It’s been a week since Armory ended and if any of you are like me, I am still recovering. There was so much to see and do and this week it is onto the next. From the Nan Goldin opening last night in Chelsea to Jordan Casteel tonight at the Hill Foundation the fall art season is officially in full swing in NYC. It’s also Friday the thirteenth which some people think is an unlucky day. I say, bring on the daddies.
This is also a special edition of the substack because it’s my 35th one! It’s been a wild ride of trying to bring you all the daddy headlines according to me, and hope to be around for another 35! Thank you for the support and please subscribe and follow me on IG where I post daily daddy content.
THE Daddy David Byrne talking t to a stylish fair goer. I wish it was me.
Last week I gave you an extended art daddy fall fair and art guide and this week we are back to our regularly scheduled programming of daddy news and more. Keep reading for my take on Glenn Lowery stepping down, post art daddy fair analysis and a few other surprises thrown in.
MoMA Director Daddy Glenn Lowry is Stepping Down in 2025
In what may very well be the biggest daddy headline for me so far this year, I was deeply pained to learn that my steadfast museum director daddy, Glenn Lowry, plans to step down next year. While I am still processing this information in real time, Lowry has been an institution at MoMA. Lowry, as many of you know, has been the longest serving director in MoMA’s history and was even asked to stay on 10 years ago. He has an MA and PhD from Harvard in Art History and did his undergrad at Williams.
My class act MoMA and forever daddy, Dr. Glenn Lowry.
Lowry is really a class act. In a story that came out on 9/10 in the New York Times, Lowry is quoted as saying, “I didn’t want to be the person who stayed too long.” I couldn’t love him more if I tried and even though he was invited to stay on, he felt that his 30 year tenure had been sufficient. I am not sure I am ready to see Glenn leave. He is the only MoMA director I have ever known and has seen the museum through trying and triumphant times.
From a 2000 staff strike that lasted 134 days, a renovation that helped to reimagine the museum itself, as well as museum acquisitions, and a few scandals along the way, Daddy Glenn got MoMA through it all. I cannot imagine a better daddy for this job and someone who has dedicated themselves to art and the institutions that allow people to have experiences within them. Daddy Glenn is truly a once in a generation museum director and while he won’t step down for at least a year, I do hope he may reconsider and stay on to bring MoMA into the decades that come. But if this blessed event is really coming, thank you from the bottom of the art daddy’s heart for all that you have done for MoMA, art, and the daddies of the art world and beyond. If this does happen, it’s now anyone’s guess who the next daddy director in charge will be. Also, if you are reading this Glenn, and want a side piece during this trying time, I am here for you.
Cultured Magazine Names Writer Daddies Johanna Fateman and John Vincler as New Co-Chief Art Critic Editors
In what I am hailing as a great day for art criticism, yesterday Cultured Magazine in a surprising announcement named the fantastic Johanna Fateman and John Vincler as the magazine’s new co-chief art critics. With many headlines lately in the media that have to deal with mass layoffs, and while art media is having a crisis in general, this is a welcome victory.
Fateman who has written for many art publications, notably the New Yorker and 4columns, will be stellar in this new role. Last year, The New Yorker slashed its art section leaving it with minimal visual arts coverage, and Fateman was a regular contributor to it. She is also a 5-star daddy as you may remember. Vincler is a Brooklyn-based painter who writes regularly for the times, is handsome, and thinks he is a daddy to watch. They will head up a new section titled “The Crtics Table.” I can’t wait for this to happen and the art daddy wishes them both a lot of luck in their new roles.
Italian Culture Minister Steps Down
Italy's culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, 62, got caught with his former mistress in the most unlikely way. In the widely used art world tactics of nepotism, Sangiuliano brought it to a new level when he appointed his ex lover Maria Rosaria Boccia, as his new “advisor of major events.” Want to know how people found out? She posted it on her LinkedIn! Well, daddy, while people love to quote the epic Francis Ford Copolla film “The Godfather”—“keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” I think it backfired. Odds are she has something on him and he owes her.
