Art Industry News: Billionaire Kylie Kardashian Wants You to Think the Inflatable Dolphin in Her Office Is by Jeff Koons + 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 Monday, April
13.

NEED-TO-READ

Portland Art Museum Furloughs 80 Percent of Staff –
The Portland Art Museum and
Northwest Film Center are the latest US institutions to
dramatically cut staff and expenses: 80 percent of staff will be
placed on unpaid leave beginning April 16. Since closing their
doors on March 14, the museum and film center have incurred $1
million of expenses each month with no incoming revenue from
admissions or retail. The museum will continue to provide health
benefits to all staff until June. “I feel a great sense of
responsibility to make sure our staff and institution are cared for
as best we are able,” said the Portland Art Museum’s director Brian
Ferriso in a statement. (Press release)

Damien Hirst Answers 100 Questions – The YBA artist took to Instagram to answer 100
questions submitted by users in the first of four videos from what
he’s calling an “invented interview.” Hirst dishes on the shelf
life of formaldehyde-soaked animals, the value of a
diamond-encrusted skull, and the artwork he initially hated that he
eventually bought: Jeff Koons’s series showing him and his
ex-wife in flagrante delicto, Made in Heaven. “I
thought they were shit when I first saw them, I just thought that’s
not art… and then maybe 10 years later, I bought one for £200,000.
Playing that game, you get it wrong.” (The Art
Newspaper)

Kylie Jenner Has a Fake Jeff Koons in Her Office
– Makeup mogul Kylie Jenner has a net worth of $1
billion, but that doesn’t mean she needs to be flagrant with her
spending. A recent episode of Keeping Up With the
Kardashians reveals that Kylie keeps an inflatable
creature in her office as budget-friendly decor. As her mother Kris
gets up to leave after a chat, she asks: “Why do you have a
dolphin in your office?” Kylie quickly replies: “It’s a Jeff
Koons.” (You’ll recall the Kardashians and Koons have a history,
with Kris “art-shaming” Kylie’s
sister Khloe for not knowing the artist’s name.) Kylie collects
work by other big-name figures, including Warhol and Basquiat. But
apparently she did not think Koons was worth the koin. (TAN)

What Happens When Your Big Break Gets Delayed? –
For the artist Deborah Roberts,
having her debut solo exhibition at the Contemporary Austin
postponed is not a disappointment—it’s a reprieve. After the
57-year-old artist’s work caused a stir at an exhibition at the
Studio Museum in Harlem in 2017, her career set on a course too
fast for her liking. Now, she says, the few extra months “just
gives me time to be greater, to really flesh out this work.”
(New York
Times)

ART MARKET

Gagosian’s Inaugural Artist Spotlight Sells –
Last week, Gagosian unveiled its
latest online initiative, Artist Spotlight, which highlights one
artist and one artwork each week alongside interviews with the
artist, film recommendations, and other supplemental content. The
inaugural work, by Sarah Sze, sold on Friday—the same day Spotlight
launched—for $275,000. (Email)

Beatles Handwritten Lyrics Sell for $910,000 –
It seems the demand for Beatles
memorabilia is still high, even during an international crisis.
Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for “Hey Jude” sold for
$910,000 through Julien’s Auctions on Friday, nine times its
original estimate. The object was among more than 250 pieces of
Beatles memorabilia offered by the online auction house to mark the
50th anniversary of the band’s breakup. (Reuters)

Sotheby’s Launches Online Contemporary Day Sale – While
its showrooms are closed, the
venerable auction house is bringing a new Modern and contemporary
sale series online next month. Among the highlights is Richard
Prince’s black acrylic silkscreen on canvas, 3 Jokes Painted to Death
(1987), an early example of his
now-prominent “Joke” series from the 1990s. The work carries an
estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. (Art Market
Monitor)

COMINGS & GOINGS

New Mexico Museum Names New Director – Mark White has been tapped to lead the New
Mexico Museum of Art. He joins the institution from the Fred J.
Jones Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, which he has led
since 2015. He begins his new role on May 18. (Artforum)

Galway City of Culture Program Abandoned – The yearlong celebration of Galway, which was
to feature some of Ireland’s most prominent artists, has all but
dissolved in the shadow of COVID-19. The board has laid off the
majority of its staff and severed its contract with its production
company, though some hope remains that a few projects might come to
fruition by the end of the year. (TAN)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Bloomsbury Group’s Country Home Fights for Its Life –
The East Sussex country home of the
Bloomsbury group has launched an emergency crowdfunding effort to
offset the “financially devastating” impact of its closure due to
COVID-19. The Charleston Trust, which turned the former home of
painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant into a museum more than 30
years ago, says it now must raise £400,000 in order to survive
beyond 2020. (TAN)

A New Book Shines a Light on Famous Artists’ Better Halves
– A new book puts the spotlight
on the under-sung spouses of male artists, including Josephine
Nivison, the wife of Edward Hopper. More Than a Muse: Creative Partnerships That
Sold Talented Women Short, by Katie McCabe, details the roadblocks Jo
faced repeatedly on the way to a career of her own, and makes the
case for the art world to take a closer look at her own work.
Notably, when she started dating Hopper, Nivison had just been
invited to show alongside Georgia O’Keeffe at the Brooklyn Museum,
while Hopper hadn’t sold a panting in over a decade.
(NY
Post)

Artists Pay Tribute to Dr. Anthony Fauci
– The head of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, who is leading America’s response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, has become a subject of fascination among many
homebound CNN viewers. He has also inspired scores of artistic
social-media tributes, from admiring portraits to sock puppets. See
a selection below. (Hyperallergic)

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The post Art Industry News: Billionaire Kylie Kardashian
Wants You to Think the Inflatable Dolphin in Her Office Is by Jeff
Koons + Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.