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The Headlines
DEALER KAVI GUPTA’S LEGAL TROUBLES. Chicago dealer Kavi Gupta, who has championed many artists featured in major international exhibitions, is facing lawsuits and claims of mismanagement, reports Brian Boucher for Artnet News. Artist Jeffrey Gibson, who represented the US at the Venice Biennale, filed a suit against Gupta’s gallery in 2023 alleging unpaid sales proceeds to the tune of nearly $640,000. The gallery responded at the time that those funds were spent on production expenses, per their contract with the artist. Then, dealer Thomas McCormick also sued Gupta in June 2024, alleging the misuse of funds from a refinanced loan on their co-owned building at Gupta’s main location on West Washington Blvd, in addition to falling behind on rent. Gupta’s lawyer has denied those allegations. But several people familiar with the gallery’s operations told Artnet News anonymously that the gallery and Gupta’s troubles go far deeper and the alleged practices far more widespread than previously known.
IN MEMORIAM. The artist Raquel Rabinovich, known for her land art and monochromatic paintings, has died at age 95. Born in Buenos Aires in 1929, she studied in Europe before moving to the US, where Rabinovich became an active member of the Hudson Valley artistic and Buddhist communities, reports Hyperallergic and Artnet News. “To me, when I see something—say, the world around me, art, or people—I realize that’s not all there is,” she said in 2021. “There is something behind, something beyond. Because it’s not obvious or visible, I feel inclined to explore it and discover what is there.” Her work is in collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. Yet observers say she has not received deserved recognition. “She leaves behind a rich legacy as a visual artist built over more than seven decades of rigorous practice,” stated the Raquel Rabinovich Art Trust, which also announced her death after a short battle with cancer.
The Digest
The National Museum in Damascus has reopened in Syria, following the fall of President Bashar Assad. The museum, which houses ancient archaeological artifacts, closed a month ago as a preventative measure against looting during the rebel takeover of the city. “Thank God, we did not suffer any serious damage, but there was more fear than damage,” said Rima Khawan, chief curator of the museum. [The Associated Press]
For the final weekend of the National Gallery in London’s blockbuster Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibit, visitors will get to soak in the Post-Impressionist’s paintings all night long. The museum will be open 24 hours, with the extra time slot starting from 9pm on Jan. 17 until 10 a.m. on Jan. 18. What could be more romantic? [The Guardian]
The future of the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo, Hawai’i is in question following the effects of the pandemic and repair costs, which have forced it to lay off a majority of staff and slash opening hours. The Olsen Trust, a local nonprofit, recently donated $200,000 to the museum, but urgent repair costs could cost up to $1 million. [Hawai’i Public Radio]
Following a successful pilot program, a project called Art in Schools is expanding, and bringing art into classrooms across the UK via large television “ArtScreens.” It features selected works by prominent figures the likes of Antony Gormley, Bridget Riley, Cornelia Parker, Damien Hirst, Katy Hessel, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Sunil Gupta. [Press release]
A GoFundMe to help support Los Angeles artists and art workers who lost their homes and/or studios in the fires was launched by a group of volunteers, called the LA Art World Fire Relief. Its goal is to raise $500,000 towards those in urgent need as a result of the Eaton, Palisades, Sunset and other LA fires. “Many members of our personal communities, and our broader creative communities, have lost everything,” reads the page description. [GoFundMe]
The Kicker
MICKALENE THOMAS OPENS UP. Ahead of the closing of Mickalene Thomas’s retrospective at the Barnes in Philadelphia, Vulture has published a candid talk between the artist and critic Jerry Saltz. Among topics they cover, is her famous painting Déjeuner sur l’herbe: Les Trois Femmes Noires, which the Museum of Modern Art in New York commissioned in 2010. Thomas’ rendition of the iconic Manet painting replaces the figures with Black models, and Saltz calls it “a masterpiece of collage and commentary.” It is a groundbreaking example of her paintings, he says, which are “big, bold, gaudy, and beautiful, embedded with rhinestones, daubed with phosphorescent color, and composed like crazy quilts,” Saltz waxes poetic. Yet we learn from their conversation that after reserving the painting for four years, MoMA decided not to buy it. Why? “Because you have people in positions who don’t value the work enough that it’s deserving of particular spaces. Often, it’s because you don’t have people who look like me in the room sitting at the table,” said the artist. She later added that the piece “is about Black women claiming a space…It’s about how the viewer is confronted with the sitter.” Eventually, the painting was bought by a collector and donated to the Brooklyn Museum. But the incident is another example of how the artist feels our society is falling short, when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the art world. “People are still not ready to see a Black body like this on this scale as they are seeing Eric Fischl’s bodies,” she said.