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HECTOR HYPPOLITE GETS HIS DUE
<https://tinyurl.com/yw3v3exz>
A few years ago, at Art Basel Paris, London’s The Gallery of Everything wanted to show the work of the late self-taught Haitian painter Hector Hyppolite, who is today considered a pioneering artist associated with the Surrealist movement. The response from the fair, gallery founder James Brett was essentially: “Not now.”
With Hyppolite having now appeared in several Surrealism blockbusters mounted last year to mark the movement’s centennial, is finally bringing his work to Paris, Billed as the artist’s first survey in Europe, the solo will feature works by Hyppolite, including three previously featured in “Le Surréalisme en 1947,” a historic exhibition that appeared in Paris that year.
Hippolyte was born in 1894 in Saint-Marc in Western Haiti into a family of vodou priests. He made shoes and painted houses before becoming the artist perhaps best known for his colorful depictions of vodou gods and spirituality in the Caribbean nation in his work as an artist. He is said to have produced hundreds of paintings before his untimely death at the age of 54 in 1948, just as his star was rising internationally.
His fame abroad was thanks in part to the efforts of French writer, poet, and the founder of Surrealism, André Breton, who traveled to Haiti in 1945 for an exhibition by the Cuban painter Wifredo Lam. While there, Breton gave lectures to university students and witnessed vodou traditions on the island. Breton also visited Le Centre d’Art d’Haïti, founded by American artist Dewitt Peters, through an introduction by the poet Philippe Thoby-Marcelin; Breton came into contact with, and was mesmerized by, the work of several self-taught artists, including Hyppolite, a vodou priest who painted with chicken feathers, brushes, and his fingers. (Hyppolite relocated to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital and worked in a studio space provided by Peters.)
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Before returning to France, Breton and Lam acquired artworks by Hyppolite, some of which were featured in “Le Surréalisme en 1947,” which he organized with Marcel Duchamp at Galerie Maeght in Paris in 1947. Hyppolite’s Papa Lauco (1947) is on the second page of the catalogue of the exhibition, which otherwise mostly featured famous white American and European Surrealists. Brett said the exhibition offered “a new way to look at Surrealism, a new way to look at art.” Hyppolite, Brett added, was “really the first Black Surrealist in a real way—certainly, the first Afro-Caribbean Surrealist.”
Works by artists such as Hyppolite were often featured labelled “naïve” or “primitive.” These labels, Brett said, are “intended to say ‘OK, well, here is the high, and here is the low.’” Hyppolite’s work may have fallen for some at the time in the latter category, but with the canon expanding and museums broadening what they collect, the reception of Hyppolite’s work is changing. _ARTnews

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AFRAID
<https://tinyurl.com/4zhmfkbr> _DavidShrigley

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AN ODE TO LOIS DODD
<https://tinyurl.com/f9wkenvc>
I look for it in the warm daylight and in the cold moon shadows.
I search for it between the balding thistles, the merry orange dahlias, and the coquettish touch-me-nots.
I query workers at the quarry, canvass the village barns, and comb through the deep forest.
When all that fails, I go back inside and wait.
I wait for it in the silence of an empty hallway. I wait for it to walk through the back door, pass by the window, or appear in the mirror.
I wait for it to materialize out of time, light, and wanting. It never does.
<https://tinyurl.com/4p8swhhz>
I grow resentful. I send squads of masked goons to hunt it down between the skinny apple trees, shake down suspects behind laundry lines. I instruct them to punish anyone who gloats about my failed pursuit.
I search and search and search. But the more I search, the more distant it gets.
Then, finally, I catch a glimpse of it. A monograph on American painter Lois Dodd has landed on my desk.
Leafing through her enduring depictions of pastoral views and quiet interiors, I feel it coming. That peace, that peace, that long-awaited peace of mind.
<https://tinyurl.com/4aybbxaz>
<https://tinyurl.com/vhhh6pm8> _Hakim Bishara_Hyperallergic

