Art Industry News: Banksy’s Dealer Reveals the Secret to Why the Artist Has Never Been Arrested + 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, December
18.

NEED-TO-READ

Rembrandt and Van Gogh Inspire
Names for a Planet and a Star – The Dutch were asked to suggest names for a
planet outside the solar system as well as a star. Now, the
International Astronomical Association has announced that the
exoplanet will be called Night Watch and the star, Starry Night,
after the famous paintings by Rembrandt and Van Gogh respectively.
But before you feel too jealous of the Dutch commitment to art
history, know that these names were actually the second most
popular choices: first prize went to Nijntje and Moederpluis, names
inspired by Dick Bruna’s cartoon rabbits. Those were nixed by the astronomical
association because they fell foul of copyright law.
(NLTimes)

Connecticut Museum Dedicates 2020
Program to Women – The Baltimore Museum isn’t the only art
institution dedicating its 2020 program to female artists. The
New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut announced it will
do the same to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment,
which granted women the right to vote. The program—which the
museum’s director says marks the beginning of “a long-term
commitment” to increasing the representation of female artists—will
include work by Kara Walker, Anni Albers, Shantell Martin, and
Helen Frankenthaler. (Hartford Courant)

Steve Lazarides Reveals Why Banksy Has Never Been Arrested
– Banksy’s former right-hand
man, Steve Lazarides, who has just released a photography book of the
elusive street artist at work, reveals how the artist has
consistently evaded arrest. “The secret,” he tells the
Guardian, “is hi-vis jackets and traffic cones. Nobody
stops you if you have them.” (Guardian)

Protests in Australia Over Plans to
Scrap Art Department – Backlash is growing against the
Australian Prime Minister’s decision to ax the country’s art
department. To prove the importance of art in people’s lives,
campaigners are petitioning to
remove all art from
Australia’s Parliament House and are encouraging artists to
postpone any live performances. Support for an online petition
against the Prime Minister’s move has reached 34,000 signatories.
The Australian government insists that moving federal arts funding
into a department of
Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, and Communications
is an “opportunity” for artists. (SBS)

ART MARKET

Kenny Schachter Sells Art to Offest
Philbrick Losses – The
collector and Artnet News columnist is selling 116 works in a Sotheby’s online auction
dubbed “the Hoarder Sale,” which could bring in more than
$700,000. Schachter says he had planned to downsize his
1,000-strong collection before the downfall of former business
associate Inigo Philbrick. But now that the embattled
dealer owes him “well
over $1 million,” the need for some cash “took on some urgency, to
say the least.” (The Art Newspaper)

Frieze Los Angeles Projects
Announced – Frieze Los Angeles has announced the lineup for its
projects section, which presents installations on
the Paramount Studios backlot. The section, organized
by Rita Gonzalez of LACMA and
Pilar Tompkins Rivas of the Vincent Price Art Museum, will boast
work by 16 artists including Will Boone, Tania Candiani, Sayre
Gomez, Gary Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Tavares Strachan, and Mario
García Torres. (Press
release)

Art Cologne Announces 2020 Gallery
Lineup – The company behind Art
Cologne has announced some heavyweight exhibitors for the 2020
edition of the fair, including Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner,
and Thaddaeus Ropac. The news follows the
announcement last week,
that Koelnmesse would
ax the other fair in its
portfolio, Art Berlin. (Press release) 

COMINGS & GOINGS

Brazilian Museum Hires Its First Indigenous Curator –
The Museu de Arte de São Paulo
Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) has hired Sandra Benites as its new
adjunct curator for Brazilian art. Benites, who is of Guarani
Nhandewa heritage, is the first indigenous curator to join a major
art museum in the country. (Artforum)

Pérez Art Museum Miami Gets a Christo Trove –
PAMM trustee Maria Bechily and her
partner, lawyer Scott Hodes, have gifted the museum 16 major works
by Christo estimated to be worth around $3 million. (Hodes has also
been Christo’s lawyer
since the late ’60s.) The donated works include a mixed-media
collage of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s project to wrap the MCA
Chicago, as well as a work from their Wrapped Reichstag.
(Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Mellon Withdraws Grant Over Confederate Sculpture –
The Mellon Foundation has cancelled
a $1.5 million grant to the University of North Carolina that had
been earmarked to help the university reckon with its “historic
complicity with slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and memorialization
of the Confederacy.” The foundation pulled the grant after the
university relinquished its toppled Confederate monument, known as
“Silent Sam,” to a neo-Confederate group, the Sons of Confederate
Veterans, along with a $2.5 million settlement to fund its
relocation and preservation. (Hyperallergic)

The Prado Re-Writes the Old Master Canon – The Madrid museum has organized a major exhibition
of the work of two pioneering female Renaissance
artists. Sofonisba
Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana were both born in Italy and have
long been overlooked by male art historians. But they share little
else in common. Art critic Deborah Solomon questions why their paintings are mixed
together in the show, writing, “You wonder if the curators at the
Prado think that women need to team up to better confront the
patriarchy.” (NYT)

The Eiffel Tower Closes Due to Strikes in France –
The Paris monument was closed
yesterday because of the massive strike action sweeping France,
with people across the labor force protesting over pension reforms.
Workers at the Eiffel Tower walked off the job yesterday to resist
the raising of the retirement age and to protest other reforms to
the welfare system that are being introduced by President Emmanuel
Macron. (Courthouse News)

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Secret to Why the Artist Has Never Been Arrested + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.