News

As reported earlier by ART iT, Japan Edition, the German-born curator Roger M Buergel will be the artistic director of the Busan Biennale 2012, the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee announced Jul 15. Buergel has put forward the concept of "Garden of Learning" for the Korean exhibition, directed in its previous edition by the Japanese independent curator Takashi Azumaya. As outlined in the organizing committee's press release, Buergel plans to establish councils of 10-15 citizens and one or two artists to collaborate with each other in the production of artworks. Buergel is perhaps best known for his role as artistic director of Documenta 12 in 2007. As usual, the Busan Biennale will coincide with the Gwangju Biennale, which in 2012 will be co-directed by a team of curators comprising Nancy Adajania, Mami Kataoka, Wassan al-Kudhairi, Sunjung Kim and Carol Yinghua Lu.

The laureates for the Praemium Imperiale 2011 were announced Jul 11 by the Japan Art Association. One of the world's most prestigious cultural distinctions, the prize is awarded in by the imperial family of Japan in honor of Prince Takamitsu and confers upon recipients a gold medal, a diploma and 15 million yen. Honored this year are artists Bill Viola and Anish Kapoor in the categories of painting and sculpture, respectively; architect Ricardo Legorreta; conductor Seiji Ozawa; and actress Judi Dench. The award ceremony will be held Oct 19, with a commemorative lecture by Ricardo Legorreta scheduled for Oct 20.

The artist Cy Twombly died Jul 5 in Rome at the age of 83, it has been announced. The cause of death has not been revealed, but according to the New York Times Twombly had been engaged in a long battle with cancer.

A representative figure of postwar art, Twombly was born in Lexington, Virginia, and studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as with the Art Students League and at Black Mountain College. Along with Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, he began attracting critical attention in the 1950s, moving his primary studio to Rome in 1957.

Since his first retrospective at the Milwaukee Art Center in 1957, he has exhibited widely across the world. In 1995, the Menil Collection in Houston opened its Cy Twombly Gallery, designed by architect Renzo Piano on one of the artist's sketches. In 2010, Twombly unveiled a ceiling mural for the Louvre's Salle des Bronzes, one of the museum's largest galleries. In 1996, he was awarded Japan's Praemium Imperiale, one of the world's highest distinctions in the arts and culture.

A solo exhibition of Twombly's work at Collection Lambert in Avignon, "Le temps retrouvé," is on view through Oct 30.