Turkey hits out at Berlin art installation

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Turkey condemns Berlin art installation’s ‘call to violence’ | An anti-Erdoğan artwork installed in front of the German Chancellery in Berlin has been condemned by the Turkish government as a ‘direct call to violence.’ The installation, presented by activists protesting the inclusion of several controversial world leaders at this week’s G20 summit in Hamburg, contains a banner featuring Turkey’s president Erdoğan alongside Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, with the words ‘kill dictatorship’ inscribed in German. Turkey’s foreign ministry has said it expects German authorities to act against the display, Reuters reports.

José Luis Cuevas (1934–2017) | Mexican painter and sculptor José Luis Cuevas has died aged 83. One of the first artists to challenge the established school of Mexican muralism in the early 1950s, Cuevas became a prominent member of Mexico’s Generación de la Ruptura (Breakaway Generation). His death was announced on Monday by the president of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, who said that the artist’s name would ‘always be remembered as a synonym of universality, freedom, creation.’

£6 million funding for David Livingstone Museum in Scotland | A new museum about the life and work of David Livingstone, to be located at the Victorian missionary’s former home in Blantyre, Scotland, has been awarded £6 million of funding. The investment, which comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Scottish government and Historic Environment Scotland, will be used to transform the Blantyre mill where Livingstone was born in 1813 into a museum exploring the ‘inspirational story of how a poor millworker became one of the most popular British heroes of the Victorian era and a hero of Africa today.’

Artists design covers for special edition of Evening Standard | London’s Evening Standard has announced a special edition of its weekly magazine, featuring covers designed by six leading artists including Ai Weiwei, Wolfgang Tillmans and Gillian Wearing. Published on the 12th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in 2005, the magazine covers are intended to celebrate ‘London’s resilience in the face of recent tragedies.’

South African court dismisses ‘hate speech’ complaint against artwork | A complaint brought to South Africa’s courts against an artwork featuring the words ‘Fuck White People’ has been dismissed, with chief magistrate Daniel Thulare ruling that the work is not hate speech but an expression of art. The complaint against the work, currently on display at Iziko South African National Gallery, was brought by Jack Miller, leader of a small secessionist political party in Western Cape.