Art World News

Spotify’s Layoff Memo and the Art of Delivering Bad News

By in Art World News

Spotify’s Layoff Memo and the Art of Delivering Bad News

It has become a staple of the modern corporate downsizing: the public CEO layoff letter. Before a company cuts workers, many executives send an all-staff email explaining what went wrong. Then the company typically shares it online.

Such missives, sent this year at companies including Meta, Salesforce and Amazon, often follow a familiar structure, providing some rationale for the job cuts while saying an often-awkward goodbye to departing staffers.

Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

The 1973 Scull auction was a harbinger of today’s market, but its meaning is still misunderstood

By in Art World News

The 1973 Scull auction was a harbinger of today’s market, but its meaning is still misunderstood

Although art professionals have been pummelled for months by reminders that 2023 marks 50 years since Picasso’s death, it’s not the most consequential golden anniversary in the art market this year. To me, that honour goes to the (in)famous auction of 50 works by living American artists from the collection of New York taxicab magnates Robert and Ethel Scull, staged on 18 October 1973 at the Madison Avenue headquarters of Sotheby Parke-Bernet (which shopping mall kingpin A. Alfred Taubman acquired and rebranded as Sotheby’s one decade later).

“The Scull sale”, as it is colloquialised today, has since become accepted among many, if not most, knowledgeable art sellers as a moment when the future of the trade arrived. Although this reputation is ultimately justified, the 50th anniversary also represents an opportunity to untangle the outsized mythology the sale has accumulated from the more complex reality it entailed. Doing so reveals the auction was still a harbinger of what was to come in the art business—just not quite to the extent people tend to believe.

For the uninitiated, the auction involved the Sculls offering 50 pieces they had acquired on the primary market since the 1950s, by a selection of artists that ranged from pioneers of Abstract Expressionism to rising stars of Pop art. In many cases, the artists in question were not only living but also still relatively young; Lee Bontecou, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol, all of whom had at least one work go under the hammer that night, were then between the ages of 39 and 45.

The sale as a whole made more than $2.2m with fees and set multiple auction records for individual artists and works of various classifications. In the process, the consensus holds, it also solidified a new art world order in which canny speculation on artists in their twenties and thirties could pay off tremendously within ten to 20 years, popularising the practice of rapid resale for “wet paint” artists.

Yet the Scull sale is remembered as much for its controversy as for its commerce, best encapsulated in a post-auction confrontation between Rauschenberg and Robert Scull captured by a documentary film crew. The incident involved the artist accusing the collector of profiting undeservedly off his hard work in the studio, and Scull knowingly retorting that he and Rauschenberg actually “work for each other”, since the artist’s primary-market prices would only benefit from his impressive public auction results.

Still, the energy around the auction skewed more positive than negative, largely thanks to innovative marketing by Scull and Sotheby Parke-Bernet. The auction house produced a lavish catalogue on the 50 lots in the sale and toured the works to Europe in the weeks leading up to the big night; both of these were exceptional when it came to auctioning works of contemporary art at the time. Ethel Scull arrived to the evening sale wearing a Halston gown customised with the logo of the family’s taxi company, Scull’s Angels, simultaneously burnishing the brand and trolling the taxi drivers protesting the Sculls’ opulent lifestyle outside. And then there was that documentary crew recording everything.

“To sell paintings at auction, you have to be a bit of a marketing genius,” says Lisa Dennison, Sotheby’s chairman, Americas. “[Robert] Scull was a marketing genius.”

All these aspects sound thoroughly modern: the anxiety over the commoditisation of contemporary art, the frustrations with the lack of an artist’s resale royalty in the US and the multi-pronged marketing blitz engineered to boost the sale. No wonder recent analysis of these themes tends to cast the Scull sale as an instant turning point for the trade. But the historical record suggests the changes it presaged were both more modest and slower-arriving than they appear in the rear-view mirror.

Hits, misses and sure things

Again, the main reason we remember the 1973 Scull auction was its achievement of huge prices for many of the still-breathing artists whose work crossed the block. By making $240,000, Jasper Johns’s Double White Map (1965) became the most expensive work by a living American artist, the most expensive work of Pop art and the most expensive work by any American artist in the 20th-century. Painted Bronze, Johns’s 1960 sculpture of two Ballantine Ale cans, became the priciest sculpture by a living American artist at $90,000. The auction also delivered new artist records for Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Larry Poons, Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist, according to the next day’s New York Times recap of the auction.

