COURTAULD CONSIDERING DRASTIC CUTS

The Courtauld Institute in London is considering drastic cuts to its three archives of images, including the Witt Library. From September, they would only open one day a week and effectively cease to collect. This proposal is causing great concern amongst art historians, as well as the art trade, since it is a major resource.

More than three million images are kept in London’s Somerset House and are currently open to the public every weekday. The plan is that the libraries would open only one day a week. The Witt Library holds around two million photographs and reproductions of paintings that are pasted onto thin card and stored in file boxes, classified by national school, then artist, and finally subdivided by iconography. Covering the period from 1200AD to the present, 70,000 artists are represented. The library’s origins go back to the image collection begun by Sir Robert Witt, who bequeathed it to the Courtauld in 1952.

The Conway Library is a similar collection, covering architecture, sculpture and some decorative art. Begun by Lord Conway, it was donated to the Courtauld in 1932 and now comprises around one million images.

The Photographic Survey records paintings, works on paper and sculptures in private historic collections (mainly those of aristocratic families) in England, Wales and Ireland. It began in the early 1950s, in association with New York’s Frick Art Reference Library, and now covers nearly 600 collections.

SATURDAY SKETCH DAY

SATURDAY SKETCH DAY AT THE GOSS-MICHAEL FOUNDATION ON AUGUST 15

New Summer Hours Begin August 4

The Goss-Michael Foundation announces Saturday Sketch Days on specific weekends during its 2009 summer and fall exhibitions. On select Saturdays, from 2 – 3 p.m., attendees will have the opportunity to experience a brief tour of the current exhibition hosted by a Goss-Michael Foundation staff member and sketch their impressions of the featured works.
The first scheduled date is Saturday, August 15. Attendance is open to those ages 12 and older, and all minors must be accompanied by an adult. Free of charge, the event it limited to the first 20 people to register and is open to groups by reservation only. Reservations can be made by calling 214-696-0555.

PROJECT SPACES & GALLERIES

Here is a list of some of our favorite project spaces, galleries and non-profits in London which we think are doing some really cool things at the moment.
If you are in London this summer please stop by at least one or two and say the GMF said hi !!
Hexprojects
Chisenhale Gallery
Paradise Row
Herald St.
The Approach
Cubitt
Hollybush Gardens
Limoncello Gallery
Dicksmith Gallery
Hotel
Alison Jacques Gallery
Museum52
Vilma Gold Gallery
Modern Art
Studio Voltaire
Swallow St.
LUX
Sadie Coles Gallery
Laura Bartlett Gallery
Seventeen
Maureen Paley

MARC QUINN SHOW SEPTEMBER 24 - JANUARY 23, 2010

The Goss-Michael Foundation is pleased to announce an exhibition of sculptural works by one of the most influential British contemporary artists: Marc Quinn.

The GMF has partnered with The Rachofsky Collection, one of the world’s foremost private collections, to produce an exceptional survey of Marc Quinn’s sculptural works throughout the last decade. Through the collaboration between these two prominent private collections, the GMF and the Rachofsky Collection hope to contribute to Dallas’ rise into the ranks of influential contemporary art capitals.

The GMF and the Rachofsky Collection bring together a strong array of Quinn’s works dated from 1998 to present. Utilizing both traditional mediums such as bronze and marble, in addition to more innovative materials such as ice, blood, insulin and DNA, Quinn breaks the boundaries of historical sculpture-making. The works included in the exhibition comment on the modern preoccupation of eternal preservation of the self and explore Quinn’s obsession with the unpredictability of the human body and the dualisms that define human life, such as: spiritual and physical, surface and depth, cerebral and sexual.

The Rachofsky Collection has contributed Marc Quinn’s signature piece, Self II (1998), which has become famously known as The Blood Head. This frozen sculpture of the artist’s head is made from ten pints of his own blood, taken from his body over a five month period. Juxtaposed in the space is the Goss-Michael Collection’s, Sky (2006), a frozen representation of Quinn’s child created from the birth placenta and umbilical cord.

Amongst several sculptural works in the exhibition is another of Quinn’s most important pieces: Alison Lapper and Parys (2009), a 7ft high marble sculpture of Quinn’s dear friend Alison Lapper. Born with no arms and shortened legs, she is powerfully depicted sitting with her son Parys. Again, Quinn challenges traditional parameters and social standards for immortalizing beauty in white marble, elevating instead on a tall plinth an unconventional sitter. A version of this sculpture was on prominent display on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery (London, 2005).

The show will run from September 24 - January 23, 2010

CERITH WYN EVANS

Lorcan O'Neill Gallery in Rome will show new work by British artist Cerith Wyn Evans.

EXPLORING PRIVATE UNIVERSES WITH JAMES COPE AT THE DMA

Associate Curator James Cope of The Goss-Michael Foundation will give a gallery talk on the current exhibition Exploring Private Universes.
Date: Wednesday 22July

Time: 3:00

Location: Dallas Museum of Art

We hope to see everyone there.

For more information please click here

DASH SNOW DIES AT 27

RIP
He's not British but worth some honorable respect.
Dash Snow, grandson of Christophe de Menil died on Monday night of a drug overdose in New York.

EVA ROTHSCHILD @ TATE BRITAIN

If you are in London this summer you should visit the Tate Britain to see Eva Rothschild's installation, click here for more info.

ARTLIES MAGAZINE SOLD AT GMF

The Goss-Michael Foundation is one of the few places in Dallas to carry Artlies.
Come and pick up a copy. First 10 people through the door this Saturday get a free T-shirt as well.
Artlies Mag $7.00

FIRST 10 GET A T-SHIRT

This Saturday 11th the first 10 people to visit the Foundation will get a free T-shirt.
Hours 11:00-4:00
Group Show: EAT ME - DRINK ME

YINKA SHONIBARE & ANTONY GORMLEY 4TH PLINTH

This summer, sculptor Antony Gormley invites people to help create an astonishing living monument. He is asking the people of the UK to occupy the empty Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, a space normally reserved for statues of Kings and Generals, in an image of themselves, and a representation of the whole of humanity. This is taking place from 6 July to 14 October 2009.

The Fourth Plinth is in the north-west of Trafalgar Square, in central London. Built in 1841, it was originally intended for an equestrian statue but was empty for many years. It is now the location for specially commissioned artworks.

'Nelson's Ship in a Bottle' by Yinka Shonibare MBE will follow Antony Gormley's One & Other on the Fourth Plinth.

Yinka Shonibare proposes to make a scale replica of Nelson’s ship, HMS Victory, in a giant glass bottle. The ship’s magnificent sails will be produced in richly coloured and patterned textiles, which Shonibare buys from Brixton market in London. They are assumed to be African but in fact the fabric was inspired by Indonesian batik design, mass produced by the Dutch and sold to the colonies in West Africa. By the 1960s the material was popularly assimilated in Africa and became symbolic of African identity and independence. Shonibare says his piece will reflect the story of multiculturalism in London today, which began as a result of Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar: ‘For me it’s a celebration of London’s immense ethnic wealth, giving expression to and honouring the many cultures and ethnicities that are still breathing precious wind into the sails of the UK.’