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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 17^th 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 17^th 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.

In 2019, museums around the world celebrated the anniversary of Old Masters Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt. Now, it’s Dante’s turn and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has kicked off the year with an online exhibition of works in celebration. In total, 88 rarely seen 16^th-century illustrations of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy created by Italian Renaissance artist Federico Zuccari are on view marking the 700^th anniversary of the medieval Italian poet, writer, and philosopher.

Completed just a year before Dante passed away in 1321, The Divine Comedy has long been considered one of the greatest works of literature that also greatly developed the Italian language. It’s written as a narrative poem that is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, each representing a different portion of the afterlife.

It would be another 265 years before Zuccari produced his drawings (executed between 1586 and 1588), but they’re one of many examples of the lasting effects Dante’s work has had on readers. Zuccari was in Spain when he completed the drawings, comprised of 28 depictions of hell (Inferno), 49 of purgatory (purgatorio), and 11 of heaven (paradiso), all of which are on view through the Uffizi. The drawings were originally bound together as a book with Dante’s verses accompanying Zuccari’s work.

The 88 Zuccari artworks entered the Uffizi’s collection in 1738 after having belonged to the Orsini family and then the Medici family, both of which were powerful noble Italian families. The drawings are quite fragile, so over the years, only portions of the collection have gone on view at two different times making this is the first time all of them will be seen together. In 1865, some of the pencil and ink drawings were shown in Florence in celebration of the 600^th anniversary of Dante’s death and the unification of Italy. Then, in 1993, an exhibition of selected works from the collection was held in Abruzzo. Otherwise, the drawings are kept in temperature-controlled, light-free stores and can only be removed every five years.

“Until now these beautiful drawings have only been seen by a few scholars and displayed to the public only twice, and only in part,” said Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi, according to The Guardian. Schmidt continued referring to the drawings as “precious material” that are “not only for those who do research but also for those who are passionate about Dante’s work and are interested in following, as Alighieri says, ‘virtue and knowledge.’”

All of the Zuccari drawings can be found online at the Uffizi website for free in an exhibition called “To rebehold the stars,” a nod to Inferno, Canto XXXIV in Dante’s masterpiece. Currently, descriptions are only in Italian but English transcripts are expected soon according to the Uffizi website.

Over the coming year, more than 70 towns and villages across Italy have plans to celebrate the Master Poet.

With the year-who-must-not-be-named in the rearview window of our calendars, there are a lot of folks who would love to simply leave last year in the dust. While there is still much to contend with and the New Years Eve countdown didn’t erase any of the persisting issues our planet has on its plate, there was certainly a different feeling to the festivities. Perhaps the most poignantly charged was the iconic year-end tune, “Auld Lang Syne”- with it’s pangs of nostalgia for days gone by and a look toward the future with friends and loved ones, there has perhaps never been a better time for the legendary Scottish song.

“Auld Lang Syne” can roughly translate from the original Scottish to standard English as “long time ago”, “days gone by”, or more literally “old long since.” Both its lyrics and its soulful melody echo the sentiments of reflection and connection. But it didn’t first exist as a song. While often attributed to Scottish bard Robert Burns, he himself expressed from his letter in 1788 to Scots Musical Museum that what he was sending them was an ancient poem of the land, he merely being the first to put it to paper with his own creative input. The original melody is mostly lost to time (funny, that) but what we sing today is the contribution of music publisher George Thompson, who decided to attach the poem to a traditional Scottish melody.

The song caught on and became traditional to sing at Scottish New Years’ celebrations, known as Hogmanay. Through travel and word of mouth the tune spread, but one of the cultural events that truly brought the song to the attention of the world was at a 1929 New Year’s Eve event in New York. Bandleader Guy Lombardo and his group were playing for the event, and shortly after midnight, they performed an arrangement of the song that was broadcast on radio and TV to global acclaim.

As the years went on, the piece became a mainstay of Guy Lombardo’s repertoire, and “Auld Lang Syne” became an international staple for New Year’s Eve celebrations, and so it is no surprise that it’s mournful phrases hit hard around the globe after this year’s tribulations:

“Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?”

There are plenty who feel that there was something teasing about the traditional tune this past New Year’s Eve, with such an emphasis on togetherness and returns where much of the world is currently finding themselves unable to reconvene with those that they miss. But to look at the song and its message bitterly in our current context is to be blind to its spirit.

In a time where we may not know when we will next see a loved one, and where much of our days have blurred into each other and dragged on, there is no better moment to stop and reflect. Those precious times that we have had, the days of “auld lang syne”, are with us whether we are living them again or not. Even the hardest of times have value in our memory, to remind us of what we hold dear when we have it once again. If you find yourself on your own through these long winter nights, longing to be in the company of loved ones once more, then you have answered the question “Auld Lang Syne” puts forth.

Should old friends and old times past ever be forgot?

Never.

Posted : 2021-01-02

Website      : https://tinyurl.com/2021-painting

Prospectus : https://contemporaryartgalleryonline.gallery/2021-art-competition-all-painting

Event Type : Contests, Juried Art Shows

Organization Name : Contemporary Art Gallery Online