PETE SOUZA/WHITE HOUSE
Lives
Fritz Koenig, the German artist “whose work The Sphere became a symbol of resilience after” it survived being destroyed in the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, has died at the age of 92. “It was a sculpture; now it’s a memorial,” he said. [Associated Press/Los Angeles Times]
Leigh Markopoulos, a San Francisco–based art critic who chaired the graduate curatorial studies program at the California College of the Arts, died in a car crash. She was 48. CCA’s president, Stephen Beal, said in a statement that she was “a brilliant scholar, writer, and curator who was dearly loved by her students and colleagues.” [San Francisco Chronicle]
Economics
Bringing some drama to the Hirshhorn’s current Yayoi Kusama retrospective, which features her crowd-drawing infinity rooms, Mark Garrison writes it is “a potential blockbuster locked inside an economic puzzle, with the museum’s reputation and future at stake.” (Lots of people want to get into those rooms!) The free museum has increased its membership 20 times by guaranteeing members (paying a minimum of $50) access. [Marketplace]
Kelly Crow reports, “The number of items up for sale last year at Sotheby’s fell 2 percent, but the number of pieces offered above $1 million fell 28 percent.” [The Wall Street Journal]
Legal Matters
Paul Walsh reports, “A shoving match broke out in a most unlikely place, the typically serene Minneapolis Institute of Art, where three people who appeared to be neo-Nazis fought with several others in another group of activists, a witness said Sunday.” The other activists had reportedly been protesting “anti-immigration sentiment in the U.S.” [StarTribune]
During a drug raid in Asbury Park, New Jersey, police recovered “a .357 Magnum revolver, a .357 Ruger revolver, ammunition, crack cocaine, Oxycodone pills, marijuana,” and a “one of a kind” portrait of Bruce Springsteen on a piece of cut metal. [NJ Advance Media]
Parties
Here is a report from the “blowout” that Hauser & Wirth threw to mark the end of its run at its West 18th Street space in Chelsea. The event included a hot dog stand and roller skating. The scribe writes, “As an avid party goer myself, I can undeniably say this evening was one of my all time favorites.” [Guest of a Guest]
Museums
The New Museum in New York is partnering with Nokia Bell Labs so that three artists involved with the museum’s New Inc incubator can work with engineers from the company. [The Architects Newspaper]
Jamillah James, curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, talks about how she became a curator, and her plans for the museum, which will open this fall. [Hyperallergic]
The Talent
The Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent has named Aurélie Samuel as its director of collections. It will open museums in Paris and Marrakesh later this year. [WWD]
The Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington has tapped Karin Kidder, previously its director of marketing and communications, to be its executive director. [Bellevue Reporter]
Bonus
Roberta Smith reviews the White Columns Annual, an “ecumenical, smartly installed version, which suggests that white men could soon be a minority in the art world, as elsewhere.” It was organized this year by Anne Doran, an editor at ARTnews.
[The New York Times]
Photos from the excellent “1966–2016” exhibition at Greene Naftali in New York, which included Lutz Bacher, John Knight, and more. [Contemporary Art Daily]
On the photography of Ed van der Elsken. [The New York Times]
Actor Jaden Smith has been leaving his artwork outside galleries and inviting his followers on social media to “come get it.” Hamilton-Selway Fine Art in Los Angeles was graced with a Jaden Smith original last week. [The AV Club]