ROBERT SMITHSON’S ICONIC ‘SPIRAL JETTY’ IS NOW ON THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
Robert Smithson’s land art piece Spiral Jetty (1970) has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Completed on the shores of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Smithson used nature itself as his medium. With entropy as his inspiration, there is a cycle of creation and destruction that runs throughout the piece. Acquired by the Dia Foundation in 1999, the foundation has since partnered with the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster University, the Holt/ Smithson Foundation, and the Utah Museum of Fine Art at the University of Utah to steward the work. Spiral Jetty was created with more than 6,000 tons of black basalt rock and earth, unfurling as a counterclockwise coil, spanning 1,500 x 15 ft. Smithson intended for the piece to be a living, dynamic work, embracing the natural changes of the landscape throughout the years. Smithson wrote at the time of creation, “as I looked at the site, it reverberated out to the horizons only to suggest an immobile cyclone while flickering light made the entire landscape appear to quake.” A sense of the sublime is captured in this monumental piece of land art, alongside a familiar sense of ancient, cyclical rhythms.
NAOMI BECKWITH ANNOUNCED AS CURATOR FOR DOCUMENTA 2027
Naomi Beckwith, chief curator at the Guggenheim Museum, has been named the artistic director for documenta 16. Documenta is an exhibition that is held every five years in Kassel, Germany. With previous positions at MCA Chicago and the Studio Museum in Harlem, Beckwith is Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the Guggenheim. Having studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Beckwith has also served as a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. With documenta facing controversy in 2022, the minister of state arts and culture in the region has discussed reform and stated that “openness, a sense of community, and the unifying power of art already characterised the work of the Finding Committee and likewise form the basis of Naomi Beckwith’s practice.” As for Naomi Beckwith herself, the curator has shared, “documenta is an institution that belongs to the entire world, as much as it belongs to Kassel, as well as an institution that is in perpetual dialogue with history as much as it is a barometer of art and culture in the immediate present.”
Naomi Beckwith
LORRAINE O’GRADY (1934-2024)
Lorraine O’Grady, conceptual and performance artist, has passed away at the age of 90. Much of O’Grady’s work explored the tensions that arise with regards to culture, race, class, and national origin. Born in Boston in 1934, O’Grady soon became enthralled by the rituals and pageantry that came with the West Indian Episcopal church that her parents helped to found. One of the artist’s canonic performances was as Mlle Bourgeoise Noire, which highlighted the apartheid that black artists faced. Another prominent piece by O’Grady was a project of Surrealistic photocollages that explored violence faced by women on a daily basis, dealing with the power structures that sought to subjugate women. She wrote, “as an advantaged member of a disadvantaged group, I’ve lived my life on the rim—a dialectically privileged location that’s helped keep my political awareness acute.” Alongside her practice, O’Grady taught at SVA and continued to write, contributing to feminist journal Heresies and Artforum. O’Grady’s works are held in a number of prominent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Sammlung Verbund Collection in Vienna. O’Grady share in 2021, “I’m not somebody who is digging down deep to find an ultimate truth, just simply trying to make as many of my truths as visible as possible since they’ve been made invisible.”
Lorraine O'Grady
POLISH AUTHORITIES RECOVER STOLEN BANKSY AND DAMIEN HIRST WORKS
Polish authorities have seized several works, stolen from Przemyśl nearly three years ago as they were being shipped from Ukraine to Switzerland. The district prosecutor in Przemyśl revealed in a statement that 11 of the works had been seized, including works by Takashi Murakami, Linda McCartney, and Shi Xinning. Having been authenticated shortly after being seized, the works are estimated to be worth around $186,636. The investigation has been open since the night of the burglary on March 24, 2022, launched in collaboration with Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Fortunately, all the works have been recovered and are now with the Polish authorities.
THE SEARCH FOR VAN GOGH’S LOST MASTERPIECE
Vincent van Gogh’s painting, Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890), set the record of the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction on May 15, 1990. The work was completed just weeks before van Gogh’s death and may now be worth over $300 million. For the most part of the 20th century, the portrait was displayed at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. However, the work has been missing since the day of the Christie’s sale in 1990 and became one of the art world’s biggest mysteries. The buyer of the portrait at the Christie’s sale was a Japanese paper magnate who was criminally sanctioned and after his death, his collection was sold to an Austrian financier before being sold privately to an undisclosed party in 1998.Since then its whereabouts has been unknown, although speculation has pointed towards it belonging in a private collection in Europe. Thus, the question has arisen of whether collecting families hold any responsibility to share iconic pieces with the broader public. As for the work itself, van Gogh has expressed that it was a reflection of what van Gogh saw in both him and the doctor: a sense of melancholia. The painting would also pass through the hands of the Nazis, having been seized as a “degenerate” work. The painting holds a tumultuous history, and members of the art world still hold out hope for its reappearance.
Vincent van Gogh (b. 1853), Portrait of Dr. Gachet, 1890
IMPRESSIONISM IS 150 THIS YEAR. IS THE AUCTION INDUSTRY CELEBRATING?
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Impressionism’s birth in 1874, when an exhibition in Paris was unveiled including works by Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Berthe Morisot. Despite initial negative reviews by critics, Impressionism has become a major force in the art market. This year, a number of international institutions have commemorated artists such as Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Vincent van Gogh. Artnet and Morgan Stanley have collaborated to dissect auction statistics for Impressionist works using the Artnet Price Database to analyze results from 2014 to 2023. The report covers the trends in the Impressionist works as well as predictions for the future. Factors such Covid 19 and the Great Wealth Transfer that is currently underway can also be seen in the sales trends of Impressionist art. In addition, the report addresses the gender gap that is still prevalent despite collectors’ and institutional efforts to address the gender imbalance. Mary Cassatt is used as an example as despite being the best-selling female Impressionist artist, her auction record high is modest in comparison to best-selling male impressionists. Supply has also been restricted overall due to the considerable number of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works finding their way into museum collections.
Jordan Tan holds an MA in History of Art from the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art. With a passion for fine art and the art market, Jordan plays a key role at Art Works by researching and interpreting trends across the primary and secondary markets, delivering valuable insights and business intelligence for the fine art department.