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THE MOUNT WASHINGTON POST
<https://tinyurl.com/32e32cd5> _LisaAnneAuerbach

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HOW ART, HISTORY ARE MADE by greg
<https://tinyurl.com/tdx6rmv8>
A Chinese Paint Mill rendering of a watercolor seen and lost at a Korean flea market. A meticulous bootleg of Michael Asher’s collected writings. A multiyear collab to reverse engineer a 1983 Commes des Garçons sweater from runway photos.
<https://tinyurl.com/45rpkbx8>
A woodworker’s interpretation of the scrapers used to tend 500-year-old sand sculptures in a Kyoto temple garden. A new edition of Seth Siegelaub’s Kunsthalle Basel poster, “How is Art History Made?” now with Japanese text, domestically printed to dodge prohibitive tariffs. A 200,000-word florilegium of accumulated texts and banned tumblrs.
The press release [pdf] describes each object in Christian Alborz Oldham’s show at Society in Portland as “a double: bootleg, replication, edition, pair.” They also represent Oldham’s individual and collective efforts to pull objects lost to memory, distance, and time, into the discourse of the present. They index the difference between a physical object and an image, a reference, or an idea. How is art history made? The answer is different now because these works exist and will be in the world.
The press release [pdf] describes each object in Christian Alborz Oldham’s show at Society in Portland as “a double: bootleg, replication, edition, pair.” They also represent Oldham’s individual and collective efforts to pull objects lost to memory, distance, and time, into the discourse of the present. They index the difference between a physical object and an image, a reference, or an idea. How is art history made? The answer is different now because these works exist and will be in the world. _greg.org

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TODAY IS ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG'S CENTENARY;
a wildly inventive & influential artist, he was born on this day in 1925.
To mark the occasion, a thread celebrating his love of animals.
First up, Rauschenberg working in the studio with his dog Laika,
in about 1968. Laika looking really chill here
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Robert Rauschenberg with his pet turtle Rocky in 1966
<https://tinyurl.com/53d97arn>
A photo of Robert Rauschenberg's pet kinkajou, named Sweetie.
<https://tinyurl.com/5n8mhpew>
Kinkajous are tropical rainforest mammals, also known as honey bears.
You might be interested to know that Sweetie's pawprints are included
in Rauschenberg's 1963 silkscreen painting "Scanning"
<https://tinyurl.com/jxch6abb> _MichaelLobel

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ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY TO SELL A CHUNK OF ITS MASSIVE DOWNTOWN S.F. PORTFOLIO
The Academy of Art University is looking to unload a massive slice of its vast San Francisco real estate empire, a move that could reshape downtown and mark the end of an era for one of the city's most prominent property players.
The private, for profit art university has had a longstanding presence in the city's core with dozens of buildings ranging from housing to academic uses. The Academy's bold black and red lettering and often illuminated signage decorates building facades and awnings in prime downtown locations. It has expanded rapidly in recent decades, at times drawing criticism for its aggressive growth and zoning disputes with city planners. As of 2019, the Academy's campus footprint spanned over 40 buildings, about half of which were dedicated as student housing.
But, the Stephens family, which founded and has operated the university for nearly a century- and through affiliates owns the real estate that the Academy leases - has recently been shrinking that footprint: Earlier this month, a deal to sell a student dorm leased to the Academy _SFChronicle

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POST OFFICE HOʻOLEHUA, HI
<https://tinyurl.com/44af69d2> _RuralIndexingProject

