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The Headlines
BAYEUX TAPESTRY DISCOVERY. A fragment of the Bayeux Tapestry has been discovered in a northern German estate, reports the Australian Associated Press and Newcastle Herald. The nearly 230-foot long, 20-inch tall, 11th-century embroidered tapestry depicts events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy, against Harold II, King of England, culminating in the Battle of Hastings. Historians have also long contended the UNESCO-listed textile is missing a final scene representing William’s 1066 coronation at Westminster Abbey. But before readers get their hopes up, it doesn’t sound like that’s what was recently found at the Schleswig-Holstein State Archive, which is part of the estate of the textile archaeologist Karl Schlabow (1891-1984). According to reports, in 1941 the Nazi government charged Schlabow and a scientific team with measuring the Bayeux Tapestry. In the process, the group removed a fragment from the tapestry’s underside, and it somehow ended up in the German Archive. The archive also promises to share more details about their findings at a press conference on March 25, along with stated plans to return the removed fragment to France. Hopefully, they will tell us more about whether any additional embroidery or other markings can be seen on the mysterious relic.
TRUMP TARIFFS SPELL TROUBLE FOR ART. The world is bracing for the economic impact of US President Trump’s sweeping tariffs that begin with China, Mexico, and Canda. The Art Newspaper takes a closer look at what the new levies mean for Canada’s art market in particular, which, according to writer Daniel Grant, could be hit hardest. “Tariffs on art could be uniquely devastating for the Canadian market, which depends in part on the cross-border flow of dealers, collectors and works, and is already suffering from an unfavorable exchange rate with the US dollar,” writes Grant. Though there is some disagreement on the impact of the tariffs, many are concerned they will depress economies, reducing spending on a variety of goods, including art. Some, like dealer Stephen Bulger, had to cancel plans to show a Canadian artist at the Aipad fair in New York next month because the 25 percent tax “puts us at a sever disadvantage,” he said. In response, many are also turning to their own, local market and creatives. “We need Canadians to buy Canadian art and not just look to buy art by artists in the United States,” said Toronto-based dealer Simon Bentley.
The Digest
Self-taught Scottish artist Jack Vettriano, famous for his Neorealist painting titled The Singing Butler, has died at the age of 73. Though one of the best-selling European painters and widely popular, he was often dismissed by critics. [The New York Times]
In more tax-related news, Italian dealers at the Arte Fiera in Bologna protested against Italy’s relatively high, 22 percent VAT on art compared to its neighbors, especially in France and Germany, where governments recently lowered sales tax on art to 5.5 and 7 percent, respectively. Italy has not yet legislated on how it will respond to an EU directive that required countries to streamline their VAT for art. In the meantime, some Italian gallerists reportedly said they are considering leaving the country. “How can our galleries, which may work with the same artist as a German or French gallery, compete with them when the VAT is three times as high?” asked Enea Righi, managing director of the Bologna fair. [Welt]
The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (JSAAHC), a nonprofit in Charlottesville, Virginia, has put out a call for artist proposals that will make use of the melted, red bronze remains of a controversial, removed public Robert E. Lee statue. The project is part of the center’s Swords Into Plowshares initiative. The dismantling of the Confederate statue helped spark a deadly white supremacist rally in 2017. [Hyperallergic]
Scientists have uncovered how a Herculanieum man’s brain matter turned into glass when he succumbed to the rapidly moving pyroclastic flow from Mount Vesuvius’s 79 CE eruption, which also hit the larger city of Pompeii. The rare find reveals well-preserved neural matter of the 20-year-old man, and scientists have recently come to understand why he is the only known example of a human brain preserved through vitrification. [Hyperallergic]
A new Paris exhibition shows the unique friendship and shared influence between designers Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler. “It was a story of friendship and mutual admiration,” said Olivier Saillard, director of the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, which is hosting the exhibition. [WWD]
The Kicker
RESISTERHOOD. Artist Young Joon Kwak spoke to ARTnews’ Maximilíano Durón about their current solo exhibition titled “RESISTERHOOD” at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York. The pieces on view were made over the past 10 years, and have “an instant, recognizable beauty and glamour,” and also depict “different expressions of Kwak’s queer trans body,” writes Durón. “In a moment where trans rights are being rolled back across the country, after a decade of almost hypervisibility, ‘RESISTERHOOD’ is an act of resistance and a powerful, moving display of art that is both formally and politically adept.” In a Q&A, Kwak elaborates on their intention: “I want to experiment and explore with the possibilities for how art can connect differently between different groups of people to bring us closer together. People can discover new ways of relating to our bodies or different ways of thinking about transness or queerness in ways that aren’t so scary or alienating for them but that feel inviting and welcoming… A lot of the work is about how can I respond differently, and provoke a different response to transness rather than just fear and violence.”