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, January 9.
NEED-TO-READ
Cindy Sherman Gets a Huge Show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton – The artist Cindy Sherman is getting her largest European solo show to date at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. The exhibition, which will run from April 1 to August 21, will include around 300 of her works alongside her own selection from the museum’s permanent collection for an accompanying exhibition titled “Crossing Views.” The legendary photographer has chosen works by artists including Marina Abramović, Louise Bourgeois, Rineke Dijkstra, Rosemarie Trockel, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, and Wolfgang Tillmans for the display. (Press release)
The Battle Over Purvis Young’s Estate – The outsider artist Purvis Young’s legacy has been complicated by a Byzantine legal drama that is only now coming to light. When the prolific Florida painter—whose works are in the collection of the Met and the Smithsonian—died in 2010, he left 99 percent of his estate (some $6,000 and 1,884 artworks) to a longtime friend, Eddie Mae Lovest, and 12 of her daughters and grandchildren. But Lovest and her family never saw a penny because the work was taken by lawyers and court-appointed guardians to settle some $500,000 in bills after the manager of his estate listed the value of his works at just $1 apiece, and a judge determined there was no market for them. A lengthy legal battle ensued—and in the process, a trove of little-seen works were sold to a Miami warehouse owner. One thing is for certain: the saga of Purvis Young’s legacy is not over yet. (Washington Post Magazine)
Chloë Sevigny Is Having a Baby With Her Gallerist Boyfriend – Long before Jennifer Lawrence married gallerist Cooke Maroney and Jenny Slate got engaged to her curator boyfriend Ben Shattuck, Chloë Sevigny was pioneering the Hollywood-art world crossover—and fully aware of the allure of the art boy, before the figure even had that cringe-worthy label. Now, she has announced that she is expecting her first child with boyfriend Sinisa Mackovic, the director of the (unsurprisingly hip) Karma gallery in the East Village. As the Observer correctly notes, “There’s a 100 percent chance that their baby is going to be cool.” (Observer)
Shed Staff Plan to Unionize – Front-of-house staff at the Shed in New York have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in an effort to unionize on the grounds that “working conditions were not up to par.” They are the latest example in a growing trend of museum workers taking steps to unionize, following in the footsteps of workers at the New Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, and MOCA in Los Angeles. A spokesperson for the Shed told Hyperallergic: “We respect workers’ rights and, above all else, we value our incredibly talented and hard-working staff. Whatever the outcome, we will support our employees in their decision on this matter.” (Hyperallergic)
ART MARKET
Kenny Schachter Voted Baer Faxt’s Favorite Art Writer – The readers of the Baer Faxt have spoken: our own columnist Kenny Schacter is their favorite art writer of 2019. The industry newsletter announced the winners of its annual readers’ poll today, and Schacter won twice, not only as favorite writer, but also as readers’ favorite Instagram account. Kerry James Marshall won for favorite established artist, and KAWS’s show at Skarstedt earned the dubious distinction as worst gallery show in the US. (Baer Faxt)
Outsider Art Fair Presents Work by Children From the 1930s – Art made by children during the 1930s will be on view at the Outsider Art Fair in New York, giving new meaning to the oft-heard complaint that “my kid could do that.” The fair, which runs January 16 through 19, is showing 12 works created at community centers in New York in the wake of the Great Depression, on loan from the Children’s Museum of Art. (ARTnews)
Paul McCarthy Decries the Corporatization of the Art World – In the latest edition of mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth’s Ursula magazine, the artist Paul McCarthy slams how corporate the art world has become. Linking the trend to the “spread of global capitalism,” McCarthy says he now feels artists are on the outside of an industry controlled by collectors. (ARTnews)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Robert Caro’s Papers Head to the New-York Historical Society – The New York museum and library has acquired the archive of the prolific and obsessive political biographer, making the trove of papers one of the largest dedicated to a single individual in its collection. The museum will establish a permanent display dedicated to Caro’s work, which includes an epic unfinished biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson and a 1,300-page tome about the New York urban planner Robert Moses. (New York Times)
Artadia Names Houston Award Winners for 2019 – Texas-based artists Adriana Corral and Vincent Valdez are the winners of this year’s Houston Artadia Award, which honors artists who “probe the difficult issues of our time.” They will each receive $10,000. The nonprofit also named the recipients of its fellowships for immigrant artists, including Betirri Bengtson and Gao Hang. (Artforum)
VIA Art Fund Names Award Recipients – The nonprofit dedicated to funding visionary art initiatives released its list of 2019 awards, which total around $1 million. Funds will go to Rafael Lozano-Hemmer for his Border Tuner on the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Sarah Sze for the construction of a permanent new work at Storm King, and the Dia Art Foundation for the acquisition of works by Charlotte Posenenske. (Artforum)
FOR ART’S SAKE
A “Byzantine Pompeii” Will Be Moved to Make Way for a Greek Metro – Work to build a subway in Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki, revealed a street dating back to the Roman era. But despite support from opposition politicians and a popular protest, archaeologists have failed in their battle to stop the Greek government from moving the antiquities that form the Byzantine road to make way for the metro station. (Global Voices)
A Valentino Show May Come to the Brooklyn Museum – As more museums boost their fashion exhibitions in an effort to expand their audiences, the Brooklyn Museum is said to be preparing an ambitious retrospective of the Italian fashion designer. (The museum and reps for Valentino declined to confirm.) In other Brooklyn Museum news, Target has confirmed that after 20 years, it will no longer be sponsoring the museum’s free admissions program, which takes place once a month on Saturdays. (WWD)
Oxford Museums Close for Marvel Film Shoot – A film shoot for Marvel’s The Eternals, starring Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and Richard Madden, caused Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum to close yesterday and on Tuesday. Members of the public arrived to find film trucks outside the Victorian-era Natural History Museum, which is full of stuffed animals and dinosaur bones. The Eternals features a group of superheroes who defend the Earth against the evil Deviants. Check out the dramatic set below. (Oxford Mail)