Questions over Tate's Francis Bacon works
Plus: introducing Young V&A
Today's edition is presented with blooloop V-Expo
Happy October.
This week the Turner Prize has literally and metaphorically been sent to Coventry, with the 2021 edition opening at the city’s Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. I’ve been reading the reviews through my fingers. The Times called it “terrible” and that the artists shortlisted (they’re all collectives this year) have “contributed equally to the tedium of this show.” The Telegraph slammed it as “maybe the worst” ever edition of the Prize. The Guardian was kinder, but only because it didn’t quite skink to what had at first sounded like “a blueprint for the Worst Turner prize Ever.” The Turner has never been universally loved, but it definitely feels like it’s lost its way recently.
Did you manage to get Kusama tickets this week? Tate Modern released the next five-month batch of admissions for her Infinity Mirror Rooms display. It was like Glastonbury. Yesterday when I logged on to see how big the online queue was, there was just *checks notes* 84,000 people ahead of me. 24 hours on, I just had another look. It’s gone up to 118,000. Good luck if you’re still waiting.
Maxwell
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This week’s top story
The V&A’s Museum of Childhood may be nearly 150 years old, but what’s old these days? It’s been announced this week it’ll be renamed Young V&A as it begins a £13 million redevelopment that will see it become a place for children to “play, create, debate and design.” The Times
Tristram Hunt, the museum’s director, said Young V&A was moving from being a social history institution where “parents and grandparents relive their childhood through an exercise in enjoyable nostalgia” to one “consciously focused on young people from 0-14”. A host of new acquisitions were also announced, including a skateboard owned by the Team GB athlete Sky Brown who at just 13 year’s old won an Olympic bronze medal at Tokyo 2020.
It’s certainly an exciting project. But at just £13 million, this ‘major’ transformation is coming in relatively cheap. (The National Gallery is spending £30 million to refurbish it’s entrance lobby.) And will it be able to hold it’s own when the opening of the vastly more expansive V&A project - V&A East - is due to open just a year later?
This week’s other stories
London’s Science Museum has announced it is to open a new multi-million pound free gallery to encourage teenagers to take up technical careers. Aimed at 11 to 16-year-olds Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery will open in autumn 2022. I’m not entirely sure I know what a technician is - I suppose I need to visit. Evening Standard
Save the date! The Courtauld Gallery at London’s Somerset House has finally announced its reopening date to the public: Friday 19 November 2021. It follows the most significant modernisation project in its history. Cannot wait. Artlyst
This story is incredible. The Estate of Francis Bacon has launched an astonishing personal attack on Barry Joule, one of Bacon’s friends, and the vast collection of Bacon works he donated to Tate. They imply that Joule may have created some of the works himself, which upon their donation in 2004 was described as one of the gallery’s most generous gifts, worth an estimated £20m. But a new book claims “The story of the material associated with Joule is riddled with exaggeration, half-truths and contradictions.” If you read Tate’s statement responding to the story, it doesn’t sound like they disagree very much. The Guardian
Also in the running for the title of ‘week’s most mind-boggling story’ is that a Danish artist delivered a gallery empty frames when they commissioned him to produce two art works - but he still pocketed the $84k fee. The title of the works? Take the Money and Run. The gallery apparently “had a laugh because it was really humoristic." Hmmmmm, I smell a PR stunt. BBC News
Over 25 years since it was first proposed, the long-awaited extension to the Museo del Prado in Madrid co-designed by Norman Foster has been approved by the Spanish government. This news just reminds how much I am dying to go back to stunning Madrid. The Art Newspaper
The long awaited Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (the Oscars Museum) is finally open to the public in Los Angeles - and it’s clear that the Museum loves the sesh. The opening has been marked all week by four-straight nights of partying with the final glitzy affair on Wednesday being attended by Rebel Wilson and Robert Pattinson. Sore heads all round today I expect. Vanity Fair
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