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Frida Kahlo painting breaks record at Sotheby auction and shines light on women artists
A self-portrait by artist Frida Kahlo sold for just under $35 million this week at Sotheby's in New York. The sale highlighted how the works of women artists can command incredible sums on the world market. But that hardly tells the whole story. Anthony Mason has more.
A self-portrait by artist Frida Kahlo sold for just under $35 million this week at Sotheby's in New York. The sale highlighted how the works of women artists can command incredible sums on the world market. But that hardly tells the whole story. Anthony Mason has more.
Case Study: Running a Famous Artist’s Estate Is a Maze of Infighting and Deal-Making. Here’s How the Rothkos and Other Families Did it
Children weigh in on dealing with their famous parents’ cultural heritage.
Children weigh in on dealing with their famous parents’ cultural heritage.
When artist Robert Indiana was on his deathbed, lawyers for the Morgan Art Foundation, which holds the copyright to some of Indiana’s most famous works, were busy filing a lawsuit against the foundation Indiana had named as the sole beneficiary of his estate. Three years and millions of dollars in legal fees later, the dispute between the two parties was finally settled this June, but not before the confusion over who had authority over the work had a chance to upset Indiana’s market, as well as cast shadows on his artistic legacy.
Case Study: An Indonesian Theme Park Must Destroy Its Knockoff of Chris Burden’s ‘Urban Light’ After Losing a Suit Brought by the Artist’s Estate
Rabbit Town has 30 days to remove the infringing installation and apologize to the Burden estate.
Visitors at Chris Burden's Urban Light installation at LACMA. Photo ©Chris Burden/licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
An Indonesian selfie paradise has been ordered to destroy one of its most popular attractions due to a copyright violation. The offending photo op, Love Light, appears to be a ripoff of Urban Light (2008), the famed public art installation by the late artist Chris Burden.
The Indonesian Commercial Court at the Central Jakarta District Court agreed with that analysis, siding with the Burden estate in its lawsuit against Rabbit Town. The tourist attraction on the island of West Java, in the city of Bandung, has 30 days to remove the infringing artwork and issue a public apology to the estate.
“This is a landmark case for the Indonesian court system, and a win for all artists globally,” Yayoi Shionoiri, the executive director of the Burden estate, told Artnet News in an email. “We believe this decision sets a precedent that artist rights can be protected internationally through the application of the copyright framework.”
Rabbit Town did not respond to inquiries from Artnet News, but the park’s Instagram account was still posting photographs of the infringing work as recently as yesterday, calling it “our icon.”
The original Burden installation greets visitors at the entrance to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Case Study: Judy Chicago Prepares to Release Her Autobiography
Judy Chicago Reflects on What It Takes to Preserve an Artistic Legacy
At 81, Chicago’s opportunities continue to multiply.
by Arden Fanning Andrews
In these turbulent times, creativity and empathy are more necessary than ever to bridge divides and find solutions. Artnet News’s Art and Empathy Project is an ongoing investigation into how the art world can help enhance emotional intelligence, drawing insights and inspiration from creatives, thought leaders, and great works of art.
It’s noon mountain time, and Judy Chicago is in her kitchen. “She makes the best coffee,” her studio manager says while positioning the camera toward the sunroom sofa bathed in Belen, New Mexico light.
Coming into frame and taking a seat, Chicago wears a pink hoodie over a t-shirt with “It’s A Judy Thing (You Wouldn’t Understand)” emblazoned across the front. At home, the artist, educator, author, and self-described humanist shares 7,000 square feet with her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, and her team. “Downstairs is all commercial,” she explains. “Studio, office, storage.”
Photo info published on ArtNet.com: Judy Chicago, 2020. © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo © Donald Woodman/ARS, NY.
Case Study (via ARTNEWS, Sept 2000): The Embattled Legacy of Kurt Schwitters
Download the complete article at the ARTNews archive here.
Avedon, Unsigned
Ruedi Hofmann, master printer for the photographer’s magnum opus, “In the American West,” understood that his payment would be a set of signed prints. He has the prints, but they were never signed. Whose prints are they, anyway?
By Richard B. Woodward
Hanging in the foyer of Ruedi and Ann Hofmann’s art-filled home in Newburgh is a large black-and-white photograph by Richard Avedon.
Unsettling in scale as well as content, it’s a half-length portrait, larger than life-size, of a curly-haired teenage boy who stands against a white background holding up the sagging skin and shiny entrails of an eviscerated rattlesnake. The headless animal’s dark blood is spattered across the bib of his overalls; its curdlike guts squish through the fingers on his right hand. The boy’s hieratic gesture is like that of someone performing an ancient sacrifice, and his hard gaze suggests he has been doing this for much of his young life.
Not many would choose such an image to welcome visitors. Mr. Hofmann is clearly proud of it, though, and more than 100 others like it.
As master printer on Avedon’s last major project, “In the American West,” Mr. Hofmann was responsible for bringing out the myriad gray shades and material details in “Boyd Fortin,” the portrait of the 13-year-old rattlesnake skinner, and the other images of weathered, hard-bitten characters featured in the landmark 1985 exhibition and book.