Category: visual

While some of the study’s findings are not particularly surprising — like that artists’ satisfaction with their work increases in direct proportion to the amount of time they spend in the studio — others are quite illuminating, especially where the economics of being an artist are involved. For instance, only 12% of respondents said that gallery sales of their work have been helpful in sustaining their practices, and grants ranked similarly low; the majority (61%) said that freelance and contract work was the most significant economic factor supporting their art.

The iconic imagery from the summit will be the shaking of hands with the interspersed American and North Korean flags in the background. That imagery, followed by the big, broad claim that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat, is hard to combat politically. You’ve got to say, “In fact, it’s much more complicated.” As soon as you say that, a significant portion of the public just tunes out.

“In the best interests of the museum, it is time to bring the recent turmoil to an end and start afresh,” write de Cock Buning, who is the board’s interim chairman, and van Rooijen. “After due consideration of the report and its findings, and with a view to the museum’s interests, we intend to step down as members of the Supervisory Board.”

With numerous winners, past and present, showing work at this year’s Art Basel, Gareth Harris surveys recent history – and artists and gallerists – over how much difference these awards make and whether the trouble and expense artists go through for them is worthwhile. (Last year, the finalists for one major prize insisted they be paid for the exhibitions they had to put together.)

“The Somali-Australian artist Hamishi Farah … was among the artists who signed an open letter condemning [Schutz’s image of the murdered Emmett Till, titled Open Casket, at last year’s Whitney Biennial]. His painting at [Art Basel], called Representation of Arlo (2018), is a direct response to Schutz’s painting. ‘The viewer’s response to the work creates the situation whereby they hopefully reach some point of self-reflexivity, regarding their responses to situations where white artists appropriate black bodies’, Farkas says.”

An Italian court ruled this month it belongs to Italy, and should return there, but that is only the latest chapter in an extended legal battle over the work, also known as “Statue of a Victorious Youth,” that has stretched out for more than a decade.

In general, it is considered unethical to lend a work to a museum exhibition and then immediately send it for sale—but as Maurice Davies, the head of collections at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and the former policy director at the UK Museums Association, points out: “Common sense suggests that display by a reputable museum increases financial value… so museums can’t but help making a sale somewhat more likely.” He does question, though, whether this can be proved.

Brian Allen: “Two defenestration of top people in a few weeks is a rarity in most museums, yet this is the latest sign of dysfunction at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) in Los Angeles. … As a museum, it prides itself as being founded by artists; lots of great museums were. The problem is that artist-driven boards almost always fail. And they take their museums with them, drowned in a sea of ego, hissy fits, door-slamming, free-spiriting, and self-promotion, seasoned with a legendary aversion to opening wallets.”

“An 18th-century Chinese vase forgotten for decades in a shoe box in a French attic sold for 16.2 million euros ($19 million) at Sotheby’s in Paris on Tuesday – more than 30 times the estimate. Experts at the auction house said the exquisite porcelain vessel was made for the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong and had set a guide price of a much more modest 500,000 euros.”