David Zwirner has hired Thor Shannon, formerly of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, as director, Art News reports. “It is both profoundly thrilling and bittersweet” Shannon said. “I adore Gavin and the artists and the staff and the ethos of the gallery. I’ve been honored to be a part of it. At the same time, I’m really excited about this opportunity.” (more…)
Christies will bring the collection of Lee Bouvier Radziwill, the younger sister of Jackie Kennedy, to the auction block this fall, Art News reports. “Lee Radziwill is remembered by all who knew her as a symbol of sophistication and connoisseurship, with a fascinating life story,” says Marc Porter, the chairman of Christie’s Americas. (more…)
Pace has shuttered its outpost in the 798 Art District in Beijing, Art News reports. “It’s impossible to do business in mainland China right now and it has been for awhile,” says Arne Glimcher, the gallery founder. “The last straw is Trump’s duty on Chinese artists coming into this country and Xi Jinping’s duty on Americans coming into China.” (more…)
A piece in The Guardian covers the resignation of Hannah Rothschild as chair of London’s National Gallery, and the controversies that ultimately drove her decision to leave. “She was a good guy as it were. But she simply felt enough was enough,” says an unnamed source. (more…)
A piece in the NYT this week charts the geographic locations of artists in this Whitney Biennial and in years past, looking at how the exhibition’s focus has changed over its nearly 100 years. (more…)
A piece in The Baffler this week charts how abstract art has struggled at auction in recent months against figurative works, and what that might mean for a shifting market. “If one places the artwork outside of its historical context, whether in its origin, or its effect,” the piece quotes from critic Hannah Deinhardt, “one can give no explanation of the facts of the various arts, the many-sidedness of artworks.” (more…)
Vielmetter Gallery will expand its space in downtown LA while closing the Culver City space it has had since 2010, Art News reports. “The energy has definitely shifted to downtown so it made sense to expand here,” owner Susanne Vielmetter says. “Our artists and collectors absolutely love our downtown gallery and we have so many more possibilities here now.” (more…)
A group of artists including Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread and Sarah Lucas have called on the National Portrait Gallery to not accept funding from the oil behemoth BP. “A crucial role of art is to describe to future generations what it is to be alive now, and to provide an echo of our humanity to those who seek it in the future,” the open letter, signed by 78 artists, reads. “The ethical red lines regarding art sponsorship are always shifting, tracing the curve of corporate behavior and what’s regarded as the public good.” (more…)
Critic and historian Douglas Crimp, among the most influential arts writers of the post-war landscape has passed away at the age of 74. He was also a vocal advocate for AIDS awareness and activism, and edited an entire issue of the influential arts magazine October around the subject. “People were blind to the reality of what was going on, and I knew that this would get people thinking,” Crimp said. (more…)
Painter Leon Kossoff, whose paintings documented the landscape of postwar Britain, has died at 92. “Although I have drawn and painted from landscapes and people constantly, I have never finished a picture without first experiencing a huge emptying of all factual and topographical knowledge,” the artist said of his work. (more…)
Annette Messager, Sleeping Pacific (2017), via Marian Goodman
Artist Annette Messager has brought a series of new works to Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris this month, orchestrating a series of drawings and wall mounted works as well as her first video install, Lost in Limbos (2019). The show, continuing Messager’s incisive material inventions and impressive orchestration of varied states and conceptual operations, is on view through July 19th.
