Social Networks and Contemporary Art: A Survival Kit

27227 January 2017

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SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CONTEMPORARY ART:

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Art Media Agency (AMA) is published by the A&F Markets company, limited company with a registered capital of 40,000, RCS Paris n530 512 788. 267 rue Lecourbe, F-75015 Paris, France.

Director of publication: Pierre Naquin - Chief Editor: Gilles Picard - Layout: Marie Bruschi - Graphic conception: Sophie Josse.Contributors to this issue: Myriam Boutoulle, Marie Bruschi, Fui Lee, Jeanne Mnard, Pierre Naquin, Mathieu Oui, Gilles Picard, Juliette Soulez.CPPAP: 0116 W 92159 - Contact: [email protected] - +33 (0) 1 75 43 67 20 - Distribution: 200,000+ digital subscribers.

ADAGP, Paris 2017 for artworks from its members. - Cover: Art Rotterdam. Courtesy Geert Broertjes.

Art Rotterdam. Courtesy Geert Broertjes

Courtesy Jean-Michel Othoniel

WIDE ANGLESocial networks 4

Top stories 8

INTERVIEWLouis-Antoine Prat 10

Artists 16

Museums 18

Galleries 20

FOCUSArt Rotterdam 22

Fairs/Biennials 26

Auctions 28

Le Comte Mathieu-Louis Mol (1834), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. 2017 Muse du Louvre. Harry Brjat

Courtesy Jean-Michel Othoniel[ G

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SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CONTEMPORARY ART: A SURVIVAL KIT

Microblogging, interfaces for making contact in real time, geolocalised applications Social media for gallerists, artists and collectors are on the rise. A plunge into the virtual community.

Twitter (2010), Filippo Minelli. Filippo Minelli

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram These social networks raise a thousand echoes that are amplified, shared and commented on Spouting words and images, these tools are the obliging mirrors of our egos. Young Italian artist Filippo Minelli was on the right track when, instead of illustrating the Twitter network with a twittering bird, he showed a coop of battery-raised turkeys in his Contradictions series

But in this era of personal branding, its difficult to ignore the formidable soar of social media, with the number of active Facebook users reaching 1.71 billion in June 2016 (1.57 billion on mobile phones) and the number of Instagram users rising to 500 million. Five hundred million Instagrammers? So how about me and me, and me? But as social media is a necessary evil, one might as well use them to best advantage. And contemporary-art professionals suffer no lack of options when it comes to this phenomenon. Alexia Guggmos, art critic, founder of the Observatoire du Web Social dans lArt Contemporain (Observatory of the Social Web in Contemporary Art) and author of the book An artist guide to social media (A&F Markets Editions, 2015), points out the lag of French contemporary-art galleries on social networks, with 67% present on Facebook compared to nearly 100% in the United States, and only 33% of French artists, photographers and designers using Instagram (cartography of the French art markets presence on social networks in 2016).The latter social network, aimed at sharing images and videos, is nonetheless emerging as the favoured medium for all art-market players in 2016. Instagram usage in the art world (is) up 16% from 2015 and up 17% among younger online art buyers notes the 2016 Hiscox 2016 report on online art trade. While also specifying: Facebook and Instagram remain the most preferred social media platforms over the past two years. However, Instagram experienced a significant jump in popularity from 34% to 48% year-on-year. The same trend was found among younger buyers, where 65% said they used Instagram most frequently for art-related purposes compared to 48% in 2015.

Instagram, a space for expression

Using the image as a tool for promotion and communication, Instagram has been adopted by many French artists. Xavier Veilhan shows enigmatic photos of work-in-progress in his studio, Thomas Llu regularly publishes burlesque collages and hijacked versions of book covers, Jean-Michel Othoniel presents his colourful works in situ But with under 10,000 followers, theyre far behind Irish artist Olafur Eliasson (143,000 followers), who places videos of his installations online, or the director of the Serpentine Gallery Hans Ulrich Obrist (147,000 followers), who shows handwritten post-it notes and artist sketches in curatorial style. Using this medium as a space for expression in its own right is an aim for young artists such as Nicolas Lefebvre who publishes, on his wall, drawings that play on the navigations verticality and the breaking down of images into sequences. Lefebvre was winner of the inaugural Art Students

[ 6 Art Media Agency 27 January 2017

Week in March 2016, inviting students in French art schools to make themselves known by publishing their studio work on Instagram by using the hashtag #artstudentweek. The next edition of this event, an initiative of Alexia Guggmos in conjunction with the AICA (International Association of Art Critics), will take place from 20 to 26 March 2017.Meanwhile, the microblogging tool Twitter, with 313 million active users in June 2016, is also well represented in the contemporary-art world. It is a way to keep informed on news about artists, galleries, museums, auction houses, fairs (including FIAC) and bodies such as the Comit Professionnel des Galeries dArt or the CIPAC (French Federation of Contemporary Art Professionals). As for the Linkedin professional network (106 million active users), it is indispensable for taking part in groups specialising in contemporary art, namely by raising the visibility of ones own activity and by corresponding with international players in the art world as demonstrated by the Contemporary Art network group, with nearly 20,000 members, the Art Collecting Network (over 56,000 members) and the Museum & Art Galleries group (nearly 80,000 members).

Facebook for the art world

A recent phenomenon has been the multiplication of social networks specialised in art. The purpose of these web sites is to allow users to invite their friends, to exchange their impressions of an artist, to offer recommendations and to give opinions on exhibitions, to create communities linked by the same interests. The French web site Exponaute, based on the Allocin model, opened the ball in 2010 by allowing users to discover and select the best current exhibitions, to read reviews from the specialist press and from its members. Six years later, the site is still around, but minus extracts from the press and with few opinions from friends. On the other hand, Exponaute has taken on an online magazine, presence on Facebook and Twitter, as well as a store with derivative products Meanwhile, Rosenblum Collection & Friends, launched in 2010 by Paris-based collectors Chiara and Steve Rosenblum, which invited its members to private visits and debates with artists from the collection, is dormant for now.More active than ever, 4art.com originally the social network of the British contemporary-art magazine ArtReview gathers an international community of over 35,000 artists, art critics, curators and art professionals, divided into groups (installations, art, video artists, bio art). This social networking site for the art world enables artists to present their works (photos, videos and audio), gallerists to promote their exhibitions, and all members to exchange, debate and stay informed about residencies, calls for projects and competitions.

ArtAttack, the last-born network, launched in June 2016 and endowed with an IOS application, introduces itself as the first mobile social network for art e-commerce. Geared towards emerging art, the platform offers young artists the opportunity to show their work online while encouraging buyers to acquire creations on the site. The application presents the works Instagram style, with like buttons and options for adding comments, but with one added feature: a full notice and price details. The sharing and sales network was joined, in November, by Uart, the social network for Art Lovers, placing art galleries, emerging artists and art enthusiasts in touch via a geolocalised interface, for the acquisition of medium-range works. And for the love of art, without a doubt.

