Major refurbishment for Scottish National Gallery revealed

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Major refurbishment for Scottish National Gallery revealed | Plans for a £22m building project at the Scottish National Gallery (SNG) were revealed in Edinburgh yesterday (25 September). A suite of new galleries will be built to display the museum’s collection of Scottish art, while an extensive landscaping project will provide better access to the museum from the adjoining Princes Street Gardens. There are also plans for new displays to feature throughout the SNG; these will be drawn both from the museum’s Scottish and its international collections, and will broaden the scope of the museum to include more works from the early 20th century.

Deborah Marrow to retire as Getty Foundation Director | The J. Paul Getty Trust has announced that Deborah Marrow, the director of the Getty Foundation, is planning to retire. Marrow, who will step down from her role in December but will officially retire in 2020, became director of what was then known as the Getty Grant Program in 1989, assuming her current position in 2004 when the Getty Foundation was established. The Getty Foundation manages the award of grants from the J. Paul Getty Trust’s endowment to a huge range of research and conservation projects; during Marrow’s tenure, it awarded nearly 8,000 grants across more than 180 countries.

Protests over Luke Willis Thompson’s Turner Prize nomination | The inclusion of Luke Willis Thompson in the Turner Prize exhibition was the subject of protests at Tate Britain on Tuesday (25 September), ARTnews reports. The protests were arranged by a collective known as BBZ London, in order to criticise Thompson’s use of narratives relating to police brutality against black people in his work. The group wore T-shirts featuring the slogan ‘Black pain is not for profit’.

Nasher Prize for sculpture awarded to Isa Genzken | The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has awarded the 2019 Nasher Prize to the German artist Isa Genzken. During a career that spans four decades, Genzken has worked with a diverse range of materials and mediums; her work has been included at the Venice Biennale and Documenta, while the Museum of Modern Art in New York displayed a survey of her work in 2013. Previous winners of the annual Nasher Prize, which is now in its fourth year, are Theaster Gates, Pierre Huyghe, and Doris Salcedo. Genzken will receive the $100,000 prize in a ceremony next April.

Sotheby’s Cécile Verdier to replace president of Christie’s France | Cécile Verdier, the vice-president of Sotheby’s France, will become the next president of Christie’s France once current president François de Ricqlès stands down next June, the Art Newspaper reports. De Ricqlès, who has led Christie’s France since 2010, intends to establish an art advisory business.