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 this Tuesday, August 1.
NEED-TO-READ
See What Raf Simons Collects – Remember Calvin Klein’s recent campaign featuring models in front of contemporary artworks? The brand’s creative director is an astute collector, particularly of work by women from the 1980s, including Cady Noland, Cindy Sherman, and Rosemarie Trockel. (Vanity Fair)
Will ‘City’ Survive the Trump Administration? – The vast Land Art installation by Michael Heizer in the Nevada desert might be threatened. President Donald Trump has ordered a review of 27 national monuments that could result in some of these lands being reopened to development. (The Art Newspaper)
Watch Out, Dealers, Miley Cyrus Is Coming – The pop star, who has performed at Art Basel Miami Beach and had art shows in New York and Miami, says she would love “to show my art in an actual gallery.” (Just Jared)
Jerry Saltz Sounds Off on That Grotjahn Article – The art critic has a lot to say in response to Robin Pogrebin’s profile of Mark Grotjahn’s market for the New York Times, which he considers misleading and only relevant to “0.0001 percent of the art world.” (Vulture)
ART MARKET
Inside Leo’s Multimillion Charity Auction – Last Wednesday, the fourth annual fundraiser for Leonardo DiCaprio’s environmental charity took place in St. Tropez. The star-studded event raised a cool $30 million thanks to gifted works by Richard Prince, Damien Hirst, and Urs Fischer. (Vanity Fair)
Christie’s Middle Eastern Sale Comes to London – Christie’s decided to move its Modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art sale to London from Dubai to “internationalize the market.” Now, the sale has a date: October 25, during Middle Eastern Art Week. (TAN)
Casablanca Movie Poster Sets Record – The only known surviving Italian issue movie poster for Casablanca broke records last Saturday at Heritage Auctions in Dallas when it sold for $478,000. The poster measures a massive 55.5 by 78.25 inches and dates to 1946. (Press release)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Getty Trust President Dies at 89 – Harold M. Williams, founding president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust from 1981–1998, who helped create the institution’s museum, library, and laboratories, has died at age 89. (Press release)
AAM Taps New Accreditation Chair – The Board of Directors of the American Alliance of Museums has appointed the Smithsonian’s Amy Bartow-Melia as the next chair of its Accreditation Commission. She is set to begin her three-year term in January 2018. (Press release)
South London Gallery Launches New Art Space – The SLG has launched their free new Art Block, as well as a three-year public art and education project, titled “Open Plan,” which will invite international and UK artists to create work for three local housing estates. (Press release)
FOR ART’S SAKE
First Look Inside the New Freer-Sackler – Smithsonian Magazine offers a sneak preview of the renovated gallery dedicated to Asian art in Washington, DC, which reopens to the public in October. (Smithsonian Magazine)
Meet the High Schooler Behind America’s First Sri Lankan Museum – Eighteen-year-old Julia Wijesinghe has set up the world’s first Sri Lankan museum outside Sri Lanka—in the basement of her parents’ restaurant on Staten Island. (The New Yorker)
Guardian Statue Unearthed at Angkor Wat – The 6’3” statue was discovered by archaeologists at the site of an ancient hospital. The 800-year-old artifact is thought to have been a symbolic guardian of the Cambodian temple complex. (Daily Mail)
London “High Line” Gets Mayor’s Backing – Mayor of London Sadiq Kahn has signed off on the plans for a crowdfunded project to transform a disused North London railway into a public park, named the Camden Highline. See designs for the project below. (designboom)
Courtesy Camden Highline.
Courtesy Camden Highline.
Courtesy Camden Highline.