Organisers close exhibition in Aichi Triennale, citing terrorist threats

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Organisers close exhibition in the Aichi Triennale, citing terrorist threats | This weekend, organisers of ‘After “Freedom of Expression?”’ an exhibition forming part of the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya – closed down the show. It featured artworks that have been excluded from Japanese museums, including a statue of a ‘comfort woman’, symbolising the Korean women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese military during the Second World War. Organisers cited safety concerns following terrorist threats; Takashi Kawamura, the mayor of Nagoya, said he also wanted the exhibition closed because it ‘tramples on the feelings of Japanese citizens’.

Pérez Art Museum acquires 46 works of vernacular American art | The Pérez Art Museum in Miami has acquired 46 works of vernacular artwork from the American South from collector Gordon W. Bailey, a collection that includes many overlooked African-American artists. “These great artists . . . are still underrepresented in our nation’s museums, and have so much to offer in the understanding of the human impulse to create,” said museum director Franklin Sirmans.

Recommended reading | The Anish Kapoor-Stuart Semple feud over proprietary colors continues with Semple’s Black 3.0 – a shade he claims is darker than Kapoor’s Vantablack. The Guardian calls it ‘the art world’s pettiest, funniest dispute’.