OLD NEWS

IT'S NATIONAL DUMPLING DAY!
Momotarō Selling Dumplings,
woodblock print with ink and color
by Utagawa Hiroshige I, Edo period:
<https://tinyurl.com/mtdkpxy7> _‪PeterHuestis‬

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PUT
<https://tinyurl.com/8tbrmr6t> _DavidShrigley

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CHEERIO BOWL ZEN GARDEN KIND OF THING by greg
<https://tinyurl.com/48dk22a6>
In 2007 General Mills commissioned Minnesota post-minimalist sculptor Jud Nelson to create Cheerios, megalithic replicas of the company’s flagship cereal carved from Florida coral limestone. The title of this post is a quote from Don McNeill, General Mills’ art curator, who installed the sculptures in a round, but not explicitly bowl-shaped, field of smaller stones.
<https://tinyurl.com/4uf9n7mm>
They are installed in a courtyard between Skidmore Owings & Merrill’s original 1957 buildings. On Google Maps, you can see they’re near Scott Burton’s Public Table (1987) [pic <https://tinyurl.com/2tjc5crp> ], and whatever granite and tree sculpture is in this photo <https://tinyurl.com/2rmedfuy> .
[update: Ian thought to look up the General Mills Art Collection at SIRIS, and it is Oasis (1990), by Richard Artschwager (?!). The most relevant result I can find is a mention in Corporate Art Collections: A Handbook to Corporate Buying, 2012, from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. The Burton and the Judson feel like standouts. Turns out General Mills also acquired a 1986 Richard Serra, Core, two 14- and 17-ft Cor-ten sections of a cone, angling in toward each other, which was installed by the artist. Google Streetview shows it was removed in early 2019. <https://tinyurl.com/mr2ahdfx> ] _greg.org

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THE MOUNT WASHINGTON POST
<https://tinyurl.com/5d87cxzm> _LisaAnneAuerbach

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LIFE’S HIDDEN DRAMAS IN THE ART OF WALTER SICKERT by Michael Glover
<https://tinyurl.com/2z24mfnt>
As W.H. Auden reminds us, at the end of his great 1938 poem “Musée des Beaux Arts,” of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” (c. 1560), the fact that something momentous has just happened — a famous creature from Greek mythology called Icarus has burnt his wings by flying too close to the sun, and plunged to his death in the ocean — means nothing to the plowman on the hill, who walks idly by.
And we, the onlookers at this painting, may feel the same way, because the action — this disappearance of a small, kicking leg or two — happens a bit too near the bottom edge to bother us overmuch. It’s all so small and unremarkable in comparison with the puff-bellied sails of the ship nearby or the plowman’s brilliant red shirt (what a shirt that is!).
<https://tinyurl.com/bdew649j>
And this is exactly how I found myself feeling as I walked around a handsome gallery in a very fashionable district of north London, where the elegant stucco terraces were gleaming white in the light of the September sun.
<https://tinyurl.com/yhnzymdp>
I had turned up to see Love, Death & Ennui, a new show of prints, plus a few oil paintings on loan from here and there, by an oddball of an artist called Walter Richard Sickert. Sickert, who was part Danish and part German, and died in 1942, traveled a lot in Europe, but spent much of his life in England. He trained with Whistler.
<<https://tinyurl.com/3wptcmrz>>
Sickert went his own way, always. Like Breugel’s Icarus, the subjects of many of his best works are things seen off to the side, a bit inconsequential. He didn’t go in for glamour or flattery; imagine, if you like, the polar opposite of John Singer Sargent, that saccharine suck-up to the rich. Sickert’s art, be it in print or painting, can be quite grubby or ugly or humdrum. In this show, the many prints (all from a single private collection) interact in very intriguing ways with the few finished oils on the walls. Sickert was a prolific and chaotic printmaker. He would work at the same subject over and over again. A print might occasion a painting. A painting may then send him bounding breathlessly back to a print of the initial subject, suggesting a different angle of view perhaps.
<https://tinyurl.com/2s37ytpk>
Everything in his world was ready to be re-made and nothing was ever quite done with for good. Take “Ennui” (c. 1913–14), for example, a small oil painting surrounded by umpteen prints — try-outs, afterthoughts, variants, sharply cropped angles of view, call them what you like. The painting is focused closely on an oldish man seated in a chair, puffing away at his pipe. He’s not looking at anything in particular, just staring into space. Is the painting’s title itself all part of the comedy of its making?
<https://tinyurl.com/yvvv97vw>
Ennui, or world-weariness, was terribly burdensome to the soul of a great poet like Baudelaire, who wrote extensively on the subject about half a century before this painting. Not so for Sickert’s figure who appears, perhaps, mildly bored. But what is that fragmentary detail of a woman standing behind him, facing away? How does she complicate the story? A whole world of decision-making is available to those who go on to look at all the prints on this wall that deal with the same fuggy, pipe-smokey, never-boring little world.
<https://tinyurl.com/ycxm9ybz>
Another painting, “Le Journal” (1905–6), enables you to stare deep up the black void of a woman’s nostrils. Terrifying.
<https://tinyurl.com/4ex89xkt> _Hyperallergic

