reopen on Thursday. It focuses on historical material surrounding the independence of Brazil, whose bicentennial is Wednesday. Some one million visitors are expected over the next year. [The Associated Press]
A major dust storm in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada on Saturday afternoon led to a whiteout at the the Burning Man festival. Mercifully, conditions improved later in the day and revelers were able to perform the annual ritual burning of an effigy of a towering figure. [SFGATE]
A judge in the U.S. tossed a suit brought by a man who was depicted as a baby, naked, on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991) album, ruling that the statute of limitations has expired. The man has argued that he was unable to consent to the image’s use, and that it has caused him emotional distress. [BBC News]
Elaine Kwok, the new managing partner for Asia at Hauser & Wirth, discussed her career path and work-life balance in a Q&A. Fun fact: She was previously the head of 20th- and 21st-century art at Christie’s in Asia, but “I was terrified of public speaking until years into auctioneering,” she said. [Tatler Asia]
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, a trio of artist articles. Video king Charles Atlas spoke to journalist Ted Loos in the New York Times, “polyphonic artist” Martine Syms chatted with Travis Diehl, also in the Times, and Ai Weiwei gave an interview to Colleen Barry of the Associated Press in Venice, where he has a new show. “We have to rethink about humans and legitimacy in the environment,” Ai said. “Do we really deserve this planet, or are we just being so short-sighted and racist?”
The Kicker
ART OF THE STEAL. Crime writer Peter James has a new book coming out “about the world of fakes and forgeries,” the Guardian reports , and while conducting research, he interviewed a number of forgers about their craft. One reputed forger said that he wore an 18th-century smock while making a fake, so that modern fibers would stay out of the paint. (This 250-year-old garment was apparently loaned to him by a museum curator: very thoughtful.) According to James, the man told him, “I’d also get some of the fibers from the smock into the paint so that, if it’s ever carbon-dated, it will show up as fibers from 1770.” Caveat emptor! [The Guardian]
Source: artnews.com