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 21.
NEED–TO–READ
Bernard Arnault’s Succession Plan – Like a real life HBO show, the French billionaire is auditioning his five children to decide which will step into his shoes as the next head of the luxury conglomerate LVMH. (WSJ)
Artist Harold Riley Dies at 88 – The British artist is known as the only portrait painter who Nelson Mandela ever sat for. Other world-famous public figures that Riley painted include the late Duke of Edinburgh, John F Kennedy and Pope John Paul II. (BBC)
Annie Leibovitz for Ikea – The American photographer has been announced as Ikea’s inaugural artist in residence. The focus of her project will be using her lens to capture the day-to-day reality of how normal people live in their homes around the world. (Wallpaper)
Frank Lloyd Wright Home Hits the Block for $8 Million – A unique 10,405-square-feet house built by the iconic American architect in 1929 in Tulsa, Oklahoma has come on the market. The facade boasts glass panel columns and bricks in Wright’s trademark “textile” design as well as five bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. (ARTnews)
MOVERS & SHAKERS
DMA Acquires 12 Works From Dallas Art Fair – The Dallas Museum of Art has added 12 works to its collection thanks to a generous acquisition fund of $100,000 offered by the Dallas Art Fair Foundation, part of a program established in 2016. The new acquisitions include works produced as recently as 2023 by Riley Holloway, Nishiki Sugawara-Beda and Yowshien Kuo. (The Art Newspaper)
GCC Expands to New York – Ahead of Earth Day on April 22, the Gallery Climate Coalition, an international community of arts organizations working to address environmental impacts, is launching in New York at the Guggenheim. The founding committee has issued an open call for the city’s arts professionals to join the coalition. (Press release)
David Salle Joins Gladstone Gallery – The gallery will represent the New York painter in the U.S., taking over from Skarstedt Gallery. Lehmann Maupin will oversee Salle’s market in Asia as Thaddaeus Ropac continues to represent him in Europe. (ARTnews)
Iceland Announces Its Venice Biennale Project – The latest announcement ahead of next year’s Venice Biennale is a collaboration between the Reykjavick-based artist Hildigunnur Birgisdóttir and American curator Dan Byers for the Icelandic Pavilion. The pair will present a series of sculptural works. (Press release)
FOR ARTS SAKE
A Jazzy Basquiat Heads to Sotheby’s – A unique work in the artist’s oeuvre, Basquiat’s 1985 ode to jazz is expected to fetch over $30 million when it hits the auction block at Sotheby’s New York’s contemporary evening auction this May. The work’s composition is an homage to the vinyl pressing of a 1945 song of the same name by Charlie Parker, one of Basquiat’s idols. (Press release)
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Now’s the Time (1985). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.