Posts tagged as:
Stein Erik Hagen
by Paddy Johnson Michael Anthony Farley Rea McNamara on April 18, 2016
- It’s the 10th anniversary of the 2006 Youtube sensation “Shoes” by actor Liam Kyle Sullivan. Not sure the video tells us too much about the internet 10 years ago, though it is a good reminder that Peaches and more generally electroclash were widely popular. The music video, which is about a teenage character named “Kelly” who likes shoes and parties, still holds up. [The Onion AV Club]
- Ann Freedman, former director of the scandal-ridden Knoedler Gallery, has given her side again, and what she reveals, is well, not much. Her much-anticipated testimony in the trial over the $8.3 million sale of a fake Rothko to Domenico and Eleanore De Sole was averted when the gallery and collectors settled out of court in February. Expectedly, Freedman confesses she didn’t know any of the works she sold were fakes, and while she says she’s sorry, adds “but let me be clear, this is [about] works of art. I didn’t slay anybody’s first-born. We have to have some perspective on suffering.” While six lawsuits have been settled against Knoedler for all the fakes they sold, four are still active. [Art Newspaper]
- Finally, a listicle we can get behind: 10 Awful Public Art Pieces. [Houston Press]
- The art market is ripe for abuse, say some. High quality global journalism requires investment. “There were huge steps towards greater transparency in the past 20 years,” says Clare McAndrew, author of the TEFAF Art Market report. “But in the past couple of years it has been going backwards.” Apparently, the trend of private sales at auction houses has created problems as has an unwillingness of private galleries to participate in surveys about purchasing. [FT.com via Art Market Monitor]
- Jerry Saltz interviews James Franco. The crux of it seems to be that Franco has been unfairly persecuted in the art world because he’s an A-List actor who’s also an artist and scored his first show at a blue chip with conceptually weak work. The cruelties of the world continue: Jay Z was also unfairly persecuted, for shooting “Picasso Baby” at Pace filled with art world celeb cameos. What planet are these two on? There’s a tiny bit of talk about how Franco’s work wasn’t that strong, but come on. He remade Cindy Sherman photographs and showed them at Pace. Terrible. Franco says the gallery was embarrassed by the show, which HELLO. Of course they were. James Franco describes Art F City as “particularly nasty”. [NY Magazine]
- Somewhat tangentially related, but Franco’s talent agency, WME | IMG, have bought a stake in in Frieze. The power-house agency, run by the inspiration for Entourage’s Ari Gold, will now sponsor the Frieze Tate Fund, providing the Tate with $213,000 for acquisitions. Beyond that, this all basically means you’ll see more celebrities at the fair previews, and the parties will be even more of a hassle to get into. [Artforum]
- The Art Basel stabber says she attacked a fellow fair goer to prevent an ISIS attack. [The Observer]
- Norwegian grocery baron/art collector Stein Erik Hagen is giving The Norwegian National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design free reign to pick out works from his $120 million collection. [Forbes]
- The dreaded L Train shutdown could begin in 2019. [Curbed]
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by Rea McNamara on April 15, 2016
- Lori Waxman does not like the Art Institute of Chicago’s reinstalling of its contemporary art galleries. Actually, she hates it, blaming the “lifeless pairings, caged displays, insubstantial wall texts and what can only be considered total curatorial betrayal.” The latter, for instance, is best captured by the curatorial team’s insipid naming of the mini-galleries, which range from “The Bad Work by Good Artists Room” to “The Room of Amazing Production Values”. Cringe. Even worst is the prominence given to the newly-acquired collection of two patrons, which will remain on display for 25 years. Art world synergy! [Chicago Tribune]
- Vint Lawrence, the caricaturist best known for his Washington Monthly covers, has died. [Washington Monthly]
- The Panama Papers revelations keep coming. In this case, regarding an ongoing New York legal battle over a Modigliani alleged looted by the Nazis. “Seated Man With a Cain”, a 1918 portrait worth $25 million, originally belonged to Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner. His grandson’s attempt to recover the painting were hampered because no one knew who bought it when it went to auction at Christie’s in 1996. It’s now revealed that an offshore entity registered in Panama by billionaire art collector David Nahmad owns the work, and he’s “ready to return it”, after years of the grandson’s claims for years. [Wall Street Journal]
- Malick Sidibé, the Malian photographer responsible for capturing the country’s pop culture post-Independence, has also died. [The Guardian]
- More art world synergy: Norway’s National Museum is getting dibs on the 2000-piece collection of the country’s supermarket billionaire, Stein Erik Hagen. The Nordic and Northern European collection, is said to be worth $120 million and will conveniently enough fill the museum’s new Oslo building. [Art Market Monitor]
- On the confessional criticism zeitgeist, and how it’s been overrun by bad writers with not-so-interesting lives. [The Walrus]
- Why is Knausgaard so obsessed with fecal matters? If you ever thought there was a lot of shitting in Book Three of My Struggle, indeed, you are not alone. [The Paris Review]
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