Art Industry News: Jim Carrey Tweets His Furious Anti-Republican and Anti-Gun Art + More Must-Read Stories

Plus, a rendering of a 100-foot-tall Picasso has been discovered and the Warriors are heading to a museum instead of the White House.

Jim Carrey in his studio.
Photo: Jim Carrey via Vulture.

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, March 1.

NEED-TO-READ

Warriors Opt for African American Museum Over White House – Instead of visiting the White House, the Golden State Warriors basketball team will visit the National Museum of African American History with students next week. Last year, Trump withdrew the team’s invitation to the White House to celebrate their championship win after star point guard Stephen Curry defended players who took a knee from the president’s criticism. (CNN)

Charlottesville Must Remove Tarps From Confederate Statues – A local judge has ordered the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, to take down the tarps covering its controversial Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson monuments. The city council, which voted unanimously to shroud the statues after last summer’s deadly rally, has been given 15 days to remove the tarps. (Smithsonian)

Jim Carrey Tweets His Politically Charged Art – The actor-turned-artist has shared images of new drawings with his nearly 18 million Twitter followers, including one of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon with the word “fool” scrawled across his face and of Senator Marco Rubio with blood on his hands (for taking NRA money, the tweet explains). (Business Insider)

Dealer Confesses to Faking an Antique Housed in the Wadsworth – A Massachusetts antiques dealer has confessed that a piece of folk-art furniture acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum in 2015 is one of his own creations. He claimed at the time that a writing desk was actually a memorial gift to a Civil War veteran. But the dealer, Harold Gordon, now says, “It’s a total fabrication.” (Hartford Courant)   

ART MARKET

New Startup Uses Blockchain to Prove Authenticity – Provenance research is still often done by hand with receipts, but the startup Codex is working to change that. The company is setting up a decentralized ledger that would give both sides of an artwork transaction direct access to its provenance information, while still keeping the current owner private. (Bloomberg)

Is the First $1 Billion Painting Sale Coming? – The auction of the record-breaking Leonardo da Vinci painting Salvator Mundi signals a new era in which a $1 billion sale is only “a matter of time,” according to a new report by the Artprice index. Among its other findings, the report suggested there would be increased competition between the Chinese and American markets. (Press release)

COMINGS AND GOINGS

MoMA Curator David Platzker Resigns – MoMA’s curator of drawings and prints stepped down after five years. Platzker will now resume work on a book about the late curator Kynaston McShine’s influential 1970 exhibition “Information,” a discussion of art’s place in broader society. (Artforum)

Holy Sepulcher Reopens in Jerusalem – After the “indefinite” shuttering of one of Jerusalem’s holiest sites during a protest lead by Christian leaders against proposals to tax church properties in the city, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat has backtracked. He has suspended the tax plan and the church has reopened after just three days. (BBC)

Centre Pompidou to Stay in Málaga – The Spanish outpost of the Pompidou has agreed to a second five-year contract with the Paris institution, and the satellite space will now stay put until 2025. The satellite has welcomed more than 500,000 visitors since it opened in 2014, paving the way for a second Pompidou pop-up, due to open next year in a wing of Shanghai’s West Bund Art Museum. (The Art Newspaper)

Shortlist Announced for Henrike Grohs Award – Cameroonian, Zimbabwean, and Togolese artists Em’kal Eyongakpa, Georgina Maxim, and Makouvia Kokou Ferdinand (respectively) have been shortlisted for the inaugural €20,000 ($24,000) art prize awarded by the Goethe Institute and the Grohs family. The winner of the biennial prize for an Africa-based artist will be awarded on March 13. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Rendering of Picasso’s Monumental Sculpture Discovered in Florida – Researchers at the University of South Florida have discovered a rendering of Picasso’s 100-foot-tall sculpture Bust of Woman. The artist died the day before he was due to give the go-ahead for the monumental work, which would have towered over the college’s arts center in Tampa. Lack of funds scuttled its posthumous completion. (Daily Telegraph)

Spencer Finch’s Big Tree Giveaway – The Public Art Fund and Spencer Finch are giving away hundreds of young trees when the installation Lost Man Creek ends in Brooklyn on March 11. But beware: Dawn Redwood trees can grow five feet per year and up to 130 feet when mature. (Press release)

‘Civilizations’ Is Coming to America The American version of the epic TV arts documentary Civilizations will have its US premiere on April 27. The nine-part PBS/BBC co-production will be narrated by Liev Schreiber with contributions by historians Simon Schama, Mary Beard, and David Olusoga. Episode one of the British version began this week. (Press release)

Darren Bader Makes Instagram Art Riddles – Go to conceptual artist Darren Bader’s new Instagram account @rt_rhyme and guess what visual puns Bader’s posts are hinting at. Check out the Yves Klein/spine, Koons/spoons, and bitten/Jack Whitten below. (ARTnews)


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