Art World
Art Industry News: Solange Knowles to Sprinkle Stardust on the Guggenheim + More Must-Read Stories
Plus, a record $11.75 million donation at the Cincinnati Museum and a behind-the-scenes peek at how the pros cover auctions.
Plus, a record $11.75 million donation at the Cincinnati Museum and a behind-the-scenes peek at how the pros cover auctions.
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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 Wednesday, May 17th.
Solange Is Performing at the Guggenheim Museum Tomorrow – Tickets have long sold out for the evening event—which combines “movement, installation, and experimentally reconstructed musical arrangements”—so the boundary-pushing performer has decided to add a second slot at 3 p.m. Lucky ticket holders are requested to respect the “all-white attire” dress code and check their phones and cameras at the door. (Guggenheim.org)
The UK’s Opposition Party Promises $1.3 Billion Extra Funding for Culture – Ahead of the June 8 general election, the Labour Party published a manifesto pledging to boost cultural funding with a new £1 billion Cultural Capital Fund distributed over a five-year period, to be managed by the British Arts Council. The ruling Conservatives and parties are due to publish their pledge later this week. (The Art Newspaper)
Lynette Yiadom-Boayke on Her Show at the New Museum – The British-Ghanaian painter and writer—the first black woman ever nominated for the Turner prize—spoke to Interview magazine about the fictive characters in her figurative paintings and revealed she’s working on a detective novel. (Interview)
Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Sale Racks Up $173 Million – Despite the last-minute withdrawal of an early Egon Schiele nude, Sotheby’s New York tallied $173.8 million on Tuesday evening at its auction of Impressionist and modern art. Read artnet News’ coverage of New York’s spring auction week, which started with Christie’s here and Sotheby’s here. (artnet News)
artgenève Joins Forces with PAD Geneva – The boutique art fair artgenève, launched in 2016 in Geneva, has invited the design fair PAD—which currently has Paris and London editions—to host a fair-in-fair section this year, featuring 25 dealers of decorative arts, historic and contemporary design, and tribal art. (Press release)
How Does the NYT Cover Art Auctions? – The paper’s top art reporter dishes on the arcane skills required to cover bidding (“getting to know the backs of important people’s heads”), the strange side effects of the job (“I get inured to the price levels: That went for only $5 million?”), and its perquisites (“the wine and sandwiches provided to the press after the auction”). (New York Times)
Frieze’s Abby Bangser Joins Dia Art Foundation – Bangser, who’s been the artistic director of Frieze Art Fair for the Americas and Asia since 2015, is joining the Dia Art Foundation as deputy director of strategic initiatives, a newly created position in which she will “serve as the main liaison for Dia’s sites around the United States and beyond.” (Press release)
Cincinnati Art Museum Receives a Record $11.75 Million Gift – Longtime supporters Carl and Alice Bimel donated nearly $12 million to establish the Alice Bimel Endowment for Asian Art. In 1972, Bimel was the first woman named to the museum’s board of trustees. (Artfix Daily)
Tufts University Creates New Position for Dina Deitsch – Joining the university’s art gallery as director and chief curator, Deitsch, who comes from the Carpenter Center at Harvard, will oversee operations across all of Tufts’ art spaces and work to enhance the institute’s relationship with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Press release)
Mexican Artist Felipe Ehrenberg Dies at 73 – After the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, the Mexican conceptual artist moved to England, where he co-founded Beau Geste Press, which published books and journals about the Fluxus movement. From 2001 to 2006, he served as Mexico’s cultural attaché to Brazil. (Artforum)
Catskills Cross-Dressers Star in a New London Show – Photographs from the 1950s and ’60s of a remote retreat in the Catskill mountains called Casa Susanna will go on display at the Barbican next year as part of a show about the relationship between photography and alternative communities. The photos were discovered at a New York flea market in 2006. (Guardian)
Tim Blanks Reviews the Biennale – The white-haired style guru of the Business of Fashion has written one of the better reviews of the goings-on in Venice, which may say something about the keen insight fashion has into contemporary art. (Business of Fashion)
See the Insane Office TeamLab Created for a Tokyo Video Game Company – The Japanese art collective (see artnet News critic Ben Davis’s take on its work, last year) has designed the five-story office of the gaming and streaming platform DMM in Tokyo, which includes a one-kilometer-long desk, a digital wall, and indoor gardens. (designboom)