Groundbreaking experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger dies at 96 + Other stories

Art Industry News is a daily summary of the most important developments in the art world and the art market. Here’s what you need to know this Thursday, May 25.

NEED TO READ

Inside Basquiat’s Counterfeit Scandal – Former Artnet News columnist Nate Freeman shares the crazy story behind the Basquiat scandal that unfolded at the Orlando Museum of Art last year. Auctioneer Michael Barzman has been accused of forging several works by the famous street artist. The art collection was too good to be true, but the museum was under pressure to produce a blockbuster. (vanity lounge)

Tate Britain Rehang divides critics – Tate’s major change failed to capture the hearts and minds of critics. Jackie Wullschlager notes successful moments but laments how this contrasts with “problematic selections that privilege subject matter over quality and self-righteousness about the past.” Jonathan Jones is even less enthusiastic: “Today’s Tate Britain is where art sleeps,” he writes. “It’s largely because he’s committed to a worthy vision of art. It’s not the ideals I oppose, but rather the mind-numbing fact that when you insist on the moral value of art, you make it predictable and boring. (FinancialTimes) (Guardian)

Kenneth Anger is dead – The revolutionary experimental filmmaker died on May 11 in Yucca Valley, California, at the age of 96. Best known for his 1963 film Scorpio RiseAnger’s small but famous body of work gained international representation from Spruth Magers in 2009. The gallery told the press that news of Anger’s death had been delayed as “matters regarding the estate of Mr. Anger were in the process of being settled”. (New York Times)

Lawsuit against Anna Weyant’s condominium – An anonymous collector represented by Aaron Richard Golub has filed a lawsuit against collector Andre Sakhai. The claim, first filed in February, alleges that while the purchase of an artwork by Anna Weyant was split into three (costing around $200,000 each), profits from the returned art were pocketed by Sakhai. Given that Sakhai was moving funds under two companies he owns, Aiden Fine Arts and The Art Collection (collectively described as AFTAC), the case illustrates how art world shell companies can pave the way for practices shady business. (The arts journal)

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

London’s vagina museum finds a new home – Through fundraising, the museum raised £85,000 (about $105,000), enabling its move to a new site in East London. A Go Fund Me helped the museum achieve its goal, and the new location will include three gallery spaces and an events area. (evening standard)

Looted sword fetches $17 million at auction – An Indian sword sold at Bonhams in London set a new record for an Islamic and Indian item, fetching over $17 million, slashing the presale high estimate by just $2.5 million. 18e belonged to Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan, also known as the Tiger of Mysore, and was taken by British soldiers serving as troops for the East India Company and later presented to Major General David Baird. (The arts journal)

Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation Announces 2023 Awards – The second annual award given by the San Francisco-based foundation for craft practitioners. The winners – Adebunmi Gbadebo, Aspen Golann, BLain Snipstal, Leo Tecosky and SHane R. Hendren – each received $100,000 in unrestricted funding. (Press release)

FOR THE ARTS

Alfredo Jaar installs one million passports in Germany – The Chilean-born, New York-based artist and architect, the exhibition of one million German passports displayed behind a wall of high-security glass is a commentary on current debates around immigration and naturalization in Germany and beyond amid humanitarian crises, including the war in Ukraine and migration policies. The number of passports refers to the number of people who were welcomed into the country in 2015 under Chancellor Angela Merkel; as well as the number of people who voted against Merkel, for the right-wing AFD party. The work is dedicated to the late curator Okwui Enwezor, who wrote that Jaar’s work “represents one of the most developed engagements of a contemporary artist in the glaring embrace of the structural link between ethics and aesthetics, art and politics”. (Press release)