Art
The Merry-Go-Round Stopped. What Sort of Art Will Emerge? – The New York Times
No museums, no galleries, no fairs, no art schools; no openings, no studio visits, no arguing over beers, no gauche private-jet partnerships. In a matter of days, the world of contemporary art went from a reverberant global network to a ghost town, sheltering in place as the coronavirus endangers our cities and our livelihoods. Like every other sector, art is having to go digital. There is no shortage of artists and critics (including me, all too often) who have bemoaned the way Instagram and other platforms have transformed contemporary art. Count your blessings: Now Instagram is almost all we’ve got.
These first days of physical isolation and cultural deprivation have been a furious gyre. The absolutely requisite closure of the museums — promptly in the United States, more tardily in Britain — may aggrieve those of us who find solace in art, but they have shuttered before: The Louvre’s collection was evacuated during World War II, and New York’s museums were padlocked, briefly, after the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Sandy.
Ticket sales at museums account for a smaller percentage of total income than they do at opera houses or dance companies, yet already the carnage is mounting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a princely endowment of $3.6 billion, has projected a loss of $100 million; institutions with smaller reserves are drawing down fast, and may never reopen. This week the Met launched a lobbying campaign, #CongressSaveCulture, seeking billions in federal relief funds for museums — and philanthropists, too, will have to step up, even as their investment portfolios are getting diving.
Just as endangered are the commercial art galleries, especially the midsize institutions for whom sales and fairs constitute an ever greater percentage of annual revenue. They are the ones bearing the brunt of the impact of the cancellation of this month’s Art Basel Hong Kong, and of Frieze New York in May.
And then there are artists, who need cash right now as much as any citizen (perhaps especially since they have little recourse to unemployment or paid time off). Already, they are collaborating to assemble emergency resources as their exhibitions and teaching gigs get canceled, and forging networks of solidarity through Instagram, WhatsApp and other platforms.
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In their studios, if they can somehow make the rent, some artists may learn to focus as intently as Hilma af Klint, who painted for decades in secret, or the Philadelphia Wireman, who made more than a thousand compelling sculptures of tangled metal without exhibiting or even leaving his name.
But I suspect an af Klintian concentration will be the minority case. For most artists, for most citizens, the experience of social distancing has not been peace and quiet, but perpetual bombardment with news and images on a smartphone screen. Maybe it’s therefore time to look again at Amalia Ulman, the Argentine contemporary artist who posted selfies to Instagram for months in the guise of a basic birdbrained wannabe “influencer.” Maybe it’s time to ask whether this social platform can be not just a promotional tool for art, but a medium in its own right.
While reproductions can never make art truly accessible, I’m glad to see efforts to expand digital offerings are also underway, in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Directors of museums in Italy’s hard-hit northwest, including the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Fondazione Prada, in Milan, and the Castello di Rivoli, in Turin have launched rough-and-ready virtual renderings or video walk-throughs of their shuttered exhibitions. New York museums with robust digital assets, from the Frick Collection in Manhattan to the Corning Museum of Glass upstate, have resurfaced their 3-D tours and video interviews, and new offerings are coming soon from, among others, the Museum of Modern Art. And the dealers who would have been in Hong Kong last week — bitter paradox: that city is probably safer now than the western art capitals — are selling their wares, or trying to, through Art Basel’s digital viewing rooms.
“Everything will be taken away,” forewarned the Berlin-based American artist Adrian Piper — who for years has repeated that aphorism, with the violent anonymity of the passive voice, on prints or mirrors or old-fashioned school blackboards. We are set to lose lives, careers, but also institutions, practices, traditions. Perhaps it’s best now, to reflect on what our present isolation teaches us about what art has become, and what we want it to look like when we re-emerge.
Contemporary art, in the last few decades, has morphed into a round-the-globe, round-the-clock industry, and just as disruptive as the closure of our local museums has been the locking down of borders and the grounding of flights. The Romantic cliché of the artist as genius, carving beauty out of marble, was replaced by the artist (and later the curator) as traveling entertainer, constantly on the road. Its paradigmatic images come from a Swiss duo, Fischli/Weiss, whose “Airport” photographs, more than a thousand of them, picture the mundane departure halls and jet bridges they passed through for decades, en route to this biennial or that lecture. On Lufthansa or Air France, in a Japanese museum or an Australian converted loft, the artist is the person moving through neutral spaces, once thought of as sterile, now vessels of contamination.
What Fischli/Weiss captured in “Airports” was the way the art world assigns relevance through motion, and how even local institutions conceive of themselves as nodes in a global network of images and objects on the move. (Think of the new MoMA: once a temple where you’d reliably see the same Picassos on the same walls, now a place where artworks shuttle back and forth, and no room is the same for long.) As the critic Kyle Chayka brilliantly observed in Frieze magazine, art used to justify itself with stories of historical progress, whereas now it relies on “constant juxtaposition against new people and places,” perpetually en route to no destination in particular.
The rise of digital media did not arrest this globe-trotting but accelerated it. Now I can’t count the number of artists and writers I know who purported to be working from at least two places at once, “between Brussels and Los Angeles,” “between Berlin and Accra,” and who now have had to hunker in place.
Their patron saint, and mine, too, is the narrator of “Flights” (2018), a chain of related fragments by the Nobel-winning author Olga Tokarczuk, who tells us: “Fluidity, mobility, illusoriness — these are precisely the qualities that make us civilized.” For so many artists and critics and curators of my generation, your career has to fit in a carry-on.
We knew, as the climate crisis deepened, that this global art world constantly on the move was coming under necessary pressure. Now the prophylactic stasis demanded by this pandemic has violently accelerated the art world’s reassessment of what all this travel was good for.
