Kanye West donates $10m for James Turrell crater in Arizona

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Kanye West donates $10m for James Turrell work | Kanye West has donated $10m to the Turrell Art Foundation to go towards the construction of Roden Crater, an installation by the American artist James Turrell. The land work is currently being built inside the crater of a dormant volcano in Arizona. It will eventually connect 21 viewing chambers with six tunnels to create what the project website describes as ‘a vast, naked eye observatory for celestial objects and events ranging from obscure and infrequent to the more familiar summer and winter solstice’. The work was begun in 1977 but Turrell needs to raise $200m in order to complete it. West tweeted about the Arizona site on a visit in December, stating: ‘This is life changing. We all will live in Turrell spaces.’

Installation featuring Saudi Arabian flag to be relocated away from Ground Zero | A public art installation that features giant candy-shaped forms wrapped in national flags, including that of Saudi Arabia, is to be removed from its current location at the World Trade Center complex near Ground Zero in Manhattan. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey made the decision to relocate the installation by French artist Laurence Jenkell, titled ‘Candy Nations’, to the AirTrain system at JFK airport after it received complaints from 9/11 victims’ groups. Of the 19 hijackers involved in 9/11, 15 were Saudi Arabian – Jenkell’s work refers to the countries that participate in G20 summits.

Doyle auction house appoints Laura Doyle as CEO and Joanne Porrino Mournet as president | The New York auction house Doyle has appointed Laura Doyle as its CEO and Joanne Porrino Mournet as its president. Doyle, who has worked at the house for 20 years and is the daughter of founder William Doyle, will replace her mother Kathleen Doyle in the role, as the latter becomes the company chair.

DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art renamed Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain | The DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, founded in Montreal in 2007, has announced that it will be changing its name to the Fondation Phi pour l’art contemporain. The new name will be adopted in time for the opening of the next exhibition at the foundation, in April.