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The Headlines
MORE TURMOIL AT DOCUMENTA.The German show announced on Saturday that its board and its managing director,Sabine Schormann, had “mutually agreed” thatshe will depart, as it faces scrutiny over its handling of anti-Semitism allegations,Alex Greenbergerreports inARTnews. “A lot of trust has unfortunately been lost,” the board said in a statement. “The Supervisory Board considers it essential that everything is done to regain this trust.” The crisis has centered on an artwork containing anti-Semitic imagery and the inclusion of a Palestinian collective said to support theBoycott, Divestment, Sanctionsmovement. The board said that it will convene an expert panel on “contemporary anti-Semitism, the German and global context and post-colonialism as well as art,” and that it will no longer issue statements on its handling of the controversies.
Related Articles
Lily Safra, Collector Who Moved in High Society's Upper Echelons, Dies at 87
SFAI, Cash-Strapped California Art School, to Be Acquired by University of San Francisco
PHILANTHROPIST AND COLLECTOR LILY SAFRA,who plowed fortunes into art, jewels, and charitable causes,died on July 9at her home in Geneva at the age of 87, theNew York Timesreports. With her fourth husband, bankerEdmond J. Safra, who died in 1999, she built a formidable art collection that, in 2010, came to include aAlberto Giacomettithat she bought atSotheby’sin 2010 for $103 million, then the most ever paid for a sculpture at auction. A regular on theARTnewsTop 200 Collectorslist, she was an active donor to art institutions, and in 2011snapped upa $21 millionGerhard Richterpainting to give to theIsrael Museum, theFinancial Timesreports.
The Digest
TheMuseum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbarain California, which opened in 1976, said that it will shutter in late August, citing financial difficulties. “Despite our best efforts to expand our donor base within the region, we have been unable to reach the fundraising goals necessary to maintain operations,” its board president said in a statement.[Santa Barbara IndependentandThe Art Newspaper]
And theSan Francisco Art Institutesaid it will shut down its educational offerings, after theUniversity of San Franciscoannounced on Friday that it was withdrawing from a plan to merge with the art school, citing “business risks that could impact USF students, faculty, and staff.”[San Francisco Chronicle]
Jerome M. Eisenberg, “the dean of New York antiquities dealers,” has died at 92,Sam Robertsreports. Eisenberg estimated that he sold more than 40,000 through his Royal-Athena Galleries, which operated from 1954 to 2020, and emphasized the ethical sourcing of objects as a hallmark of his practice.[The New York Times]
Much-loved economistAdam Toozepaid a visit to artistHito Steyerl’s exhibition at theNational Museum of Modern and Contemporary Artin Seoul, and termed her video installationAnimal Spirits(2022) “the most extraordinary riff on Keynes I’ve ever seen, featuring wolves, Spanish shepherds, reality TV, crypto & the 1936 Olympics!”[@adam_tooze/Twitter]
A catalogue raisonné for the late artist (and art dealer)Betty Parsonshas launched online. The site is an initiative from theBetty Parsons and William P. Rayner Foundation, in collaboration with the Alexander Gray Associates gallery, which exhibits her work.[ArtDaily]
Tennis starMaria Sharapovaand her fiancé, art entrepreneur and auctioneerAlexander Gilkes, announced the recent birth of their first child,Theodore.[Page Six]
The Kicker
THE ARTIST IS PRESENT.Performance legendMarina Abramovicisdoing pressbecause she is about to drop her first NFT, and in theGuardiansheshared some of her cultural touchstones, like theOmen Azenrestaurant in SoHo and aSigur Rósconcert she attended. At that show, she said, the group’s lead singer,Jónsi, “went into a trance and created this kind of energy vortex—a volcanic tornado of energy—which the public became part of and could not escape.” That evocative description sounds both terrifying—and exciting! Perhaps someone could sign up Abramovic as a music columnist?[The Guardian]
