The devastation that was caused by a 2018 fire at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro was a bleak reminder to museums, galleries, and research facilities, alike, of the dangers of a fire. For that reason, museums and galleries around the world have taken on major steps over the years to safeguard their collections. As California is no stranger to some of nature’s most intense disasters, so it’s no surprise that the Getty Center, based in LA, is essentially a fire-proof fortress, so we’re taking a closer look.
Nestled amongst the Santa Monica Mountains, the Getty Center sits on a hilltop about 900 feet above sea level. It took nearly a decade to build the museum, which was completed in 1997, but the Getty Center has become like a beacon and on a sunny California day, it might seem untouchable. In many ways, though, it is; the museum was constructed to be infallible during the event of a disaster, particularly when the threat of a fire is at the door.
In a 2019 interview, Lisa Lapin, vice president of communication for the Gretty Trust, told The Guardian that fire prevention is on their minds 24/7 and it shows. Nearly every inch of the 24-acre (10-hectare) LA institution is designed with fire preventative measures.
The building is made of travertine, a type of limestone that is a naturally more flame-resistant material. In total, 300,000 travertine blocks make up the exterior of the LA museum. Enforcing the exterior of the museum is its roof, which is covered with crushed stones that make for an inhospitable environment for any embers – a major threat when it comes to wildfires – that land there.
25 million pounds of steel reinforce the limestone structure and the interior walls are made of concrete offering strength and, you guessed it, more fire protection. Each of the Getty’s galleries are a self-contained module that can be sealed to keep anyone or anything from entering them. To protect artworks, and any people trapped in the museum, from smoke damage, the Getty Center has specially designed air systems that recirculate and clean air from inside the building so that outside air is not needed.
Fire precautions don’t stop with the building itself, either. The grounds of the Getty Center offer another layer of protection when wildfires come close. Groundskeepers maintain the Getty Center gardens, ensuring that dead or dying plants and brush are removed so that they don’t become fuel for a fire. Below the surface of the museum’s grounds lay an intricate series of sprinklers ready for use. With supply from a one-million-gallon tank, the sprinklers can be turned on to saturate the landscape further deterring potential fire threats.
The museum is so well protected that it’s been used in recent years as an outpost for hundreds of firefighters battling the blazes that have threatened California. It also stores emergency rations in the case that people are stranded at the museum during a disaster.
The Getty Center is also built to withstand earthquakes and it utilises specially-built plinths that minimise the damage to standing artworks. In 1994, the Northridge Quake hit while the museum was under construction, it gave engineers the opportunity to access the site and they made changes to create a building more capable of withstanding such a natural disaster.
Over the years, the Getty Center has become a mainstay in the museum world for its collection, but it’s also a shining example of construction made to withstand the elements. It’s a major feat of architecture that boasts as many (albeit often hidden) jewels as the collection within.
The City of Boulder, Colorado commissioned more than 60 artists who recently lost work due to the COVID-19 pandemic to create new works of art in support of their neighbors.
The Boulder Office of Arts and Culture launched the Creative Neighborhoods: COVID-19 Work Projects, a program that starting in April delivered funding to artists who have lost gigs, had contracts or events cancelled, been laid off, or have otherwise been put in a vulnerable position due to the necessary restrictions to control the COVID-19 Pandemic, explains the program’s page.
With a matching grant from the local arts service nonprofit, Create Boulder, the Office of Arts and Culture has distributed funds to more than 60 artists -including musicians, visual artists, poets, filmmakers, dancers, and artists of all kinds- who are currently working on projects throughout Boulder’s neighborhoods.
An interactive map of current Creative Neighborhoods: COVID-19 Work Projects is available on the Office of Arts and Culture website.
In “Cultural institutions start to put their assets to work for mission,” published in ImpactAlpha, Dennis Price discusses Upstart Co-Lab’s new research on “what cultural institutions need to know about investing for values and mission is the first primer on impact investing specifically for leaders of museums and other cultural institutions.”