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\MORE TREASURES STOLEN FROM ANOTHER FRENCH MUSEUM AFTER LOUVRE ROBBERY
<https://tinyurl.com/2wmwf7j8>
Almost 2,000 gold and silver coins were stolen during a nighttime burglary at a French museum – just hours after the spectacular theft at the Louvre in Paris.
The latest incident involved a break-in at the House of Enlightenment, Denis Diderot, in Landres in northeastern France on Sunday night. It houses manuscripts, letters and historical objects from the 18th century.
The thieves made off with around 2,000 silver and gold coins, according to a statement issued by the local authority on Wednesday. The initial investigation suggests they selected their loot with great expertise and precision.
<https://tinyurl.com/4rempd5a>
Since the beginning of September, there has been a spate of burglaries at French museums, all following a similar pattern, and specifically targeting valuable objects such as jewellery, coins or items of high historical value.
It is unclear whether the crimes are connected.
In mid-October, the Jacques Chirac Museum in Sarran in the southwest of the country was burgled twice within 48 hours.
The museum houses around 5,000 diplomatic gifts received by Jacques Chirac during his two terms in office as president of France (1995–2007).
Thieves struck several times in September – within just two weeks, the National Adrien Dubouché Museum in Limoges and the Natural History Museum in Paris were targeted by burglars.
In Limoges, three Chinese porcelain objects classified as “national treasures”, with an estimated value of €6.5 million (US$7.5 million), were taken.
Just a few days later, thieves stole several gold nuggets worth €1.5 million from the Natural History Museum in Paris. During the investigation, a 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested in Barcelona. It is not yet clear whether she acted alone or with accomplices. _SouthChinaMorningPost

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LÉON SPILLIAERT, SELF-PORTRAIT IN THE MIRROR, 1908
<https://tinyurl.com/42byabkp> _JesseLocker

