Art Industry News: Is Bernie Sanders the Best US Presidential Candidate for the Arts? + Other Stories

by admin

Aug 27, 2019

artnet

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know this Tuesday, August
27.

NEED-TO-READ

Not All the Photos of the Burning Amazon Were Real
– It turns out some of the
images widely shared on social media of devastating forest fires in
the Amazon were, in fact, historic shots—a testament to just how
much images can be decontextualized online. The one tweeted by the
French President Emmanuel Macron, which Leonardo DiCaprio also
shared with his millions of followers, was, in fact, taken by the
American photojournalist Loren McIntyre, who died in 2003. Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro
needed no excuse to shrug off the global outrage, saying: “There
always was and always will be burnings.” Meanwhile, NASA has
released satellite images of the more than 75,000 fires that have erupted since the
start of the year, an 83 percent increase on last year and the
highest since the body began recording fires in 2013.
(Hyperallergic)

Clearance of Beijing Artists’ Studios Continue –
A curator and former Pace Beijing
director writes that the eviction of artists
from their homes and studios in Beijing is more widespread than
has been reported. Jia Lie, who is now a senior curator at the
nonprofit Taikang Space, says that the relationship between
between “art, the city, and the
unchecked power of the state has become increasingly untenable.”
One space, however—the artist-led Arrow Factory—has managed to
dodge the urban planning purge for the time being. The institution
used to show site-specific works in its storefront, but when
officials ordered the windows to be blocked up in a crackdown on
roadside shops, Arrow Factory cannily turned its window display
into a peephole. (Artforum)

Could Bernie Sanders Be the Best Presidential Candidate for
the Arts? – When US
presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington in
the 1980s, he used public funds to support artists and arts groups.
Within a decade, the Vermont city was
deemed “one of the most
livable cities for the arts.” As Sanders now vies for a much bigger
job, Jacobin magazine wants him to back his 2016 promise to be the
“arts president” with concrete policy proposals. “Imagine if every
county in the US had an arts council as robust as Burlington’s”
writes Alanna Schubach. The result, she says, could be a
21st-century version of the New Deal for writers and
artists. (Jacobin)

Vija Celmins Gets the New Yorker Treatment
– Calvin Tomkins profiles the artist Vija Celmins
ahead of the opening of the final stop of her traveling
retrospective at the Met Breuer in New York on September 24. The
artist—who is perhaps the most famous contemporary artist within
the art world who is virtually unknown outside of it—has vigorously
resisted self-promotion. (She once told a collector a work he
recently bought was “the worst thing I’ve ever done.”) But as she
enters her 80s, her attitude may be changing. “I’ve been
opening up a little, letting my hand show more,” she said. “My hand
isn’t quite as steady, my mind is not as steady, my eyes are not as
steady. I’m allowing things to happen, hopefully.” (New
Yorker)

ART MARKET

Major Sotheby’s Shareholder Supports Drahi’s Acquisition
– A prominent shareholder
advisory firm, Institutional
Shareholder Services Inc.,
has come out in support of Patrick Drahi’s
$2.7 billion takeover of Sotheby’s. The firm argued that the bid offers a sizable
premium for shareholders and that no other suitable offers have
emerged since the deal was first announced in June. (Bloomberg)

Actress Olivia de Havilland’s Ensembles Head to Auction –
Twenty-seven outfits worn by the
Hollywood star are going on sale in an online auction at Hindman on
September 17. The sale includes haute couture gowns by Christian
Dior that the now 103-year-old actress wore to movie premieres and
events between 1954 and 1989. (Reuters)

Post-KAWS, Perrotin Adds Four Artists – Emmanuel Perrotin
has added four new artists—Emily
Mae Smith, Genesis Belanger, Claire Tabouret, and Gabriel de la
Mora—to his roster. The new artists are likely welcome editions
after the departure of market superstar
KAWS. Notably, the
additions double the number of women on Perrotin’s roster of
around 50 artists. (The Art
Newspaper)

Hong Kong Galleries Nervously Watch Protests –
Pace Gallery CEO
Marc Glimcher is one of the few
major gallerists to speak on the record about the impact of the
ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Most are wary of sabotaging their business in
mainland China. “The idea of Hong Kong regressing fully into the
system of the mainland is a really sad thought,” Glimcher
says. He and gallerist Pearl Lam note that few in Hong
Kong are currently in the mood to buy art. (ARTnews)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Australian Center for Contemporary Art Gets New Leadership
– The Melbourne institution has
appointed Claire Richardson as its new executive director.
Richardson is due to take up the post in October, which has been
vacant since Linda Mickleborough left in April. (Artforum)

Getty Research Institute Acquires Gemini G.E.L. Archive
– Ellsworth Kelly’s
husband Jack Shear purchased and subsequently donated the
photography archive assembled by the 95-year-old Gemini G.E.L.
cofounder Sidney B. Felsen to the Getty. The archive documents the
50-year history of the storied artist’s workshop and fine art
lithography publisher, which worked with artists including Robert
Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. (Los Angeles
Times)

Director of Chicago’s Renaissance Society Steps Down –
Solveig Øvstebø is leaving the
University of Chicago’s Renaissance Society in February to return
to her native Norway. She has served as executive director and
chief curator of the museum since 2013 and has organized
exhibitions of work by artists including Paul McCarthy and Jennifer
Packer. (ARTnews)

Isabel Toledo, Artist and Fashion Designer, Has Died –
The designer best known for
dressing Michelle Obama for the 2009 presidential inauguration has
died at age 59 from breast cancer. Toledo was a cult figure within
the fashion industry, and she also created work that blurred the
lines between fashion, design, and fine art. Her work was shown at
the FIT Museum and, most recently, in a collaborative exhibition
with her husband, artist Ruben Toledo, at the Detroit
Institute of Arts. (ARTnews)

FOR ART’S SAKE

The Barnes Steps Up Its VR Game – What would the
notoriously cantankerous Albert Barnes have thought of VR? We will
never know, but his foundation is now pursuing the medium with new
funding from the Philadelphia-based
Barra Foundation. The project will bring VR headsets programmed
with a virtual tour of the foundation’s art galleries to 62 sites
in Philadelphia, including public parks, libraries, and recreation
centers. (ARTnews)

Center Pompidou Begins Yearlong Revamp – A refurbishment of the Pompidou Center in Paris
kicked off yesterday. While construction is underway to replace the
escalators, the Georges Pompidou square will be closed and the
entrance to the museum will be moved to the other side of the
museum. The Pompidou also plans to introduce timed tickets to
manage the flow of visitors during the renovation. (CNews)

Female Modernist Bumps Monet as São Paulo’s Most Popular Show
– A Tarsila do Amaral
retrospective has surpassed a Claude Monet show as the most-visited
exhibition ever at the Museum of Art São Paulo Assis
Chateaubriand. The show dedicated to the Brazilian modernist
painter drew 402,850 visitors between April 4 and July 28—around
1,500 more than Monet. (TAN)

Queen Upset by Street Artist Tagging Windsor Bridge –
The Queen is reportedly upset after
a graffiti artist tagged a viaduct bridge near Windsor Castle, and
has asked her aides to clean it up. Street art photographer Steve
Cotton captured the 60-foot tag by the artist HELCH, which locals
say “blights” the view to the castle for people driving in from the
Royal Windsor Way road. (Daily
Mail)

"background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);">