The task of artists in this new plague year will be to reestablish painting, photography, performance and the rest as something that can still be charged with meaning, and still have global impact, even when we’re not in motion. Or at least that is the long-term mandate; the short-term task is to survive.
Art
Calvin Lucyshyn: Vancouver Island Art Dealer Faces Fraud Charges After Police Seize Millions in Artwork
In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Vancouver Island art community, a local art dealer has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Calvin Lucyshyn, the former operator of the now-closed Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, faces the charge after police seized hundreds of artworks, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, from various storage sites in the Greater Victoria area.
Alleged Fraud Scheme
Police allege that Lucyshyn had been taking valuable art from members of the public under the guise of appraising or consigning the pieces for sale, only to cut off all communication with the owners. This investigation began in April 2022, when police received a complaint from an individual who had provided four paintings to Lucyshyn, including three works by renowned British Columbia artist Emily Carr, and had not received any updates on their sale.
Further investigation by the Saanich Police Department revealed that this was not an isolated incident. Detectives found other alleged victims who had similar experiences with Winchester Galleries, leading police to execute search warrants at three separate storage locations across Greater Victoria.
Massive Seizure of Artworks
In what has become one of the largest art fraud investigations in recent Canadian history, authorities seized approximately 1,100 pieces of art, including more than 600 pieces from a storage site in Saanich, over 300 in Langford, and more than 100 in Oak Bay. Some of the more valuable pieces, according to police, were estimated to be worth $85,000 each.
Lucyshyn was arrested on April 21, 2022, but was later released from custody. In May 2024, a fraud charge was formally laid against him.
Artwork Returned, but Some Remain Unclaimed
In a statement released on Monday, the Saanich Police Department confirmed that 1,050 of the seized artworks have been returned to their rightful owners. However, several pieces remain unclaimed, and police continue their efforts to track down the owners of these works.
Court Proceedings Ongoing
The criminal charge against Lucyshyn has not yet been tested in court, and he has publicly stated his intention to defend himself against any pending allegations. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 10, 2024.
Impact on the Local Art Community
The news of Lucyshyn’s alleged fraud has deeply affected Vancouver Island’s art community, particularly collectors, galleries, and artists who may have been impacted by the gallery’s operations. With high-value pieces from artists like Emily Carr involved, the case underscores the vulnerabilities that can exist in art transactions.
For many art collectors, the investigation has raised concerns about the potential for fraud in the art world, particularly when it comes to dealing with private galleries and dealers. The seizure of such a vast collection of artworks has also led to questions about the management and oversight of valuable art pieces, as well as the importance of transparency and trust in the industry.
As the case continues to unfold in court, it will likely serve as a cautionary tale for collectors and galleries alike, highlighting the need for due diligence in the sale and appraisal of high-value artworks.
While much of the seized artwork has been returned, the full scale of the alleged fraud is still being unraveled. Lucyshyn’s upcoming court appearances will be closely watched, not only by the legal community but also by the wider art world, as it navigates the fallout from one of Canada’s most significant art fraud cases in recent memory.
Art collectors and individuals who believe they may have been affected by this case are encouraged to contact the Saanich Police Department to inquire about any unclaimed pieces. Additionally, the case serves as a reminder for anyone involved in high-value art transactions to work with reputable dealers and to keep thorough documentation of all transactions.
As with any investment, whether in art or other ventures, it is crucial to be cautious and informed. Art fraud can devastate personal collections and finances, but by taking steps to verify authenticity, provenance, and the reputation of dealers, collectors can help safeguard their valuable pieces.
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Ukrainian sells art in Essex while stuck in a warzone BBC.com
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The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House has reopened its doors to the public after a fire swept through the historic building in central London. While the gallery has resumed operations, the rest of the iconic site remains closed “until further notice.”
On Saturday, approximately 125 firefighters were called to the scene to battle the blaze, which sent smoke billowing across the city. Fortunately, the fire occurred in a part of the building not housing valuable artworks, and no injuries were reported. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire.
Despite the disruption, art lovers queued outside the gallery before it reopened at 10:00 BST on Sunday. One visitor expressed his relief, saying, “I was sad to see the fire, but I’m relieved the art is safe.”
The Clark family, visiting London from Washington state, USA, had a unique perspective on the incident. While sightseeing on the London Eye, they watched as firefighters tackled the flames. Paul Clark, accompanied by his wife Jiorgia and their four children, shared their concern for the safety of the artwork inside Somerset House. “It was sad to see,” Mr. Clark told the BBC. As a fan of Vincent Van Gogh, he was particularly relieved to learn that the painter’s famous Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear had not been affected by the fire.
Blaze in the West Wing
The fire broke out around midday on Saturday in the west wing of Somerset House, a section of the building primarily used for offices and storage. Jonathan Reekie, director of Somerset House Trust, assured the public that “no valuable artefacts or artworks” were located in that part of the building. By Sunday, fire engines were still stationed outside as investigations into the fire’s origin continued.
About Somerset House
Located on the Strand in central London, Somerset House is a prominent arts venue with a rich history dating back to the Georgian era. Built on the site of a former Tudor palace, the complex is known for its iconic courtyard and is home to the Courtauld Gallery. The gallery houses a prestigious collection from the Samuel Courtauld Trust, showcasing masterpieces from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Among the notable works are pieces by impressionist legends such as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent Van Gogh.
Somerset House regularly hosts cultural exhibitions and public events, including its popular winter ice skating sessions in the courtyard. However, for now, the venue remains partially closed as authorities ensure the safety of the site following the fire.
Art lovers and the Somerset House community can take solace in knowing that the invaluable collection remains unharmed, and the Courtauld Gallery continues to welcome visitors, offering a reprieve amid the disruption.
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