From the world of art
BLACK HISTORY MONTH CELEBRATES BLACK ARTISTS
NEW MUSEUMS OPEN AROUND THE WORLD
FEMALE ARTISTS CLOSING THE GENDER GAP
150 YEARS OF PIET MONDRIAN
SOTHEBY ’S AND CHRISTIE’S CANCEL RUSSIAN AUCTIONS
Here’s our snapshot of the latest art news and trends from across the globe, including the UK’s first permanent digital art gallery, celebrating Black artists, and how the art world is responding to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
As COVID-19 restrictions continue to lift, more countries are investing in their cultural offerings. In Egypt, the $1 billion Grand Egyptian Museum will be more than double the size of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and house 100,000 ancient artifacts, including those from the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Fotografiska, a centre for contemporary photography, will open new galleries in Berlin and Shanghai to add to its current spaces in Stockholm, New York and Tallinn, forming the world’s largest private art museum. Along with the upcoming Hong Kong Palace museum, collectors can now visit the world’s first NFT museum in Seattle. The frontiers of modern technology will also be explored by the UK’s first permanent immersive digital gallery, The Reel Store. Its debut exhibition, Machine Memoirs: Space, is a collaboration between NASA and the internationally acclaimed new media artist Refik Anadol.
A recent study shows that female artists’ work accounted for just 8% of the $1.8 billion in total sales between the three major auction houses – Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips – in New York, London, and Paris between April and July 2021. However, there are signs that women are starting to close the gap, with the Art Basel and UBS Art Market report suggesting that female artists are becoming better represented in collections, accounting for 42% of all works, compared to 39% in 2020 and 37% in 2019. Women are also making headlines. In 2021, the Louvre appointed its first female leader, Laurence des Cars, since its creation in 1793. NFTs are rallying women to reclaim their space through groups like Women of Crypto Art (WOCA), while exhibitions – including a major retrospective for Georgia O’Keeffe – are putting female artists back in the spotlight.
One of the most important artists of the 20th century, the Dutch painter and art theoretician Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) is known by some as the ‘titan of Modernism’. Influenced by Cubism, his revolutionary artworks featured blocks of primary colours and horizontal and vertical black lines. His iconic designs – which include ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’, ‘New York City I’ and ‘Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow’– have had a huge impact on modern visual culture. In 1965, the French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent created a series of six cocktail dresses inspired by his works, while they have also influenced contemporary architecture and graphic design. Following exhibitions in Tokyo and Aichi in 2021, the Kunstmuseum den Haag in the Netherlands will run a retrospective of Mondrian’s art until September 2022 to mark 150 years since his birth.
With Black artists like Mickalene Thomas, Kerry James Marshall and Sonya Clark creating an exciting new direction for contemporary art in the USA, this February’s Black History Month showcased the incredible achievements of African- American creators. In New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s virtual programme featured Aaron Douglas, a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a cultural revival of art, literature, music and theatre in the 1920s and 1930s. Over in Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry launched Black Creativity: Architecture , an ongoing exhibition that explores the work of Black architects, from ancient temples to modern skyscrapers. Black superheroes were spotlighted in the Marvel’s Voices: Legacy #1 issue, with its consulting editor, Angélique Roché, revealing that the cast of non-white characters illustrates the ‘diversity of storytelling in the Marvel Universe’.
In response to the war in Ukraine, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams have called off their Russian art auctions in June. A spokesperson for Sotheby’s told The Art Newspaper : “Our hearts and thoughts go out to all those affected by the Ukraine crisis, and we are actively supporting those impacted by the tragic events.” Throughout the war, art has been used as a symbol of peace. One particular artist – Maria Oksentiyivna Prymachenko (1909-97), a Ukrainian folk art painter – has been featured in protests around the world. Her intricate creations feature psychedelic patterns with flowers and animals, and were created in the naïve art style. An inspiration for Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, Maria has moved artists as far away as St. Louis, Missouri, where a mural of her painting ‘A Dove has Spread her Wings and Asks for Peace’ now resides.
54 FINE ART COLLECTOR SPRING / SUMMER 2022
FINE ART COLLECTOR SPRING / SUMMER 2022 55
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