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 Thursday, July 12.
NEED-TO-READ
How #MeToo Inspired Jenny Saville – The Scottish painter takes New York magazine on a walkthrough of her new exhibition at Gagosian in New York, which includes depictions of “real and meaty” women that were in part inspired by the #MeToo movement. Saville recalls feeling nervous when she decided to begin incorporating her two children into her paintings 10 years ago. “It is all right to be a female painter but to also be a mother and a female painter is something you don’t really want to advertise,” she says. “Or that’s how it was seen.” (Vulture)
Dalí Foundation Sues Dalí Museum – Dalí17, a private museum in Monterey, California, is being sued by the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí in Spain for allegedly causing “irreparable damage” to the artist’s reputation as a result of its unauthorized use of the Dalí’s name and imagery in its logo and merchandise. The museum houses the American-Ukrainian real estate developer Dmitry Piterman’s collection, which is billed as the largest private holdings of the Surrealist artist’s work on the west coast. (The Art Newspaper)
A Thai Cave Rescue Museum Is Planned – The cave complex in northern Thailand where 12 teenage soccer players and their coach were trapped for more than two weeks is due to become a museum. The head of the rescue mission, who is a former governor of the region, hopes it will become a major tourist attraction. Two films about the dramatic and heroic rescue by Thai navy seals are also in the works. It is unclear whether the museum will be open year-round or close during monsoon season, which lasts from June to October. It was the sudden rains that left the boys trapped—which may put a damper on the destination’s tourist appeal. (BBC)
Trump’s Baby Balloon Could Fly Over His Scottish Golf Course – Protesters are seeking permission to fly a balloon that depicts Donald Trump as a baby over Turnberry, the golf course he owns in Scotland, during the US President’s visit. More than 2,500 people signed a petition encouraging the head of Scotland’s police force to authorize the six-meter balloon’s flight this weekend, when Trump is expected to play at the golf course. The flying sculpture is due to lift off on Friday in central London. (Guardian)
ART MARKET
Company Aims to Become Netflix for the Arts – Marquee.TV will bring opera, theater, ballet, and other performing art on demand to subscribers in the UK, the US, and Canada. Dubbed “Netflix for the arts,” it has negotiated deals with the Royal Opera House in London and Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet, among other cultural organizations. (Financial Times)
AXA Merges With XL Group – Insurance giant AXA, which acquired XL Group in March, has announced a new entity, XL Art & Lifestyle, which will combine the two companies’ fine art businesses. AXA recently appointed Irina Buchmann as president and CEO of AXA Art Americas. (ARTnews)
Postmasters Names New Director – New York’s Postmasters Gallery has named Manan Ter-Grigoryan as director. The founder of the art and fashion platform Waves & Archives, Ter-Grigoryan has previously worked at the art advisory Parks Fine Art, the short-lived online VIP Art Fair, and Art Observed, where she was executive editor. (ARTnews)
Critic Robert Hughes’s $4 Million Home Goes on Sale – The late US-based, Australia-born writer and longstanding TIME magazine art critic’s mansion on Shelter Island is on the market. Hughes’s English-style country house, which was built in 1888, comes with manicured gardens and a pool. (New York Post)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Frank Gehry Does a Museum Restaurant – The LA-based architect is designing the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s forthcoming Stir restaurant—all the way down to its tables and chairs. The dining establishment is due to open in October. Gehry is also in the midst of redesigning the interior of the museum’s neoclassical building and is expected to finish by 2020. (New York Times)
The Getty Adds a Board Member – Former Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust will join the Getty’s board in September. Specializing in the history of the Civil War and the American South, she has been a trustee of Bryn Mawr College, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the National Humanities Center, and is on the Guggenheim Foundation’s educational advisory board. (Press release)
Performa Lures Tate Curator to New York – Kathy Noble will take up the newly created role of curator and manager of curatorial affairs at the performance art nonprofit in New York. She previously organized the Tate Modern Live performance series in London and helped to launch the ICA London’s Art Night festival. (ARTnews)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Getty Acquires 700-Year-Old Torah – The Getty has acquired the rare Jewish illuminated manuscript known as the Rothschild Pentateuch from a private collection. Featuring full-page paintings, illuminated text panels, and hundreds of marginal images, the manuscript will go on view in an exhibition called “Art of Three Faiths: a Torah, a Bible, and a Qur’an” from August 7 to February 3. (NYT)
Guelph Treasure Suit Goes to Trial – An appeals court in Washington, DC, has upheld an earlier ruling that the heirs of Jewish art dealers can make a claim for 42 Medieval and religious works currently held in Germany’s Museum of Applied Art in a US court. The heirs say the objects were forcibly sold to Hermann Göring during the Nazi era and are asking for their return or $250 million. (TAN)
Inside Cleveland’s Play to Become the Next Venice – The inaugural edition of the Ohio city’s Front International triennial for contemporary art kicks off this weekend and runs through September 30. More than 100 artists will install works across 28 venues ranging from the West Side Market to a 1925 steamship. (Wall Street Journal)
William Kentridge Debuts World War I Epic – Last night, Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall hosted the world premiere of the South African artist’s performance The Head and the Load, which commemorates the forgotten contribution of millions of black Africans in World War I. The hour-and-a-half of music, dance, and film projection—complete with mechanized sculptures and shadow play—heads to New York’s Park Avenue Armory in December. (Press release)