Art Industry News: Damien Hirst Has Created a Rainbow of Dead Butterflies to Raise Money for the National Health Service + 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, April
20.

NEED-TO-READ

Auction Houses Face a
Reckoning – The New York Times surveys
auction houses’ efforts to remain competitive even as their
salesrooms are closed and their way of doing business faces
unprecedented challenges. Auction houses around the world need to
find a way to deal with their hefty overhead, which includes prime
(and currently unused) real estate. But the bigger question is
whether virtual sales can come close to generating the kind of
money in-person events do. In 2019, online sales made up just 9
percent—about $5.9 billion—of the $64 billion in total art market
sales. “The auction itself is high drama—gladiator sport,” said the
dealer Brett Gorvy. (New York
Times)

Pussy Riot Member Pushes to Support Persecuted Creatives
– The nonprofit organization Artists at Risk is seeking to
support those who face threats to their freedom or who are
unable to reach safety during the current pandemic. Iraqi
painter Dia al-Azzawi and Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina are
backing the campaign, which is trying to raise funds to cover
living expenses for artists at risk and, where necessary, help
relocate them to a place of safety in their country or region.
(Press release)

Damien Hirst Designs a Rainbow for the NHS
– The artist took time away from answering dozens of fan
questions on Instagram to create a new rainbow design to help
raise money for the National Health Service. The image,
called Butterfly Rainbow and made up of bands of
butterfly wings, can be downloaded from Damien Hirst’s website
and displayed in people’s windows to show their appreciation for
NHS staff. A limited edition print of the design will also be
available for purchase. “The rainbow is a sign of hope and I
think it is brilliant that parents and children are creating their
own version and putting them up in the windows of their homes,”
Hirst said in a statement. (We’ll ignore the fact that in much of
his work, the butterfly motif is meant to be a symbol of
death rather than uplift.) (Press
release)

Former LACMA Curator Protests Zumthor Project –
Detractors of LACMA’s new $750
million Peter Zumthor-designed revamp are not giving up, even
though demolition on the old buildings has already begun. LACMA’s
former chief curator for European art, J. Patrice Marandel, has
even agreed to be on the jury for a renegade open call for
architects to submit alternative ideas, organized by the protest
group Citizens Brigade to Save LACMA. (Los Angeles Times)

ART MARKET

Christie’s Teams Up With
the Warhol Foundation for a Benefit Sale – Christie’s
will hold a charity auction in partnership with the Warhol
Foundation to raise money for struggling American artists. “Andy
Warhol: Better Days” includes 60 photographs by the famous Pop
artist and will run online from April 28 to May 6. The top lot is a
shot of famed Met curator Henry Geldzahler posed behind the
artist against a backdrop of yellow flowers (est. $15,000–20,000).
(Art Market
Monitor)

Meet the Top Young
Collectors to Watch – The next generation of art
collectors don’t all come from finance. In fact, according to a
glossy survey by Cultured magazine, they
represent a broad range of industries and professions, from acting
(Laura Harrier, Los Angeles), to fashion design (Leslie Amon,
Paris) to tech (Lizzie Grover and Tinder founder Sean Rad, Los
Angeles). But don’t be fooled—as usual, there is a healthy dose of
family money thrown in here, too. (Cultured)

The Chef Who Had 700
Unknown Paintings – When Ficre Ghebreyesus died at
the age of 50 in 2012, he left behind more than 700 paintings and
hundreds of works on paper that capture his memories of growing up
in East Africa. While he moonlit as an artist, his main job was as
the chef of the beloved Caffe Adulis in New Haven,
Connecticut. Galerie Lelong in Chelsea is now representing
Ghebreyesus, and his first New York exhibition “Gate to the Blue”
will open on September 10. (NYT)

COMINGS & GOINGS

François Pinault’s Paris Museum Opening Delayed –
The highly anticipated opening of
François Pinault’s epic Paris Museum, the Bourse de Commerce, has
been postponed until spring 2021 due to COVID-19 and France’s
continued lockdown, which was recently extended into May. Pinault
had already postponed the grand opening from mid-June until
September, but now, the big reveal of the Tadao Ando-designed
museum will have to wait even longer. (Le Figaro)

teamLab Gets a Solo Show in San Francisco – The digital art collective will get its first
US solo museum exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
“teamLab: Continuity” will be held in the new Akiko Yamazaki and
Jerry Yang Pavilion, the city’s largest new exhibition space, with
dates to be confirmed at a later time pending the public health
situation. (ArtfixDaily)

Holburne Museum Launches Fundraising Campaign –
The Holburne Museum in the UK,
built to house the collection of former Navy officer William
Holburne, is trying to crowdfund £50,000 ($62,000) to secure its
future. The 130-year-old art museum has been shuttered since March
18 and management says it is now at risk of permanent closure due
to a lack of ticket sales and other income. (BBC)

FOR ART’S SAKE

The Guerrilla Girls Offer a Poster-Making Workshop
– Ever wanted to learn
directly from the Guerrilla Girls? Now you can. The feminist art
collective is offering 12 lucky participants the chance to take a
four-hour poster-making workshop with one of its members, Aphra
Behn. The workshop, scheduled for May 8, will offer tips on how to
make and distribute effective works of protest art. To
register, visit the group’s website.
(Press
release)

A Frida Kahlo Blockbuster, Deferred – The Cleve Carney Museum of Art and
the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage are
postponing their epic Frida Kahlo show until next year. “Frida
Kahlo: Timeless” will now run at Cleve Carney from June 5
through September 6, 2021, and existing ticket holders will have
their tickets automatically transferred to the news dates.
(Press
release)

UK Health Secretary Speaks in Front of a Very Distracting
Hirst – The UK health secretary
Matt Hancock seems to have borrowed Damien Hirst’s only portrait of
the queen from the Government Art Collection. The pink and blue
spin painting, which Hirst gifted to the government straight from
his studio in 2015, was
spotted behind him as he laid out the country’s new “battle plan”
to fight coronavirus on ITV news. (The Art Newspaper)

The post Art Industry News: Damien Hirst Has Created a
Rainbow of Dead Butterflies to Raise Money for the National Health
Service + Other Stories appeared first on artnet
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