Armory Week Wrap-Up
Most of the fairs that took over New York during Armory Week closed yesterday after running through the weekend. If you’ve been busy all week, and need to catch up on the coverage, check out all of the action right here! [ARTnews]
And here’s a look at how digital technology is becoming more present at the fairs. [The Verge]
And where, oh where, do we take all the selfies? [W]
The State of the Market
Katya Kazakina declares that, between the moderate sales at New York fairs, the stock market uptick early in the week, and big lots at the Impressionist and modern auctions in London, the market has been “jolted into high gear.” [Bloomberg]
Today, the annual TEFAF art report has been released. It’s the first report since its previous anchor, Clare McAndrew, left last summer to develop a similar study for Art Basel. [Financial Times]
And if you’re looking for anecdotal information about where the market is at right now, the ADAA’s president, Adam Sheffer, told Linda Yablonsky that at his fair opening Tuesday he saw “more billionaires tonight than I ever did in Basel.” [Artforum]
Met Museum in Flux
It’s only been a few days since the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that its director, Thomas Campbell, would step down in June, but the New York institution has to carry on with its exhibition schedule during the transition period. The Met announced yesterday that the latest artist to have an exhibition on its roof will be Adrián Villar Rojas, who will open a series of 20 site-specific installations, titled “The Theater of Disappointment,” April 14. At age 36, Villar Rojas will be the youngest artist to present work on the Met’s roof. [The New York Times]
Meanwhile, the search for a new director begins, and former Met Fellow Liza Oliver thinks the next director needs to be a woman. [The New York Times]
More bad news: a visitor accidentally clocked a Met security guard in the head with a bottle of wine! [The New York Post]
And this is a lovely story about the Met’s recreation of the West Village closet of Sara Berman, a Belarussian and Israeli émigré who only wore white and had quite the collection of stuff. It is being presented by Berman’s daughter, the artist and illustrator Maira Kalman, and her grandson, Mmuseumm founder Alex Kalman. [The New York Times]
Overseas Activities
Garage—the London-based magazine founded by the collector and Garage Museum head Dasha Zhukova—has a new issue out. The cover features work by Mark Grotjahn. [WWD]
Declassified documents reveal that Margaret Thatcher tried to bring the $1.2 billion Thyssen collection to the United Kingdom. Ultimately, it ended up in Spain. [The Art Newspaper]
Haus der Kunst’s director, Okwui Enwezor, is having some pretty serious problems with Scientologists infiltrating the Munich art institution. [Deutsche Welle]
R.I.P
Spencer Hays—the businessman and art collector who, alongside his wife, will donate their entire collection to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris—died last week. He was 80. [The Tennessean]