Ronald Lauder criticises Germany’s restitution efforts

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Ronald Lauder criticises German efforts to restore Nazi-looted art | Ronald Lauder has criticised what he regards as Germany’s feeble efforts to put the 1998 Washington Principles into effect. Speaking at an event at the Axel Springer Journalists Club in Berlin, held to mark the 20th anniversary of the declaration, the art collector, businessman, and president of the World Jewish Congress said that Germany has done its ‘bare minimum’ to solve the problem.

Met chooses Huma Bhabha for its summer roof-garden commission | Pakistani-born, Brooklyn-based artist Huma Bhabha will create this year’s installation for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. The sixth in this series of annual installations, The Roof Garden Commission: Huma Bhabha, We Come in Peace will run from mid-April through to late October this year. Bhabha’s work uses found objects to create sculptures which have been exhibited all over the world. Her multipart installation for the Met will feature a ‘choreographed dramatic mise en scene’ of monumental sculptures, according to Shanay Jhaveri, an assistant curator at the museum.

LACMA’s Japanese art pavilion closes for two-year renovation | The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) yesterday announced that it will close its Pavilion for Japanese Art on 5 February in order to carry out two years’ worth of restoration work. The pavilion, which opened in 1988, was the last structure designed by Bruce Goff, and it houses several exhibition spaces for historic and contemporary Japanese art.

Yellowstone Art Museum names Brian W. Knicely executive director | Brian W. Knicely is set to replace Robyn G. Peterson as the executive director of Yellowstone Art Museum in mid-March, reports KULR8. Knicely served as executive director for Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science between 2014–2017, during which time the museum earned its reaccreditation. He has also worked as a grants panellist for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Recommended reading | Jason Farago asks whether we can classify prehistoric artefacts as art in the New York Times, a question sparked by the Nasher Sculpture Center’s latest exhibition ‘First Sculpture’. Find Giles Sutherland’s review of the touring show ‘Textile artists: Picasso to Warhol’ in The Times, and Nick Glass’s thoughts on Charles I’s art collection at London’s Royal Academy in CNN. Lucy Jakub explores the artistic quality of Ernst Haeckel’s meticulous nature plates and the manner in which they influenced artists after him in the New York Review of Books.