Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
Happy Wednesday! Here’s a round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week.
- Makeda Best Named Chief Curator of Photography at MoMA: The curator comes from the Oakland Museum of California, where she served as deputy director. Best will fill a role that has been vacant at MoMA for nearly four years. She starts in September.
- Dawn Airey Appointed Chair of Arts Council England: The former CEO of Getty Images and Channel 5, who also held senior roles at Sky and ITV, will lead the UK’s primary public arts funding body.
- Rana Begum Joins Lehmann Maupin: The London-based artist, whose practice draws on the history of geometric abstraction, will make her debut with the gallery at Art Basel this June. Her first solo show with the gallery is set to follow this September in New York.
- Experimenter Announces Round 10 Grantees for Generator Cooperative Art Production Fund: The Kolkata-based gallery’s fund awarded production grants to 15 artists and collectives. Since 2020, it has supported 110 artists.
- Freeman’s Appoints Muys Snijders as CEO: The auction and art advisory veteran joins Freeman’s effective immediately, bringing more than 25 years of experience. She previously held senior roles at AIG Private Client Group, Christie’s, and Bonham’s.
Big Number: $537,000
That was the sale price, with fees, for Hell, a work by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch, at Sotheby’s Old Master & 19th century paintings sale on Tuesday. The result, more than 10 times the high estimate of $50,000, was just one of several intriguing sales in the category, which has continued to show new life in recent years as collectors move back toward artists with established markets.
Read This
The art world was rocked this week by the tragic news that artist and art world commentator Hilde Lynn Helphenstein was found dead on Sunday in São Paulo’s Rosewood Hotel. Better known by her pseudonymous social media handle Jerry Gogosian, Helphenstein left behind a complicated legacy, puncturing art world pieties with both satirical and serious memes and occasionally making inflammatory statements. In the Art Journal, writer Gabriella Angeleti attempts to sort through that legacy, framing her achievements and failures within the pressures and bullying she suffered after revealing the person behind the meme account. As Angeleti eloquently puts it, “Helphenstein earnestly tried to change the way the art world talks about itself, and that alone secures her place in its history. Whatever your memories of @jerrygogosian, we can all recognize that the world, especially the art world, lost a real one.”