Courtesy Xavier Veilhan


WIDE ANGLESocial networks

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[ TOP STORIES

HUMAN RESOURCES _______________________Gonzalo Casals takes the reins of Leslie-Lohman Museum

The fine-arts museum managed by the Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation has appointed a new director: Gonzalo Casals, currently in charge of programming and community outreach at Friends of the High Line; he was also previously deputy executive director of El Museo del Barrio. Gonzalo Casals teaches arts administration at Baruch College and cultural policy at Hunter College. He will take up his new duties on 6 March. When I first arrived to New York City, its rich and diverse cultural landscape helped me make sense of my life as a queer Latino immigrant and connected me to networks of like-minded people. Now, more than ever, culturally specific museums like Leslie-Lohman take on a renewed sense of relevancy, Gonzalo Casals has stated. He is arriving at Leslie-Lohman at a time when the museum has launched an ambitious expansion project to double the surface area of its exhibition spaces.

Stephanie Stebich to head Smithsonian American Art Museum

According to The Washington Post, Stephanie Stebich is to become the next director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She currently holds the position of director at Tacoma Art Museum, and will be replacing Elizabeth Betsy Broun, who retired last year after serving in the position since 1989. Stebich will be taking up her new duties on 3 April. Stephanie Stebich has directed the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington, D.C. since 2005. For 12 years, she directed the renovation works of the museum whose exhibition space has doubled. Under her, the institutions collection has grown by 2,000 objects. She has also raised $37 million for the museum. The 100 exhibitions held under her include Art AIDS America and Edvard Munch and the Sea. Before joining Tacoma Art Museum, Stebich worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and at Cleveland Museum of Art; she was also a member of the Guggenheim Museum.

JAIL_______________________________________Mark Bradford heads a prisoner-reinsertion project in Venice

American abstract painter Mark Bradford is teaming up for six years with Rio Ter dei Pensieri, a non-profit Italian social cooperative with the goal of reintegrating men and women prisoners in society in Venice by offering them job opportunities. Titled Process Collettivo, this collaboration aims to raise awareness on the limits of the penal system. Mark Bradford suggests setting up a shop in the Frari district to sell craft objects produced by the prisoners. The project will coincide with the 57th Venice Biennale during which Mark Bradford will be representing the United States. At the American Pavilion, the exhibition Tomorrow is Another Day will be co-curated by Christopher Bedford and Katy Siegel, director and chief curator for programmes and research at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Mark Bradfords project will encompass his Process Collettivo initiative.

RESTITUTION ______________________________Looted Anthony van Dyck work returned to owner

According to The Art Newspaper, a painting by Anthony van Dyck, looted by Nazis, will be restored to the heir of its owner, by German food manufacturer Dr. Oetker. The Portrait of Adriaen Hendriksz Moens belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a Jewish art dealer who fled the Netherlands in 1940 during the Nazi invasion. It was civil servant Hermann Gring, founder of the Gestapo and commander of the Luftwaffe, who recuperated the work. Following the war, the painting was given back to the Dutch government, which sold it to a London dealer in Old Masters paintings. In 1956, the painting was purchased in London by Rudolf August Oetker, who died in 2007. Marei von Saher, the widow of the son of Goudstikker and the sole heir of the dealer, has declared: It is heartening to see private collections like the Oetker collection do the right thing for victims of the Nazis and their families. I hope that the restitution of this artwork will lead other private collections to act just as responsibly. The Oetker company announced last October its intention to look for the heirs of works in its corporate collection, and that there was reason to believe that they had been looted by the Nazis. A painting by Hans Thoma was recently handed back to the family of Jewish collector Hedwig Ullmann, who was forced to sell the painting before fleeing the Nazis in 1938. The company has identified two other works for restitution.

BLACK LIST ________________________________Ministry of cultures blacklist provokes ire of South Koreans

According to AFP, the South Korean minister of culture, Cho Yoon-sun, was arrested last week for his involvement in compiling a list of 10,000 artists who criticised South Korean president Park Geun-hye. Shortly after his arrest, Cho presented his resignation to Korean primeminister Hwang Kyo-ahn. Cho is accused of drawing up the list to prevent artists from receiving government subsidies and private investment: in short, to place them under State surveillance. The existence of this blacklist has sparked indignation, as it is a throwback to the policy of dictator Park Chung-hee from 1961 to 1979, a period during which the press and the arts and entertainment industries were heavily censored. Park Chung-hee was the father of Park Geun-hye. An arrest warrant has also been issued for Kim Ki-choon, Parks former chief of staff, accused of ordering Cho to compile the list of artists. The list namely includes Han Kang, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2016, and director Park Chan-wook, winner of the Grand Prix at the Festival de Cannes in 2004 and known in the West for his film Old Boy (2003). Many artists on the list have expressed their support for opposition parties, and criticised the Park administration or that of his father, assassinated in 1979.

Mark Bradford. Courtesy Mark Bradford


]TOP STORIESGONE _____________________________________Director of San Jose Museum of Art moves on

Susan Krane is leaving her post as director of the San Jose Museum of Art (SJMA) at the end of the month to pick her research and publication projects. Susan Sayre Batton, deputy director, will be replacing her while the museum carries out a national recruitment campaign. Under Susan Krane, the SJMA hosted travelling exhibitions including the one dedicated to Leo Villareal in 2010, presented for the first time in a museum context. The museum also presented Dive Dive Deep: Eric Fischl and the Process of Painting in 2012 and Postdate: Photography and Inherited History in India in 2015. Hildy Shandell, president of the SJMA has declared: Susan joined SJMA as the great recession hit in 2008. During a challenging time for arts institutions, her fiscal discipline helped keep the museum financially sound, while even in lean times enabling the museum to creatively expand its public programming, grow the permanent collection in both size and stature, and present ambitious exhibitions that reflect the diversity, intelligence, and excitement of the Silicon Valley community.

AWARD ___________________________________Liz Waldner, winner of the inaugural Dorothea Tanning Award

The Foundation for Contemporary Arts has recently set up the Dorothea Tanning Award, thanks to a $1 million donation from Destina Foundation which manages the artists estate. The $40,000 prize pays homage to the self-taught artist and poet who died in 2012 at the age of 101 years. Poetess Liz Waldner is the awards first winner. A Mississippi native, Waldner completed a maths degree before a masters in fine arts from the Iowa Writers Workshop. She wrote her first book of poems, Homing Devices, in 1988. Her second book, A Point Is That Which Has No Part (2000), received the James Laughlin Award in 2000 and the Iowa Poetry Prize in 1999. Her most recent collections of poems include Play (2009), Her Faithfulness (2016), and Big House, Little House (2016).

POLITICS __________________________________National Museum Havana refuses to loan works to Bronx Museum

According to The New York Times, the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana will not be loaning works from its collection to the Bronx Museum for the exhibition Wild Noise/Ruido Salvaje, originally intended to be a joint event for the two institutions. This despite the fact that a first part of the event took place at the National Museum in summer 2015, with a loan of over 80 pieces from the permanent collection of the Bronx Museum. The latter now plans to show sixty or so works from various private and public collections. Four members of its board have stepped down following disagreement on the direction of the museum, headed by Holly Block. Ms Block has not confirmed whether the loan was stopped due to fears stemming from the Trump presidency. We didnt get a no from them but we also didnt get a final yes, she has declared. The exhibition has been postponed a number of times, out of fear of seeing the artworks seized by the American government in response to property confiscated by Fidel Castro when he rose to power in 1959.

