Visionary film director David Lynch dies aged 78

The film director David Lynch has died at the age of 78. After the release of his first film, Eraserhead, in 1977, Lynch became known for making films and television – most notably Mulholland Drive (2001) and the Twin Peaks series (1990–91) – that unfolded with the surreal logic of dreams and nightmares. He was nominated three times for best director at the Oscars; his 1990 film, Wild at Heart, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and he won the best director prize there for Mulholland Drive. A visually-driven director, Lynch trained as a painter, first at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and then at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, before dropping out both times. He never stopped painting, however, and in 2007, the Fondation Cartier in Paris put on an exhibition of work from the 1960s onwards, called ‘The Air is on Fire‘ and in 2014, the Pennsylvania of Fine Arts honoured its one-time student by holding a retrospective of Lynch’s paintings, drawings and other graphic work, called ‘The Unified Field’. In recent years, he was represented by Sperone Westwater and by Pace Gallery.

The land artist Mary Miss and the Des Moines Art Center (DMAC) have settled their long-running dispute, reports the Art Newspaper. In April 2024, Miss had filed a lawsuit to prevent the DMAC from demolishing Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996), an outdoor environment that the institution had commissioned her to make. Parts of the work had been fenced off from the public for safety reasons since autumn 2023 and the DMAC claimed that the cost of stabilising and repairing it would come to $2.6m, a figure Miss disagreed with. After reaching a legal impasse – the institution could not demolish the work and Miss could not force them to repair it – an agreement has been reached: the DMAC will be able to destroy the series of architectural interventions in and around Greenwood Pond and pay Miss $900,000 in compensation.

Martina Droth is the new director of the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), reports Yale News. Currently deputy director and chief curator, Droth joined the YCBA as curator of sculpture in 2009. She takes up her role with immediate effect as the centre prepares to reopen in March after a two-year renovation. The president of Yale University, Maurie McInnis, said that ‘The YCBA will benefit from being led by an art historian and curator who has been instrumental in its success.’ Across the Atlantic, the Courtauld Institute has appointed Dorothy Price – currently a professor of modern and contemporary art at the university – as its new deputy director and executive dean, and named Steve Edwards – currently a professor of photography at Birkbeck, also part of the university of London – as the first director of its Manton Centre for British Art. They will begin their new jobs in August and April, respectively. In San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum has named Soyoung Lee as its next director and CEO. She joins from Harvard Art Museums, where she has worked as chief curator for the past seven years; before that, she was the first curator of Korean art at the Met. Lee replaces Jay Xu, who has led the museum for the past 17 years.

Christie’s has appointed Bonnie Brennan as its new chief executive. Brennan, who has been head of the auction house’s Americas division since 2021, takes over from Guillaume Cerruti, who is stepping down after eight years to become president of the Pinault Collection in Paris, while continuing to serve as chair of Christie’s board of directors. In a statement issued on 15 January, François Pinault and his son François-Henri Pinault, owners of Christie’s holding company, Artémis, said, ‘With Guillaume as Chairman of the Board and Bonnie as CEO, we are confident that Christie’s will continue to thrive.’ Brennan, who will continue to be based in New York, told the Art Newspaper that ‘London remains the headquarters of Christie’s and its centre and I plan to spend more time there’. She takes up her role on 1 February. In more art market moves, Art Dubai has made two senior appointments. As reported by the Art Newspaper, Australian curator Alexie Glass-Kantor will take up the new role of executive director, curatorial. Meanwhile, Dunja Gottweis joins as director of the fair – which she will run from its 2026 edition – after 12 years at Art Basel, where she was, most recently, global head of gallery relations.