Social Networks and Contemporary Art: A Survival Kit

272
27 January 2017
NEWSLETTER
SOCIAL NETWORKS AND
CONTEMPORARY ART:
A SURVIVAL KIT

[CONTENTS
Art Media Agency (AMA) is published by the A&F Markets company,
limited company with a registered capital of €40,000, RCS Paris n°530 512 788. 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 Ménard, Pierre Naquin, Mathieu Oui, Gilles Picard, Juliette Soulez.
CPPAP: 0116 W 92159 - Contact: dropbox@artmediaagency.com - +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 ANGLE
Social networks 4
Top stories 8
INTERVIEW
Louis-Antoine Prat 10
Artists 16
Museums 18
Galleries 20
FOCUS
Art Rotterdam 22
Fairs/Biennials 26
Auctions 28
Le Comte Mathieu-Louis Molé (1834), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
© 2017 Musée du Louvre. Harry Bréjat

Courtesy Jean-Michel Othoniel
[GRANDANGLE

5 ]Subscribe for free: subscribe.artmediaagency.com
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, it’s 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
Instagramusersrisingto500 million.Fivehundredmillion“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 Guggémos, art critic, founder of the Observatoire du Web Social
dans l’Art 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 market’s
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 Lélu 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, they’re 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 navigation’s verticality and the breaking down of
images into sequences. Lefebvre was winner of the inauguralArt 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 Guggémos 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 Comité Professionnel
des Galeries d’Art 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 one’s 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 Allociné 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 ANGLE
Social networks

[ 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
AccordingtoThe Washington Post,StephanieStebichistobecomethenext
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 institution’s collection has
grown by 2,000 objects. She has also raised $37 million for the museum.
The 100 exhibitions held under her include “ArtAIDSAmerica” 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 Terà 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
Bradford’s 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
Göring, 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 culture’s blacklist provokes ire of South Koreans
According toAFP, 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, Park’s
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 STORIES
GONE______________________________________
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 SJMAhas 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 artist’s 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 award’s first winner. A Mississippi native,
Waldner completed a maths degree before a master’s 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 didn’t get a no from them but
we also didn’t 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
d’Arte 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

Cimetière et ruines envahies par les arbres (1826), Carl Friedrich Lessing.
Donation from the Amis du Louvre in 1999.
© Erich Lessing
[INTERVIEW

LOUIS-ANTOINE PRAT: SHARED PASSION
Since its creation in 1897, the Société des Amis du Louvre, an association which does not receive
State funding, has contributed to the wealth of the Louvre Museum’s 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 theAmis du Louvre in 2016,
taking over from Académie Française member Marc Fumaroli who had
presided over the association since 1996. Through its renown and the size
of its community, the Société des Amis du Louvre has become France’s
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 École du Louvre,
specialised in drawing.Apassionate collector, he has belonged since 1979
to the Société des Amis of which he is now president.
What led you to the Société 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 École 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 École du Louvre), from Callot
and Poussin to Seurat and Cézanne, producing publications of works
and corpuses on Poussin, David, Watteau, with Rosenberg. In short,
I’ve 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
becausethisisaveryoldassociation,whosemembershavegrowninrecent
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 Louvre’s annual budget for acquisitions and
its restoration credits, representing 20% of museum admissions, in other
words around €8 million per year. Des Mécènes par milliers, the catalogue
published in 1997 to mark the association’s 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 Fumaroli’s 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
Société. The collective dimension is crucial.
Louis-Antoine Prat. © 2017 Jean-Claude Figenwald

The other aspect is preservation. We mustn’t 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 David’s
painting from his period of exile in Brussels, Watteau’s 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,
it’s necessary to react very quickly. Thanks to our board’s 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 Société’s activities taken on a multiple aspect?
It’s true that our activity is characterised by receptions to mark events,
intellectual enrichment and acquisitions. Sébastien 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 can’t 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 soirées to thank our big donors who are sponsor trustees: Michel-
David Weill and his wife, and Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, 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 d’art. 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 Napoleon’s
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 Musées de France: a scholarly publication on museum
collections, which we finance entirely and distribute to our benefactors
along with five catalogues from the Louvre’s 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. He’ll want to come back if we look after him.
Who are the targets of sponsorship projects?
We don’t 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. © Frédéric 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 don’t know
what tomorrow’s market will hold. When professionals have objects likely
to interest us, they contact the Société 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 Louvre’s
picture rails! A doctor couple bequeathed us €4 million, which enabled us
to buy Empress Eugenie’s diamonds, exhibited with the Crown jewels. We
buy for all departments without showing favour, but it’s 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 Molé 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 Molé 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?
I’ve already been in a situation where I’ve 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 Musée 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 études de têtes (1717), Antoine Watteau.
Donation from the Société des Amis du Louvre in 1997.
© 2017 Musée 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 museum’s 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?

[ ARTISTS
Lord 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 Russia’s Federal Security Services. Piotr Pavlenski’s honesty is
today being challenged. Many of those who normally support the artist are
taking the actress-victim’s 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 artist’s 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, Eugène 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 Margaret’s 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 Christie’s 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.