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MEDICINE MAN, PERFORMING HIS MYSTERIES OVER A DYING MAN, 1832, BY GEORGE CATLIN
<https://tinyurl.com/47hne47r> _PublicDomainReview

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ALI EYAL-‘MADE IN L.A. 2025’
The show’s youngest artist, Ali Eyal, is described in the catalogue as “a very good painter. I tend to avoid art that relies too much on biography. But his work strongly draws on his personal history as an Iraqi who lived through the US invasion of Iraq and lost a large part of his family, I think his father among others. His paintings in many ways deal with his own trauma.” Pobocha compares the way his paintings function to the way memory works, with moments colliding, perhaps not in a way that makes narrative sense.
His work gives “a visceral account of the psychological disorientation of what the artist calls ‘the after war,’” or “all the seen and unseen repercussions of conflict.”
<https://tinyurl.com/y4m9mxuk>
Born in 1994 in Baghdad, the artist works in mediums including painting, drawing, and video, and has appeared in prominent group shows. _artnet

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BIENNIAL BLAHS
Years ago, someone — I can’t remember who — left a comment on one of my social media accounts that read: “LA is a punk zine.” It’s an expression I have gleefully appropriated because it couldn’t be more on point. LA is bits and pieces of other places held together by untidy seams. It’s uncouth and unbothered with formalities. Often, the best things the city has to offer — food, shopping, culture — come from a dank strip mall. And there’s the humor, which is dark and weird. In 2020, during the marches for Black lives, a Latinx punk band rocked out from the back of a pick-up as a form of protest. It was defiant, absurd, cinematic.
The latest iteration of the Hammer Museum’s biennial, Made in L.A. 2025, does not quite attain the heights of punk zine. Instead, it feels more like LA as an art school faculty cocktail: stiff, well-mannered, spare.
_Carolina A. Miranda_KCRW

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VIJA CELMINS, DRYPOINT—OCEAN SURFACE (BETWEEN FIRST & SECOND STATE), 1985
<https://tinyurl.com/7k5mnr3y> _MichaelLobel
Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:
<https://tinyurl.com/kdcfd5yn> _Lake Michigan! Live!‬

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HOW THE MOMA STORE BECAME MORE MOMA THAN THE MOMA
<https://tinyurl.com/3wfu65a4>
While most museums have some kind of store—a place to buy a postcard or mug and help their respective institutions squeeze a few more bucks from its visitors—few are actually outstanding places to shop. The notable exception is MoMA.
The MoMA Store has become a brand in and of itself to the point where there are shoppers who know the acronym and logo but not necessarily the history behind them. And while retail has helped MoMA gain name recognition, the museum wants it to become a more effective ambassador for the flagship art institution. The recent renovation of MoMA’s SoHo design store, which recently reopened after months of renovations, exemplifies this new approach.
“We’ve been thinking beyond revenue and contemplating our reach and how our retail business can connect people to the larger institution and to its mission of connecting people around the world to the art of our times,” says Jesse Goldstine, MoMA’s chief retail officer, who joined the museum in 2015. “This rolls up into the biggest pivot in the business since I’ve been managing retail at MoMA, which is the shift in strategy from the typical exit-through-the-store model to retail as a point of entry for the institution.”
Between online sales, brick-and-mortar shops, and licensing, MoMA’s retail endeavors generate more than three million transactions annually (MoMA declined to share sales figures). To put that figure into context, the museum welcomed 2.7 million visitors during between 2023 and 2024. MoMA says at least 7% of museum visitors learn about the institution through merchandise. Recently, MoMA has been ramping up its licensing partnerships with brands like Lego, New Era (for cobranded Yankees and Mets hats), and Nike (for cobranded tube socks). Additionally, more than half of MoMA Store’s revenue is driven by brick-and-mortar stores.
Because the shop might be the first time someone engages with MoMA, the institution saw an opportunity to strengthen a connection to the museum itself. See an Aalto vase in the shop, then head to Midtown to see an archival example. Part of his shift has to do with the nature of SoHo and how the design store, which opened in 2001, relates to the neighborhood’s visitors.
“When people come to 53rd Street, they know what MoMA is, they understand the brand,” Goldstine says. “They likely are walking out of the museum and into one of our retail locations. In SoHo, not necessarily. They may have grabbed a cup of coffee and saw a cool thing in the window. They may be excited about the MoMA hoodie that they’ve seen on TikTok or Instagram and want to go purchase it, but they don’t understand who we are as a business.” _FastCompany

