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 Friday, November 2.
NEED-TO-READ
How Andy Warhol Made Art His Business – Andy Warhol coined the term “Business Art,” defined as the promotional activities that come after a work of art is technically complete. Some of his capitalist schemes were so goofy that they never have got off the ground (like selling movie stars’ used underwear). But the artist’s grasp of branding and publicity has proven hugely influential on everyone from Damien Hirst to Banksy. Ahead of the opening of the Whitney Museum’s Warhol survey, the artist’s biographer Blake Gopnik speaks to the experts about how Warhol’s savvy transformed the art world. “I think business in art is more important than politics,” Hirst tells him. (New York Times)
Steve McQueen Wants to Film a Musical – The Turner Prize-winning artist and Oscar-winning director wants to make a musical—possibly, a love story. “I wanna shake off the blues,” he said in an interview to promote his new heist movie Widows. Is a remake of Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story in the offing? McQueen says the show is a favorite because “it commented on society, the racial tension, and obviously putting in Romeo and Juliet.” (The Times)
How Nick Cave Is Sharing His Wealth – The artist is opening a multidisciplinary art space in Chicago with his personal and professional partner, the designer Bob Faust. The two-story building, called Facility, will be funded by the couple, host design and art projects, and offer stipends for participating artists. “There’s a lot we want to do other than our studio practices—bigger work in terms of being more accountable for civic responsibilities,” Cave said. (NYT)
Museum Crowdfunds to Keep Kusama Room in Toronto – The Art Gallery of Ontario appears to have caught a bit of Kusama fever after hosting a blockbuster traveling exhibition dedicated to the artist earlier this year. Now, it is turning to crowdfunding to acquire one of Kusama’s “Infinity Rooms” for good. The museum has raised half the funds already and hopes to meet its goal of $1.3 million CAD within 30 days. (Art Daily)
ART MARKET
White-Glove Sale of Pierre Bergé’s Collection Raises $31 Million – The connoisseurial taste of the French businessman and his late lover Yves Saint Laurent has been vindicated yet again at auction. Sotheby’s in Paris sold all 1,000 lots from the collection of Pierre Bergé for €27.5 million ($31.3 million) in a rare no-buy-in sale (minus the work withdrawn at the last minute amid a legal squabble). Ninety-five percent of lots exceeded their high estimates. (Art Daily)
Lévy Gorvy Names New Director – Bona Yoo, who helped Lehmann Maupin open an outpost in Seoul last year, has taken a new job as sales director at Lévy Gorvy. She will be based in New York and brings her Korean contacts and knowledge of Asian artists, collectors, and institutions to the gallery. (ARTnews)
Richard Saltoun Will Represent Artist Silvia Giambrone – The Italian feminist artist Silvia Giambrone, who is best known for her work about physical and psychological violence against women, has been picked up by London’s Richard Saltoun Gallery. Her new work Heroin (2018) depicts the narcotic molecule in embroidery as a comment on toxic domestic relationships. (Press release)
Hudson River School Collection Will Be Sold to Help Refugees – Barrie Landry is selling 13 Hudson River School paintings at Christie’s with a combined estimate of $2 million to raise money for refugee aid. The top lot is Frederic Edwin Church’s On Otter Creek (1850). Barrie built the collection with her late husband Kevin Landry, a former trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Proceeds will go to UNICEF, RefugePoint, and other nonprofits. (ARTnews)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Seven on Seven Comes to Beijing – Rhizome, the New Museum, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts are launching Seven on Seven Beijing, which will be the first China-based edition of the beloved New York event. Founded in 2010 by Rhizome, Seven on Seven pairs artists with people from the tech world to create new creative projects at warp speed. (Press release)
The V&A Launches Its Eastern Outpost – The Victoria & Albert Museum has unveiled plans for a new outpost in East London’s Stratford. The massive five-story development, designed by New York architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, comes with a major perk: the museum is getting the building, a former Olympic site, for free. It’s expected to be complete in 2023. (The Art Newspaper)
Untitled Gets a New Location – For its third year, the San Francisco edition of the Untitled art fair (January 18–20, 2019) will move to Pier 35. The new waterfront location, which will accommodate a larger number of exhibitors, has been billed as a promising sign for the coastal city’s expanding art market. (Press release)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Uffizi Unveils Leonardo da Vinci Celebrations Early – Getting a head start on Italy’s nationwide celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death in 2019, Florence’s Uffizi Gallery is presenting “Water as Microscope of Nature: Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester” this fall. The show displays his Codex Leicester, a 72-page document studying the movement of water. Bill Gates loaned the work to the museum. (TAN)
The Stedelijk Does Not Have to Restitute a Kandinsky, Court Rules – The Amsterdam museum does not have to restitute a Wassily Kandinsky work to its heirs, according to a binding opinion from the Restitutions Committee. The decision was made in part because its original owners, Irma Klein and Robert Lewenstein, sold it themselves at auction during the war due to dwindling financial circumstances, rather than losing the work in a more direct theft or seizure by the Nazi regime. (Art Daily)
The Girl Who Loved Obama’s Portrait Dressed Up as Her for Halloween – Parker Curry, the little girl who fell in love with Amy Sherald’s portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery—and whose photo admiring the work went viral—is making headlines again. The three-year-old dressed up as a mini-version of her idol, complete with a meticulously recreated dress, for Halloween. (Twitter)