COURTESY YOUTUBE
The Courts
Late Friday night, it was revealed that Artforum had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed in October by Amanda Schmitt, a former employee of the magazine who alleges that former publisher Knight Landesman sexually harassed her over the course of nearly a decade. Alex Greenberger at ARTnews takes a look at the motion, which argues that, in regard to the initial lawsuit, “none of [those claims] have alleged an adequate legal or factual basis.” The motion also makes clear that “Artforum has separated from Landesman. The separation is total and complete.” [ARTnews]
Art Basel Miami Beach Wrap-Up
Art Basel Miami Beach closed its latest edition yesterday evening. Take a look at all of the Basel coverage on ARTnews—a narrative that maps out a madcap week of fair sales, museum openings, gallery shows, and beachside parties. [ARTnews]
With the fair all done, Alexander Forbes of Artsy has a long analysis of how the sales went down, and he explores just how powerful mega-galleries have become within the art fair landscape. [Artsy]
There were a lot of parties at Art Basel, and a good chunk of them had fashion designer Virgil Abloh DJing—so many that Abloh tells Stephanie Eckardt at W magazine that he “lost count.” But he did remember that he launched a line of t-shirts with Jenny Holzer to benefit Planned Parenthood, and wanted to buy a work by Nicole Wermers at the Jessica Silverman Gallery booth. [W]
The editors of The Cut at New York magazine say they are exhausted by all the Miami madness—they call it “the tackiest season of allllll!“—but still manage to put together that essential bit of Basel runoff: the street style slideshow. [The Cut]
And Claire Valentine at Paper magazine takes a look at the 300 drones that the artist collective Studio Drift unleashed onto the beach during the fair. [Paper]
The Nation’s Museums
Amid protests and boycotts, President Trump toured the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi, Saturday. Michael D. Shear and Ellen Ann Fentress are on the ground for the New York Times, and they encountered State Senator Sollie Norwood, one of the many politicians and community figures who declined an invitation to attend the grand opening if the president would be there. He plans to attend once Trump leaves. “Today may be a grand opening, but there will be a grander opening,” Norwood said. “That will be the day that all of us will walk in.” [The New York Times]
Suzanne Barlyn of Reuters reports that the Getty Center has survived the California wildfires. The institution was able to dampen surrounding hills with on-site water tanks, keeping the flames at bay. [Reuters]
Matters of the Market
Over the last few years, the market for historically overlooked artists has skyrocketed, occupying the space one held by hot phenoms straight out of grad school. Julia Halperin, of artnet, parses the signs could indicate that this market has peaked. [artnet]
On Inspiration
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the death of Otis Redding, who went down in a plane crash when he was only 26. In the New Yorker, Jonathan Gould goes through the generations of musicians who have followed in Redding’s footsteps, a legacy that will stretch far beyond his tragically short career. [The New Yorker]
Noah Charney at Salon argues that European art owes a debt to the Islamic world, a debt that has never been properly acknowledged. [Salon]
The Critics
Andrea Scott admits to once being immune to the charms of David Hockney, but the arrival of a new retrospective at the Met—having been a huge hit at the Tate Britain—has made her think otherwise. “It arrives at its only venue in the United States as a revelation, a retort to all the eye-rollers (full disclosure: I’ve been one) who have dismissed the eighty-year-old British painter’s work as, at best, a guilty pleasure,” she writers in the New Yorker. [The New Yorker]
And another New Yorker critic, Richard Brody, takes on another medium: popular film. In his year-end roundup, he chooses “Get Out” as his favorite, and discusses why he had trouble classifying “Twin Peaks: The Return” as a movie. Hallowed film bibles, such as Cahiers du Cinema, have not only classified the Showtime series as a movie, but put it at the top of their list. [The New Yorker]