Art Industry News: Revered New Yorker Art Critic Peter Schjeldahl Writes of Fatal Cancer Diagnosis + 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 Monday, December
14.

NEED-TO-READ

Budi Tek on His Plans to Bring Islamic Art to Shanghai –
The
Indonesian-Chinese collector discusses his decision to expand the
partnership between his
Yuz Museum and LACMA by bringing on Qatar Museums for a
three-institution joint show. Asked whether he fears Qatar’s
Islamic art might upset Chinese censors considering the
government’s treatment of the country’s Islamic Uygur minority, Tek
demurs. “We are going to be
talking about good art, not religion that upsets people,” he says.
“The shows will be in the interest of the public rather than
damaging public interest,” he adds. (South China Morning
Post)

Workers at Mexico’s Top Cultural Institute Protest Late Pay
– To protest late payments, staff members forced the temporary
closure of the Instituto
Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura in Mexico City last week. The
institute oversees several of Mexico’s major museums, including
Museo Mural Diego Rivera and Museo Tamayo. Payment delays, a
problem workers say has been going on for years, has lasted up to
seven months at a time for some. (Hyperallergic)

How the One Percent Control US
Museums – In a lengthy op-ed, the author Michael Massing
explores “how the superrich took over the museum world,” arguing
that the reopening of New York’s
Museum of Modern Art epitomizes the new normal for museums, in
which board members are chosen overwhelmingly for their wealth. Of
MoMA’s 51 voting trustees, he estimates that at least 45 come from the finance, real estate,
law, or corporate worlds, or they are heirs or spouses of the
super-rich. Massing fears that this status quo is having an impact
on the art museums present: “In the end, it’s hard to measure the
impact of trustees’ wealth on a museum’s content,” he writes, “and
no doubt someone will be able to point to this or that exception,
but it’s a subject that deserves much more discussion than it has
received.” (New York Times)

ART MARKET

Gerhard Richter Is Angry at Sales of Early Work –
Helge Achenbach, a once-prominent
art dealer currently imprisoned for
fraud, is trying to sell early drawings said to be by Gerhard
Richter to the Gerhard Richter Archive in Dresden for between €5
million and €6 million ($5.6 million and $6.7 million). But an
auction house expert says the drawings are worth considerably
less—around €100,000 ($111,000). The painter himself is frustrated
by the whole situation and doubts that all the works are even by
his hand, as some are missing a signature. “There are a lot of
things I didn’t do,” the artist said. “Half of it is junk and
should be burned.” (Monopol)

John Lennon’s Broken Sunglasses
Sell for $183,000 – The Beatle
accidentally left them in the car of his bandmate Ringo Starr in
1968. More than 50 years later, the specs were sold by Starr’s
former chauffeur, Alan Herring, at Sotheby’s London. They were
broken, but that was part of the “look,” according to Lennon.
(BBC)

Nuns Investigated Over Sculpture on
Offer at TEFAF – Spanish police
are looking into whether a 17th-century wooden sculpture of Saint
Margarita de Cortona by the Baroque sculptor José de Mora was
illegally sold from a convent in Grenada. The piece was shown at
TEFAF in New York when it was spotted by a scholar. Art dealer
Nicolás Cortés had it on view priced at €350,000 ($389,000). He
says bought it from an antique dealer for €100,000 ($111,000).
(The Art Newspaper)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Belgian Artist Panamarenko Has Died
– The artist and engineer known
simply as Panamarenko has died at age 79. Born Henri Van Herwegen,
his inventive assemblages and sculptures often explored the theme
of flight and movement—but his imagined airplanes were never
constructed to actually leave the ground. (La Libre)

Di Rosa Deaccessioning Moves Ahead
– News that Napa’s di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art
would sell of most of its 1,600-work collection caused a stir over the
summer. Now, the institution has begun to quietly circulate the
first 18 key works for sale to dealers and collectors. They include
sculptures by Mark di Suvero and Viola Frey as well as major works
by Bruce Conner and Peter Saul. (SF Chronicle) 

AES+F Collective Launches NYC
Residency – The art collective
AES+F is launching a New York residency for emerging Russian
artists. The goal, according to the collective, is to help redress
both a lack of opportunity for Russian artists and a lack of
representation in the United States. The three-month residencies,
beginning in 2020, will take place at the International Studio and
Curatorial Program. (Press release)

Was This Queer Art Show in Dallas Censored? –
The group show “Queer Me Now”
opened on December 7 at the arts space 500x, but was taken down by
its organizers just two days later. The exhibition on fantastical
queer sex received an alleged complaint from the building’s owner,
the Gibson Company. (Glasstire)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Inside the Home of Françoise Gilot
– The 98-year-old
artist gives New York magazine a tour of her Upper West Side home and
studio, where she paints
every day. A selection of old and new works—many created in the
apartment—is on view now at New York’s Elkon Gallery. The only
woman who left Picasso, his ex-muse and mistress recalls that
she wasn’t afraid of the
famous and much older artist. “Pablo had a temper much like my
father, so it was a continuation,” she says. (The Cut)

Kerry James Marshall Guest Stars at
Diddy’s 50th Birthday – Kerry James Marshall’s Past Times (1997), which Diddy
purchased at auction for a record $21.1 million last
year, was the music
mogul’s backdrop of choice when he celebrated his 50th birthday on
Saturday. The painting brightened up a group photo of Diddy alongside
Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, and Jay-Z. (Although some onlookers
on Twitter were more worried about the health of the painting,
presuming the photographer used a flash.) The birthday bash took
place at Diddy’s $40 million
mansion in Los Angeles. (Twitter)

JAY-Z at Diddy’s 50th birthday party pic.twitter.com/84L0ELnc6W

— JAY-Z Daily (@JAY_Z_Daily) December 15, 2019

The post Art Industry News: Revered New Yorker Art Critic
Peter Schjeldahl Writes of Fatal Cancer Diagnosis + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.