Following a members-only preview on Friday night and a free-for-all celebration on Sunday, amid protests over the financial ties of several board members, on Monday New York’s Museum of Modern Art officially reopened after a $450 million renovation. The renovation, which closed MoMA for four months, was handled by the architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler, and amounts to the first major work carried out on the building on West 53rd Street since Yoshio Taniguchi’s much-criticised expansion was completed back in 2004. Adding 47,000 square feet, a new canopy over the main entrance, an enlarged lobby, and a six-story top-to-bottom ‘blade staircase’, MoMA also now boasts a couple of new experimental spaces in the form of the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio for installations and live performances, and the Paula and James Crown Creativity Lab for conversations and artist engagement.
More than the additional space, the renovation has also allowed for a fundamental rethink when it comes to presentation. An extensive rehang maintains the chronological thrust while moving in the direction of ‘Modernism Plus‘, invigorating the classics and the familiar story of ‘isms’ with a wider selection of African, Asian, South American, and African American art and more works by women. Every six months, around a third of the museum’s permanent collection will be reinstalled. The opening season programme includes Sur moderno, a journey through mid-century abstract and concrete art from Latin America, Surrounds featuring eleven diverse and ‘watershed’ contemporary installations, and surveys exploring the works of the African American artists Betye Saar and Pope.L.
* * *
This was the week of salvation incarnate, meaning the release of Jesus Is King, Kanye West‘s semi-anticipated, several times belated ninth solo studio album. A self-styled ‘expression of the gospel’, on Monday Kanye tweeted about a Friday release, not quite a vow but the most convincing proclamation yet, straight from the blessed keys of the man himself following a series of updates from Kim Kardashian.
On Wednesday night at the Los Angeles Forum, Kanye afforded the chosen few their first listen, following a showcase of the accompanying IMAX documentary feature. Thursday brought a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, an official tracklist, and a surprise appearance on Jimmy Kimmel. And though there were still hours left to wait, finally on Friday the album arrived on streaming services, not quite made flesh – physical copies will ship in eight-to-twelve weeks – but no mere apparition.
* * *
A tightly fought but somewhat downbeat Canadian federal election race resulted on Monday with victory for the incumbent prime minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party, although they lost the popular vote and will have to rule with a minority government. Campaign platforms covered everything from environmental pledges to indigenous rights and a proposed national pharmacare system, but the issues were sometimes lost amid personal attacks, which centred round allegations that Trudeau had intervened on behalf of a Quebec-based construction company accused of bribery, then on old photographs of Trudeau in blackface and on his opponent Andrew Scheer‘s American citizenship.
In the end Trudeau and the Liberal Party took 157 seats from 33.07% of the popular vote, compared to Scheer and the Conservatives who managed 34.41 % of the vote but returned only 121 seats. The Conservatives dominated in the Prairies, particularly Alberta and Saskatchewan, but the Liberals managed to hold on to much of their vote in Ontario and even Quebec, despite a resurgent Bloc Québécois. Elsewhere the New Democratic Party lost seats but there was a sense that they and party leader Jagmeet Singh had at least steadied the ship, averting disaster. The Greens and Elizabeth May managed only the most minor of gains, while Maxime Bernier and the right-wing populist People’s Party took only a fraction of the vote and lost their only seat in parliament.
* * *
After a rapid count on Sunday night suggested that Bolivia was headed for a runoff vote, with incumbent president Evo Morales leading his challenger Carlos Mesa by a relatively fine margin, around 8 pm the Supreme Electoral Tribunal suddenly stopped updating its election results. While the country waited, Morales claimed victory. The latest set of results had shown Morales on 45% of the vote, with Mesa trailing on 38%: a healthy lead, but not enough for the presidency in Bolivia, where a candidate must win by a 10-point margin or else receive an overall majority.
When the electoral board resumed its work twenty-four hours later, the updated count showed Morales with 46.85% of the vote versus Mesa’s 36.73%, just enough to make the necessary 10-point margin. The delay and accusations of impropriety provoked protests in the streets of La Paz and expressions of concern from international observers. Protests continued on Friday, even as Morales was officially confirmed as the victor, with the opposition pushing for an election audit.
