"National wound" healed as Notre-Dame rises from ashes
PLUS: $6.2m banana artwork EATEN
— In partnership with Art UK's Visual Literacy Week
This edition also features: Slovak gallery staff resign en masse | Huge Wedgwood acquisition | Call to save Hepworth sculpture | Berlin axes free museum entry
Happy Friday.
The UK has lots of exciting exhibitions opening next year. But…Britain has competition.
Because the Netherlands has a STACKED schedule of incredible shows — and multiple new museums — planned for 2025. And I know because this week I travelled to Paris with Visit Netherlands to hear from nine institutions about their plans. (Yes, Paris is in France, but I have a word limit so can’t explain, soz.).
Undoubtedly the highlight is a major Anselm Kiefer show. A Kiefer exhibition itself is big news, but what makes this an absolute must-see is that it’ll be held across both the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. It’ll be the first time in their history these next-door neighbours have mounted a joint show.
In addition, Kiefer is creating a monumental new frieze for the occasion. Measuring 24m in length, this brand new painting is being worked on as we speak, and will fill the historic staircase at the Stedelijk. See below for a preview. Incredible.
Other shows that caught my eye were a wonderful response to Degas’ iconic sculpture Little Dancer by British artist Ryan Gander at Museum Beelden aan Zee in the Hague. For the first time, 24 of Gander’s ballerina sculptures will be displayed together, in a never-before-seen arrangement alongside Degas' young dancer which inspired them all.
In the same city, Monet‘s three 1867 paintings of the view of Paris from a balcony at the Louvre will make a rare appearance together at the Kunstmuseum. New Paris: From Monet to Morisot will show 65 works of French Impressionism alongside these masterpieces, to examine the evolution of 19th century Paris.
But it’s the new museums that will be a real focus of the European art world. As reported in last week’s newsletter, Fenix will open in May as the world’s first art museum dedicated to migration. Housed in what was once the largest warehouse in the world, it’ll show a vast collection that ranges from Steve McQueen to Cornelia Parker.
And in Amsterdam, the new Drift Museum will show large-scale, technologically advanced and performative artworks by Dutch art duo Drift. Think Kinetic art meets installation in a huge former locomotion factory. Plus it’ll have its own bloomin’ harbour so you can arrive by boat. Iconic.
The cherry on the cake is that from February Eurostar reinstates its direct Amsterdam to London service, with an improved terminal in the Dutch capital. So there’s no excuse not to visit. With the number of times I’m planning on going in 2025, I will probably see most of you in the queue for passport control at some point.
Until then though, the news!
— maxwell
ps. Last week’s poll on the best time to send this newsletter on a Friday is noted! Read to end for the results, but TLDR: in the new year I’ll do a trial of sending at 3pm GMT. Thanks for voting!
— In partnership with Art UK's Visual Literacy Week
Art's role in driving visual literacy
Every primary-school aged child in Britain should to be taught the critical skill of visual literacy.
That's the verdict of art education charity Art UK, who have announced an ambition to make it a reality in the next five years.
By 2030, they aim to be helping ALL children learn the vital skills to decode the meaning of images.
Art UK Chief Executive Andy Ellis says they believe “that art can be a pathway to becoming visually literate in our digital age" and that these skills will "create confident, capable and empathetic young people."
It's why they launched Visual Literacy Week too, which sparked a national debate on visual literacy and was supported by artists including Bob & Roberta Smith and Rana Begum. It delivered articles, webinars and a symposium to encourage discussion around why visual literacy is so important.
You can discover more on what visual literacy means here — and you can discover Art UK's extensive resources on the subject too.
Need To Know
"Project of the century" unveiled
Five years after its devastating fire, the restored Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has finally been unveiled.
President Emmanuel Macron enjoyed a televised tour around the historic building, and used the opportunity to thank the more than 1,000 craftspeople who helped rebuild the Cathedral in what he called "the project of the century."
“The blaze at Notre-Dame was a national wound, and you have been its remedy through will, through work, through commitment" Macron said in a speech.
The restored interiors had been a closely guarded secret until today. But the first images show that it is spectacular, with the white stone and gold decorations shining brighter than ever.
An opening ceremony — to which celebrities and heads of state have been invited — is planned for the evening of 7 Dec. Sources suggest President Biden will attend. The Cathedral will then reopen to the public and to worshippers. (Read more + watch below)
Slovak gallery staff resign
There’s more turmoil at the Slovak National Gallery following last week’s staff unrest. The interim Director — who closed the venue when staff held a press conference on the gallery’s poor leadership — has been replaced after less than two months. But just hours after senior staff met with the new interim Director — who has no visual art experience — five departmental heads offered their resignations.
In an open letter, the staff said their first meeting with newly-appointed Jaroslav Niňaj was “full of intimidation, threats and investigations” and that they could no longer “do our job” under his leadership. The resignations will take effect next week.
The upheaval has seen the gallery’s largest corporate sponsor — Slovak bank Tatra — refuse to commit to further funding. “The situation… is currently too tense and unclear for us, so we are postponing our decision on potential future support” they said in a statement. (Read more)
Let's all go down the Strand
The cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun has fulfilled a promise he made after buying the banana/duct tape artwork Comedian for $6.2m last week, by eating the fruit.
At a press conference in Hong Kong, the 34 year old had the banana in front of journalists and influencers, saying that “eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history.” Sun also drew parallels between the artwork and cryptocurrency (of course he did.)