From us here at Art Critique , we hope your year has gotten off to a great start, despite the challenges that we continue to face, globally. We’re jumping into the year with our first Art World Roundup of 2021 and this week, we’re covering an intimate sculpture by Juliana Notari that’s caused division in Brazil, an art critic’s analysis of images from the US Capitol, and more monoliths now appearing in the UK. Also, a small painting has been attributed to El Greco, creative works from 1925 enter public domain in the US, Leeds asks artist Yinka Shonibare to create memorial to David Oluwale, Gagosian closes shop in San Francisco, and a Dresden Heist perp evades police again.
A diva is often divisive…
The grounds of what were once a sugar mill in Pernambuco are now a rural art park and the home to a sculpture by artist Juliana Notari. Titled Diva, the sculpture is a 33-meter long interpretation of a vagina nestled into the landscape. Made of reinforced concrete and painted red, the sculpture stands out against the grassy hillside and it’s stood out in the public eye since its debut. Diva has garnered criticism, most loudly from supporters of Brazil’s far-right president according to The Guardian. Of course, there are plenty in favour of the sculpture, saying it raises questions about aspects of society and gender that are largely ignored. This seems to be the exact reason for Diva. According to a Facebook post by the artist, Diva was created to “question the relationship between nature and culture in our phallocentric and anthropocentric western society,” and encourage conversations about the “problematisation of gender.”
The divisive sculpture, “Diva,” en situ in Brazil. Photograph: Juliana Notari
An art critic’s response to the storming of the US Capitol Building
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 will be a day remembered for years to come. Vincent Cunningham, contributor and art critic for the New Yorker, weighed in on the alarming events that unfolded at the US Capitol Building and the impact the photography shared from the day, documenting the unthinkable in real-time. People parading with Confederate flags glorifying the US Civil War, people breaking into locked offices, and others seemingly stealing government property were among the frightening images shared. Focusing on an image shared by Huffpost reporter Igor Bobic of a man sitting upon the dais in Senate chambers, Cunningham states: “The Senate floor became a playground for men (and a few women) like this one appeared to be: childish, stupid, dangerous, and confirmed in their fear and anger by a President who exemplifies all of these traits in their worst and most absurd extremities.” He continued, again referring to Bobic’s photo, with a darkly ironic statement: “He doesn’t know how free he is, or at whose expense, or how long the show will go on after today.” Read Cunningham’s article in its entirety here.
Monolith Mania is still a thing in 2021
The monoliths that have been popping up around the globe, causing intrigue, wild theories, and confusion have now invaded the UK. The silvery monoliths that stand around 10 feet tall can be an eerie sight reminiscent of the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. They’ve now been reported on an Isle of Wight beach, at the top of a hill in the Devon national park, in Glastonbury, and in the Salisbury countryside. Initial reports assumed the obvious: the monoliths were of alien making. Although others speculate the monoliths to be the work of an artist (okay, yes, this is the more realistic explanation). One collective of artists, called The Most Famous Artist, has laid claim to the monoliths and have started selling facsimiles of the work, but it’s still undecided if they are the true makers of the monoliths.
A small, privately owned painting of Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns and carrying his cross has been attributed to El Greco after more than two years of analysis. Previously attributed to the Renaissance painter’s workshop, research performed at the University of Lledia’s Center d’Art d’Època Moderna (CAEM) in Spain has proven it to be by the artist himself. It has been hypothesized that the painting may have been an example used in the El Greco’s workshop, leading to it having been less known. Due to its scale and level of execution, though, it is also possible that the artwork was used for private oratory. Research was performed by Carmen Garrido, the late founder and director of the Technical Documentation Cabinet at the Prado Museum, researcher Mariona Navarro, and CAEM professor of art history Ximo Company. “It has been more than two years of exciting work, studies and analysis,” Company told El País. “For us it is great news and also a tribute to Carmen, who passed away suddenly on December 8.”
