NEW MOVES IN PROJECT-LEHMANN DISPUTE
Once New York art dealer Christian Haye and his gallery, The Project, were hit with a $1.7 million judgment in the lawsuit brought by collector Jean-Pierre Lehmann [see "Artnet News," Mar. 3, 2005], the outcome seemed a foregone conclusion -- the gallery would be driven out of business. And according to Haye, that's more or less what has happened. The Project becomes a "nonfunctioning company" at the end of its current exhibitions in New York (Yoshua Okon, "Lago Bolsena") and Los Angeles (works by Maria Elena Gonzlez, Jessica Rankin and Tracey Rose).
But Haye's art enterprise lives on. The New York gallery begins a new life with a new name -- Projectile -- and with new partners, gallery directors Jenny Liu and Simon Preston. In Los Angeles, Haye is partnering with New York dealer Michele Maccarone, who has a gallery on Canal Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, to open MC (for Michele and Christian). "I'm very excited," said Maccarone, who noted that the gallery would not represent artists but be project-oriented; the first exhibition is a "gallery swap," featuring artworks from Galleria Francesca Kaufmann in Milan.
What of the lawsuit? Several weeks ago, in an attempt to enforce the judgment, Lehmann served restraining notices upon the Project and its bank, an action that legally barred asset transfers, including writing or cashing any checks. More recently, Lehmann has moved against artist Julie Mehretu as well, seeking an order attaching her artworks on the grounds that Haye has a financial interest in her art production -- a move that would seem to cast the collector in a rather predatory light. "The lawsuit had this aspect all along," Haye claimed to Artnet News. "A collector harassing an artist, saying what she can and cannot do with her work."
"VOGUE" PLAYS THE ART CARD
A little crossover between art and fashion is no cause for alarm -- typically, the art scene loves the glamour and money of the fashion world, while fashionistas look to artists for authenticity and real invention. But the May issue of Vogue magazine gives pause, for its feature well overflows with no less than four stories on the contemporary art world. Not unexpected is the profile of Kara Walker by veteran Vogue scribe Dodie Kazanjian, complete with photos by Annie Leibovitz. Next up is a report on the East Village home of dealer David Zwirner and his wife, handbag designer Monica Zwirner, a brownstone that includes plenty of art as well as a pool in the basement.
Also par for the course is the preview, complete with a fashion shoot, of the Coco Chanel exhibition that opens at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute on May 5, 2005. And last but not least is the shopping spree with Amalia Dayan, the 32-year-old former staffer at Gagosian and Phillips who is opening her own gallery in Chelsea with Stefania Bortolami this fall (and who has "moved into the new apartment she shares with her boyfriend, communications heir Adam Lindemann, a spectacular place in the Time Warner building").
All this is fairly unremarkable, except for the quantity -- and for those who remember the similarly rich art-and-fashion cross-pollination in the late '80s -- that preceded the art-market crash.
BECK'S FUTURES PRIZE TO MACKIE Christina Mackie has won the 2005 Beck's Futures award in London, which comes with a purse of 26,666. The rest of the 65,000 in total prize money is split among the other five finalists.
"RUSSIA!" AT GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
The Guggenheim Museum has slotted a major exhibition of Russian art into its fall schedule. Dubbed, "Russia!," the show spans 900 years and includes more than 300 objects from the State Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Kremlin Museum, the State Hermitage Museum and other public and private collections. Among the Russian artists in the show are Dmitrii Levitsky, Orest Kiprensky, Karl Briullov, Alexander Ivanov, Ilya Repin, Ivan Kramskoy, Nikolai Ge, Mikhail Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Natalia Goncharova, Alexander Rodchenko, Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Isaac Brodsky, Alexander Deineka, Alexander Laktionov, Ilya Kabakov and Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid.
The Guggenheim signed a long-term partnership with the Hermitage in 2000, an agreement that has given us the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas and Guggenheim-Hermitage partnership in other expansion projects -- notably, a new wing for the Hermitage. Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky recently unveiled plans for a $155-million overhaul of the east wing of the 38,200-square-foot General Staff Building in St. Petersburg, a project whose $8 million in research and design costs are reportedly being underwritten by the Hermitage-Guggenheim Foundation. The renovation is being handled by the St. Petersburg architectural firm Studio 44, with Rem Koolhaas acting as a consultant.
NEW MEMBERS AT NATIONAL ACADEMY
The National Academy has elected 14 new artists to membership in the honorary artists association, founded in 1825 and headquartered at the museum and art school at 1083 Fifth Avenue. The new members are Stephen Antonakos, Ben Aronson, Lee Bontecou, Vija Celmins, Lesley Dill, Charles Gwathmey, Howard Kalish, David Kapp, Whitfield Lovell, Robert Mangold, Lorraine Shemesh, Nancy Spero, Bartholomew Voorsanger and Richard Ziemann.
KANTOR/FEUER OPENING IN L.A.
Another energetic Chelsea dealer is branching out to the West Coast. Next fall, Zach Feuer is joining with Los Angeles dealer Niels Kantor to open the Kantor/Feuer Gallery at 7025 Melrose Avenue in L.A. The new gallery plans to bring emerging New York artists to L.A., supplying them with an apartment and studio space as well as a gallery exhibition. Debuting at Kantor / Feuer is an installation by Phoebe Washburn, timed to coincide with her show at the UCLA Hammer Museum; among the other artists slated to exhibit at the gallery are Daniel Hesedence, Simone Shubuck, Ben Degan, Tom McGrath and Chris Hammerlein.
OTTMANN TO ORGANIZE 2006 SANTA FE BIENNIAL
Freelance curator and critic Klaus Ottmann has been appointed as curator of the SITE Santa Fe Sixth International Biennial, July 9, 2006-Jan. 7, 2007. A former curator at the Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan (1988-95) and the American Federation of Arts (1996-99), Ottmann plans to organize the show as a series of installations, featuring more works by fewer artists. "SITE's Biennial is the perfect venue to address both ethical and esthetic questions," Ottmann said, "offering both solace and perceptual discomfort."
MUNROE OUT AT JAPAN SOCIETY
Fresh off the opening of the Japan Society's much-heralded show of contemporary Japanese art, "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture," Apr. 8-July 24, 2005, Japan Society gallery director and senior vice president Alexandra Munroe has resigned. She was at the society for seven years. According to the museum, she may have some role in future programming, a prospect that is currently being discussed with new Japan Society president Frank L. Ellsworth.
HORODNER TO ACA
Portland, Oregon-based freelance curator and art teacher Stuart Horodner has been appointed director of the gallery at the Atlanta College of Art. Horodner is co-curator of "Contemporary Erotic Drawing," May 1-Aug. 7, 2005, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; he also organized Affair@the Jupiter Hotel, Portlands first art fair, and says the second installment is slated for Sept. 30-Oct. 2, 2005.
KLEIN TO SCULPTURE CENTER Michael Klein, curator of the Microsoft Collection in Redmond, Wash., has been appointed director of the International Sculpture Center, publishers of Sculpture Magazine, which is based in Washington, D.C. Klein, who has now relocated to Trenton, told Artnet News that eventually he plans to move the organization's offices (currently split between Washington and Fairlawn, N.J.) to New York City.
HAT TRICK FOR HOLLEIN Max Hollein, director of the Schirn Kusthalle Frankfurt since 2001, has now been named director of the Stdelsche Kunstinstitut, effective Jan. 1, 2006. The new duties give him oversight of three institutions: the Stdelmuseum, the Liebieghaus and the Schirn Kunsthalle. For more info, see www.schirn.de.