DAVID ____________________________________Stamps showing David Bowie in Britain

As of 17 March, Britons will be able to use postage stamps featuring David Bowie. The Royal Mail is launching a series to pay homage to the singer who died in January 2016. Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane and other record covers will be appearing on six of the 10 stamps. The others show Bowie at different concerts, during the Ziggy Stardust tour in 1972, and the Serious Moonlight tour in 1983. The stamps can be ordered on the Royal Mail website, as well as memorabilia including a set of stamps accompanied by a booklet authored by Bowie expert Nicholas Pegg. The Royal Mail already paid homage to the Beatles in 2010, and to Pink Floyd in 2015.

JACK _____________________________________New television platform for contemporary art

The MAXXI the National Museum of Arts of the 21st Century , which is also an Italian contemporary-art foundation, has recently launched JACK TV, a web television platform dedicated to the promotion of contemporary art. JACK TV will feature live broadcasts, art blogger contributions and exclusive content. Thirty European institutions have already joined the project including the Romaeuropa and the GNAM (Galleria Nazionale dArte Moderna) Rome, the Museion in Bolzano, the EMST (National Museum of Contemorary Art) in Athens, and the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna.

David Bowie.All rights reserved


Cimetire et ruines envahies par les arbres (1826), Carl Friedrich Lessing. Donation from the Amis du Louvre in 1999.

Erich Lessing[ IN

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LOUIS-ANTOINE PRAT: SHARED PASSION

Since its creation in 1897, the Socit des Amis du Louvre, an association which does not receive State funding, has contributed to the wealth of the Louvre Museums collections. Over its existence, it has acquired, thanks to the passion of over 60,000 members, around 800 masterpieces,which it has donated to the museum.

Louis-Antoine Prat was elected as president of the Amis du Louvre in 2016, taking over from Acadmie Franaise member Marc Fumaroli who had presided over the association since 1996. Through its renown and the size of its community, the Socit des Amis du Louvre has become Frances leading association devoted to the expansion of museum collections. In the current economic context in which State grants are increasingly meagre, sponsorship is a collective lever that has grown in prominence. Louis-Antoine Prat is an author and a teacher at the cole du Louvre, specialised in drawing. A passionate collector, he has belonged since 1979 to the Socit des Amis of which he is now president.

What led you to the Socit des Amis du Louvre? Is your passion for collecting the main element in your path?

I was lucky to live surrounded by art ever since I was a child. My mother took me to the Louvre, and my father, an art lover rather than a collector, left behind varied piles of works. After studying literature and studying at Sciences Po, my wife and I enrolled up until doctoral level at the cole du Louvre, driven by a joint desire to better understand the works around us. I became a project manager in the Graphic Arts department 40 years ago. Initially a scientific contributor, my task was to curate exhibitions and draw up inventories. Following a real-estate sale and inspired by the drawing seminars that we followed at the Louvre, we began a collection by making purchases at Drouot and from dealers. I had the luck to be very close to some specialists at the time Jacques Thuillier, Pierre Rosenberg, Jacques Foucart, Jean-Pierre Cuzin, who gradually recognised me as being worthy of their trust. In 1990, Pierre Rosenberg showed the collection in the United States, then in 1995 at the Louvre the first time that a private collection was shown at the Louvre to which we gave a considerable number of drawings subject to usufruct, something that we continue to do. A travelling exhibition started in New York in 2004, organised by Pierre Rosenberg, in Barcelona in 2007 and in 2010 in Sydney. We have a project for Venice and the Museo Correr for next year, as well as the Bemberg Foundation in Toulouse. This collection is limited to one era and one school: the history of French drawing from 1600 to 1900 (which I taught for ten years at the cole du Louvre), from Callot and Poussin to Seurat and Czanne, producing publications of works and corpuses on Poussin, David, Watteau, with Rosenberg. In short, Ive outlined the life of an art historian, art lover, and collector, marked early on by the presence of the Amis du Louvre association, which was more discreet and less dynamic at that time. In 1979, the then president, Jacques Dupont, a great collector, asked me to join the board. I went on to occupy the roles of deputy general secretary, general secretary, then vice president while Marc Fumaroli was president, until my election.

How would you sum up your aims?

My aims relate to two things: continuation and preservation. Continuation because this is a very old association, whose members have grown in recent years. When I first got to know the association, there were 10,000 members, compared with 60,000 today, representing subscriptions of 2 to 3 million per year. These add to the Louvres annual budget for acquisitions and its restoration credits, representing 20% of museum admissions, in other words around 8 million per year. Des Mcnes par milliers, the catalogue published in 1997 to mark the associations centenary, sums up this growth; another publication to celebrate our 120 years of existence will reflect the work achieved in the 20 years of Marc Fumarolis mandate. Continuing this policy means trying to federate the largest number of individual sponsors. This great adventure of collective sponsorship is the main aim of the Socit. The collective dimension is crucial.

Louis-Antoine Prat. 2017 Jean-Claude Figenwald


The other aspect is preservation. We mustnt forget that we are an association, and we must conserve independence in the midst of interdependence. We depend on the Louvre, which has entrusted us management of all its entrance cards, through which we facilitate constant access to the museum. We must be attentive to the museum and support it, while defining our own personality by a certain purchasing policy, which depends on the hazards of the market. Recently, we have favoured crown jewels, 18th century silverware, rare works by masters such as Davids painting from his period of exile in Brussels, Watteaus beautiful drawing for the centenary, or a very rare Egyptian statue from the Middle Empire. We try to fill in the holes of collections. When a work comes up for sale, its necessary to react very quickly. Thanks to our boards attentiveness and reactivity, a purchase can be decided on within 24 hours, as opposed to heavier museum acquisition procedures which can last several months.

Have the Socits activities taken on a multiple aspect?

