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☆ Christie’s Website Is Brought Down by Hackers Days Before $840 Million Auctions
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Days before Christie’s expected to sell as much as $840 million worth of art at an auction set to include paintings by Warhol and Basquiat, the auction house experienced what it described as a “technology security issue” that took its website offline. By the next morning, the website was redirecting visitors to a temporary page outside of its own web domain. “We apologize that our website is currently offline,” it said. “We are working to resolve this as soon as possible and regret any inconvenience.”Edward Lewine, a Christie’s spokesman, said that a security issue had affected some of the company’s systems, including its website. “We are taking all necessary steps to manage this matter, with the engagement of a team of additional technology experts,” he said in a statement.

Persons: Christie’s, Warhol, Basquiat, Edward Lewine, ”

☆ In Whitney Biennial Artwork, a Message Reveals Itself: ‘Free Palestine’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Officials at the museum, including the exhibition’s curators, said that they had not been aware of the message, which most viewers missed at first. They later said that they had not known about the message, which was added when the work was fabricated in the fall, but that the message would not have affected their decision to display the art. Annie Armstrong, a writer for the publication Artnet News, noted the “Free Palestine” message in an article about the exhibition yesterday. “The museum did not know of this subtle detail when the work was installed,” said Angela Montefinise, chief communications and content officer, who added that there were no plans to remove or change the artwork. And within the culture industry, there has been a wave of resignations, boycotts and firings that have come with addressing the war.

Persons: Annie Armstrong, ”, Angela Montefinise, Whitney Locations: Gaza, Israel

☆ MoMA Sued by Artist Who Performed Nude in Marina Abramovic Work
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A performance artist has sued the Museum of Modern Art, saying that officials neglected to take corrective action after several visitors groped him during a nude performance for the 2010 retrospective “Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present.”The allegations were submitted this week in New York Supreme Court, with the artist, John Bonafede, seeking compensation for emotional distress, career disruption, humiliation and other damages. Mr. Bonafede had participated in one of Ms. Abramovic’s most famous works from the 1970s, “Imponderabilia,” which requires two nude performers to stand opposite each other in a slim doorway that visitors are encouraged to squeeze through to enter an adjoining gallery. According to his lawsuit, Mr. Bonafede was sexually assaulted seven times by five museum visitors. He reported four of the individuals to MoMA security, which ejected them from the galleries, the lawsuit said; the fifth assault was directly observed by security.

Persons: Marina, John Bonafede, Bonafede, Abramovic’s, “ Organizations: Museum of Modern, New York Supreme, MoMA Locations: New York

A man was arrested in Brazil on Thursday in connection with the killing of Brent Sikkema, a New York art dealer who was found with 18 stab wounds in his Rio de Janeiro apartment this week. The man, Alejandro Triana Trevez, knew Mr. Sikkema and was believed to have stolen cash from the scene before fleeing, said Detective Alexandre Herdy, head of the city’s police homicide unit. The police believe that Mr. Sikkema had brought over $40,000 to spend on furnishing a new apartment in Rio. “He staked out on the street,” Detective Herdy said. “He comes from São Paulo in the morning, goes straight to the place where the crime took place, to the victim’s street.

Persons: Brent Sikkema, Alejandro Triana Trevez, Sikkema, Alexandre Herdy, Herdy, “, São, Mr, Trevez Organizations: São Paulo Locations: Brazil, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Rio, Cuban, Uberaba

☆ Brent Sikkema, Influential Gallerist, Is Found Dead in His Rio Apartment
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Manhattan art dealer Brent Sikkema, who represented prominent artists like Kara Walker, Jeffrey Gibson and Vik Muniz, was found dead in his Rio de Janeiro apartment on Monday night. Brazilian publications reported that the gallerist, who helped found Sikkema Jenkins & Co., was discovered with stab wounds to his body after the local Fire Department was called to his apartment in the neighborhood of Jardim Botânico. “It is with great sadness that the gallery announces the passing of our beloved founder,” Meg Malloy and Michael Jenkins, his business partners, said in a statement. “The gallery grieves this tremendous loss and will continue on in his spirit.”The Brazilian police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “Officers will listen to witnesses, are looking for more information and are carrying out other inquiries to shed light on the case,” the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro State said in a statement to The Associated Press.

