Chicago’s Hoffman Gallery to Shutter, Taliban Wants to Ban Photos of ‘Living Things’ in Afghanistan: Morning Links for October 15, 2024

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The Headlines

CHICAGO’S HOFFMAN GALLERY TO SHUTTER. Rhona Hoffman, the Chicago gallerist who headed up the eponymous gallery for nearly five decades, is closing the space in the city’s West Town area, reports ARTnews Editor-in-Chief Sarah Douglas. Though she will continue to do exhibitions in some form, such as popups, Hoffman said she will no longer operate a traditional gallery with rotating shows by by May 2025. With her lease ending, reaching the milestone age of 90, combined with the upcoming US elections, “there was no thought process about doing this. It just happened. It was a perfect storm…” she said. The gallerist is part of a group of dealers who opened in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. In terms of major art world changes Hoffman has witnessed over the decades, she pointed to mega-galleries snatching artists from smaller and midsized galleries like hers. “It can be detrimental to the health of the artist, because they take the up-and-coming star, and then if that doesn’t work out, the star is really lost,” she said. “Where are they going to go? I think, in a way, the artist is being abused by all that success.”

TALI-BAN LIVING THINGS. Afghanistan’s Taliban governing body has pledged to gradually enforce a law banning the media from publishing images of all “living things,” reports Alarabiya News . A spokesman for the country’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice said the law will be implemented in increments across the country, along with a campaign to convince the public that taking images of living things is a violation of Islamic law, according to the AFP. 

The Digest

A new documentary has revealed that Christopher Columbus was of Spanish and Jewish heritage, and hid his religious identity to avoid religious persecution. The film “Columbus DNA: His True Origin” documents the findings of a two-decade-long investigation by the University of Granada, led by legal and forensic medicine professor Antonio Lorente. Researchers used DNA testing from Columbus’ remains, as well as those of his son, to show he was not a sailor from Genoa, as long believed, but came from a family of Jewish silk spinners from Valencia in Spain. [ Euronews]

Lillian Schwartz, a trail-blazing digital artist, has died at the age of 97. Schwartz found visually dazzling ways of using computers to progress painting. [ARTnews]

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Latino (NMAL) just pocketed a $2 million donation from PepsiCo. The funds will support the construction and planning of the museum’s future building in Washington, D.C. [The Art Newspaper]

Artist Gaëlle Choisne has won the Prix Marcel Duchamp, France’s top art award. The French-Haitian artist will receive $38,000 and a two-year residency at the porcelain factory Sèvres – Manufacture and Musée Nationaux. [ARTnews]

Today, Artforum is launching a new learning tool on its website called Dossier, offering archival articles from the magazine curated around different themes. But don’t expect Dossier categories to be limited to a single artist or movement, a la Google search. For its debut, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Tina Rivers Ryan has gathered Artforum articles addressing celluloid as an artistic medium, including writings about artists such as Tacita Dean, Jennifer West, whose work explores the transparent plastic used to make moving images. [ Artforum]

Sotheby’s is unveiling its new Paris headquarters this week, not far from its previous location in the district known as Matignon, which has been attracting a growing contingent of galleries of late. With a 30 percent jump in square footage, the new space is one of several real estate shifts the auction house has made recently.  [Artnet News]

The Kicker

HARNESSING THE BASEL BRAND. With Art Basel Paris’ VIP preview about to open, the fair’s CEO Noah Horowitz sat down with WWD’s Joelle Diderich for a lengthy interview about market challenges and the fair’s  future. Fittingly for the fashion daily, Horowitz spoke about the fair’s growing expansion into retail and luxury partnerships, i.e. the AB by Art Basel brand and Art Basel Shop, as well as a new collaboration with Miu Miu and Guerlain.  “The overall Art Basel proposition is just growing and growing, and it’s a compelling offering,” he said. “The brand is so strong and the idea of Art Basel is so large and exciting for those audiences, so it’s just completely changed the rules of the game and created its own ecosystem of art, music, fashion, luxury … Part of our mission now is to really get under the surface of that, to harness that.”