Wet Paint: Lauren Halsey Reserves Art for Buyers of ‘Specific Ethnicity,’ Broad Buys Another Big Warhol, and More Juicy Art-World Gossip

Every Thursday afternoon, Artnet News brings you Wet Paint, a
gossip column of original scoops reported and written by Nate
Freeman. If you have a tip, email Nate
at nfreeman@artnet.com.

KORDANSKY’S UNORTHODOX SALES APPROACH

The opening of Lauren
Halsey’s new show at David Kordansky
Gallery was one of the biggest spectacles to hit the LA
scene in months, with a total of 1,500 people streaming through
over the course of the evening to take in the series of gigantic
brightly colored sculptures done up to look like signs you might
see in L.A strip malls, or billboards that tower over highways. At
times, the line wrapped multiple times around the newly expanded gallery
in Mid City. But not all of those visitors would have the
opportunity to buy the work on view—even if they could
afford it and if they could jump the waiting
list. Due to the political nature of the work, some of Halsey’s new
sculptures have been earmarked for institutions, while others are
reserved for what the gallery described in correspondence with
clients as “collectors of specific ethnicity.”

The voluble Belgian collector
Alain Servais revealed the policy on Twitter,
saying that he received a note attached to the PDF of works in the
show explaining why certain objects were not listed among those
available. “Preview PDF of our upcoming exhibition with
Lauren Halsey is ready. This includes all new works the artist
created for the show, except a few pieces reserved only for museums
and collectors
of specific ethnicity,” the note read, according to Servais.
Apparently, Halsey asked the gallery to implement the
policy due to the political subject matter of some of the works,
which include text elements that would make it difficult, not to
mention optically unwise, to be acquired by certain collectors
(more specifically, white ones).

And actually, this guideline makes sense if you look at the work
in the show. One of the sculptures, for instance, features a remade
archival sign that clearly proclaims: “Yes we’re open and yes we’re
black owned.” Another says: “Reparations Now! In memory of our
black ancestors.” The gallery did not return an email asking to
confirm exactly which of the works were being held for institutions
and collectors of specific ethnicity.

ELI, MEET LIZ

We can reveal that the collector
who made Larry Gagosian go on a buying spree at
Christie’s last May was none other than
Eli Broad, the billionaire who has been having
Larry find him prized artworks longer than anybody else in La La
Land. Last May, Gagosian beat out a feisty Jose
Mugrabi to capture Andy Warhol’s Liz
[Early Colored Liz] (1963) for $19.3 million—slightly
under the $20 million low estimate, but still a solid price for
Warhol, whose market has been in a bit of a rut these days. In
fact, it was the second priciest Warhol sold all year. (A few lots
later, Gagosian bought Richard Prince’s
2007 Untitled (The Velvets)—previously in the
collection of the late publishing magnate Si
Newhouse—for $900,000, and it went to the same paddle
number, i.e. Broad.)  It seems that the billionaire bought the
blue rendering of Elizabeth Taylor to have a shiny new trophy to
anchor a show of Warhols from his collection set to go on view at
the Los Angeles museum that bears his name in September. Of the 27
works expected to be included in the show, 13 have never been shown
before. 

