5 min read · 21 Dec 2024
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half (1964) sold for a record $68.2m at Christie's. Copyright the artist, image courtesy of Christie's
Here is the HENI News review of 2024. To find out more about any of the artists and other personalities who feature, click on their unique HENI News Dashboard.
The year opened on an honorable note when Brian Clarke received a knighthood. The artist who injected bright, Punk colors to stained glass windows in buildings designed by some of the world’s leading architects was made Sir Brian by King Charles III. After an eight-year-long legal battle, Richard Prince settled with two photographers out of court, with Prince agreeing to pay a six-figure sum without accepting he had infringed their copyright. January was also the month a giant of Minimalism, Carl Andre, died at 88. His legacy will be overshadowed, however, by the death of his wife and fellow artist Ana Mendieta, in tragic circumstances.
Jeff Koons’ Moon Phases became the first authorized work of art to make it to the surface of the moon, after a fashion. The launch was beset by technical issues and then the lunar lander containing the artist’s sculptures toppled over on touchdown. In a giant step for Brooklyn, highlights of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys’ collection went on show at the Brooklyn Museum, the start of a world tour. Ahead of his own show at the Brooklyn Museum, Takashi Murakami, announced that he still had faith in NFTs, despite a disappointing drop of "Murakami Flowers".
The art world said goodbye to another giant of Minimalism when Richard Serra died, aged 85. The irresistible rise of Female Surrealist artists, overshadowed during their lives by their male friends and lovers, continued in 2024. It was led by Leonora Carrington, whose auction record jumped 700% when a 1945 painting sold for more than $28m at Sotheby’s. Variety got the scoop that “NTF:WTF?,” a documentary that features Damien Hirst's "The Currency", had been bought by Netflix. Kirsha Kaechele's feminist installation at the Museum of New and Old Art, founded by her partner, David Walsh, ended up in court after a visitor complained The Ladies Lounge discriminated against men.
The Venice Biennale opened. Increasingly known for giving a boost to dead artists, one late artist making their debut needed no introduction. A tiny self-portrait by Frida Kahlo was among curator Adriano Pedrosa’s more suprising picks. The Biennale’s other firsts included Pope Francis visiting the Vatican’s pavilion. The exhibition presented in a women’s prison featured a giant pair of unwashed feet, courtesy of Maurizio Cattelan. Ongoing conflict in Gaza led to high-profile protests throughout the year, not least by Ruth Patir who decided to keep her work for the Israel pavilion closed until there was a ceasefire and further release of hostages. A vain hope, it proved. Jenny Holzer, coincidentally the first female artist to represent the US at the Biennale, lit up the rotunda of the Guggenheim in New York, 35 years after the same electronic text work raced around its spiral ramp.
This was the month the art world bid farewell to Frank Stella. A towering figure, he made history in 1970, when MoMA presented his retrospective when he was only 33. Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat's untitled joint painting, a collaboration that met with a mixed reception at the time, set a new auction record for the power duo, selling for more than $19m at Sotheby's. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ string of light bulbs sold for more than $13m at Christie’s, setting a new auction record for the artist. Another artist who died too young, Ana Mendieta, saw her auction record jump by 175%, also at Christie's.
Art Basel in Basel got off to a brisk start, with VIPs collectors snapping up a Gerhard Richter with a seven-figure price tag and an eight-figure work by Joan Mitchell. Meanwhile, Agnes Denes' signature work of Land Art, a field of wheat she first planted beneath the World Trade Center, formed a memorable welcome to the fair on the Messeplatz. The week after Art Basel was overshadowed by the death of esteemed New York dealer Barbara Gladstone. In Cannes, a Niki de Saint Phalle biopic was screened at the film festival.
The triumphant return of the Olympic Games was helped by Alison Saar, who created a sculpture in the form of a graceful, seated figure, which was installed just off the Champs-Elysées. Damien Hirst’s contribution to sporting Paris this summer flew across its streets: He designed a pair of “butterfly” cycling shoes for the champion sprinter Mark Cavendish, who wore them on the final leg of the Tour de France. Also in July, Bill Viola, the video artist who channeled the Renaissance died, aged 73, after a long illness.
It is rare for a month to go by without Banksy making news (see also, thefts of and attacks on his works). The artist’s animal-themed summer spree was more attention grabbing than usual. He unveiled a parade of animal-themed works across London. The Rothko Chapel, home to the artist’s famous murals, was damaged by Hurricane Beryl and its famous panels remain in the conservation studio. Ed Ruscha talked to the LA Times about his love of gardening in the Southern Californian desert. The artist revealed that he made his own plant labels, which become poignant epitaphs when something dies.
Rebecca Horn died, aged 80. Munich's Haus der Kunst presented what opened as a career retrospective of the German feminist artist’s work and then became a posthumous tribute. Gertrude Abercrombie’s auction record jumped 25% when The Magician sold for just shy of $470,000, underscoring the resurgence in interest in lesser-known female Surrealists. Later in the fall, her work, Silo at Aledo, sold for more than $864,000, an 83% rise. Marking the end of an era, the MoMA director Glenn Lowry announced that he will step down in 2025, after leading the institution for more than three, increasingly tumultuous decades.
Nan Goldin and Molly Crabapple got themselves arrested in a Pro-Palestine protest at New York Stock Exchange. Carrie Mae Weems and Mark Bradford headed to the White House to receive National Medals of the Arts from President Biden. Meanwhile, Jeff Koons' American Flagpole (Gazing Balls) raised $225,000 for the Harris-Walz US presidential campaign but in what subsequently seems an omen, it sold for 25% below the low estimate in the Artists for Kamala Benefit Auction. Speculation about a "Trump bump" in purchases by high-net-worth collectors in the big New York auctions proved overly optimistic.
Peter Doig made his New York debut as a curator. "The Street", a prestigious group show at Gagosian, which centered on a painting by Balthus, was a critical hit. Numerous artists’ auction records tumbled in the New York sale rooms, led by Ed Ruscha with a $68m sale and a Magritte that sold for more than $121m. Both were partially eclipsed by the novelty sale of Maurizio Cattelan’s banana and duct-tape work for more than $6m to crypto billionaire Justin Sun. He was soon boasting about eating the soft fruit. Female artists, bar a couple of exceptions, have long been undervalued by the market but times are changing. A work by the Surrealist Remedios Varo set an auction record for the artist when it soared past the $2m mark. Frank Auerbach, the figurative painter who escaped Nazi Germany as a child, died at 93 in London. A reclusive workaholic, he said in one of his rare interviews that he would die with a brush in his hand.
At Art Basel in Miami Beach works by the veteran Black artist David Hammons were in demand. A piece sold for $4.75m at Hauser and Wirth and for $2.35m at White Cube on the VIP opening day. At the end of a tough year for dealers and auction houses, Sotheby’s announced its second round of lay-offs in a year and Christie’s reported that its global sales were down. On a positive note to end the year, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, arguably the most famous work of Land art in the world, was added to the USA’s National Register of Historic Places. Notre-Dame re-opened, gloriously restored, and French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Claire Tabouret had won the commission to create a stained glass window for the great cathedral.