Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 32 2024

The American art scene seems to be discovering the benefits of summer fairs this year in particular. Daniel Cassady enthuses about Aspen in Colorado on Artnews: "It was no surprise then that, less than an hour after an expectedly turbulent flight on a model airplane from Denver, I was invited to a cold plunge early the following morning in the nearby Roaring Fork River with a group of art dealers. That kind of invitation is characteristic of Aspen, which seems to be a through-the-looking-glass version of Miami's art week in December. The wealth is the same, but you trade humid beach weather for mountain air and all-nighters, guest-lists, and exclusive clubs for hikes and yoga. Everyone is invited to everything, with the caveat that you have to make it there first."

Monopol takes a look at Manager Magazin's art index: "With a turnover of 586 million US dollars, works by Pablo Picasso are at the top of the ranking. Jean Michel Basquiat (238 million) follows in second and third place and the only German artist in the top 50 is the painter Gerhard Richter (214 million dollars). Overall, the list is dominated by US artists, with Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Joan Mitchell, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly among the top 20 most valuable artists."

I report Artnet AG's self-imposed relegation from the Prime Standard to the General Standard of Deutsche Börse for the Handelsblatt.

Pace Gallery is parting ways with three executives, reports George Nelson at Artnews: "Gary Waterston has left the gallery, just six months after he was hired for the newly created position of executive vice president of global sales and operations. Pace's senior director, curatorial, and artist management - Sarah Levine - and curatorial director Mark Beasley have also both departed."

Angelica Villa reports the dismissal of ten members of David Zwirner's online team on Artnews: "The most recent layoffs, which amount to three percent of the gallery's workforce, come several months after Zwirner shuffled staff at Platform, a separate Zwirner-financed digital marketplace that partners with smaller galleries. Launched in 2021, Platform laid off two heads of content, and another full-time staffer from its ten-person team last fall".

Lisson White Cube Gallery has replaced 38 supervisory staff, mostly artists and students, with professional security staff, reports Anny Shaw in The Art Newspaper: "In their group statement, the workers say the loss of their jobs, which for many was their main source of income, highlights the 'real disconnect between those at the top end of the art world and people working in volatile positions at the bottom of the chain'. They add: 'It also indicates a very worrying perspective on the public role of large art galleries. Those trying to make a living in the arts have for a long time relied on roles such as invigilator to enable them to pursue their own practice or studies. By removing roles like these, the extent to which the art world can only be entered by the already rich gets greater."

Bonhams has a new CEO in Chabi Nouri, reports Karen K. Ho at Artnews: „Prior to joining Bonhams, Nouri was the CEO of the watch and jewellery company Piaget for seven years, and a private equity partner at the Mirabaud Group, a Swiss private bank. She also worked at Cartier for ten years in several positions, including management of its jewelry, watches, and retail merchandising.“

Christian Herchenröder introduces the young Berlin auction house am Grunewald in the Handelsblatt: "It is a likeable, unpretentious company in which two managing partners set the tone. Sebastian Greber, formerly a dealer in designer furniture, held his first auction in the living room in November 2021 and immediately achieved market prices. Lena Winter has been his business partner since the beginning of 2023. The art historian worked for nine years at the Berlin auction house Grisebach, where she also auctioned, before moving to Ketterer in Munich and then setting up the art trading platform misa.art with Johann König's Berlin gallery. Up to 700 lots, mainly in the 500 to 15,000 euro price category, are offered at each auction."

One of two digital Blondie portraits by Andy Warhol from 1985 has surfaced in the USA, reports Ian Mohr at Page Six: "A source explained to Page Six of the other Harry portrait, "The second - which has just surfaced after being out of the public eye for nearly four decades - was gifted by Warhol to Commodore's digital technician Jeff Bruette, who had taught the artist how to use the then cutting-edge computer to create the portrait." Bruette now plans to sell off the Harry work, as well as the original Amiga disc - holding 10 digital image files - that's signed by the artist. [...] Sources tell us that there have been offers by leading galleries and auction houses - including Carlton Fine Arts and Guernsey's - to host an exhibition and sell the collection." This could be the ultimate market test for digital art in the current downturn.

Olga Kronsteiner takes the exhibition by Boomer favourite Dieter Nuhr at the Kunstforum Wien in the Standard as an opportunity to shed light on the lucrative yet questionable practice of renting out exhibition spaces: "It is a niche that has developed in the slipstream of the regular museum business, which sometimes also has its staff co-financed by commercial galleries, such as international giants like Ropac or Pace. And it is a concept that effectively contributes to the marketing of artists: to suggest recognition in a professional environment that would be denied them in the academic world."

Ursula Scheer writes in the FAZ: "It would therefore be nice for the small museum in Penzberg in Upper Bavaria if the largest Heinrich Campendonk collection in the world, which it houses, were primarily made up of donations or self-acquired property. In fact, lenders make a considerable effort to keep the museum running: In other words, guests who can leave again with their gifts. The works of the expressionist artist, which his grandson is making available to the museum on loan, are now in danger of being parted with. Apparently, the descendant wants to monetise part of the legacy."

With the demolition of the former Soviet General Hotel in Schönefeld in favour of a parking area for government aircraft, the federal government in the form of the Bundesanstalt für Immobilienaufgaben Bima is showing what it thinks of its own rules and is rightly being awarded the Golden Wrecking Ball, reports Reinhard Bünger in the Tagesspiegel (paywall): "Originally, a government terminal for receiving state guests was planned to replace the General Hotel. However, these plans were cancelled for financial reasons. 'The changed plans did not lead to a rethink and the integration of the monument into the overall concept, although this would have been possible,' criticised the Association of Art Historians."

Charlotte Higgins tells the story of people who have made it their mission to save museum collections in Ukraine from destruction and looting in the Guardian: "Since those early days of the war, with the help of a motley group of intrepid friends, [Leonid] Marushchak has achieved something quite extraordinary. He has organised the evacuation of dozens of museums across Ukraine's frontline - packing, recording, logging and counting each item and sending them to secret, secure locations away from the combat zone. Among the many tens of thousands of artefacts he has rescued are individual drawings and letters in artists' archives, collections of ancient icons and antique furniture, precious textiles, and even 180 haunting, larger-than-life medieval sculptures known as babas, carved by the Turkic nomads of the steppe."

Christiane Fricke takes a critical view of the task of the Advisory Commission on the Restitution of Looted Art in favour of facilitating legal action in the Handelsblatt: "Essentially, the aim is to make it easier for the descendants of former owners to present and enforce their claims for the return of Nazi-looted property. This includes the fact that in future, owners of looted art will only be able to invoke the statute of limitations if they can prove that they acquired it in good faith. In addition, the art trade will be burdened with obligations that go far beyond the existing duty of care. [...] It can be assumed with certainty that no art lover or even art collector will then sell their property on the German market. This boundless demand for information would put them in the pillory as private owners, as it were, without need."