Art Industry News: Jeff Koons May Have Copied His Ballerina From a Ukrainian Artist + More Must-Read Stories

Plus, Artists Space gets a big new space for artists and Italy is giving away historic buildings—for free.

Rendering of Jeff Koons's inflated Seated Ballerina at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Image courtesy of Koons Studio and Art Production Fund.

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, May 25.

NEED-TO-READ

Artists Space Plants New Roots in TriBeCa  The pioneering downtown art nonprofit has found a new home at 80 White Street, after losing its longtime SoHo venue last June to real estate development. (The New York Times)

Robert Storr Hilariously Weighs In on Damien Hirst’s Venice Show – Describing the shaggy-dog premise of an underwater wreck as something “straight out of Tintin,” the former Yale School of Art dean has little that’s kind to say about the exhibition, but a great deal that’s funny. The artist, he writes, is trying to “remorselessly make his mark on the history of finance.” (Corriere della Sera)

Jeff Koons’s Ballerina Looks an Awful Lot Like a Ukrainian Porcelain Figure – The new 45-foot-tall inflatable Jeff Koons sculpture, Seated Ballerina, which is temporarily installed at Rockefeller Center, bears an eerie resemblance to a porcelain figure by Ukrainian artist Oksana Zhnikrup. (The Art Newspaper)

New Project Invites Citizens to Send Trump Mail to be Archived – The new initiative, titled “In Care of the White House,” encourages Americans to flood the President’s mailbox with postcards conceived as art, with the hope that an official archive will result from the correspondence. (Huffington Post)

Paris Museum Specializing in African Art to Close – The Musée Dapper in Paris, which shows traditional and contemporary African art, will shutter its doors next month due to high costs and low attendance. (The Art Newspaper)

ART MARKET

Real Estate Developers Are Using Art to Sell Property In a clever move, gallerists with ever-expanding inventory are lending works to real estate developers—a symbiotic relationship that keeps work out of storage and dresses up properties on the market. (The Telegraph)

Dates Announced for New Fair Art Berlin – The first edition of Art Berlin, a new fair jointly organized by Art Cologne and abc (Art Berlin Contemporary) in the German capital, will take place between September 14–17 this year. An estimated 100 galleries are expected to participate. (Press release)

COMING & GOINGS

War Photographer Stanley Greene Dies at 68 – Greene, who was best known for his visceral photographs of conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the republics of Chechnya and Georgia, among other hot spots, died in Paris on Friday at the age of 68. (New York Times)

Jo-ey Tang to Lead Beeler Gallery – Jo-ey Tang, the former curator at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and arts editor of literary magazine n+1, will head the Beeler Gallery at the Columbia College of Art & Design in Ohio. He starts on June 15. (Press release)

Akron Art Museum Names Ellen Rudolph as New Chief Curator – Rudolph returns to the museum for the top job after serving as the executive director of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. She previously worked at the Akron as senior curator from 2008–2013. (Artdaily)

Triple Canopy Appoints New Board Members – The highly regarded online art nonprofit has welcomed Lisa Dent, the director of resources and award programs at Creative Capital, and Steven Goldglit of Goldglit & Company LLP to join its board, which is led by the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute’s Regan Lin Grusy. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE 

Italy Is Giving Away 103 Historic Buildings for Free – In an effort to revive otherwise-abandoned historic buildings across Italy, the country is literally giving them away. But there is a catch: The property must be used as a tourist attraction, such as a restaurant, hotel, or spa. (Smithsonian)

Take a Peek Inside José Parlá’s Studio The Cuban-American painter gives a tour of his Snøhetta-designed warehouse studio in the artist-heavy neighborhood of Gowanus in Brooklyn, NY. (designboom)

Kunstmuseum Basel to Show Richard Serra’s Film Works – Serra has not made a film or video since 1979, making this part of his oeuvre less familiar to the public. At the Kunstmuseum, 15 works on 16mm film (copied from fragile originals) and videotapes made from 1968–79 are on view through October 15. (TAN)

AND NOW, FROM THE ARTNET GALLERY NETWORK

 

“Frauenzimmer”
Galerie Klüger & Galerie Klüser 2
Munich, Germany
May 30 – July 29

An exhibition of artworks depicting women in various media and from a range of perspectives, “Frauzimmer” presents a wealth of portraits by artists from Brancusi to David Salle and Alex Katz across two galleries. Here are some highlights from the show:

Olaf Metzer’s <em>From the TV to the Fridge (blurry)</em> (2017)

Olaf Metzer’s From the TV to the Fridge (blurry) (2017)

Georg Baselitz’s <em>Ein Surrealist sieht ein 70iger Modell</em> (2011)

Georg Baselitz’s Ein Surrealist sieht ein 70iger Modell (2011)

Alex Katz’s <em>Three Women on Pink</em> (2007)

Alex Katz’s Three Women on Pink (2007)

Stephan Balkenhol’s <em>Frau</em> (2016)

Stephan Balkenhol’s Frau (2016)


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