Persons: Brent Sikkema, Kara Walker, Jeffrey Gibson, Vik Muniz, Sikkema Jenkins, ” Meg Malloy, Michael Jenkins, “ Organizations: Co, Fire Department, Civil Police, Associated Press Locations: Manhattan, Rio de Janeiro, Jardim Botânico

☆ Picasso Sells for $139.4 Million, Despite a Sagging Art Market
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A brilliant blue painting by Pablo Picasso of his young mistress was crowned the prized lot of the November auction season so far after it sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $139.4 million, with buyer’s fees, on Wednesday. But it was an anonymous bidder who named the winning price over the telephone. (The work nonetheless fell short of the $179.4 million auction high for the artist, established at Christie’s in 2015.) “When it’s hard to compel someone to sell something, you need to put money on the table,” said Benjamin Godsill, an art adviser watching the sale. There is still a market, even if there weren’t fireworks.”

Persons: Pablo Picasso, Picasso’s, Marie, Thérèse Walter, Emily Fisher Landau, Sotheby’s, Picasso, Auctioneers, ”, Benjamin Godsill Locations: New York, Christie’s, Long Island City, Queens

☆ Will the Art Market Need to Discount Its Masterpieces?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Major auction houses are hedging their bets in the fall season of sales that begins Monday, offering fat guarantees to sellers to secure their works — and pricing some of their top items more conservatively after the spring season demonstrated weakness in the blazing-hot $60 billion art market. And now, sellers are trying to anticipate how the uncertainty of a new war in the Middle East will affect them. Auctioneers at the three rival companies, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips, have been digging deeper into private collections for one-off paintings that might spice up their modern and contemporary art sales, given the thinning availability of estates to draw from (typically driven by deaths and divorces). “We have built the sale in a very old-school way,” said Alex Rotter, chairman of Christie’s departments overseeing 20th- and 21st-century art, who said that his team shopped around individual collectors to acquire works by Joan Mitchell ($25 million to 35 million), Claude Monet ($65 million) and Francis Bacon ($50 million). “We went for paintings that would create the most buzz.”

Persons: Auctioneers, Phillips, ”, Alex Rotter, Joan Mitchell, Claude Monet, Francis Bacon, “ Organizations: Sotheby’s

☆ To Star at the Venice Biennale, Artists Need Patrons’ Deep Pockets
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Organizers said that last year’s exhibition there by Simone Leigh cost about $7 million. But curators say financial support from the State Department has not kept pace with the increases. “We consider private-sector support a strength in our approach to this program, as it creates broad engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders,” a spokesman for the State Department said. “I think there is an understanding even before a selection is made that if you apply, then you have the ability to fundraise,” said Brooke Kamin Rapaport, artistic director and chief curator at Madison Square Park Conservancy and the commissioner of the $3.8 million Venice exhibition by the sculptor Martin Puryear in 2019. Robert Storr, who directed the 2007 Venice Biennale and is a former dean of the Yale School of Art, said the rising costs of shipping and other logistics make the system unsustainable.

Persons: William Adams Delano, Chester Holmes Aldrich, Robert Rauschenberg’s, Robert Gober’s, Simone Leigh, “, ”, Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Martin Puryear, Robert Storr Organizations: State Department, Venice Biennale, Park Conservancy, “, Yale School of Art Locations: United States, Venice, Italy, Madison

☆ Mario Can’t Be Super Without Psychedelic Power-Ups
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Oct. 17, 2023Early into his newest adventure, Mario transforms into a large elephant. It’s not a costume like those in previous Super Mario video games, where acrobatics are imbued in the cat suits, penguin wings and frog legs worn by the Mushroom Kingdom’s savior. Zowie!”That peculiar power-up, which lets Mario use his trunk to swat enemies and water benevolent flowers, is just one spectacle in the eccentric Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which arrives Friday for the Nintendo Switch. But by turning its star into an elephant, Nintendo is also acknowledging a simple fact of its Goomba-stomping, Koopa-kicking empire: Mario himself is a little boring. The smorgasbord of power-ups is what keeps players excited.

