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 Tuesday, January 2.
NEED-TO-READ
MoMA’s Rehang Celebrates Late-Career Artists – The Museum of Modern Art has rehung its 15 fourth-floor galleries with 130 works created by artists when they were 45 and older. Highlights of “Long Run” include works by Jasper Johns, Agnes Martin, and Roy Lichtenstein, plus solo presentations of Gego, David Hammons and Martin Puryear. Roberta Smith notes that the display is rather New York-centric and includes only one work by a black female artist. (New York Times)
Documenta Is Looking for a New Director – One of the biggest art-world questions of 2018 is undoubtedly who will be chosen to lead documenta 15. Following an ambitious exhibition that resulted in what the German press dubbed a “crisis year” for the quinquennial, the dates for the 2022 edition have been confirmed. Now, a selection committee must name a new artistic director by the end of 2018. The position of CEO is also open as Annette Kulenkampff resigned prematurely in light of the show’s financial deficit. (DPA)
Milo Yiannopoulos’s Art Criticism Cut From Book – Far-right pundit Milo Yiannopoulos called the art world “a one-party state” in the manuscript for his book “Dangerous,” which recently became public as part of the author’s lawsuit against the publisher Simon & Schuster. All of his comments about the art world—including a reference to protests against “Kimono Wednesdays” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Marina Abramović’s relationship to pizzagate—were cut by his very frustrated editor. (Hyperallergic)
An Architecture Critic Visits Trump’s Border Wall – Christopher Hawthorne critiques eight prototypes of President Trump’s proposed US-Mexico border wall—and describes how surreal it was to see them in person. “The slabs in front of me seemed at once the most and least architectural objects I’d ever seen,” he writes. Each prototype is being tested to withstand a half-hour attack by “sledgehammer, car jack, pickaxe, chisel, [and] cutting tools.” (LA Times)
ART MARKET
Tomoo Gokita Joins Blum & Poe – The Tokyo-based artist Tomoo Gokita (born 1969) will be represented by the Los Angeles-based gallery Blum & Poe, where he will have a solo show this fall. This spring, Gokita’s monochromatic paintings full of Pop culture references will be the subject of a museum show at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery. (Art Daily)
Billionaires Got $1 Trillion Richer in 2017 – The world’s 500 richest people became $1 trillion richer last year. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gained the most ($34.2 billion), but it was also a good year for art-world high rollers Alice Walton, Carlos Slim, and François Pinault. Losers in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index included Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, who bankrolled the Louvre’s Islamic Wing. His net worth dropped $1.9 billion to $17.8 billion after he was detained in a crackdown against corruption led by the Crown Prince. (Bloomberg)
Art Fund Targets Asia – The Fine Art Group, which specializes in using art as collateral for loans, is expanding to Asia. It plans to open offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong early this year. Founder and chief executive Philip Hoffman says the London-based company has the backing to lend $1 billion to art-rich Chinese and other Asian collectors over the next 10 years. (Financial Times)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Art-World Heavyweights Give $40,000 to Poets – In an effort to support the “perennially under-resourced” field of poetry, the Foundation for Contemporary Art (endowed by Ellsworth Kelly and his partner Jack Shear), the Cy Twombly Foundation, and the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation have given new, $40,000 grants to experimental poets Linda Robertson, Anne Boyer, and Fred Moten. (NYT)
Israel Officially Withdraws From UNESCO – Two months after Israel declared it would join the US and leave the organization, the country formally ended its UNESCO membership on December 31. The withdrawal was a reaction to Arab-sponsored resolutions over East Jerusalem and the Old City of Hebron. (AFP)
Land Artist Richard Long Gets Knighthood – The British artist Richard Long will become Sir Richard when he is knighted by the Queen. Meanwhile, the gallerists Victoria Miro and Jane Hamlyn of Frith Street Gallery will become CBEs (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) and Fiona Bradley, the director of Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket Gallery, will get an OBE. (The Art Newspaper)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Lower East Side Mural Causes Uproar – Swedish artist Carolina Falkholt caused a stir over the holidays with two murals in New York’s Lower East Side commissioned by the public arts organization New Allen. One depicting a huge penis was removed within days, but another—a vagina painted on the side of a four-story building—is still up. (NYT)
V&A Acquires Nijinsky Costume – London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has acquired a green and yellow silk costume worn by the Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky and designed by Léon Bakst. The museum also purchased a group of personal artifacts that Nijinsky’s sister brought to the US after the outbreak of the Second World War. (Guardian)
Drunken Woman Damages Warhols in Date Gone Bad – A high-profile attorney in Texas who once hosted Donald Trump at his home is tallying the costs of a first date from hell. Lindy Lou Layman, 29, has been accused of tearing down Anthony Buzbee’s two Warhol paintings, throwing sculptures, and causing an estimated $300,000 in damage. She reportedly became drunkenly aggressive while Buzbee was calling an Uber driver to collect her. (KHOU 11)
Bonnard and Magritte Are Now Copyright Free – A number of artists’ works just become copyright free. Work by artists who died 50 to 70 years prior to 2018 is now in the public domain. (Regulations vary among countries.) New additions include Rene Magritte, Pierre Bonnard, and the occultist Aleister Crowley. (Hyperallergic)
René Magritte, La lampe philosophique (1936). Image: ©Photothëque R. Magritte / Banque d’Images, Adagp, Paris, 2016.