Art Industry News: Did This Museum Just Accidentally Auction Off a Genuine Rembrandt? + 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, November
6.

NEED-TO-READ

Is the Art World Cashing in on Kusama? – What’s behind
the unstoppable rise of 90-year-old Yayoi Kusama? The veteran artist’s
forthcoming exhibition at David Zwirner is anticipating a
staggering 100,000 visitors, while her famous “Infinity Mirror”
rooms continue to draw crowds at museums around the globe. While
some are lauding the overdue attention to an older Asian female
artist who for decades was scrubbed from the history books, others
wonder whether the “Kusamania” has gone too far. Skeptics reckon
the art world is cashing in on the artist’s popularity to attract
visitors who will pay as much as $15 for a mere 60-second view of
one of her popular installations. (New York
Times)

Marciano Foundation Lays Off Workers Amid Union Drive
– The Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles—the
private museum established by Guess Jeans founders Maurice and
Paul Marciano—has laid off all of its visitor services associates
(as many as 60 people), citing low attendance. The move comes just
days after dozens of its employees announced a campaign to
unionize. Following their departure, the foundation will remain
closed to the public “until further notice,” according to a
representative. (ARTnews)

Is This Painting Actually by Rembrandt?
– Any time an unattributed Old Master sells for many
multiples of its presale estimate, onlookers wonder whether it’s
because the work might actually be by a famous artist. So when a
painting of Rembrandt from the Bass collection in Miami attributed
only as having been painted “the manner of Rembrandt” sold for 30
times its estimate at Christie’s New York last week, the rumor mill
began churning. Some experts believe the painting, which achieved
$675,000 on a $20,000 high estimate, could be by the master
himself. But Jan Six, the Dutch art dealer behind a number of
Rembrandt discoveries, maintains the work is by his
pupil Isaac de Jouderville. The Bass is either celebrating its
payday or having a bad case of seller’s remorse. (The Art
Newspaper)

Australian Collective Decries Treatment of Indigenous Artists
– An Australian art collective is sounding the alarm about
allegedly abusive treatment of elderly Indigenous artists by unscrupulous art
dealers. The group, APY Art
Collective, has likened the treatment to “modern-day slavery.” They
have written to the premier of South Australia demanding an
investigation into allegations that at least three artists
were being forced by dealers to pay
off family debts by producing new paintings. Sally Scales, who is a
member of the Pipalyatjara community, says that once an artist
gains a high profile, the “carpetbaggers move
in.” (Guardian)

ART MARKET

Is Art a Good Investment? – Our executive editor
Julia Halperin stopped by Slate’s podcast studio to discuss an
evergreen question with host Felix Salmon: Is art really an asset
class? The short answer is yes, but only if it fits a number of
very narrow criteria. Crucially, art is not a particularly reliable
place to invest your money until you are paying around $500,000 per
work. (Slate Money)

Phillips Adds a Specialist in Switzerland – Phillips auction house has named Zurich-based
art dealer and advisor Lori Specter as its new regional director
for Switzerland. Specter will also serve as a senior international
specialist in 20th century and contemporary art. (ARTnews)

Chakaia Booker Is Now Represented by Mark Borghi –
The New York-based sculptor
Chakaia Booker has joined Mark
Borghi Fine Art of New York and Bridgehampton. She is best known
for monumental works made of discarded construction materials and
rubber tires. (Press release)

Robin Williams’s Abakanowicz Sculptures Smash Auction Record
– Magdalena Abakanowicz’s installation Caminando, which used to belong to the late actor Robin
Williams, sold for more than 8 million Polish zloty ($2.1 million)
at auction in Poland. The price, achieved at DESA Unicum in Warsaw
on October 29, sets a new record for a work sold at auction in the
country. (Press
release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

2020 Liverpool Biennial
Releases Artists’ List and Concept – The Stomach and the Port is the title
of the upcoming biennial, which is scheduled to run from July 11 to
October 25. The group show will include American artist Judy
Chicago, German painter Jutta Koether, and French artist Camille
Henrot, among others, and will focus on the body and non-Western
ways of thinking and connecting with the
world. (Press
release)

National Gallery
Announces New Appointments – The recently appointed
director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC,
Kaywin Feldman, has filled two senior positions. Elisa Glazer,
formerly the chief advancement officer at the Freer/Sackler
Galleries, has been named external affairs and audience engagement
officer, while Kate Haw, director of the Archives of American Art,
will become the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and programs
officer. Both begin their new jobs early next year as the new
director shifts the museum to better focus on visitor experience.
(Washington
Post)

Taylor Wessing Prize Winner Announced – The Los Angeles-based photographer Pat Martin
has won the London National Gallery’s £15,000 ($19,000) Taylor
Wessing Prize. Two of his photographs from a series of portraits of
his mother, who struggles with addiction, secured him the award,
with judges lauding them as “sensitive, tough, and even humorous.”
(Guardian)

FOR ART’S SAKE

LA Artists, Like Everyone Else, Are Worried About
Affordability – A new survey
carried out by the nonprofit Arts for LA has determined that the
number one concern among artists in Los Angeles is gentrification
and the rising cost of rent. Out of the 763 artists and 30 policy
experts, culture workers, and artist advocates surveyed, 89 percent
named housing affordability as a “very serious” concern and 90
percent cited worries about studio prices. (The Art
Newspaper)

Guggenheim Plans Gego, Sarah Sze, and Joan Mitchell Shows
– Work by the boundary-breaking
sculptor known as Gego will fill the rotunda of the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum in New York in the fall of 2020. The artist fled
Nazi Germany as a young woman and settled in Venezuela, where she became a pioneer of
geometric abstraction and kinetic art. Other major projects on the
agenda: a Sarah Sze survey in the spring of 2021, a major Joan
Mitchell show, and presentation of work by the YBA and Turner
Prize-winner Gillian Wearing. (Press release)

Maurizio Cattelan Gives the Shirt Off His Back for Charity
– Maurizio Cattelan has donated
a shirt he made for the opening of the Yuz Museum’s exhibition “The
Artist Is Present” to a benefit auction to raise funds for the New
York-based nonprofit Mister Artsee, which provides public schools
with art supplies. Cattelan curated the exhibition that
examines appropriation art, and the shirt riffs on Gucci’s logo (with
permission: Gucci was a sponsor of the show). Bidding starts at
$10,000 for the one-of-a-kind work, which carries an estimate of
$40,000. The sale is live on Paddle8 through Friday. (Press release)

The Founder of Spanx Bought Olivia Newton-John’s
Leather Pants – Sometimes a collector and an object are simply
meant for each other. Such is the case with the billionaire founder of the shapewear company
Spanx, Sara Blakely, who has revealed herself as the buyer of the
skin-tight black satin leggings worn by Olivia Newton-John during
the finale of Grease. Blakely shelled out $162,000 for the
pants, which were part of a charity sale of Newton-John memorabilia
at Julien’s Auctions that raised $2.9 million for her
Melbourne-based cancer center. The legendary leggings are now
headed for display at the Spanx headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Daily
Mail)

The post Art Industry News: Did This Museum Just
Accidentally Auction Off a Genuine Rembrandt? + Other Stories
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