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- Father of the late artist Lucien Smith discusses estrangement from his son and appeals to the public to send their memories.
- Chinese artist Liang Shaoji died following an illness on September 13 at age 81.
- President Trump threatened to block a $257 million renovation of the Kennedy Center, and then the center abruptly closed.
The Headlines
A FATHER’S REGRETS. Terrence Sanders-Smith, father of artist Lucien Smith, who passed away September 7 at age 37, spoke to Whitehot Magazine about his loss, the life of his son, and their years of estrangement he so deeply regrets now. About the latter, he said, “I don’t think there was one moment when we lost each other. It was an accumulation of distance, drugs, ambition, pride, fear, and mistakes his and mine.” Sanders-Smith nevertheless candidly discusses his son’s drug addiction at length, and his decision to financially cut off his son, which he regrets. Smith’s early market success, and what his father characterized as a desire for “fame, wealth,” also weighed on their relationship. “I sometimes felt that he was ashamed of me because I wasn’t famous, wealthy…” said Sanders-Smith. He now hopes to create a foundation and archive dedicated to his son that will establish his artistic legacy. To start, he is asking the public to share their memories of Smith for a book about him. “I wish I had understood sooner that we did not have forever to find our way back to each other,” said Sanders-Smith.
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IN MEMORIAM. Chinese artist Liang Shaoji, known for his multidisciplinary silkworm installations, died following an illness on September 13 at age 81, according to a statement by ShanghART Gallery, which represented him. “It is with profound sadness that ShanghART Gallery announces the passing of Liang Shaoji,” reads the gallery’s social media post. Liang worked with silkworms for over three decades, beginning in 1989. “Through this sustained dialogue with nature, his work explored time, life, transformation, and the process of creation,” stated the gallery. As the artist himself put it: “Nature perpetually renews itself; my creation does not end.”
The Digest
Following a judge’s second ruling on Tuesday that blocks the John F. Kennedy Center from putting President Trump’s name on the building, the latter threatened to block a $257 million renovation of the center in a social media post later that day, and then the center abruptly closed. [The New York Times]
Hungary has temporarily closed its House of Terror Museum, which some view as a propaganda machine for the previous government under former premier Viktor Orban. [Bloomberg]
Yesterday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has ceremoniously broken ground on the building of the new Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, designed by Frida Escobedo and due to open in 2030. [The Art Newspaper]
Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum is expanding to a nearby building that will house the contemporary art collection of Francesca Thyssen, including 186 donated artworks and about the same number of loaned works. [El Pais]
Tech entrepreneurs are making their presence felt in the art world, and not just in digital art. [The Financial Times]
Today, a new digital platform called “Preserving Assisi” launched, offering a “digital twin” record of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi by documenting its architecture and artworks by Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini, and Pietro Lorenzetti, using gigapixel photography, 3D surveying, and immersive tech. [press release]
The Kicker
SINGLE IN THE CITY. No more excuses. If you’re looking for love in New York City but think there’s no one out there for you, New York Magazine’s The Cut has compiled a diverse list of “the most eligible singles” in the city, and ARTnews spotted a few art workers in the mix. (Though some may bemoan the absence of art reporters on here, admittedly a rather elusive, laptop-tethered bunch, other writers and journalists do make it in.) So here’s our shout-out to artists Viktor Timofeev, Stephen Kwok, Megumi Shauna Arai, James Cherry, and curator Elizaveta Shneyderman. Read on to discover their candid responses to a short list of questions about things like their last big undertaking they were proud of. “Last year, I put together a solo show in Amsterdam. I was juggling a lot in my New York life, and I’m not sure how I pulled it off. The whole show fit in one suitcase,” said Kwok. This is followed by the question, “Top or bottom?” to which he simply answers: “Yes.”