Art Industry News: Steve McQueen Is Preparing to Debut a Wrenching Film Based on the Grenfell Tower Fire + 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, January
27.

NEED TO READ

Study Says Blockbuster Shows Limit Opportunities for Minority
Artists – A
new study from the London School of Economics warns that there is a
dark side to the growing trend of blockbuster shows. Though these
sure-to-be-popular exhibitions by big names, like Tate Modern’s
recent Picasso show or the V&A’s David Bowie extravaganza,
might guarantee high attendance and offset a decline in public
funding, they may also make it even harder for experimental or
minority artists to break through. “Museums are having to gravitate
towards projects that are going to guarantee a return and which
tend to build on pre-existing popularity, reducing the scope for
encounters with unknown art forms,” Ernst Vegelin, the head of
the Courtauld Gallery in London, told the researchers. (Guardian)

Supreme Court Asked to Consider Lawsuit Over the Met’s
Picasso – The heirs of a Jewish
art-collecting couple are petitioning the US Supreme Court to take
up the case of whether the Metropolitan Museum of Art should
restitute Pablo Picasso’s The Actor (1904), which has been in its collection since
1952. The painting was
previously owned by a Jewish couple who were forced to sell it to
fund their escape from Nazi persecution in 1937. Last summer, an
appeals court ruled that the Met could keep the work—now estimated
to be worth more than $100 million—because the couple’s
heirs had waited too long
to file their restitution claim. (Press release)

Steve McQueen Will Soon Unveil a Film About the Grenfell
Tower – The Oscar-winning filmmaker and Turner
Prize-winning artist plans to debut a film about the Grenfell Tower
fire, which killed 72 people in June 2017, later this year.
McQueen, who self-funded the project, will show it to the public
free of charge in London ahead of donating it to a museum. The film
is based on footage McQueen gathered from a helicopter in December
2017 before scaffolding was erected around the building. The artist
made an agreement with the local authority not to show the footage
for at least two years. (The Art
Newspaper)

How Art Is Boosting India’s Latest Protest Movement –
Artists are joining protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India, which
fast-tracks naturalization for non-Muslim refugees, a measure they
have deemed discriminatory. The Indian art world has helped
organize peaceful protest gatherings against the law, complete with
dancing, singing, and poetry readings. Some of these demonstrations
have been broken up violently by police. The anonymous collective
Artists Unite has also been churning out artworks in the form of
posters that respond to the protests; other creatives are producing
meme-ready works for social media and Whatsapp. (Frieze) 

ART MARKET

The Market for Fake Prints Is on the Rise – Basel and New York are on the front lines of
the battle against the production of forged artist prints, an
illicit activity that has expanded dramatically in recent years due
to advances in photomechanical reproduction technology. The
proliferation of online art sales has also worsened the problem,
allowing suspect works to avoid the gallery system. Plus, prints
are priced low enough to attract less experienced buyers.
(New York
Times)

Australian Minister Calls to Protect Indigenous Art 
– Last November, reports
surfaced that elderly Aboriginal artists were being captured,
enslaved, and forced to paint for a dealer in the Australian town
of Alice Springs. According to a letter sent to the government last
year by concerned parties, this case is not unique. Minister
for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt is holding a meeting next
month with federal and state ministers to look into how to protect
against the unethical treatment of the nation’s Aboriginal
artists. (Guardian)

Inside Shanyan Koder’s Astounding Art Collection –
The elegant Hong Kong-born and
London-based collector’s influence extends far and wide. Koder is a
council member of London’s Serpentine Galleries and a board member
of Unit London; she started her own art advisory business; and she
is the founder of Hua Gallery in London. Her first art piece was a
graduation gift from her art-collecting parents: a Degas charcoal
on paper entitled Woman in the Bath. (Singapore
Tatler)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Museum of Art & Design Names Research Curator –
The New York museum has named
Christian Larsen, a former  associate curator of modern
decorative arts and design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as
its new research curator. In his new role, Larsen will run a
partnership with the Bard Graduate Center in an effort to increase
the visibility of craft and design. (Artforum)

The Humboldt Forum Will Open in September – Berlin’s highly anticipated Humboldt Forum,
which houses art from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Ocania in a
reconstructed palace, finally has an opening date. The institution
is slated to debut with a series of inaugural events from September
9 to 13. Many are hoping the long-awaited opening will revitalize
the debate surrounding the restitution of looted colonial-era
objects in Germany. (Monopol)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Celebrated Polish Art Collection Returns to Public View –
The storied Czartoryski collection,
which includes Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, is going on
view at the newly expanded Krakow National Museum. The Polish state
acquired the trove in 2016 from an heir who lives in Spain for €100
million, an estimated five percent of its true value.
(Guardian)

Thomas Campbell’s Vision for San Francisco – After a year at the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco, Thomas Campbell (the former Met director who notoriously swapped
jobs with the current Met director, Max Hollein) has presented
a six-year plan for the museum. Campbell wants to rebrand the
museum’s two institutions, the de Young and the Legion of Honor;
open them up further to contemporary art; and solve its financial
woes by recruiting Silicon Valley billionaires to the board with a
show about AI.  (The Art
Newspaper)

Trump’s New Space Force Logo Looks a Lot Like Star Trek’s
– Donald Trump has unveiled the
logo for his new $738 billion Space Force, and it looks a lot like
the fictional logo for Star Trek’s Starfleet. Many have been quick
to point out the resemblance on Twitter, including Star Trek’s own
George Takei, who said, “Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from
this…” (The
Verge)

The Art World Is Obsessed With the Dolly Parton Meme
Challenge – The art world loves a meme, so it’s not surprising
that museums and other art-world figures are having fun with the
Dolly Parton challenge, inspired by
a post from the legendary country singer in which she presented
four different photos of herself suited for four very different
websites (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and the dating app
Tinder). See some of the art-world’s own efforts here.
(Hyperallergic)

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Debut a Wrenching Film Based on the Grenfell Tower Fire + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.