Art Industry News: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Joins Nude Performers and a Human Fly at a ‘Bizarre’ Art Party + Other Stories

Art Industry News is normally a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know this Wednesday, July
31.

NEED-TO-READ

Florence Court Rules Against NYU in
Art Ownership Case – New York
University has suffered a setback in its legal battle
with Italian princess
Dialta Orlandi over an art-filled villa in Florence. The
university’s campus at Villa La Pietra, which was once owned by the
Medici family, was donated by the British art collector and scholar
Harold Acton. Orlandi could inherit a portion of Acton’s
billion-dollar estate now that an Italian court ruled that she is
his illegitimate niece. The university says it is deciding whether
or not to appeal. A spokesman stresses that the court’s decision
about Orlandi’s paternity “has no bearing on the inheritance
claims, which remain before the court.” The case will now go before
Italy’s Supreme Court. (Bloomberg)  

Meet the Woman Behind the Guggenheim’s Basquiat Show
– Chaédria LaBouvier, a 34-year-old independent
curator became the first black woman to organize a solo exhibition
at the Guggenheim with “Basquiat’s ‘Defacement’: The Untold Story,”
which explores Basquiat and other artists’ treatment of the death
of Michael Stewart, a young black artist who was killed by police
in 1983. But being the first, LaBouvier notes, is never easy. “If I
didn’t review something, that meant that no person of color looked
at that document or process,” she said. “And certainly it felt at
times that there was an expectation that I would just be grateful
to be in the room.” (New York
Times)

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Attends the Watermill
Benefit – The annual Hamptons event, which this year
honored philanthropist Katherine Rayner and artist Carrie Mae
Weems, featured nude performers in glass cubes, another wrapped
head-to-toe in plastic, and even a visit from collector and
commerce secretary Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary. The
juxtaposition of the flashy performances and the presence of a
government official enabled Page Six to pen this
literal but not-untrue headline: “Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross
and wife check out bizarre performance art.” (Page
Six, ARTnews)

2001: A Space Odyssey Exhibition Comes to New
York – A major exhibition at the Museum of the Moving
Image in New York will offer a comprehensive examination of Stanley
Kubrick’s film, including the display of original artifacts, an
exploration of the film’s influence on cinema, art, and
advertising, and a look at the director’s obsessive research
process. The show, which was originally organized by
the Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum in Frankfurt to
coincide with the 50th anniversary of the film’s release last year,
will be on view from January 18 to July 19, 2020. (Gothamist)

ART MARKET

Mitchell Algus May Close His
Gallery – The legendary New
York gallerist, who has always put art before profit, has
announced on Instagram that his space in the Lower East Side might
be forced to shutter. The message says: “With a lease pending, the
gallery may be unable to continue.” In his 20-plus years in
business, Algus has been among the first to show work by artists
including Barkley Hendricks, Betty Tompkins, Joan Semmel, and Lee
Lozano. (ARTnews)

How Art and Superyachts Transformed Mykonos –
When plutocrats dock their
superyachts and celebrities jet into the Greek island of Mykonos
every summer, Eden Fine Art is the gallery ready to greet
them. Works by the graffiti
artist Alec Monopoly, often
featuring the famous board game character Rich Uncle Pennybags
waving dollars in midair, are in demand at the gallery in the former
fishing village. Works in the artist’s new exhibition
“$PF Monopoly!” are priced
around $200,000 each. “Pretty much every person who comes in here can
buy everything,” says the gallerist Akaash
Mehta. (Guardian)

Sydney Contemporary Fair Goes Big
on Installations – The art fair
has announced 15 artists who will create installations and
site-specific works for its next edition, which runs from September
12 to September 15. The
section will include work by Movana Chen, Rathin Barman,
and Daniel Boyd, among others. It is curated by Mikala Tai, the
director of the nonprofit 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art in
Sydney. (Art Daily)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Gallerist Karsten Schubert Had
Died – The distinguished gallerist and art
publisher, who has long worked with artist Bridget Riley and helped
launch Rachel Whiteread’s career, has died at age 57 from thyroid
cancer. Born in Germany, Schubert opened his first gallery in
London in his 20s, giving many YBAs their first commercial shows.
(The Art
Newspaper)

World Monuments Fund Names New CEO
– The World Monuments Fund has
named Bénédicte de Montlaur as its next CEO. Monlaur will leave her
current role as head of the French Embassy’s cultural division in
New York to take up the new position on October 1.
(Press
release)

Artist Wendell Dayton Has Died
– The sculptor Wendell Dayton,
who created massive steel sculptures from found parts, has died at
81. The Californian artist was one of a number of West Coast
talents discovered late in life: He was 80 when Blum & Poe in Los
Angeles gave him his first major solo exhibition in 2018.
(Press
release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Kevin Durant Gifts Art to San Francisco – As the pro basketball player Kevin Durant
leaves the Golden State Warriors for the Brooklyn Nets, he offered
a parting gift to remind fans that, as he noted on Instagram, he has still
“got love for the Bay.” The Kevin Durant Charity Foundation funded
the colorful revamp of a neglected basketball court in the Hayes
Valley Playground in San Francisco designed by the street artist
Apex One (also known as Ricardo Richey). (Golden State of Mind) 

Pat Steir Prepares for Her Major
Hirshhorn Show – After a banner
year for the 81-year-old painter that included a presentation at
the Barnes Foundation and two gallery projects, Pat Steir is
planning to finish 2019 with a bang with a major solo exhibition at
the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in October. Steir is
taking 28 monumental paintings to DC, where they will be displayed
in the inner circle of the second floor of the museum. 
(ARTnews)

Have Archaeologists Found the
Church of the Apostles? – Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered what
they beleive is the biblical “Church of the Apostles.” The ancient
church, complete with mosaics and fragments of a marble chancel,
was found in a site near the Sea of Galilee that researchers
believe is Bethsaida, a biblical fishing village where apostle
Peter and Andrew were born, according to the Gospel of John.
(Daily Mail)

Aaaaaand… – Here’s another photo of Wilbur
Ross hiding a glass of wine behind his back at Watermill with his
wife.

The post Art Industry News: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross
Joins Nude Performers and a Human Fly at a ‘Bizarre’ Art Party +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.