The celebrated Chinese-French artist Huang Yong Ping passed away on Saturday at the age of 65. Born in China and based for the later part of his career in Paris, the artist emerged in the 1980s as leader of the the confrontational Xiamen Dada group, whose motto was ‘Zen is Dada, Dada is Zen’. In 1989, Huang Yong Ping was in the French capital to participate in Les Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Pompidou when the events in Tiananmen Square broke out in Beijing. He elected to remain in the country, and was made a French citizen in 1999. In the same year he represented his adopted country at the 48th Venice Biennale with Jean-Pierre Bertrand. His Bank of Sand / Sand of Bank (2000) is pictured above, installed at Barbara Gladstone, New York.
The artworld was also mourning the loss of Ed Clark, the American abstract painter who came to prominence in the 1950s as a member of the New York School. His innovations in the use of shaped canvases, the application of paint using instruments including brooms, and in monumental scale made him among the most influential painters of his generation. An exhibition of his paintings from 2000–2013 is on view at Hauser & Wirth, New York until the end of the week.
A private preview of the extensively refurbished Museum of Modern Art in New York was disrupted by protests against board members Larry Fink, the CEO and chair of the investment firm BlackRock, and Steven Tananbaum, founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of GoldenTree Asset Management. A few dozen activists carrying banners described their intention to keep up the pressure on ‘toxic philanthropy’ after the resignation of Warren Kanders, CEO of tear-gas manufacturer Safariland, from the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In London, it was announced on Monday that Polly Staple, director of the Chisenhale Gallery since 2008, would be leaving to take up a new position as Director of Collection, British Art at Tate. In a press release from Chisenhale Gallery, Staple said that she looking forward to ‘leading the next chapter of an ambitious programme of work relating to British art acquisitions’. Moving in the opposite direction, Tate Modern’s senior curator Andrea Lissoni is leaving the institution to direct Munich’s troubled Haus der Kunst, which has been leaderless since the resignation of Okwui Enwezor in June last year.
In the latest of our regular updates on the fate of Maurizio Cattelan’s golden toilet (aka America) after it was stolen from his survey exhibition at the UK”s Bleinheim Palace, three suspects from Oxford have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit burglary. The toilet remains at large, although there is now a £100,000 reward for its recovery! So get hunting.
Back in the real world, several artists and members of Hong Kong’s cultural sector have announced their intention to stand in Hong Kong’s 2019 District Council elections. Voters cast their ballots on November 24.
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