Annette Messager at Marian Goodman (Installation View), via Marian Goodman
The German city of Krefeld has rejected a claim from the heirs of Piet Mondrian who say that four works by the artist in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum were actually lent, rather than given to the museum. “Everything suggests that the pictures came to Krefeld legally,” says Frank Meyer, the city’s mayor. “The report confirms our position that there are no grounds for restitution.” (more…)
Nan Goldin and her P.A.I.N. activist group have staged an action at the Louvre in Paris, calling for the removal of the Sackler name from one wing of the institution. “We demand that the Louvre rename the Sackler wing and commit to refusing any criminal donations in the future,” the group said in a statement. (more…)
Boris Johnson has called for the establishment of a series of freeports around the country, where works of art could be stored tax free. “It would be a massive boost to this economy, but only once we come out,” he says. “I will have about six of them, by the way.” (more…)
A piece in Art News looks at ongoing debates over repatriation of artifacts, and the forces pushing these discussions forward. “During the colonial period we suffered not only from colonialism, slavery, and economic exploitation but also, and above all, from the barbarous systematic pillaging of all our works of art,” says Mobutu Sese Seko, the former dictator of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). (more…)
The German Museums Association has presented a reworked series of guidelines towards colonial artifacts, focusing on how to deal more sensitively with non-European perspectives in its collecting practices. “The topic of rehabilitation is not new for museums. What is new is the intensity driving the debate forward,” says Eckart Köhne, the president of the German Museums Association. (more…)
The Art Newspaper has a piece on Jan Cornelis Traas, the caretaker of the Mesdag Museum in the Hague, who was appointed to restore over 200 Van Gogh works, and the issues his lack of training has caused on the current condition of the works. “Understanding the consequences of these earlier treatments provides a basis for dealing with the legacy of the past,” Ella Hendriks, the Van Gogh Museum’s former senior conservator, says. (more…)
KAWS has left Perrotin gallery, ARTnews reports. “We are very proud of the work we did with KAWS over these 11 years of our collaboration,” Emmauel Perrotin said in a statement. “Considering all the pressure, this collaboration has come to an end. In any case, we will be satisfied if his career continues to develop in a good way and we wish him all the very best moving forward.” (more…)
Silver Art Projects, a corporate responsibility initiative of Silverstein Properties will launch an artist residency at 3 World Trade Center, hosting 30 artists every September for up to 8 months. “I’ve always been very interested in arts and culture and so has my family, particularly my grandfather,” says Cory Silverstein. “Josh and I met in college and realized we shared a passion for the arts. When we moved to New York, we wanted to bring arts and culture in a nonprofit capacity to the World Trade Center and the downtown area.” (more…)
Oscar Murillo, Manifestation (2018-2019), via David Zwirner
Currently on view at David Zwirner London, artist Oscar Murillo has brought forth a selection of new works exploring both his past visual language and a range of expressive new iterations of his technique, delving into the visual history of his paintings as a shared exchange with both history and modernity. On view through the end of the month, Murillo brings out a new range of pieces and projects that underscore his continued engagement with the painted canvas. (more…)
The Smithsonian Institution will not remove the Sackler name from its Asian art museum, defying a request by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. “The legal agreement signed between the Smithsonian and Arthur M. Sackler was in keeping with the Smithsonian’s recognition practices at the time and obligated the Smithsonian to designate the facility as the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in perpetuity,” saysSmithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III. “For this reason the Smithsonian cannot remove the Sackler name from the Gallery without breaking this commitment.” (more…)
Kayne Griffin Corcoran now represents artist Sam Moyer on its roster, Art News reports. “I am delighted to continue to be involved with Sam’s practice in my current role at Kayne Griffin Corcoran,” says director Colleen Grennan, who previously worked with Moyer at Cleopatra’s. (more…)
London-based business strategy firm and exhibition company Informa Markets has acquired Art Miami, the parent company of a number of fairs including Aqua Art Miami, Art Wynwood, and Art New York. “Informa Markets is known as the world’s largest exhibition company,” said a representative from Art Miami. “With that said, participating exhibitors can anticipate improvements to the marketing, infrastructure, logistics and ambience of all fairs under the new ownership structure.” (more…)
Olga Balema, Brain Damage (Installation View), via Bridget Donahue
Upon entering the gallery space at Bridget Donahue this month, one is greeted by a peculiar selection of objects. Small-scale, think strips of elastic material are laid up against the walls of the space, or twisted out along the floor. The pieces, with their slight impressions upon the viewer’s perception of space, seems to lend the already raw Chinatown space a look of material temporality, of objects held in momentary sway, as if left behind in between residents. (more…)