Every week, Artnet News brings you Wet Paint, a gossip column of original scoops. If you have a tip, email Annie Armstrong at aarmstrong@artnet.com.
AT LEAST WE GOT IVANKA
Well, here we are again. Another election cycle went the way of the wolves. Our well-meaning fundraisers and voter drives were just reeds in the wind of Trump’s vitriolic return. I’m as dejected as the next person. But on the upside, from where I stand, there is at least one Trump who actually has been satisfyingly defeated: the art world stopped Ivanka.
Despite whispers about Ivanka’s plans to return to polite society, I’m not seeing any proof of that, beyond an occasional appearance with Harmony Korine’s wife, former actress Rachel Korine, an Instagram humble-brag about the Alex Israel piece she keeps in her breakfast nook, and a cloying selfie taken with Kim Kardashian. Looking at the hard data, Ivanka hasn’t even been photographed by BFA since May 2016, when she was spotted at a Met Gala after party at the Boom Boom Room.
“Resistance” is a tired word in this new political atmosphere, but I am proud of how stringently the art world has kept her locked outside. I wondered if maybe she just wasn’t photographed at important art events in recent years, so I asked a BFA regular (over 4,500 shots taken!) if she’s seen Ivanka on the party circuit: “Ew, thankfully no.” There you have it.
That’s a far cry from 10 years ago, when no one would blink twice when seeing her and her husband, Jared Kushner, out at openings, hosting charity events, and partying with friends like dealer Emmanuel Di Donna and the Acquavella kids. She was a known collector, working with then-advisor Alex Marshall to snap up work by the likes of David Ostrowski, Dan Colen, Nate Lowman, and Christopher Wool. She even hosted a charity sale at Sotheby’s.
Then 2016 came along, and that mossy rug of gala invites and gallery previews was quickly and ceremoniously swept out from under her. At least two artists have disavowed work in her collection, Alex Da Corte and Richard Prince (though there are rumors that Prince’s move was just a ploy to raise the piece’s value on the secondary market). Earlier this year, rumors swirled that she was furious about not being invited to the Met Gala.
I won’t be naive and claim that she has no friends in the art world right now, but I will say that her movements are limited to a very particular corner of it. This summer, I reported that she was one of a very few people present at Vito Schnabel’s wedding. I also heard through the grapevine that Tico Mugrabi hosted a “MAGA Victory” party on Tuesday night. Maybe that’s where she was when she was notably absent for most of her dear old Dad’s victory party at Mar-a-Lago?
In 2021, Ivanka moved from Washington, D.C., to Miami, and reportedly plans to stay there for the duration of her father’s presidency, living a “soft life,” as The Cut wrote. That is one way to put it. Another would be to say that she has finally accepted defeat. I’ll bet that she won’t be spotted during Art Basel Miami Beach this year. Any takers?
ANCART CLEARS OUT
Harold Ancart, left, at the opening of his 2018 show at David Zwirner in London, “Freeze.” Photo by Justyna Fedec courtesy David Zwirner.
There are a handful of artists with market histories that, I believe, would be excellent fodder for movie scripts. Obviously, Cady Noland’s mysterious and erratic history is the stuff of legend. Joe Bradley seems to have a case of representation ADD. Peter Doig’s defection from Michael Werner Gallery still has people scratching their heads. Etcetera, etcetera.
However, my personal favorite has to be the trajectory of Harold Ancart. For as long as I have written this column (three years!), there has been drama. Back in March of 2022, I broke the news that he was abandoning representation with David Zwirner for his arch-rival Gagosian, likely due to complications of the heart involving Ancart, David’s son (and gallery employee) Lucas, and Ancart’s ex-girlfriend Dianna Agron. About a year later, we took a look into Ancart’s status as a “spiritual partner” (and rumored backer) of his original gallery, Clearing, which has represented him since 2011. Until now!
My annual scoop on Ancart is here: Wet Paint can exclusively reveal that he is no longer on Clearing’s roster, and the gallery’s founder, Olivier Babin, confirmed the news in a characteristically roundabout way.
“Oh, um, is he?… Yeah, I guess he’s not on there anymore,” Babin told me over the phone. If he sounded a bit preoccupied, it’s probably because I called him bright and early in the morning after the election was announced. He said that there was no further context to add, and that the artist will be exclusively represented by Gagosian going forward.
I asked if he’d remain a “spiritual partner” of the gallery, and Babin answered my question with another question. “What do you think about spirits in America? Spirits come and go,” he mused. “It’s a drop of ‘I don’t know what’ in an ocean of something else. There’s no meaning. Things come and go.”
Words of wisdom. Ancart’s move is the latest in a series of changes at Babin’s tony space on Bowery. Earlier this year, the gallerist and his former-partner, the Brussels-based dealer Lodovico Corsini had an unceremonious falling-out, resulting in Corsini leaving the gallery to run the Brussels space under his own name. Babin has maintained the Los Angeles and New York spaces under the Clearing name. Glancing at the current roster on Clearing’s website, three other artists, Adam Alessi, Calvin Marcus, and Meriem Bennani, have also left lately.
According to the trusty Wayback Machine, all four artists were listed on the gallery’s roster as recently as July. I’ll be keeping a close eye on what happens next, and be sure to clue you in.
WE HEAR
During an otherwise dark time, I’m dedicating this week’s section to things that get me excited about art and culture. To start, J Spaceman and John Coxon, the duo behind the atmospheric rock band Spiritualized, have recorded a score for William Eggleston’s 1970s arthouse film Stranded in Canton. The album, which is being released by Fat Possum, is a kind of escape from society… I could have sworn that Ed Ruscha was about to break into tears at the Dia Gala this week, speaking about the power of opacity and translucency as seen through the eyes of his friend Larry Bell, whom the nonprofit was honoring… Upcoming day sales at the auction are, as always, full of gems. If I could, I’d bid on this painting by Ludwig Bemelmans (estimated to sell between $25,000 to $35,000) at Phillips… O’Flaherty’s rang in its new space on Allen Street with a doubleheader for the ages: Matthew Barney and Alex Katz. It’s a coup! Still though, my nostalgia kicked in at the afterparty thrown at the old space on Avenue A… Tonight at Gladstone Gallery, I get to lay eyes on a suite of new paintings by Brook Hsu, who recently threatened to walk away from her practice, but thankfully came back around… And finally, may we all enjoy the small things with as much zeal as curator Francesco Bonami “eating meat and drinking a beer alone” in Hangzhou, China…