3 min read · 28 Jun 2024
Marina Abramović silences the Glastonbury festival from the Pyramid stage. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
This week, the auction rooms in London saw mixed results. Bright spots included a $20m Basquiat, which returned to auction at Sotheby’s. The sale was guaranteed, albeit some $10m below the offer price at Christie’s three years ago, when the painting was withdrawn. Two sculptures by Antony Gormley sold for more than $400,000 each, both above estimate. The artist recently donated a similar amount to the Labour Party, backing its plans to increase access to the arts as the UK chooses a new government after 14 years of Conservative-led administrations.
London: A $20m Jean-Michel Basquiat led Sotheby's auction, which included Ralph I. Goldenberg A-list collection. For all the highlights, see the HENI News report.
London: Lynette Yiadom Boakye led Christie's $13.11m 'Post-War to Present' auction, although 5am, Cadiz (2009), sold for $716,900. For more top lots, see the HENI News report.
Paris: Paris: Faith Ringgold’s work formed a colorful backdrop to Dior’s Olympic-themed haute couture show held at the Musée Rodin.
New York: Lucy Mitchell-Innes and David Nash, who represent artists such as Pope L. and Martha Rosler, announced they are closing their Chelsea space to focus on art advising.
Profile: Kimiyo Mishima has died, aged 91. The Japanese artist turned ceramics into garbage, including on a monumental scale on the art island of Naoshima, Japan News reports.
Hobart: The collector David Walsh and his partner, the artist Kirsha Kaechele, have responded to an adverse legal ruling about her single-sex Ladies Lounge by hanging Picassos in the women’s toilets of his museum, MONA.
Shows: Marina Abramović appeared on the main stage at the Glastonbury music festival and successfully asked the thousands-strong crowd to participate in seven minutes of "collective silence". The Guardian
In other news
Florence: The former director of the Uffizi Gallery, Eike Schmidt, has failed in his bid to become the mayor of Florence, gaining around a third of the votes for a centre-right party.
"‘I am terrified. I don’t know any visual artists who have done something like this in front of 175,000 to 200,000 people.’ Marina Abramović admitted to pre-performance nerves before she asked festival-goers at Glastonbury to join in a group-silence session."
- The Guardian