Your 5 weekly art world updates: June 26th!

Jolien Klitsie, Content & Marketing Gallerease
Jolien Klitsie
Content & Marketing
55 Articles

Good afternoon art lovers! It’s now officially summer which means that things are winding down all over the Northern hemisphere. But fear not! There is still plenty to provide you with your weekly fix of art world updates:

Banksy’s identity revealed?

To start off with a bang, several newspapers are reporting on the fact that a British DJ might have accidentally revealed street artist Banksy’s true identity.

The DJ, named Goldie, mentioned the named ‘Robert’ when referring directly to the artist during a podcast episode in which Banksy was the topic. Reports have been circulating for a while that musician Robert Del Naja, known from the band Massive Attack, is the brain behind the world-famous graffiti that’s all over Europe, the US and even Palestine.

Although this theory seems plausible due to the fact that Banksy graffiti has often appeared around the same times and places as Massive Attack performances, the artist still denies this claim. Del Naja has, however, admitted to being friends with the anonymous street artist.

Banksy, Swinger New Orleans
Banksy, Swinger, New Orleans.

Jeff Koons downsizes his studio again.

In other contemporary artist news, artnet has revealed that Jeff Koons’s painting staff was again reduced by a whopping 30 employees last week, almost halving the entire team.

After the Gazing Ball series was completed in 2015, for which Koons and his team repainted 35 art historical masterpieces with a blue gazing ball added to each of them, 30 people were laid off, following another 25. Koons’s team didn’t respond to any requests for comments, but journalists suspect that the disappointing sales at New York's Gagosian Gallery are at the root of these radical reorganizations. 

Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (Manet Luncheon on the Grass), 2014-2015,  © Jeff Koons Courtesy Gagosian Gallery/Photo: Tom Powel Imaging.
Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (Manet Luncheon on the Grass), 2014-2015,  © Jeff Koons Courtesy Gagosian Gallery/Photo: Tom Powel Imaging.

Art of Grenfell tower victim displayed at Tate Britain.

Tate Britain is currently displaying Sothiou, a silk-screen print, in their memorial space. The photograph was taken by British artist Khadija Saye, who sadly died in the Grenfell Tower fire in London two weeks ago. The work is part of a series called “Dwellings: in this space we breathe” which is currently also on show in the Diaspora Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. In her portrait-based pieces, Ms. Saye often referred to her Gambian heritage.


Khadija Saye, Sothiou, silk-screen print of a photograph. Courtesy of Jealous Gallery and The Studio of Nicola Green.



Melchers opens second private museum in the Netherlands.

This coming week, Dutch wealth-magnate Hans Melchers is opening a second museum in The Netherlands. As of June 27th, visitors are welcome at Kasteel Ruurlo to come and admire an impressive collection of oil paintings, gouaches and drawings by Carel Willink within a beautifully renovated castle surrounded by a lively English landscape garden.

Willink was the most important representative of the magical realism style that was popular in the Netherlands during the interbellum years. In 2015, Melchers already established the Museum MORE in Gorssel, containing works by Willink as well as Pyke Koch, Dick Ket and Charley Toorop.

Kasteel Ruurlo Castle Ruurlo
Castle Ruurlo.

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen reveals the new presentation of their collection.


Lastly, after several decades the museum Boijmans van Beuningen has revealed a completely renewed presentation of their collection.

Under the watchful eye of Carel Blotkamp, artist and professor, 600 objects were given a new home within the museum’s walls, including 250 pieces that were taken out of storage after years of living in darkness. The new presentation focuses on a more intense viewing experience, enhanced by a ‘time-machine’ grouping strategy and a tailored colour-palette on the walls. Blotkamp has aspired to seduce the visitor to look at an artwork for at least 15 seconds, instead of the average 8.

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.




Written by Jolien Klitsie on 26 Jun 2017, 12:30 Categoría Art World NewsTagged Consejos, Noticias, Museos
All artworks