Valise Reading Roundup 03

We will occasionally present stories we’ve come across that seem relevant to Valise users—and to others who like to think about making a life and career in the art world, keeping themselves organized, and using software to do one or both. Here’s the third batch.

New approaches to an artist’s legacy

In recent months, two pioneering artists, Cindy Sherman and Betye Saar, announced proactive approaches to stewarding their creative legacies. Many artists, estates, and galleries pull together a catalogue raisonné; Sherman, in announcing the Cindy Sherman Legacy Project, also outlines a process to “systematize and streamline the reprinting of” existing works. Owners of Sherman prints can contact the studio and, after being approved and paying a small fee, receive an authenticated—and ostensibly longer-lasting—print in return.

Saar, on turning ninety-nine, announced an international group of curators, dubbed the Betye Saar Legacy Group, that will work with her daughters on securing her creative legacy. “Over the years I have worked with all of the members and they each have gathered a unique bit of know-how, a particular insight, about my creative process,” Saar said in a statement. Saar’s longtime dealer adds that “the Legacy Group is not a replacement for an estate or a retrospective, but a supplement to those things.”

The changing landscape for commercial galleries

The stories of prominent galleries closing up shop continues. Sometimes, the story goes, the owners want to try new models; at other times we’re told that the market has made already slim margins unworkable. This summer, Tim Blum closed Blum (formerly Blum & Poe); collector-dealer Adam Lindemann closed Venus Over Manhattan; and, most recently, Oliver Babin closed his gallery Clearing. The Financial Times argues that “The Art World’s Age of Empires Might Be Over,” which seems a little clickbaity—the biggest empires seem to be doing just fine. But the landscape is unquestionably changing. Just be careful: this instability can “leave artists to fend for themselves.” As the cofounder of an inventory tool that helps artists have a sense of independence and autonomy, I certainly don’t want any artists to “get screwed when galleries close for good.” The trick, for artists seeking shows or representation and art audiences alike, is to not get cynical, and to try and stay abreast of the new and interesting spaces opening in each city. What new venues do you recommend where you live? Share them with us!

Quick hits

• Really enjoyed this portfolio of write-ups about Christian Marclay’s The Clock—one for each hour of its twenty-four-hour runtime. Kudos to the Brooklyn Rail for commissioning it.
• David Hammons’s 2019 exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in LA gets the oral-history treatment usually reserved for movies and TV shows.
• Jason Farago argues “Tate Modern is the Museum of the Century (Like It or Not)”: “What I couldn’t foresee was how the shift to spectacle in the Turbine Hall — the shift to accessibility and immediacy that Tate Modern made its early signature — would prefigure, and justify, the shift to evangelism in culture at large.”
• Related to the Cindy Sherman reprinting effort noted above, here’s an interview with Neil Selkirk, who has for five decades been responsible for printing the late Diane Arbus’s photos
• The Gallery Climate Coalition’s “GCC Artist Toolkit,” which “empowers artists to take action on climate change.”
• Legal Structures for Creative Practices: “an illustrated zine designed for creative entrepreneurs that unpacks the pros, cons, and nuances of various legal structures” (digital, free)