Art Industry News: Gagosian Sold a $5.5 Million Cecily Brown Painting Through Its Online Viewing Room on Mother’s Day + 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, May
11.

NEED-TO-READ

Milan Asks Architects for Help Enforcing Social Distancing
– As Milan—one of the cities
hardest hit by the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe—prepares to enter
phase two of its reopening process, local leaders are asking its
many design experts and architects for help. Authorities have
issued a call for practical proposals that will allow businesses
like restaurants to open while enforcing social-distancing measures
through creative floor plans and partitions. All proposals will be
made publicly available. (designboom)

Will Coronavirus Change the Chemical Composition of Artworks
Forever? – According to
Francesca Casadio, director of conservation and science at the Art
Institute of Chicago, the answer is yes. She and her peers have
worked hard to track down a disinfectant that can keep the museum
environment safe for visitors without harming the art. And even
though she’s found one (it’s called Thymol, if you’re curious), she
envisions a future in which conservators are likely to find
droplets of this or other cleaning agents on artworks—a microscopic
reminder of the coronavirus era. (ARTnews)

Gagosian Sells a Major Cecily Brown Online – The mega-gallery successfully sold the British
painter’s 2001 work Figures in a Landscape, which was priced at $5.5 million (about $1
million less than the artist’s current auction record). The sale
was finalized on the last day of a dedicated viewing room set up by
the gallery, which ran from May 4 to 10. Coinciding with Frieze
Week, the online portal was chock full of video content, art-market
research, and other bells and whistles designed to make the Brown
sale feel like a market event. This is Gagosian’s priciest virtual
sale since Albert Oehlen’s Untitled (1988), which sold for $6
million last March from a viewing room that coincided with Art
Basel Hong Kong. (Press release)

Upstate New York Museums Prepare (Cautiously) to Reopen –
Under New York Governor Andrew
Cuomo’s latest rules, upstate museums will get the green light to
open well before art institutions in New York City. And while arts
institutions are currently listed as phase four of the reopening
plan, some upstate arts leaders are lobbying to be included in
phase three, contending that they can properly social distance at
large venues like Dia:Beacon. (New York Times)

ART MARKET

La Biennale Paris Cancels 2020 Edition
– The latest event to call off its 2020 edition is La
Biennale Paris, one of the world’s most prominent art and antiques
fairs. The fair was due to be held at the Grand Palais from
September 18 through 22. Now, its next edition will take place in
September 2021. The president of the fair said in a statement that
the “the health situation will not allow the organization of a
major international event such as La Biennale Paris and the
gathering of thousands of dealers, collectors, professionals, and
visitors.” The cancellation is likely to draw considerable
attention since its 2020 dates almost exactly coincide with the
rescheduled Art Basel fair, leading some to wonder whether it will
follow suit. (The Art
Newspaper)

Art Düsseldorf Moved to 2021 – The Art Düsseldorf fair, originally slated to
take place this November, has also been pushed to 2021. The new
date for the fourth edition of the fair will be announced in
September. The fair relaunched under new ownership
last year after a short stint in the portfolio of MCH Group, Art
Basel’s parent company. (Monopol)

California Gallery Owner Forced to Close (Again) –
After getting lots of press
(including on this
website) for her defiance of the California governor’s rules
for business operations during lockdown, Katharina Powers of Art
Ventures Gallery has conceded to close her doors again. Local
police dropped by last week to give her a second warning and hand
her a copy of the county’s shelter-in-place order, which she was
violating. (Mercury News)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Architect Jaquelin Taylor Robertson Dies at 88 –
The American architect turned
impassioned urban design advocate died in East Hampton on Saturday
of Alzheimer’s. The son of an aristocratic Virginia family,
Robertson maintained a lifelong love of classicism and established
New York’s Urban Design Group, a municipal agency intended to raise
the profile of public design in the city. (New York Times)

Why the Lyon Biennale Will Not Open in 2021 –
The organizers of the French event
raised eyebrows when they announced plans to reschedule from 2021
to 2022, becoming the first major art event planned for next fall
to postpone amid the health crisis. Curators Sam Bardaouil and Till
Fellrath explain the decision was both logistical and ethical.
Since their appointment in February, they have not been able to
travel to Lyon to work with their team; they fear they will have
trouble competing for public funding at a time when resources are
stretched thin; and they do not want to ask artists to reflect on a
crisis they are in the middle of experiencing. (TAN)

Gwangju Biennale Postponed to 2021 – Like
many biennials planned for 2020, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation is
pushing back the 13th edition of its exhibition. Originally slated
to run September 4 through November 29, 2020, the biennale will now
take place February 26 through May 9, 2021. (Press
release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Hermitage Braces for Major Budget Shortfall –
Saint Petersburg’s State Hermitage
Museum and other museums in Russia are feeling the pain from
prolonged closure. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the
Hermitage, estimated the nation’s largest museum had lost half of
its revenue since closing on March 18. The losses from closure are
compounded by the fact that the country’s oil and gas companies—a
large source of funding for Russia’s museums—have suffered as oil
prices tumble. (Artforum)

Museum Directors and Artists Fight Plan to Demolish Outdoor
Sculpture – Museum directors,
architects, and art lovers alike are protesting the removal of a
granite sculpture outside of the National Geographic Society’s
headquarters in Washington, DC. The installation by Elyn Zimmerman,
called Marabar, has been in the outdoor plaza for nearly
40 years but is now due to be removed to make way for a new
entrance pavilion. (New York Times)

Artists Pay Tribute to Little Richard – After news broke that the late rock n’
roll legend Little Richard died on Saturday at age 87, artists of
all stripes were quick to pay tribute to his influence. Turner
Prize winner Mark Leckey recalled his use of the performer’s image
in a 2003 print, while French performance artist Lili Reynaud-Dewar
said she created a piece in 2006 in his honor. “I have always been
in love with him so deeply, found him always so exciting, sexy,
intelligent, [the] best performer and composer,” Reynaud-Dewar
wrote on Instagram. (The Art Newspaper)

The post Art Industry News: Gagosian Sold a $5.5 Million
Cecily Brown Painting Through Its Online Viewing Room on Mother’s
Day + Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.