Here’s a turnabout: Brandeis University, which set off a storm two years ago when trustees tried to sell art from the Rose Art Museum’s collection, now plans to renovate the museum, rather than destroy it.

Things are not so dire as they once seemed, which I what I posited in this space 11 months ago.

The university has posted a press release, dated Mar. 10, on its website, but the fact just came to my attention. The renovations are scheduled to take this place in the original building this summer, in preparation for the museum’s 50th anniversary next fall. The art will start coming down in April, although the newer wing will remain open, with a new access point, through mid-June.

Sandra and Gerald S. Fineberg made a gift that will pay the tab for new ceilings, new floors, new lighting, new HVAC, etc. etc.

Of course, the Rose still does not have a director. Director of Museum Operations Roy Dawes is in charge.

I haven’t heard much about the lawsuit filed against Brandeis by Rose trustees, which was supposed to go to court last December. But courts delay, and according to an article on Monday in the Waltham News Tribune, the lawsuit is still in Suffolk Probate and Family Court in Boston.

Figures.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Brandeis University 

 

…from my trip to Chile (Santiago, Valparaiso and Vina del Mar). The sunny, warm weather was perfect — the exact relief I was seeking from this miserable New York winter — but I didn’t see much art. What museums I visited have little of note, and a few are still closed as a result of the January, 2010 earthquake.

Now I have a week’s worth of newspapers (yes, I still read the inky kind) and mail to go through, plus much email, etc., which I couldn’t access at time while I was away.

I hope to post something later today.

The Venice Biennale is months away — it opens on June 4 — but the other day there was some somewhat startling news about it: Not only is Saudi Arabia putting forward its inaugural entry, but also it has chosen two women artists to represent the Kingdom. This in a country where women mostly may not drive, among other constrictions.

The artist Shadia Alem and writer Raja Alem — sisters, shown at left — are creating an installation called The Black Arch. Here´s the description:

It is very much about a meeting point of the two artists; of two visions of the world; from darkness to light, and of two cities – Mecca and Venice. The work is a stage, set to project the artists’ collective memory of Black – the monumental absence of colour. The first part of the installation relates to the physical representation of Black, referring to their past. The narrative is fuelled by the inspirational tales told by their aunts and grandmothers, and are anchored in Mecca, where the sisters grew up in the 1970s. As a counter point, the second part of the installation is a mirror image, an illumination, reflecting the present. These are the aesthetic parameters of the work. The Black Arch is also about a journey, about transition; inspired by Marco Polo and fellow thirteenth-century traveller Ibn Battuta – both examples of how cultures were bridged together through travel. The artists explain their intention: “to bring my city of Mecca to Venice, through objects brought from there: a Black Arch; a cubic city, and a handful of Muzdalifah pebbles.”, and to focus on the similarities between the two cosmopolitan cities and their inspirational powers.

As I noted the other day, I am traveling, and I was unable to go to the press conference last Friday about this. I couldn´t ask questions. But unless there´s something about this that I don´t know — the way the artists were chosen, whether subjects were limited, etc. — this strikes me as a good development no matter how it´s parsed. Good to have Saudi Arabia as part of contemporary art, good to have women artists allowed to work there.

Here´s more on the sisters from other sites: here and here.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Brunswick Group

 

Every now and then, a museum acquisition is worth highlighting because either the work is, to me, fanatastic, or because it makes another point.

The other day, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, announced that it had acquired a dozen light-based works by James Turrell. Turrell has many fans. Now, I have not seen the Roden Crater, but his light works haven’t always thrilled me. When I recently visited the MFAH, I was underwhelmed by the work that runs underground in a tunnel linking the museum´s two buildings. It´s called ¨The Light Inside.¨ (It´s pictured here.) On the other hand, I do like his skyscapes.

And, since many do think Turrell is an excellent artist who will stand the test of time, the acquisition is notable on the second score: MFAH has had a ¨longstanding commitment¨to Turell´s work, and this builds on that strength. It could well be one of the museum´s points of differentiation, at a time when too many museums are building too-similar collections.

The purchase, using funds from an acquisitions endowment, continues a partnership that dates to the 1994, and it evolved from conversations Turrell had with the late Peter Marzio, who directed MFAH for nearly 30 years until his death last December.  

Turrell, the museum says, titled the group of works aquired by MFAH “Vertical Vintage” — because it is a retrospective selection that reflects the full arc of his engagement with artificial light. Dates on the works begin in 1967 and continus to his most recent “Tall Glass” series, dated 2010.

Read more in the press release here, including the list of works.

As MFAH notes, just this month, Turrell was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and later this year, his work will be shown at the Venice Biennale.

Swiss collector Donald Hess has built a museum for Turrell´s work, but it´s in northwest Argentina. The flight from Argentina takes more than two hours, according to the Wall Street Journal. Not every Turrell fan will be able to go there. If MHFA is a place his fans turn instead, MFAH´s purchase will have been worth it. Of course, we don´t know that price…it wasn´t disclosed.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of MFAH

 

 

I’m traveling, and unsure of access to a computer. I’ll post if I can, so please check back!