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2011’s Biggest Art Stories
MutualArt.com presents our summary of this year’s top news stories that grabbed the headlines, followed by major award-winners, humanitarian nods and a special In Memoriam section.
MutualArt
Dec 28, 2011
TIME Magazine has designated 2011 the year of the “Protester”, and the art world proved no exception, from picketing Teamsters, to an outspoken Chinese activist, to artists fighting for their resale rights. With sales fluctuating at auction, art forgery scandals, and rediscovered masterpieces - this year proved to be very provocative!
MutualArt.com presents our summary of this year’s top news stories that grabbed the headlines, followed by major award-winners, humanitarian nods and a special In Memoriam section.
Uprising at Sotheby's: Art Handlers Lockout
In July the company failed to reach an agreement with its unionized art
handlers over their new
contracts; after repeated threats to strike, Sotheby’s locked out
its 43 handlers and replaced them with temporary workers. The union
stepped up its response,
picketing outside the New York branch. By October the rallies had
only grown stronger and louder, as the
Occupy movement took over the cause. At Sotheby’s November
Contemporary art sale, eight angry protesters were
arrested; still, inside the saleroom, it was business
as usual and collectors hardly seemed to
notice the commotion. But both sides want to resolve the matter, as
the dispute reportedly has cost Sotheby’s nearly
$2.4 million and soon the handlers’ health insurance will expire.
Yet tensions remain high, as only a few weeks ago NY Mayor Bloomberg’s
girlfriend
threatened to resign from Sotheby’s board if the Teamsters get their
way...One thing is for certain, this debacle will go down as the longest
lockout in Sotheby’s history.
Ai Weiwei
First his Shanghai studio was
demolished in January; then on April 3rd
he was arrested at the airport and held in secret police
captivity for
over 2 months. The arts community
rallied
around the high-profile
artist, with everyone from museums to Anish Kapoor calling for his
release and staging
protests. After his release, the artist was charged
$2.4 million in back taxes; luckily
donations poured in from fans. His
defiant return to
Twitter and new
pornography allegations have kept the
artist in the spotlight. Ai Weiwei’s outspoken activism earned him the
number 1 spot on
ArtReview’s annual Power 100 list, the third spot on
Time Magazine’s Person of the Year list, and the #1
Hero of the year in
Time Out Hong Kong, to name a few accolades. At least with all this
media attention, his touring Zodiac Heads shows gained a huge following.
Auction Records and a Flop
During 2010 the auction arena seemed to be making a steady comeback from
the 2008 financial downturn; 2011 started off promising enough, but in
the end proved slightly more contentious. This year was one filled with
several highs: on November 3, a $40 million record for a Nazi-looted
recovered Gustave
Klimt helped fuel a market rebound at Sotheby’s; a
record $43 million for a Roy
Lichtenstein’s “I Can See the Whole Room!…
And There’s Nobody in It!” at Christie’s in November; Andreas
Gursky
broke the all-time record for a photograph sale, making his “Rhein II”
the most expensive photo in the world, worth $4.3 million; and
Clyfford
Still swept the floor and earned a $61.7 million record for “1949-A-No.
1,” raising profits for his namesake museum in that opened the following
week in Denver. Yet there were also moments of doubt, mainly, in August
Sotheby’s
shares fell 13%, and Christie’s NY Impressionist Sale
flopped
in November, when over-estimated pieces by Degas, Matisse, and even
Picasso were shunned by buyers.
Left to right: Klimt's “Litzlberg am Attersee,” Lichtenstein's "I Can See the Whole Roon!...And There's Nobody in It!", and Gursky's "Rhein II"
Click here to read our 2011 auction summary and find out the year’s top selling artists and lots.
German Art Forgery Trial
Called the biggest art
scam in Europe in recent memory, in September a
German artist pled
guilty to forging 14 modern art paintings by modern
art greats such as Heinrich Campendonk, Max Ernst, and Fernand Leger.
The fraud totaled roughly $22 million, and captivated media attention
during the trail. Oddly enough, the lovable nature of the plaintiff
seemed to
win over popular opinion, and many were happy to see him
receive a fairly lenient sentence of 6 years. Only after the trial was
signed and sealed was the extent of his deceit uncovered, and some
53
forgeries confirmed that involve major auction houses like Sotheby’s and
Christie’s.
