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Daniel Loeb

Sotheby’s Shake Up: Chairman William F. Ruprecht Resigns

by Corinna Kirsch on November 21, 2014

The rise and fall of Ruprecht’s empire.

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Monday Links: Social Media Loses; Wet Dog Wins

by Paddy Johnson and Whitney Kimball on May 5, 2014

Sophie Gamand, from “Wet Dog” portraits

A “Wet Dog” portrait by Sophie Gamand has won the BBC’s portraiture award. More wet dogs on her site. [Sophie Gamand]
The New Museum has announced that Google Glass will sponsor the 2015 Triennial, and the technology will be used with a custom “visitor engagement” app, which is hooked up to social media. No word yet as to how this might affect the art. [The New Museum]
Modern Art Notes is on hiatus. No big surprise there—BlouinArtInfo has been hemorrhaging writers—but a bummer nonetheless. [Modern Art Notes]
Further proof that the Knoedler scandal was not the work of a single painter, but was a pervasive industry problem. According to the Times, scholars were threatened with lawsuits, others were paid off, and not enough people asked questions. “In an industry whose transactions cry out for verification of both title to and authenticity of subject matter, it is deemed poor practice to probe into either,” wrote New York Supreme Court Judge J. Shorter. [New York Times]
The New York Times uses Jack Flam, the president of the Dedalus Foundation (the foundation for Robert Motherwell’s estate), as their art historian source for the Knoedler story. Flam has been accused by Motherwell’s friend and art historian Dore Ashton of overstepping his executive role to take liberties with the catalogue raisonée, overpaying himself, and ousting the dissenters. [Bloomberg]
One day, a poor engineer named Rob Rhinehart decided he could save money on food by heading to the internet, buying a bunch of amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, sticking them in a blender, and using that concoction as a replacement for food. He named his magic mix, “Soylent” after the 1973 sci-fi film “Soylent Green” and after a Kickstarter that raised more $100k in two hours, he’s started a company. Is this the end of food? Rhinehart claims he’s never felt better. [The New Yorker]
Lots of talk these days about Twitter’s problems, and they aren’t or are insurmountable. They announced last week that their active users increased by only 5.8 percent from the previous quarter. This particular take sees the bulk of their problems as marketing (and stagnation due to board infighting). [Stratechery]
More evidence of widespread social media fatigue: this video about putting away your phone has gone viral. Since we watched it an hour ago, it’s already accumulated a million more views. [YouTube]
Activist shareholder Daniel Loeb has landed himself a position on Sotheby’s board in a compromise deal. [Art Market Monitor]
Apparently a lot of items going up for auction this week already have bidders. [The New York Times]
Designer Matt Daniels has measured the number of unique words in rappers’ lyrics, and found that Outkast, Blackalicious, Ghostface Killah, and Wu Tang have all beaten Shakespeare in their invention of new words. [Matt Daniels]

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Friday Links: Everyone’s Got to Bow to Somebody

