Front Page of the Art World: What’s Hot & What’s Not — 26 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.
- Coming to Wellington on 4 December: Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future
Something extraordinary is about to land on New Zealand shores.
In 2018, I visited the exhibition Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future at The Guggenheim in New York. For those unfamiliar with the name, Hilma af Klint is a pioneer in abstract art. A Swedish artist and mystic, her abstract paintings were considered among the first abstract works known in Western art history, predating the famous compositions of Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian.
Hilma af Klint began creating radically abstract paintings in 1906 — bold, colorful, and untethered from any recognizable references to the physical world. It was years before others would take similar strides to rid their own artwork of representational content. Unlike her better-known contemporaries, af Klint was extremely private, rarely exhibiting her groundbreaking paintings. Convinced that the world was not ready for her work, she left instructions that it be kept secret until at least twenty years after her death.
Over the last three decades, Hilma af Klint has become one of the world’s most discussed artists. The Guggenheim show I attended in 2018 attracted 600,000 visitors — the highest attendance for any show in its history. Af Klint’s work, message, and story have captivated audiences around the globe.
On 4 December, this highly celebrated body of work is coming to Aotearoa New Zealand for the first time. Hilma af Klint: The Secret Paintings is one of the most important exhibitions ever staged in New Zealand. It will be exhibited at City Gallery Wellington from 4 December to 27 March 2022 and is not to be missed.
Links:
• See details of the upcoming exhibition here.
• See details of the Curator’s Tour here. Online tickets sold out — but door sales will be available.
• Book tickets for the audioguide here.
- View a walk-through of the 2021 exhibition Hilma af Klint: Tree of Knowledge at the David Zwirner gallery here.
2. Featured Instagram account: ArtTactic
ArtTactic is a progressive and agile art market analysis agency that offers dynamic and bespoke market intelligence on the fast-paced and ever-changing global art market.
In this week’s episode of the ArtTactic Podcast, @adamgreenartadvisory chats with Judd Tully, independent arts journalist, as they recap the major November contemporary auctions. First, Judd tells Adam about how the $676 million Macklowe sale came to be and how the provenance impacted the sales results. Then, he compares the strength of the current contemporary art market to previous periods. Judd also shares if insiders had positive feelings following the sales or if there is concern of a looming bubble.
Follow ArtTactic on Instagram.
3. In case you missed it: STATE OF THE ARTS: an online kōrero
STATE OF THE ARTS, an online kōrero delving deep into how the arts are tracking in Aotearoa, featured frank takes from the people who live it.
Hosted by Arts Foundation Trustee Miriama Kamo, the panel discussion featured 2005 Laureate Simon O’Neill ONZM (Opera Singer), 2011 Laureate Dr Fiona Pardington MNZM (Photographer), 2020 Laureate Shayne Carter (Musician and Author), 2006 Arts Foundation Laureate Oscar Kightley MNZM (Writer/Actor/Director/Comedian) and 2020 Springboard award recipient, Moana Ete (Multi-disciplinary).
If you couldn’t join the event on the night (or you just want to do it all over again!) you can watch the panel discussion here.
4. Going underground: English poet Alexander Pope’s hidden grotto to be saved
A relic of national importance, the man-made cave is all that remains of his villa and gardens — and is only accessible through a school dining hall.
Read the story from The Art Newspaper.
5. The frame: Sculpture for a good cause
In her weekly art column, New Zealand’s own fabulous Nadine Rubin Nathan charts the topography of Aotearoa’s art scene. This week, she discovers sculptures that have found a digital platform, for a good cause.
6. Art Basel Miami Beach Returns, Smaller but Ready to Party
What you’ll find at this year’s tropical circus: hundreds of galleries, institutions proudly exhibiting homegrown work and an array of NFT-themed gatherings.
Read the story from the New York Times.
7. Video: In Conversation with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Book World Prague 2021
This year, the strongest literary voice of African women will be in Prague for the first time. For her readers as well as those looking for inspiring ideas about race, gender, current society, this recorded talk is a unique opportunity. Friends of literature and friends of culture will love listening to one of the most widely acclaimed writers in the English language, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
8. At Superblue, Mind-Bending Meditations on the World Around Us
Superblue, a new cultural venue for Miami, opens later this month in a former industrial building. Located in the city’s Allapattah neighbourhood, opposite the recently opened Rubell Museum, Superblue Miami occupies a renovated 50,000-square-foot (4,650-square-metre) building.
The long-awaited experiential art center opens in Miami with immersive displays by Es Devlin, James Turrell, and TeamLab that serve as portals into new worlds while sparking urgent conversations about the one we inhabit.
Read the stories from Surface Magazine and Dezeen.
9. Experiencing to Reconnect: The Transformative Potential of Art
Therme Art Wellbeing Culture Forum returned for a new season with a very special panel discussion presented in collaboration with Serpentine Galleries. Moderated by the Serpentine’s Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist and hosted by Therme Art’s Curator Mikolaj Sekutowicz, this panel discussion considered the powerful role of art and creativity in navigating crisis.
