April 15, 2015: Christie’s Expects $130 Million Giacometti Sale & A Performative Protest at the New Whitney
Opening
In New York …
“Off Canvas: Drawing” and “Jacob El Hanani: Drawings” open at Acquavella Galleries; “Say It Loud,” with works by Danilo Correale, Walter Sutin, Tomaso De Luca, and Walter Smith, opens at Monitor Studio.
In Los Angeles …
“Kapwani Kiwanga: Kinjiketile Suite” and “Dorine van Meel: Between the Dog and the Wolf” open at South London Gallery; Sonia Delaunay opens at Tate Modern.
In Milan …
“Il Progetto del Terzo Giorno,” a project by Emanuele Marcuccio, Yannic Joray, Timothée Calame, and Studio Klass, opens at Istituto Svizzero di Roma.
Today’s Notable News
At its upcoming May 11th sale (which will feature Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) (1955)), Christie’s expects to bring in as much as $130 million for a nearly six-foot-tall sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. The piece has never before been up for auction and will become the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction if the estimate is reached. (via the New York Times)
Due to frustrations over a failed expansion plan for the space, the Santa Monica Museum of Art is closing up shop at Bergamot Station, which has housed the institution since 1998. While determining the museum’s next phase, the staff will be based out of Century City, and the four shows currently scheduled will still be mounted, albeit with uncertain dates and locations. (via the LA Times)
Last night, a performative protest—complete with illuminated projections and a ribbon-cutting ceremony—erupted at the Whitney’s new site. Activists from multiple groups came together to raise awareness and express disapproval of the museum’s proximity to a natural gas pipeline—what they see as a danger to the artwork, the public, and the environment. (via the New York Times)
In the latest installment of the Edward Snowden-statue saga, the president of NYC Park Advocates and civil rights lawyer Ronald Kuby called for the the New York Police Department to return the confiscated bust to the artists who created it. The artists hope to show the work in a surveillance-themed show that opens May 10th at Pierogi’s space The Boiler, before submitting the piece to Art in the Parks, a program from the NYC Parks Department. (via Hyperallergic)
After being arrested for the second time last December, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi, a.k.a. Rokudenashiko, has begun trial for obscenity charges regarding a kayak that she created modelled on her own vagina and the associated 3D scans she distributed in exchange for funding. The case has garnered widespread disapproval over biased treatment of various types of sexual imagery under Japanese law. (via The Guardian)
Cuban abstract artist Rafael Soriano—who became a prominent presence in the Cuban and Latin American concrete art movement before being exiled to the U.S. where his career would take off again in the late ’60s—has passed away at the age of 94. (via Miami Herald)
Best of Instagram
Via @wallpapermag: “Leather pods by the #CampanaBrothers for @louisvuitton Nomads #salone2015 #design”
Via @dallascontemporary: “#AnilaQuayyumAgha’s exhibition #Intersections is waiting for you to come take your next best selfie. Only at #DallasContemporary. #Dallas #art. 📷 by @robynsills”
Via @whitneymuseum: “Curator Scott Rothkopf and #MaryHeilmann on the #NewWhitney’s fifth-floor outdoor gallery, where they are installing the artist’s site-specific installation Sunset.”
Good Reads
“The Art World’s Hottest New Neighborhood May Surprise You” (via The Observer)
“Happy birthday Leonardo! Milan celebrates with Italy’s biggest show on da Vinci since 1939” (via The Art Newspaper)
“Breaking Down the Demographics of the New Whitney Museum’s Inaugural Exhibition” (via Hyperallergic)
Want to catch up with the rest of this week’s news? Review past Daily Digests here.
