Every week, Artnet News brings you Wet Paint, a gossip column from original scoops. If you have any advice, email Annie Armstrong at [email protected].
MEET THE COALITION OF YOUNG GUGGENHEIM COLLECTORS
Am I right to feel that people seem a little… disappointed after last week? The fireworks at the May auction and fair weren’t quite up to snuff this time around and from what I’m hearing a lot of people around the art come full circle for a financially difficult time. I don’t like to see my beloved riders and resellers in the junkyards, so to give us some hope for the future, I’d like to draw your attention to some of the young collectors I met last night at The Guggenheimis dinner for their Coalition of Young Collectors (YCC). All aged 30 and under, these guys are investing in the future of art, which they believe is quite bright, even though times may seem tough right now.
“I started collecting at a very young age just with my iPhone,” Neil Hamamoto30-year-old collector and founder of the residency program worthless studios, said. Hammamoto started collecting when he bought a Robert Moreland tee piecehe Hole in 2013, when he realized that by acquiring bold art, he could support artists who work with ambitious and often expensive materials.
“When I look at my relationship with collecting, a lot of it is about how you can support artists at a young age, just at the start of a long career,” he said. “I try to bring together and support artists who work in mediums that are a bit more expensive in terms of material or labor.” His most recent acquisitions fit exactly that bill, as he purchased one of Kennedy Yankoits spectacular curved metal sculptures and a work of Elaine Cameron Weirwhose mixed media sculptures stood out last year Venice Biennale.
What is impressive about many young collectors is the creative way in which they finance their practice. Twenty eight years old Public Relations Specialist Hannah Gottlieb-Graham burst onto the collecting scene by trading PR services for art, and now his collection includes pieces from Glenn Ligon, Jason Moronand recent acquisitions such as a Tyler Mitchell photograph of his Gagosian to show in London last fall, a work on paper by Theater doorsa painting of Kaveri Rainatwo sculptures of Kay Hofmannand two works on paper by Bethany Collins.
“Being part of the YCC group has been a really exciting way to engage with other young people who are building their careers and their collections,” she told me. “But more importantly, I enjoyed being involved in the museum’s acquisitions. We have a rare opportunity to help guide purchasing decisions, and I have been able to support the careers of many artist friends who are now entering the museum. Some of these recent YCC-assisted acquisitions include works by Sheree Hovsepian, Basera Khan, Steffani Jemison, Antoine Akinbola, And Sable Elyse Smithamong many others.
Wednesday evening, at the coalition dinner, the director of the museum Richard Armstrong (“Hello, I’m the director. I still am!” he joked as he stood up) noted the importance of encouraging young collectors and reaching out to them for advice. “We are so indebted to their courage and generosity, and their taste for innovation,” he said. “It’s so important to the management of the museum.”
From impressively young collectors present that evening was 24 years old Alli Younwho grew up between hong kong, SeoulAnd Los Angeleswhere his collector parents took him as often to museums as to a playground.
“I’m still shaping my identity as a collector, and the group has been very helpful in that regard,” she told me. “I want to focus on emerging art, and I’ve done that by going to some of the MFA shows.” Specifically, she said that she focuses on collecting works by young Asian artists, and that an early work by Anna Park or a piece of Ha Chong Hun are dreams.
Prepare these .pdf, gallery owners. These guys are all ears.
ART FAIR DIRECTORS SAY THE DARKEST THINGS
Managing Director of the international art fair TEFAF, Bart Drenth. (Photo by Marcel van Hoorn / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by MARCEL VAN HOORN/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
I’m not dumb – there are plenty of people in high places in the art world whose personal views don’t necessarily align with the leftist/liberal positions that art people often strive to spread. Typically, however, these opinions are expressed behind closed doors and in a low voice. However, we’re hearing that at least one highly placed art world is raising eyebrows with some very outspoken revival shots. Her name Bart Drenthhe was named Global Managing Director of TEFAF just in December, and he publishes his opinions directly on his personal account Twitter account.
For example:
“Just like in the 1978 Iranian revolution, leftist benefactors stand hand in hand with jihadists. Not knowing that after the success of the revolution they will die first,” he wrote on August 14 last year (I translated these Tweets from Dutch, because Drenth is amsterdam-base).
On his page, @bardrenth (which he made private after I contacted him for comment) he has litanies of tweets that challenge the teachings of the Quran, confuse “woke” culture with fascism. (I would never have had any reason to assume that a buttoned-up TEFAF employee is an enthusiast scared red listener, but now I do.)
Other choice tweets include: “Speculating about population transition is only a problem when you’re not Muslim”, “Woke is the new Westboro: hyper-Calvinist merchants”, “Really, your rights L + are better protected if you’re waving Palestinian flags in the Pride Parade”, “Where are you really from? is of course racist. And ‘We want an apology from a white person’ is well sure not”, and, just this month, “Normaliseer kritiek op de koran en de profeet”, which translates to “Normalize criticism of the Quran and the Prophet”.
What does it all come down to? The statements are certainly provocative, more than you would typically expect from an art world leader. I wrote to Drenth to see if he could let me know that maybe Google Translate had a problem, or maybe it had been hacked? “My Twitter feed expresses my personal opinions and I separate that from my work at TEFAF,” he replied when I asked him if he wanted to give some context to those feelings. “So I won’t comment on that.”
I mean, hey, I believe in the right to voice your own opinion as much as the next guy. I just also believe in my own right to note these opinions in my widely circulated gossip column.
WE HEAR
The Penske Media Effect https://t.co/26cSJhxgbE
— Kyle Chayka (@chaykak) May 23, 2023
Rachel Wetzler left Art in America in full “restructuring” (perhaps an extension of this strange investigation?)… Hollis Taggart added a South Korean multimedia artist Hayoon Jay Lee and painter Osamu Kobayashi to their list… THE Hirschhorn Museum acquired a work of Mr. Zohore… The Keith Haring Foundation came out with their latest and greatest license business: Keith Haring ice cream!… Lisson director Alex LogsdailThe Twitter account of would be value $769.25… Michelle HellmanIt is artist plate project was so popular Curly that a counselor angrily shouted “Do you know who I am? I am an artistic advisor! when she couldn’t get a KAWS plate (remember that they were sold for the benefit of the homeless)…
spotted
Sophie Cohen seems to have had a particular themed party which I assume had something to do with Salvador Dalias Eileen Kelly And Anna Weyant the two showed up to cut a fondant cake in the shape of a clock in costume *** Patrick McMullan was back to photograph the Gordon Parks Foundationannual gala Cipriani 42nd StreetOr Angela Davis And Renee Cox seated to enjoy their signature pasta dish next door Joey Badasswho lost a bidding war for a photo, while Spike Lee was more successful, walking away with two pieces by the late great photographer ***About charity auctions, Pace organized a benefit for the Nina Simone Childhood Home by auctioning off works by Rachid Johnson, Anicka YiAnd Cecile Brownand before sale Marc Glimcher joked Sotheby’s CEO Charles F. Stewart“Sorry Charles, I know you had a tough week. That’s because all the good work is here! *** Gala season was upstate this weekend, with Diameter: beacon accommodation Joan Jonas, Lauren Santo Domingo, Glenn LigonAnd Roe Deer Ethridge at his party during Ugo Rondinone And Adam Weinberg braved the rain to visit king of the stormcelebration ***
⭐ ? ⭐ CALL FOR CASTING! ⭐ ?️ ?
Well, this new section has certainly been a smash hit. So much so that I’m starting to run out of my inventory of Wet Paint hats – gasp! I’m temporarily suspending the call for casting, while I design an even more insidious game that you will all play to win a hat. See you next week.
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