Still, a deeper dive into the contemporaneous reporting on the Scull sale shows that it also anticipated the evening sales of our era in its unevenness. Although the premium-inclusive $2,242,900 brought that night established a new high for an auction of works of contemporary American art, a meditation by the writer Alexander Cockburn in The Village Voice reveals that the total only landed in the middle of the presale estimate range of $1.85m to $2.5m (calculated without fees).

The New York Times recap further punctures the Sculll sale’s reputation as a wire-to-wire success, calling it “disappointing in several aspects” and adding: “Most of the items put up for sale failed to reach the expected maximums estimated by Sotheby Parke-Bernet, and many of them failed to reach expected minimums, and there were scattered ‘Ohs’ and ‘Ahs’ as many of these pieces went under the hammer.”

Cockburn, who attended the auction, details some of these lesser results. The third lot, a John Chamberlain polyurethane sculpture, went for $1,400 against a target of $4,000 to $6,000. Aside from the aforementioned De Kooning record-setter, the other two paintings by the artist in the sale sold for $60,000 and $80,000, both “well under their estimates”. A Bontecou assemblage went for $7,500—just beneath its $8,000 low estimate—and an Oldenburg sculpture also sold for “less than expected”. (After the sale, Cockburn writes, a source at Sotheby Parke-Bernet alleged that five of the 50 lots actually passed, but spokespeople for the auction house “categorically deny this”.)

Yet these disappointing moments had less of a negative effect on the Sculls than people might realise. Why? Because ahead of the sale, they had done something else that both set the template for later generations of consignors and slightly undercut the mythology of the 1973 auction’s success: negotiated for the house to pay a financial guarantee for all 50 lots.

Although guarantees were already a part of the auction sector’s modus operandi by October 1973, at that time the houses generally only agreed to pay them for major works by European Old Masters. If the Sculls were not the first collectors to secure one for works by living artists, they were almost certainly the first to secure one for such a large group of works by living artists. The amount of the guarantee was not publicised, just as in such deals today, but Cockburn does assert at the end of his piece that Scull “received a check for around $1m” from the sale, while Sotheby Parke-Bernet “made something more than $200,000 on the evening’s activity”.

The larger point is this: The Scull sale proved the secondary market was running hot for living post-war artists from multiple movements. But that outcome was still uncertain enough to convince the Sculls that they were better off accepting a sure thing than risking a potential disaster in hopes of an even bigger payday.

Oracle or outlier?

The 1973 Scull auction lives on in art market history as the apotheosis of high-end commerce transformed into a VIP social event. So many spectators arrived that Sotheby Parke-Bernet had to ease them into the building in groups of ten, with most having to be seated in overflow rooms equipped with TVs simulcasting the proceedings in the main gallery—a setup Dennison of Sotheby’s calls “the first livestream, in a way”.

Despite the auction houses’ best efforts, however, in retrospect the event is less a template-setter than an apex that has rarely, if ever, been reached again.

“Now it’s in large part the trade and then the people secreted up in skyboxes,” Dennison says of the crowds at major evening sales. “You come and do your duty and get out to have dinner by 8 o’clock.”

Powerful as Scull and Sotheby Parke-Bernet’s marketing was in driving the jet set to the auction room, Cockburn’s contemporaneous account of the sale suggests the excitement was short-lived for anyone without a financial stake in the proceedings. After Johns’s White Map sold for a record $240,000, Cockburn writes, the inconvenient truth of the auction settled on those assembled: “On and on we go: a bored pall descends. Everyone realises it is a matter of listening to a cash register for an hour.”

This reality check of the mood necessitates another about the sale’s ultimate legacy. Although the Scull auction has been mythologised in hindsight as the market event that legitimised high-dollar, rapid resales of works by living artists, the truth is more complicated—whether you look further back from 18 October 1973, or further forward.

