Well now, I go on holiday for a few weeks and find my friends the Stuckists back in the headlines. Following an article in the Times reporting the reprimand delivered by the Charity Commission criticising the Tate’s £600,000 purchase of Chris Ofili’s Upper Room whilst he was a serving trustee (interesting word), Tim Adams does a piece “The were Ofili naughty” in the Guardian.

Speaking with Charles Thomson, co-founder of the Stuckists, Adams asks if they “had been out on the town celebrating their victory” - to which Thomson replied, “‘No, there was just the odd phone call…The news has a bitter-sweet quality. We think of the Tate as our gallery, too.’ Exactly my feelings! I have stated on several occasions that Sir Nicholas Serota has tainted the reputation of one of our greatest modern art assets, by allowing the Tate Modern to be dragged into this sordid little scandal. I personally was especially exasperated by Serota’s cavalier rejection of Gerald Laing’s Iraq works back in January.

Where it will all end, who knows, Serota seems to have teflon skin - or is it that the powers that be are all bark and no bite?

“Tate’s Ofili purchase broke charity law” - Times article by Dalya Alberg here

“The were Ofili naughty” - Guardian article by Tim Adams here

Gerald Laing snub article here

Stuckist site here

Upper Room pictures here

PS Anyone in need of a good laugh - go here

As reported here in February, Wakefield waterfront is to get Hepworth Wakefield, an art gallery featuring works by Dame Barabara Hepworth and Wakefield Council has announced that it will receive £5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

With £24m worth of funding in place, work will commence on the gallery in August with an expected completion date of October 2008.

“This is marvellous news for the city and great news for the arts. The Hepworth Wakefield will be a building of national and international significance and will put the city on the cultural map of Britain” said Council leader Peter Box.

As a big fan of Yorkshire Sculpture Park just down the road from Wakefield, this is music to my ears, making the drive to Yorkshire all the more worthwhile - I can’t wait!

Original item here

More YSP here

More Hepworth here

Everybody Has To Sometimes Break The Rules - Part 2

“We have a simple policy, which is not to show private collections” - Sir Nicholas Serota - 2000

“A new display of works from The UBS Art Collection opens at Tate Modern” - Tate Press Release - 2006

What am I missing here? Could it be this?

“When UBS comes to the point of managing this asset - that is, selling it - it will record in the provenance the line ‘On long-term loan to Tate Modern’, a line that amounts to a guarantee of importance, worth at least another five per cent in price.” - Brian Sewell.

Here we go again, another scandal brewing at Tate Modern. 10 out of 10 for Chris Hastings and Beth Jones in the Telegraph this morning for their piece on the Tate’s giving over three rooms to the private collection of Swiss bank UBS during the major rehang of its collection - UBS being the new sponsors at the Tate.

It would appear that commercial interests and personal agendas overide ethics at our beautiful Tate. After last years controversy over the Chris Offili “Upper Room” purchase, you’d have thought that that would have learned something - or are they so arrogant as to believe they can do no wrong?

Me? I’d have given one room to Hirst, one room to Emin and the third to the Stuckists.

Read it here

Unseen for 24 years by the public, three self portraits by Francis Bacon will go under the hammer at Christie’s next month. Entitled Three Studies, the triptych was sold by Bacon in the 1980s and is expected to to fetch over £5m.

Also in the sale are pictures by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.

Article and picture here

Short piece in today’s Independent about how Damien Hirst is collaborating with a Bond Street jeweller to produce a diamond encrusted skull.

The skull will be made in platinum and completely covered in diamonds and will cost between £8m and £10m to create, making it the biggest single undertaking since the Crown Jewels.

Read Sophie Goodchild’s story here

Added: Sean O’Hagan covers the story for the Guardian here

Dropped across an article today in the Houston Chronicle about Frida Khalo’s “Roots” coming up for auction at Sotheby’s, New York next week. Estimates range from $5m to $7m with one opinion that it “could in fact bring as much as $14 million.” In the light of her recent universal popularity, this figure would not surprise me at all.

Owned for many years by Marilyn Oshman, a collector from Houston, “Roots” is a classic Khalo work.
Read about it here

Khalo pictures here

In a press release on the Tate website today, this year’s Turner Prize artist shortlist and jury members are announced.

Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Rebecca Warren and Mark Titchner will compete for the £25,000 prize in December.

The jury members this year are Lynn Barber, of The Observer, Margot Heller, Director of the South London Gallery, Matthew Higgs the Director and Chief Curator of White Columns, New York, Andrew Renton, writer and Director of Curating, Goldsmiths College and Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate and Chairman of the Jury.

Read the press release here

Tomma Abts pictures here

Phil Collins pictures here (you’ll have sort through these

Rebecca Warren pictures here

Mark Titchner pictures here

Little piece by Arifa Akbar in the Independent this morning about my favourite graffiti artist Banksy. The Independent has commissioned him to do a large wall in Chalk Farm, north London to be “a metaphor for the West’s reluctance to tackle issues such as Aids in Africa.”

Also mentioned is his participation in an exhibition at Gallery 27 this week about the Palestinian conflict. Called Occupied Space, the exhibition includes pieces by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Antony Gormley and Maggi Hambling.

Read it here

No pictures as yet.

In the week that “Cloud Gate”, Anish Kapoor’s mirror-finish sculpture in Millenium Park, Chicago was officially dedicated, comes the news that Kapoor has been commisioned to create a major new piece for the Channel Gardens in Rockefeller Center, New York, this autumn.

“Sky Mirror”, a three story high circular mirror will go on display in September and consists of a huge, highly polished dish, its concave side angled upward facing 30 Rockefeller Plaza, its convex side facing Fifth Avenue, reflecting pedestrians and the cityscape.

Earlier this week the sculpture Cloud Gate, known locally as “The Bean”, was dedicated in a ceremony led by Chicago First Lady Maggie Daley and featured the premiere of “Fanfare for Cloud Gate,” a new piece by Chicago jazz veteran Orbert Davis.

Articles here and here

Cloud Gate pictures here

Nice piece in the Guardian about a summer exhibition of abstract art by John Hoyland at Tate St Ives. Mel Gooding gushes about one of our greatest abstract painters combining a mini biography with bits of interviews and famous quotes - my favourite being when… “New York critic Clement Greenberg querulously asked him, “Why do you paint more than one image?”, Hoyland replied. “Because I’ve got more than one idea.”

I have a deep love for St Ives, home to two of my personal favourite artists, Patrick Heron and Barbara Hepworth, indeed, a long time ago I lived in Zennor, just outside St Ives and would hitch a ride with Heron’s wife in her little Mini Clubman along the beautiful coast road from Eagles Nest to St Ives. There are few places on this earth as beautiful as West Penwith, especially in the spring and autumn, so I think a mini-holiday is in order this year to see this exhibition and soak up the magical Cornish atmosphere.

Read all about it here
Pictures here