Its true that our activity is characterised by receptions to mark events, intellectual enrichment and acquisitions. Sbastien Fumaroli has nurtured the aspect of unifying members: he organises voyages, lecture tours specially conducted for certain categories of our members, evenings to mark a festive event, plays or concerts. We privilege the most generous category of benefactors as we cant invite all 60,000 members. There are three categories of donors: members, corporate members and benefactors, with different subscription rates: 80, 120, 1,000. Recently, we held big soires to thank our big donors who are sponsor trustees: Michel-David Weill and his wife, and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrire, a member of our board, who financed purchases of antiquities and restoration of the Borghese Gladiator. In our quarterly bulletin, agreement was made on a wide panel of offers. Dinner-shows are opportunities to bring an artist to the Louvre (William Christie concert in front of the Winged Victory in 2015). We recently supported the Tessin exhibition, organised trips with curators on the theme of the exhibition, financed a cocktail at the Swiss Institute in honour of the Graphic Arts department, invited 400 members to an advance screening of the film on Hieronymus Bosch at the Marignan Cinema. These are elements of our outreach activities.We have a wide vision on what it means to love and help the Louvre. The enrichment of the museum occurs through objects, but also through its promotion. Recently, we voted in favour of meeting the cost of renovating all the rooms holding 18th century objets dart. We took charge of the renovation and decoration of the official chamber of the Duc de Chevreuse, representing an expense of 3 million over three years. Recently, we also voted in a grant to allow young members to take part in digs organised near Rome, in Gabii, Etruria. This is a means of intellectual enrichment; the digs will enable documentation of works at the Louvre, such as Napoleons purchases or pieces from the Borghese collection.In this context of broadening our sponsorship policy, we can also mention support for two journals. Historically, the first is La Revue du Louvre, a journal of the Muses de France: a scholarly publication on museum collections, which we finance entirely and distribute to our benefactors along with five catalogues from the Louvres exhibitions. We also support, through our members subscriptions, the more generalist and less erudite publication, Grande Galerie, released four times a year, and printed in 50,000 copies. This pure diffusion of knowledge is in line with a pedagogical approach. The Ami du Louvre may be a scholar, an art lover, or a stroller. Hell want to come back if we look after him.

Who are the targets of sponsorship projects?

We dont have specific categories or targets, and we start very early because you can be a Friend of the Louvre from age four onwards, with a card that you can give to your children or grandchildren to awaken their interest in the museum. There are thousands of us sponsors, and we call on all good intentions.

Official chamber of the Duc de Chevreuse. Frdric Chaubin

INTERVIEW


Louis-Antoine Prat



How do you decide on future acquisitions? Do you carry out an information watch on the art market?

The Amis du Louvre have no personal collection, and the objects that are purchased always go to the museum. These depend on the hazards of the market, so we need to keep informed. We have the same expectations as private collectors, along with the same shortcomings: we dont know what tomorrows market will hold. When professionals have objects likely to interest us, they contact the Socit or curators. The board is made up of 32 members elected by the general assembly every four years, which elects the president and votes on the acquisitions. It would be complex and not very discreet to hold referendums among the 60,000 members. The board is primarily composed of art lovers and sponsors, curators along with a few great connoisseurs who make donations directly. We also receive bequeaths which may take the form of share portfolios or a sum of money coming with a request. Several years ago, a member bequeathed us his garage and asked that a German painting missing from the Louvre be purchased. This was how a Lessing work found itself on the Louvres picture rails! A doctor couple bequeathed us 4 million, which enabled us to buy Empress Eugenies diamonds, exhibited with the Crown jewels. We buy for all departments without showing favour, but its more difficult and rarer for antiques as producer countries often have a legislative arsenal that prevents export whether Italy, where everything is notificato, or Mesopotamia where war and looting are underway

What sort of compensation is offered to sponsors?

There is no compensation of the sort as seen at Orsay recently, when the donation made by the Hays couple entailed major renovations. The museum is always reticent to commit to this restrictive type of compensation as it is not extendable. AXA, for example, contributed to the purchase of the national treasure, Portrait du comte Mathieu-Louis Mol by Ingres the most expensive work to ever be purchased by the Louvre and deducted 90% of the sum paid and 5% of communication expenses. We helped to acquire Comte Mol and 18th century silverwork tureens. The Amis du Louvre intervene either individually or collectively through the voting of the credit by the board. When the Louvre wishes to make a purchase, we can help it financially or collaborate in the project, with the museum calling on its own corporate sponsorship and crowdfunding initiatives, in which the Amis intervene on an individual basis.

Where do you situate yourself as a collector?

Ive already been in a situation where Ive been in competition, but if I know that a work rouses the interest of a museum, then I withdraw. Sometimes with regret!

Do you exercise pre-emptive rights in auction rooms?

If the curators plan to acquire an object, the museum will pre-empt it and turn to us for the financing validated upstream by our board. Going back to crowdfunding, very recently, the Muse du Louvre called on participatory sponsorship, for a campaign to restore the funerary chapel of the tomb of Akhethtep, an ancient Egyptian treasure. The objective has been set at 500,000 by 30 January 2017.

Six tudes de ttes (1717), Antoine Watteau. Donation from the Socit des Amis du Louvre in 1997.

2017 Muse du Louvre. Martine Beck-Coppola

MEMO

By becoming an Ami du Louvre, you participate in an act of collective sponsorship and benefit from advantages, including free priority access to the museums collections and exhibitions for a one-year period. The reception desk for the Amis du Louvre is located under the Pyramid, 75001 Paris. www.amisdulouvre.fr

Would you be my friend?


[ ARTISTSLord Snowdon. Photo AP

POLITICS __________________________________El Sexto leaves high-security prison

Danilo Maldonado Machado, aka El Sexto, has been released after two months of imprisonment for no particular motive. He has thus left El Combinado del Este, a high-security prison where he was placed on 26 November. He had already been arrested for his politically slanted performances including Animal Farm, leading to his jailing for 10 months in 2015. The November arrest just like his release has been accompanied by no statements or explanations. A petition on change.org requesting his discharge had gathered over 13,000 signatures.

Russian dissident artist Piotr Pavlenski seeks political asylum in France

According to The New York Times, Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski has arrived in France to seek political asylum in the country. This move follows sexual assault accusations made against him and his partner by an actress at a Moscow theatre. The couple claims that the encounter was consensual and considers the attack to be politically motivated. Piotr Pavlenski is well-known for his shocking performances during which he is capable of inflicting great injury to himself. He thus sewed together his lips in 2012 to protest against the arrest of the Pussy Riot band members; he has nailed his testicles to Red Square, just as he has wrapped his naked body with barbed wire. He also cut off the lobe of one ear in 2014 in a performance called Segregation. In 2015, Threat resulted him serving 7 months in prison after he set fire to the premises of Russias Federal Security Services. Piotr Pavlenskis honesty is today being challenged. Many of those who normally support the artist are taking the actress-victims side this time Piotr Pavlenski arrived in France with his partner Oksana Shalygina and two children in mid-January. He risks 10 years in prison.

New presidential series for Shepard Fairey

After producing the best-known portrait of president Obama, Shepard Fairey is repeating the exercise with his new series titled We the People. The series, consisting of five posters, represents various minorities (women, African Americans, native Americans, Muslims, homosexuals) fighting against the new oppressor president. The posters can be downloaded free of charge from the artists website. The series was initially a commission from the Amplifier foundation which as its name indicates seeks to amplify popular movements through the use of art and community involvement.

FAME _____________________________________Joel Meyerowitz awarded Leica Hall of Fame 2017

On 18 January 2017, American photographer Joel Meyerowitz received the Leica Hall of Fame, a distinction recognising his full body of work. He is thus being featured in an exhibition at the gallery in the Leica head office in Wetzlar (centre-east of Germany, north of Frankfurt). Born in 1938 in New York, he studied painting before becoming the artistic director of an advertising agency that he left in 1962. He then devoted himself to humanist photography, following the trail of Robert Frank, Eugne Atget or Henri Cartier-Bresson, alternating black-and-white and colour before finally settling on the latter as of 1972. Joel Meyerowitz was the only photographer to be granted entry to the Twin Towers site following 11 September 2001. The author of 16 books, he has already been the object of over 130 exhibitions, some fifty of which have been monographic shows.

