Good Morning!
- Pace Gallery is dropping some 50 artists from its roster and cutting about 50 staff.
- Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French artist and author of the graphic novel Persepolis, has died at 56.
- A new study says the Bayeux Tapestry can safely travel to London’s British Museum from Normandy.
The Headlines
SLOWING THE PACE. The mega Pace Gallery, with seven locations worldwide, is laying off some 50 staff and dropping about 50 artists, per last night’s New York Times. However, sources at Pace told ARTnews that the Times story ran before the gallery had conducted the layoffs, leading to confusion amongst gallery staff. A town hall is planned for 9 a.m. Thursday morning. “The whole art gallery art system became too big, too commercial, too impersonal, and too corporate,” gallery CEO Marc Glimcher said. “We all know it’s true. But you actually have to do something to adapt to it. You have to make some substantial changes.” This would certainly qualify. According to the NYT, the gallery, which celebrated its 65th anniversary last year, has buckled under the expenses of operating so many spaces, attending multiple art fairs, and navigating global and economic uncertainty. The exact number of staff and artist cuts has not been confirmed; however, there will be a reported reduction of “about 30 percent” of artists, from about 135 to 85, and “about 20 percent” of staff, from about 250 to 200. The views of Marc’s father, gallery founder Arne Glimcher, describe with signature candor where things went wrong: “I think this whole mega gallery thing is ridiculous and also unsupportable. I always thought that,” he said, stating earlier: “It’s kind of like we’re getting our gallery back.”
IN MEMORIAM. Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French artist and author of the award-winning graphic novel series and film Persepolis, has died at age 56, according to French reports. She died “from sadness, a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” read a statement shared with AFP. Satrapi had been living in France for about 30 years and was an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime, but also of France’s lack of support for Iranian dissident artists and others, she said, who were not granted asylum in her adopted country. The animated film adaptation of Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, which narrates her personal experience growing up in Iran amid the 1979 Islamic Revolution, became an international success, including winning top honors at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. “Her passing marks the loss of a figure of French culture and an artist devoted to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international renown,” stated French President Emmanuel Macron in a press release today.
The Digest
A new, in-depth study has determined that controversial plans to transport the fragile Bayeux Tapestry from Normandy to London’s British Museum in September can go ahead and pose no prohibitive risk to the late 11th-century artifact. [Le Monde]
Architect Kulapat Yantrasast has been named artistic director of the 2027 Bukhara Biennial in Uzbekistan. [ARTnews]
Collector William P. Healey has gifted 185 works of modern and contemporary Native American art to the Phoenix Art Museum, and it will form the crux of an exhibition opening in August. [The Art Newspaper]
About 240 rediscovered, whimsical drawings by John Lennon and the artist Stephen Verona for an animated Beatles music video will be displayed for three months at the Liverpool Beatles Museum. [Artnet News]
On June 10, New York’s Performa biennial will host a one-night variety show at Manhattan’s Town Hall, featuring star artists such as Julio Torres, Anne Imhof, Marcel Dzama, plus the newly announced participation of David Banda(Madonna’s son). [press release]
The Kicker
A STONE’S THROW. New research claims the mysterious, massive sandstone at the center of Stonehenge was carried approximately 430 miles from northeast Scotland by glaciers and was “rescued” by ancient Mesolithic people before it was hauled to its current location in Salisbury, England, reports the Times of London. Since glaciers didn’t flow right into Salisbury, the study speculates the stone, thought to have served as an altar, was deposited hundreds of miles east, beneath what is now the North Sea. Then, “it was likely moved in stages, potentially combining overland hauling with river or coastal transport where possible,” explained Professor Anthony Clarke, who was part of the study. He added it would have taken “tremendous determination” to pull off. “What is exciting about these findings is that they could imply that the people of Doggerland [the spot where the stone is thought to have drifted via glacier] attached cultural significance to the altar stone long before it was incorporated into Stonehenge,” added Remy Veness, a lead author of the findings.
