The Art Daddy's Weekly Daddy Wrap Up
More daddies being more newsworthy during the first week of April rather than trashy, sadly...
This week there was more hard daddy news and less goss. We love both but here are daddy curated headlines. Daddies will be daddies no matter the news cycle, so here is the Art Daddy's Weekly Daddy Wrap Up for you for 3/30/24-4/6/24.
Sculptor Daddy Richard Serra Dies at 85
On March 27th, the news of the famed American sculptor Richard Serra's death broke. People across the art world took to social media to grief, share their remembrances, and memories of the artist. In an interview, the gallerist David Zwirner called him “one of the most important artists ever.”
Image of Serra by George Etheredge for The New York Times in 2019.
Serra, who is arguably one of the most influential artists of the last fifty years, helped to push the bounds of sculpture and materiality beyond what people had conceived of before. For the last forty years, Serra became known for his enormous steel sculptures that sometimes mounted public debate such as his 1987 work Tilted Arc, which resulted in a lawsuit.
Image of Serra’s now infamous Tilted Arc sculpture from 1987.
Serra's art worked on an enormous scale and was meant to be experienced with the body while also testing the bound limitations of the materials he worked in. He also became synonymous with New York City's downtown scene in the late 1960s and 1970s which was considered to be a heyday of the art world working with people like Phillip Glass, Joan Joans, John Cage, and countless others. He was a leader within the minimal art movement, but over the course of his career worked in many mediums. He died at age 85 at his home in Orient, NY.
While an important sculptor daddy, he was not AD's fav. Here is one of my favorite profiles of him from 2019 that appeared in the NYT. The pictures of him and his process are incredible. RIP.
Whitney Museum Names Kim Conaty As New Chief Curator Daddy
In a press release issued yesterday, the Whitney Museum announced that effective April 8th Kim Conaty would start her new post as the Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator. In this new role, Conaty will oversee many departments of the museum including, publications, and conservation departments. She will also take up new duties around the museum's scholarly and artistic programming while also further developing the permanent collections and exhibitions.
Image of newly named Whitney Museum Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, Kim Conaty. Image courtesy of the Whitney Museum.
Conaty has been at the Whitney since 2017 and previously worked as a curator within the prints and drawings department and came from the Rose Museum at Brandeis University. Prior to that, Conaty had served as a curator at various prestigious museums including MoMA, Clark Art Institute; the Grey Art Gallery, NYU; the Guggenheim Museum; and the Harvard Art Museums, among others where she oversaw and curated several major exhibitions. “It’s a great honor to take on this leadership role at the Whitney, an institution that has long held a special place for me,” said Conaty. “I’m excited to guide and empower our stellar curatorial team as we continue to shape Whitney's collection in meaningful ways and develop dynamic and rigorous exhibitions that tell stories, ask questions, and engage deeply with artists and audiences.” We feel good about this new chief curator daddy whipping the place into shape.
Marlborough Gallery Daddies to Close Their Doors After Close to 80 Years
Marlborough Gallery announced today that it would be closing its doors after nearly 80 years. They currently have spaces in New York City, London, Madrid, and Barcelona. As of June, the gallery plans to stop all exhibition planning, and will cease to handle artists and estates and their inventory is expected to be sold and some of the proceeds will go to nonprofits geared towards helping contemporary artists. While there wasn’t a specific reason given for the closing, many galleries and businesses shuttered and underwent financial strain during the COVID-19 pandemic, Marlborough included. This combined with other factors seems to have led to the decision.
Image of Marlborough Gallery London. Image courtesy of the gallery.
“After long and careful consideration, we made the decision that now is the time to sunset our nearly 80-year-old firm,” said Franz Plutschow, a member of the gallery’s board of trustees, in a statement. “We are profoundly grateful to all the artists who have been at the heart of Marlborough Gallery and integral to its storied legacy. We are indebted to our expert and dedicated employees, including those who will continue to work with us as we now wind down the business. As we do so, we are mindful that the extraordinary breadth and depth of our inventory testifies to the relationships formed over the decades with some of the most important artists of the modern era.”
It is the end of an era for one of AD’s favorite spaces, and I, like many, will be sad to see them go.
