Art Industry News: Larry Gagosian Contemplates His Next Move From His Lockdown Hideaway in the Hamptons + 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, May
18.

NEED-TO-READ

Will a Collector Exodus Threaten Berlin’s Status as an Art
Hub? – A number of
billionaire art collectors have recently withdrawn their
collections from Berlin, including Friedrich Christian Flick and
Thomas Olbricht. Video art collector Julia
Stoschek also threatened to
close her space following a steep rent hike. Local media
blames the increasing hold of the real-estate industry on the city,
writing that Berlin is gradually morphing “from a creative hub into
a stronghold for property speculators.” But billionaire art
collectors are not the only ones being impacted by the property
market, and the city’s left-wing culture senator Klaus Lederer is
reluctant to give special privileges to the ultra-rich when less
well-funded cultural spaces are also under threat. (Guardian)

JR Made a Snapchat
Yearbook for Graduating Seniors – On May 16, TV networks
across the US aired Graduate Together: America Honors the
High School Class of 2020, a special that included
contributions from celebrities and a new participatory art
project by street artist JR. Together with the XQ Institute,
the artist created what may be the “largest-ever high school
yearbook”—an online catalogue where graduating seniors from across
the country can submit their images. (Observer)

Larry Gagosian’s Life in Isolation – The
world’s most famous art dealer checks in with Bloomberg from his
house in the Hamptons, where he has been riding out the
lockdown. “When things go down like this you say, ‘Jesus,
Larry, do you really need all these galleries?”’ he said. But the
dealer contends he is wired for the challenge, having started as an
outsider with no connections in the art market. Gagosian has
already furloughed part-timers and paid interns, and may need to
make more difficult choices down the line. Without the opportunity
to physically look at art, it’s hard to sell. “It’s difficult to
even move a painting, to get a truck, to get someone to do a
condition report,” he said. “All the things the art world takes for
granted have become very problematic.” (Bloomberg)

New Evidence Shows We Were Wrong About Pierre Bonnard’s Wife
– A new study has revealed that
Pierre Bonnard’s wife and muse Marthe might not have been the
antisocial and paranoid wreck she is often made out to be in art
history books. New evidence has surfaced suggesting that a battle
over Bonnard’s legacy and vast fortune tarnished her reputation.
After Marthe died, Bonnard was charged with forging papers to
prevent her family from inheriting half of his paintings. After his
death, Bonnard’s family then fought this judgment by painting
Marthe as a jealous recluse who never told her husband about her
own family. (Guardian)

ART MARKET

Dealer Launches an Auction House for Black Art –
The Indianapolis dealer Thom Pegg
of Tyler Fine Art has launched a new auction house, Black Art
Auction, dedicated to the work of black artists. At its inaugural
sale on May 16, a Sam Gilliam sold for $750,000 and an Alma Thomas
for $130,000, although 42 of the 152 lots failed to find buyers.
“Creating an auction entirely dedicated to the sale and scholarship
of African American art allows the audience to develop a better
perspective on the history of the artist’s lives, especially styles
and subject matter unique to black artists,” Pegg said.
(ARTnews)

Sotheby’s Sets New Record for Sneakers – A game-worn pair of Michael Jordan’s 1985
autographed Nike Air Jordan 1s sold at a Sotheby’s online sale
for $560,000, flying over the pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to
$150,000. The price represents a new auction record for sneakers,
beating out the house’s
previous record for Nike’s “Moon Shoes.” (Press release)

Artnet Auctions Prepares New Contemporary Sale –
A rare still-life example of one of
Tom Wesselmann’s painted aluminum wall works expected to fetch
between $300,000 and $500,000 will lead Artnet Auctions’s upcoming
postwar and contemporary art May sale, which includes more than 60
works by the likes of Sigmar Polke, Eddie Martinez, Gerhard
Richter, and Oscar Murillo. The sale, which has an aggregate low
estimate of $2.8 million, closes on May 28. (Artnet
Auctions)

Galerie Gmurzynska Reopens in Europe – The international gallery reopened its three
locations in Switzerland on May 12, adhering to strict
social-distancing guidelines. Each gallery is admitting 10 guests
at a time, with private viewings available upon request. For those
unable to come in person, the gallery’s owner Isabelle Bscher has
also launched a series of Instagram Live conversations. Guests
include Diana Picasso (granddaughter of Pablo Picasso) and Joan
Punyet Miró (grandson of Joan Miró). (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Spanish Painter Juan
Genovés Dies at 89 – The celebrated realist painter
who grew up during the Spanish Civil War and captured the country’s
postwar political upheaval and the fascist dictatorship of
Francisco Franco died of natural causes. He was best known for
paintings of crowds depicted from an aerial perspective that
blurred the line between the individual and the collective.
(ARTnews)

Los Angeles Approves
Plan to Use Developer Fees for Arts Grants – The LA City
Council will take fees paid by developers in support of
now-canceled or planned cultural events and turn the the money into
small grants for artists, arts organizations, and live performance
spaces. There will be tiered grants of $500 and $2,000 for artists
and $3,000 and $5,000 for arts organizations with budgets under
$800,000 a year. (Los Angeles
Times)

Beatles Photographer
Astrid Kirchherr Has Died – The German photographer who
became renowned for her black-and-white images of the Beatles has
died at age 81 from cancer. In addition to capturing the band
members in their early days, she also influenced their style: she
inspired their flat-top hairdos by combing out the hair of her
boyfriend Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bassist in the
Beatles. (Guardian)

FOR ART’S SAKE

The Nasher Unveils a
Street-Facing Exhibition – The Nasher Sculpture
Center in Dallas may be closed (despite the governor’s best
efforts), but it’s offering culture-hungry Texans the chance to
see art from a distance. The museum is launching Nasher Windows, a
series of exhibitions in the Nasher’s entrance hall viewable from
outside. The first installment, opening May 22, features work by
Dallas-based artist Tamara Johnson. (Press
release)

Guess the Painting Meghan and Harry Are Enjoying at Tyler
Perry’s House – Meghan Markle
and Prince Harry are spending their lockdown at filmmaker Tyler
Perry’s Beverly Hills home—and they seem to be enjoying his art
collection. (Perry is a keen collector of work by black artists,
and once beat Beyoncé
and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy to the punch on a Tiffanie Andersen painting at auction.) On
a recent call-in to a mental health crisis charity, the couple was
spotted with a large painting believed to be by Jacob Lawrence in
the background. (Vanity
Fair)

The Met Takes a Stab at
AR – The Metropolitan Museum of Art is
experimenting with augmented reality programming, enabling users to
commune in 3D with an AD1000 wooden sculpture from its closed
exhibition Arte del Mar: Artistic Exchange in the
Caribbean. Users can download the AR file and project the
sculpture into their own surroundings. It’s the next best thing to
seeing it at the museum. (The Art
Newspaper)

Billie Eilish and
Takashi Murakami Collaborate for Uniqlo – The US pop
star and the Japanese artist are collaborating on a Uniqlo capsule
collection due to be released in late May. So far, details are
scarce, but offerings will include high-top sneakers and t-shirts,
including a shirt with Eilish’s name across the front decorated
with Murakami’s trademark daisies. As with most Murakami streetwear
collaborations, you can expect it to sell out—fast. (Complex)

The post Art Industry News: Larry Gagosian Contemplates His
Next Move From His Lockdown Hideaway in the Hamptons + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.