In response to a couple of reader enquiries about what the City Gallery is collecting, we asked curator Heather Galbraith for a list of the latest works to be purchased. She replied that although she is on the selection committee, the collection is owned and administered by the City Council and we should ask them. We did. Here are last year’s acquisitions to the Wellington City art collection that will be featured in the City Gallery’s new Hancock gallery's first stand alone exhibition from 21 February – 12 September 2010.
Kate Small
Thorndon Pool 2008
oil on canvas
Sandra Schmidt
Membrane dissected 2008
plastic
Simon Morris
Blue line 54 minutes 2008
Blue line 56 minutes 2008
acrylic on linen
Wayne Barrar
Twin tunnels, Manapouri Underground Power Station 2005
Colour pigment print
Six months ago, almost to the day.
"The sale, driven predominantly by American buyers, defied erratic financial markets."
"Hulk not like. Hulk smash." And so it proved with the career of Corinne Diserens, director of the Museion museum of contemporary art at Bolzano. A while back we told you how a crucified frog by artist Martin Kippenberger had upset the Pope. Bad idea, as it turns out. This week Diserens was sent down the road because of “the difficult financial situation” caused in part by “unauthorised spending”. You can read the full story here.
The Picasso with the hole in the middle, Le Rêve, has been repaired and will be exhibited this week at the Acquavella Galleries in New York. The tear across Marie-Thérèse's left forearm was caused by the painting’s owner Steve Wynn putting his elbow through it.
The last time we were in Berlin we posted a photo of Jeff Koons’ sculpture Balloon Flower, the blue version of which is in the DaimlerChrysler collection and installed on Potsdamer Platz. A couple of days ago, in their 30 June sale, the magenta version sold at Christie’s for a record $US25.7 million. If you’re into art logistics, and who isn’t these days, here is an amusing account of how the giant sculpture was shipped in a 4.37 by 3.18 by 3.61 meter crate on a chartered Soviet military aircraft, the Antonov 124.
The Archbishop of Cologne hates the new Gerhard Richter window. “It belongs in a mosque or another house of prayer, not this one,” he quipped to The Times. The 2007 Auckland University Hood Fellow, Stephen Farthing RA, is off the hook. A Federal Judge dismissed charges of racketeering, fraud and breach of contract against staff of the New York Academy. Steve Cohen has loaned Damien Hirst’s shark to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where you will be able to see it on exhibition for the next three years.
