Art Industry News: After Helping Cause Venice’s Historic Floods, Unstoppable Tourists Are Now Visiting the Floodwater + 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, November
26.

NEED-TO-READ

Right-Wing Italian Politician
Blasts Satirical Sculpture – The anti-immigrant
Italian politician Matteo Salvini is furious about a new sculpture that depicts
him shooting two refugees. The Italian artist Salvatore Scuotto has
defended his work, which is titled La pacchia è finita! (The Free Ride Is Over). The sculpture shows the politician firing a
gun draped with a sign that says, “Game Over.” The artist explains
that his satirical work is inspired by video games.
“[Salvini’s]  political message is childish, [it is] like a
constant Playstation in which we must identify the enemy and bring
them down,” Scuotto told Italian media. The politician says the
work is “an instigation to hatred and violence, not art.”
(The Art Newspaper)

Is Anselm Kiefer Boycotting Art
Fairs? – Speaking at the
opening of his solo show at White Cube in London, the German artist
took aim at the art market, and art fairs in particular.
Kiefer told the Guardian’s
Sean O’Hagen that global art fairs “destroy” art. The artist has
instructed his galleries not to show his work in global art fairs
such as Frieze, O’Hagen reports. Kiefer also revealed that he is
creating canvases that are even bigger than the 27-foot-tall ones
on show (and sale) in London as a form of protest. “Nobody can show
them,” he said with a laugh. “I have placed myself outside of the
art market because it is all about speculation now.” He rues the
loss of collectors who would tell an artist “if they thought a
painting was shit.” (Guardian) 

Ick, Venice’s Flooding Is Now a Tourist Attraction – The
Italian photojournalist Marco
Panzetti, who has been documenting the effects of mass tourism on
Venice, knows what it is like to have to
wade through smelly flood water. But for may tourists, the
calamity is just “another attraction,” he says. “[They] don’t
realize what a disaster it can be for local people.” Panzetti’s
images show what it is like for residents and shop owners when the
water is rising and drains back up. “When your house is about to be
flooded and you find a tourist taking pictures, it’s very
annoying,” he says, so he makes sure his journalist’s badge is
always visible. (Slate)

Mexico City Museum Drops
Breastfeeding Ban – Women gathered at Mexico City’s Museo de Arte Moderno
to breastfeed their babies on Sunday. They were marking the
museum’s U-turn and apology after a woman who was breastfeeding was
asked to leave by a guard. Following the activist group Normalizing
Breastfeeding’s announcement of the planned action, MAM issued a
public apology and its director, Natalia Pollak, announced that
women could breastfeed anywhere in the museum. (ARTnews) 

ART MARKET

David Zwirner Plans a Noah Davis
Show – The Los Angeles artist’s
first major posthumous survey will be organized by former MOCA
chief curator Helen
Molesworth. The show at David Zwirner in New York runs
January 16 through February 22. Davis, who died in 2015 at age 32,
co-founded the Underground Museum in LA with his wife Karon Davis.
The show will also present works by Davis’s family members,
including BLKNWS, a video installation by his brother
Kahlil Joseph that made waves at this year’s
Venice Biennale. (ARTnews)

A Businessman Buys Hitler’s Top Hat
for Israel – A Geneva-based,
Lebanon-born businessman bought Hitler’s top hat and other Nazi
memorabilia at an auction in Munich with the intent to destroy
them. Having paid around $660,000 for the items, Abdallah Chatila
has now decided to donate them to a Jewish charity based in
Israel. The European Jewish
Association, which had led the campaign against the auction,
applauded Chatila’s actions. (Courthouse News) 

COMINGS & GOINGS

UK Politicians Promise Arts Funding Bonanza –
The UK’s prime minister Boris
Johnson launched the Conservative Party’s election manifesto over
the weekend, and it includes a plan to invest £250 million ($322
million) in local libraries and museums. Despite the Tory Party’s
claim that it will be the “largest” cultural capital program in a
century, however, the Labour Party’s manifesto promises four times
the amount for culture. (The Art Newspaper)

Public Art Fund Names Four New Board Members
– The New York-based
nonprofit Public Art Fund has added four new members to its board
of directors, including the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei.
Also joining the board: jewelry designer Ellen Celli; art collector
Andrea Krantz; and financier Ruthard Murphy. “As we think about the
future of art in public space, it is essential that our board
leadership reflect all the aspects of our mission,” Public Art
Fund’s director Nicholas Baume said in a statement.
(TAN)

Influential Arts Editor Dorothy Seiberling Has Died –
The longtime arts editor of
Life magazine has died at age 97. Seiberling was an
art collector and played a significant role in shaping public
opinion about the avant-garde artists of the 20th century,
including Jackson Pollock and Georgia O’Keeffe, through her work
for the magazine. (Art Daily)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Guggenheim Reveals Performing Arts Program – The New York museum has revealed the lineup for
the next season of its performing arts series, Works & Process,
which begins January 6. It includes a debut cabaret show by singer
Anthony Roth Costanzo as well as conversations with the Belgian
director Ivo van Hove and the choreographer Anne Teresa De
Keersmaeker, among other highlights. (New York Times)

Instagram Lifts Shadow Ban on Pussy Riot – Pussy Riot’s Instagram account has been
restored to full operational status after a period of confusion
during which it is suspected that the punk protest art group was
“shadow banned” by the application. A “shadow ban” is the app’s
allegedly secret way of blocking content from showing up on
people’s feeds unless they already follow you as a way to crack
down on users who are not complying with its guidelines. Pussy Riot
deleted earlier posts about not being searchable and wrote in a
post: “thank you, dear, for
all you support and rage; @instagram
has contacted us and
@wearepussyriot are here with you again, nice and
healthy.”

The post Art Industry News: After Helping Cause Venice’s
Historic Floods, Unstoppable Tourists Are Now Visiting the
Floodwater + Other Stories appeared first on artnet
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