Visual arts

Artists' representatives seeking transparency over unpaid resale royalties have commenced historic legal proceedings against multi-millionaire art dealer Ivor Braka.

The Artists’ Collecting Society (ACS) and the Design and Artists' Copyright Society (DACS) say they began making requests to Braka for information in 2006, with Braka reportedly refusing to respond.

The case is the first of their kind brought under the Artist’s Resale Right Regulations in the UK.

The regulations entitle artists to a royalty payment of up to €12,500 on the secondary sale of their works by dealers and associated art market professionals.

“The Artist’s Resale Right, now more than ever, provides invaluable financial support to artists and their estates, so it is imperative that we shine a light on those who are cutting off this essential source of income,” ACS Managing Director Harriet Bridgeman said.

Disabled-led visual arts charity DASH is extending its Future Curators programme.

Cornwall’s Newlyn Art Gallery & Exchange, Southampton’s John Hansard Gallery and Sheffield’s Arts Catalyst will join the network’s three existing members this year.

The three new organisations will each host a disabled curator for a fifteen-month residency, resulting in a new exhibition or body of work produced by each curator.

DASH says its Future Curators Network aims to address deep-rooted inequality against disabled people in the visual arts sector.

Artistic Director Mike Layward says the programme now covers most parts of England: “We have high hopes for the Future Curators programme and the influence it will bring in diversifying the visual arts sector.”

Tate Britain will keep a mural featuring racist imagery in its restaurant and commission an artistic response to the art work.

The decision arises following "deep disagreements" in consultations about what to do with the 1927 Rex Whistler mural, which depicts an enslaved Black child among other distressing images.

In 2020, the institution stopped describing its restaurant as "the most amusing room in Europe" amid complaints.

However, the mural is still a work of art and forms part of the eatery's Grade I listed interior, so it can't be removed.

The commissioned artist will be announced in the next few months. Their work will be "exhibited alongside and in dialogue with the mural, reframing the way the space is experienced" and accompanied by interpretative materials.

Plans for a new housing estate in Cheltenham may force demolition of a community arts venue. 

Chester West and Chester Borough Council have submitted planning permission to build 215 homes on an estate where Lansdown Art Studios is situated.

Home to 21 artists, the studio is self-funded and managed as a not-for-profit association.

Chairman Mike Duckering said losing the studios would be disastrous for the artists and the wider arts community.

“Permanently replacing much needed employment space with housing is short-sighted and has no regard for creating a balanced community.”

There has been little change to gender pay gaps at UK auction houses since 2018.

Reporting by the Art Newspaper has revealed worsening pay gaps at Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's. 

Women at Bonhams earn an average of 48p for every £1 their male colleagues receive. A company spokesperson said furlough skewed its figures for 2020 - just 16 staff were on full salary the day they were recorded.

The pay gap at Christie's is 25.6% compared to 25% four years earlier. The firm says most of its global workforce is female, including several new senior hires.

Sotheby's pay gap is now 24.9%; it was 22.2% in 2017/18. It expects new "family friendly policies" to make a difference soon.

Two men have been arrested for attacking a controversial sculpture by paedophile artist Eric Gill.

One spent hours bashing the artwork outside BBC Broadcasting House in central London with a hammer while the other filmed him. No charges have yet been brought, Metropolitan Police say.

Campaigners have called for the statue, which features a naked child, to be removed but the BBC reportedly plans to keep it.

The incident follows a not guilty verdict for the Colston Four, who argued toppling the infamous statue in Bristol was justified because its continued presence constituted a hate crime or act of abuse.

Ash Sarkar, a contributing editor for Novara Media, wrote on Twitter that Gill's statue "has less in common with Colston than it does the ongoing veneration of abusers in the art world".

Tate Liverpool is seeking architects to lead a £25m renovation project.

A tender notice says the three-and-a-half year redevelopment of the Albert Docks site will "reimagine the gallery spaces to meet the scale and ambition of today's most exciting artists".

The Tate wants its gallery to "better connect with the city and its communities, creating an environment that is flexible and inviting and able to host people, art and ideas in equal part".

£10m has already been contributed via the Government's Levelling Up Fund for the works, expected to complete in December 2025.