Persons: Mario Organizations: Nintendo

☆ Spider-Man 2’s New York Is a Web of Skyscrapers and Brownstones
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Reality and fantasy were deeply intertwined in Marvel’s Spider-Man, where gamers swung from webs above Lincoln Center and leaped from the Empire State Building’s spire into the crowds leaving the subway station at Herald Square. The comic book icon also brought his own landmarks to that version of New York City, which hosted the Avengers headquarters a few blocks north of the United Nations and a supervillain prison in the East River. The designers at Insomniac Games are now expanding the superhero’s jurisdiction beyond Manhattan for the sequel, to be released for the PlayStation 5 on Oct. 20. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 swells into Queens and Brooklyn (including Coney Island attractions), testing a design team responsible for nearly doubling the real estate of the 2018 original. The game’s design director, Josue Benavidez, said his research involved contacting organizations like the Center for Brooklyn History, posting on Reddit groups devoted to the borough and calling businesses near the buildings he was studying.

Persons: Josue Benavidez Organizations: Lincoln Center, Empire, Herald, Avengers, United Nations, Insomniac Games, PlayStation, Insomniac, for Brooklyn Locations: New York City, East, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Coney, United States, Burbank , Calif, Durham, N.C

☆ Museum Curators Evaluate A.I. Threat by Giving It the Reins
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Marshall Price was joking when he told employees at Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art that artificial intelligence could organize their next exhibition. As its chief curator, he was short-staffed and facing a surprise gap in his fall programming schedule; the comment was supposed to cut the tension of a difficult meeting. But members of his curatorial staff, who organize the museum’s exhibitions, embraced the challenge to see if A.I. Professions of all kinds — military pilots, comedians, firefighters, advertisers — are confronting how artificial intelligence will change longstanding responsibilities, as well as assumptions they have about the technology. “We naïvely thought it would be as easy as plugging in a couple prompts,” Price recalled, explaining why curators at the North Carolina university have spent the past six months teaching ChatGPT how to do their jobs.

Persons: Marshall Price, ” Price Organizations: Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art, North Locations: North Carolina

☆ This Artist’s Next Project Has Her ‘Terrified.’ That’s the Point.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jade Kuriki-Olivo’s guided tour through her apartment on the Lower East Side ended in the bedroom, where the performance artist spends most of her time. Tropical vines crawled along the walls and into a giant lantern hanging opposite a tapestry of green synthetic fur. She burned incense and described her room above a busy Greek restaurant as a sanctuary. “I’m terrified,” Kuriki-Olivo said, “but I really can’t watch the trans community suffer and not make work about that. She withdrew from a series of exhibitions for her safety, passing the opportunities onto other artists.

Persons: Jade Kuriki, Olivo’s, “ I’m, ”, Olivo Organizations: New Museum, Art, Conservative Locations: Jan, Art Basel, Switzerland

☆ Christie’s Cancels Sale of Jewelry Connected to Nazi-Era Fortune
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Christie’s announced on Thursday that a second sale of jewelry from the collection of the Austrian heiress Heidi Horten had been canceled, citing the “intense scrutiny” that the auction house had faced from Jewish organizations and some collectors. Helmut Horten died in 1987 and Heidi Horten in 2022. The Heidi Horten Foundation said then that the proceeds would go toward medical research and to a Vienna museum dedicated to artwork the couple had owned. But some historians found the auction house’s decision to move forward with the sale distasteful, and employees had raised concerns internally about tarnishing its reputation. After the criticism, Christie’s added information to the auction materials saying that Helmut Horten had bought Jewish businesses that were “sold under duress,” and said the auction house would donate a portion of the proceeds to Holocaust research and education.

Persons: Christie’s, Heidi Horten, Helmut Horten, ” Organizations: New York Times Locations: Austrian, Vienna

☆ After the Sudden Heralding of Hilma af Klint, Questions and Court Fights
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In a lawsuit filed in April, Erik af Klint, the great-grandnephew of the artist and the Hilma af Klint Foundation’s chairman, said that business agreements have been struck without the approval of the foundation board and without his knowledge. The suit accuses board members of collaborating with its chief executive, Jessica Höglund, on deals to produce NFTs, books about af Klint and an immersive experience that would benefit them, not the foundation. The suit also asserts that publishing profits associated with af Klint have increased tenfold, from an estimated $350,000 in 2018 to $3.5 million in 2021, but that the revenue has gone to a foundation run by Almqvist, the scholar, rather than the Af Klint Foundation. “They are trying to gain a profit from people’s search for inner meaning,” Erik af Klint said about the board members in an interview. “As to my alleged dismissal,” Höglund said in a statement, “Erik af Klint has not been authorized to dismiss me.”Three board members have resigned in response to the infighting with the family.

