CHRISTOPH BUCHEL SHOW FINALLY OPENS - BUT UNDER WRAPS
We reported a few weeks ago on the dispute over an exhibition by Swiss artist Christoph Buchel which was meant to have opened at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art last December. According to a report in this week's New York Times, the exhibition will open on Saturday 'without Mr. Büchel's permission or cooperation.' Since the installation of the show began last autumn Büchel, his gallery Hauser & Wirth and the museum have been unable to resolve issues to do with the budget which was originally agreed at $160,000 but Buchel wanted to double. Because of concerns about legal action by Christoph Büchel, the museum will shield all the huge objects in the exhibition space from view with tall plastic tarps. This solution to a difficult situation is one that the museum wants to be only temporary - yesterday it filed a request in federal district court in Springfield, Mass., seeking protections that would allow it to open the unfinished show full-on, without wrappers. As yet, Buchel has declined to comment on the latest development in the stand-off between himself and the museum, which, according to some observers, might have been deliberately manufactured by Buchel in order to create 'a literal demonstration of the kind of futility and absurdity that he seeks to communicate in the exhibition, with war, religion and the news media as his motifs'.
SOTHEBY'S TO SELL FRANCIS BACON SELF-PORTRAIT
Sotheby's has announced it will be selling Francis Bacon's Self Portrait, painted in 1978, at its forthcoming sale of Contemporary Art in London on Wednesday, 21 June. The inclusion of this masterpiece follows on from the unprecedented success of Bacon's 'Study for Innocent X', which was sold at Sotheby's New York on Tuesday, 15 May for a world record price of $52,680,000.
SOTHEBY'S OPENS MOSCOW OFFICE
As reported by Bloomberg, Sotheby's opened an office in Moscow today. 'Sotheby's has worked successfully with Russia for many years, but working without a Moscow presence is no longer possible,' said Mikhail Kamensky, the director of the Moscow office. 'Before, a small number of Russian collectors and dealers were buying only Russian art in London and New York. Now there is a large number of Russians who are buying all types of art and who are buying in cities all over the world.' Russia, the world's second-biggest oil exporter, is in its ninth year of economic growth, fueled in part by commodities. Sotheby's Russian art sales have risen more than twenty-fold since 2001, and totaled $153.5 million in 2006. Besides seeking to improve client relations through its Moscow office, Sotheby's will offer services such as private sales, exhibitions, art consulting as well as financial and legal advice, said Kamensky. Sotheby's new Moscow office also will cover the Commonwealth of Independent States, as the former Soviet Union is known. Ukraine is the top priority after Russia, said Kamensky. Sotheby's would eventually like to open an auction room in Moscow, but current Russia law makes that prohibitive at the moment, said Kamensky.
ART MATTERS ANNOUNCES GRANTS FOR 2007
Art Matters has announced it will be awarding grants totalling $150,000 towards artists' projects that foster communication and collaboration across national borders, especially those that establish links among art, artists, and the general public. Twenty-three artists will be given between $3,000-$10,000 to pursue projects in all visual media including film, video, digital arts, performance (with a strong visual component), installation, and site-specific work. The winners include Kori Newkirk, Sanford Biggers, Daniel Bozhkov, Sharon Hayes and Saya Woolfalk.
NEW PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT FOCUSES ON KATRINA SLABS
As reported by the Associated Press, artist Clay Ketter and photographer Nils Bergendale have embarked on a new project along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. They are using a crane, in which they have placed a specially made camera, to photograph the patterns left behind on the thousands of foundation slabs laid bare by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Sweden-based artists will blow up the resulting images to 6 feet by 6 feet and display them in Europe and New York City.
LONDON GALLERY OWNER DONATING PROFITS TO SCIENTOLOGY
A furore has broken out over a London gallery whose owner is though to be giving money from the sale of contemporary art to the Church of Scientology. Fraser Kee Scott, who has admitted to being a Scientologist, holds Scientology workshops at this gallery and sells the works of its founder, L Ron Hubbard, alongside works of art. The A Gallery is currently showing works by the Stuckists whose spokesperson, Charles Thomson, has been infuriated by the way that Kee Scott has been promoting Scientology in interviews about the exhibition. "It is outrageous he is promoting an art show but talking about Scientology. I feel we have been tricked. We said we want nothing to do with Scientology but we are now being associated with it. It puts us in a very difficult position because we were promised the gallery is run as a commercial venture but he can't seem to stop talking about Scientology. He is a nice guy and is genuine but it is pissing us off.'
TATE RECEIVES LARGEST EVER INDIVIDUAL DONATION
Bloomberg reported this week on a £5 million donation Tate Modern in London has received from John Studzinski, of Blackstone Group LLP. The money will go toward the expansion of the Tate Modern with a new building on the south side. The London Development Agency has already committed £7 million to fast track the building, so that it is ready for London's hosting of the Summer Olympic Games in 2012. 'This first really major donation is crucial,' said Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate. Serota said Studzinski is 'well known in the banking community. There are other people interestied in collecting and the visual arts who will be stimulated by his example.'

LOU REED TO CURATE PHOTORGAPHY EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK
Lou reed is to curate a show of vintage and modern photographic prints from the Magnum Archive. Entitled 'New York Genius', the exhibition is comprised of portraits of Lou Reed's favourite musicians, dancers, painters, actors, writers, and architects. Pictures included are an exhausted Sammy Davis, Jr. by Burt Glinn, a pensive Susan Sontag by Henri Cartier-Bresson, and a flexuous James Brown by Eve Arnold. Also included are portraits by Bruce Davidson, Dennis Stock, Wayne Miller, Thomas Hoepker, Erich Lessing, Paul Fusco, and others. Other subjects include Billie Holiday, Andy Warhol, Leonard Bernstein, Allen Ginsberg, Elaine May, Gordon Parks, Zero Mostel, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Robert Rauschenberg, The Supremes, Dion, Martin Scorsese, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Lowell, Igor Stravinsky, and Ella Fitzgerald. Lou reed commented: "As New York City is the center of my universe, it is an honor to be able to curate photos of the many extraordinary creative talents that have continued to make this city so vibrant.'
MICHAEL RITTER 1949-2007
The Centre culturel suisse de Paris has announced the death of its director, Michael Ritter. Ritter was born in Fribourg in 1949 and started out as a self-taught artist at the beginning of the 70s, when he was living in New York. After returning to Switzerland, he decided to concentrate on the work of others and founded the RB gallery, an independent space in Fribourg. In 1981, he organised the important Fri-Art 81 exhibition which was also presented in New York as 'Fri-Art made in Switzerland' and whose impact enabled him to found the Contemporary Art Centre in Fribourg, which was based on the Kunsthalle model. He was director there till 2002, and in 2004 he received the Prix Art Frankfurt for the ambitious international programme he created at the Centre culturel suisse de Paris.
JOAN MITCHELL FOUNDATION AWARDS 2007 GRANTS TO MFA STUDENTS
The Joan Mitchell Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2007 awards for painting and sculpture MFA students graduating this year. The following will each recive grants of $15,000: Lauren Adams, Stephanie Beck, Natasha Bowdoin, Shay Church, Dara Engler, Asuka Goto, Peter Gregorio, Mayumi Komuro, John McAllister, Lydia Musco, Andrew Patterson-Tutschka, Sara Pedigo, Ryan Pierce, Vitus Shell, and Rosemary Taylor.
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