ART:

For a city so rich in cultural history like Paris, it’s surprising it has taken this long for the folks at Art Basel to set up a fair unique to the French capital. Instead of aptly calling the event Art Basel Paris, as it has done in its other iterations across Hong Kong and Miami, the organizers have revealed its name: Paris+, par Art Basel or Paris+, by Art Basel in English. 

According to an announcement, the name “reflects Art Basel’s ambition to create a flagship event that radiates throughout Paris, highlighting the dynamic dialogue between its cultural industries—from fashion and design to film and music.” The burgeoning event has already tapped into three veterans of the French art scene, by appointing Clément Delépine as director, Virginie Aubert as general manager and Maxime Hourdequin as deputy director.

The news comes fresh off the heels of a bidding war between Art Basel and FIAC, in which the former won the rights to host its event at Paris’ iconic Grand Palais. In a phone interview with Artnet News, Mark Spiegler, Art Basel’s global director, added that they wanted a “name that was not going to take up too much space, because one of the big parts of this adventure is that we want to work with other creative industries. We wanted a name that worked well for collab mode.”

The inaugural Paris+ is slated to premiere in October 2022. 

Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol is being put up for auction by Christie’s New York this May. Its current estimated price is $200 million USD, and if realized will be the most expensive 20th-century artwork ever to sell at auction.

Warhol first began creating silkscreens of legendary American actress Marilyn Monroe following her death in August 1962 and would create reproductions of her visage multiple times in bright colors, often with the features somewhat askew.

Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is part of a collection of four silkscreen canvases named The Shot Marilyns. An American performance artist by the name of Dorothy Podber visited Warhol’s infamous studio Silver Factory in 1964, and upon seeing the Marilyn paintings stacked against the walls, asked the artist if she could shoot them. Assuming Podbar was asking if she could photograph the paintings, Warhol obliged. To Warhol’s surprise, Podber instead puts on a pair of black gloves, draws a revolver from her purse, and shoots through the stack of Marilyn Monroe portraits in the forehead.  A fifth painting was created as part of the series but was not included in the stack. Warhol later paints over the bullet holes, and it’s said Podber was forever barred from The Factory.

The Sage Blue Marilyn comes from Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation Zurich and all proceeds from the sale will benefit the foundation, aimed at improving “improving the lives of children the world over by establishing support systems centered on providing healthcare and educational programs.”

“The most significant painting to come to auction in a generation, Andy Warhol’s Marilyn is the absolute pinnacle of American Pop and the promise of the American Dream encapsulating optimism, fragility, celebrity and iconography all at once,” said Alex Rotter, Christie’s Charmain,20th and 21st Century Art in a Christie’s announcement. “The painting transcends the genre of portraiture in America, superseding 20th-century art and culture. Standing alongside Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Warhol’s Marilyn is categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time and a once in a generation opportunity to present this masterpiece publicly at auction.”

Today the Supreme Court announced that it will decide the lawsuit between The Andy Warhol Foundation and photographer Lynn Goldsmith, in which the plaintiff accused Warhol of having used her photograph of Prince for a series of paintings without permission. 

Rarely has SCOTUS ever taken on art cases, making this Warhol situation all the more pressing. Whatever the decision ends up being, the implications will likely set the precedent as to what constitutes fair usage of copyrighted materials in an artwork. 

Goldsmith originally licensed the image of Prince to Vanity Fair for an article back in 1981. Emblematic of Warhols pastiche, such as his depiction of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong, the artist altered Goldsmith’s photo of Prince across a series of silkscreen paintings in 1984. When the musician passed away in 2016, Vanity Fairpublished an article celebrating Prince’s life and used one of the 15 images Warhol had reappropriated. As Goldsmith caught wind of the use, she filed suit against The Andy Warhol Foundation and the two sides have been in legal entanglement since.

An earlier ruling in 2019 found the Foundation not guilty, to which Judge John G. Koeltl of the Federal District Court in Manhattan said that Warhol transformed Prince “from a vulnerable, uncomfortable person to an iconic, larger-than-life figure.” However, Goldsmith appealed and legally won in 2021 where the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that her photo was the “recognizable foundation” for the paintings. 

Since then, the Foundation has explored ways to bring this matter to the Supreme Court. The case is scheduled to be heard next term.