Art news daily: 11 June | Apollo Magazine

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Amada Cruz named director and CEO of Seattle Art Museum | Amada Cruz has been named the new director and CEO of Seattle Art Museum. She will replace Kimerly Rorschach, whose plans to retire this autumn were announced in October last year. Cruz has been director of the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona since 2015 and prior to that led the Center for Curatorial Studies in Colorado and Artpace San Antonio. She joins the Seattle Art Museum in September.

Gary Hume among artists calling for National Portrait Gallery to drop BP sponsorship | Gary Hume is among several artists who have written to the National Portrait Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan calling for the institution to drop BP as sponsor of its annual portrait award. Hume, who was a judge for this year’s edition of the award – the winner of which, Charlie Schaffer, was announced yesterday – argues in his letter that the benefits of the 30-year sponsorship deal are ‘outweighed by the need to act urgently on the climate crisis’. The gallery has released a statement emphasising the ‘support’ provided by the deal, which ‘encourages the work of talented artists […] and enables free admission for the public’.

Gagosian opens permanent gallery in Basel | The latest permanent addition to the Gagosian empire has opened in Basel, the Art Newspaper reports. The space, which was originally presented as a ‘pop-up’ to coincide with Art Basel, joins 16 other Gagosian galleries around the world. Larry Gagosian has said the decision was inspired by the ‘world class museums’ in the city as well as the legacy of dealer-turned-museum founder Ernst Beyeler.