Bad cultural minister daddy and his ex mistress.
Following the news of the job he had given her, the cultural minister daddy had to resign. The optics were bad. And I think he’s a fascist too.
If you have been watching the HBO show Industry then you know what I’m about to talk about.
This week in a surprising turn of events, Kit Haring who plays Henry Muck, has epically crashed and burned as Lumi’s founder and CEO and now amidst the background of a scandal with cooking his books and even being accused of sexual misconduct, he now finds himself in an inappropriate relationship with Yasmin Hanini. Yas also is having her own set of daddy problems run too and we get it girl. In this latest episode Henry asked Yasmin when they were in the shower to pee on him. Perhaps the Italian daddy is into similar water sports. In the meantime, I will be anxiously awaiting for Boccia to write the tell all book.
Anna Sorokin Scores a Spot on dances with the stars
Anna Sorokin is back at it again. Sorokin aka Anna Delvey who was jailed in 2019 for swindling millions of dollars from hotels, and other wealthy individuals inside and outside of the art world to fund her fictitious club, the Anna Delevy Foundation, and her lifestyle, is out to try and reinvent herself yet again. This time it will be on the popular ABC network show Dancing With the Stars.
Here Delvey is shown in a recent photoshoot from her apartment in NYC with her ankle monitor visible. I wonder if that will also make it onto Dancing with the Stars.
Former contestants include Tyson Beckford, Jamie Lynn Spears, Master P and Lisa Rinna, among others. Historically, the show has been a spot for celebrities to help work out some of their larger image issues and it seems like Sorkin in the following suit. Last week she posted a picture on her Instagram with her ankle monitor visible to make the announcement. Sorkin’s larger grifter hi jinxes were the subject of the widely popular 2022 Netflix series Inventing Anna that TV powerhouse Shonda Rhimes was behind. Dying to see who Sorkin’s dancing partner will be and if she can swindle her way to the hearts of fans of the show.
Julie Mehretu Tapped for Obama Presidential Center
The famed artist Julie Mehretu is soaring to new heights and this time it’s for former President Barack Obama. Mehretu who is known for creating massive paintings, was most recently commissioned to create the 83-foot installation for the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Obama Presidential Center unveils images of new Mehretu installation that will open in 2026.
Mehretu painting Uprising of the Sun, will be featured prominently within the center which is slated to open in 2026. The artwork is also being made in part to commemorate the Selma Marches, which was a pivotal turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. The artwork will consist of 35 painted glass panels and will draw on Robert Seldon Duncanson’s Land of the Lotus Eaters (1861) and Jacob Lawrence’s screenprint Confrontation on the Bridge (1975). Another inspiration is Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekle among other sources. Mehretu was also the subject of a 2021 Whitney Museum retrospective which further cemented her art daddy status.
Post Art Fair Daddy Analysis
With Armory week behind us, it still feels like it’s hard to catch a breath. The fairs were global and not just in NYC too. With Frieze Seoul, many art news outlets rushed to claim that “the Asian art market is strong.” Well, dear daddies, I’m here to tell you that a strong showing at a fair isn’t the entire snapshot of a market. While I’m not a trained economist like Bernie Lagrange’s daddy, I think even he would agree that sales at a fair are only one factor. This is also a younger fair and was only started 2 years ago, but with the Frieze backing it does get some level of credibility that a newer fair might now. I think the bigger thing to keep in mind here too is that Frieze now runs a fair monopoly and of the major ones people reported on last week, they owned ⅔ of them.
