ISLAND RECORDS
The Auctions
An untitled Basquiat sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s last night to Yusaku Maezawa. The entire sale brought in $319.2 million. [ARTnews]
Maezawa took to social media to celebrate this win, sharing, “I am a lucky man,” and “When I first encountered this painting, I was struck with so much excitement and gratitude for my love of art. I want to share that experience with as many people as possible.” [Twitter / Instagram]
A few hours earlier, about one-and-a-half miles away, Phillips sold a Peter Doig painting for a record-shattering $28.8 million. Altogether, Phillips sold 37 lots for $110.3 million, just shy of the price of Sotheby’s record-shattering Basquiat. [ARTnews]
Back in 2015, Bob Nickas looked at why Basquiat remains underrepresented in museum collections. [ARTnews]
Collecting
“Show us your wall!” Hilarie M. Sheets said to Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, who are opening a by-appointment space in Cold Spring, New York, called Magazzino, dedicated to Arte Povera. And so they did. There was a giant Michelangelo Pistoletto piece on it. [The New York Times]
Jori Finkel takes a look at art institutions in Los Angeles, like the Marciano Art Foundation and the Main Museum, that are rehabbing existing buildings to make exhibition spaces. [The New York Times]
Museums
Victoria Stapley-Brown previews Mass MoCA’s expansion, which opens later this month with long-term shows of work by Jenny Holzer, James Turrell, and others. [The Art Newspaper]
Artists
Charles Gaines created a work in response to a poem by Nick Laird. [T: The New York Times Style Magazine]
60 Minutes checked in with Ai Weiwei for an interview that will air on Sunday. For now, it is offering a taste of the segment. “I think artist and activist is the same thing,” Ai Weiwei said. “As an artist, you always have to be an activist.” [60 Minutes/CBS News]
The artist Lana Mesic had 15,000 two-pence coins left over from an art installation, so she decided to leave them by a canal in London to see what would happen. [Mashable]
The Talent
James Brayton Hall, the deputy director of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, has been hired as head of the Garden Conservancy in New York. [Palm Beach Daily News]
End-of-Letter Delights
Gregory Volk on the Venice Biennale’s central show, “Viva Arte Viva.” [Art in America]
Photographs of Markus Schinwald’s current outing at Gio Marconi in Milan. One day remains to see the exhibition in person! [Contemporary Art Daily]