]ARTISTS
Pannaphan 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
FourartistsandonecollectivehavebeennamedasthefinalistsfortheFourth
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 Damián Ortega, Huma Bhabha, Michael Rakowitz,
Heather Phillipson and the Media Collective. Damián 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 Emperor’s New Clothes
consisting of an emperor’s 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
byAMA, Heather Phillipson has declared: “The END represents exuberance
and unease. […] Seen through the drone’s ’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 Shrigley’s 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 FineArts, 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.AttheNewMuseum,Chamberlainhassupportedvariousartistswith
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 façade was destroyed and the explosion damaged over
170 objects in the collection, one of the world’s 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 Women’s 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 Women’s March against Donald Trump’s
swearing-in. These include the Bishopsgate Institute in London, the
New York Historical Society and the Smithsonian’s National Museum
of American History in Washington, DC. Starting out from Washington,
D.C., these demonstrations were extended by 600 women’s 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 Chéret works goes to Milwaukee Art Museum
Over 500 works by poster artist Jules Chéret 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, Chéret 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

Women’s March Washington.
All rights reserved

[ GALLERIES
DEAL OR NO DEAL__________________________
$77 million claimed for a deal that didn’t 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 city’s 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

Art Rotterdam.
[FOCUS

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 what’s 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
don’t come systematically. Others wish to take part in order to connect
with the Dutch or Belgian market. In the New Art section, I’m 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 fair’s public?
Last year, we welcomed 26,500 visitors, and we are counting on similar
numbers for this edition. It’s 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 fair’s director.
Art Rotterdam.
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 ifArt 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
country’s 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 Chaïm 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 what’s new in 2017?
For the first time, we’re 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 fair’s 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 Rijksakademie’s
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
Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris and the Venice Biennale. There’s 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 Rotterdam
From 9 to 12 February. Van Nellefabriek.
Van Nelleweg 1, Rotterdam, Netherlands. www.artrotterdam.com

FOCUS
Art Rotterdam.
Art Rotterdam

[ FAIRS/BIENNIALS
BIENNIALS_________________________________
Kader Attia’s 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
L’Indépendance de L’Eau”, was at once a poetic, political and surrealist
statement. The biennial’s 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.
World’s 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 Brătescu, born in 1926. She has been selected for her project Geta
Brătescu – Appearances, designed with Magda Radu, curator at the
National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest, who is supervising the
pavilion. Geta Brătescu is also artistic director of the critical magazine
Secolul 21. This is the artist’s 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 Brătescu 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 institution’s 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/BIENNIALS
FESTIVAL___________________________________
Nanjing International Art Festival until 12 February
Parallel to the Shanghai Biennale, Nanjing (a one-hour drive from the
economiccapital)isorganisingthethirdeditionofitsinternationalartfestival,
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 Honoré 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 Honoré
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

[ AUCTIONS
HUMAN RESOURCES________________________
Brooke Lampley joins Sotheby’s New York
Brooke Lampley will be leaving her position as director of the impressionist
and modern department at Christie’s New York where she worked for
13 years.At the start of 2018, she will be joining Sotheby’s 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 Sotheby’s Paris
On 21 January, during the Bande Dessinée Auction at Sotheby’s Paris,
a drawing from the album Devin, produced by Astérix 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-scène of the piece express the illustrator’s
wonderful humour: namely the square in which Idéfix leaps up to hide in
Obélix’s 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 collector’s objects: jewellery, collector’s timepieces
and Hermès objects. From 19 to 21 January, the three sales, overseen
by François 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 collector’s timepieces was a Rolex pocket watch (c.1968), selling
for €109,200. And the top lot in the Hermès 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 Pénélope Blanckaert, director of Hermès 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 collector’s 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 Sotheby’s, Coys, Vanderkindere and Worldwide
Auctioneers. New dealers, on the other hand, includeAcquavella Galleries,
GaleriesAdelson, 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 Sotheby’s 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 Picasso’s tailor, Michel Sapone, at Christie’s France
From 1 to 10 February, the modern and contemporary art departments of
Christie’s France are presenting an exhibition on the history of the family
of Picasso’s tailor, Michel Sapone, the object of Luca Masia’s 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 market’s 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 L’Île mystérieuse, 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 L’Île mystérieuse
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 Sotheby’s Paris
The sale on 8 February at Sotheby’s 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,
artist’s books and artist’s correspondence. Three Rimbaud manuscripts
will be placed on auction on this occasion. Seven drawings from Plaisirs
du jeune âge (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 Caractères de Théophraste (1870), a work estimated
at between €8,000 and 12,000, from the poet’s youth. It was presented
to him by his school principal as an “unofficial pre-prize” before he was
awarded a 1st
Prix d’Excellence 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 rivière de Cassis (June or July 1872).
Rythme Couleur (detail), Sonia Delaunay. All rights reserved

subscribe.artmediaagency.com
Every week,
everything about art and its market.
254
9 septembre 2016
NEWSLETTER
BIENNALE
DES ANTIQUAIRES
LE RENDEZ-VOUS SUPERLATIF
254
9 September 2016
NEWSLETTER
BIENNALE
DES ANTIQUAIRES
THE SUPERLATIVE BEAUTY

Social Networks and Contemporary Art: A Survival Kit

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Social Networks and Contemporary Art: A Survival Kit

Similar to Social Networks and Contemporary Art: A Survival Kit (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Social Networks and Contemporary Art: A Survival Kit