Weekly News Round-up

1. Richard Wright wins 2009 Turner Prize:
Glasgow-based painter Richard Wright, 49, was announced the winner of the 2009 Turner Prize on Monday (pictured above). The artist used the painstaking techniques of Renaissance fresco-makers to make his gold-leaf fresco for the Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain in London. In keeping with Wright’s insistence that his works be destroyed after being exhibited, his latest fresco will be painted over when the show closes on 3 January 2010. Judges described Wright’s paintings as rooted in the fine art tradition yet ‘radically conceptual in impact.’ Wright beat the three other finalists,...

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Weekly news round-up

1. Rediscovered painting of Charles I by Delaroche to be shown at National Gallery:
After the 1941 bombing of the Duke of Sutherland's London residence, Bridgewater House, Paul Delaroche’s Charles I Insulted by Cromwell’s Soldiers, which had extensive shrapnel damage, was rolled up and taken to safety at Mertoun, the duke’s Scottish home (pictured above). The painting was kept in storage for 68 years and thought by its owner to be ruined, before being rediscovered by National Gallery conservators as part of the research for an upcoming exhibition on Delaroche’s work. Painted in 1837 and described by the director...

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Weekly news round-up

1. Tate appoints its first photography curator:
Simon Baker has been appointed as the Tate’s first curator of photography and international art. Baker was previously associate professor in art history at the University of Nottingham, specialising in history of photography and Surrealism. He is co-curator of 'Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera', a photographic exhibition which will open in May at Tate Modern.
Art Forum

2. Eli Broad expands plans for the Broad Art Foundation building:
Art collector Eli Broad has nearly doubled the size of the museum he plans to build in California to house...

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Weekly news round-up

1. Dr. Penelope Curtis Appointed New Director of Tate Britain:
Dr Penelope Curtis, Curator of the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, has been appointed the new Director of Tate Britain. Dr Curtis has been Curator of the Henry Moore Institute since 1999 where she has been responsible for developing a distinctive programme of exhibitions, presenting sculpture of all periods. Curtis will take up this appointment in April 2010, taking over from the founding Director of Tate Britain, Dr Stephen Deuchar, who will leave Tate in December 2009 to become the Director of The Art Fund.

2. Millet masterpiece left to...

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Master of Masters?

‘Turner and the Masters’ at Tate Britain (23 September-31 January 2010) achieves what the organisation’s outgoing director, Stephen Deuchar, describes as the ‘logical conclusion’ to presenting a Turner retrospective. The exhibition is, as Deuchar explains, ‘a simple idea’ documenting the career of Turner. It shows what made him the master he is considered today through an exploration of his artistic personality.

This retrospective, however, doesn’t simply provide a visual chronology of Turner’s work but offers a comparison with Turner’s own artistic influences, including artists such as Rembrandt, Poussin and Titian. In exhibiting the works alongside each other, the Tate...

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