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, October 24.
NEED-TO-READ
Jim Carrey Wanted to Paint Trump’s Official Portrait – In an interview ahead of the opening of his exhibition of political cartoons at Maccarone Gallery in Los Angeles, Carrey reveals that he sent one of his images in the show—a drawing of President Trump eating ice cream and holding his right nipple—to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, proposing it become the president’s official portrait. He hasn’t heard back from the museum. (Los Angeles Times)
Smithsonian Diversifies Archive With a Lichtenstein Foundation Grant – The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art has received a $5 million gift from the soon-to-close Roy Lichtenstein Foundation to fund the digitization of material in the institute’s archive about underrepresented artists, including African American, Asian Americans, Latinx, Native American, and female artists. The goal of the project is to ensure future academics won’t perpetuate the biases of the past. (Press release)
Macron Enlists the Art World to Fight Right-Wing Extremism – At a gathering tied to the FIAC art fair, the French president told leading figures in the French art world that he wanted their support in the “political struggle we have today, fighting against obscurantism [extremism], and the marginalization of creation and culture.” Macron also pledged to revise the current system for issuing foreign artists’ visas. (The Art Newspaper)
There’s a Campaign to Replace a Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. – A campaign to replace a monumental bust of the Civil Rights leader is gaining traction in Buffalo, New York. Samuel Herbert says 6,000 people have signed his petition to replace the statue, which was unveiled in 1983, with one that better resembles Martin Luther King Jr. (AP)
ART MARKET
A Billionaire’s Tips for Collecting Blue-Chip Art – Hedge-fund manager and museum founder J. Tomilson Hill shares insights on how to build a top-notch art collection. The billionaire’s tips include finding out who else buys work by artists you are interested in and using databases to learn about artists’ values, as you would when buying stocks. Frankly, however, it seems like he left out the first important step: become an actual billionaire. (CNBC)
Colombia’s ARTBO Opens Against a Strained Political Backdrop – As the 14th edition of the International Art Fair of Bogotá (better known as ARTBO) prepares to open tomorrow, some are concerned that the controversial election of the conservative president Iván Duque Márquez in August will have a negative impact on sales. The country’s growing wealth disparity is another threat to the art market’s sustainability in the South American nation. (TAN)
Pierre Bergé’s Collection Heads to Auction – PSA: The estate of the late Pierre Bergé, the on-and-off lover of Yves Saint Laurent and co-founder of the iconic designer’s fashion empire who died last autumn, is going under the hammer next week at Sotheby’s France. On offer are 1,000 lots, including African art and design objects that Bergé acquired with the designer. (Artdaily)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Rebecca Rabinow Joins the Diebenkorn Foundation – The director of the Menil Collection in Houston is the latest addition to the board of the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation in California. Rabinow, who is a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is overseeing a revamp of the Menil’s Renzo Piano-designed home and opening its Drawing Institute next month. (ARTnews)
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev Wins Top Curatorial Award – The director of Italy’s Castello di Rivoli will receive the 2019 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. The $25,000 prize will be presented in New York next April by the the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. (Press release)
California Sunday Magazine Gets an Exhibition – The beloved West Coast magazine is staging an exhibition at Aperture in New York in December to accompany a special issue exploring the concept of home in 10 Western states. Google’s Pixel 3 phone is sponsoring the magazine-themed show. (WWD)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Lee Krasner Gets a Survey of Her Own – London’s Barbican Gallery will organize the first major European survey of Lee Krasner’s works in five decades. The show, which opens in May 2019, will include more than 100 works of by the artist, who remains far less known—especially in Europe—than her artist husband Jackson Pollock. (Evening Standard)
The Pink Project Comes to California – Portia Munson has turned the Bay Area’s Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts into a feminist statement in pink. The New York-based artist has installed her vast collection of gender-specific found objects to create Pink Project: Bedroom, the centerpiece of her solo show. It took a week of 18-hour days to complete to room, which the Walnut Creek institution has lovingly documented using time-lapse photography. (Instagram)