National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Janine Antoni’s Lick and Lather (1993)
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has bought the only surviving complete version of Lick and Lather, an installation of 14 chocolate and soap self-portrait busts by Janine Antoni that made its debut at the 1993 Venice Biennale. (A second set of 14 was broken up into seven pairs.) The work bears the traces of Antoni’s performance, which involved licking the chocolate and bathing with the soap, and will require “a long-range preservation plan”, says the curator Molly Donovan. “Our conservators are taking all the data that exists, adding our expertise and working with the artist.” The museum plans to display Lick and Lather after it opens its newly renovated East Building this autumn.
National Portrait Gallery, London
19th-century photo album
The National Portrait Gallery in London has acquired a rare photography album of largely unseen portraits, self-portraits and genre scenes by the Swedish-born Victorian photographer Oscar Gustave Rejlander. The album, which contains around 70 albumen prints from the 1850s and 1860s, surfaced at a Yorkshire auction house after sitting undiscovered in a family collection for more than 140 years. A temporary export bar imposed by the UK government enabled the institution to match the £82,600 price with support from the Art Fund. The album is due to go on show in October.
The Frick Collection, New York
Scher medals collection
The Frick Collection in New York has announced a promised gift of 450 portrait medals from the collection of Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher, which it describes as “the world’s greatest medals collection in private hands”. The medals range from the 15th to the 19th centuries and include designs by Pisanello (Italy), Guillaume Dupré (France) and Hans Reinhart (Germany). The Frick is due to open a show of more than 100 of the medals next spring.