Like the Wellbeing Culture Forum more broadly, Experiencing to Reconnect: The Transformative Potential of Art was a direct response to current events. Over recent years, we have witnessed the growing visibility of artistic projects founded on shared experience and exchange. However, the pandemic and its accompanying social and cultural upheavals have highlighted their urgency, revealing, as Devlin puts it, ‘the scale of which we see, and the scale we don’t see.’
The event is now available to stream here.
10. Inside the NFT Rush (Part 1): Gary Vaynerchuk, the NFT Scene’s Booster-in-Chief, Is Predicting ‘Carnage’ — But No One Seems to Care
In the first of a series, our chief art critic embeds himself in an NFT conference in New York City.
11. Inside the NFT Rush (Part 2): Entrepreneurs Promise NFTs Will Destroy the Gatekeepers, While Jockeying to Become the New Gatekeepers
In the second part of a series, Artnet sums up some of the themes of NFT.NYC, and fail to get into a party.
12. Selling Art on Commission Is Unfair to Artists. Here’s Why a Direct-to-Consumer Approach Is the Future of the Art Market
Artist and nonprofit gallery founder Stacie McCormick makes the case for alternative sales models.
13. Van Gogh and friends: new show in Ohio puts Vincent alongside masters such as Rembrandt, Hokusai and Monet
But is it one exhibition or two? Surprisingly, Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources will be quite different when it travels next year to California.
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper’s long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.
Read the story from The Art Newspaper.
14. How to watch Edmund Hillary: Ocean to Sky — the award winning documentary
Michael Dillon, Producer and Director of this multi international award-winning feature film documenting Sir Edmund Hillary’s last major expedition, has extended the opportunity for fans to stream the film online.
Synopsis: Sir Edmund Hillary’s journey from the Ocean to the Sky along India’s holy River Ganges was his last major expedition. For the people of India, it was a pilgrimage led by a hero of almost god-like status and millions lined the river to watch him pass in his ‘miraculous’ jet boats. View the trailer.
What is included: Apart from the film itself, there is an introduction by Michael Dillon, he answers frequently asked questions, and there is some humorous bonus footage. It can be accessed via the link below. The link works in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Buy tickets to view the film online.
Email robynleeder@gmail.com if you wish to purchase the hard copy DVD.
15. What’s On Your Walls: How Curator Roya Sachs Likes to Spark ‘Sudden, Intimate Conversations’ With Her Dining-Room Art
Sachs spoke to Artnet about what she likes to collect, how she displays it, and her take on the relationship between art and style.
16. The Recent Sale of Amy Sherald’s ‘Welfare Queen’ Symbolizes the Urgent Need for Resale Royalties and Economic Equity for Artists
There are creative ways that collectors, auction houses, and artists can collaborate to build a system of “resale equity.”
17. Blockbuster Vermeer exhibition forced to close as Germany faces fourth coronavirus wave
German health minister warns that by the end of the winter, everyone will be “vaccinated, recovered or dead”
Read the story from The Art Newspaper.
18. Podcast episode: Art Scoping, Episode 83: Mark Cavagnero
Architect Mark Cavagnero shares anecdotes about his formation working for Edward Larrabee Barnes, his personal experience with Marcel Breuer’s body of work, and insights about the competing issues facing architects designing and building cultural facilities. He touches on his designs for the Walker Art Center, the Oakland Museum of California, and his hopes for the downstream effects of the new infrastructure legislation signed into law by President Biden.
19. Samoan tenor Pene Pati signs to Warner Classics
Warner Classics has signed an exclusive contract with the Samoan tenor Pene Pati. His label debut, scheduled for Spring next year, will be a recital of arias from Romantic operas by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Massenet and Benjamin Godard, recorded with the Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine and conductor Emmanuel Villaume.
Read the story from Gramaphone.
20. How Quiltmaking’s Deep Traditions Are Influencing Contemporary Art
Quilts have long been associated with nostalgia and domesticity, but they aren’t just beautiful utilitarian items relegated to the home. Quilts have long been recognised for their aesthetic value, and in recent years, the art world has been increasingly taking notice.
21. Curator Accused of Making NFTs of Works by Anish Kapoor and Others Without Permission
British curator Ben Moore is being accused of NFT theft. According to the Financial Times, Moore is facing claims that he made NFTs of works by various artists, including Anish Kapoor, without the creators’ permission.
22. Her Art Reads the Land in Deep Time
Athena LaTocha has embraced geological materials from mesas, wetlands and bluffs in her large-scale works. Now, she’s exploring what’s underfoot in New York City.
Read the story from the New York Times.
23. Why Shouldn’t Housing for the Homeless Be Beautiful?
An exhibition highlights creative solutions by architects around the world to the problem of homelessness.
Read the story from the New York Times.
