Front Page of the Art World: Whats Hot & What’s Not — 19 Nov 2021
What’s on the front page news of the art world? Read on to discover what’s hot and what’s not this week — from the hyperlocal to the global.
- The Macklowe Collection Delivers an Eye-Popping $676 Million at Sotheby’s, Making It the Most Valuable Sale in Company History
The 35-lot sale, the result of the couple’s bitter divorce, was the biggest test of the high-end art market since March 2020.
2. The Art Angle Podcast: How a Fiery Breakup Sparked the Biggest Art Auction in Decades
All eyes are on this tip top of the market as the art world prepares for what may be the biggest auction of the decade, Sotheby’s sale of the Macklowe collection. This star studded group of works was assembled over 50 years by the billionaire couple Harry and Linda Macklowe, but those were happier times.
3. Helen Levitt’s street life photography
Alex Prager curates highlights from a retrospective of Levitt’s work documenting New York’s communities.
Read the story from the Financial Times.
4. Treasure troves: Miami’s top private art museums
The city has become a leading modern-art destination — especially thanks to its world-class collections, open to the public in dramatic architectural settings.
Read the story from the Financial Times.
5. John Currin Is the Caligula of Painting
Someone whose work is so specifically f***d-up, perverse, shocking, visually insolent, menacing, and mesmerizing that as it puts us off, it also pulls us in. Our tastes often betray us as we find ourselves drawn to questionable things we know are problematic.
6. The Untold Story of Sushi in America
How a controversial religion from Korea quietly built an empire of raw fish.
Read the story from the New York Times.
7. Whose Writing Is on the Wall at the Museum? It Could Be Yours.
Museums striving for diversity and inclusiveness are bringing in outside voices to interpret the art. (They’re not always experts.)
Read the story from the New York Times.
8. “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped”: in photos
An estimated 6 million people saw Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped” in person during its 16-day duration, according to the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau. 685 million people discovered the project through all types of media. Deinstallation of the temporary work of art will be completed this week and all materials are being reused, upcycled, and recycled.
View the photos on Christo and Jeann-Claude’s Facebook page.
9. ‘I went from having to borrow money to making $4m in a day’: how NFTs are shaking up the art world
Digital art is a billion-dollar business, with everyone from Paris Hilton to Damien Hirst trading in ‘non-fungible tokens’. But are NFTs just a get-rich-quick scheme masquerading as culture?
Read the story from the Guardian.
10. The ARTnews Accord: Gallerist Nicola Vassell and Curator Donna De Salvo Talk About Kaleidoscopic Changes in the Art World
In July, curator, dealer, and adviser Nicola Vassell and Dia Art Foundation’s senior curator Donna De Salvo joined ARTnews at Vassell’s gallery to discuss their new roles, their thoughts about an art world in flux, and their hopes and concerns for the future.
11. Art Basel in Miami Beach to host first ‘interactive’ NFT exhibition in new collaboration with blockchain Tezos
Show will be accompanied by a talks programme at the Florida fair next month, while visitors will be able to create an AI “generative self-portrait” which they can mint as a takeaway NFT.
Read the story from the Art Newspaper.
12. This Dutch Museum Is the World’s First to Open Its Storage to the Public, Putting Its Entire 151,000-Piece Collection on View
The Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen opens this weekend, offering access to little-seen works by Van Gogh and Leonora Carrington, among others.
13. Opinion: The fine art of finding happiness
What great painters can teach us about being happy in the here and now.
Read the story from the Financial Times.
14. ‘Be Nice to Tourists’: New York’s Arts Scene Needs International Visitors
The United States now allows vaccinated international travelers into the country. It’s welcome news for arts institutions that lost revenue and cut jobs during the pandemic.
Read the story from the New York Times.
15. Basquiat and Banksy boost Christie’s New York season
O’Keeffe’s Hawaiian painting at Phillips; Renaissance rediscoveries at Colnaghi; Sean Kelly opens in LA — and keeps it in the family.
Read the story from the Financial Times.
16. Tastemaking Curator and Dealer Ebony L. Haynes Will Organize a New Section for Under-the-Radar Art Platforms at NADA Miami
Fresh from inaugurating a new David Zwirner outpost, the curator will spotlight emerging galleries (and a publisher and nonprofit) at the fair.
17. Barbara Kruger: Infinitely Copied, Still Unmatched
For decades this social critic has addressed the powerful influence of media, consumerism and politics. Her work anticipated how images and ideas are now disseminated.
Read the story from the New York Times.
18. From torment to swagger: Edvard Munch’s photographic selfies
The Norwegian painter used a camera to explore his preoccupations with spiritualism, naturism — and himself.
Read the story from the Financial Times.
19. What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries Right Now
Want to see new art this weekend? Start with Reynaldo Rivera’s moody photographs of drag bars from the ’70s. Then view Genieve Figgis’s delightfully mordant paintings of gentry. Below are plenty more suggestions from our critics.
Read the story from the New York Times.
20. Artist Carsten Höller Is Debuting a Light and Vibration App at an NFT Rave That Might Make You High and Hallucinate
The app will debut at Dreamverse in New York, alongside Crypto Souk and an immersive Beeple.
21. Hong Kong’s M+ Museum Is Finally Open. It’s Already in Danger.
The museum, billed as Asia’s premier art institution, faced construction delays and personnel problems. Now it faces its greatest challenge: the threat of censorship.
Read the story from the New York Times.
22. He Stalks Delirious, Unfinished New York as It Rises
Nick Relph’s new book, “Eclipse Body & Soul Syntax,” collects years of digital street scans of New York City construction posters, an eerie portrait of a supersizing metropolis.
Read the story from the New York Times.
23. Annie Leibovitz, the Un-Fashion Photographer
“Fashion wasn’t anything I wanted to be involved with,” she says. Yet the visually arresting images in “Wonderland,” her new book and collection, may be her strongest work.
Read the story from the New York Times.
24. First glimpse at Yuki Kihara’s exhibition at Venice Biennale
New Zealand’s artist at the next Venice Biennale, Yuki Kihara, says having the event postponed until 2022 has provided her with a ‘gift of time’.
