Art Industry News: Damien Hirst Is Opening a Chapel Museum in the South of France + 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 Friday, February
14.

NEED-TO-READ

Two Kusama Infinity Rooms Head to the Tate – London’s Tate Modern is marking its 20th
birthday in May by unveiling two of Yayoi Kusama’s crowd pleasing
Infinity Rooms. They include one originally made by the Japanese artist for her
2012 retrospective at Tate Modern, the other is an old favorite
making a Tate Modern comeback. Meanwhile, Louise Bourgeois’s giant
spider, Maman,
returns to the Turbine Hall where
it greeted visitors when the museum first opened its doors, in
2000. (Press
Release)

UK Gets a New Culture
Secretary – Prime Minister Boris Johnson has
appointed Oliver Dowden as the new UK culture secretary. Dowden’s
political path does not suggest he has an overwhelming interest in
culture, however, and there are rumors that Johnson may soon
abolish the department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport
and share its current functions between other ministries.
(The Art
Newspaper)

Olafur Eliasson Compares Picasso to Harvey Weinstein –
The Danish-Icelandic artist was in
Spain this week for the launch of his new exhibition at the
Guggenheim Bilbao. While there, he said that serial philanderer
Pablo Picasso was “like a Harvey Weinstein of his time, but whose
behavior was considered acceptable.” Eliasson was talking about the
need for “a more feminist point of view” to challenge the deeply
rooted patriarchy that has allowed powerful men such as the film
producer Weinstein to allegedly carry out their abuses of women.
(El
Pais)

British Dealer Cleared of Defamation – An expert in Russian avant-garde art, James
Butterwick, has been cleared by an Italian judge of allegedly
defaming an exhibition that the dealer said featured fake
works. The judge ruled that
Butterwick’s opinion was based on his “proven and recognized
competence and experience.” The market for Russian
Constructivist art has long been plagued by suspect works and
Butterwick wrote that the show in Mantua in 2013 featuring 61
previously unknown works by 37 Russian artists was full of
inauthentic works. The works, purportedly by artists including
Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, El Lissitsky, and Alexander
Rodchenko, are said to be owned by a group of Italian
collectors. (TAN)

ART MARKET

Los Angeles Real Estate Changes the Game for Galleries –
Los Angeles’s galleries are as
decentralized as the city itself, and often find themselves on the
move as new real estate opportunities open up. More dealers are opting to rent rather than buy
as they play a “game of musical chairs” to be in the next hot spot,
whether that is south of downtown, West Hollywood, or off Wilshire
Boulevard. (TAN)

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Names a New Director
– Thaddaeus Ropac has
hired Tom Hunt as a
new director based in the London gallery. The dealer leaves the UK
art advisory Murphy and Partners. He previously worked at Hauser &
Wirth. (Press release)

What Happens When Artists and Galleries Split? –
An art lawyer reviews the messy
divorce case files to show what often happens when artists and
their galleries split. Late payments for sold works and disputes
over unsold pieces on consignment are typical scenarios. Written
agreements are never bulletproof but they help when artists head
for the exit or when a gallery has financial woes. (TAN)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Blanton Museum Gets a
$10 Million Gift – The Austin-based foundation
Still Water has gifted $10 million to the University of Texas at
Austin in support of the Blanton Museum of Art’s plan to transform
its grounds and the university’s public art program known as
Landmarks, which has placed 40 works of art around the campus.
(Artforum)

ICA Miami Adds New Board
Members – Daniel Berkowitz, Michele Beyer, Suzi Cordish,
Andi Potamkin, Andre Sakhai, Roz Stuzin, and Alex Witkoff have been
added to the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami’s board of
trustees. Margot Greig has been named its board president.
(Artforum)

MoMA Lures Photography
Curator from San Francisco – Clément Chéroux
will leave his post at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s
Pritzker Center for Photography to become chief photography curator
at New York’s MoMA. “In the 20th century, the specificity of
photography was defended by isolating it. And I truly believe that,
in the future, we should defend the medium not by isolating it, but
by combining it with the other arts,” Chéroux
said. (New York Times)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Hong Kong’s
Artist-Politicians Get to Work – Three district
councillors from the art world who were recently elected in Hong
Kong’s local election discuss the renewed sense of identity in the
city. Artists Clara Cheung, Clarisse Yeung Suet-ying, and
sculptor Wong Tin-yan, describe the importance of
participating in civil life and Hong Kong’s renewed sense of
identity. (SCMP)

Art Wynwood Opens in Miami –
Following yesterday’s VIP preview,
the winter contemporary art fair, now in its ninth edition, returns
to Herald Plaza on Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami. Organized by Art
Miami, Art Wynwood showcases emerging talent in the contemporary
art market, along with mid-career artists and blue-chip postwar and
modern masters. For the second year in a row, the Miami Yacht show
will be adjacent to Art Wynwood. Alongside a number of Miami
galleries, the show includes galleries from all over the US, as
well as South America, Europe, and Asia. (Press release)

Damien Hirst Is Making a Chapel in the South of France
– The world-famous artist is in the early production
stages of building a chapel that will feature a large bronze hand
stretched out to the sky. Two fingertips were spotted on their way
to casting. The chapel will be located at the Chateau La Coste in
Provence, France, which is known for its public art by celebrated
artists like Sean Scully, Louise Bourgeois, and Ai Weiwei.
(Instagram)

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Museum in the South of France + Other Stories appeared first on
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