Also, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a gallery at Frieze Seoul that didn’t either entirely or mostly sell out. Fairs are about putting your best face forward and you are playing to the crowds of where you are so galleriests and advisors choose carefully who they showcase. Sales for this edition according to Artlyst are as follows:
Hauser & Wirth sold Nicolas Party’s Portrait with Curtains (2021) for $2.5 million to a private collection in Asia, as well as two significant works by Louise Bourgeois: The Family, a gouache on paper, and Femme, a fabric and marble sculpture from 2003,. They also sold works by Avery Singer’s Free Fall placements for $575,000 and a Henry Taylor painting for $450,000. Party’s Triptych with Red Forest was also placed for $350,000, while Angel Otero’s work found a home for $285,000. Other key sales include Works by Anj Smith for $215,000, Catherine Goodman for $135,000, Ambera Wellmann for $40,000 and A study by Flora Yukhnovich for £22,000.
Daddies at the Armory show where AD was not in attendance.
Last week in NYC things were functioning at an exhausting pace with Armory, Spring Break and independent 20th century. Sales for the two larger ones were to be expected. Some Armory standout sales included The Singer Tract (2023) which sold for $750,000. Robert Motherwell’s Apse (1980–84) for $825,000 as well as works by Sara Anstis, Jan-Ole Schiemann, and Emil Sands. A painting that had never been exhibited before by Lynne Drexler, Autumn Twilight (1977) sold for $450,000. Additionally two works by Rob Pruitt went for $175,000 respectfully. This is just a snapshot as well and there were other items sold at that fair and a more detailed breakdown by ARTnews can be found here.
For me, the total sales at a fair are just that. It is what was sold at the fair. Of course this is part of a larger puzzle that makes up the art market which also includes private and auction sales among others, however this is a part of a global economy. And within that political and social factors do play a part in how and what people buy as well as Interest rates.
At this point, it is no surprise that the art market is in a downturn and we have been seeing signs of slowing for some time. From layoffs at major galleries, auction sales were not as strong. And the general state of the US economy, these are also things that do play out in their own way in the art market. Also don’t forget on September 2nd, many art news outlets reported that Sotheby’s core earnings were down 88% during the first half of the year so that might be something to put in your fair pipe and smoke.
THE DADDY SIGHTING PART II: David Byrne at Independent 20th Century
It seems like with every fair I go to I can’t seem to get away from David Byrne. Back in May the former Talking Heads frontman and I had a run in where I almost had a heart attack because I think he is THE daddy. That time, I was at the low budget Frieze press event where we were roped off like cattle in the cafe on the top floor by the $20 sandwiches being served wine and beer from a troff, while fair goers ate in the cafeteria style setting. David bought a sandwich and ate at a faraway table.
THE DADDY DAVID BYRNE LOOKING AT ART at Independent 20th century.
It seems like with every fair I go to I can’t seem to get away from David Byrne. Back in May the former Talking Heads frontman and I had a run in where I almost had a heart attack because I think he is THE daddy. That time, I was at the low budget Frieze press event where we were roped off like cattle in the cafe on the top floor by the $20 sandwiches being served wine and beer from a metal trough while fair goers ate in the cafeteria style setting. David bought a sandwich and ate at a faraway table.
As we drank the free alcohol, because we are poor art writers after all, I spotted David from across the room and my friend and I waved. A horrible man next to us who looked like something out of the line for a Berlin fetish club asked us to take a picture of him with David. I offered him some wine but sadly he declined.
When I saw him this time in prime daddy conditions at Cipriani’s near the Seaport, I was ready. I was very excited but kept my distance. He had on horrible sandals and was chatting with a young woman. After he left I had a moment with the people who worked at the gallery whose booth he had just been in and I told them how David and I seem to be unconscious fair buddies. I love the Cipriani’s balcony and I love the overall unstated elegance at that venue. And their bathrooms are A+. The daddies are A++.
David, if you are reading this, dump your girlfriend for the art daddy. I will always be true to you. Also, please burn those sandals. Until the next fair daddy.
In a NYT Style section manner, I also want to set forth some taste making elements.
I am reading: A review of the new Brian Eno documentary
I am drinking: Trade Joe’s Starfruit seltzer
I am looking at: The Nan Golden exhibit at Zwirner
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.