Visual arts

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) has removed two artworks after an open letter from the Board of Deputies of British Jews raised “significant concerns” that they contained “antisemitic tropes and messaging”.

The letter, posted on X on 15 July, by Vice-President Andrew Gilbert, complained about three works, saying they had “significant concern to members of our community”,  displaying “highly charged and controversial messages” with “no attempt to present any context”.

RA told The Art Newspaper that after careful review, it had removed two works from its Young Artist's Show, adding that it recognised an exhibition for and by young people is "not an appropriate environment for volatile public discourse”. The statement apologised for any hurt or distress caused to artists or visitors.

One of the removed pieces was described in the open letter as including the words, “Jews say stop genocide on Palestinians: Not in Our Name”, while the second was said to portray a screaming woman and a swastika.

Gilbert also condemned a third work in the Summer Exhibition by an RA academician. The charcoal drawing, which includes a pilot and plane bearing the Star of David, remains on display and for sale for £17,000. 

An artist has been appointed to undertake a research commission to explore well-being in rural communities in Northumberland.

The Maltings (Berwick) Trust and Newcastle University said Emily Cropton, a multi-disciplinary artist based in the Scottish Borders, will work with the two organisations and researchers at the university’s Population Health Sciences Institute to document well-being in rural communities, with a specific focus on the relationship between the human and landscape body.

The Northumberland Gazette reports that the commission has been informed by university research that found living in a rural area can significantly impact individuals’ well-being, both positively and negatively.

“The opportunity to work in this way, between theory and practice, will be a new approach for me and I’m excited to get stuck in,” Cropton said.
 

A museum in Switzerland will take down five paintings suspected of being looted by Nazis after new international guidelines were laid out earlier this year to aid restitution of art that was previously stolen or forcibly sold. 

Kunsthaus Zurich Museum said the paintings - by Monet, Courbet, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh and Gauguin - will be removed from display while an investigation is conducted.

The works form part of the Emil Bührle Collection, which has previously been the subject of provenance questions. 

Bührle was an arms dealer who sold weapons to the Nazis in World War Two. When he died in 1956, he had built a collection of some 600 artworks, many of which are on display at the Kunsthaus as part of a 20-year loan.

Switzerland is one of more than 20 countries that signed up to the US State Department’s Best Practices for Restitution of Nazi-Confiscated Art in March. 

Stuart Eizenstat, the US secretary of State's special advisor on Holocaust issues, said the guidance sought to address "over 100,000 of the 600,000 paintings and many more of the millions of books, manuscripts, ritual religious items and other cultural objects stolen that have never been returned".

Under existing Swiss law, descendants seeking to recover artworks from the Bührle collection have no legal claims for restitution or compensation due to statutes of limitations.

The Emil Buhrle Collection board said it is "committed to seeking a fair and equitable solution for these works with the legal successors of the former owners, following best practices".

Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art has announced that with “extreme sadness and sorrow”, it will close until October following its occupation by the student-led group Goldsmith’s for Palestine.

The activists have occupied various university buildings since February and last month “pressured” CCA to close on 31 May and for the remainder of its current exhibition in June as part of a widespread cultural strike in solidarity with Palestine.

Among its demands, Goldsmiths For Palestine (GFP) is asking the university to end its involvement with honourary fellow Candida Gertler and her husband Zak, who are “major benefactors” to CCA and have a gallery named after them. GFP claim the couple are closely linked with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and involved with supporting illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

On 11 June, CCA posted that “with regret,” the gallery would be closing its doors until October. The gallery's statement said: "We are closing because a student group has been occupying the space, which prevents us from operating properly as a public art gallery.

“We’re doing this because while the occupation continues, we are unable to fulfil the terms required by our insurers for keeping artworks safe and unable to maintain health and safety standards for visitors and staff.”

As a result, its upcoming exhibition, featuring the work of German artist Galli, has been rescheduled to early 2025, while its residents programme, which houses school groups, student groups, and artist and community groups, has been “paused for the time being.”

Artist Mark Corfield-Moore, who, along with Matt Connors, had his exhibition at CCA cut short after the gallery occupation in May, posted a message of support for the GFP on Instagram, saying that despite the premature closing, “some things are rightfully more important right now.”

GFP told The Arts Newspaper that after initial concession from the university’s senior management following earlier occupations, they had since missed two meetings with the group 

In a statement, the group said: “We reiterate that our action is a direct result of senior management's failures and any decisions made by CCA to close were entirely their decisions. The closure until October was neither a suggested nor intended part of our campaign.