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KENNY SCHACHTER TELLS ALL
All the power to the fearless, inflatable-frog-clad activists railing against the systematic brutality of ICE and the National Guard deployed in that hotbed of international terrorism, Portland, Ore. I’m going to don my frog suit and head to the nearest art fair to object to the onslaught of negative media coverage that flies in the face of the robust, thriving community of artists, dealers, and collectors that doggedly prove them wrong year after year.
<https://tinyurl.com/43czparw>
On a more pedestrian front, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently warned about potential peril in the $1.7 trillion private debt market after a handful of large-scale (and -profile) defaults. He compared them to “cockroaches,” inferring that, where there is one, there are probably more. But Dimon’s fear-mongering misses the point. Look at the succession of relentless cycles throughout history, economics and otherwise: a rash of new initiatives invariably crop up to fill the void left by the deceased or departed. The same could be said about the doom and gloom that continues to pervade art world reportage.
Forgive me for repeating myself, but please indulge me: Yes, one gallery folds here, another there, and so damn what? The repetitive headlines are monotonous and disingenuous, as Led Zeppelin called it in 1973’s “The Song Remains the Same”:
Any little song that you know
Everything that’s small has to grow
And it’s gonna grow now
Push, push, yeah
Along the same lines, with two spaces and a bar on the way in New York, inaugurated its third location in Rome with a show The exhibit, rammed with spillover crowds at the opening, has since sold solidly The unorthodox model that has enabled to buck the bleak kismet of late involves having four 20-something stakeholders (the bastards) equally vested in the fate of their business, shouldering various aspects of the partnership. Counting employees, they are nine in total, helping them remain lissome and flexible in the face of economic uncertainty and vicissitudes.
<https://tinyurl.com/yck6zw8z>
A brief note on Frieze, which was deemed a success, and Paris Basel, which I confidently predict will best it, just in time for the premiere of, yet another venue to showcase contemporary art in a city teeming with it. A New York dealer I just spoke to reported their most profitable results ever and has now landed in Paris to begin setting up a Basel booth. Sounds grueling from where I’m perched at present (New York City). The grande dame of the art trade, Georgina Adam, whom I revere (how is her age nowhere on the internet, I need to know?), recently asked, “Is Art Basel Paris set to consume the Swiss original?” to which she answered: “the answer seems still to be a clear… no!”
The highlight of Frieze Week was undoubtedly the blockbuster Kerry James Marshall exhibition, his largest outside the U.S., at London’s Royal Academy of Arts (RA), . I previously reported that the owner of the $21 million painting Past Times (1997), Puff Daddy, had sold the work at the onset of his, uh, legal situation. After the fact, I discovered the $30 million buyer reneged. the RA under no circumstances would borrow from disgraced Diddy. I can now confirm that it has indeed been sold
More intriguing (and juicy) is what a prominent birdie whispered into my ear about the new buyer! It was Larry G, after another offer was turned down. The rich get richer, even while rotting in Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center. It went to Gagosian for just above, and not to Ken Griffin; flush as he is, he’s isn’t a fan of KJM (if that’s possible!). Larry G did not respond to my text seeking comment. (See photo.) So, if it wasn’t for Larry, perhaps Jeff Bezos? Bear with me, I’ll find out… I always do.
<https://tinyurl.com/4me7e9vb>
Regarding the hullabaloo about London galleries—big, medium, and XL—reporting substantial year-on-year losses, you merely have to read between the lines (or a forensic accountant does) to get a clearer picture of what is actually at hand. The apparent U.K. money misfortunes that have befallen behemoths Hauser and Wirth, David Zwirner, and Almine Rech are more the outcome of forum shopping than anything else, with everyone searching for cheaper tax regimes. For example, tax refugees Manuel Hauser and husband Iwan Wirth picked up sticks from London and relocated to Switzerland; along with the rest, they are essentially rerouting secondary sales through more financially advantageous jurisdictions.
To wit, observe the exoduses from states like New York and California to Florida and Texas. The same could be said for countries like Italy, the Bahamas, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Portugal, picking up the slack from countries like the U.S. and U.K. These geographic destinations have come to resemble freeports, the designated secure warehouses near major international airports where goods can be stored without paying taxes and duties until moved to collectors (yes, they still exist aplenty, guilty as charged your honor)—but these are freeports for people.
From 2020’s Brexit to the cessation of the non-domicile tax in April (a tax structure that offered significant advantages for foreign income), the social and economic problems that seem to obstinately vex the U.K. (I can concur after living there 15 years) are entirely self-wrought. They don’t seem to learn. Indulge me one more song reference, in this instance from Radiohead’s landmark 1995 album The Bends:
You do it to yourself, you do
And that’s what really hurts
Is that you do it to yourself, just you
You and no one else
