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 Thursday, September 23.
NEED-TO-READ
David Adjaye Will Design Highly Anticipated Basquiat Show – The starchitect will serve as exhibition designer for a high-profile New York show of never-before-shown work organized by Basquiat’s family. In a statement, Adjaye said that the vision for the show—“to reclaim the narrative of Basquiat’s life and work and to shed new light on an artist that is only partially understood”—is perfectly aligned with his practice. The exhibition opens on April 9, 2022 in Chelsea. (Press release)
Brancusi’s Kiss Sculpture Will Stay Put – A French court has ruled that Constantin Brancusi’s iconic The Kiss sculpture may not be removed from its site atop a tomb in Paris’s famed Montparnasse Cemetery. The ruling overturns a decision from December that sided with the heirs of the woman buried beneath the sculpture, who want to export it to Russia. (ARTnews)
Some French People Don’t Love the Wrapped Arc de Triomphe – Parisians are not exactly known for being easy to please, so it isn’t surprising that locals are divided over Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s posthumous wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe. In a now-viral tweet, French journalist Christine Kelly captioned a photo of the wrapped monument: “I am ashamed. Sorry.” A French politician described the years-in-the-making project as “a garbage bag draped over one of our most glorious monuments.” (Critic Sebastian Smee contends that Christo actually would have agreed.) Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, on the other hand, is a fan; he traveled all the way to Paris to see the spectacle in person. (Washington Post, Bloomberg)
Anish Kapoor Lists London Home for $26 Million – Want to live like Anish Kapoor? Now you can—but only if you have a cool $26 million. The artist is selling his main residence in Central London, which overlooks Lincoln’s Inn Fields in the tony Holborn district. Kapoor enlisted art-world favorite David Chipperfield to redesign the more than 14,500-square-foot, six-bedroom estate after he bought it in 2009 for $5 million. It still boasts the fire engine red front door he chose. (Dirt)
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Dia Art Foundation Names New Curator – Jordan Carter, an associate curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, will join the New York art organization in December. Carter organized a survey of mail-art pioneer Ray Johnson set to open in November and previously held positions at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. (ARTnews)
Baloise Art Prize Names Winners – The American sculptor Cameron Clayborn and Croatian textile artist Hana Miletić are the recipients of this year’s prize, which is awarded to promising artists in Art Basel’s Statements section. The award comes with a $32,500 purse; the Baloise Group will also acquire works by both artists and donate them to Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof–Museum für Gegenwart and the Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg. (Artforum)
Queens Museum Gets a Boost From New York City – The city has allocated a whopping $26.4 million to complete the Queens Museum’s ongoing expansion. The funding will help create new classrooms and a dedicated children’s museum space focused on arts and culture in Queens, provide artwork storage, and improve energy efficiency. (Press release)
NYC Art Lawyers Decamp for Boutique Startup – Two prominent New York art lawyers are leaving their firm to create a smaller specialist shop. Larry Kaye and Howard Spiegler built the niche Art Law Group within Herrick Feinstein, focusing largely on the restitution of looted art. (The Art Newspaper)
FOR ART’S SAKE
The very famous, now free-to-use photograph.