OBITUARY _________________________________Death of Princess Margarets former husband

The Guardian reports that Lord Snowdon, the former husband of Princess Margaret, passed away on 13 January at the age of 86 years. Born as Antony Armstrong-Jones, he was already a renowned fashioned photographer when he met the princess who would become his wife in 1960. He worked for Vogue, The Sunday Times, Telegraph Magazine until the 1990s. In 1995, he was appointed dean of the Royal College of Art. He has featured in around fifteen exhibitions, namely at the National Portrait Gallery to which he donated 180 original prints in 2014. His son, David Armstrong-Jones, is the current president of Christies London.

Moshe Gershuni dies at age 80

Israeli artist Moshe Gershuni passed away on 22 January at the age of 80. His multiform work was minimalist before becoming more descriptive and politically engaged. He participated in over 70 exhibitions including a dozen solo shows. The most memorable one was probably his 2014 retrospective at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, marking 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel. He also represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 1980. In 2003, Moshe Gershuni won the Israel Prize for Art, which he refused to come and collect, resulting in the prize being revoked; he would fight this revocation at court, but in vain. He was represented by the Givon gallery in Tel Aviv which has held 18 exhibitions with his work, including 3 solo shows.


]ARTISTSPannaphan Yodmanee wins 11th Benesse Prize

Pannaphan Yodmanee from Thailand was declared the winner, on 12 January, of the Benesse Prize, attributed to an artist present at the Singapore Biennial. Historically, from 1995 to 2013, the prize would go to a Venice Biennale artist working on the notion of wellbeing (Benesse in Latin). Pannaphan Yodmanee, a young artist born in 1988 in Nakhon Si Thammarat, has won with her monumental installation Aftermath (2016), bringing together ruins, apocalyptic architecture and Buddhist symbols. The Benesse Prize offers her 3,000,000 Japanese yen (25,000) as well as a residency at the Benesse Art Site in Naoshima (Japon). We also learned, on the same occasion, that Singaporean Zulkifle Mahmod has been awarded the Soichiro Fukutake Prize for his sound installation Sonic Reflection. Soichiro Fukutake is a Japanese billionaire who founded and owns the Benesse Art Site. The previous winner of the Benesse Prize was Franco-Albanian Anri Sala in 2013.

AWARDS __________________________________Five artists selected for Fourth Plinth on Trafalgar Square

Four artists and one collective have been named as the finalists for the Fourth Plinth commission. Organised every year, this commission aims to place a contemporary-art work on the fourth plinth surrounding Trafalgar Square. This is one of the most important and visible public commissions in London. The selected artists are Damin Ortega, Huma Bhabha, Michael Rakowitz, Heather Phillipson and the Media Collective. Damin Ortega offers High Way, an installation presenting a Volkswagen van topped by an unlikely scaffold; Huma Bhabha, a semi-figurative totem; Michael Rakowitz, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, a colourful Lamassu (recently destroyed by the Islamic State); Media Collective, The Emperors New Clothes consisting of an emperors cape redolent of antiquity without anyone wearing it. Finally, Heather Phillipson presents a pop installation made up of a fly and a drone attracted by a cherry on top of whipped cream. Contacted by AMA, Heather Phillipson has declared: The END represents exuberance and unease. [] Seen through the drones eyes, which provides a live feed of Trafalgar Square to viewers devices, the surrounding architecture and its population are participants in a mis-scaled landscape one that magnifies the banal, the nightmarish, and our cohabitation with other life forms, to apocalyptic proportions. Last year, it was David Shrigleys very long thumb in bronze that won. The winner will be announced in March. The five proposals are visible at the National Gallery until 23 March. Joel Meyerowitz. All rights reserved



[ MUSEUMS

HUMAN RESOURCES _______________________Marcela Guerrero and Rujeko Hockley join Whitney Museum

The Whitney Museum has recently recruited Marcela Guerrero and Rujeko Hockley as assistant curators. Marcela Guerrero has worked since 2014 as curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She will be contributing, along with Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Andrea Giunta, to the next exhibition at the Hammer Museum: Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 in collaboration with the Getty Foundation. She previously worked at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, as research coordinator for the International Center for the Arts of the Americas. She has also written for magazines including ArtNexus, Caribbean Intransit: The Arts Journal and Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. Rujeko Hockley has been assistant curator at the Brooklyn Museum for the last 4 years, during which she contributed to numerous programmes and exhibitions including Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital and Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999-2016. Hockley was formerly assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Hockley has also written for publications such as Aperture, Artforum and The San Francisco Arts Quarterly.

Travis Chamberlain, new director of Queer|Art

Deputy curator for the performance arts at the New Museum in New York, Travis Chamberlain, has been appointed director of Queer|Art, a non-profit institution which supports LGBTQ artists, founded by filmmaker Ira Sachs in 2009. At the New Museum, Chamberlain has supported various artists with links to the LGBTQ movement including Ishmael Houston-Jones, Dennis Cooper, Karen Finley, Julie Tolentino, Wu Tsang and Jennifer Monson. He joined the museum in 2007 as programme coordinator. Chamberlain also previously worked as artistic director at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn.

Director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York resigns

The director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, Jorge Daniel Veneciano from Argentina, has resigned after 5 months. A literature, art and political theory graduate, he intends to devote himself to writing, in particular a work on the relevance of cultural institutions in securing civility in uncivil times. Veneciano took over from Glenn Adamson last October, and previously directed El Museo del Barrio. Board member Michele Cohen will act as director pending the appointment of a new director.

HUMAN RESOURCES _______________________Elena Ochoa Foster chairs Serpentine Gallery Council

Editor, exhibition curator, and founder of Ivorypress, Elena Ochoa Foster will now also be chairing the Serpentine Gallery Council. A consultant for the Prix Pictet, she is also a member of the board of directors for the Mutual Art Trust. Elena Ochoa Foster has also chaired the jury of the Alt+1000 award for Swiss photography; she has been president of the Tate International Council and a member of the governing board of the Tate Foundation, and a trustee of the Noguchi Foundation. Yana Peel and Hans Ulrich Obrist laud her experience, calling her the ideal ambassador for our ambitions. The Serpentine Council is the heart of the community of supporters and friends of the London institution.

RE-OPENING ______________________________Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo reopens

Three years after the attack on the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi inaugurated its new building on 18 January. The faade was destroyed and the explosion damaged over 170 objects in the collection, one of the worlds largest collections of Islamic art. Several countries have financed this renovation, including the United Arab Emirates which contributed $8 million. One hundred and sixty objects have thus been restored, and new rooms designed, enabling the museum to triple its exhibition capacity.

