Upgrade: The Monica Brewster Trust deed has stood the Govett-Brewster in very good stead since the 1970s keeping renegade councillors at bay and allowing the only sensible deaccessioning policy in NZ. So why, you might ask, would anyone fiddle with it when doing that requires going to the High Court? Word is that the G-B wants to change its brand and as a by-product its name. No, not as you might think to the Len Lyceum but, following the Dowse, it wants to cut out that gallery bit and call itself a museum.
Toot suite: A new gallery for Wellington! Ok,well a revamped old one as Suite leaves its attic premises above Peter McLeavey Gallery. The newcomer is in Upper Cuba Street and opens 19 February.
Fountainhead: In the sole funny moment in Adam Curtis’s latest documetary Bitter Lake, an art historian attempts to teach Afghanis about Marcel Duchamp’s influence on contemporary art. “When this art emerged it was partly political,” she tells her bemused audience. “It was designed to fight against the system.”
A while back there was a flurry as the meme ‘What art works see' rushed through the internet. It was simple enough. Take a photo from the point of view of a sculpture or painting following its line of sight. It was a funny idea and some of the results certainly made you remember The Gaze Wars of the 1970s and 1980s. We of course did a few at the Auckland Art Gallery. You can see them here.
The Monica Brewster Trust deed has stood the Govett-Brewster in very good stead since the 1970s keeping renegade councillors at bay and allowing the only sensible deaccessioning policy in NZ. So why, you might ask, would anyone fiddle with it when doing that requires going to the High Court? Word is that the G-B wants to change its brand and as a by-product its name. No, not as you might think to the Len Lyceum but, following the Dowse, it wants to cut out that gallery bit and call itself a museum.
Sometimes when an exhibition has just shipped out, an artist’s studio can be just plain empty. That was not the case when we visited Daniel Malone's at the McCahon House residency studio after his exhibition had opened at Hopkinson Mossman. The drawings for the show were still there along with ideas for new work and a few relics.
Image: Daniel Malone in the McCahon House Residency studio with a can of McCahon paint of choice, Solpah paving paint.
It’s been a while since the NZ Herald spent all those column inches on Michael Parekowhai’s proposed lighthouse sculpture. Now there’s a new kid in town to oh-and-ah over. Gregor Kregar's Grey Lynn work Transit Cloud prompted at least two shock-horror stories and this inspired summary on NZH online:
• Collaborative work meant to resemble clouds.
• Locals say it resembles a penis.
• Council says art is controversial and subjective.
Here are 27 of the 340 words Webb’s used to describe the highlights from their last sale: captivate, catapulted, celebrated, competitive, excess, exceeded, ferocious, finest, flagship, formidable, galvanizes, high, highest, highlight, important (twice), major, masterpiece, productive, regard, rich, staggering, seminal, significant, strong (twice), surpassed.
