Art Industry News: Galleries Worldwide Expect to Lose 70 Percent of Their Income as a Result of Coronavirus, Survey Says + 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
27.

NEED-TO-READ

Philip Tinari on Reopening UCCA – The director of UCCA in Beijing, Philip Tinari,
talks about some of the lessons learned in lockdown as the city
gradually opens up. The director says that online exhibitions
didn’t work as well as organizing events that couldn’t have
happened IRL, such as concerts featuring performers scattered
around the world and film festivals where viewers could discuss
what they were watching in real time. Now, Tinari is preparing to
open an exhibition on May 21 called “Meditations in an Emergency,”
a show pulled together in the span of a month that aims to speak to
the new normal of temperature checks and even tighter controls on
movement. (The Art
Newspaper)

Furloughed SFMOMA Staff Ask Director to Cut Pay to Zero –
Furloughed staff members at SFMOMA
have written an open letter to its director and executive staff
asking the museum to keep them on. The museum’s staff is being paid
through June 30 thanks to a $6.2 million federal loan, but their
long-term future is still insecure. The open letter suggests a
number of strategies to make funds available, including
deaccessioning artwork, asking the trustees to donate funds, and
director Neal Benezra giving up his nearly $1 million annual salary
for the rest of the fiscal year. (Hyperallergic)

Galleries Face 70 Percent Income Loss Due to Coronavirus
– The Art Newspaper teamed up with
Maastricht University’s Rachel Pownall to determine just how much
galleries expect to be hurt by the virus and subsequent economic
tumble. The results of the survey—which tallies responses from 236
dealers—are sobering: galleries worldwide expect to lose an average
of 72 percent of their revenue. About a third of galleries,
meanwhile, do not expect to survive the crisis at all. Dealers with
fewer than four employees reported the lowest chance of survival
(65 percent), while larger galleries were more optimistic. Dealers
in the UK estimated they would experience the largest drop in
financial activity (79 percent), followed by Asia (77 percent),
North America (71 percent), and the rest of Europe (66 percent).
(The Art
Newspaper)

ICA Boston Uses Outpost to Feed Local Families –
The ICA Boston is using its East
Boston outpost, the Watershed, as a warehouse to distribute food to
families affected by the coronavirus crisis. The ICA asked its
catering company to run a monthlong donation drive and recruited
new donors to support the project. It has been giving out
family-sized boxes of fresh produce and dairy products with the
goal to feed 400 families in East Boston, which has been hit hard
by the virus. (Boston
Globe)

ART MARKET

People Are Already Reselling Murakami’s Supreme Relief Tee
– A $60 Supreme t-shirt
designed by Takashi Murakami to raise funds for COVID-19 relief is
already being resold online for as much as $1,500. Faced with
criticism, online retailers like Grailed and StockX that are
allowing people to profit off the shirt are giving portions of the
proceeds from the sales to charity. (Complex)

David Zwirner Reopens Hong Kong Gallery – David Zwirner is reopening its Hong Kong
gallery by appointment only beginning May 5. To coincide with the
reopening, it will launch a bilingual English and Chinese online
viewing room called Lixia. The gallery has so far had considerable success
with online sales, bringing in $1.8 million for a painting
by Josef Albers and selling out its special presentations by
Harold Ancart and Marcel Dzama. (Press release)

Sotheby’s Announces Pop-Up Auction Series – Following the success of its online program,
which has brought in more than $50 million in four months,
Sotheby’s Hong Kong is launching a new series of fast-paced and
themed online auctions called “Contemporary Showcase.” Slated for
spring/summer 2020, the week-long auctions have themes including
Western art and Manga. (Press release)

An Art Fair Is Becoming a PDF – The Monaco fair
artmonte-carlo, which was set to take place next weekend, will be
instead held as a “catalogue” art fair. Participating galleries,
which include 303 Gallery, Almine Rech, and White Cube, will be
showing three works each. The catalogue (also known as a PDF) will
initially be released to guests who attended the previous fair and
then disseminated more widely. (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Former Sotheby’s PR
Chief Heads Up Foundation – The Shubert Foundation,
America’s largest private foundation dedicated to unrestricted
funding of nonprofit theater and dance, has appointed Diana
Phillips—the longtime former head of communications for
Sotheby’s—to serve as its president. The post was previously held
by Michael I. Sovern, who died on January 20. (Press
release)

Betsy James Wyeth,
Collaborator of Andrew, Dies at 98 – The widow,
collaborator, and muse of American painter Andrew Wyeth died on
April 21. It was Betsy James who introduced her then-future husband
to Christina Olson, the subject of the famous
painting Christina’s World. That title, like the
titles of many of Andrew’s works, was conceived not by the painter,
but by Betsy James. (New York
Times)

Asia Society Announces
New Dates for Inaugural Triennial – Asia Society Museum
has rescheduled and reconceived the Asia Society Triennial to run
in two parts over eight months, from October 27, 2020 to June 27,
2021. The show—an ambitious presentation of work by 41 artists
and collectives from 20 countries—was originally scheduled to open
on June 5. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Artist Support Pledge
Generates £15 Million – The Artist Support
Pledge initiative, which was established online in March to
support artists in the face of economic uncertainty, has generated
£15 million. Artists and creators post images of works priced up to
£200. Every time an artist achieves £1,000 in sales through the
initiative, they must pledge to buy £200 worth of work from other
participating artists. (Press release)

Museums Work to Extend Exhibition Loans – Museums are burning the midnight oil to
negotiate extensions on loans of artworks meant to be included in
postponed or suspended exhibitions. Institutions including Rome’s
Scuderie del Quirinale, which shuttered its blockbuster Raphael
exhibition after just three days, are asking lenders for
permission to extend shows beyond their original closing dates. The
Uffizi Galleries in Florence, which were the biggest lender to the
Raphael show, have already agreed to extend their loans.
(TAN)

The Artist Behind the
Gruffalo Writes a Book Explaining the Virus to
Children – A new book by the world-renowned
children’s illustrator Axel Scheffler is helping kids understand
the current crisis. Called Coronavirus: A Book for
Children, the new publication is available for free
online within a week, published by children’s book producer Nosy
Crow. (BBC) 

The Russian Art
Reenactors Who Started a Sensation – As it turns out, the
biggest engine behind the current artwork reenactment craze
sweeping the internet is a Russian Facebook group that
formed around a month ago. Initiated by a Moscow-based project
manager at a tech company, the online community now boasts 540,000
members who share intricate and imaginative interpretations of
famous art made with household objects. The group gets around 1,000
posts a day. (New York
Times)

The post Art Industry News: Galleries Worldwide Expect to
Lose 70 Percent of Their Income as a Result of Coronavirus, Survey
Says + Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.