Tag: Controversial

British esports artist and designer Wayne ‘DeadBird’ Peacock (aka ‘iamdeadbird’) has rejoined US esports organisation DarkZero in a controversial move. DeadBird was let go from DarkZero this time last year following accusations of tracing other artists’ work (see this Twitter thread here), before allegedly deleting his Instagram at the time. DarkZero’s chairman of the board, Zachary Matula aka Zach, said at the time: “I ...

RIYADH: The number of Saudi universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Ranking, has risen to 15 from six in the most recent classification. Saudi universities were recognized in 11 scientific disciplines in which they competed for advanced centers. This is among the top 50 international universities where Saudi universities have achieved advanced positions, including the 15th International ...

Science writer Michael Marshall, author of The Genesis Quest (2020), tells us that many paleontologists resist the idea that early humans called Neanderthals created any artworks. They prefer to attributed all such works to groups that arrived on the scene later. The trouble is, the dates are often hard to determine and the reasoning is sometimes circular. As Marshall puts it, “People had assumed ...

Damien Hirst, who rose to fame in the ’90s as the enfant terrible of the Young British Artists, is best known for shocking audiences with his art—from dead animals suspended in formaldehyde to floating basketballs to collections of pills—and the high price tags that have now come to accompany his works. Hirst’s first came to prominence with his inclusion in the controversial 1988 exhibition ...

Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that delves into the places where the art world meets the real world, bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join us every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in museums, the art market, and much more, with input from our own writers and editors, as well as artists, curators, ...

This week, Philip Guston Now is unveiled at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston after its controversial postponement in 2020; Ben Luke talks to Kate Nesin and Megan Bernard, two of the four curators on the team assembled by the museum to revise the exhibition, which was postponed by four museums in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. We discuss how the show ...

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The Headlines THE SCENE UPTOWN. The Met Gala, aka the Costume Institute Gala, took place last night in New York, and toasted the opening of the second part of the exhibition “In America: An Anthology of Fashion.” The sartorial theme for the affair was “gilded glamour,” and ARTnews has a rundown of the looks: Kylie Jenner in Off-White, Hillary Clinton in Altazurra and Alicia Keys in Ralph Lauren. ...

The most significant aspect of this year’s Whitney Biennial is its exhibition design. For the first time since 2016, the museum’s fifth floor has been restored to its Renzo Piano-designed primordial state, forgoing walls in favor of a field of fragmented, Tetris-like half-walls arranged in no discernible order or pattern, bookended by city and Hudson River views. The sixth floor, by contrast, is a ...

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know this Tuesday, April 26. NEED-TO-READ Osman Kavala Sentenced to Life in Prison – The Turkish businessman and art philanthropist was sentenced to life in prison without parole in Istanbul yesterday. Kavala had been detained without a conviction in ...

Hermann Nitsch, a pioneer of Austrian Actionism with a flair for the macabre, has died at 83. Nitsch’s wife, Rita, told the Austria Press Agency that he died in the Austrian town of Mistelbach after battling a serious illness. An exhibition of the artist’s landmark body of work, 20th painting action, comprising a series of red paint-splattered canvases, opened this week on the Venetian ...