Week in Review: 2020 Turner Prize Canceled; Hong Kong Artists Oppose New Security Law

Protesters against the arrest of the author and journalist Jill Nelson at the NYPD 33rd precinct in Washington Heights, New York (photo by Hakim Bishara for Hyperallergic)

Week in Review is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world. Subscribe to receive these posts as a weekly newsletter.

On Thursday, May 28, China passed a national security law to give mainland China the power to suppress political protest in Hong Kong. Over 1,500 people signed a petition saying this will “create a climate of fear and self-censorship that harms artistic expression, free speech, cultural exchange and even personal security.”

A group of about 40 activists gathered outside the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) 33rd precinct in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood yesterday, May 25, to protest last month’s arrest of the 67-year-old author and journalist Jill Nelson.

A Hudson Valley museum, Magazzino Italian Art, will reopen with a unique set of social distancing initiatives, including a wearable device that buzzes and blinks when it senses another patron get too close.

New programs at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) will provide broad-ranging support to local artists, galleries, and communities.

Anne Spencer, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Nella Larsen, and Alain Locke (image courtesy the United States Postal Service)

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tate will forego the 2020 Turner Prize, instead awarding £100,000 to 10 British artists.

A new set of USPS stamps commemorates four Harlem Renaissance figures: novelist Nella Larsen, philosopher Alaine Locke, historian Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, and poet Anne Spencer.

The Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) announced that it would reduce tuition by 10% for the 2020-2021 school year in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In California, art schools and programs are considering their reopening plans. Hyperallergic reached out to several schools in the state to see how they are planning to address the need for social distancing while maintaining the integrity of their arts curriculums.

Transactions

David Hockney, “View from the Mayflower Hotel, New York (Evening)” (2002), Watercolor and crayon on paper, 24 x 18 1/8 in (New-York Historical Society, Promised Gift of Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Collection, Scenes of New York City. © David Hockney. Photo by Richard Schmidt.)

In a sale of Versailles royal memorabilia at French auction house Osenat, a trunk that Marie Antoinette used for travel sold for €43,750 (~$48,500), soaring past its high estimate of €10,000 (~$11,000). Additional lots of interest include an épinette decorated with birds and inscribed with a charming poem, which sold for €6,250 (~$6,900); a letter that Marie Antoinette sent to her sister Marie-Christine in 1782, which garnered €8,125 (~$9,000); and a bronze-patinated marine cannon, which sold for €4,000 (~$4,400).

Collectors Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld (a real estate magnate and scientist, respectively) made a promised gift of 130 artworks to the New-York Historical Society. The donation spans paintings, sculptures, and works on paper and includes works by 107 artists, many of whom were affiliated with New York-led movements. Among the highlights are Norman Rockwell’s “Gramercy Park” (c. 1918), Louise Nevelson’s “America *New York” (1965), David Hockney’s “View From the Mayflower Hotel” (2002), and Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Study for “Brooklyn Bridge” (1949). An exhibition of the works is planned for 2021.

To coincide with the planned reopening of Sotheby’s in New York, the auction house will hold a sale of over 450 works from the holdings of the late collector, gallerist, and philanthropist Ginny Williams. The collection, which is valued at over $50 million, prominently features work by female artists including Louise Bourgeois, Agnes Martin, and Joan Mitchell. The Art Newspaper quoted Sotheby’s Saara Pritchard noting that the occasion marks “the first time female artists will comprise over two-thirds of the value of the sale.”

In 2012, German officials discovered that Cornelius Gurlitt, son of notorious Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, was hoarding over 1,500 artworks inherited from his father. The Kunstmuseum Bern in Switzerland acquired the stash when Gurlitt passed in 2014; due to the likelihood that many of the works were looted, the museum vowed to perform extensive provenance research on the collection. In 2016, the German Lost Art Foundation took over that research, which has now formally come to a close. Their findings were largely inconclusive and a paltry 14 works were determined to be Nazi-looted and subsequently restituted.

This Week in the Art World

Myrlande Constant, “Exorcism” (1994-2019), Sequins, glass beads, and silk on cotton, 40 x 50 inches (Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, museum purchase with funds provided by PAMM’s Collectors Council with additional contributions provided by Karen Bechtel, Evelio and Lorena Gomez, Jorge M. Pérez, and Craig Robin.)

The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) acquired eight works from local galleries. | Art Newspaper

Terrie Sultan is leaving her position as director of the Parrish Art Museum. | Artforum

The Estate of Sophie Taeuber-Arp is now represented by Hauser & Wirth. | ARTnews

Firelei Baéz is the Visual Art grantee of the 2020 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts at CalArts. | CalArts

Conservator Emmanuel Kasarhérou is the new president of the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac. | RFI

Suzy Delvalle is leaving her position as executive director of Creative Capital. | Artforum

New York’s Magenta Plains announced representation of Jennifer Bolande. | Via email announcement

The Rubin Museum announced the appointment of Dona Lee Kelly to Director of Development and the addition of Chris Fussner, Namita Saraf, Jesse Smith, and Tong-Tong Zhu to the Board of Trustees. | Via email announcement