Blog: HAPPENING

Can an Outsider Artist Win His $100 Million Lawsuit Against NYC’s Five Major Museums?

en | After almost a half-century of fighting the art establishment for recognition, Robert Cenedella finally had his day in court on Monday, December 17. Appearing before the judge of New York’s Southern District, the outsider artist’s lawyers argued that his $100 million lawsuit against New York’s top museums should continue to trial so that litigators might uncover a potential conspiracy linking those cultural institutions to the art market’s top five galleries in a pay-to-play scheme.

Article by Zachary Small


The blockchain is just another way to make art all about money

en | Commercialism has suffocated traditional art. Is digital art next?
Just like Bitcoins are scarce, so too can original digital artwork now be scarce, even if duplicates remain common in the same way that prints or photographs of physical artwork are common. Proponents argue that this would democratize and decentralize art, helping artists get paid, helping resolve issues of authorship and ownership that the internet had rendered murky.

Article by Oliver Roeder


Jean-Claude Freymond-Guth on what caused his gallery to fail

en | Recently when the Swiss art dealer Jean-Claude Freymond-Guth announced the closure of his Basel gallery in an emotional letter, an outpouring of surprise and sadness from the art community spread out across social media. At a time of mounting challenges for smaller art galleries, the letter struck a chord with its cri de coeur about the «alienation» Freymond-Guth felt from the art world’s «growing demand in constant global participation, production, and competition,» which led him to question a system that «works only for a tiny amount of artists and galleries.»

Article by Henri Neuendorf


Kunst und Geld – eine Ausstellung

de | Die Ausstellung versteht sich als Diskursplattform, um verschiedene Aspekte der Beziehung von künstlerischen Praxen zum gegenwärtigen Finanzsystem zu beleuchten und zu hinterfragen. Ökonomische Aspekte haben die Produktion und Rezeption von Kunst stets begleitet. Doch noch nie scheint das Medium derart von den Kräften des Marktes überformt und getrieben worden zu sein. Kunst und Kapital gehen enge Komplizenschaften ein, auf deren Basis das westliche Produkt Contemporary Art weltweit verbreitet wird.

«Das System hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten etabliert, daran wird sich so bald auch nichts ändern», schätzt Kurator Marc Wellmann die Zukunft des Kunstbetriebes ein. «Umso wichtiger ist es, die Mechanismen zu kennen.»

en | The exhibition understands itself as a discourse platform to illuminate and question various aspects of the relationship between artistic practices and the current financial system. Economic aspects have always accompanied the production and reception of art. But never before has the medium been shaped and driven by the forces of the market in such way. Art and capital together are in close company, on the basis of which the Western product Contemporary Art will be distributed worldwide.

«The system has established itself over the past few decades and it will not change soon,» says curator Marc Wellmann, assessing the future of the art business. «So it is all-important to know the mechanisms.»

Artikel