Problems on another level continue to plague Simon Lee’s gallery business and everyone associated with it. Not only did His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs service (the grandiose nomenclature for the U.K. tax authority) shutter his flagship London space (there were also venues in Hong Kong and New York), forcing him into involuntary receivership, but the mess is compounding by the day, especially for its former artists employees, and those it did business with: art fairs, collectors (who never received art they purchased), secondary consignors, galleries, banks, shippers, and logistics companies.
Adding insult to pecuniary injury are the clawback provisions of the bankruptcy code, which are legal tools intended to ensure against unfair treatment being given to preferential creditors. The insolvency practitioners managing the proceedings have cast a wide net—and continue to do so—in an effort to collect as much from as many as they can; the extent of which is not only unfair but unjust considering they have sued artists and workers who are in no position to disgorge their earned commissions and wages. The only parties that will benefit from such futile efforts are the bankruptcy administrators and, as per usual, the lawyers! A well-known artist told me:
It’s costing us plenty to try and deal with all the unpaid storage and importation fees, etc. There is a lot of stuff going on around clawbacks. So far, we haven’t been affected since Simon neglected to pay us any more money during the clawback period, but the details are kind of crazy, as the winding-down entity’s lawyers are threatening the people who worked during that period for their wages. This seems a lot more randomly mean than when Madoff investors who’d managed to get some money out before he went down were clawed back, since in some way they were passive investors who knew that an investment had risks. Since I am not affected, I don’t think I should comment, but those who are have been deciding about how and when to go public.
If you’ve wondered what felon Inigo Philbrick has been up since his release from prison last year, here you go. I was contacted recently by Nimrod Kamer, a ubiquitous pest who is the self-proclaimed “most ambitious social climber alive.” (He’s appropriately named, nimrod also meaning a foolish or inept person.) I have a soft spot for him, for some odd reason, and here is how our chat transpired:
Nimrod Kramer: Btw Inigo hired me develop a shroom coffee powder. With his wife.
KS: The Great Mushroom Swindle.
NK: A new frontier.
KS: Of hallucinogenic fraud You serious?!
NK: Yeah they got few investors.
KS: What’s your involvement? Illegal, no?
NK: I’m doing reels and research. It’s a tremella shroom powder just like @dirteaworld (look up)
My curiosity was piqued, so I got in touch with the man himself, who’s the subject of an entertaining BBC documentary that you can watch here (if you’re outside the U.K. you’ll need a VPN: ask your kids). I’m not just saying this because I’m in it, but the Times of London characterized the program as a “complex financial saga both neatly explained and deftly personalized by the juicy drama of human acrimony, most especially from the charismatic U.S. art magus Kenny Schachter, a former friend of Philbrick’s. Here is the conversation that ensued:
KS: You starting some coffee co?
Inigo Philbrick: Lattes for cons?
KS: Eh?
🍄☕️
IP: Not sure a coffee company makes much sense — Starbucks seems to be having a hard time
Ahh mushrooms!
KS: 😀
IP: No coffee.
KS: What is it?
IP: A beauty supplement — something Victoria is into
KS: Ahh ok
IP: Chinese medicine made modern basically
KS: Ahh, not the trippy variety 🤣
IP: Hydration. Extends life in fruit flies and meant to plump skin
Trips are a thing of the past — happily for all
Enjoying Texas?
KS: Trips are thing of past?
Texas fascinating but been loooooooooong
IP: It’s a big place. Marfa beautiful but being there a long time… kinda like a prison sentence.
KS: Ha!!!! Why are trips a thing of past?
IP: Because I don’t take drugs!
And don’t do transcendental meditation either
KS: But everyone else does that would be good pay to get back to parity 💰-wise
IP: Good play you mean?
I think that’s an awfully crowded space
Either way, nice to have some work — have been SO many people offering and so few people following through since I got out.
KS: Offering what type of opps?
IP: You name it but I don’t want this to be the subject of the next dispatch so let’s head the conversation off. Trying to do good things in baby steps.
Some final thoughts on my writing residency sojourn in Marfa that came to an end the Sunday before last. I cannot express the scope of what I learned while entrenched in the arid desert environs of the town with a full-time population of about 1,800. I was under the misapprehension that Marfa was swarming with artists and the ilk, but boy was I wrong. That wasn’t exactly the case, even in the midst of the festivities of Chinati Weekend. The revelation for me—besides the stunning, inimitable landscape, which I expected—was the sheer breadth of Judd’s all-encompassing vision and empathetic sensitivities. He made art, design, and architecture whole cloth out of space, as formidable as the metal and adobe he famously plied.
My experiences, only fleetingly art related, ranged from discussions of local politics—they voted to raise property taxes 70 percent during my stay, which is under appeal—to the prospect of computer cooling facilities to fuel the A.I. revolution (bubble). The highlight was getting taken to the woodshed by a cowgirl who admonished me for talking too loudly on the phone while we were both outside, ha, ha! I’ll miss the wailing screech of the freight trains running adjacent to my Airbnb bedroom 24/7 (I now can’t sleep without them), and the genial hospitality of literally everyone I met, Judd related and otherwise. Except for the cantankerous cowgirl, that is.
In conclusion, there are plenty of obdurate collectors who would go to any length to possess art (including me), perhaps not to the extent of breaking into the Louvre to pinch it—though there are those too—and that won’t subside anytime soon. I promise you. _artnet

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TRAILCAM
<https://tinyurl.com/4v463cfk> _trailcam