Futura claims the company copied his signature stylized atom motif in a 2019 line of waterproof apparel. “The similarity of the graphic designs and the names is no coincidence,” read the artist’s filing, which was submitted to the California Central District Court. The North Face has not offered a comment. (Artnet)
A painting by celebrated New Zealand artist C.F. Goldie, valued at more than €1 M, was stolen from a private home in Hamilton over the holidays. The work, entitled Sleep 'tis a Gentle Thing, depicts Ngāti Maru and Ngāti Paoa chief Hori Pokai. (NZ Herald)
According to Artprice, the American expressionist painter recorded the second-best results in her history – just below her 2018 record – with a total of $71 M at auction for 48 works. She was the most-successful women artist on the market in 2020, ahead of Yayoi Kusama and Tamara de Lempika.
The 1936 painting was gifted by the cartoonist Hergé to Tintin-publisher Jean-Louis Casterman. It sold for €3.2 M at Artcurial yesterday, becoming the world’s most expensive comic book artwork – a record previously held by a collection of original ink drawings for the series, which sold for €2.51 M.
Following feverish bidding at Heritage Auctions, the rare 1940 issue set a new record for the Batman series and became the second most expensive comic book ever sold in a public sale. It didn’t quite reach the stunning heights of the record holder – a pristine edition of Action Comics #1, which sold for $3.1 M in 2014.
Beckwith is the Guggenheim’s first Black Deputy Director and Chief Curator. In her new role, she hopes to broaden the museum’s collections and work towards a more equitable work environment. She succeeds Nancy Spector, who stepped down three months ago amid charges of racism. (NY Times)
The Tuscan gallery already has locations in San Gimignano, Beijing, Havana and Boissy-le-Châtel. On January 20, it’s moving to 85 rue du Temple, to the former premises of a leather goods wholesaler. Space in the gallery will be reserved for food products from the various countries where the gallery has a home. (Oda)
Forced to cancel its Marrakech edition amid the ongoing health crisis, 1-54 is working with Christie’s to organize a new physical art fair in Paris. From January 20 to 23, contemporary works from 18 galleries will be exhibited, representing artists from across Africa and the African diaspora.
The São Paulo gallery, the first Brazilian chain in New York, left the Upper East Side to head downtown to Chelsea, in new premises designed by Miguel Pinto Guimarães. Here, on February 25, a solo show of Amelia Toledo (1926-2017).
The Slovenian-born curator, writer and art critic – who was previously co-director of Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers – is the new Head of Cultural Programming at the Cité Internationale des Arts, which hosts around 300 artists-in-residence every month.
Art dealers Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch sold the 12th dynasty Egyptian stele to the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich, Germany for more than £40,000. The 16-inch limestone relief depicts a couple standing beside a table laden with food and drink. (Antiques Trade Gazette)
The Foundation awarded $3.9 M in grants as part of its Fall 2020 program. Recipients include 19 small-to-mid-sized arts organizations, like Philadelphia’s ‘Black Star’ and New York’s ‘Wendy’s Subway’, as well as 22 museums and galleries “that will present exhibitions that expand upon critical cultural conversations”.
Independent Curators International is partnering with the Marian Goodman Gallery to create new opportunities for BIPOC curators, launching a curatorial intensive in Africa and two curatorial research fellowships. Filmmaker Steve McQueen conceived of the initiative to honor late curator Okwui Enwezor. (Art Forum)
Although not scheduled until 2022, it is “increasingly likely” that the contemporary art show will have to be set back a year. This is due to the necessity of international travel during the show’s lengthy preparation period, General Director Sabine Schormann told Deutschlandfunk Kultur. (The Art Newspaper)
The purple-hued painting adorns the walls of a cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. If archaeologists’ age estimates are correct, this prehistoric pig might be the oldest-known painting of an animal, and thus the earliest-known example of figurative art – depictions of the real world rather than abstract designs.
Long hidden beneath the streets of the city, the Pleasure Gardens of one of Ancient Rome’s most tyrannical rulers have been recovered by archaeologists and will be displayed in the subterranean Nymphaeum Museum of Piazza Vittorio, set to open this Spring. (NY Times)
Germany has announced it is offering €32 M to public cultural institutions in order to fund modernization projects and enhanced security measures. This measure is intended to help preserve the country’s cultural infrastructure, with culture minister Monika Grütters explaining: “Culture creates identity and cohesion.”
On February 12, Paris auction house Ader will offer up a rare chest by Josef Hoffman (1870-1956), estimated at €80,000 / €100,000. Likely created in 1911-1912 for the Spring Exhibition of Austrian Decorative Arts in Vienna, its sculpted decoration and mother-of-pearl marquetry are unique in the artist’s known corpus.
The 1936 painting of the French comic book hero was gifted by Hergé, the cartoonist behind the series, to Tintin-publisher Jean-Louis Casterman. It had been left folded up in a drawer for years before being put up for sale in Paris today – it is estimated at between €2.2 M and €2.8 M.
Das Klavierspiel, stolen by the Nazis in 1939, has been returned to the heirs of Henri Hinrichsen. Of some 1,500 works seized by German customs in 2012 at the home of Nazi-era art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt’s son, it is the last of 14 definitively identified as having been looted by the Nazis to be restituted.