BASEL DEALERS DEMAND ANSWERS

Oh, what a difference a
rampaging deadly mega-virus makes. Last week, exhibitors were politely,
if firmly, requesting that the organizers of Art Basel
Hong Kong deliver a few concessions in light of the
ongoing protests that have roiled the city for months—but they
never threatened to pull out, or demand the fair be cancelled. Now,
as the independent territory started shutting itself off from the
mainland due to concerns over the spread of
coronavirus—which has led to the deaths of 170
people and, on Thursday, prompted the Wold Health
Organization to issue an international state of
emergency—some participating galleries have had it, and want this
edition of the fair to be scrapped. Much ink has been spilled
over London dealer Richard Nagy‘s call-to-arms
letter, sent to Art Basel global director Marc
Spiegler and director of Asia Adeline
Ooi, with directors of many of the world’s biggest
galleries cc’d: Acquavella, Hauser &
Wirth, David Zwirner,
Gagosian, Lévy Gorvy, etc.
“Not one of our foreign clients will be attending and they
are surprised the fair is still on,” Nagy wrote. Art Basel sent an email to galleries Thursday
(obtained by Wet Paint) in which it pledged to provide answers
soon—but it held off cancelling, despite the widespread concerns
about traveling to the region. “This is a challenging time for all
of us,” the organizers wrote. “Our team is working hard to review
all possible options. Needless to say, the contemplation of
postponing or cancelling an event of this scale—which takes a full
year to produce—is a complex process, with many factors and
multiple stakeholders.” Still, most dealers we spoke to are girding
themselves for the inevitable, and believe the fair will be
officially cancelled in the next week. 

PRICELESS PRINCES

We revealed in these pages that the
annual Oscars show at Gagosian’s Beverly Hills outpost will this
year go to Richard Prince, who will unveil a
series of what he calls “new portraits.” The opening, always held
the Thursday before the Academy Awards take over
Tinseltown, is often the starriest night of the year in all the
Gagosian Empire—and one of the most lucrative. In 2018, the gallery
sold 24 works by Damien Hirst by the end of
dinner, and the prices ranged from $400,000 to $1.6 million. (You
do the math.) But that won’t be the case this year. When Gagosian
offered the show to Richard after another artist who was planning
to do it pulled out, the artist had one stipulation for the gig:
none of the works could be for sale. And while the wheeling and
dealing will be less frenzied than in years past, the mysterious
new body of Prince works will no doubt bring in the moneyed masses.
Expect the same high-energy vernissage, complete with rock stars,
movie stars, and billionaire art collectors. Our bet is that some
of them will still find something to buy, even if it’s
tucked away in a back room. 

POP QUIZ

Readers! Can you identify at
which Hamptons house this Roy
Lichtenstein famously hung? The winner earns fame and
fortune in the form of a mention in an upcoming
column. 

WE
HEAR…

There will be a “special
performance” at the party to honor James Turrell
during Frieze Los Angeles, hosted by Pace
Gallery and Kayne Griffin Corcoran—could
it be a certain born-again rapper who just shot a long-format
video at Turrell’s Roden Crater? … New York’s
Bridget Donahue and London’s Sadie Coles
HQ will team up to host a pop-up gallery in Los Angeles,
right next to Paramount Pictures Studios, home
of Frieze LA, to present new works by
Martine Syms, the venerable artist they
co-represent …  Desus & Mero, the hosts of
the Bodega Boys podcast who have a Showtime talk
show that has welcomed such varied guests as Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez and the rapper 2 Chainz,
will be honored at the Bronx Museum of the Arts‘s
Visionary Duos Gala … Gina Fischli, the young
artist who broke out with a solo booth presented by London gallery
Soft Opening during FIAC, will
have a show at the viewing room space within 303
Gallery … Salon 94’s space on the
Bowery will close in June, a decade after its
inaugural show, presumably now that the 10-year lease has ended
… Virgil Abloh, Mark
Bradford, Laurene Powell Jobs, and
Darren Walker will be honored by the
Gordon Parks Foundation in May.

SPOTTED

*** Former New York
Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz at the
Whitney Art Party on Tuesday night ***
Julian Schnabel strolling down Washington Street
in (what else?) his pajama bottoms *** Harvey
Weinstein, the disgraced former movie producer who is
currently on trial for sexual assault in New York, was spotted in
the aisles of the Outsider Art Fair by two
different sources, though a publicist for the fair denies that he
made an appearance.

PARTING SHOT

The post Wet Paint: Lauren Halsey Reserves Art for Buyers of
‘Specific Ethnicity,’ Broad Buys Another Big Warhol, and More Juicy
Art-World Gossip appeared first on artnet News.