Art Industry News: Jerry Saltz on How the Lockdown Era Will Give Birth to a Very Different Art World + 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 Friday, April
3.

NEED-TO-READ

MOCA Furloughs Most of Its Staff – Nearly all of MOCA in Los Angeles’s full-time
employees—a total of 69 people—have been put on either full or
partial furlough or a “significant salary reduction” as of today,
with director Klaus Biesenbach taking the largest (though
unspecified) pay cut. The museum already laid off 97 part-time staff last
week. It says that it hopes to rehire and reverse the changes
when the museum is able to reopen and the economy re-stabilizes.
(Los Angeles Times)

New York Botanical Garden Postpones Kusama Show
– The hotly anticipated Yayoi
Kusama exhibition planned for the summer at the New York
Botanical Garden has been postponed to spring 2021. Tickets had
gone on sale in February, with prices of up to $45 for access to
one of Kusama’s “Infinity Rooms.” Buyers will receive a refund in
the coming weeks. “The passion that I and those at the NYBG have
poured into this exhibition is still burning,” Kusama said in a
heartfelt statement. “Everyone, I hope you will wait.”
(TAN)

Jerry Saltz on How
Coronavirus Will Change the Art World – The art
critic says that while he has seen recessions and crises over the
years, he has not seen anything quite like the current situation.
“Much of the art world infrastructure feels like it’s already in
the balance,” he writes. “I worry that such a sundering will only
exacerbate the inequalities that more and more dominate this
universe, with mega-galleries and art stars surviving and the gap
between them and everyone else only widening.” He is optimistic,
however, that the true art world, not the moneyed one, will survive
in the wake of the crisis: “Creativity was with us in the caves,”
he notes. (Vulture)

San Francisco Art
Figures Protest Art Institute Closure – More than 60
curators, academics, dealers, and museum trustees have signed an
open letter to show support for one of America’s oldest
schools, which is currently facing layoffs, the cancellation of
its fall semester, and an indefinite closure. The
signatories—including Hou Hanru, director of the MAXXI museum in
Rome, and Clara Kim, a senior curator at Tate Modern in London—have
called for a new, more sustainable model for the school. “There are
many people who care deeply about this and what it means for our
community,” the letter states. (ARTnews)

ART MARKET

La Biennale Paris Gives Dealers a Boost
– The art and antiques fair is taking advantage of an
emergency relief package offered by the French government to help
struggling galleries participate in the fair. With the help of a
state guarantee program for loans to companies affected by the
outbreak, the Biennale Paris is offering exhibitors the opportunity
to spread payment of their booth fees over four months after the
event and has eliminated the requirement to provide any payment in
advance. The fair will be held in Paris in September. (The Art
Newspaper)

French Auction House Organizes a Charity Sale –
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, kamel
mennour, and other galleries are donating works to a charity
auction to support French health workers in dire need of personal
protective equipment. The sale, run by Piasa, runs April 3 through
April 5 and includes work by A.R. Penck, Martial Raysse, and Claude
Lévêque, among others. (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art Names Director –
Kathleen Bartels, who served as
director of the Vancouver Art Gallery for 18 years, has been named
the new director and CEO of the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Toronto. Bartels stepped down from VAG last year after presiding
over its monumental (and controversial) expansion. (Artforum) 

Gallerist Renato Danese Has Died at 76 – The passionate and frank New York dealer came
to the art market from the museum world, where he served as a
curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The gallerist’s parter at
Danese/Corey gallery, Carol Corey, confirmed his death at age 76,
from cancer. (ARTnews)

Philadelphia Museum of Art Extends Closure Through End of
June – The Philadelphia Museum
of Art will remain closed through June 30, following in the footsteps
of the Met. To survive the closure, it plans to reduce staff
salaries for everyone making more than $30,000 a year, but museum
officials have said they are trying to avoid layoffs.
(Philadelphia
Inquirer)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Maurizio Cattelan Makes Lockdown Art – The prankster artist is among those who
were invited to contribute to the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi’s
online “Chamber Journeys” project, which asks artists to select
images, videos, and texts to narrate their own domestic spaces and
experiences during lockdown. The project is now open to submissions
from the public. (Press
release)

Irish Museum Used as Mortuary – The Irish Museum of Modern Art will host a
temporary mortuary on its grounds as Dublin continues to cope with
the coronavirus pandemic. The structure will be built in the
museum’s courtyard. “We think with great compassion and respect for
the families of those who may need these facilities in the times to
come,” the museum said in a statement. (The Art Newspaper)

Getty Archive Tries to Salvage Photos During Lockdown –
Here is a side effect of the
current lockdown you might not have considered: the potential
danger to millions of precious photographs and negatives that
require careful preservation and protection to keep from degrading.
The Getty Images archive in London is working to preserve unseen
shots of Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and other famous figures with
only two employees allowed on the premises at one time.
(Guardian) 

Artist Injured by Own Sculpture Doing Lockdown Aerobics –
The Norwegian performance artist
Jan Hakon Erichsen, who is known for theatrically popping balloons
using sculptures he creates from knives, had an unfortunate
accident while doing another daredevil activity, which he calls
“furniture aerobics,” at home under lockdown. In what seemed
potentially inevitable, he fell onto one of his own works. The
artist is taking it as a sign and has decided to pause the activity
in case he gets a more serious injury and needs to visit the
hospital, which is already stretched thin due to the public health
situation. (10 Daily)

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Era Will Give Birth to a Very Different Art World + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.