Artists reverse decision to withdraw from Whitney Biennial

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Artists reverse decision to withdraw from Whitney Biennial | Eight artists who last week announced that they would withdraw their work from the Whitney Biennial have now changed their minds, after the resignation of Warren B. Kanders, vice chair of the Whitney Museum’s board of trustees. Kanders, who stepped down yesterday, has been the subject of sustained protests over the production and sale of tear gas by a subsidiary of his company Safariland.

Paris heat wave threatens Notre Dame with collapse | Philippe Villeneuve, the architect in charge of the operation to restore Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, has expressed concerns that the on-going heat wave in Paris may threaten the stability of the cathedral vaults. Water trapped inside the exposed vaults after the devastating blaze of 15 April may evaporate quicker than expected; Villeneuve stated that ‘My worry is that the masonry joints, by dint of drying, will lose their coherence, their cohesion, and their structural integrity.’

Schiele drawing discovered in New York thrift store | A previously unknown drawing by Austrian artist Egon Schiele has been discovered by a shopper at a Habitat for Humanity store in New York. The work has been verified by Schiele expert and the director of Galerie St Etienne, Jane Kallir; it is now on display at the gallery with an estimated value of $100,000–$200,000.

Damian Ortega wins inaugural ICA Miami prize for sculpture | The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami has announced that Mexican artist Damián Ortega is the first recipient of the Ezratti Family Prize for Sculpture. The artist will receive $15,000, and a new commission will be installed in the ICA’s sculpture garden.

Recommended reading | David Brooks in the New York Times bewails the decline of beauty and ‘emotional range’ in art after a list of era-defining artworks was published by T Magazine. In the New Yorker, Jordan Orlando delivered an elegy for Mad magazine, which is stopping publication after 67 years. Last Friday, Glasgow’s Evening Times published new photographs of the crumbling interior of the city’s Egyptian Halls – a dilapidated masterpiece by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson. The accompanying piece quoted an appeal from the building’s owner Derek Souter to end years of disputes and failed deals.