Art Industry News: Berlin Now Has the World’s Largest Street-Art Museum + More Must-Read Stories

Plus, documenta may get lucky with a bailout and Walmart heiress Alice Walton establishes a new foundation for American art.

Berlin’s Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art. Rendering by GRAFT Architekten, courtesy Urban Nation.

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, September 14.

NEED-TO-READ

The Walker’s Scaffold Controversy Lives On – Though Sam Durant’s polarizing gallows sculpture will soon be buried, the fallout that Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center has been facing is still very much alive. In order to resolve the ongoing fracas, the museum has hired a team of lawyers to review the institution’s procedures leading up to the controversy. (New York Times)

documenta May Get Lucky With a Bailout – The exhibition closes this Sunday with a tone of insecurity, as documenta 14 director Adam Szymczyk led this year’s two-city art event to the brink of bankruptcy. The city of Kassel and the greater state of Hesse will sit in parliament on September 25 to decide whether to assist the overdrawn quinquennial with an injection of seven million euros. (dpa)

Alice Walton Establishes New Foundation for American Art – The Walmart heiress has been busy since founding the Arkansas’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2011. But that hasn’t curtailed her ambitions: She will soon establish Art Bridges, a new foundation created specifically to loan works to exhibitions of American art as well as help shows travel around the US. (ARTnews)

Berlin to Open the World’s Largest Street-Art Museum – Called the Museum for Urban Contemporary Art, the five-story indoor-outdoor institution will feature the works of 100 artists, including Shepard Fairey, 1010, Evol, and Icy and Sot, among others. Plus, admission will be free. The Schöneberg-based museum will open this Saturday, September 16. (Conde Nast Traveler)

ART MARKET

Sotheby’s “Made in Britain” Sale Soars Past Expectations – The sale, which took place yesterday in London, achieved a total of £2,480,155 ($3,275,540), with 90 percent of the lots selling and 71 percent beating their high estimates. The star work at the auction was Dame Lucie Rie’s Yellow Footed Bowl from the collection of the late Emmanuel Cooper, which sold for nearly 13 times its pre-sale estimate, for £125,000 ($165,087). (Press release)

1954 Picasso Painting to Hit the Auction Block for the First Time – Femme accroupie (Jacqueline), which has never before been at auction, will be offered at Christie’s on November 13 in New York, and is estimated to sell for $20–30 million. Londoners can take a peek at the work before it’s sold when it goes on view at Christie’s London from September 16–19. (Art Market Monitor)

Stuart Shave’s Modern Art to Open Second Space – The London gallery is expanding, opening an outpost in East London on Vyner Street in addition to its original space on Helmet Row. The new gallery will be inaugurated on October 3 with a solo show by American artist Josh Kline, titled “Civil War.” (Press release)

Editions/Artists’ Books Fair Announces 2017 Exhibitors –  Presented by the Lower East Side Printshop, the E/AB Book Fair, slated to run October 26–29, 2017, has announced its slate of 40 exhibitors. The free fair, founded in 1998, showcases contemporary prints, multiples, and artists’ books from the likes of Booklyn, Inc.; and A.I.R. Gallery, both in Brooklyn, and Scotland’s Glasgow Print Studio. (Press release)

PLAY at PULSE Miami Beach Names Nine Video Artists – For the second straight year, Jasmine Wahi and Rabecca Jampol are heading up PULSE’s video sector, choosing nine works following an open call for submissions. This year’s theme is “power,” inspired by the current political climate. Come October, the PLAY videos will get a pre-fair showing at the curator’s gallery, Project for Empty Space in Newark. (Press release)

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Artist Anita Thacher Dies at 77 – The New York artist and filmmaker was best known for her film Back Track—a 1969 collaboration with Dennis Hopper—and also worked in video, light installation, and public art. A solo exhibition featuring her 1983 work Anteroom will be on view at Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn this October. (Artforum)

Barry Diller Jettisons NYC’s Pier 55 – The media mogul has decided to scrap the plans for a $250 million pier and public park in Manhattan following escalating costs, and a legal dispute with a small civic group over environmental concerns. (Artforum)

Bellevue Arts Museum Names New Executive Director – The Washington museum has appointed Benedict Heywood as its next executive director. He will take up the post on September 18. (Artforum)

Artadia Award Winners Announced – Rashayla Marie Brown and Claire Pentecost are recipients of the 2017 Chicago awards organized by the nonprofit. Each will win $10,000 and are now showing work in the Artadia booth at Expo Chicago 2017. (ARTnews)

FOR ART’S SAKE 

London Museums Collaborate on Tacita Dean Shows – In 2018, the National Portrait Gallery will show the artist’s portrait work, the National Gallery will show her still lifes, and the Royal Academy of Arts will show her landscapes, in what is an unprecedented collaboration for these competitive institutions. (The Guardian)

Hans Ulrich Obrist to Conduct Interview Marathon in Chicago – Next year, on September 29, 2018, the renowned curator will conduct a four-hour interview marathon at EXPO Chicago, with high-profile Chicago artists such as Theaster Gates and architect Jeanne Gang. Conversations will be centered around creativity in the city. (Press release)

New York Sale of Todd Goldman’s Satirical Doodles – Over 100 rare and original pieces by the fashion designer and artist, known for his controversial “Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them!” t-shirt and book, will be shown for the first time in an exclusive exhibition titled “Never Grow Up” in New York City. The works will offered for sale, and part of the proceeds from the opening will benefit the I Have a Dream Foundation. (Press release)

New Robert Longo Flag Captures Division in America – The fourth installment of Creative Time’s public art project “Pledges of Allegiance” was inaugurated yesterday with the simultaneous raising of Robert Longo’s flag, Untitled (Dividing Time), in 10 different locations. See the design, which reflects the political division in the US, below. (Press release)

Robert Longo, Untitled (Dividing Time) (2017). Image courtesy Creative Time.

Robert Longo, Untitled (Dividing Time) (2017). Image courtesy Creative Time.


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