COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The Biz
Early sales were moderate on the VIP preview day of the Armory Show in New York, but dealers took pleasure from a new atmosphere and look forward to the fair’s four remaining days. [ARTnews]
At Sotheby’s in London, a Gustav Klimt went for $59.3 million, well above its high estimate, in the highest-grossing auction yet in England. Next week, market-measurers set eyes on contemporary sales. [The New York Times]
Ailing Met
George Goldner, the former Met curator who called the museum “a great institution in decline” before the ouster of director Thomas Campbell, talks about the present and future of the institution. About turning around the climate, he says, “As long as the museum remains obsessed with bean counting, it will be impossible to do that.” [The Art Newspaper]
Holland Cotter weighs in with some ideas for making the Met better. Chief among them: “Let audiences see that old is always new, if viewed through knowledge.” [The New York Times]
Artists
Jack Whitten talks at length about the paintings in his gorgeous show at Hauser & Wirth in New York. Among the subjects surveyed: octopus hunting, Muhammad Ali, and the artist’s home in Crete. [The Paris Review]
Gustav Metzger, artist and activist at the forefront of the Auto-Destructive Art movement, has died at 90. [ARTnews]
John Zorn, avant-garde composer of music for artworks by Agnes Martin, Harry Smith, and more, is moving his underground East Village experimental-music club The Stone into new digs at the New School. [The New York Times]
Expanded View
The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston has a $10-million plan for a new satellite addition in industrial East Boston. The new Watershed building would increase exhibition space by 50 percent. [The Boston Globe]
Selected in service of the theme “Grow-Conserve,” these 22 eye-widening images from around the world are up for the Syngenta Photography Award in England. [The Guardian]
L.A. MoCA received a gift of 22 artworks from Alan Hergott and Curt Shepard, with the haul including work by Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney, Thomas Hirschhorn, Catherine Opie, and more. [Artforum]
Slim Pickings
Mexican tycoon and art collector Carlos Slim is being bandied about as a possible presidential hopeful there during a Trump era in which his popularity has shot up. [Bloomberg]