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 Friday, June 1.
NEED-TO-READ
A Tribute to Interview Magazine – Was Interview’s downfall due to a reluctance to embrace the digital? A former web editor for sister publication Art in America recalls her time under the Brant Publications umbrella and pens an obituary for Interview, the now-defunct magazine she devoured at the library growing up outside Pittsburgh. “Interview was the coolest thing Brant Publications has ever done, by far,” she writes. (Frieze)
Hunt Resumes for Kahlo’s Long-Lost Painting – A researcher in Mexico claims he has discovered new clues about the location of Frida Kahlo’s missing 1940 painting La Mesa Herida, which is worth an estimated $20 million. Kahlo donated the work—the largest she ever made—to the Soviet Union, but it disappeared on its way back to Moscow after being lent to a show in Warsaw in 1955. (The Art Newspaper)
Richard Prince Denounces London Show – The contrarian American artist has made it clear he wasn’t involved with a show of his work at Skarstedt Gallery in London next month, tweeting that he had “nothing to do” with the presentation of early monochrome canvas “Joke” paintings. He added: “I can’t stop someone from showing my work. But you could at least wait till I die.” He concluded: “Memo to artists: Be Careful.” (TAN)
Korean Peace Process Kills Art Project – An unfinished sculpture by the French-Tunisian artist eL Seed that was in the process of being installed along the fence of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea is unlikely to be completed following the two countries’ pledge to end their decades-long state of war. “This is the first time I am happy that I have had to cancel a project,” the artist says. (TAN)
ART MARKET
Tom Thomson Sketch Is No Joke – A small painting discovered in Edmonton has turned out to be a preparatory work by the Canadian Group of Seven artist Tom Thomson. Sketch for Lake in Algonquin Park (1912–13) was inherited by a woman who assumed her father was joking when he told her it was by Thomson. After it was authenticated, the work sold for $371,000 at auction in Toronto. (Toronto Star)
EXPO Chicago Releases Exhibitor List – The seventh edition of the fair, which takes place September 27 to 30 at Navy Pier, will include 135 galleries. Exhibitors from 27 countries include David Zwirner, Flowers Gallery, and Michael Goedhuis. (One notable absence: Gagosian, which participated in EXPO for the first time last year.) A section for artists represented by young galleries will be curated by Creative Time’s Justine Ludwig. (ARTnews)
Original Winnie the Pooh Map Hits the Auction Block – Sotheby’s is selling E.H. Shepard’s 1926 sketch for the map of the Hundred Acre Wood on July 10 in London with an estimate of $200,000. The sketch, which has not surfaced on the market since 1970, includes many of the now-beloved corners of Christopher Robin’s imaginary landscape, including “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place.” (Washington Post)
NADA Plans Exhibition on Governors Island –The New Art Dealers Alliance is launching its first selling exhibition, titled “Close Quarters,” in New York from July 1 to July 29. The show, which will include artists represented by eight NADA galleries, will take place in an historic Colonial Revival-style building on Governors Island. (ARTnews)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Kunsthalle Mannheim’s $80 Million Wing Opens – The German software billionaire Hans-Werner Hector has provided the majority of the funding to expand the kunsthalle in the southwestern German city. Boasting seven new exhibition galleries, the Kunsthalle Mannheim reopens today with a Jeff Wall show. (TAN)
Scotland, Estonia, and Lithuania Name Their Venice Artists – Charlotte Prodger will represent Scotland with a video exploring the “queer wilderness,” while Kris Lemsalu, who hid under a turtle during Frieze New York in 2017, will represent Estonia at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Lithuania, meanwhile, has chosen an artist-residency program, Nida Art Colony, which will organize an opera. (ARTnews / ARTnews / ARTnews)
SFMOMA Announces New Chair and Artist Trustee – Former museum president Robert J. Fisher, who is the chairman of Gap Inc., succeeds Charles Schwab as chair of the board. Schwab, who oversaw SFMOMA’s $610 million expansion campaign, remains a trustee. Artist Julie Mehretu has also joined the board as a trustee. (Press release)
Dallas Acquires a German Old Master – The Dallas Museum of Art is the first institution in the US to acquire a work by the German Old Master Derick Baegert. The Descent From the Cross (around 1480) was bought with money from its Marguerite and Robert Hoffman Fund. (Glasstire)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Led Zeppelin Drummer Remembered in Redditch – A bronze sculpture of the legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham has been unveiled in his hometown of Redditch in the Midlands of England. Created by sculptor Mark Richards, it shows the rock star, drumsticks aloft, long hair flying, surrounded by the Giant’s Causeway, a reference to the album “Houses of the Holy.” (Redditch Standard)
Hong Kong’s $484 Million Art Center Opens – Tai Kwun, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s long-delayed art center in the former Central Police Station, opens its first exhibition on June 8, more than a decade after the project was launched. Herzog & de Meuron designed the $484 million conversion. (TAN)
Thom Mayne’s Design for the Orange County Museum Revealed – Morphosis Architects’ dramatic, metal-clad design for the Southern Californian museum’s new home in Costa Mesa has been unveiled. Due to open in 2021, the 52,000-square-foot building will have 50 percent more exhibition space than the Orange County museum’s existing Newport Beach building. (LA Times)
Paul McCarthy’s Big Red Santa Arrives in Oslo – Christmas came early yesterday in Oslo’s Ekebergparken Sculpture Park, which unveiled with a flourish the first version in red of Paul McCarthy’s six-foot-tall Santa. Holding a signature butt plug aloft, the work stands at the entrance to the park founded by the collector Christian Ringnes. See the unveiling. in the presence of the artist himself, here. (Instagram)
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