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Review of the Week: Man Ray’s Surreal Chess Set, Françoise Gilot’s new auction record and Frida Kahlo makes her Venice debut

4 min read  ·  12 Apr 2024

Man Ray's metronome, Objet indestructible (1965) sold for $97,300 at Christie's Paris. Image copyright the artist's estate, courtesy of Christie's

Ahead of the Venice Biennale, which opens next week to VIPs, Adriano Pedrosa, the Brazilian curator and artistic director of this year’s main exhibition, spoke to The Times about his choice of artists. They include Frida Kahlo, who makes her long-overdue Biennale debut. Françoise Gilot, another female artist long overshadowed by her artist husband, was also in the news.

Auctions

Paris: Françoise Gilot's auction record was broken at Christie’s when her painting Concert on the Green (Le Concert Champêtre) sold for $1.42m. HENI News

Paris: A painting Man Ray created in Hollywood and a Surrealist chess set were the top lots at Christie’s $5m auction of the Marion Meyer collection. HENI News

Shows

London: Yinka Shonibare ‘decolonizes’ Churchill and other historical figures in the artist’s solo show at the Serpentine Galleries.

Tokyo: The sprawling Yokohoma Triennial is in full swing (until June 9).

"‘I can walk into a show now and not have the first line of the review pop into my head.” Roberta Smith on life after stepping down as The Times' longstanding co-chief art critic. "

- The New York Times

Legal

Hobart: A tribunal has ruled that Kirsha Kaechele's Ladies Lounge, a woman-only installation at MONA, discriminates against men.

Market

Chicago: Expo Chicago returned to Navy Pier, the first edition of the art fair under Frieze’s ownership.

Museums

Munich: the Pinakothek der Moderne fired an artist who installed his own painting on its walls while working as a technician.

People

Florence: Former Uffizi director Eike Schmidt has joined the race to be the next mayor of the Italian city.

On this day

On April 13, 1870 The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was born but the institution had no building, art or staff when formally established.

Cities

Los Angeles: Ed Ruscha was among the leading artists who donated works for Jane Fonda and Larry Gagosian’s $10m fundraiser against Big Oil in California.

Obit

New Work: Patti Astor, actor, artist and founder of Fun Gallery, where artists such as Keith Haring first made their mark, has died at 74.

Patti Astor with Keith Haring and LA 2’s The Smurfs at the FUN Gallery in February 1983. Photo by Eric Kroll