British artist Damien Hirst has turned down an offer to become a Royal Academician at the Royal Academy in London, an institution that was founded in 1768 by King George III.

The refusal was revealed by Secretary and Chief Executive Dr Charles Saumarez Smith CBE, who told the Evening Standard that he does not know the reasons of this decision.

Other contemporary artists, such as Tracey Emin, who made her dirty bed an artistic installation, have accepted to become a Royal Academician.

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Interesting interview with Daniel Birnbaum:

The 53rd Venice Biennale is awaited with great anticipation. At the heart of the event is Biennale director Daniel Birnbaum’s curated exhibition "Making Worlds," which includes a project by the architectural visionary Yona Friedman. Oliver Koerner von Gustorf spoke with Daniel Birnbaum shortly before the opening.

To be sure, he has every reason to feel stressed. In just about two weeks, the Venice Biennale opens under his directorship; after documenta, it’s probably the most important art exhibition in the world. Yet Daniel Birnbaum seems extraordinarily relaxed. This must have something to do with his many years of experience—including with Venice, as he co-directed the international section of the Biennale in 2003. The Swede, who was born in 1963, is rector of the Städelschule in Frankfurt as well as the director of the Portikus; he is considered one of the most influential figures on the international art scene. With his exhibition Fare Mondi/Making Worlds at this year’s Biennale, he calls attention to the process aspect of art from the sixties to the present day—particularly art’s interdisciplinary nature and the manner in which things arise.

An important project in the show is The Ville Spatiale—Visualisation of an Idea by architectural visionary and urban planner Yona Friedman, born 1923 in Budapest. Together with his students, Friedman has installed a grid structure of wire cable; hovering above the exhibition, participants have inserted their own models into it. The materials are simple and the ideas democratic: the installation refers back to Friedman’s Ville Spatiale, a kind of megastructure stretching over existing cities that he developed in the nineteen-fifties. His architectural utopias have made Friedman into an art star: he was invited to documenta 11 in 2002 and participated in the Venice Biennale for the first time in 2003. In 2008, together with students of the Städelschule, he realized a site-specific installation at the Portikus in Frankfurt that was sponsored by the Deutsche Bank Foundation. His latest work in Venice continues this collaboration and is once again supported by Deutsche Bank.

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Once again we talk with the artists of meseon community. Today, we know more about Célia Lambert and her artworks. Enjoy it!!


Célia Lambert:

"Art is an alternative world where anything is possible. A world where music and colours replace the words, a world where freedom is more than just a Word- it’s a law!"

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The winner of the BP Portrait Award 2009 was announced by Sebastian Faulks at the National Portrait Gallery. In a record-breaking year for entries the prestigious first prize was won by 44-year-old Surrey artist Peter Monkman. His winning portrait, Changeling 2, is part of a series of portraits of his daughter, Anna, at different stages of her life. Peter wins £25,000 and a commission, at the National Portrait Gallery Trustees' discretion, worth £4,000. The second prize of £8,000 goes to Michael Gaskell for Tom and the third prize of £6,000 goes to Annalisa Avancini for Manuel.

There is, also for the third time, the BP Young Artist Award of £5,000 for the work of an entrant aged between 18 and 30. This has been won by Mark Jameson for Benfica Blue. 

Peter Monkman (b.1964) for Changeling 2 (oil on canvas, 1220 x 900 mm) was shortlisted for the first time this year, having been included in the BP Portrait Award exhibition in 1999, 2001 and 2003. Currently Director of Art at Charterhouse School, Surrey, Monkman, 44, studied visual arts at the University of Lancaster, John Moores University Liverpool and the University of.

The shortlisted portrait is part of a series of portraits of his daughter exploring the concept of the changeling, a child substituted for another by stealth, often with an elf. ‘I challenge the fixed notion of an idealised image of childhood and substitute it for a more unsettling, complex, representation that exists in its own right as a painting.' The initial ideas for this portrait came from photographic studies of Anna playing in woods in Brittany where the light had a magical quality.

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