Art Jameel centre for contemporary art to launch in Saudi Arabia

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Art Jameel centre for contemporary art to launch in Saudi Arabia | Art Jameel has been granted approval to start the development of Hayy: Creative Hub, its first community-based centre of the arts, it was announced in a press release on Friday. The non-profit has already established programmes in Dubai and Jeddah and has supported artists from the Middle East through schemes such as the Jameel Prize. The planned three-storey centre, set to open in 2019, will exhibit local and international contemporary art and provide space for Saudi Arabian artists to work and collaborate.

Pace to open new space in Geneva | Pace today announced that it will open a new gallery in Geneva in March. The 333-square-metre space on Quai des Bergues will be the ninth Pace outpost (with three others in New York and one in California, Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Bejing and Palo Alto). The opening exhibition in Geneva will include work by Louise Nevelson, Sol LeWitt, and Adam Pendleton.

Robert Pincus-Witten (1935–2018) | American art historian and critic Robert Pincus-Witten has died aged 83. Pincus-Witten coined the term ‘Post-Minimalism’ in a 1971 article on Eva Hesse and went on to publish several treatises, including one titled Postminimalism into Maximalism: American Art 1966–86. After completing a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, he became a professor at City University of New York before forming a long association with Artforum. Pincus-Witten also curated shows for the Gagosian Gallery in New York and acted as director of C&M Arts (now Mnuchin Gallery).

Digital art museum to open in Tokyo | Tokyo-based art collective teamLAB has announced, that it will launch a new museum in partnership with Mori Building, a Tokyo developer, this summer. ‘MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM teamLab Borderless’ will be the first permanent exhibition in the new institution and present an immersive display of digital art.

Recommended reading | In the Guardian, Dalya Alberge writes about the difficult friendship between Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud following the release of recordings in which Bacon reveals details about the relationship. Scott Reyburn questions whether art can be made more accessible in the New York Times. And Judith H. Dobrzynski reviews the exhibition of Michel Sittow’s paintings the National Gallery of Art in Washington in the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the Estonian Renaissance artist deserves to be better-known.