Art Industry News: How Collectors Use Museum Boards to Boost the Value of Their Own Art + 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 this Thursday, August
29.

NEED-TO-READ

Architects Reveal Ideas for Revamped La Brea Tar Pits –
The Natural History Museum of Los
Angeles County has unveiled its shortlisted designs for the revamp
of the La Brea Tar Pits, located next door to LACMA. Architects
Diller Scofidio + Renfro have proposed the most radical overhaul,
with a new building to house the prehistoric finds from the tar
lake. Liz Diller admits that moving the now-prominent fiberglass
mammoth by sculptor Howard Ball indoors may prove controversial.
“We might get into trouble with that,” she said. Other firms vying
for the Tar Pits gig include Weiss/Manfredi, which worked on
Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park, and the Danish architect Dorte
Mandrup. (LA
Times)

Art-World Figures Come to the Defense of di Rosa Foundation’s
Plans to Sell – Two prominent
figures in the California art world, Gloria Marchant and Tim Kelly,
have come out in favor of the Rene and Veronica di Rosa
Foundation’s controversial
decision to deaccession the bulk of its 1,600-work
collection. In open
letters sent to ARTnews, the widow of artist Roy De Forest
and the former board member argue that the move is in keeping with
the museum’s legacy and is necessary for its survival. “My sincere
hope is that the decision to move forward with deaccessioning a
portion of the collection will be a positive step,” Kelly wrote.
(ARTnews)

How Collectors Use Museums to Enhance Their Own Holdings
– It would be nice if all of
the collectors who sat on museum boards were just in it to make
selfless donations of art and money. But, as Felix Salmon writes
for The Art
Newspaper, they’re not.
A seat on a museum board offers collectors a competitive advantage
in the art market; if they encourage the museum to acquire artists
in their collection, they can expect those artist’s prices to rise,
along with the value of their holdings. Most of the time, board
members also get priority when it comes to buying new work. As
Salmon puts it, “increasingly we live not in a world where museums
collect collectors, but rather in a world where collectors collect
museums.” (The Art
Newspaper)

Will the National Gallery Buy a
Gentileschi’s Moses? –The UK’s National Gallery might be preparing to
bid for Orazio Gentileschi’s The Finding of Moses, which is currently owned by the furniture
billionaire Graham Kirkham. The early 1630s painting is on
long-term loan to the museum, but the collector is in the midst of
selling off part of his collection, having unloaded five Old Master
works at Sotheby’s in July. Kirkham originally bought the work for
£5 million at Sotheby’s in 1995, and it is now estimated to be
worth “several tens of millions,” which would make it the most
expensive museum acquisition in the UK since the National Gallery
and National Galleries of Scotland bought two Titian paintings ten
years ago. (TAN)

ART MARKET

Paddle8 Launches Artist Residencies
– The auction house has
launched a new artist-in-residence program in New York. Called
Paddle8 Salon, the program will commission artists each year to
take over the company’s headquarters to create site-specific work,
beginning with the Madrid-based street artist Nuria Mora.
(Art
Daily)

Darth Vader’s Helmet Heads to
Auction – Darth Vader’s helmet
from The Empire Strikes
Back is going on sale at
a Profiles in History auction on September 25 and 26 in Los
Angeles. The Hollywood treasure is estimated to sell for $500,000.
All told, the 1,000-lot Icons and Legends of Hollywood sale is
expected to fetch some $10 million. (AFP)

Bureau Announces New Artists –
The New York gallery has added
three new emerging artists to its roster. Bureau now represents the
Rhode Island-based artist Harry Gould Harvey IV, the Brooklyn-based
sculptor Brandon Ndife, and the photographer Diane Severin Nguyen.
(Press
release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

The Philadelphia Museum Is Hiking
Its Admission Fee – As some museums go free, the Philadelphia
Museum of Art is heading in the other direction. After eliminating
free admission for college art students, the museum has opted to
raise general admission by $5, to
$25, on October 1. People under 18 can still visit for
free. (Philly
Voice)

Swimwear Designer Leaves $2.5
Million to Otis – The
Otis College of Art and Design in
Los Angeles has announced a $2.5 million bequest from the late
swimwear designer Anne Cole. The school will dedicate the building
housing its fashion department to Cole, the daughter of Fred Cole,
a silent film star who founded the swimwear company Cole of
California. Anne went on to launch a swimwear line of her own,
pioneering the tankini swimsuit. (The Hollywood
Reporter)

Chairman Mao’s Portraitist Wang
Guodong Has Died – The Chinese
artist who painted monumental portraits of Mao Zedong has died at
age 88. From 1964 until 1976, Wang was the official painter of the
works in Tiananmen Square in
Beijing, which are changed
annually. He taught students that Mao’s face must be painted extra red “to show his robust
spirit.” (New York
Times)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Irish Gallery Conserves Its Female
Old Master in Public – The
National Gallery of Ireland is conserving Lavinia Fontana’s
masterwork, The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King
Solomon (around 1600). Next spring, visitors will be able to
watch the female Renaissance artist’s canvas be cleaned by experts.
Technical studies have already revealed Fontana made significant
alterations to her large-scale canvas as it
developed. (TAN)

Inside Nicolas Party’s Dinner Party
– The in-demand Swiss artist’s
latest dinner party performance piece took place in an opulent
house built by the Vanderbilts in Newport, Rhode Island.
“There was an aura of decadent
Rome,” said MoMA PS1’s founder Alanna Heiss of the operatic dinner,
complete with a “butler” played by countertenor Anthony Roth
Costanzo, who sang while standing on top of the table. The 24
guests included fellow artists Leo Villareal, Elizabeth Colomba,
and Jesse Wine. (T
Magazine)

Stone Circle Revealed by Drought in
Spain – Spain’s answer to
“Stonehenge” has been revealed as the waters of a reservoir receded
during a drought. The circle
of ancient megaliths in the province of Cáceres in the west of
Spain disappeared when a valley was flooded in 1963. Campaigners
hope to move the stones to a dry site before the drought
ends. (Archaeology
Wiki)

See the Protest Art in Response to
Boris Johnson’s Power Play – The UK Prime Minister’s move to suspend
Parliament, making it harder for his opponents to stop a no-deal
Brexit, has led to demonstrations and an online petition with one
million signatures. Artists and designers were quick to respond to
Boris Johnson’s power
play, which is either bold or dictatorial, depending on your
point of view. The collage artist Cold War Steve (Christopher
Spencer) posted his #FuckBoris response on Instagram. His
large-scale work, currently on show at the Scottish National
Gallery of Modern Art, celebrates Britain’s artists, including
David Hockney, Lubaina Himid, and Antony Gormley. Meanwhile, artist
Simon Periton riffed on the Queen’s consent to the controversial
“proroguing” of Parliament with a punk-inspired post.
(Instagram) 

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