Art Industry News: Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist Will Make Himself Less Ubiquitous by ‘Significantly’ Curbing His Air Travel + Other Stories

by admin

Feb 4, 2020

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 on this Tuesday, February
4.

NEED-TO-READ

Norman Rockwell Museum
Announces Crowd-Funding Campaign – The Massachusetts
museum has launched a $50,000 GoFundMe campaign to help fund the
restoration of Rockwell’s renowned civil rights-era painting of a
young black girl, Ruby Bridges, walking to her newly desegregated
elementary school. The painting, The Problem We All Live
With (1964), once hung in the White House during Barack
Obama’s presidency. (Press Release)

Beautiful Political Murals Are Popping Up in Baghdad –
Political murals have sprung up
around Iraq’s capital city, painted largely by young people.
Although the country has a strong artistic tradition, murals and
protest art are a relatively recent cultural development. Baghdad’s
residents are now redefining their city through art and expressing
both frustrations and beauty in these murals. (New York
Times)

Hans Ulrich Obrist Is Cutting Back on Flying –
The ubiquitous curator is cutting
down on his frequent plane travel in an effort to curb his impact
on climate change. Inspired by artists, particularly his late
friend Gustav Metzger who worked on the Serpentine’s Extinction
Marathon in 2014, Obrist writes that he is “very significantly”
changing both his personal approach and that of the Serpentine
Gallery. With climate change in mind he speaks of sending fewer
emails, introducing “slow programming,” buying fewer clothes, and
reducing air travel. (The Art
Newspaper)

Is Glasgow’s Gallery of
Modern Art in Danger of Closing? – As the UK city tries to
reduce its budget by $65 million, it is floating the idea of moving
the historic museum’s collection elsewhere and selling off the
building. The news caused an outcry, but a politician reassured everyone over
Twitter that it is a routine part of budgeting to “examine every
venue but GoMA won’t close on the SNP’s watch so don’t panic.”
(Artforum)

ART MARKET

Deutsche Bank Is Selling Off Its
Collection – The beleaguered bank, which
is cutting 18,000 jobs, has announced plans to sell off part of its
significant art collection. One work that it is giving up is the
Gerhard Richter triptych Faust (1981), which has hung for
years in the lobby of its building on Wall Street. The bank is
making a move to Columbus Circle and says it no longer has room to
keep the work. (TAN)

Andrew Kreps Will Represent the Estate of Sister Corita Kent
– The estate of the late pop
artist, social activist, educator, and nun will now be represented
by Andrew Kreps in New York with the Corita Art Centre, and by the
Milan-based gallery Kaufmann Repetto in Europe. (Press
release)

Bonham’s Is Unloading Supreme Skateboards in Los Angeles
– The sale, which takes place
on February 15, will include one of the largest collections of
Supreme skateboards, including collaborative boards from KAWS, John
Baldessari, Cindy Sherman, Raymond Pettibon, Mike Kelley, and Nan
Goldin. Also coming up for sale are works of art by Alex Israel,
Wolfgang Tillmans, and Richard Prince. (Press
release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

The Berlin Biennale
Announces Its Locations – The 11th edition of the
biennial, which is set to take place starting June 13,
has announced the four arts institutions where it will hold
the event: the art collective space ExRotaprint, daadgalerie,
Gropius Bau, and KW Institute for Contemporary Art. (Press
release)

Seattle Asian Art Museum
Reopens – After a $56 million renovation that took
two years to complete, the museum will reopen this Saturday with
more space to showcase its collection. The revamp includes a
new 2,648-square-foot gallery, a community meeting room, and a
conservation studio. (NYT)

Resorts Are Getting Into the Creative Experiences
Game – Artistic workshops
programming are increasingly becoming integral parts of luxury
tourism in what is being dubbed “transformational travel”
trend. Travelers to properties like the new Potato Head
Studios in Bali can expect to participate in activities like
pottery classes, art therapy, sustainability workshops, and more.
(NYT)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Portrait of Louis XIV’s Son Is Actually Somebody Else
– A 10-foot-tall portrait that was thought depict
France’s Grand Dauphin, King Louis XIV’s son, has been revealed to
in fact depict a 17th-century lord mayor. The work is on public
display at the Tate Britain as part of the exhibition “British
Baroque: Power and Illusion.” (Guardian)

Berlin Artist Creates a
Traffic Jam With 99 Cellphones – Simon Weckert’s artwork
Google Maps Hacks saw the artist pull a little red wagon
down Berlin’s main streets, carrying 99 smartphones that were all
reporting their locations back to Google. As a result, the company
reported of a huge cluster of slow-moving traffic in its maps.
(Guardian)

Christine Sun Kim Is Unhappy With Her Super Bowl Airtime
– When artist Christine Sun Kim
was asked to sign the national anthem and “America the Beautiful”
alongside Demi Lovato’s performance at the Super Bowl, she was
hesitant to agree, but saw it as a chance to represent the deaf
community. Unfortunately, she has since spoken out about how it was
a “huge disappointment” to discover that her signing was only
broadcast by Fox Sports for a few seconds. See a full video of her
performance below. (New York
Times and
YouTube)