"We were not told that this would be a possibility or outcome of our actions before it was publicly announced, and we had been attempting to negotiate with the CCA in good faith to navigate the de-installations/installations of exhibitions and with the knowledge of impacts on precarious workers at the CCA, namely the front of house staff who are mostly students like us.”

Scotland's First Minister John Swinney has demanded "a very full and comprehensive explanation from Creative Scotland" after the arts funding body was accused of misleading MSPs over a three-screen art installation it supported that would have included non-simulated sex acts.

REIN, directed by Leonie Rae Gasson, was awarded £85,000 by Creative Scotland to develop what was described as “an exploration of dyke sexuality”.

The funding was later withdrawn after concerns were raised when the project's website advertised for people to take part in "non-simulated" sex, including "hardcore" acts.

Iain Munro, Creative Scotland's Chief Executive, has stated that the organisation did not know that the project would include non-simulated sex when it awarded the funding. 

In a letter to Holyrood’s Culture Committee in March he claimed the REIN application had initially stated that sex acts would simulated.

However, documents released under Freedom of Information show that the successful application made clear that there would be “work on a sex scene with genital contact" involving three members of the cast.

Swinney said: “The Culture Secretary [Angus Robertson] has expressed his concerns about the information that’s come to light and he’s asked for urgent discussions with the chair and chief executive of Creative Scotland because we have got to understand the substance of this issue.

“I share the concerns that the Culture Secretary has expressed and I think we need to see a very full and comprehensive explanation from Creative Scotland.”

English Cathedrals has launched a new partnership with a consultant arts curator to offer support and advice to any cathedral exploring opportunities to use the visual arts to attract new audiences.

Visual arts adviser Jacquiline Creswell will work with interested cathedrals to identify opportunities, curate and deliver projects, select artists and artworks, advise on procurement and, if appropriate, develop site-specific commissions.

The Dean of St Albans and Chair of the Association of English Cathedrals, the Very Reverend Jo Kelly-Moore, said: “Over the centuries the visual arts have always had a central role in our cathedrals’ telling of the good news of God’s love for the world. 

"In our ongoing commitment to the arts, this partnership allows us to celebrate our faith in new ways, open up fresh conversations, encourage spiritual development, engage with diverse communities and challenges all of us to consider who we are and our place in the world.

“This is an exciting development for us here at the Association of English Cathedrals and we hope it proves to be a rich resource to help support our cathedrals.”

Nearly 200 artists, curators, and critics have voiced their support of Palais de Tokyo after a longtime patron resigned from the Paris museum, accusing it of promoting “wokeism, anti-capitalism, pro-Palestine, etc.”

In an open letter, Collector Sandra Hegedüs said she withdrew from the museum's patron group, Amis du Palais de Tokyo, after 15 years because a current show contains references to efforts toward Palestinian liberation.

Hegedüs wrote that the exhibition “proposes, without perspective, some biased views and lies about the history of this conflict.” 

In an open letter first published in Le Monde, nearly 200 signatories, including artists Éric Baudelaire, Camille Henrot, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Pierre Huyghe, said the situation posed a potential threat to “institutional freedom” in France.

The letter said: “Like art and artists, our cultural institutions must remain free, or else risk disappearing.

“To remain free, they must be able to work with the professionalism and peace of mind that allow them to provide the conditions for the confrontation of ideas that is at the heart of their mission.”

A women-only exhibition at a Tasmanian museum that received a court order forcing it to admit men has announced it will install a toilet to sidestep the ruling.

The Ladies Lounge at Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art has been open since 2020 and houses some of the museum's most acclaimed works. Playing on the concept of Australian pubs, which were historically male-only spaces, the exhibit only offered women admittance. 

In April, a court ordered men to be allowed entry following a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by Jason Lau, a New South Wales resident.

Kirsha Kaechele, the artist behind the lounge, which has been closed since the ruling, said she plans to install a toilet and a church in the space, which she claims will allow it to continue operating as a women-only space under legal exemptions.

“There is a fabulous toilet coming to the Ladies Lounge and so, in that sense, the Ladies Lounge will operate as a ladies’ room,” said Kaechele.

There are plans to admit men to the exhibit on Sundays to learn ironing and laundry folding.

Despite losing the discrimination case, Kaechele said the outcome had been positive. "Thanks to the ruling,” she said, “We have no choice but to open ourselves to a whole range of enriching experiences - spiritual, educational... to discover fascinating new possibilities, and to become better."