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The Headlines
THE RECLUSIVE ARTIST CADY NOLAND IS BACK with an extremely rare solo show that includes new work at Galerie Buchholz in New York. The exhibition, which was unannounced and just opened, is tied to a freshly printed book by the artist and the art historian Rhea Anastas titled The Clip-On Method. The duo approached Buchholz about doing a show, and the gallery’s proprietors handed over the keys to their Manhattan space, Nate Freeman reports in Artnet News . (As it happens, dealer José Freire told ARTnews a few years back that he once gave Noland gallery keys so she could install a piece at her leisure.) Meanwhile, ARTnews contributor Greg Allen has investigated where Noland may have sourced some steel fencing and plastic barricades in the show.
WITH VIRUS TRANSMISSION EBBING IN SOME PLACES, museums are getting back to business. The latest sign: the reopening of various Yayoi Kusama “Infinity Rooms,” the small, enclosed, mirrored chambers that are great for taking selfies but not necessarily great for enjoying during an airborne pandemic. The Art Newspaper reports that, starting this week, the New York Botanical Garden has put on sale tickets to an “Infinity Room” that will allow visitors to enter in August; it’s part of the museum’s major Kusama show that it opened back in April. Per ArtDaily, the Rubell Museum in Miami is welcoming people back into its two rooms starting today. As it happens, one of the Rubell pieces, from 2017, has an apropos title: INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM – LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER.”
The Digest
The sculptor Laura “Missie” Thorne, who cofounded what is now the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado with two other artists, has died at the age of 79. The institution opened in 1979 in an old power plant, and relocated to its current Shigeru Ban–designed home in 2014. [Aspen Times]
A statue of Theodore Roosevelt astride a horse—long criticized as racist and colonialist—is set to be removed from the grounds of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. The New York City Public Design voted unanimously that it should reside, as a long-term loan, with an as-yet-undecided institution that focuses on Roosevelt. [The New York Times]
An edition of a very different equestrian sculpture, Kehinde Wiley’s Rumors of War, which features a young Black man on horseback, will be offered by Phillips at a moment when the artist’s market is ascendent. [ARTnews]
The trial has begun of the Egyptian man who attacked French soldiers with a machete at the Louvre in Paris in 2017. He is accused of “attempted terrorist murders” and faces life in prison. [AFP/Barron’s]
Aiming to bring transparency, and sensible pricing, to the notoriously opaque art market, a new service called Facture unites catalogue raisonné records for more than 60 key artists with auction results, museum inventory, and gallery listings. [ARTnews]
After four years of work and millions of dollars, a remarkable Diego Rivera mural has been moved from the City College of San Francisco to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It goes on view there on June 28. [The New York Times]
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation has awarded grants totaling $3.35 million to 137 artists and nonprofits, including Amy Feldman, Laddie John Dill, and Olga Balema. [Artforum]
An 822-page new book provides meticulous documentation of the Sistine Chapel. Produced from 270,000 photos shot over two months at the Vatican, it is priced at £16,500 (about $23,100). [Financial Times]
The Kicker
IN A PUBLICITY STUNT FOR THE AGES, the first home that architect Antoni Gaudí ever designed, the Casa Vicens in Barcelona, Spain, will be available to book on Airbnb for a single night—for €1 (or about $1.20.) The 1883–85 structure was a private residence until 2014, is now a museum, and was described in great detail in a recent ARTnews primer on Gaudí. Architectural Digest story has the details about the hot, and very limited-time, deal: the single first-come, first-served reservation will go live on July 12 at 4 p.m. locally (10 a.m. in New York). Good luck! [Architectural Digest]
Thank you for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.