Art Industry News: Is the New MoMA Building Too Much Like an Apple Store? + Other Stories

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 on this Wednesday, October
9.

NEED-TO-READ

Yoshitomo Nara’s Retrospective Heads to China’s Yuz Museum
– Hot on the heels of
a smashing new auction
record, the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara will have a show at collector Budi Tek’s
Yuz Museum in Shanghai. The artist’s spring 2020 retrospective at
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will travel to the Chinese
institution as part of a new
partnership between the
two museums. (ARTnews)

Artists Sign Letter
Drawing Attention to a Swiss Artist’s Domestic Violence Allegation
– A group of 40
artists and writers, including Moyra Davey and Ariana
Reines, have signed a
letter to the New York-based nonprofit Swiss Institute, asking the
institution to respond to the criminal charges filed Swiss artist
Tobias Madison, whose work is included in one of its exhibitions.
Madison has not yet entered a plea in the domestic violence case;
charges against him include include assault with the intention
to cause physical injury. The institute’s director has now
responded to the letter with a statement, noting that “Swiss
Institute understands the gravity of these accusations, but we are
not able to comment or respond regarding an ongoing legal
case.” (The Art Newspaper, ARTnews)

Should We Be Buying Into MoMA’s Manifest Destiny?
– Architecture
critic Michael Kimmelman offers a decidedly mixed review of
the new MoMA, which opens its $450 million expansion to the public
on October 21. The Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed space—with its
broadened rehang and refreshed approach to navigation—is expected
to draw 3.5 million visitors a year. Kimmelman describes the
metamorphosis as “smart, surgical, sprawling,
and slightly soulless…. You may feel like you’re entering an Apple
store.” Over the decades, he notes, MoMA has swallowed up nearly
every square foot of the block. “What if, instead of doubling down
on Midtown, it had, like, say, the Whitney, ventured to Brooklyn or
Queens or the West Side,” he asks. “It could have altered the
city’s cultural weather.” (New York Times)

The Met Plans Its 150th Birthday Celebrations –
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of
Art celebrates its 150th birthday in 2020—and it plans to mark the
event in style. Programming highlights for the significant year
include an exhibition “Making the Met 1870–2020,” which offers a
journey through the museum’s history, as well as the opening of the
revamped British Galleries and the unveiling of gifts of American
art, photographs, and drawings given to the institution to mark the
occasion. (Press release)

ART MARKET

Sotheby’s Hong Kong
Sales Series Totals $426 Million – Sotheby’s sixth
annual fall art auction series in Hong Kong generated HK$3.35
billion ($426 million)—toward the top end of its combined pre-sale
estimate of $318 million to $456 million. It was a strong showing
for the house considering the ongoing
unrest in the region. Eighty-six percent of lots
sold and five works went for over $12 million, including a large
canvas by Yoshitomo Nara, which sold for a record $25
million. (Press
release)

Fort Gansevoort Expands
to Los Angeles – The Manhattan gallery is opening its
first location on the West Coast on November 21. The new LA chapter
will be located in a 3,000-square-foot space in the Merrick
Building in East Hollywood. The opening show will feature
multimedia artist Christopher Myers, followed by a show dedicated
to Israeli artist Zoya Cherkassky. (ARTnews)

Here’s Your Chance to
Visit Private New York Art Spaces – Open House New York
Weekend runs October 18 through 20, with a program that sees some
of the city’s buildings, private residences, and artist studios
made accessible to the public for a limited time. Art events
include entry to the Frick Art Reference Library and a visit
to sculptor Barry X Ball’s studio in Williamsburg (ARTnews)

COMINGS & GOINGS

The Louvre Opens a Super Storage Facility – Over the next
four years, some 250,000 pieces from the Paris museum are going to
be moved to Liévin, in Hauts-de-France, where the Louvre is opening
a top-notch conservation center and storage facility. The
200,000-square-foot facility aims to better protect works currently
housed in the Louvre’s Paris storage units, which are exposed to
potential floods from the river Seine. (Le Point)

Joan Mitchell Foundation Appoints a New Director –
The former general manager at
Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, Toccarra A. H. Thomas, will be the new
director of the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. Thomas begins
her new role on October 14, taking over from the center’s interim
director Veronique Le Melle. (Press release)

Barcelona Gets a Photo Center – The Francisco Godia Foundation is opening a new
photography center in Barcelona in spring 2020 at the foot of the
city’s iconic Mapfre Tower. The still-unnamed 15,000-square-foot
center will showcase art photography relating to Catalonia.
(El Pais)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Anonymous Donor Gifts $1.15 Million to ICA Philadelphia –
An anonymous donor has gifted the
Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, which is part of the
University of Pennsylvania, $1.15 million. The money will be used
to endow its director of public engagement position, as well as
support a travel fund for art history students. (Artforum)

Did Apple Remove Taiwan’s Flag Emoji in Hong Kong? –
Amid the escalating pro-democracy
protests in Hong Kong, iPhone users in Hong Kong and Macau report
that Apple’s latest update has removed the emoji for the Taiwanese
flag. People are now accusing the company of kowtowing to Beijing
in order to protect its hefty business in mainland China.
(Daily Mail)

See KAWS’s New Sculpture in Brooklyn – The commodification of KAWS continues:
the ever-present artist has installed one of his “Companion”
sculptures at a new set of luxury apartments in Brooklyn called the
Greenpoint, near the India Street ferry stop. The 20-foot-tall
sculpture, titled Waiting, depicts a larger figure with a hand
resting protectively on the shoulder of a smaller version. “This
project has been a few years in the making and it’s great to have
this permanent installation just a few blocks from my studio,” KAWS
wrote on Instagram. (Architectural Digest) 

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