Art Industry News: Warren Kanders Calls the Whitney’s Leadership ‘Very Weak’ in a Scorched-Earth Interview + 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 Tuesday, January
14.

NEED-TO-READ

Judy Chicago to Design Dior Runway Show – The American artist is collaborating with Dior
on its spring show at the Musée Rodin in Paris next week.
Judy Chicago has
designed an installation
called The Female
Divine to serve as the backdrop of the show;
it will also be open to the
public from January 21 to January 26. The tableau will feature
oversized goddess figures, a floral carpet, and banners embroidered
with such questions as, “what if women ruled the world?” The artist, who
was commissioned by Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia
Chiuri, has also made a line
of feminist tableware for
Dior Maison. (Women’s Wear
Daily)

Staff Says Former Erie Museum Director Was Worse Than
Reported – “We will do
everything we can to address the concerns of staff,” promised
Timothy Rub, the director of the Philadelphia Museum of
Art. He was speaking as the allegations of harassment grow
against a former staffer, Joshua R. Helmer,
the now ex-director of the Erie Art Museum. More than 200 staffers signed a statement of
solidarity with colleagues who called out the alleged behavior of
the art museum’s former assistant director of interpretation. “The
reporting in the New York Times and Philadelphia
Inquirer barely scratches the surface of the abuses
perpetrated by this man,” it states. (Philadelphia
Inquirer)

Warren Kanders Criticizes Whitney Leadership as “Weak” –
In his first major interview since stepping down from his role as
vice chair of the Whitney Museum, Warren Kanders has harsh
words not only for the protesters who pushed for his ouster, but
also for the Whitney’s top brass. The museum “had very weak
leaders ,” he says, “who quite frankly did not want to engage and
always felt it would go away.” What he describes as an “uninformed”
fringe group was allowed to have undue influence on the
institution, he alleges. (The Whitney declined to comment.) The CEO
of Safariland, which produces tear gas and other non-lethal weapons
used by law enforcement, says he was moved to speak out because he
fears society will have “real issues” if leaders do not encourage
those with opposing views to speak to one another. As for his own role in societal debates,
he maintains, his job at Safariland is
“apolitical.” (Financial
Times)

Denmark’s Mermaid Sculpture Vandalized With Hong Kong
Graffiti – Danish police are
looking for a culprit after Copenhagen’s famous Little Mermaid
sculpture was vandalized with a message of support for the ongoing
pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Someone spray-painted “Free
Hong Kong” in red onto the landmark. (The
Local)

ART MARKET

Skarstedt Splits With George Condo – As we reported in
Wet Paint last year,
blue-chip painter George Condo is headed to Hauser & Wirth. Now,
his longtime American representative Skarstedt has revealed in an email to clients that
the gallery’s recently closed New York exhibition will be its last
of primary-market work from Condo, “as we refocus our long-standing
relationship on the secondary market.” Jeremy Hodkin of the Canvas newsletter also reported the shift yesterday on
Twitter. (Twitter)

A 7-Year-Old Artist Is Selling Paintings for $12,000 –
Meet the newest child art prodigy: seven-year-old Mikail Akar. The Cologne-based artist’s Jackson
Pollock-style abstracts have fetched up to $12,000. But Akar is
more interested in soccer. “If [painting] gets too much for him, we
will intervene,” says his father, adding: “We turn down a lot of
requests.” (New York
Post)

Richard Gray Names New Partner – Sharon Kim is leaving Christie’s New York to
become a partner at Richard Gray Gallery this summer. She served as
an international director of Impressionist and Modern art at the
auction house. (Press
release)

Sean Kelly Adds Su Xiaobai to Its Roster – The Chinese artist Su Xiaobai
has joined Sean Kelly gallery of New York and Taipei. The Shanghai-based
painter is best known for his abstract canvases and use of
lacquer. (ARTnews)

COMINGS & GOINGS

A Painting Featured on Antiques Roadshow Goes on
View in Delaware – One of the
finds from PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, a 1923 illustration by
Frank Earle Schoonover, is now on view at the Delaware Art Museum.
Schoonover’s painting, originally bought for $300, was discovered
in an episode filmed at the Winterthur Museum in June, and valued
at $125,000. (Delaware
Online)

Winners of 2020 Jorge M. Pérez Award Announced –
Ilana Harris-Babou (the youngest artist
included in last year’s Whitney Biennial) and Mateo Nava have
won the National YoungArts Foundation’s award for mid-career and
emerging artists. Selected by collector Pérez and Patricia
García-Vélez, the director of his development firm the Related
Group, the artists will split the unrestricted $25,000 cash prize.
(ARTnews)

Amanda Heng Wins Singapore Biennale’s Benesse Prize –
The 69-year-old multidisciplinary
Singaporean artist Amanda Heng has been named the 12th recipient of
the $37,000 prize given by Benesse Holdings, Inc. and the Singapore
Art Museum. The prize recognizes works in the biennale that
participate in an “experimental and critical spirit” centered on
the theme of well-being. (Artforum)

Philanthropists Endow Getty Museum Directorship
– Lawyer Maria
Hummer-Tuttle and businessman Robert Tuttle are establishing a
permanent endowment fund for the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The
philanthropists have been among the most generous donors to Getty
since its founding, and the museum’s directorship will be named
after them. (Press
release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Pepper Spray Used at Denver Museum’s Monet Show –
After a suspected shoplifter
discharged pepper spray inside the gift shop at the Denver Art
Museum last Thursday, the main floor of its Frederic C. Hamilton
Building had to be evacuated, and the chaos meant that some of the
hundreds of people waiting in line for its blockbuster Monet show
had to be turned away. No one has been apprehended in connection
with the incident. (CBS
Local)

Red Hot Chili Peppers Drummer Gets an Art Show –
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad
Smith is the latest rocker to try his hand at fine art. He debuted
an exhibition of his work at the Russell Collection Fine Art
Gallery in Austin, Texas, which closed Saturday. The show, which
included paintings based on photographs of Smith drumming in a dark
room with glow sticks, is expected to head elsewhere on a North
American tour. (Fox)

Kidnapped Photographer Sues a Qatari Bank – The American photojournalist Matt Schrier has
accused a Qatari bank of funding the Islamist extremists who
kidnapped and tortured him in Syria. He is seeking unspecified damages under the
Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows a US citizen injured by
international terrorism to sue in federal court.
Schrier was held for 211 days,
during which time he alleges the Qatar Islamic Bank allowed individuals and a
charity to drain his account to transfer money to terrorist groups
fighting in Syria. He escaped his captors after several months, one
of the few Westerners to have done so. (Courthouse
News)

Los Angeles’s Mayor Cuts Ribbon at Free MOCA –
The Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti
and philanthropist Carolyn Clark Powers cut the ribbon at the newly
free Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The museum now offers free
attendance thanks to a generous $10 million gift by Clark
Powers. (Instagram)

The post Art Industry News: Warren Kanders Calls the
Whitney’s Leadership ‘Very Weak’ in a Scorched-Earth Interview +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.