Art Industry News: Comedian Hannah Gadsby Turns Curator to Take on Picasso’s ‘Pablo-matic’ Legacy in a Museum Show + Other Stories

NEED-TO-READ

Ken Griffin Gives $300 Million to Harvard – The billionaire mega-collector has donated $300 million to the Ivy League’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which will rename the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after him. The hedge funder spent $43 million to buy the U.S. Constitution from a DAO in 2022 and more recently, moved his mega-watt art collection to Palm Beach. (Crimson)

Monica Lewinsky Talks Sitting for Marilyn Minter Portrait – The American activist and writer discussed sitting for her first portrait by an artist. “I felt I was pushing myself, testing my own boundaries of trust and comfort,” wrote Lewinsky. “And isn’t that what art is about?” The work will go on view at LGDR gallery this week in New York, alongside those of Roxane Gay and Lady Gaga. (Vanity Fair)

Hannah Gadsby to Curate Show About Picasso – Five years after taking on Pablo Picasso’s complicated legacy during a comedy special, the Australian comedian is organizing an exhibition about the artist for the Brooklyn Museum, set to open this summer. Called “It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby,” the show will feature nearly 100 works by mostly women artists, considering Picasso through a feminist lens. Some have mocked the idea: art critic Dean Kissick tweeted that “commemorating the anniversaries of our greatest artists’ deaths by having comedians that don’t tell jokes curate museum shows about how much of an asshole they were is, I guess, quite funny.” The show is one of many exhibitions around the world commemorating the artist’s death 50 years ago. ()

Australian Artist John Olsen Dies at 95 – The celebrated painter known for an innovative style that captured the Australian landscape has died. In May, Olsen’s work will be projected on the Sydney Opera House for Vivid 2023. (Sydney Morning Herald)

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Met Names Façade Commission Artists – Berlin-based artist Nairy Baghramian and Brooklyn-based artist Jacolby Satterwhite have been tapped to create works for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s facade and Great Hall throughout the rest of 2023. Baghramian’s sculptures will be installed at the facade’s niches on Fifth Avenue as part of the installation “Scratching the Back” from September 7–May 19; Satterwhite’s multimedia works will take over the walls of the Great Hall from October 2–November 23. (New York Times) 

Hip Hop Producer Makes Gallery Debut – Brandon Denner, a music producer who worked with Missy Elliott, Lil Wayne, and Timbaland, is making his gallery debut at Adam Cohen’s Manhattan-based A Hug From the Art World Gallery. A self-proclaimed Afrofuturist artist, Denner says of his work, “it means to manifest and see what you bring into fruition, realizing that higher power … and as a creator not bound by time, I want to look at us as a people of every time – past, present and future.” (Guardian) 

Chinati Foundation Names Board Members – The Marfa, Texas-based organization founded by the late artist Donald Judd has named Miguel Fernandez and Franck Giraud as new trustees to the board. Last month, Caitlin Murray was named as the new executive director. (Glasstire) 

FOR ART’S SAKE

Picasso’s Sketchbooks Go On View in NYC – As part of the international celebration honoring 50 years after the death of Pablo Picasso, Pace Gallery is teeing up a show of the Spanish artist’s personal sketchbooks. “Picasso: 14 Sketchbooks, 1900-1959″ will go on view at the gallery’s West 25th Street gallery outpost from November 10 to December 23, 2023. Nearly four decades ago, the gallery staged “Je Suis le Cahier: The Sketchbooks of Picasso” debuting the sketches to the world. ()