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 2.

NEED-TO-READ

Cutting the Curator Out of the Equation – In a revealing essay, the influential MoMA curator Laura Hoptman describes her intensely “complicit” way of working with artists on exhibitions, to the extent that she allowed the artist Kai Althoff to take over all curatorial duties, from show design to wall text, for his 2016 show. (The Exhibitionist)

Wonder Woman Works at the Louvre Now – In Marvel’s newest superheroine movie, Wonder Woman’s mortal alter ego, Diana Prince, works as an ancient weapons expert at the encyclopedic Parisian museum. (Gulf News)

Have Museums Been Doing Digital All Wrong? – Former MP and current director of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum Tristram Hunt thinks so. At a recent conference, he questioned the value of digitizing museums’ collections, citing the financial crisis at the Met as an example of the staggering costs of such endeavors. (The Memo)

Blanton Absorbs Works From The Contemporary Austin – The Contemporary is transferring most of its collection of 700 works to the Blanton after a $9 million donation prompted the museum to reconsider its mission. Now, it plans to focus on expanding its 14-acre sculpture park. (Artforum)

ART MARKET

Zao Wou-Ki Painting Sets New Auction Record – A 1964 abstract painting by Chinese-born, French-raised Zao Wou-Ki fetched a record $19.7 million in Hong Kong this past weekend, further evidence of the artist’s rising popularity in the Chinese market. (Telegraph)

Nashville Will Get Its Own Art Fair – Simply titled “Art Nashville,” the Tennessee city’s first-ever contemporary art fair is due to debut in October 2018, with over 90 international galleries expected to participate. (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Whitney Appoints Curator of Drawings and Prints – Kim Conaty will take up the post at the museum in July, after previously holding curatorial positions at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. (Artforum)

Kehinde Wiley to Receive Honorary PhD – The prestigious Rhode Island School of Design will be awarding the painter with an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree, presented during the college’s 2017 commencement ceremony. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Museums Put 100K Images of Art Online – Using cutting-edge technology, the Getty has freed up access to more than 30,000 images to be used for scholarly research, joining the Yale Center for British Art, which also just released nearly 70,000 images from its collection. (Press release)

Jonathan Meese to Stage an Opera in Vienna – In collaboration with the composer Bernhard Lang, Meese will debut a personal reinterpretation, titled MOONPARSIFAL ALPHA 1-8 (ARCHMATRIARCH OF ESPIONARCHY), of Wagner’s final opera at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. (Press release)

Ai Weiwei Deems Hate to Be Trump’s ‘Brand’ – In a recent interview ahead of the opening of his highly political exhibition in Jerusalem, Ai describes the US President as espousing an “old way” of thinking, “to have a hatred for the other kind of people or to divide people, rather than to really understand the whole situation.” (Agence France-Presse)

FROM OUR PARTNERS

Peter Fetterman Gallery
“Sebastião Salgado: A Life in Photography”
Santa Monica
June 3 – September 2

With 60 photographs that chart the full span of Sebastião Salgado’s extraordinary career, this show celebrates the much-honored Brazilian photographer’s engagement with the strenuous life lived by all of earth’s creatures, great and small.

Sebastião Salgado’s Fishing in the Piulaga Laguna during the Kuarup ceremony of the Waura Group, Upper Xingu Basin, Mato Grosso, Brazil, 2005

Sebastião Salgado’s Dinka man at the cattle camp of Kei. People cover themselves with ash from burned cowpats to sterilize the skin against insects and parasites, Southern Sudan, 2006

Sebastião Salgado’s Workers install a new wellhead to enable the injection of a chemical mud to kill the old well. Greater Burhan, Kuwait, 1991