Artist murdered in Washington, D.C.

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Artist murdered in Washington, D.C. | The body of artist Corinna Mehiel has been discovered on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.. Mehiel, an artist known for socially and politically informed work, was living in the US capital on a temporary basis, overseeing an exhibit she had created with conceptual artist Mel Chin at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Acting D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham has said that there is no evidence ‘to suggest that this was random at this point’.

Angela Merkel to receive Elie Wiesel Award |  Angela Merkel is to receive the US Holocaust Museum’s most prestigious honour, the Elie Wiesel Award. The German Chancellor will be decorated for ‘her singular contributions in support of Holocaust memory and education’, the museum announced yesterday. ‘Chancellor Merkel has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to making the preservation of Holocaust memory a priority for Germany,’ said museum chairman Tom A. Bernstein. ‘The Museum has partnered with the German government and institutions on many initiatives and those partnerships have only grown deeper and more fruitful under Chancellor Merkel.’

New exhibition space at Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art | This weekend, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw will open a ‘unique and flexible’ temporary exhibition space on the banks of the river Vistula. A joint venture with the Vienna-based Thyssen-Bornemiza Art Contemporary foundation, the pavilion will host exhibitions and events. It was designed by Austrian architect Adolf Krischanitz, and has been conceived as a reusable structure.

Christina Poggi to direct Institute of Fine Arts at NYU | Art historian Christina Poggi has been named director of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Poggi, who is currently professor of art history at the University of Pennsylvania, replaces Patricia Rubin, who is leaving the Institute after eight years in the role.

Recommended reading | This week, Titian specialist Miguel Falomir took over the reins of Madrid’s Museo del Prado from long-term director Miguel Zugaza. A short piece in The Economist outlines how Spain can learn from the recent success of this previously ‘introverted’ institution, and highlights the challenges ahead. In the New York Times, Jason Farago visits the Met Breuer’s Lygia Pape survey and finds that her ‘her edgy, unsettled art should be a standard for artists today in Brazil, and in another large, politically fraught country in this hemisphere’.