MARCH AND COLLECT ____________________Museums collecting Womens March objects from 21 January

According to The Art Newspaper, several organisations have collected for their archives banners, pins, hats and T-shirts as well as other objects used on 21 January during the Womens March against Donald Trumps swearing-in. These include the Bishopsgate Institute in London, the New York Historical Society and the Smithsonians National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Starting out from Washington, D.C., these demonstrations were extended by 600 womens marches worldwide. To document this historic event, the New York Historical Society has already gathered 20 objects from the demonstrations in New York and Washington, D.C., along with a few works from Victory Garden, a New York-based collective of female artists. The Bishopsgate Institute has collected 50 to 100 brochures, signs and photographs. Meanwhile, curators from the National Museum of American History have picked up items used during the 2016 electoral campaign. Finally, the Special Collections Research Center of the Temple Libraries has added to its collections various articles used during the Philadelphia demonstration in which 5,000 persons took part.

DONATION ________________________________Donation of Jules Chret works goes to Milwaukee Art Museum

Over 500 works by poster artist Jules Chret have been donated to the Milwaukee Art Museum. They come from the collection of Susee and James Wiechmann, partly shown during the exhibition Posters of Pairs: Toulouse-Lautrec and His Contemporaries in 2012. Nicknamed the father of the modern poster, Chret wielded great influence on the artists of his time such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard. In addition, the museum has recently appointed a new deputy curator for drawings and prints, Britany L. Salsbury, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Marcela Guerrero. Courtesy Marcela Guerro


[ GALLERIES

DEAL OR NO DEAL _________________________$77 million claimed for a deal that didnt take place but could have!

Swiss dealer Phoenix Ancient Art is claiming $77 million from the Getty Trust for preventing a potential deal in which it was supposed to act as an intermediary. The detailed claim was lodged on 12 January at the Southern District Court of New York. As Artnet reports, this 38-page claim presents the work done by the gallery to draw together the American museum and the Torlonia family, a rich Italian dynasty of French origin, wishing to transfer part of its 600 or so Roman and Greek sculptures. The deal, estimated at between $350 and 550 million, did not take place. Phoenix Ancient Art deems that it was pushed out of the deal before its unfortunate conclusion and that for this reason it is entitled to compensation for the work done. The objects are now the property of the Italian government.

WELCOME! ________________________________Two new directors at Paula Cooper Gallery

New York gallery Paula Cooper has recently hired two new directors: Lisa Cooley and Jay Gorney. The former supervised her own space for eight years until the end of summer 2016. Meanwhile, Jay Gorney has taken part in a number of New York adventures: he opened his own gallery in 1985 before teaming up with John Lee and Karin Bravin to form Gorney Bravin + Lee until 2005 when he joined Mitchell-Innes & Nash. As Artnews specifies, he left the Chelsea dealer in 2013 to work independently for several gallerists (Deborah Remington, Mathew Cerletty, Ray Johnson). Paula Cooper Gallery, founded in 1968, represents estates and artists primarily associated with conceptualism and American minimalism. It is currently showing Paul Pfeiffer in its space at 529 West 21st Street as well as Liz Glynn at 534 West 21st Street.

CLOSING _________________________________Closure of Joyce Yahouda Gallery in Montreal

Joyce Yahouda has chosen to close her gallery housed in the Belgo, a building hosting around thirty dealers and artist studios in Montreal. The co-founder of the magazine HB pinpoints problems in costs and a desire to defend creators differently as reasons for this decision. She represented nearly thirty artists using a wide variety of mediums. This is the third departure from the Belgo in the space of three years, following the Donald Browne gallery in 2016 and Les Territoires in 2015.

Yann Arthus Bertrand closes his Atelier in Paris

The well-known photographer of La Terre vue du ciel opened his Atelier on Rue de Seine in Paris a little over three years ago. Here, he presented his methods and work. His team was also on hand to answer questions from enthusiasts and buyers. Unfortunately, due to financial troubles, the Atelier closed at the start of the year. The site is now looking for a buyer to ensure economic stability for its photography projects.

Uptown Downtown gallery closes

Gallery Uptown Downtown, opening in 2015 in Rockwall, Texas, closed on 7 January. This follows on from the illness of Richard Hoaglund, cofounder of the space along with his wife Betty Jean. Over its two years of activity, the gallery has welcomed nearly 3,500 persons. From now on, Betty Jean Hoaglund will be sitting on the citys public-art committee, and hopes to advance interest in the arts in this small northern Texan town.

Elephants in the Iokavango Delta (Botswana), Yann Arthus Bertrand.Courtesy Atelier Yann Arthus Bertrand

http://www.arttaxguide.com/

Art Rotterdam. Courtesy Geert Broertjes[

FOC

US


Dedicated to the emerging scene and young contemporary-art talents, Art Rotterdam is welcoming around one hundred Dutch and European galleries. The fair is being held at the Van Nelle factory, a huge modernist-style industrial building, built between 1925 and 1931, today on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The director of Art Rotterdam, Fons Hof, tells Art Media Agency about the specificities of the fair and whats new for the 2017 edition.

Can you give us the lowdown on Art Rotterdam?

For this 18th edition, we are expecting around one hundred galleries spread between the main section and the New Art section. Art Rotterdam defends the new and emerging contemporary-art scene. While remaining on the European scale, its outlook is international. The selection committee chooses galleries on the basis of their programming and their international approach. These are mainly established in the Netherlands, with foreign participants making up 40% of the main section, and 20% of the New Art section. Selection for the New Art section, reserved to galleries which have existed for under seven years, is in the hands of Natasha Hoare, a curator at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. In the workshops of the Van Nelle factory, the Intersection section is welcoming, for the third year, installations and performances by artists or non-commercial structures. For the fifth year, the Mondrian Fund will be presenting the Prospects & Concepts exhibition, featuring the work of 66 young artists who received grants from the fund in 2015. The curator is Stijn Huijts, director of the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht. Finally, the selection for the video section, with a dozen chosen this year, is made by a group of curators and collectors.

Do participating galleries change much from year to year?

Dutch galleries which make up the core of the fair are generally present at every edition. Turnover concerns foreign participation more. Some galleries dont come systematically. Others wish to take part in order to connect with the Dutch or Belgian market. In the New Art section, Im delighted to see the presence of a number of young Dutch galleries such as Billytown, which opened in 2015, or Cinnamon, registered for the second time this year. This section is also welcoming several young British stands and one French one, a 22.48 m2 gallery.

What can you tell us about the fairs public?

Last year, we welcomed 26,500 visitors, and we are counting on similar numbers for this edition. Its a little fair, but a very active one. The public of collectors and professionals is half Dutch, half foreign, with visitors from Belgium, Germany and France. Out of the total visitors, we have around 20% in people from abroad.

FONS HOF: ART ROTTERDAM, A VERY ACTIVE LITTLE FAIR

Destination the Netherlands for the 18th edition of Art Rotterdam, from 9 to 12 February. An international vision, a European perspective A meeting with Fons Hof, the fairs director.


The fair also stands out for its parallel events and its VIP programme. What will be the highlights for collectors?

We have a very rich programme, with gallery openings, exhibitions and specialist fairs on design or photography. For example, there will be the opening of a big surrealism exhibition at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum. The Kunsthal in Rotterdam will be inaugurating the exhibition Digital: a symbiotic love affair, and will be presenting the Hugo and Carla Brown collection, Digital, Post Internet & Virtual Reality Art. We also regularly welcome groups of collectors, for example the Friends of the Jeu de Paume or of the Palais de Tokyo, who come nearly every year. We offer them dinners, private tours or workshop tours. This year, the Atelier Van Lieshout will open specially throughout the duration of Art Rotterdam.