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FRIENDLY TAVERN ENDERLIN, ND
<https://tinyurl.com/yxtu4k79> _RuralIndexingProject

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NATIONAL MUSUEM OF KOREA FACES BACKLASH FOR POSTING PHOTO
<https://tinyurl.com/ycka6d2d>
Bang Si-hyuk, also known as "Hitman" Bang, is a South Korean music executive, record producer, and songwriter. The trouble for the HYBE chairperson seems to be growing with each passing day over stock fraud allegations. Amidst this, a report is doing the rounds that the National Museum of Korea is facing backlash for posting a photo of director Yoo Hong-jun and Bang Si-hyuk. Now the museum has responded to it. Let's delve into it to know more details.
The National Museum of Korea posted on social media a photo of Director Yoo Hong-jun and Bang Si-hyuk standing side by side and smiling, along with the text, “The National Museum Foundation of Korea (NMF) signed a memorandum of understanding with HYBE to spread Korea's cultural heritage and K-culture.” The National Museum of Korea later deleted the photo after the backlash.
<https://tinyurl.com/39e42eck>
However, the posting of the photo was met with criticism, and one user wrote on X, “The way he's under criminal investigation and they post this...crazy work.” Another user wrote, “They should keep Bang Si-hyuk in the museum as an example of a piece of s***.” “I hope this criminal is going to be jailed while MHJ stays winning,” wrote the third user.
As per reports, Bang is a reported suspect on charges of violating the Capital Markets Act. Recently, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Financial Crime Investigation Unit imposed an overseas travel ban.
Reportedly, he is under suspicion that in 2019, during the process of purchasing shares from existing shareholders before HYBE's listing, he misled existing shareholders to believe the listing would be delayed, even though HYBE was proceeding with preparations for listing.
For the unversed, he is the founder of the record label Big Hit Music and the chairperson of HYBE Corporation. One of the 50 wealthiest people in South Korea according to Forbes Asia, Bang is the only billionaire in the South Korean entertainment industry. By July 2021, his reported net worth was an estimated $3.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. _Wionews

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MORRIS KANTOR, HAUNTED HOUSE, 1930,
<https://tinyurl.com/4unbs9du> _JesseLocker

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FRENCH MUSEUMS ARE WORRIED TRUMP WILL END A MAJOR TAX DEDUCTION
Many French museums are worried that the Trump administration will end long-standing tax deductions critical to donations from American patrons sent to foreign museums,
The primary concern is that Trump could change the so-called “equivalency determination,” a process by which a foreign organization can be deemed equivalent to a public charity in the US. The status allows such organizations to receive donations in a manner similar to US nonprofits—thus allowing donors to deduct those donations on their taxes—and enables them to direct grants to foreign charities without special approval from the US. The most notable organizations in the art world that use the process are the museum-affiliated “American Friends” groups, such as the American Friends of the Musée d’Orsay and the American Friends of the Louvre, the latter of which raised $10 million for that institution last year alone.
This model also exists in other countries like the American Friends of the Israel Museum, considered to be the first such organization, has raised $450 million for that institution since its inception in 1972. The organization did not respond to a request for comment at press time. _ARTnews

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PABLO PICASSO, LANDSCAPE, 1928
<https://tinyurl.com/tw3byjcc>
Joan Miró, Landscape 1976
<https://tinyurl.com/mrzz3htu>
Paul Klee, Landscape with Yellow Birds, 1923
<https://tinyurl.com/26b852pw>
Paul Klee, Landscape with Bluebirds, 1927
<https://tinyurl.com/4sc7ufwy> _RabihAlameddine

