- Thaddeus Mosley, sculptor of salvaged wood, has died at 99 in Pennsylvania.
- A look at the latest Companies House filings in the UK reveal a mixed picture of the market for many of the world’s biggest galleries and auction houses.
- DOGE used ChatGPT to decide what NEH grants to cut, alleges a lawsuit.
The Headlines
IN MEMORIAM. Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley died in Pennsylvania on Friday at 99, reports ARTnews . Mosley’s abstract sculptures of salvaged wood were “sleek and curvaceous” and “light and airy,” despite weighing hundreds of pounds, and they earned him a fervent following later in his career, writes senior editor Alex Greenberger. “You learn where the center of gravity is. A lot of the idea is based on the concept of weight in space,” Mosely told ARTnews last year.
SHOW ME THE MONEY. In the wake of Stephen Friedman’s closure last month, The Art Newspaper’s Anna Brady and Anny Shaw dig into Companies House filings for a range of galleries and auction houses to take a look under the hood of the UK art market. Because Companies House filings trail by a year, their findings necessarily concern 2024. Even so, they reveal that Pace is overdue in its filing, that Thaddaeus Ropac saw turnover drop by 26 percent, and that White Cube , surprisingly, saw turnover jump by 44 percent. The details are intriguing, though their usefulness is limited by the fact that the major galleries and auction houses operate internationally; the filings cover only their UK businesses.
The Digest
DOGE employees used ChatGPT to determine which National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grants should be cut for their adherence to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion principles, according to lawsuits filed on Friday. [ The New York Times]
Ukrainian officials and dissident artists are protesting the planned reopening of the Russian pavilion in the Venice Biennale. “We do not understand why the organizers are changing their position now, when Russia refuses to end the war, rejects peace efforts and dialogue, and continues to rely on terror and atrocities,” stated Ukrainian ministers. They are joined by artist collective Pussy Riot, which called the Russian participation a “serious blow to Europe’s security.” [ dpa, The Art Newspaper]
Hundreds of artworks made in crayon, ink, and pencil on paper by the infamous prisoner Charles Bronson will be auctioned in the U.K. on March 11. The outsider artist, now 73, calls himself Charles Salvador, and he has spent most of his life incarcerated and in solitary confinement. [ARTnews]
A U.K. High Court has agreed to force an art dealer to reveal the transaction history for artworks owned by celebrities Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly. The court order aims to shed light on an unidentified art advisor’s suspected “secret and unauthorized profits” from the pair’s purchase of six Banksy prints from art dealer Andrew Lilley. [The Art Newspaper]
Experimental, multidisciplinary Malaysian artist chi too (written in lower case) has died at age 44 in his home in Kuala Terengganu. [ArtAsiaPacific]
Artist Ken Turnell has died at 77, said his daughter, Daisy Turnell. He helped establish the Grizedale Sculpture Park in Cumbria, where many of his works are featured, and he later made ephemeral, large-scale sand drawings. [ The Guardian]
New research has revealed that the famous Barcarrota library, including a 16th-century manuscript and ten printed books, belonged to the Portuguese nobleman Fernão Brandão, who fled the Inquisition. [El Pais]
The Kicker
ARE SCARY TIMES GOOD FOR ART? After strong auction results in London, reporters mull how global conflicts are affecting the art market, and they are not quite aligned. Marion Maneker makes the claim in his Puck newsletter that in times of destabilization, deep-pocketed folks turn to art. After all, Damien Hirst held an auction grossing $200 million when Lehman Brothers crashed in 2008. “When the world gets scary, we’re usually reminded that rich people with strong balance sheets can be greedy at the same time that others are fearful,” Maneker writes. He adds that historical art in particular tends to attract buyers during shaky periods. Elsewhere, Artnet ’s Margaret Carrigan examines the fallout from the Gulf conflicts on a year of planned art events in the region, starting with Art Dubai from April 15 to 19. For countries directly hit by the ongoing violence, art business, whether involving old or new works, appears at a critical turning point. But the Gulf regions are not necessarily isolated either, Carrigan reports. “The art market moves in a different gear than the news,” said U.K.-based advisor Liberte Nuti, following the London Sotheby’s sales. “But a gear shift will come.” What that will be, is anyone’s guess.
