Art Industry News: The Frieze Art Fair Will Launch a Virtual Platform in May, Refunding Exhibitors at Its Cancelled NYC Edition + Other Stories

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 on this Wednesday, April
1.

NEED-TO-READ

These Were the Most Popular Shows
of 2019 – The Art
Newspaper has published
its annual ranking of attendance at museums
worldwide. The most popular show of 2019 by a single artist was Ai
Weiwei’s traveling survey in Brazil—his largest exhibition to
date—which drew more than 1.1 million people during its run.
Brazilian museums secured the top three spots in the survey, which
ranks shows by the number of visitors per day. The top two spots
for overall shows went to a free traveling exhibition that offered
a behind-the-scenes look at the production house DreamWorks. (It
drew 9,277 daily visitors in Belo Horizonte and 11,380 people per
day in Rio.) Shows dedicated to Munch and Gustav Klimt at the Tokyo
Art Museum took fourth and fifth place. (The Art
Newspaper)

National Gallery of Art Returns
Picasso – A 1903 drawing in the
National Gallery of Art’s collection from Picasso’s Blue Period
will be returned to the heirs of prominent German-Jewish banker
Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Though the Washington, DC museum
decided to transfer ownership of the drawing, it said doing so
“does not constitute an acknowledgment of the merit or validity of
the asserted claims,” but rather is to “avoid the heavy toll of
litigation.” The art collector sold Picasso’s
Head of a Woman
among at least 16 masterpieces in
the moments after the Nazis seized power, before his death in 1935.
(New York
Times) 

Cancelled Frieze New York Offers
Exhibitors Full Refunds – Frieze New York, which was set to take place
from May 7 to 10, has taken the unusual step of offering its
nearly 200 planned exhibitors full refunds, as well as returning
any money paid in advance for booth construction and other fees.
Galleries will receive the money in two payments, one in May and
one in June. (The move stands in contrast to Art Basel, which
offered exhibitors 75 percent refunds for the cancelled Hong Kong
fair.) Frieze also said it would offer incentives for exhibitors
who choose to put the money toward a future Frieze fair:
“We face similar issues to
many galleries and other businesses,” the organizers wrote in an
email to galleries. “If your circumstances allow, we hope you will
consider rolling over the second payment into Frieze New York 2021
or to one of our other fairs to which you are selected to
participate.” In lieu of the physical fair, Frieze New York will
launch an online viewing room with free participation for
exhibitors; additional details of the project have yet to be
revealed. (ARTnews)

Japan’s Museums Finally Shutter
– Japan is belatedly shuttering
its art museums as the country realizes it might not be exceptional
after all amid the global health emergency. Many
private museums and commercial
galleries stayed open through much of March, albeit with reduced
hours. The result was a mix of half-open, half-closed art venues.
Two artists, who wish to remain anonymous, said their exhibition in
Fujisawa was postponed, but the same municipal building where it
was held continued to be crowded with
people. Canceling the
exhibition was “just PR,” they said. Now, the official decision to
postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for a year and the death of a
beloved comedian from coronavirus has led to a change in public
opinion about the threat the virus poses. (Japan
Times)

ART MARKET

Dallas Art Fair Goes Online –
While the physical fair has been
postponed until the fall, the Dallas Art Fair is launching an
online edition from April 14 through April 23. The digital event
will offer collectors the chance to preview works from
participating galleries and even, if they are so inclined, place
reserves or make purchases in advance. (Glasstire)

Dorotheum Moves Contemporary Sales
to June – Austria’s leading
auction house will move its April and May classic and contemporary
week sales to June. Its master drawings, watercolors, and design
sales will be held online in early April. (Art Market
Monitor)

Sotheby’s Inks $2.7 Million Middle
East Art Sale – Sotheby’s
London online sale of 20th-century Middle Eastern art saw 60
percent of the 67 lots exceeding their estimates. But the sale’s
final total of £2.2 million ($2.7 million) failed to meet the
pre-sale high estimate of £2.3 million. (Art Market
Monitor)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Hirshhorn Names Performance Art
Curator – Marina C.
Isgro has been appointed the Hirshhorn Museum’s new associate
curator of media and performance art. She arrives in DC from
Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, where she was the inaugural Nam
June Paik research fellow. (Press release)

Artist and Writer Tomie dePaola Has
Died – The author and
illustrator of beloved children’s books, including the “Strega
Nona” series, has died at 85 from complications after an operation
following a fall. Many of his books were inspired by his Italian
grandparents and featured an eternally full pot of pasta.
(New York
Times)

FOR ART’S SAKE

John Oliver Launches a Search for
Erotica Painting – The Last Week Tonight host is
desperately seeking the collector who owns Brian Swords’s painting of erotic rats (yes,
you read that right). John Oliver wants to buy the early-’90s
erotica to brighten up his makeshift home studio. He is offering
$1,000 to the current owner, plus a $20,000 donation to the food
bank of that person’s choice. “I want that piece of art hanging
behind me on this wall next week,” Oliver told his fans.
(Philadelphia
Voice)

David Hockney Shares Spring Cheer
– The prolific artist has
released more paintings and iPad drawings to cheer people up and
provide a sunny break from the news. The veteran artist is in his
home in Normandy, Northern France, with his dog and two studio
assistants. He is drawing his garden and the fast-changing
landscape as it bursts into flower during spring.
The 83-year-artist says:
“The only real things in life are
food and love in that order, just like our little dog Ruby. I
really believe this and the source of art is love.”
(Guardian)

Campaign Raises $4.3 Million to
Save Artist Derek Jarman’s Cottage – In just 10 weeks, the public, charities, and
philanthropists made over 8,100 donations worth more than £3.5
million ($4.3 million) to save artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s
Prospect Cottage. Celebrities like Tilda Swinton and David Hockney
were vocal supporters of the project to save the deceased
director’s home, which was in peril of being sold privately and
having its artistic legacy lost. (Press Release)

The post Art Industry News: The Frieze Art Fair Will Launch
a Virtual Platform in May, Refunding Exhibitors at Its Cancelled
NYC Edition + Other Stories appeared first on artnet
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