* * *
The 2019-20 NBA season tipped off on Tuesday night with a couple of games and a wide open court following a busy offseason,which saw Kawhi Leonard make the switch from reigning champions the Toronto Raptors to the Los Angeles Clippers, and something of a sea change for the previously dominant Golden State Warriors. On opening night the Raptors hosted the New Orleans Pelicans and came out on top, thanks to 34 points apiece from Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam. Meanwhile on an intriguing night at Staples Center between two of the preseason favourites, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Los Angeles Lakers by ten points, aided by the 30 points scored by a debuting Leonard.
* * *
Lagos Fashion Week, the four-day showcase of Nigerian and wider African fashion, took place this week from Wednesday until Saturday. From runway shows and networking events to workshops and a talent discovery initiative focused on environmentally sustainable fashion, the event proper kicked off on Thursday with Lisa Folawiyo, and among other internationally fêted and locally prized designers featured Maki Oh, Rick Dusi, Bridget Awosika, Mai Atafo, Fruché, and Style Temple. There was also the usual array of street stylists and celebrity appearances, on this the ninth iteration of the event.
* * *
On Wednesday Chuck D, the founder and MC of Public Enemy, was announced as the recipient of this year’s Woody Guthrie Prize, awarded annually to artists who advocate for people without a platform. Previous recipients include John Mellencamp, Norman Lear, Kris Kristofferson, Mavis Staples, and Pete Seeger. Deana McCloud, the director of the Woody Guthrie Center, said:
‘Woody was a fighter for the people, and Chuck D’s message has consistently aligned with Woody’s: choose a side, fight the power, and work for a better world. We are honored to recognize Chuck’s work as he shines a light on social and cultural issues through his words and encourages us all to take action for equality and justice. We know that Woody would be rapping right alongside him as he speaks truth to power.’
* * *
On Thursday a major Leonardo da Vinci exhibit opened at the Louvre, marking the five-hundred year anniversary of the death of the great Italian Renaissance polymath and visual artist. Built around five of the Louvre’s most celebrated works, Leonardo’s The Virgin of the Rocks, La Belle Ferronnière, the Mona Lisa, the Saint John the Baptist, and the Saint Anne, paintings and drawings have also been loaned from the private collections of Queen Elizabeth II and Melinda Gates, and from the British Museum, the Vatican, and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg.
In total the exhibition – more than ten years in the making – will host eleven of the paintings generally attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which altogether number less than twenty. They will show alongside drawings, notebooks, and a total of 162 works gathered from the Renaissance era. The Vitruvian Man only arrived in Paris after a last-minute court settlement, and the exhibition has not arrived without controversy, particularly between Italy and France with The Baptism of Christ, The Annunciation, and The Adoration of the Magi all remaining at the Uffizi Gallery in Tuscany. Still Leonardo da Vinci at the Louvre has opened to strong reviews, with the expectation of sellout crowds and almost 200,000 early reservations.
* * *
Following The Black Madonna‘s decision to cancel her scheduled performance at the Intersect Music Festival, after the festival’s ties to Amazon Web Services became increasingly clear, on Thursday more than 150 fellow artists signed an open letter pledging to boycott future Amazon-sponsored events. At issue is the business relationship with the data company Palantir, which runs its software on Amazon Web Services and has more than $150 million in contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The full letter, signed by musicians including Deerhoof, Ted Leo, Girlpool, Xiu Xiu, Xenia Rubinos, and Devon Welsh, reads:
‘It has recently come to light that Amazon Web Services, an Amazon subsidiary with known ties to ICE and law enforcement, is hosting a festival marketed as an experience “where music, technology, and art converge.” We the undersigned artists are outraged that Amazon continues to provide the technical backbone for ICE’s human rights abuses (read more). We pledge to not participate in Amazon-sponsored events, or engage in exclusive partnerships with Amazon in the future, until Amazon publicly commits to:
* Terminate existing contracts with military, law enforcement, and government agencies (ICE, CBP, ORR) that commit human rights abuses
* Stop providing Cloud services & tools to organizations (such as Palantir) that power the US government’s deportation machine
* End projects that encourage racial profiling and discrimination, such as Amazon’s facial recognition product
* Reject future engagements w/ aforementioned bad actors.