The painting now attributed to El Greco. Courtesy the Center d’Art d’Època Moderna .
Welcome to the public domain!
With the start of the new year, an onslaught of major books, images, films, and other creative works have entered the public domain in the US. Known as “Public Domain Day,” copyrighted objects from 1925 became public domain, meaning their copyright had expired. The items in this year’s batch would have exceeded their copyright period in 2001 after their 75-year copyright period, but just before that happened, Congress extended the copyright period for another 20 years. Either way, major works that have entered public domain include:
Tina Modotti’s Telephone Wires
Arthur Dove’s The Intellectual
Joan Miró’s The Birth of the World
Max Beckmann’s Blind Man’s Buff
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway
Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time
Harold Lloyd’s The Freshmen
Buster Keaton’s Go West
Various works by Duke Ellington
Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard, and Kenneth Casey’s Sweet Georgia Brown
Tina Modotti, Telephone Wires, Mexico, 1925. Courtesy the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Yinka Shonibare to memorialise life of David Oluwale in Leeds
David Oluwale will be memorialised in Leeds with a sculpture by British-Nigerian artist and 2004 Turner Prize nominee Yinka Shonibare 50 years after his death at the hands of police. Oluwale came to Britain from Nigeria in the 1960s with hopes of becoming an engineer. Met with persistent police harassment, Oluwale eventually became homeless in the Leeds area and in 1969, his body was found in the River Aire after witnesses saw him being chased by police. Now, the life, infamous treatment and death of Oluwale will be recognised in a new park planned for the city’s centre. First proposed by author, academic, and founding patron of the David Oluwale Memorial Association Caryl Phillips in 2007, the sculpture has received support of Leeds city council and the Arts Council. Shonibare has stated that the memorial, to be unveiled in 2023, will be a “hopeful” reminder of Leeds’ past. “It’s a fitting legacy to an ordinary man, who will no doubt leave an extraordinary legacy,” continued Shonibare. “We have to honour him with this small event and hopefully, if people can learn about history, and the mistakes of history, they won’t repeat them.” Read more about the commission and Oluwale’s life here.
Gagosian focuses on other Cali ventures in closing San Fran space
The start of a new year meant the closing of the Gagosian’s San Francisco space just four years after it arrived on the scene. When the international mega-gallery opened in 2016, it was thought to be a sign of an increasingly hot Silicone Valley art scene. In the wake of the pandemic, though, Gagosian closed its San Fran branch “to consolidate and strengthen Gagosian’s presence in California,” the gallery said in a statement to Artnet News. The gallery spokesperson continued stating they are “concentrating [their] efforts based in Los Angeles.” In concentrating on LA, Gagosian has increased its space there by taking on the building that once housed the Marciano Museum on Wilshire Boulevard. Gagosian still holds its spot as the largest art gallery and continues to operate in 15 other cities, including London, New York, Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, and Athens.
Dresden Heist perp still on the run
Following a series of raids in Germany to locate and arrest suspects related to the Dresden Heist, a principle perpetrator has once again evaded arrest. This week, police raided another residence in the Neukölln neighbourhood of Berlin in search of a 21-year-old suspect whose twin brother was arrested in December of last year during a related sting. The suspect escaped arrest in December and is once again on the run from authorities but a cell phone and documents were recovered in the raid and taken as evidence according to the Dresden prosecutor’s office. This week’s efforts and the December sting followed a massive November raid that saw more than 1,600 police officers search 18 properties in both the Neukölln and Kreuzberg areas of the German capital. The search for the elusive suspect remains at “full speed” and authorities are still searching for information regarding the whereabouts of the perp and priceless objects stolen from the Dresden Green Vault in November 2019.
Police carried out raids across Berlin in relation to the Dresden Green Vault heist, arresting three. Courtesy EPA.
