Art Industry News: Everyone Wants to Collect KAWS. Now KAWS Reveals the Artists He Collects + 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 Wednesday, September
25.

NEED-TO-READ

What Art Would Ansel Elgort Save? – Never one to shy away from a celebrity-Old Master
crossover opportunity, Sotheby’s asked the starry cast of
the movie adaptation of
Donna Tartt’s The
Goldfinch to name a
great work of art they would save from a disaster.
Sarah Paulson said she would save
Gustav Klimt’s Woman in
Gold,
while Ansel Elgort
picked the entire Sistine Chapel. Luke Wilson and Nicole Kidman,
meanwhile, declined to name a work. The movie itself seems to have
fallen flat with critics: Variety called it a “narrative mess” that is unlikely
to please fans of the book or Oscar voters. Still, at least when it
comes to Old Master paintings like the Carel Fabritius painting at
the center of the story, there is no such thing as bad
publicity. (Observer)

French Church Recovers Its Missing Art – A London-based dealer in Medieval art has
voluntarily handed back four alabaster panels that were stolen from
a French church 35 years ago. The reliefs, which have been called national
treasures, depict scenes from the Virgin Mary’s life. They are now
back in the Saint Michel basilica near Bordeaux. Russell Strachan,
who acquired them without knowing that they had been stolen, was
reported to have been “flabbergasted” when contacted by French
detectives after an investigation that involved the FBI. The
thieves had replaced the panels with plaster copies, so the crime
went undetected for years. (Times) 

A Look Inside KAWS’s Collection – Sure, you’ve heard
about KAWS, the artist and art-market phenomenon. But what about
KAWS, the collector? Brian
Donnelly is an avid and omnivorous buyer of art. It all started
with a drawing by Raymond Pettibon that the
artist bought from
David Zwirner in 1999. The purchase was touched by kismet in more
ways than one: Pettibon had written SWAK (“sealed with a kiss”) on
it, which Donnelly realized was the reverse of his nom de spray
can. Since then, the artist has added works by H.C. Westermann,
Martin Wong, Carolee Schneemann, and Philip Guston to his
collection. He has also set auction records for Peter Saul and
David Wojnarowicz. Donnelly “sees art without prejudice and
hierarchies, on a very honest level,” says Wendy Olsoff, the
co-founder of P.P.O.W gallery in New York. (ARTnews)

A Fisherman Is Using Art to Protect the Ocean – The
fisherman Paolo Fanciulli has
teamed up with a group of unlikely allies—artists—to protect fish
off the coast of Italy from illegal trawling. Fanciulli has worked
with sculptors to create an underwater display that doubles as a
deterrent to unscrupulous trawlers, who snag their nets on the
submerged Carrara marble. Called the “House of Fish,” the
environmental art project features more than 20 sculptures,
including several by the British artist Emily Young. Fanciulli, who
is known as Paolo the Fisherman, hopes that having “the biggest
museum in the world to save the sea” will bring more scuba divers
and tourists, and help put the Tuscan fishing village of Talamone
on the map. (New York Times)

ART MARKET

African Artist Ben Enwonwu Is In High Demand –
The market for work by the late
Nigerian painter and sculptor, who developed a distinctly African
form of Modernism, is poised to take off.
After Ben Enwonwu’s
portrait of a Yoruba princess, Tutu (1974), sold for
a record $1.49 million in
2018 at Bonhams, more of his works are heading to market this
fall. (NYT)

Bonhams Names New Americas Chief – Amelia Manderscheid has been named Bonhams’s
new senior director of postwar and contemporary art. Based in San
Francisco, she will be tasked with expanding its presence on the
West Coast. Manderscheid previously served as a partner at the
venture capital firm Exponential Creativity Ventures and, before
that, worked at David Zwirner Gallery. (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Artist Huguette Caland
Dies at Age 88 – Lebanese artist Huguette El Khoury
Caland was renowned for her semi-abstract and erotic paintings,
which spoke to the liberation of the female body. Her work was the
subject of an exhibition at Tate St. Ives earlier this year, and
was included in Christine Macel’s central exhibition at the 2017
Venice Biennale as well as the Hammer’s “Made in L.A.” biennial in
2016. (ARTnews)

Dallas Museum Hires
Contemporary Art Curator – Vivian Li will take up the
role as curator of contemporary art at the Dallas Museum of Art on
October 1. Li was previously an associate curator of Asian art and
global contemporary art at the Worcester Art Museum in
Massachusetts. Her arrival follows the 2017 departure of
curator Gavin Delahunty, who left amid allegations
of inappropriate behavior. (Artforum)

Artes Mundi Shortlist
Announced – The UK’s major prize for contemporary art
has revealed this year’s nominees. They are: Dominican artist
Firelei Báez, South African artist Dineo Seshee Bopape, Japanese
artist Meiro Koizumi, Puerto Rican artist Beatriz Santiago Muñoz,
Indian artist Prabhakar Pachpute, and American artist Carrie Mae
Weems. A group show of the artists’ work will be held next month
and the winner of the £40,000 ($49,745) prize will be announced in
January 2020. (TAN)

Stan Douglas Wins a Major Canadian Art Award
– The Vancouver-based photographer Stan Douglas has
been named the winner of the Audain award, a major prize to support
distinguished artists in the province of British Columbia that
comes with a CA$100,000 ($75,345) prize. Previous winners include
Rodney Graham and the late Fred Herzog. (Canadian
Art)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Betye Saar at LACMA,
Reviewed – Christopher Knight reviews “Betye Saar:
Call and Response” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a
modestly sized show that packs a big punch. The exhibition, which
includes 18 sculptures, collages, and sketches than span 25 years
of Saar’s six-decade career, manages to communicate both the
signature nature of Saar’s assemblage and the way she uses it to
explore the legacy of racism in America. (Los Angeles Times)

Peabody Essex Uses
Neuroscience to Guide Expansion – The museum in
Salem, Massachusetts has completed a major expansion, including a
new $125 million wing due to open on September 28. A neuroscientist
on the museum’s team has helped design the displays, using
scientific research to determine what visitors might be most drawn
to. Citing studies that show humans intuitively respond to faces,
for example, curators developed a display that juxtaposes human
figures through time. (TAN)

See Holly Hendry’s
Slacker at Yorkshire Sculpture Park – On
view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a new site-specific commission
by the emerging London-based artist Holly Hendry. Called
Slacker, Hendry’s large kinetic sculpture comprises a synthetic
skin-like band pulled around a steel structure reminiscent of a
printing press. The exhibition is on view through April 19,
2020. (Press
release)

The post Art Industry News: Everyone Wants to Collect KAWS.
Now KAWS Reveals the Artists He Collects + Other Stories
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