Wet Paint: Coronavirus Upends Art-Fair Schedules, Collectors Flee New York for the Hills & More Juicy Art-World Gossip

Every Thursday afternoon, Artnet News brings you Wet Paint,
a gossip column of original scoops reported and written by Nate
Freeman. If you have a tip, email Nate
at nfreeman@artnet.com.

CANCELLED BY CORONA

For weeks, the art world has anticipated the moment when the
inevitable coronavirus outbreak would rejigger travel schedules
that collectors and dealers have followed for decades. And now, as
New York goes into lockdown mode, several large shifts in the art
fair calendar appear to be on the horizon.

The question on everyone’s mind is the status of Art
Basel, the world’s most important art fair, which last
year brought 93,000 people—who were not practicing
social distancing—to the Swiss city’s Herzog & de
Meuron-designed convention center. Art Basel is still
three months away, and parent company MCH Group
postponed its Baselworld watch fair two months before it
was set to be held on the Messeplatz, perhaps establishing a
template for when news about the world’s grandest art expo would be
released.

There is no official word yet on the fair. While rumors of a
September trip to the Rhineland have echoed
through the art world over the last week, the fair said it is
waiting to make any kind of firm decision about rescheduling until
it gets closer to the event. But it is certainly not ruling out
holding the proceedings in the fall.

That fair’s full statement to Wet Paint reads: “Art Basel has
been closely monitoring the spread of the coronavirus since its
early stages and continues to take the evolving situation extremely
seriously. At this time, we are hoping to hold the fair as
scheduled in June, while also exploring the possibility of
postponing the fair until the fall, should it become necessary. We
are in the process of consulting widely with our exhibitors,
partners, and other stakeholders on different scenarios. If we do
decide to postpone the fair, we will communicate our decision as
early as possible.”

Meanwhile, at the end of February, Frieze
maintained it would hold its New York fair in May. But now that
President Trump announced a ban on all travel from
Europe for a month, it may be difficult to hold the fair without an
entire continent of dealers and collectors, and a source close to
the fair said Frieze is now “assessing the impact” of that new
development. (It goes without saying that the fair would not be
held if New York City’s ban on groups of more than 500 people is
upheld through May.)

And if any of these fairs moves to the fall, it will be a very
busy season—there’s already Expo Chicago,
Frieze London, and FIAC, and the
Dallas Art Fair has been postponed to October as
well. And on a granular level, the New York gallery world is beset
with closed exhibitions, panicked artists desperately trying to
delay their shows, and collectors calling dealers to cancel sales
made last week during the spree of art fairs. We hear that…
everything is going to get much, much worse.

AIRBORNE ESCAPE

It does seem prudent to leave town at the moment if you have the
means. And so, the art world flees New York for coronavirus-less
pastures. The art advisor Elizabeth Margulies,
daughter of mega-collector Marty Margulies, was
live-gramming her Escape from New York on Wednesday.

She started at private jet hub Teterboro, then
took a selfie on the jet and spoke into the camera from a home in
what she said was in “a small city with zero cases of
coronavirus”—but then reminded everyone that “it’s coming for you.”
By Thursday, she posted a text, telling her followers that if they
were in New York and could get out via car, they should “LEAVE
NOW.”

ONE LAST GALA

Meanwhile, all the way back on Monday, people were still going
to galas, and elbow-shaking their way through crowds. All things
considered, the Art Production Fund gala at
The Grill was a swell affair, with guests arriving
to their tables to find a dozen tiny tins of caviar on ice.
Remember caviar? Remember laughter? Kindness?

The event was honoring the artist Tom Sachs and
his wife, Sarah Hoover, a dealer at
Gagosian who admitted to the crowd that she
understood why many of them had no idea why she was being honored.
But by the time the food came out, everyone was pretty psyched to
have her be honored because Hoover oversaw the menu, which included
the world-famous caesar salad served at the West Village Italian
boite Carbone. And for the main course:
cheeseburgers! Better days.

LOCKUP WORKOUT

Undeterred by threats of the global pandemic, Hauser &
Wirth artist Avery Singer took in a
workout Thursday at ConBody, the gym that makes
working out super fun by pretending you’re in a jail. (Or, as a
source called it, “the novelty gym that lampoons the carceral
state.”) #AbsOnFleek #DidTheTime

WE HEAR…

Self-described environmentalist Jennifer
Lawrence (who’s married to Gladstone
director Cooke Maroney) had her SUV idle outside
of art-world hotspot Bacaro during her entire
hours-long dinner there Friday … During Armory
Week, Art Basel global director Marc
Spiegler was handing out, as a gift, something pretty
special: wheels of Coperthwaite cheese from Churchtown
Dairy, the biodynamic farm in Upstate New York where his
brother, Matt Spiegler, is the head cheesemaker
…

SPOTTED

Bosco Sodi, Julie Curtiss, and
other artists at Kasmin’s dinner celebrating a
fabulous new show of work by William N. Copley
Wednesday night at the Soho Grand, where a jazz
band boogied down as the news reports got bleaker and bleaker ***
Master curator Kasper König taking in the
(now-closed) Gerhard Richter show at the
Met Breuer with his son, the art dealer
Leo König *** publicist Bettina
Prentice self-quarantined in her house in the Hudson
Valley after her husband Jamie Prentice found out
he was with a friend in London who tested positive.

PARTING SHOT

The post Wet Paint: Coronavirus Upends Art-Fair Schedules,
Collectors Flee New York for the Hills & More Juicy Art-World
Gossip appeared first on artnet News.