Earlier in the week, the New York Times tracked down the original fruit seller where the banana for Comedian was bought before its auction at Sotheby’s. The seller — 74 year old Shah Alam — began to cry when told what price the artwork sold for. “I am a poor man” he told the reporter.
In response, Sun announced he would buy 100,000 bananas — or $25,000 worth of the produce — from the same Manhattan stand. But the net profit to Alam for this gesture would only reach $6,000 — less than 0.1% of Comedian’s price tag. (Read more)
News from the UK
Wedgwood widens 🫖 | 60 Wedgwood creations made in the past decade have been acquired by the V&A. The acquisition — made in partnership with Fiskars, the custodian of the Wedgwood brand since 2015 — marks the 10th anniversary of 175,000 Wedgwood works being saved for the nation and presented to the V&A. The contemporary pieces — including a radical piece by Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY — will be shown at Stoke-On-Trent’s V&A Wedgwood Collection next year.
Save Sculpture 🇬🇧 | A British buyer for a “beautiful and immensely informative” Barbara Hepworth sculpture is being sought to prevent it leaving the UK. 1943’s Sculpture With Colour (Oval Form) was auctioned to a buyer who wants to take it overseas. £3.7m is needed to buy the work. Arts Minister Chris Bryant said he “hopes a UK buyer can be found…so the British public can continue to learn and engage with one our most important artists.” (Read more)
Museum reopening 🎞 | The National Science and Media Museum will reopen on 8 January after a restoration — but the brand new permanent galleries at the heart of the project won’t open until the summer. The January opening — timed for Bradford’s City of Culture celebrations — will be marked with a David Hockney video installation. It will be pay-what-you-can admission, the first time the national museum has tried out this payment model. (Read more)
Europe decides 🇪🇺 | 41 nominees for European Museum of the Year have been announced — but only two are from the UK. Manchester Museum and Norwich’s Sainsbury Centre are in the running. Manchester Museum Director Esme Ward said their nomination “means an awful lot to the whole team” after its restoration. There are five nominees from both the Netherlands and Poland, and four from Spain and Switzerland. (Read more)
Banksy bid 🪟 | One of Banksy’s most well-known works is being sold as part of an auction of the Bristol building it’s painted on. Well Hung Lover — showing a man hanging from a window ledge — appeared in 2006 and will be sold along with the building, with a guide value of £700,000. “The purchaser will be required to accept… that the image cannot be removed” the listing for the Grade II listed Georgian building states. (Read more)
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News from around the world
Italy 🇮🇹 | This year’s Venice Biennale has now officially closed — and it’s revealed that in the grand scheme of things, not that many people visit. 700,000 people attended during its seven month run. For context, Venice had about 20 million visitors last year. Plus, this year’s figures are down over 12% on the 2022 edition. Nearly 30,000 visitors — almost 4% of the total — attended the press and VIP previews at the start of the festival. 700,000? In the words of Pam Shipman: “is that it?!” (Read more)
Germany 🇩🇪 | The initiative that has seen Berlin’s museums offer free entry on the first Sunday of every month has been axed due to the slashing of the city’s cultural budget. The final edition of the scheme will be this weekend. Its removal is part of moves to enact €130m (£108.6m) of cuts to 450 venues including museums and theatres. Just two years ago, Berlin’s government pledged to up culture spending to a billion euros. Now, organisations are trying to fight this massive reversal. (Read more)
Italy 🇮🇹 | A museum dedicated to the flamboyant British poet and satirist Lord Byron has opened today in the northern Italian city of Ravenna. Visitors are invited to the very building where he pursued an intense affair with the wife of an aristocrat and completed some of his most famous works, including masterpieces like Don Juan, Sardanapalus and The Prophecy of Dante. It’s thought to be the only museum in the world specifically dedicated to Byron. (Read more)
Argentina 🇦🇷 | One of the most prolific buyers of Latin American Art has added an $11.3m surrealist sculpture by Leonora Carrington to his collection, and it’ll go on show at the museum he founded. Malba (the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) will display the work that billionaire real-estate developer and collector Eduardo Costantini won at auction. Costantini has grown the museum’s collection to 1,500 works, and it’s become one of South America’s most important private museums. (Read more)
Best of the rest
Rocking around | The V&A has unveiled its annual Christmas Tree — and it’s the best in years imo. It embodies “the 'Christmas Spirit' though a spectacle of light” according to designer Anna Lomax. (More)
New name | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums is no more! The large museum group in Newcastle and Tyneside has rebranded to North East Museums. Plus, it’ll take on three museums in Northumberland. (More)
Not happy | The revised and reduced plans to overhaul London Liverpool Street station was meant to appease heritage groups. But comedian Griff Rhys Jones and the Victorian Society have slammed the new plans as “perverse”. (More)
Visitor vision | The UK government wants to boost tourist numbers to Britain by 32%. In a speech, minister Chris Bryant said our heritage and museums would be used to attract 50m annual visitors by 2030. (More)
Round failure | Brighton’s answer to the London Eye — the i360 tower — is facing closure as the company that runs it has entered administration with debts of £51m. A buyer is now being sought. (More)
Hope springs | The National Trust has announced the locations of where saplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted. 49 “trees of hope” will be grown across the UK. (More)
Visual Literacy* | Art UK has announced a mission to help ALL children learn the vital skills to decode the meaning of images by 2030. Through art, it'll help "create confident, capable and empathetic young people." (More)
*This is sponsored content
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