Speed Read: The Top 10 Art News Stories for September 15–19

From the art world's gender bias to the best of Art Berlin Contemporary.

1. We Asked 20 Women “Is the Art World Biased?” Here’s What They Said and Art World Bias by the Numbers The art world can feel like a warm, fuzzy, utopian place sometimes, but in some respects—like, to take a completely random example, gender equality—it’s just as backwards as the real world. We asked 20 important women—including Marilyn Minter, RoseLee Goldberg, Michelle Grabner, and Peal Lam—to weigh in on sexism in the art world. Meanwhile, senior investigative reporter Philip Boroff looked at the raw data and found that women in top art administration jobs are chronically underpaid compared to their male colleagues in similar positions.

2. Tom Finkelpearl Promises to Make New York Livable for Artists In his first extensive interview since beginning his job as the new commissioner of New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, Tom Finkelpearl told Ben Sutton that the biggest problems facing artists in the city are affordable housing and student debt, enormous issues that he intends to tackle. Best of luck to commissioner Finkelpearl with all that.

3. 10 Things You Need to Know About Investing in Art The third Fine Art and Finance Conference took place in Berlin this week, and Alexander Forbes was in the front row taking copious notes, which he condensed into 10 insightful and indispensable nuggets every art collector should commit to memory. 4. Art Dealer Guy Wildenstein Caught Up In €600 Million Tax Evasion Case We hope that “Don’t dodge inheritance tax by keeping all your assets offshore” is one of the tips covered at next year’s ArtFi conference, because dealer Guy Wildenstein could really have used that advice. Instead, as Coline Milliard reported, he’s now facing a whopping €600 million bill for tax evasion.

gif-art-history-peter-burr-fills

Peter Burr, from the “Fills” series (2013).
Courtesy the artist.

5. A Brief History of Animated GIF Art, Part Four Paddy Johnson concluded her brief (but not that brief) history of animated GIF art with a chapter devoted to developments of the past three years, from the one year during which Google+ was actually popular, to the rise of GIF exhibitions.

6. Roxy Paine at Marianne Boesky: The Raw Spectacle of Wood If there’s one exhibition this fall everyone in New York is talking about, it’s Roxy Paine’s excruciatingly detailed wooden replica of an airport security checkpoint. Ben Davis paid a it visit, and gleaned some unintended insights from the piece by reading it against the grain.

7. Los Angeles Galleries and Museum at Odds Over Bergamot Station Revamp Is the Santa Monica Museum of Art in trouble? Definitely maybe! So Eileen Kinsella discovered while investigating the implications of a recent Santa Monica City Council decision for the museum and the dozens of galleries that call Bergamot Station home.

8. Satanic Coloring Books Distributed at Florida Public Schools In protest of a recent decision allowing the distribution of Bibles at public schools in Florida, the group Satanic Temple has begun distributing Satanic coloring books to school children, Sarah Cascone reported.

Tobias Rehberger presented by neugerriemschneider (b 16)Photo: © Alexander Forbes

Tobias Rehberger presented by neugerriemschneider (b 16).
Photo: © Alexander Forbes.

9. The 20 Best Booths at Art Berlin Contemporary Another surefire sign that fall is here: Art fairs are happening again. This week it was Art Berlin Contemporary, where Alexander Forbes sized up the available merchandise and picked his favorite booths.

10. Real Housewife Accused of Extorting Artist If you made it this far, you deserve something decadent, and what could be more decadent than this delicious story, by Sarah Cascone, about a former Real Housewives of New York cast member (and cousin of The Nanny star Fran Drescher) being accused of holding an artist’s painting hostage?


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