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The Flood, by an anonymous artist, 1450–1499, oil on panel, about 4 feet x 3.2 feet.
COURTESY RIJKSMUSEUM
R.I.P.
Sister Wendy Beckett, “a Roman Catholic nun who interrupted a cloistered life of prayer in England in 1991 and soared to international stardom with lyrical BBC documentaries that made her one of the most improbable art critics in television history,” died yesterday at the age of 88. [The New York Times]
Here’s Beckett discussing Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987): “I think to call it blasphemous is really rather begging the question: it could be, or it could not be. It is what you make of it, and I could make something that made me feel a deep desire to reverence the death of Christ . . .” [YouTube via New York and D]
Institutions
The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh reached a settlement in a National Labor Relations Board complaint brought by four employees that alleged they had been retaliated against after reporting sexual misconduct by one of their coworkers. [ARTnews]
The activist group Decolonize This Place announced that it will stage a town hall on January 26 as part of its ongoing criticism of the Whitney Museum for having as its vice chair, Warren Kanders, the CEO of Safariland, whose tear gas was used against migrants on the U.S.–Mexico border last month. [Hyperallergic]
Gareth Harris: “The administrators . . . of the basilica of St Mark’s in Venice have launched a strongly worded denunciation of the Italian government for its failure to protect the famous early medieval church from the flood waters that engulfed the lagoon city in late October.” [The Art Newspaper]
Scholarship
Melissa Smith profiled Denise Murrell, who departed the world of corporate finance to pursue a Ph.D. in art history. Murrell is the curator behind the invigorating exhibition “Posing Modernity: The Black Model From Manet and Matisse to Today” at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery. [The New York Times]
Last night, Jeopardy! devoted an entire category to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here’s the complete sequence. [Jeopardy!/Facebook]
Collectors
Hilarie M. Sheets interviewed Sarah Arison, the chairwoman of the National YoungArts Foundation, about her art collection. She’s met 90 percent of the artists whose work she owns, and her role model in philanthropy is Agnes Gund. [The New York Times]
The Talent
Elizabeth Glassman, the CEO of the Terra Foundation, was named a Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune for the philanthropic work she’s done to support the arts in the Windy City and beyond. [Chicago Tribune]
Eugene A. Jenneman announced that he will retire next year as executive director of the Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City. He’s been with the institution for 30 years. [Manistee News Advocate]
The Virginian-Pilot checked in with Gary Ryan, the new director of the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach. [The Virginian-Pilot]
Celebs
Discussing some of his favorite music, Prince Charles named Leonard Cohen’s “Take This Waltz,” saying, “I find it very moving, the words are so extraordinary, sort of Salvador Dalí-like, they lead you into this remarkable Dalí-like world.” [The Guardian]
Drake declared that his one-year-old son, Adonis, is a greater artist than Picasso, presenting one of his gestural abstractions on Instagram. [Page Six]
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