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Real Fabrica de Buen Retiro, Spaghetti Eaters, ca. 1760–1765.
COURTESY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Auction Action
Last night’s contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s in New York brought in $341.9 million, with SFMOMA’s deaccessioned Mark Rothko painting selling for $50.1 million. [ARTnews]
A 20th century and contemporary sale at Phillips netted $99.9 million, led by a $10.2 million de Kooning. [ARTnews]
News
The venerated architect I.M. Pei died at 102. [ARTnews]
Another loss: the artist Lutz Bacher, whose work resisted categorization. [ARTnews]
Anand Giridharadas, the author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World and an outspoken critic of mislaid philanthropic priorities, wrote an Op-Ed about the Met ceasing to accept donations from the Sackler family. He likes the museum’s stated directive to turn away from “gifts that are not in the public interest”—“a pregnant, important phrase,” he writes. [The New York Times]
Biennials
Holland Cotter reviewed the Whitney Biennial, which he said “gives the initial impression of being a well-groomed group show rather than a statement of resistance. Yet once you start looking closely, the impression changes. Artist by artist, piece by piece, there’s a lot of quiet agitation in the air.” [The New York Times]
Wall Street Journal critic Peter Plagens says the Whitney Biennial “could well be the greatest—and most superbly installed—graduate thesis group show ever.” (He adds a promise that such an assertion “isn’t as snarky as it sounds.”) [The Wall Street Journal]
“Whitney Biennial Artists Share Mood Boards for Their Works.” Pulling from the exhibition catalogue, New York magazine shows what five artists in the show had in mind when making their work. [Vulture]
Philip Kennicott finds a contrast in the blustery “America first” spirit of our strange nation with the “quiet integrity, diligent craftsmanship and serious, sober, intelligent reflection” in the art of Martin Puryear. About the panel that chose Puryear to represent the U.S. in the Venice Biennale, Kennicott writes, “It couldn’t have made a better choice.” [The Washington Post]
Indigenous Art
Jason Farago wonders: “Can We Start Appreciating Indigenous Art on Its Own Terms?” [The New York Times]
“Aboriginal artists find a surprising new champion: Steve Martin.” Sebastian Smee talks with the comedian, who said, “After a lifetime of art-collecting, your eyes search for something you’ve never seen before.” [The Washington Post]
Misc.
There are some pretty wild photographs in this look at John Kane’s pictures of the Pilobolus and Momix dance companies in a part of Connecticut that counts as a “place where landscape becomes dreamscape, where the rural and the theatrical are both strikingly pictorial.” [The Paris Review]
Check out these crazy ravioli made to look like cheeseburgers. “Food is a form of art, but one Seattle-based chef has shown that when it comes to the colors, shapes, and sizes, there’s endless pasta-bilities.” [Good Morning America]
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