Good Morning!
- Kyiv’s 11th-century Dormition Cathedral was severely damaged in Russian strikes.
- Police are investigating the vandalism of a painting recognizing Black achievement at the Houston Museum of African American Culture.
- Almine Rech announced it is representing the estate of Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington.
The Headlines
CULTURE UNDER FIRE. The UNESCO-listed, 11th-century Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv was set on fire following Russian strikes that also killed nine people in the region overnight Sunday, the Guardian reports. The remains of two Shahed drones were found at the site, contradicting Russia’s denial of having targeted the cathedral, whose gilded domed roof and façade were badly burned. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date,” and France’s foreign minister compared it to an attack on the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The cathedral is located in the historic Pechersk Lavra monastery complex. Russian strikes also damaged Kyiv’s Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio, which holds the country’s largest and oldest costume collection.
SCRAPED NOT SCRAPPED. Two men vandalized a painting by Clarence Heyward at the Houston Museum of African American Culture, with the intention “to do damage to a place that recognizes Black achievement and accomplishment,” said the museum’s CEO and curator, John Guess Jr., reports the New York Times. The crime, committed by two white men dressed in black, occurred on May 21, but the museum did not announce what had happened until last week. No arrests have been made, and a police investigation continues. As a statement, the museum also said that rather than repair the painting of a black man draped in an American flag, titled Man in the Garden, which was punctured and scraped, it decided to hang it as is. The painting was part of an exhibition called Eden, which closed June 6, and included portraits of Black people painted in green. “Art has long been a space where social tensions become visible, and moments like this raise important questions,” said the artist in a statement to the Times.
The Digest
Almine Rech has announced it is representing the estate of Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, and will be showing a bronze sculpture by the artist at Art Basel this week, as well as a solo exhibition in their Paris location in September. [ARTnews]
Sculptor Leonardo Drew has joined Hauser & Wirth and will debut his piece Number 451 at Art Basel in Basel. [ARTnews]
On Saturday, crowds gathered, hoping to see the court-ordered removal of President Donald Trump’s name from the façade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. [New York Times]
The Frank Bowling Foundation in the UK is formally launching on June 24, with an exhibition titled “Frank Bowling: Driven to Draw at the Royal Drawing School,” which runs through August 22, and programs supporting broader access and education in the arts. [ArtDependence]
Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and founder of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, which staged David Hockney’s major retrospective in Paris last year, said the artist’s passing on Thursday “deeply saddens me,” and “is an irreplaceable loss for the art world.” [WWD]
The cartoonist Joe Sacco claims Penguin Random House India was “looking for excuses” for not publishing his comic, The Once and Future Riot, about the 2013 riots in Uttar Pradesh that led to clashes between Muslims and Hindus. [ArtReview]
The Kicker
BASEL BOUND. Art Week kicks off in Basel this week, and the train from Zurich, which just wrapped its Gallery Weekend, was full of art people. “If I had done almost any other job than being an artist, I could have had both a family and a career—the works,” went one conversation I overheard in French on the train to Basel, where I will be covering the fair on the ground for ARTnews. The suspense leading up to Basel is real, and one art advisor told me she is especially nervous for galleries that have invested considerable sums to participate. I confess I feel the same way. One antidote to calming those nerves is Zurich Art Weekend, the tail end of which I was able to attend. World-class exhibitions across the city’s galleries and institutions are surrounded by crystal clear rivers and a mountain-view lake, which are not only swimmable, but are set up with changing rooms and cafés—even a screened area for women to sunbathe topless. If you play it right, art—swim—art, repeat, is how Zurich Art Weekend is done best. In Zurich, I was also lucky enough to catch up with the inimitable art writer, Kenny Schachter, who quipped he envisions an Art Basel in the same vein as the White House’s UFC fight held Sunday, or “a no-holds-barred death match between the beleaguered Pace crew, Gagosian, Zwirner, and the husband and wife Hauser & Wirths’.”