Frieze Fair Daddies Are Gearing Up for A Private Succession Type Takeover
The Financial Times reported yesterday that the Endeavor Group, a Hollywood talent agency that owns Frieze, (biggest eye roll that this is their money backer), announced they are going private for $13B after a poor performance. Tuesday the private equity firm Silver Lake announced that it would pay “a 55% premium on Endeavor’s stock” which was valued at just $27.50 per share. People were really skeptical when the news broke last summer when Frieze bought Armory and the Chicago EXPO, so to me, the financial strain of that is what probably tipped the scales.
If we are comparing this to Succession, which I am, this feels like what Roman was trying to do in his vision for Waystar and him and Kendall and Shiv feuded about it. Then things took a turn.
Image of the cast of the HBO show Succession. Image courtesy of HBO.
Does this current situation feel awfully familiar to Season 3 of Succession when the kids try to take over the company? Well, we all know who won in the end. IYKYK.
Inigo Philbrick is Out of Prison
The New York dealer who made headlines the world over for stealing over $86m from his clients, and was caught in the most dramatic fashion, is now out of prison. Philbrick, who is the son of the former director of the Aldrich Museum in Connecticut, was sentenced to seven years for wire fraud, only served two. His release was confirmed in a statement to The Art Newspaper. This is also some of the most privilege I have seen in a while too, and might I add, he served less time than Mary B.
Image of disgraced art dealer Inigo Philbrick.
I don't know if people remember this but he was arrested in June of 2020 by US law enforcement agents on the Pacific island of Vanuatu. He was hiding from police in a known tax haven and I have been waiting for Shonda Rhimes or somebody else to buy the rights to this story and make it an Anna Delvey style crime drama already? This is the stuff Lifetime Television for Women was made of. We know he needs the money, he is a daddy IRL, and has a tarnished rep, but odds are the art world will have him back soon enough. We are known for that.
Gallerist Mary Boone Subject of New Vampire Weekend Song
Last week the indie rock sensation Vampire Weekend released a song titled “Mary Boone'' after the controversial gallerist who served time for tax fraud in 2019. The song is from the band's fifth studio album, Only God Was Above Us.
Image of Mary Boone in 2017.
Boone, who was extremely influential in the 1980s and would come to define the downtown gallery scene, served a 30-month sentence. The song isn't really about Boone, but moreover helps to create a sense of nostalgia for an era of NYC that many long for but has since passed. In it, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig sings, “Mary Boone, Mary Boone, I’m on the dark side of your moon. Mary Boone, Mary Boone, well, I hope you feel like loving someone soon.” Even though Boone is out of prison now, her reputation precedes her, good or bad.
Benoit Repellin and The Art Daddy Take a Break
Benoit Repellin, one of my personal favorites, and a 5-star daddy based on my own Zagat daddy rating system, has decided to take a break from the Art Daddy. Repellin, who oversaw the first of several jewelry auctions so far in 2024 in Hong Kong last week, is currently in Geneva, his home base. Repellin and AD struck up a friendship over the last few months in the Dms, and things quickly evolved from there.
My 5-start daddy Benoit Repellin on the auction block last week at Phillips Hong Kong prior to the break.
But this week, things between AD and Repellin came to a screeching halt. In a message to the Art Daddy on Tuesday, Repellin noted that he “just had too much going on at the moment, sorry.” The Art Daddy responded with “You did this Benoit. You potentially broke us.”
The Art Daddy grieved this in a public IG story saying “I am taking a break from Benoit right now, I can't talk about it. It's painful” as the Etta James classic “All I Could Do Was Cry” plays in the background.
While things appear to be on hold between Repelling and AD right now, the show must go on. As the auction season ramps up, Repellin will have a grueling travel schedule ping ponging him to NYC, Europe, Asia and back again. First up for him is NYC for a series of previews at Phillips next week.
Things AD is currently obsessed with:
In a NYT Style section manner, I also want to set forth some taste making elements.
Right now I am reading: Yoko Ono's Grapefruit and this ridiculous essay on Trad Wives from The New Yorker.
I am drinking: Waterloo Summer Berry Seltzer
I am looking at: Arthur Jafa’s work which is currently on view at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in NYC.
Until next time daddies be sure to follow The art daddy substack as well as on Instagram to get your daily dose of daddies. Dm's are always open for news, gossip, and tea sessions.