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The Headlines
THE ART PATRON AND COLLECTOR NANCY LANE, the Studio Museum in Harlem‘s longest-serving trustee, died last week at the age of 88, the New York Times reports. Lane, Sam Roberts writes, “was one of the rare Black women in the 1970s to rise in the corporate ranks,” working at the National Urban League, Chase Manhattan, and Johnson & Johnson , where she was the first woman to become vice president of human resources, in 1976. She joined the Studio Museum’s board in 1973, after being a volunteer, and remained on it until her death. Explaining how she first became involved, she once said, “I saw a television program on the artist-in-residence program. It was so exciting! After seeing that show that morning, I came to the museum, introduced myself to Ed Spriggs [its then director ], and said to him, ‘Tell me, what I can do to help?’”
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DELFINA ENTRECANALES, the London-based philanthropist who provided free or subsidized studio space to more than 400 artists as part of the Delfina Studio Trust, a program that she began in 1988, has died at 94, ArtReview reports. The Art Newspaper shares the astonishing statistic that Entrecanales provided space for more than a dozen Turner Prize –nominated or –winning artists. In 2006, she closed the trust and started the Delfina Foundation, which facilitates residencies on specific themes. She made a point of not taking gifts of work from artists that she supported. “I don’t collect art, I collect artists,” she explained in a BBC interview quoted by TAN.
The Digest
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee said that at least 53 cultural sites in Ukraine, including museums and religious buildings, have been damaged during Russia’s invasion. The group’s next meeting is scheduled for June in Kazan, Russia; Ukraine has called for it to be moved to Lviv in Western Ukraine. [The New York Times]
SCI-Arc—the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles—has placed two high-level faculty on administrative leave amid allegations of abuse of power. Audrey Wachs reports that “many current and former students describe” the culture at the school “as nepotistic and exploitative.” [The Architect’s Newspaper]
The FRONT International Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art has commissioned artist Julie Mehretu to create a giant mural, which will be completed in 2023. Mehretu is also organizing a show at the Cleveland Museum of Art as part of this year’s FRONT, which opens in July. [Cleveland.com]
The American Academy in Rome—the esteemed residency program for artists and academics in the capital city—has tapped scholar Aliza Wong as its next director. Wong, a professor of history at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, is the first person of color to hold the position. [The Art Newspaper]
Artist Hunt Slonem signed a five-year lease on a 37,000-square-foot building in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood that he plans to use as a studio. Slonem is moving to the area from Sunset Park in Brooklyn. [The Real Deal]
The art-world symposium Talking Galleries runs today and tomorrow at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. ARTnews Editor in Chief Sarah Douglas will speak with curator Maria Lanko about co-organizing the Ukrainian Pavilion at the upcoming Venice Biennale; ARTnews Senior Editor Maximilíano Durón will speak with four dealers—Nicole Calderón, Kibum Kim, Alex Logsdail, and Nicola Vassel—about the next generation of galleries. [Talking Galleries]
Jim Carrey said that he is “probably” retiring from the acting game, but he is not leaving art behind. “I really like my quiet life, and I really love putting paint on canvas, and I really love my spiritual life,” he said. [Page Six]
The Kicker
TERMS OF ART. In the Art Newspaper, Karen Chernick has a remarkable story about the lawyer and art patron Harry Torczyner. Unhappy with the view out of his New York office, Torczyner asked René Magritte to make a painting to block it. A note he sent the Surrealist is one for the ages. It reads in part: “May I express a secret wish that this painting represent a novel path which the Master would merrily venture on, knowing that he has to please no one but himself and that it is in his absolute discretion to be indiscreet.” The final work shows a large rock, topped with a castle, floating in front of clouds. The flexibility of his commission notwithstanding, Torczyner apparently requested the color of the sky. [The Art Newspaper]
Source: artnews.com