Gavin Delahunty resigns from Dallas Museum of Art

Gavin Delahunty resigns from Dallas Museum of Art | Gavin Delahunty, senior curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art, has announced his immediate resignation from the institution, owing to allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’, reports Artnews. In a statement he says, ‘I offer my deepest apologies to those who have been affected by my behavior. I will be taking this time to spend with my family.’ Museum officials have not yet commented on the allegations or the resignation.

Art UK and Paul Mellon Centre launch young writers’ prize | A new writing prize called Write on Art has been announced today by Art UK in partnership with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The competition is open to 15–18 year olds, divided into two age categories, and the deadline for entries is in February 2018. The judges include Gabriel Finaldi, Jackie Wullschlager, and Jeremy Deller. The winning entries in each category will be published on both the Art UK and Paul Mellon Centre websites.

Founder of Inhotim art park convicted of money laundering | Bernardo Paz, the Brazilian art collector and creator of Inhotim, a vast art park, has been convicted of money laundering and sentenced to nine years in prison, reports the New York Times. The sentence was passed in September, but not announced by prosecutors until last week. Paz, who made his fortune from iron mining, is appealing against the conviction.

Azzedine Alaïa (1940–2017) | The Tunisian-born couturier Azzedine Alaïa has died in Paris at the age of 77. Alaïa was famous for his cloth-cutting skills and fitting abilities – and his insistence on showing new collections on his own timetable. Recently, Alaïa’s work has been the focus of an exhibition at the Galleria Borghese (in 2015); the Maison Alaïa in Paris has hosted exhibitions of drawings by the Syrian poet Adonis and is currently showing Richard Wentworth’s responses to the ateliers and archives of the designer.

Recommended reading | In the New Yorker, Susan Lehman summarises the strange tussle between the actor Alec Baldwin and the gallerist Mary Boone. In the New York Review of Books, Ingrid D. Rowland looks at Karl Ove Knausgaard’s attempt to curate – and write about – the paintings of Edvard Munch. In the Nation, Barry Schwabsky tries to look at Dana Schutz’s work without thinking about the Whitney Biennial, and in the Financial Times, Ben Bland considers the heightened efforts of wealthy – and patriotic – Chinese collectors to buy historic Chinese art.