Artists fight for Resale Rights
In October, artist Chuck Close, and the estates of artists Robert Graham
and Sam Francis
filed suit against Sotheby’s and Christies, fighting for
their right to 5% profits from art resales. The suit claims the auction
houses violated California’s 1977 Resale Royalty Act, which was inspired
by European “Droit de suit” laws to protect artists after they lose
ownership of their work. Meanwhile, a bill proposed to
Congress in
December requires large auction houses to pay 7% on sales over $10,000,
with half the proceeds going into an art acquisition fund for nonprofit
museums. The Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011 would help visual
artists gain a more equal footing with those who already benefit from
extra income from copyright laws. Currently, visual artists are paid
just once, when they sell a work to its first owner. Across the pond,
the UK is set to initiate its first controversial
Artist Resale Right in
January, for living artists or the estates of those who died in the last
100 years.
Re-discovered Masterpieces
Thanks to the power of X-ray,
Rembrandt
was vindicated in late November
by confirming his authorship of “Old man with a Beard.” And restoration
work on
Salvador Mundi corrected a previous belief that it was created
by a protege of Da Vinci, and now credited to the master himself and
worth over $200 million (now on view at the National Gallery’s show- if
you can get in); currently a battle is brewing over a suspected
Da Vinci
that is hiding behind another masterful mural in Florence.
Rembrandt, Salvador Mundi by Leonardo Da Vinci" style="padding: 10px; float: none;" />
Mega-Hit Museum Shows
Non-traditional mega-hit shows made a splash in 2011, where everything
from cartoons to couture enthralled audiences.
Tim Burton’s whimsical
fantasies were a hit at LACMA, making it the fifth best attended show; Alexander McQueen’s iconic designs dazzled at the Met, so much so that they
extended the show and its hours three times and final attendance numbers
put it as the
eighth most popular show ever, beating Van Gogh and Jeff
Koons and helping the
Met set a 40-year attendance record. And street
art finally got its official claim to fame at MoCA’s wildly popular Art
in the Streets show that racked up the
highest attendance in the
museum’s history. Lastly and less surprising is the National Gallery of
London’s blockbuster
Da Vinci exhibition; the show’s remarkable
popularity is already expected to smash attendance records (it only
opened in November!). All of the advanced tickets have sold out until
2012, and ticket scalpers became a regular feature outside the museum,
with un-official internet ticket sales going for $200-$300! A
movie of
the exhibit is even on its way. Way to go, Leo the rock star!
US Modern Art Forgery Ring
The New York Times broke the story in early December that US federal
agents are investigating a potential modern art
forgery ring among elite
New York art dealers. Works sold for up to $17 million by the likes of
Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell are in the spotlight, sold through
prestigious galleries such as Knoedler & Company (which mysteriously
closed up shop days before the suspicions surfaced). A London collector
has already confirmed that a
Pollock he purchased in 2001 from Knoedler
is indeed a fake. The Times reports that the investigation commenced in
2009.
Big Private Museum Openings
As public art funding continues to shrivel, private donors have been
making huge contributions, although not without a little controversy. In
March, the world’s richest man, billionaire Carlos Slim, unveiled his
gift to Mexico, the new
Soumaya art museum, with a supposed $700 million
collection. While fetching much media buzz, critics were less impressed
by the results, calling it a “vanity” museum that is not truly a great
contribution to the art world. And this month, Alice Walton of the
Wal-Mart dynasty presented her gift to the nation, a sprawling new art
museum stocked with a first-class modern art collection - in Arkansas. A
$20 million donation has even allowed the museum to offer free
admission. Already equally loved and despised, critics came blazing
before the first visitors even toured the venue. It seems Ms. Walton can
do no good, spending millions on a museum instead of her
employees, and
moving masterpieces from their current homes...to Arkansas!
Honorable mentions:
New Van Gogh death theory
FBI chief who ordered art theft
Hidden animal images found in Mona Lisa
Cleaner damages $1m modern artwork
Missing $30m Farrah fawcett Warhol on Ryan O’neal’s wall
Facebook art censorship
Matisse painting attacked at the National Gallery
Poussin painting
spray-painted at the National Gallery
Top art prizes
Turner Prize:
Martin Boyce
Max Mara Art Prize for Women:
Laure Prouvost
Venice Golden Lion:
Christoph Schlingensief for the German Pavilion;
Christian Marclay for
Best Work
RIBA Stirling Prize:
Zaha Hadid
Deutsche Borse Photography Prize:
Jim Goldberg
Humanitarian Nods
Takashi Murakami for his auction to benefit Japan
Hamish Parker for donating $1m to British Museum in Picasso prints
Yvon Lambert
for the largest art donation to France
Ben Stiller/David Zwirner
for their Haiti art auction
In Memoriam
John Chamberlain
Dennis A. Oppenheim
M.F. Husain
Lucian Freud
Cy Twombly
Margaret Olley
Leonora Carrington
Richard Hamilton
Helen Frankenthaler
Claudio Bravo
Written and Compiled by MutualArt writer Joanna Bledsoe
