Art Industry News: Salvagers Get the Go-Ahead to Attempt a Recovery of the Titanic’s Priceless Telegraph Machine That Sent the Ship’s Final Pleas for Help + 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, May
25.

NEED-TO-READ

A Female Designer From
Parsons Helped Inspired the N95 – In the late 1950s,
design consultant Sara Little Turnbull created an early model for
what became the N95 mask. Using the shape of a bra cup as
inspiration (up until then, doctors had been wearing flat tie-on
masks), in 1958 Turnbull made a seminal presentation to the
executives of 3M, explaining the novel possibilities of a material
called Shapeen to turn into different products, including a molded
bra cup. Two years later, she realized the revolutionary potential
this specific form had for the medical world, and pitched the idea
for turning the same bra cup form into a wearable mask.
(NPR)

How an Artist Made
Friends With the Thief Who Stole Her Paintings – A new
Hulu documentary called The Painter and the Thief tells
the story of Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova who befriended
Karl-Bertil Nordland, a drug-addicted thief who was convicted for
stealing two of her most prized paintings. Kysilkova did not
reprimand him, but instead asked to paint his portrait. An unlikely
friendship between the two developed. The documentary by Benjamin
Ree is available from Friday, May 30. (Vanity Fair, Vulture)

Inside the MFA Houston’s Reopening – The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston became the
first major American museum to reopen over the weekend. The
museum’s director, Gary Tinterow, personally welcomed the 20-some
visitors who lined up to be the first to enter at 11 a.m. on
Saturday morning. After walking past a thermal imaging device that
checked their temperature, each had about a studio apartment’s
worth of space to themselves inside the galleries. (New York Times)

Judge Rules Salvage Firm
Can Recover the Titanic’s Marconi Telegraph – RMS Titanic,
Inc will be allowed to cut into the historic wreckage off the coast
of Newfoundland with a remote-operated vehicle in order to extract
its Marconi telegraph machine that made the distress
calls. The court ruling
has altered a decision from 2000 that forbade cutting or detaching
of any part of the ship. Not everyone approves—the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration is strongly opposed to the plan.
(Smithsonian Magazine)

ART MARKET

Diane Arbus Image Leads Christie’s Photographs Sale –
Christie’s is planning online
photography sales to replace its usual live spring photo sales.
Among the highlights of the auction, which went live on May 19, is
Diane Arbus’s Family on
their lawn one Sunday in Westchester, N.Y. (1968). First published in the
Sunday
Times, the photo of a
family on the lawn on a hot summer day carries an estimate of
$200,000 to $300,000. (Art Market Monitor)

David Zwirner Pens a New York Times
Op-ed – In response to the
question, “Why does art matter?,” the gallerist argues that it
serves to “make us better people.” He also contends that the
education system’s emphasis on science at the expense of the
humanities is a mistake. “The machines have proven to be absolutely
amazing during a pandemic, connecting us, informing us, and
entertaining us, but in the end they are limited,” he writes.
“They’re born of science and they have no imaginations.”
(New York Times)

Plans for Art Basel Miami Beach Proceed – Organizers have finalized the lineup of
galleries for Art Basel Miami Beach and are “planning full tilt on
the basis and expectation that we can hold a fair in Miami in
December,” according to the US fair’s director Noah Horowitz.
Although Art Basel leadership previously suggested the fate of the
December fair was up in the
air, Horowitz now says
“it feels far enough out that this can work. That’s what we’re
focused on.” (Miami Herald)

26-Year-Old Star Collector Michael Xufu Huang on His New
Museum – His plans to open the highly anticipated
Museum X in Beijing this winter were delayed by the global health
crisis. The young Chinese collector now plans to open on May 29
with the “X Museum Triennial” that includes 33 artists under 40 who
are either Chinese or of Chinese decent. (Financial
Times)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Celebrated Egyptian Sculptor Adam Henein Dies –
The artist, whose sculptures and
paintings united modernist abstraction with pharaonic iconography,
died on Friday at a hospital in Cairo. He was 91. One of the most
influential Arab artists of his generation, Henein centered his
practice on Egypt’s working class. In 2014, he transformed his Giza
home into a museum. (ARTnews)

Painter Richard Anuszkiewicz Dies –  The American painter and Op art pioneer has
died at age 89. Anuszkiewicz, who was mentored by Josef Albers in
the 1950s, became known for nesting squares of complimentary colors
in his paintings, evoking a sense in the viewer that the shapes
were vibrating. His work was included in the legendary Op art
exhibition “The Responsive Eye” in 1965. (Artforum)

New-York Historical Society Nabs a New York-Themed Art
Collection – New York City
real-estate executive Elie Hirschfeld and his wife, Sarah, have
spent decades building an art collection that tells the story of
New York City. Now, they are donating the 130-piece trove—which
includes works by Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, Norman
Rockwell, Andy Warhol, and Georgia O’Keeffe—to the New York
Historical Society. The collection will be showcased in a dedicated
exhibition at the society next fall. (Wall Street Journal)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Winners of Herb Alpert Awards Announced – The recipients of the 26th annual award, given
by the Grammy-winning trumpeter’s foundation to risk-taking
mid-career artists, were announced on Friday. They are: Karen
Sherman (dance), Sky Hopinka (film), Christian Scott (music), Phil
Soltanoff (theater), and Firelei Baez (visual arts). The winners,
chosen by a panel of experts, will receive $75,000 each.
(Reuters)

In Mexico City, Experts
Find Bones of Dozens of Mammoths – Archaeologists have
uncovered the bones of about 60 mammoths at an airport construction
site north of Mexico City. The discovery is six miles from where
human-built mammoth trap pits, where more than a dozen of the
prehistoric creatures were found last year. (Courthouse News)

Charging Bull Becomes the Subject of Fierce
Debate—Again – A privately-financed initiative to
relocate Arturo di Modica’s famous monument from its current site
in Lower Manhattan to the New York Stock Exchange received a major
setback last Tuesday. In a video conference standoff, Bill de
Blasio’s administration had their proposal to move the sculpture
voted down over concerns about the aesthetics of placing it
outside the trading center, as well as security risks. The city
does not officially own the monument, which creates another gray
area when discussing its relocation. (ARTnews)

The post Art Industry News: Salvagers Get the Go-Ahead to
Attempt a Recovery of the Titanic’s Priceless Telegraph Machine
That Sent the Ship’s Final Pleas for Help + Other Stories
appeared first on artnet News.