Persons: Erik af Klint, Klint Foundation’s, Jessica Höglund, ” Erik af Klint, Höglund, ” Höglund, “ Erik af Klint, Almqvist, Hilma, Ax:son Johnson Organizations: Almqvist, Af Klint Foundation, Ax:son Johnson Foundation

☆ The Price of Admission to America’s Museums Keeps Rising
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Audience sizes just aren’t what they used to be at the Guggenheim Museum, where membership — once a dependable source of income — has declined by nearly 16 percent since 2019, and attendance in June slumped by 26 percent, from 89,600 to 65,900, over the same time frame. At the Guggenheim, leaders said that options for relief were limited after three years of managing the fiscal crisis of the pandemic. And so on Tuesday, the museum raised admission fees, bringing the cost of an adult ticket from $25 to what is becoming the new normal for major museums: $30. Museums, which are concerned about alienating the families and the diverse crowds they have been trying to court, say it’s typically a measure of last resort. “As we recover from the lingering financial strain caused by the pandemic, the museum needs to increase its admission prices, which have not been adjusted since 2015,” said Sara Fox, a spokeswoman for the Guggenheim.

Persons: —, ”, Sara Fox, “ Organizations: Guggenheim Museum, Guggenheim Locations: New York City

☆ He Created the Katamari Games, but They’re Rolling On Without Him
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Keita Takahashi did not want to say much before an official announcement for his upcoming project except that it would include a boy and his dog. Yet the creations by one of the video game industry’s most eccentric designers are never that straightforward. One of his games stars a mustachioed green cube on a mission to reunite a group of giggling objects in a circle of friendship. Surreal characters, simple controls and a catchy soundtrack turned the 2004 PlayStation 2 title into a masterpiece. Last month its sequel, We Love Katamari, which arguably perfected those qualities, was rereleased with improved graphics and new levels.

Persons: Keita Takahashi, Katamari Damacy

☆ Video Games at MoMA: Do They Belong There?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the Museum of Modern Art began collecting video games a decade ago, curators boldly asserted that games were an artistic medium. The MoMA exhibition “Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design,” which runs through Sunday, represents the museum’s cautious advance into the gaming world at a time when digital culture has overtaken its galleries. However, the museum could do more to break the firewall between art lovers and game designers. Curators need to unleash that same passion for games, which struggle in the current exhibition to convey the profundity, and complexity, of their designers’ thinking. On the first floor, old computer monitors cantilevered above visitors are drawn from the museum’s collection of video games.

Persons: John Maeda Organizations: Museum of Modern Art

☆ After a Year of Climate Protests, the Toll Rises for Museums and Activists
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two climate activists made a beeline for a beautiful Monet painting exhibited at the National Museum in Sweden on a recent Wednesday morning. They wanted to convey the urgency of the environmental crisis — pollution, global warming and other man-made disasters — that could turn the artist’s gorgeous gardens at Giverny into a distant memory. So the young protesters followed what has become a familiar playbook: gluing a hand to the artwork’s protective glass and smearing it with red paint. Similar scenes have unfolded at more than a dozen museums over the last year, leaving cultural workers on edge and at a loss for how to prevent climate activists from targeting delicate artworks. Just last weekend, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan was targeted for the second time, as more than 40 activists occupied galleries, silently holding signs that proclaimed “No art on a dead planet.” Meanwhile, the costs for security, conservation and insurance are growing, according to cultural institutions that have experienced attacks.

Persons: Monet, Degas, “ Organizations: National Museum, National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art Locations: Sweden, Giverny, Washington, Manhattan

☆ With Art Colleges Closing, a Chicago Museum Has an Alternative
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Zachary Small | More About Zachary Small | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the educator Romi Crawford have become partners in a new program that focuses on pairing instruction by artists of color with hands-on learning by students working alongside them. This intensive, semester-long course, which its founders announced on Monday, is called the New Art School Modality and will start in September at the museum. Traditional models of art education have become increasingly endangered as trusted schools — from the San Francisco Art Institute to the Watkins College of Art in Nashville — have fallen into bankruptcy or merged with larger institutions. The New Art School Modality is intended to create a sweet spot in academia. “The flashing words are experimentation and improvisation,” said Crawford, 56, an art historian at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Persons: Romi Crawford, ”, Crawford Organizations: Contemporary Art Chicago, New, San Francisco Art Institute, Watkins College of Art, Terra Foundation, American Art, School of, Art Institute of Chicago Locations: Nashville

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