by Paddy Johnson Whitney Kimball and Corinna Kirsch on April 25, 2014

Artforum’s profile on the Greek-born American sculptor Chryssa ends on a rather strange note. “One day in her studio, I noticed a gun. She pointed to it and said she was planning to shoot [Arnold] Glimcher. Sure she was being mistreated and ignored in New York, she shut her studio on lower Broadway for good and apparently returned to Athens.” Chryssa died earlier this year in Greece. (Above: Chryssa’s “Large Bird Shape.” Courtesy Albright-Knox Art Gallery.) [Artforum via Andrew Russeth]
“If elected president, Barack Obama plans to prioritize, well, barring broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast from prioritizing Internet content.” That was in 2007. With news this week that the F.C.C. is considering “fast lanes” for commercial providers, let’s hope that he keeps to his promise. [CNET via Reddit]
Triple Canopy announces their 2014 Commission recipients: Kieran Daly, Primavera di Filippi & Samer Hassan, Sowon Kwon, Timothy Leonido, Frank Pasquale, Jared Stanley, and Gillian Walsh. Looking forward to seeing their projects. [Triple Canopy]
Next week, the Frieze Art Fair will come to New York yet again; talks will include a keynote by UbuWeb founder Kenneth Goldsmith and a roundtable between Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot and David Remnick of the New Yorker. We’re sure these talks will fill up quickly—their lecture hall is pretty tiny. [Frieze via Artsbeat]
Bill de Blasio has not yet addressed his promise to stop the Central Library Plan, and instead he’s kept $151 million in the budget for the renovation. Very fishy. [Bloomberg News]
Artspace provides their own rankings system for “10 of the Most Influential MFA Programs in the World.” Not sure if they talked to anyone at the School of the Art Institute (where Corinna went for grad school); their excerpt focuses on their MA program in Visual and Critical Studies, not an MFA program. Thankfully, Artspace lists off the ridiculous amount you’ll pay in tuition by enrolling in any of these programs: Bard costs $55,000 per year; Columbia costs 51,676; and UCLA sounds like a bargain at $23,465 for out-of-state residents. Sigh. [Artspace]
More on the ongoing battle between hedge funder and activist shareholder Daniel Loeb and the storied auction house Sotheby’s. Loeb has nominated three director candidates and now advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that shareholders vote for two of the three board nominees he has proposed, one of them being Loeb himself. [New York Times]
Hyperallergic has partnered with London’s Lost Lectures. Tonight, The Awl co-founder and blogger Choire Sicha will talk along with Photographer Barbara Nitke, street performers Flex (is King) + Deirdre Schoo and scientist Marc Abrahams. Should be an interesting night. [Hyperallergic]
At a White House event for kids, a 10-year-old girl hands Michelle Obama her dad’s resume, and says he’s been out of work for three years. [NPR]
London’s Victoria & Albert Museum just made a pile of money. They’ve confirmed rumors that they are getting the blockbuster Alexander McQueen show. [Artnet]
Kriston Capps continues his coverage on Washington, D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art and Design. On April 7, the museum’s board, along with the boards of the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University were supposed to vote on how the Corcoran will be absorbed into these other two institutions. That deadline was skipped. [City Paper]

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Wednesday Links: Shopping Cures All Woes

by Paddy Johnson and Corinna Kirsch on April 2, 2014

Katy Perry just broke up with fellow celebrity John Mayer. How’s she planning on coping? By becoming an art collector. Of course. [Jezebel]
In case you’ve been living under a rock from the 1950s, one way feminists have been battling the gender gap in the arts is by “counting.” [The Week Magazine]
The Love and Radio podcast has a bonkers, but brilliant interview with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge who recounts falling in love with Lady Jaye at a slave auction. [Love and Radio]
Contrary to popular opinion, New York is the least profitable place to be a landlord. [Curbed NY]
“…The idea of contamination was a governing principle,” says MoMA Associate Director Kathy Halbreich of Sigmar Polke. She believes Polke willfully suppressed his market by eschewing his signature style. All this, will be on view as part of the MoMA exhibition “Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963–2010.” starting April 19th. [Artnews]
In Bushwick, you can buy a hug for five dollars. [Craigslist]
We use UPS to ship a few things from our office each month, but that’s going to stop. The company dismissed 250 employees after they protested the dismissal of a long-time employee. [The Daily News via: @luxlotus]
New York State is offering a 25 percent tax rebate—up to 4 million dollars—to “theatrical investors” who commission touring theatrical productions. Should be interesting to see if this tax loophole could work for touring art exhibitions sometime down the line. [Wall Street Journal]
House sold with art work in it. More interestingly, the house comes with a golden couch. [Curbed via The Art Market Monitor]
Activist investor Daniel Loeb has had his suit against Sotheby’s auction house fast tracked. He claims the cap on the number company shares he can buy hampers his ability to win a pending board fight; Loeb wants to see the company’s CEO, Bill Ruprecht, ousted [The Wall Street Journal]

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Daniel Loeb

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Daniel Loeb

Sotheby’s Shake Up: Chairman William F. Ruprecht Resigns

Sotheby’s Private Sales Drop by Nearly Half

Monday Links: Social Media Loses; Wet Dog Wins

Friday Links: Everyone’s Got to Bow to Somebody

Wednesday Links: Shopping Cures All Woes

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