To the first point, it’s not uncommon for people in the trade to miscast the Scull sale as the first time a collector ever used an auction house to offer lots by artists still drawing breath. This is “simply not true”, says Olav Velthuis, a professor at the University of Amsterdam specialising in economic sociology. The earliest modern example, he says, is probably the sale of works owned by the Peau de l’ours (Skin of the bear) consortium—now considered the first art fund—at the Parisian auction house Drouot in 1914.

In fact, the Sculls had previously sold pieces by living artists, albeit at a much smaller scale, in two auctions prior to 1973: a 1965 sale comprising 12 works that brought a combined $165,000 (the proceeds of which went to establishing the Robert and Ethel Scull Foundation), and a 1970 sale of four works that made $197,000 in total.

Looking forward from the 1973 Scull auction, there is also little, if any, evidence that other collectors of contemporary art rushed to follow in the couple’s footsteps. “It did not mean that the next season we saw this and that estate” at auction, says Dennison of the sale’s success. Velthuis adds that the 1973 Scull auction “surely did not trigger a whole series of comparable sales soon afterwards”. The most proximate examples he could offer were the 1988 auction of select contemporary works from the Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine collection, the 1988 sale of Andy Warhol’s personal collection and the 1989 auction of the Paul Mellon collection.

But even these possibilities deviate from the Sculls’ completely discretionary sale of contemporary works in 1973. The first two examples were precipitated by the deaths of Emily Hall Tremaine and Warhol, respectively. The Mellon sale was discretionary, but the works offered were largely, if not entirely, Impressionist and Modern.

In fact, if you want to know who was behind the next notable collection of contemporary works to reach auction for any reason, the best answer is probably the Sculls themselves.

Overshadowed by the 1973 auction is the fact that Robert and Ethel Scull entered into divorce proceedings only two years later. The battle over who was entitled to which assets raged for another 11 years, and it may have gone on even longer had Robert not died in 1986. His death led to a pair of back-to-back auctions at Sotheby’s that same year to disperse the couple’s holdings, with Ethel being awarded only a 35% share of the proceeds by the courts. (Relatedly, the official title of the 1973 sale was “Works From the Collection of Robert C. Scull”, a fact later used against Ethel to argue that she was less than an equal partner in their art acquisitions.)

When it comes to the 1973 auction, then, Robert Scull’s greatest marketing success was not the number of spectators at Sotheby Parke-Bernet that night, the ample contemporaneous media coverage of the sale or the record prices achieved there. It was the way these elements have gone on to produce a kind of shadow puppet in the art market’s memory: what we have come to see from afar looks more substantial than what was actually there.

The 1973 Scull auction was a harbinger of today’s market, but its meaning is still misunderstood

By in Art World News

The 1973 Scull auction was a harbinger of today’s market, but its meaning is still misunderstood

Although art professionals have been pummelled for months by reminders that 2023 marks 50 years since Picasso’s death, it’s not the most consequential golden anniversary in the art market this year. To me, that honour goes to the (in)famous auction of 50 works by living American artists from the collection of New York taxicab magnates Robert and Ethel Scull, staged on 18 October 1973 at the Madison Avenue headquarters of Sotheby Parke-Bernet (which shopping mall kingpin A. Alfred Taubman acquired and rebranded as Sotheby’s one decade later).

“The Scull sale”, as it is colloquialised today, has since become accepted among many, if not most, knowledgeable art sellers as a moment when the future of the trade arrived. Although this reputation is ultimately justified, the 50th anniversary also represents an opportunity to untangle the outsized mythology the sale has accumulated from the more complex reality it entailed. Doing so reveals the auction was still a harbinger of what was to come in the art business—just not quite to the extent people tend to believe.

For the uninitiated, the auction involved the Sculls offering 50 pieces they had acquired on the primary market since the 1950s, by a selection of artists that ranged from pioneers of Abstract Expressionism to rising stars of Pop art. In many cases, the artists in question were not only living but also still relatively young; Lee Bontecou, Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol, all of whom had at least one work go under the hammer that night, were then between the ages of 39 and 45.

The sale as a whole made more than $2.2m with fees and set multiple auction records for individual artists and works of various classifications. In the process, the consensus holds, it also solidified a new art world order in which canny speculation on artists in their twenties and thirties could pay off tremendously within ten to 20 years, popularising the practice of rapid resale for “wet paint” artists.

