Rothko Museum Rises in Latvia, George W. Bush's Art Market Analysis, and More

Published: April 25, 2013

– Rothko Museum Will Revitalize Latvian Art: One century after his family emigrated to the U.S. from Daugavpils, Latvia, the city has opened a museum devoted to its most famous native son, Marcus Rothkovitz, better known as Mark Rothko, who was born there in 1903. "This is a marvelous return to the source for my father," said the late Color Field painter's son Christopher Rothko of the new Mark Rothko Art Center. "But this is also very exciting because it's a center for living art that will help promote visual art in the region." [AFP]

– George W. Bush on How Painting Changed His Life: During a ceremony marking the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, the former U.S. president discussed his recently revealed painting practice. "You know what the interesting lesson is though, that you can keep learning in life," Bush said. "I don't want to rest. I want to follow the example of president 41 and, you know, sprint into the grave." The ex-president also displayed savvy knowledge of the art market — "The signature is more valuable than the painting" — but don't worry, he hasn't let it affect his love of art: "Painting has changed my life in an unbelievably positive way." [AFP]

– Shrigley, Sehgal on Turner Prize Shortlist: The shortlist for the 2013 Turner Prize, the U.K.'s top honor for contemporary art, presided over by the Tate Modern and accompanied by a £40,000 purse, features figurative painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, performance artist Tino Sehgal, video and installation art absurdist Laure Prouvost, and sly cartoonist David Shrigley. This year's Turner Prize exhibition will take place in Derry-Londonderry, with the winner bring announced on December 2. [ARTINFO U.K.]

– Art Market Drops in Early 2013: The total volume of sales in the art market for the first quarter of 2013 were down seven percent from the same period last year, chiefly due to a whopping 50 percent drop in the value of sales in China during the first three months of the year. However, sales figures in the U.S. and the U.K. were up over the same period, and China's numbers are expected to pick up, too. "China is a very interesting case," said Thomas Galbraith, the chief of global strategy at artnet. "It’s by and far the hardest and fastest [geography] in terms of market acceleration." [Forbes]

– Folk Art Museum Sends Former Chairman's Collection to Auction: The American Folk Art Museum will turn over some 200 pieces from its collection that belonged to its former chairman, Ralph Esmerian, so that they can be auctioned by Sotheby's in order to repay his debts. The museum will retain some 53 works from the 263 that were promised to the institution by Esmerian — who is in the midst of serving a six-year prison sentence for charges including wire fraud. [TAN]

– Folk Artist Memorializes National Tragedies: On a plot of land in Birmingham, Alabama, Joe Minter has spent the last several decades erecting monuments from junk, found objects, and thrift store cast-offs to virtually every major American disaster, from September 11 and the Sandy Hook Elementary murders, to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s imprisonment. "He told me that it was a vision from God," his wife Rosie Minter said of the day he started carving wooden totems in their backyard. "And when someone tells me God talks to him, I don’t interfere." [NYT]

– New NEA Grants Total $26.3 Million: This week the National Endowment for the Arts announced some 817 grants ranging from $4,000 to $125,000 (with an average of $32,122) to arts organizations around the country, including 218 in New York state and 122 in California. Notable grant-winners in other states include the Frick Art & Historical Society in Pittsburgh, which received $30,000 for the conservation of a 16th-century tapestry, and the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which received $20,000 towards a public art project at the site of an 18th-century burial site for Africans and African-Americans. [Press Release]

– Nahmad Gallery Reopens After Raid: One week after FBI agents seized documents and computers from the Helly Nahmad Gallery on the Upper East Side due to its namesake owner's role in an international money-laundering scheme involving the Russian mob and a high-stakes gambling business for billionaires and celebrities, the gallery has reopened with a new exhibition, "Impressionist & Modern Masters," which was being installed at the time of the raid. "It’s just bad timing," said gallery director Marzina Marzetti. "It had nothing to do with it." [Bloomberg]

– MoMA Hires David Platzker: The Museum of Modern Art has hired Specific Object founder David Platzker as its new curator of prints and illustrated books, a role he'll take up on May 15 — after closing the gallery and artist-made object store he opened in 2004. Prior to launching that venue for ephemera relating to minimalist, conceptual, and Pop art, Platzker worked on Claes Oldenburg and CoosjevanBruggen's catalogue raisonée and their major mid-1990s touring retrospective. [AiA]

– Documenta 13 Curator to Teach at Northwestern: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the curator of the widely-praised Documenta 13 exhibition (and recently one of the rumored contenders for the job of chief of the Centre Pompidou), will be a visiting professor in Northwestern University's Art Theory and Practice program beginning on September 1. She will teach for three consecutive fall quarters, make presentations to the department and the Block Museum, and participate in graduate student critiques. [Press Release]

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