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WADE GUYTON ARTWORK FORFEITED BY INIGO PHILBRICK’S BUSINESS PARTNER FLOPS AT SOTHEBY’S
<https://tinyurl.com/583hp54s>
An artwork caught up in the saga of fraudster art dealer Inigo Philbrick came up for auction late last month in New York—and failed to sell.
In 2023 Philbrick’s business partner, Robert Newland, was sentenced to 20 months in prison. In addition to his prison term, Newland was ordered to forfeit several artworks, among them a 2007 piece by Wade Guyton. In August 2023, that Guyton went on the block in a U.S. Marshals Service art auction at Gaston & Sheehan in Texas, where it sold for $208,000. The Guyton had lost more than half its value since 2015,
Whoever purchased the Guyton in Texas brought it back to auction last week at Sotheby’s New York, where it carried an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 and failed to find a buyer. _ARTnews

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GABRIELE MÜNTER (1877-1962)
<https://tinyurl.com/6k6t2cz8> _#WomensArt

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HAUSER AND ZWIRNER’S UK GALLERIES REPORT NEARLY 90% DROP IN EARNINGS
Hauser & Wirth and David Zwirner Gallery locations in the United Kingdom suffered significant dips in earnings in 2024, according to financial filings Both galleries reported a nearly 90% decline in pre-tax profits amid a rumored multiyear art market downturn marked by a global decline in public auction sales and a slew of gallery closures in the United States.
Per statements , Hauser & Wirth’s pre-tax profit dropped to £1.16 million (~$1.56 million) from £9.3 million (~$12.5 million) in 2023. The same filings show that Hauser & Wirth’s total revenue of £68.3 million (~$91.7 million) was just under half of the £143.9 million (~$193.2 million) in 2023.
This revenue decline, the gallery stated in its strategic report, was “due to lower secondary market sales,” referring to resales of work.
A spokesperson for the gallery told that “the global financial results of Hauser & Wirth in 2024 are aligned with the successful performance in 2023.” Its two UK spaces, the spokesperson added, represent “a small element of the gallery’s annual financial performance.”
David Zwirner Gallery, which has just one gallery in the UK, reported £37.1 million (~$49.9 million) in revenue for the year ending December 2024, a decrease from £55.4 million (~$74.4 million) a year prior, citing a “reduction in cross-border transactions.” Its gross profit margin decreased to 16.4% from 20.5%, and pre-tax profits dropped from £3.3 million (~$4.4 million) in 2023 to £418,497 (~$561,874) in 2024.

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HAUSER & WIRTH’S UK PROFITS DROP AMID GLOBAL MARKET SLOWDOWN
The gallery’s founders, Iwan and Manuela Wirth, also own Artfarm Group, a hospitality business that runs the Fife Arms hotel in Scotland, the Groucho Club in London, and several restaurants. Artfarm’s accounts showed a wider pretax loss of $24 million in 2024, compared with $15.8 million a year earlier, even as turnover rose 16 percent. The group said it was in a period of “growth and capital investment,” expanding its restaurant and bar portfolio internationally. _ARTnews