International Deadline: January 18, 2021 (extended) – Manifest Gallery invites artists to submit ceramic-based works. Submissions can range from the most traditional to the most conceptual or experimental. Awards…
Are you thinking of applying for a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 2021? The next Grants for the Arts Projects deadline is February 11, 2021. The guidelines are posted, and assistance is available. Join the Museums team on ZOOM – January 19, 2021 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time.
If you can’t join this session; an archive will also be made available. Guidelines and application materials for Grants for Arts Projects funding are now available on the National Endowment for the Arts’ new website. Grant applications previously submitted to the Art Works category will now be submitted to the Grants for Arts Projects category. Application deadlines are February 11 & July 8, 2021 for projects taking place beginning in 2022.
Wendy ClarkDirector of Museums, Visual Arts, and Indemnity202-682-5555 || clarkw@arts.gov Toniqua LindsayMuseums Specialist(Organizations A-N)202-682-5529 || lindsayt@arts.gov
Tamika ShinglerMuseums and Visual Arts Specialist(Organizations O-Z)202-682-5577 || shinglert@arts.gov Emma BartleyAssistant Grants Management Specialist202-682-5630 ||bartleye@arts.gov
The future of a beloved mural by Mexican artist Diego Rivera at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) is up in the air as the school’s board looks for ways to secure the longevity of the institute, which has faced financial turmoil in recent years. The mural, valued at around $50 million, would offer much-needed support for the cash-strapped school, but school faculty and alumni are pushing back against the idea.
Last year, it looked as though the SFAI would close, but the University of California stepped in to buy nearly $20 million of the school’s debt from a private bank keeping its doors open. The near-miss followed years of financial stress as the cost of expansions were compounded by a decline in attendance to the 150-year-old institution. According to The New York Times, during a December 17th board meeting, the sale of the mural was put on the table as was the name of an interested party: filmmaker George Lucas. If Lucas were to purchase the mural, it would become part of the LA-based Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts.
Just days after the December 17th meeting, an email was sent by SFAI vice president and dean of academic affairs Jennifer Rissler acknowledging objections to the potential sale of the Rivera. In her email, Rissler stated “the board voted, as part of their fiduciary duty to explore all options to save S.F.A.I., to continue exploring pathways and offers for endowing or selling the mural.”
Another potential avenue for the school, according to SFAI chairwoman Pam Rorke Levy, would see ownership of the mural transferred to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art while the artwork would remain in place at the SFAI campus.
In a statement to Artnet News, Levy said: “SFAI cannot comment further but to say a number of conversations have been taking place with several institutions about the possibility to endow or acquire the mural to ensure the future of the school and uphold our mission.” SFAI has stressed that no decision has been made yet as to if the mural will be sold.
The mural is a stunning example of Rivera’s work, which was largely influential to many artists in the San Francisco area. Completed in 1931, the mural is titled The Making of Fresco Showing the Building City, and was made in the fashion of a trompe-l’oeil showing the construction of the city as well as the construction of the mural. Among the builders, architects, and businessmen, you can spot Rivera, himself, holding his palette, as he paints the mural.
The potential sale of the Rivera follows a period when the sale of artworks by museums and others have been a point of contention due to the pandemic. As museums faced mandatory closures, lessened footfall, and a severe decrease in income, the Association of Art Museum Directors loosened a restriction that typically bars US institutions from deaccessioning artworks to cover operational costs. Despite a temporary relaxing of rules, many museums, like the Brooklyn Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art, have faced scrutiny when they looked to deaccession art.
In England, similar tactics have been used by organisations like the Royal Opera House, where a portrait of Sir David Webster by David Hockney was sold at the end of 2020 for £12.8 million. The sale of the Hockney raised questions, but in the end the buyer vowed to return the work to its display at the ROH after the sale was finalised.
International Deadline: March 7, 2021 – Art Show International announces their all new 2021 Annual Art Competitions. All visual artists worldwide are encouraged to submit work. Multiple categories, themes, awards…