How do you manage to reach out to a public less familiar with contemporary art?

We are renewing the Citizen M film operation, a film introducing the fair directed by art critic and author Hans den Hartog Jager. This is a way to allow visitors little acquainted with art to have a few bases and to situate the fair in the context of contemporary-art history. The film, lasting about 30 minutes, will be screened at the entrance of the factory, but will also be visible online on our website, a few days before the opening. We will be sending the link to all contacts on our database. This is a way for us to reach out to a wider audience.

Can you give us a scale of the prices of works at Art Rotterdam?

Even if Art Rotterdam presents a few well-established names on the artistic scene, the fair mainly offers works by young artists. A great majority of the pieces are being offered for under 10,000, and we also offer a selection of affordable works and multiples, between 100 and 2,000. Note that our countrys art scene is characterised by a small group of big collectors and a majority of small buyers.

From an artistic point of view, have you noticed any new trends?

I can observe an interest among artists in film images, and also a return to figurative painting, with a touch of humour. And then but this has been true for several years we can note a very multidisciplinary approach to artistic creation. Artists work simultaneously on drawing, painting, installations and videos. I can give the example of Cham Van Luit, who we find with a video in the Projections section, and also a light installation in the New Art section.

Can you tell us whats new in 2017?

For the first time, were offering an Open Air section, with ten sculptures or outdoor installations. There will also be a sound piece by Susan Philipsz, and Borzo Gallery will be presenting the work of Ronald de Bloeme, who has produced an impressive eight by three metre panel on elections and the political situation in our country. The artist reworks political billboards that he transforms into a huge abstract work. Amongst other new features, this year, a prize created by an insurance group will be awarded. The NN Group Art Award, to be presented on the day of the fairs opening, will recognise a young artist trained in one of the big schools in our country. Many artists come from these renowned institutions such as the Rijksakademie and De Ateliers in Amsterdam, the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht or the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, which draw students from beyond our country. For example, a majority of the Rijksakademies students come from abroad. The jury will choose a winner from a shortlist of four nominees. The prize is worth 10,000 and a work by the winner will be purchased to join the collection of the NN group.

To conclude, which artists presented at Art Rotterdam in recent years have emerged on the international scene?

I can name the American Ryan Trecartin, who we presented five years ago, and who has since been shown in big exhibitions, namely at the Muse dArt Moderne in Paris and the Venice Biennale. Theres also the Colombian Oscar Murillo, recently shown at the fair by London gallery Carlos/Ishikawa. Ever since, Murillo has gone onto a fine international career and the prices of his works have soared.

Art RotterdamFrom 9 to 12 February. Van Nellefabriek.Van Nelleweg 1, Rotterdam, Netherlands. www.artrotterdam.com

FOCUS



Art Rotterdam



[ FAIRS/BIENNIALS

BIENNIALS_________________________________Kader Attias water statement for Sharjah Biennale

On 17 and 18 January, the Sharjah Biennale welcomed its first project for 2017: an off-site conference in Dakar (Senegal) supervised by French artist Kader Attia. The winner of the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2016 thus invited some twenty participants (artists, poets, scientists, historians, architects, etc.) to discuss the theme of water. The symposium, titled Vive LIndpendance de LEau, was at once a poetic, political and surrealist statement. The biennials next stage will be on 10 March, with the opening of a first act of the exhibition on the Sharjah site (United Arab Emirates) gathering over 60 artists, before a second act in Beirut.

Five artists for the United Arab Emirates in Venice

Exhibition curator Hammad Nasar, in charge of the United Arab Emirates Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, has announced the 5 artists representing the country this year: Vikram Divecha (video installations), Sara Al Haddad (textile installations), Nujoom Alghanem (poetry and video), Lantian Xie (drawings, installations) and Mohamed Yousif (sculptures). The presentation, titled Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play, will focus as the title suggests on the role of games in art. The next edition of the Venice Biennale will be held fro 10 May to 26 November 2017.

An Atlas of Mirrors until 26 February

Kicking off on 27 October 2016, the Singapore Biennale is continuing until 26 February. Gathering 63 artists and collectives from 19 Southeast Asian countries, the event is organised into 9 sub-themes under the general title, An Atlas of Mirrors. Exhibitions are being held in 8 spaces around the city, primarily the Singapore Art Museum and SAM at 8Q an annex of the institution. The event is being jointly supervised by the Singapore Art Museum, from which a majority of the curatorial team hails, and the National Art Council.

Worlds smallest biennale

Joining the already well-filled calendar of festivals and biennials is the smallest and perhaps most interesting biennial in the world. Held on the islet of La Biche, in Guadeloupe, this first edition is being curated by Alex Urso and Maess Anand. It will be welcoming 14 artists including the two curators, and a large proportion of Polish representatives. This inviting event will be on at the Grand Cul de Sac Marin (literally, Marine Dead-end) in Guadeloupe. The Biennale de La Biche opened on 6 January 2017. No finishing date has been decided on for now.

90-year-old artist representing Rumania at next Venice Biennale

Rumania has chosen its representative for the 2017 Venice Biennale: Geta Brtescu, born in 1926. She has been selected for her project Geta Brtescu Appearances, designed with Magda Radu, curator at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest, who is supervising the pavilion. Geta Brtescu is also artistic director of the critical magazine Secolul 21. This is the artists third participation at the Venice Biennale, having already been chosen for the 1960 event, then also 4 years ago when she showed work in the central pavilion. Her work was also presented at a retrospective in 2015 at the Tate Liverpool and at the Kunsthalle in Hamburg last year. Geta Brtescu has featured in over 75 exhibitions, including around fifteen solo ones. She is represented by the galleries Barbara Weiss in Berlin and Ivan in Bucharest.

FAIRS _____________________________________Winter Antiques Show 2017 in New York

The Winter Antiques Show opened on 19 January for its 63rd edition, welcoming 70 exhibitors from all over the world. 160 American and European experts were deployed for the vetting of this edition. This year, the event also presents works from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg (Virginia) to mark the institutions 60th birthday. The Winter Antiques Show will run until 29 January on Park Avenue, New York.

Contemporary Istanbul in September

The 12th edition of Contemporary Istanbul, the big Turkish contemporary-art fair, will not be taking place in November, but in mid-September, in order to coincide with the Istanbul Biennial. The two events will be brought together under the banner Istanbul Art Week, to be joined by other public and private events. While this is the first edition to be supported by the local government, the idea behind this rallying together is to counter the latest waves of terrorism that have shaken up Turkey by organising a week devoted to art to draw an international public of art lovers and collectors. Contemporary Istanbul will thus be held from 13 to 17 September 2017. This will be the first edition supervised by Kamiar Maleki, son of collector couple Fatima and Eskandar Maleki.