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LEGAL SPAT BETWEEN ONE OF THE WORLD’S RICHEST MEN AND HIS LONGTIME INTERIOR DESIGNER
Remi Tessier, one of the world’s most expensive and sought-after interior designers — his clients have included billionaires Larry Ellison and Ken Griffin — is embroiled in some major interior design drama with WhatsApp founder Jan Koum.
Tessier helped Koum design five homes — including a $100-million Atherton compound and a $100-million Malibu mansion — and two 100-meter yachts valued at more than $700 million in total.
In court documents filed in the Southern District of New York, Koum claims Tessier “brazenly exploited him” by inflating prices and misrepresenting the goods he procured in a “pattern of predation.”
<https://tinyurl.com/s82t2z28>
“Rich people love to complain about how expensive everything is,” one billionaire told me of the case.
According to the filing, Koum bought a $7.8 million Picasso, upon Tessier’s recommendation. The designer allegedly took a backdoor $600,000 payment from the gallery without disclosing it to Koum. Koum alleges that he discovered another art commission kickback had been sent to an offshore account in the British Virgin Islands.
Koum, 49, said he is planning to file a complaint in France that will trigger a criminal investigation, and is seeking discovery from Tessier for use in that anticipated proceeding. The filing also alleges that at least two other former clients (who remain anonymous) have fired the venerated designer for the same reason.
<https://tinyurl.com/58826wc6>
”This has never been about personal gain — Jan has pledged to donate any recovery to charity in France — but about protecting others,” Koum’s attorney, Orin Snyder at Gibson Dunn, told me. Koum is worth more than $17 billion according to Forbes. He sold WhatsApp to Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.
In response to the accusations, Tessier, 61, told me, “I deny all allegations against me. I have always treated [Koum] with the highest respect and safeguarded his privacy. I am shocked that he has done this.”
<https://tinyurl.com/3fh5k422>
In one example, Tessier allegedly told Koum he purchased “two dozen hand-knotted silk and pashmina carpets … from a high-end French carpet manufacturer” — and even provided Tessier with the invoice (which he stated was €642,032, roughly $75,000).
According to the court filings, the rugs were from a completely different supplier and were made of synthetic fibers and were “hand-loomed” rather than “hand-knotted.” Experts cited on the suit concluded the actual value of the rugs was less than half what Tessier said they cost.
The filing alleges that the design did this sort of thing with everything from steak knives to couches. This practice “allowed Tessier to pocket the difference while leaving Koum with products far below the standard he believed he was paying for.”
<https://tinyurl.com/yyn2wp4j> _NYPost

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ACQUAVELLA AND NAHMAD CONTEMPORARY CAUGHT UP IN WHATSAPP BILLIONAIRE LAWSUIT
In the filing, Koum referenced three unnamed art galleries that he said Tessier facilitated acquisitions from, including a $7.8 million Picasso painting for which Tessier allegedly received a $600,000 kickback; two paintings totaling $6 million with a $637,000 kickback; and a $600,000 painting that Tessier allegedly obtained a discount on but did not pass along to Koum.
Late last week, the Southern District of New York court revealed who the galleries are—though not which transaction corresponded to which: Acquavella Galleries, Nahmad Contemporary, and New York Gallery LLC, which appears to be an entity registered at the same address as Perrotin’s New York gallery.
Koum’s original filing sought discovery—the pretrial process by which legal parties are compelled to reveal relevant documents—of those galleries’ records, invoices, and testimony related to the aforementioned transactions. Koum said he hopes the records will help establish the “true terms of sale” for the works, as well as any undisclosed commissions, discounts, and actual purchase prices. A judge granted the order on Friday.
Acquavella declined to comment. Nahmad Contemporary, New York Gallery LLC, and Remi Tessier could not be reached for comment by press time. _ARTnews

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FERNAND AUBRY’S BAT AND INSECT MASKS (1951)
<https://tinyurl.com/4hzyz89c> _LoLo

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SEAN COMBS, RECORD EXECUTIVE WHO BOUGHT $21 M. PAINTING, SENTENCED
Sean Combs, a rapper and record executive who made headlines when he bought a $21.1 million Kerry James Marshall painting in 2018, was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 50 months, or 4 years and 2 months. He was also fined $500,000, the maximum amount allowable by law.
The rapper, who also went by the name Diddy, was accused of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation for prostitution. He was acquitted of the racketeering and sex trafficking charges, but he was convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution, both of which carried maximum sentences of up to 10 years each.
Combs has widely been reported to be an art collector, though it’s not entirely clear what works beyond the Marshall are in his holdings. That collection may not be his for much longer, however. Reports from earlier this year mentioned that the Department of Justice intended to seize his assets if he were to be found guilty of sex trafficking.
His purchase of the Marshall painting at Sotheby’s in 2018 was perceived as a major purchase. Swizz Beatz, a record producer and art collector, told that Combs had made the acquisition at his behest.
Combs’s purchase of the painting, titled Past Times (1997), set Marshall’s auction record at the time and made him the most expensive living African American artist. The work is now included in Marshall’s Royal Academy of Arts retrospective in London, where wall text notes that the painting is held in a private collection, without specifying its owner.
The few remaining hints at the contents of Combs’s collections come via a report from 2024 that stated that he owns a neon sculpture by Tracey Emin, as well as works by the sculptor Brett Murray and the creative studio Random International, which is best known for its installation Rain Room. _ARTnews

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IT'S NATIONAL LOBSTER DAY!
Screenshot from John Waters' Multiple Maniacs, 1970:
<https://tinyurl.com/383sxme3> _‪PeterHuestis‬