We will not allow Amazon to exploit our creativity to promote its brand while it enables attacks on immigrants, communities of color, workers, and local economies. We call on all artists who believe in basic rights and human dignity to join us.’
* * *
At Sotheby’s in London on Thursday, a bottle of whisky sold for a world record price of £1.5 million. The whisky in question was a bottle of Scotch, a sixty-year-old single malt Macallan 1926 from cask number 263. This cask, which was distilled in 1926 and bottled in 1986, produced only 4o bottles: 24 had their labels designed by the pop artists Valerio Adami and Peter Blake, another two were sold individually and given private labels, while the remaining 14 were adorned with the Macallan Fine & Rare label. The bottle which sold on Thursday was of the Fine & Rare vintage, the world record surpassing the £1.2 million paid last year for the same whisky with a private label designed by the Irish artist Michael Dillon.
* * *
The Powerlist 2020 was released on Friday, naming one hundred of the United Kingdom’s most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage. Accompanying high-profile names such as the rapper Stormzy, footballer Raheem Sterling, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, and actress Naomie Harris, the top spot went to Ismail Ahmed, the founder and chairman of WorldRemit, a global money transfer service. In particular WorldRemit looks towards the remittances market, where migrant workers send money to loved ones back in their home country: remittances reached a record high in 2018 and are among the largest financial inflows to developing countries.
* * *
Held on Sunday, the 2019 Argentinian general election saw Peronism return to power in the form Alberto Fernández and the Justicialist Party, with controversial former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner settling for a role as Fernández’s running mate. Fernández beat the incumbent president Mauricio Macri decisively with 48% of the vote versus 40.5%, against a backdrop of economic crisis. Burdened with debt, including a record $57 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, and amid an ongoing recession, after primary votes in August showed a wide lead for Fernández, the peso plunged to a record low and the government implemented currency controls.
To win the presidency in Argentina, candidates must take either 45% of the vote or at least 40% with a 10-point margin. Alberto Fernández only attained the spotlight back in May, when the former cabinet chief and longtime political strategist was named as the PJ’s presidential candidate by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who opted instead to run as vice president after a string of corruption scandals. Mauricio Macri’s surprise victory in 2015 saw him become the country’s first democratically elected conservative president since 1916, but despite market support, growing poverty and persistently high levels of inflation have seen the public turn back towards left-wing populism.
Voting is compulsory in Argentina for citizens aged between 18 and 70. Alberto Fernández and the PJ headed up Everyone’s Front, an alliance of Peronist and left-wing progressive parties, while Mauricio Macri and the Republican Proposal were part of the big-tent Together for Change coalition. Despite losing the presidency after just one term, Macri seems to have outperformed expectations given his heavy defeat in the primaries. Sunday also saw Argentinians vote for members of congress and for many provincial governorships.
* * *
The inaugural Zozo Championship, the first PGA Tour event ever held in Japan, proved record matching if not quite record breaking. On the course in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area, Tiger Woods held off a final-round challenge from home favourite Hideki Matsuyama to win the tournament by a three-stroke margin. Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and Sung-jae Im of South Korea tied for third. In the process Tiger Woods claimed his 82nd PGA Tour title, tying a record set over the course of three decades by golfing great Sam Snead.
* * *
The 11th Annual Governors Awards were held on Sunday night at their usual location, the Grand Ballroom of the Hollywood and Highland Center in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, voted on by the Academy’s Board of Governors, they offer three awards that variously celebrate lifetime achievement within the film industry: the Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1950; and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for producers, both of which are awarded periodically.
Beyond the red carpet, star hosts and special appearances, this year the Honorary Award went to Cherokee American actor Wes Studi, who has starred in films including Dances with Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The New World, and Hostiles, and becomes the first Native American actor to win an Oscar; to Lina Wertmüller, the Italian screenwriter and film director, who in 1977 became the first female nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for her film Seven Beauties; and to the director David Lynch, famous for creating Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks. Meanwhile Geena Davis received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her enduring work on gender equality in film, including the founding of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Tom Hanks, Greta Gerwig and Jane Campion, Christian Bale, and Isabella Rossellini were among those honouring the winners, on a night that celebrated achievement and diversity.