Courtesy Singapore Art Museum


]FAIRS/BIENNIALSFESTIVAL __________________________________Nanjing International Art Festival until 12 February

Parallel to the Shanghai Biennale, Nanjing (a one-hour drive from the economic capital) is organising the third edition of its international art festival, the Nanjing International Art Festival (NJIAF). Curated by Lu Peng and Letizia Ragaglia, this edition titled HISTORICODE: Scarcity and Supply has moved from the Nanjing International Exhibition Center to Baijia Lake Museum. Regarding the theme, Lu Peng states: I am not attempting to propose a single direction in art, but rather to elucidate history and practical problems relating to art since the 1990s. Organised and financed by the company Baijia Lake International Culture Investment Group, the festival seeks to develop a creative ecosystem in the city of Nanjing.

TRIENNIALS ________________________________Vincent Honor at head of next Baltic Triennial

For its first edition in 2018, the Baltic Triennial of International Art is being co-organised by three institutions representing three countries: the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, kim? in Riga, Latvia, and the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCAE) in Estonia. The event will be accessible in the three Baltic countries. Vincent Honor was selected by the directors of the three institutions. He was curator at the Palais de Tokyo from 2001 to 2004 before joining the Tate Modern from 2004 to 2007. He then became director of the David Roberts Arts Foundation in London when it was set up in 2007. The Baltic Triennial is one of the most experimental events of its kind. [] I am thrilled to be selected as curator for its 13th edition, and eager to start a collective research that will deal with infiltrations, displacements, and hybridisations as valid forms of production, he has declared. Installation by Karolina Bielawska. Courtesy Biennale de La Biche 2017



[ AUCTIONSHUMAN RESOURCES _______________________Brooke Lampley joins Sothebys New York

Brooke Lampley will be leaving her position as director of the impressionist and modern department at Christies New York where she worked for 13 years. At the start of 2018, she will be joining Sothebys as vice president of the fine-arts department in New York. Brooke Lampley was previously assistant curator at the National Gallery of Art from 2004 to 2005 and at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from 2002 to 2003. She is a graduate of Yale and Harvard.

RECORD __________________________________World record for Uderzo drawing at Sothebys Paris

On 21 January, during the Bande Dessine Auction at Sothebys Paris, a drawing from the album Devin, produced by Astrix illustrator Albert Uderzo, set a record sale price of 319,500. It had been given by Uderzo in 1975 to the executive assistant of his German publisher, and signed by him. The narration and mise-en-scne of the piece express the illustrators wonderful humour: namely the square in which Idfix leaps up to hide in Oblixs breeches followed by a square where anger explodes, with a visible impact on air, lettering and the form of the speech bubble.

HAPPY! ___________________________________Artcurial winter sale at Monaco Yacht Club raises 5,560,280

It was the second time that Artcurial gathered buyers from Monaco and abroad at the prestigious Yacht Club of Monaco, for a week of sales of the most luxurious collectors objects: jewellery, collectors timepieces and Herms objects. From 19 to 21 January, the three sales, overseen by Franois Tajan, raised a total of 5,560,280. This result represents 30% growth compared with the winter sale of 2016. The top jewellery lot was a Buccellati ring with a grey-gold dome decorated with a 15.40-carat emerald, selling for 346,300 (expenses included). Meanwhile, the top lot in collectors timepieces was a Rolex pocket watch (c.1968), selling for 109,200. And the top lot in the Herms collection was a 30 cm Birkin Himalaya bag in white matt crocodile skin dating from 2016, which sold for 78,000 (expenses included). Collectors are looking for rare pieces in perfect condition. Our strategy of reasonable estimates on an ultra-competitive market proves effective and allows us to meet reference prices, declared Pnlope Blanckaert, director of Herms Vintage & Fashion Arts at Artcurial in a statement.

750 extra auction houses and galleries for Invaluable

Invaluable, the largest online auction platform for the fine arts, antiquities and collectors objects, has announced strong sales in 2016 despite a globally difficult market. It has also added another 750 new auction houses and art galleries to its stable. Leading names among the auctioneers include Phillips, RM Sothebys, Coys, Vanderkindere and Worldwide Auctioneers. New dealers, on the other hand, include Acquavella Galleries, Galeries Adelson, Galerie Barbara Krakow, Gerald Peters Gallery and Paul Kasmin Gallery. In 2016, Invaluable became the sponsor of TEFAF New York Fall in October, and it will remain a sponsor of TEFAF Maastricht in March 2017 and TEFAF New York Spring in May 2017. The company has also announced that Sothebys former CEO and president, William F. Ruprecht, will be joining Invaluable as chairman and inaugural member of its advisory board. In addition, CEO Rob Weisberg has also been nominated for the second year in a row as finalist for the 2016 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

EXHIBITION _______________________________Exhibition on Picassos tailor, Michel Sapone, at Christies France

From 1 to 10 February, the modern and contemporary art departments of Christies France are presenting an exhibition on the history of the family of Picassos tailor, Michel Sapone, the object of Luca Masias new book, Le Tailleur de Picasso. Tudor Davies and Paul Nyzam, in charge of the exhibition, make the following comment: From the first encounter between Michel Sapone and Pablo Picasso in the post-war years up till the opening of the Sapone gallery in 1972, this family saga reminds us of a time in which the art markets relationships were primarily based on friendship and mutual respect between artists, gallerists and collectors. The exhibition will present around one hundred works, documents and archive photographs.

UPCOMING _______________________________Jules Verne in the limelight at Drouot

At Drouot, on 1 March, auction house Boisgirard - Antonini is organising the sale of one of the last major Jules Verne collections. An original preparatory drawing for the map of Lle mystrieuse, a set of original photographs of the writer and his family, personal letters, original bound versions of his novels, and special luxury-paper prints make up the bulk of this sale. We can also note rare cartoons including two special covers of Lle mystrieuse in French and Spanish, washes and gouaches, original engravings, Hetzel posters in various stages of progress, and polychrome theatre posters.

3 Rimbaud manuscripts on sale at Sothebys Paris

The sale on 8 February at Sothebys Paris will be offering old books from the fields of medicine, the natural sciences and literature. The section dedicated to the 19th and 20th centuries will be devoted to literature, artists books and artists correspondence. Three Rimbaud manuscripts will be placed on auction on this occasion. Seven drawings from Plaisirs du jeune ge (1865; Rimbaud was 10 years old) have been estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000. Fetching a lower estimate, but significant nonetheless is Les Caractres de Thophraste (1870), a work estimated at between 8,000 and 12,000, from the poets youth. It was presented to him by his school principal as an unofficial pre-prize before he was awarded a 1st Prix dExcellence in 1870, specifies the sales catalogue. But the star of the sale, estimated at between 200,000 and 300,000, is the manuscript of the poem La rivire de Cassis (June or July 1872).

Rythme Couleur (detail), Sonia Delaunay. All rights reserved


]AUCTIONS

Asterix and the Soothsayer, sketch 6. Albert Uderzo. ditions Albert Ren. Goscinny. Uderzo


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2549 septembre 2016

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2549 September 2016

NEW

SLETTER

BIENNALE DES ANTIQUAIRES

THE SUPERLATIVE BEAUTY
