Displaying items by tag: Manhattan

Cultural diplomacy with Iran comes at a price: officials in Tehran are negotiating a loan fee of up to $3m with their German counterparts, we understand. The fee is for a planned exhibition organised by Berlin State Museums of works of Modern art from the collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA).

The future is bright for artists across Europe after politicians announced October 28, they will not enforce a Europe-wide ban on cadmium pigment. The U-turn came following extensive public consultation with artists and paint-makers, who objected to a palette without the golden yellows, fiery oranges and deep maroons created from cadmium and used by masters such as Monet, Cézanne and Munch since the 1840s.

Plans for the Dia Art Foundation to build a new home in Manhattan have been scrapped. Jessica Morgan, who took up her post as director in January, says she is “not pursuing” the project started by the previous head, Philippe Vergne, who planned to construct a new building on the footprint of two of Dia’s three existing sites in the city.

Instead, Morgan is exploring other ways to re-establish Dia’s presence in Chelsea.

When the Whitney Museum of American Art opens its new building in Manhattan’s meatpacking district on May 1, it’s the big things everyone will notice first: the sweeping views west to the Hudson River; the romantic silhouettes of Manhattan’s wooden water towers; the four outdoor terraces for presenting sculptures, performances and movie screenings; and the tiered profile of its steel-paneled facade, intentionally reminiscent of the Whitney’s Modernist, granite-clad Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue, which had been the museum’s home since 1966.

Its new digs, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, also offer commodious interior spaces: 50,000 square feet of galleries, unencumbered by structural columns, and huge elevators that are themselves immersive environments, the work of the artist Richard Artschwager.

For thirty-seven years, Josef Albers’ mural “Manhattan” graced the lobby of the MetLife (previously PanAm) Building on Park Avenue in New York City. Installed in 1963, the giant red, white, and black work was designed as an homage to New York, the city to which Albers emigrated in 1933. The mural was removed in 2000 during a lobby redesign and all but one of the panels ended up in a landfill site in Ohio after a failed attempt to remove asbestos from the backs of the tiles. Much to the delight of art lovers, “The Art Newspaper” has reported that the modernist masterpiece could make a triumphant return to New York City.

The forthcoming World Trade Center Transit Hub could be a possible home for the work, but no definitive plans have been announced. 

When Robert Blumenthal decided to open his first gallery, he didn’t consider Chelsea, where most of his local contemporary-art peers operate.

He thought about the Lower East Side, where several younger art dealers have found lower rents, but in February, he opted for a third-floor location with distinctly un-Chelsea crown molding at 1045 Madison Ave., near 79th Street.

“The Upper East Side is so unhip, it’s hip,” said Mr. Blumenthal, 33 years old. “Chelsea is a generation before me.”

The Whitney Museum of American Art will open its new downtown Manhattan home next year with an exhibition of works from its permanent collection, followed by shows dedicated to artists including Archibald Motley and Frank Stella, museum officials said Thursday.

Officials made the announcement at the unfinished facility, offering a behind-the-scenes look as construction continues at the space next to the High Line elevated park and looking out on the Hudson River. The new museum, the Whitney's fourth home since it was founded in 1930, is expected to open in Spring 2015.

When demolition begins on 540-544 West 26th Street in New York, three prominent contemporary art galleries -- Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, and Stephen Haller Gallery -- will say goodbye to their current spaces. Located in Manhattan’s booming Chelsea neighborhood, the two-story property, which includes a neighboring parking lot, will be transformed into a 130,000-square-foot commercial and office space with community facilities. The site will be co-developed by commercial real estate broker, The Manhattes Group LLC, and Savanna, a real estate private equity firm and asset management company.

Stephen Haller Gallery, which has been in Chelsea for over a decade, plans to open a new location in the neighborhood. Lehmann Maupin and Tony Shafrazi Gallery have yet to announce their plans for the future. Lehmann Maupin has a second gallery on Chrystie Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

The Manhattes Group and Savanna have not released a start date for the project.

The Dia Art Foundation, which closed its two galleries in Manhattan in 2004, has gathered about half the money needed to build its new space in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. While the organization has pushed their fundraising efforts into high gear, they are left without an acquisition fund for its collection, which includes works from the 1960s to the present.

The Dia Art Foundation announced that they will be holding a sale of paintings and sculptures at Sotheby’s in New York on November 13-14, 2013 to remedy that. The foundation hopes to raise at least $20 million by auctioning off works by Cy Twombly (1928-2011), John Chamberlain (1927-2011) and Barnett Newman (1905-1970).

The Dia Art Foundation’s collection includes works by modern and contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol (1921-1987), Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) and Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010). Philippe Vergne, the Dia’s director, has not commented on what works he’s hoping to acquired with the funds from the Sotheby’s sale.

The Whitney Museum of American Art has unveiled a new logo, which will replace its thirteen-year-old all-capital letter design. The new logo features a thinly drawn, slanted “W” known as the “responsive W” as the letter shifts in size and shape depending on where it appears and which artwork its accenting.

The revamped logo is part of the museum’s overhaul, which includes a major relocation from uptown to downtown Manhattan. The new Renzo Piano-design building is expected to open in 2015. The Whitney’s new location will include an 18,000-square-foot gallery, which will be the largest column-free exhibition space in New York City.

Experimental Jetset of Amsterdam, a small, independent, Amsterdam-based graphic design studio, designed the museum’s new logo.