Trump proposes to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Trump proposes defunding the NEA | Revealing his administration’s first federal budget plan on Thursday morning, President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. As the New York Times reports, the proposals represent the first time a serving president has called for an end to the endowments, which were established by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. For the time being, ‘nothing will change’ for the bodies in question, as Congress – rather than the executive – writes the federal budget. Trump’s proposals, says the NYT, ‘are largely political documents that telegraph a president’s priorities’. In the Washington Post, George F. Will applauds the proposal, writing that the NEA’s effects are ‘regressive’. In the Boston Globe, however, Anita Walker argues that the public funding these bodies provide is ‘essential’. For more on the abolition of NEA funding may affect US culture, see here.

Superflex to take on Tate Modern Turbine Hall commission | Tate Modern and corporate partner Hyundai have chosen Danish art collective Superflex to create the next Hyundai Commission for the museum’s Turbine Hall. Founded by artists Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger and Rasmus Nielsen, Superflex are best known for their subversive and challenging installation and film work. ‘Their work raises timely questions about the role of the artist in contemporary society,’ said Tate Modern director Frances Morris, ‘exploring how we interpret and engage with the increasingly complex world around us’. Superflex’s installation will be on public view from 3 October 2017.

Jerusalem gallery faces eviction following ‘politically charged’ art event | A gallery in Jerusalem is facing eviction from a municipal building after hosting a ‘politically charged’ event that contravened official warnings, reports The Art Newspaper. Last month the nonprofit Barbur gallery hosted ‘Breaking the Silence’, a group of veterans of the Israeli security forces who vocally oppose military rule in the West Bank and Gaza. In a statement, culture minister Miri Regev argued that the gallery is forbidden from holding political activities on municipal property and that the group’s activities are damaging to ‘Israel’s image’. ‘We don’t plan to move anywhere. We continue to get a lot of support,’ says gallery co-founder Masha Zusberg. ‘We believe that we have a strong case in the court if it will go there.’

Stolen paintings recovered in Denmark | The Art Loss Register has announced that it has helped track down and repossess eight paintings that went missing from a house in Denmark in 2000, reports Artforum. The ALR says that it discovered one of the works in question – a portrait by Carl Holsøe – for sale at a US auction house last autumn. The Danish police subsequently reopened their investigation into the case, and learned that the American business had purchased the painting from an auction house in Denmark. A warrant was issued and the remaining seven paintings were recovered from the house of the consignor.

Hendrikje Crebolder joins Rijksmuseum board of directors | Hendrikje Crebolder, head of development at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, has been appointed to the institution’s board of directors. Crebolder, who initially trained as a lawyer, has been at the museum since 2006. In her capacity on the board, she will be responsible for fundraising, communications and marketing.