Art Industry News: 30 Top Museums Unite to Stage a Virtual Frida Kahlo Exhibition for a World Under Lockdown + 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 Tuesday, March
24.

NEED-TO-READ

Thieves Target Luxury Hotels’ Art – A new survey examining trends of theft in
hotels shows that people aren’t just swiping shampoo and towels
from their home away from home—some criminals are also carrying out
TVs, pianos, and even high-priced art. The worst part is that the
brazen thieves often get away with it. “We never report thefts to
the police, even if we know exactly who the culprit is,” one
frustrated employee told the Guardian. “As a luxury hotel,
we can’t risk the bad publicity.” (Guardian)

Marina Abramović Has a Message of Love for Italy –
The performance artist sent a
message of solidarity to Italy via a video message on the Palazzo Strozzi’s new
online platform, joining previous well-wishers Tomás Saraceno
and Ai Weiwei. The museum hosted a major survey
of Abramović’s work in
2018. In her message, the artist praises Italy for its courage and
sense of community, declaring, “My heart is with you.” Abramović
and her late former partner Ulay created one of their most iconic
performances, Imponderabilia, in
Northern Italy in 1977, when they stood naked at the main entrance
of a museum in Bologna. (Palazzo
Strozzi)

Google Plans an Epic Frida Kahlo “Show” – Google joined forces with more than 30 museums
to create a sprawling virtual show of Frida Kahlo’s life and
work. Two hundred
of the Mexican artist’s works from institutions including the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Nagoya City Art Museum will be
viewable online in high resolution, allowing you to zoom in for a
closer look. The site also tells the story of the artist’s
turbulent life and presents copies of Kahlo’s letters and images of
the artist’s colorful clothing. Frida-heads will also find a series
of portraits of the charismatic artist taken by others, including
her father, Guillermo Kahlo, who was a professional
photographer. Called “Faces of Frida,” the virtual show is
available via the Google Arts & Culture
platform. (The Art Newspaper)

Sarah Lucas Recalls Her Wild Years – In a candid new
interview, the British artist says
she has mellowed with age—but only
slightly. Still, she
thinks her reputation as the wildest of the YBAs has been
overstated. “I was pretty
wild, but I wouldn’t say I was the wildest,” she tells the
Guardian, adding that her old friend Damien Hirst deserves the top spot. Old habits die hard,
though: Lucas admits that she cannot remember a thing about the
launch party for her British Pavilion at the 2015 Venice
Biennale. The artist, whose
colorful new sculptures at Sadie Coles HQ in London are now
viewable online, says she is finally coming to terms with her age.
Temporarily losing her hair last fall meant she had to look
becoming 60 “in the eye.” (Guardian)

ART MARKET

UK Culture Industry Petitions Government to Protect Gig
Workers – The Creative
Industries Federation, a leading arts body in the UK, has sent an
open letter to the country’s finance minister urging him to support
freelancers. The letter came as a response after Chancellor of the
Exchequer Rishi Sunak unveiled an emergency bailout plan that would
allow salaried workers to claim 80 percent of their wages up to
£2,500 ($2,900) a month throughout the global health crisis, but
would enable the country’s 5 million self-employed workers to only
claim a fraction of that: £94.25 ($110) a week. (TAN)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Zagreb Cathedral’s Spire Damaged in Earthquake –
A rare 5.3-magnitude earthquake
struck Croatia on Sunday morning, damaging one of the spires on the
historic Zagreb Cathedral. The 355-foot-tall spire of the Roman
Catholic cathedral came tumbling down during the strongest quake to
hit the country in nearly a century and a half. (TAN)

San Francisco Art Institute Closed for Good –
After failing to find a larger
educational institution to partner with amid the COVID-19 pandemic,
the struggling San Francisco Art institute has announced that it
will close indefinitely after the May graduation cycle. “Given our
current financial situation, and what we expect to be a precipitous
decline in enrollment due to the pandemic, we are now considering
the suspension of our regular courses and degree programs starting
immediately after graduation in May of this year,” the Institute’s
president and board chair wrote in a statement. “At this time, it
is unclear when instruction will resume.” (Press
release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

People Are Loving This Museum’s Interim Head of Social Media
– The social media channels of
the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma are
tickling people around the country after the museum put its head of
its security, Tim Send, in charge of its Twitter account while it
remains closed. Send posts educational insights into the
collection, but the most entertaining tweets belie his efforts to
get his head around “Seth from marketing’s” tips on social-media
engagement. He signs off his tweets, “thanks,Tim,” accidentally
tweets out phrases he meant to Google, and doesn’t understand how
hashtags work. It’s good, wholesome fun! (Bored Panda)

Miranda July Hosts the Covid International Art Award –
On March 22, the quirky artist Miranda
July hosted her own tongue-in-cheek Covid International Arts
Festival, complete with awards. The artist invited people to submit
poems, drawings, songs, dances, movies, and more for appraisal. “It
was a truly world-wide festival—with submissions from Istanbul to
Hertfordshire—and I, alone in my converted garage, felt a lot less
lonely for a few hours,” July says. The artist teases another
edition of the festival deeper into the quarantine period.
(Instagram)

The post Art Industry News: 30 Top Museums Unite to Stage a
Virtual Frida Kahlo Exhibition for a World Under Lockdown + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.