Art Industry News: Gagosian Gallery Furloughs Part-Time Staffers and Cuts Pay for Everyone Else Amid Market Struggles + 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, April
17.

NEED-TO-READ

New York Launches Citywide Coronavirus Public Art Project
– Poster House and Times Square
Arts have partnered on a citywide project for New York,
transforming billboards and signs into artworks offering public
service announcements relating to the coronavirus. Nearly 1,800
digital billboards and screens will go up across the city today
bearing informative messages as well as words of gratitude for
frontline workers. Participating artists include Maira Kalman,
Pablo Delcan, and Paula Scher. (Press release)

Was Duchamp’s Fountain a Sexist Pun? – British art critic and television documentary
producer Waldemar Januszczak has put forth yet another
controversial theory about Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal. Could it
be, perhaps, that the work was in fact meant to depict a giant
vagina? Januszczak presents three intriguing pieces of
evidence. First, that “R. Mutt,” the name scrawled on the work, is
a pun for the German word “urmutter,” which means “first mother” or
“earth mother.” He also notes that the artist seemed to have a
fascination with Gustave Courbet, who painted the erotic nude L’Origine du
monde. Lastly, he found
a little snippet Duchamp wrote around 1914 that read, “—one only
has: for female the public urinal and one lives by it.—” OK, now
that we see it all laid out, maybe that’s not super convincing. But
it is fun to imagine nevertheless. (The Art Newspaper)

Gagosian Furloughs Part-Time Staff – As the shutdown in
New York enters its second month, the mega-gallery has furloughed part-time staff
and interns and is implementing salary reductions for its full-time
employees. Staff members making less than $150,000
will receive a 10 percent pay cut, and those making more than
$200,000 will receive a 20 percent reduction. In a statement, a
spokesperson said: “Gagosian, like most businesses, is facing an
unprecedented time due to the global Coronavirus pandemic. It is
our hope that these reductions will help ensure the gallery stays
strong.” Gagosian has roughly 250 employees and 18 spaces, all
of which are closed due to the health crisis. (ARTnews)

New York Relief Fund Issues First Round of Grants –
The newly formed NYC COVID-19
Response & Impact Fund has already handed out grants and
interest-free loans to 276 New York City-based social services and
arts and cultural nonprofits. The support, totaling $44 million,
was distributed in grants ranging from $8,000 to $250,000 and as
loans from $100,000 to $3 million. Additional funding will be
issued to more organizations in the coming weeks. Recipients
spanning the five boroughs include Art21, Artist’s Space, El Museo
del Barrio, and Performa. (Press release)

ART MARKET

Artnet Partners with NADA – Artnet has launched a partnership
with the New Dealers Art Alliance (NADA). Through the partnership, the online
platform Artnet Galleries is hosting exhibitions from NADA Member
Galleries from now through June 20th, giving them the chance to
showcase inventory and receive inquiries from collectors on
Artnet’s platform. “We’re pleased to be in a position to help our
clients, collectors, and fellow colleagues in the art industry
during this trying period,” says Jacob Pabst, Artnet’s CEO.
(Press
release)

George Condo’s Drawings Sell Out Online – Hauser & Wirth says that its online
exhibition of Condo’s new works based on social distancing has sold
out. The six drawings were priced between $100,000 and $125,000.
(TAN)

Art Paris Exhibitors Agitate for Refunds – The French fair’s 2020 edition has been
cancelled and some exhibitors are pushing for a better refund.
Currently, the fair is returning the equivalent of 50 percent of
the participation fees and technical costs, and only at the end of
May. The other half of the fee will be applied as a credit toward
the 2021 edition scheduled to take place next April, effectively
forcing those galleries to participate. (Journal des Arts)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Sculptor Markus Raetz Dies – The Swiss artist Markus Raetz has died at age
78. Raetz produced more than 30,000 paintings and prints before he
moved to sculpture in the ’70s, and was known for mind-bending
works that play with perception and change based on where the
viewer is standing. (Artforum)

Conceptual Artist Ian Wilson Has Died – The South African artist Ian Wilson has died.
Wilson was known for his work exploring the aesthetic potential of
language, and although he made paintings and sculptures early on in
his career, his discussion works were not recorded or photographed
in any way, presaging the art of Tino Sehgal.
(Press
release)

Helen Toomer Named Executive Director to AIRIE –
Helen Toomer, the former director
of the PULSE art fair and co-founder of Stoneleaf Retreat, has been
appointed executive director of the Artists in Residence in
Everglades (AIRIE) program. The residency in the Everglades
National Park focuses on the insights that can be gleaned from the
wilderness. (Press
release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Watch the Trailer for the New Knoedler Documentary –
The filmmaker Barry Avrich’s new
documentary, Made You
Look, examines at the
biggest case of art fraud in US history, the audacious and
notorious con that engulfed New York’s Knoedler Gallery, which
inserted $80 million worth of fake art into the market. The trailer
is available now, and the full doc is premiering on CBC Canada.
(Deadline)

Getty Launches Animal Crossing Project – The art-Animal Crossing
crossovers just keep coming. The Getty has launched a new tool
for the wildly popular video game called the Art Generator, which
transforms any of its open-access images into a mini-artwork for
the game that can be hung on the wall of a player’s virtual home or
made into a shirt for their avatar. (Press release)

ArtActivistBarbie Takes Her Protest Online – A Barbie doll with an activist sensibility has
taken to social media to share her critiques of various artworks
and collections now that museums and galleries are closed.
ActivistArtBarbie is all about “small signs, big questions,
fabulous wardrobe,” and uses her power to take on the patriarchy in
arts institutions. (Guardian)

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Part-Time Staffers and Cuts Pay for Everyone Else Amid Market
Struggles + Other Stories appeared first on artnet
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