Plus, a Pollock-inspired painting by pop star Ed Sheeran fetches $53,000 for charity and Judy Chicago unveils her first digital artwork.
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 on this Tuesday, November 10.
The Architecture of Four Seasons Total Landscaping – Architecture critic Justin Davidson weighs in on the architecture of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the ramshackle groundskeeping company in Philadelphia where President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani accidentally held a press conference to mount baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the US election. (The campaign seemed to think they had secured space at the Four Seasons hotel a few miles away.) The storefront, which is situated between a crematorium and a sex shop, “joins the slabs of forlorn border wall and the graffiti-encrusted bathroom in Lafayette Square as the real monuments of an administration intent on ugliness and pathetic façades,” Davidson writes. (New York Magazine)
Students Criticize Minneapolis Museum For Holding Indigenous Objects – A group of student anthropologists have lodged a campaign against the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota, because it has not returned a trove of funerary objects originating from ancient civilizations of the American Southwest and parts of Northern Mexico. Indigenous groups have been petitioning for the return of the ceremonial Mimbres pottery bowls for 30 years, but claim that the museum has “refused” and, moreover, violated the Native American Graves and Protection Act by not officially cataloguing the objects in the national database. The museum’s interim director says that efforts to catalogue the objects are underway and should be complete by March. (The Art Newspaper)
Shanghai Prepares to Host IRL Fairs – Most parts of the world have seen art fairs fall like dominoes, but Shanghai is preparing to host multiple art fairs—West Bund Art & Design Fair (November 11–15) and Art021 (November 12–15)—this week. At the same time, Art Tower—a 93,000-square-foot cultural and gallery hub in the West Bund art district—is launching with ShanghArt Gallery, Phillips, and other art businesses as tenants. These events are proceeding despite the fact that the city recently recorded its first positive virus case in five months. The international line-up at both fairs “proves the dynamism of the Chinese art market and Shanghai as a platform,” says Lisson’s China director David Tung. (TAN)
Para Site Launches Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labor – The Hong Kong nonprofit art space has created a relief fund called the NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labour. Twenty-five artists will receive HKD 20,000 ($2,600) each to help sustain a stable income during the ongoing health crisis. They will be selected based on work experience and need. (Art Asia Pacific)
Churchill’s Painting of Whiskey Is Up for Sale – Sotheby’s is selling a painting of liquor bottles by Winston Churchill in an online sale launching today. Churchill’s Jug With Bottles includes his favorite Johnnie Walker whiskey, which the wartime prime minister often drank first thing in the morning, and carries a high estimate of $330,000. (AFP)
Ed Sheeran’s Painting and Collectibles Net More Than $500,000 – A charity auction of Ed Sheeran memorabilia, including a Pollock-esque drip painting by the art-loving singer, has raked in more than £400,000 ($530,000) to support children and young people with disabilities and life-limiting illnesses. The painting, called Dab 2, sold for £40,000 ($53,000). (BBC)
Texas Museum Acquires First Works by Contemporary Native Artists – The San Antonio Museum of Art has announced its summer and fall acquisitions, including, for the first time, two works by living Native artists: Jeffrey Gibson and Edgar Heap of Birds. (Press release)
Conceptual Art Collector Herman Daled Has Died – The Belgian collector amassed one of the world’s most significant holdings of Conceptual art. Born in 1930, Daled, who worked as a radiologist, served as president of the board of the WIELS Contemporary Art Center in Brussels. In 2011, New York’s Museum of Modern Art acquired 223 works from his collection. (ARTnews)
How Caravaggio Inspired Westside Gunn – The rapper loves the Renaissance painting David With the Head of Goliath (1610)—but it was designer Virgil Abloh’s idea to use the image on the cover of his album “Pray for Paris.” “That’s what the image represents: me coming out and conquering and saying, ‘Hey, I’m here—there’s a new king,'” the rapper says. For the finishing touch, Abloh adorned the album’s David with Westside’s chains. (ARTnews)
See Judy Chicago Making Her First Virtual Artwork – Berlin’s Light Art Space will celebrate feminist artist Judy Chicago with a presentation of her first virtual artwork. The commission brings Chicago’s “Atmospheres” series into a new dimension. Audiences around the world can enjoy her smoke-sculpture performance through their phones via an app that launches today. (Press release)
Judy Chicago, 2020. Photo © Donald Woodman/ARS, New York
