Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world. We read the press releases so you don’t have to.
A Historic Restitution
- Two stoneware vessels by the 19th-century potter David Drake, who created thousands of poignant ceramic works inscribed with lines of poetry while enslaved in South Carolina, have been restituted to his known descendants. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which has held the vessels in its collection since 1997, returned one of the jars to Drake’s family and purchased the other back from them. Both vessels date from 1857 and were likely sold to profit Drake’s enslaver, as the artist received no compensation for his work.
Drake’s descendants established the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust to reclaim Drake’s legacy and “ensure that his dignity and memory are honored through meaningful restitution and compensation,” including by representing the interests of other descendants who may come forward.
Alliances and New Beginnings
- Carol Sauvion is stepping down as executive director of Craft in America after nearly 20 years at the helm. Robyn Hollingshead and Ann Ruhr Pifer, both members of the organization’s board, will assume the roles of co-executive directors at the end of the year.
- Brooklyn-based artist Char Jeré is now represented by Andrew Kreps Gallery. Sculptor Reginald Madison is now represented by Uffner & Liu gallery in partnership with September Gallery.
- The Matthew Wong Foundation will present an exhibition of rarely seen works by the late painter in Venice next year, timed with the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale. Matthew Wong: Interiors, curated by John Cheim of the now-shuttered Cheim & Read gallery, will be on view from May 9 through November 1, 2026, at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi.
- The Frick Collection appointed Laurence Milstein as chair of its Young Fellows Steering Committee, with Casey Kohlberg named vice chair.
- Karim Crippa, the longtime communications head of Art Basel Paris, was named the fair’s new director. See what stood out at this year’s edition in Hyperallergic.
- In more art fair news, New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) partnered with the Finnish Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Finland in New York to send three of its members to the Nordic country. Gaa Gallery, Margot Samel, and Ulterior Gallery will host exhibitions of works by Finnish artists in their New York spaces this fall.
Big Rothko Energy
- Leading Christie’s fall marquee sales is Mark Rothko’s “No. 31 (Yellow Stripe)” (1958), a nearly seven-by-six-foot canvas in fiery red and orange on a scorching yellow ground from the collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis. A spokesperson for Christie’s told Hyperallergic that the estimate for the work, which is available upon request, was “in the region of $50 million.” A comparably sized, warm-hued canvas fetched $46 million in 2023, but it lacked the moody red splash that anchors this piece; see, for example, “Untitled (Shades of Red)” (1961), which sold for nearly $67 million the previous year. It’s just the thing for above the credenza, no?
Wildcard
- New York art dealer Vito Schnabel, perhaps best known for being the son of painter Julian Schnabel, has selected the artworks for the new London outpost of the super sceney Italian restaurant Carbone. Ai Weiwei, Angel Otero, and Ron Gorchov are all on the menu. Sounds great, if you can even get inside the place, whose New York location once reportedly turned away Justin and Hailey Bieber. I bet the art in a Swiss storage vault gets more visibility. Schnabel’s favorite dish? The “Orecchiette Vito,” he said in an interview — the Nepo baby of pasta.
