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The Headlines
A LEONARDO DA VINCI DRAWING WILL HEAD TO AUCTION at Christie’s in London in July, with an estimate of £8 million to £12 million (about $11.1 million–$16.7 million), Reuters reports. The work is a silverpoint of a bear that measures about 3 inches on each side. It could be a record breaker: the current high mark for a Leonardo drawing at auction stands at £8.14 million, which was set way back in 2001 at the same house. Besides being exceedingly rare (very few drawings by the Renaissance man remain in private hands), the work has a toothsome provenance: it was once owned by the British artist Thomas Lawrence, who parted with it at Christie’s back in 1860 for £2.50.
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THE GERMAN-BORN ARCHITECT HELMUT JAHN, who was instrumental in shaping the look of his adopted hometown of Chicago, died on Saturday. He was struck by two vehicles while bicycling in Campton Hills, Illinois, the Associated Press reports. He was 81. Jahn’s numerous projects included the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago, the iconic tunnel at the city’s O’Hare International Airport that features a neon installation by Michael Hayden, and the Sony Center in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. “His architectural footprint will be felt & seen across the globe for generations to come,” the Windy City’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot, said in a statement.
The Digest
Pennsylvania State University’s leadership has approved a plan to build an $85 million new home for its Palmer Museum of Art. School officials have said that it will be the largest art museum between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. It’s slated to open in the fall of 2023. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
More than 50 art historians and curators have signed a letter protesting a plan by the Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey to sell 17 of its artworks, including pieces by Thomas Cole, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O’Keeffe, saying that it will cause “irreparable damage” to its collection. The museum’s director, Linda Harrison, has defended the move as being in line with current industry guidelines. [The Art Newspaper]
Germany has classified nightclubs as cultural institutions, meaning that they are now eligible for special types of protections amid the pandemic. [The Art Newspaper]
The artist Chakaia Booker, who’s famed for her inventive sculptures made of tires, got the profile treatment by Siddhartha Mitter. Booker currently has a survey on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami. [The New York Times]
Cities around South Korea—including Busan, Daegu, and Suwon—are jockeying to be the site of a possible exhibition hall dedicated to the thousands of artworks that the estate of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee donated to national museums late last month. “The reasons that have been given to bring Lee’s art collection to their home turfs are as varied as they are ingenious,” Lee Haye-ah writes. [Yonhap]
Art parties have returned, Jacob Bernstein reports. [The New York Times]
The Kicker
DAVID HOCKNEY, LOCKED DOWN IN THE NORTH OF FRANCE, has been staying as busy as ever, Jonathan Jones reports in the Guardian. He’s opening a show this month at the Royal Academy in London with verdant paintings that he has made during the pandemic on his iPad with a customized version of the Brushes app. Hockney, who turns 84 in July, has some fighting words for the people of his host country. “I’m teaching the French how to paint Normandy,” he said. “They gave up painting, didn’t they? That’s Derrida, isn’t it?” [The Guardian]
Thank you for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.
Source: artnews.com