Yet the Scull sale is remembered as much for its controversy as for its commerce, best encapsulated in a post-auction confrontation between Rauschenberg and Robert Scull captured by a documentary film crew. The incident involved the artist accusing the collector of profiting undeservedly off his hard work in the studio, and Scull knowingly retorting that he and Rauschenberg actually “work for each other”, since the artist’s primary-market prices would only benefit from his impressive public auction results.

Still, the energy around the auction skewed more positive than negative, largely thanks to innovative marketing by Scull and Sotheby Parke-Bernet. The auction house produced a lavish catalogue on the 50 lots in the sale and toured the works to Europe in the weeks leading up to the big night; both of these were exceptional when it came to auctioning works of contemporary art at the time. Ethel Scull arrived to the evening sale wearing a Halston gown customised with the logo of the family’s taxi company, Scull’s Angels, simultaneously burnishing the brand and trolling the taxi drivers protesting the Sculls’ opulent lifestyle outside. And then there was that documentary crew recording everything.

“To sell paintings at auction, you have to be a bit of a marketing genius,” says Lisa Dennison, Sotheby’s chairman, Americas. “[Robert] Scull was a marketing genius.”

All these aspects sound thoroughly modern: the anxiety over the commoditisation of contemporary art, the frustrations with the lack of an artist’s resale royalty in the US and the multi-pronged marketing blitz engineered to boost the sale. No wonder recent analysis of these themes tends to cast the Scull sale as an instant turning point for the trade. But the historical record suggests the changes it presaged were both more modest and slower-arriving than they appear in the rear-view mirror.

Hits, misses and sure things

Again, the main reason we remember the 1973 Scull auction was its achievement of huge prices for many of the still-breathing artists whose work crossed the block. By making $240,000, Jasper Johns’s Double White Map (1965) became the most expensive work by a living American artist, the most expensive work of Pop art and the most expensive work by any American artist in the 20th-century. Painted Bronze, Johns’s 1960 sculpture of two Ballantine Ale cans, became the priciest sculpture by a living American artist at $90,000. The auction also delivered new artist records for Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Larry Poons, Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist, according to the next day’s New York Times recap of the auction.

Still, a deeper dive into the contemporaneous reporting on the Scull sale shows that it also anticipated the evening sales of our era in its unevenness. Although the premium-inclusive $2,242,900 brought that night established a new high for an auction of works of contemporary American art, a meditation by the writer Alexander Cockburn in The Village Voice reveals that the total only landed in the middle of the presale estimate range of $1.85m to $2.5m (calculated without fees).

The New York Times recap further punctures the Sculll sale’s reputation as a wire-to-wire success, calling it “disappointing in several aspects” and adding: “Most of the items put up for sale failed to reach the expected maximums estimated by Sotheby Parke-Bernet, and many of them failed to reach expected minimums, and there were scattered ‘Ohs’ and ‘Ahs’ as many of these pieces went under the hammer.”

Cockburn, who attended the auction, details some of these lesser results. The third lot, a John Chamberlain polyurethane sculpture, went for $1,400 against a target of $4,000 to $6,000. Aside from the aforementioned De Kooning record-setter, the other two paintings by the artist in the sale sold for $60,000 and $80,000, both “well under their estimates”. A Bontecou assemblage went for $7,500—just beneath its $8,000 low estimate—and an Oldenburg sculpture also sold for “less than expected”. (After the sale, Cockburn writes, a source at Sotheby Parke-Bernet alleged that five of the 50 lots actually passed, but spokespeople for the auction house “categorically deny this”.)

Yet these disappointing moments had less of a negative effect on the Sculls than people might realise. Why? Because ahead of the sale, they had done something else that both set the template for later generations of consignors and slightly undercut the mythology of the 1973 auction’s success: negotiated for the house to pay a financial guarantee for all 50 lots.

Although guarantees were already a part of the auction sector’s modus operandi by October 1973, at that time the houses generally only agreed to pay them for major works by European Old Masters. If the Sculls were not the first collectors to secure one for works by living artists, they were almost certainly the first to secure one for such a large group of works by living artists. The amount of the guarantee was not publicised, just as in such deals today, but Cockburn does assert at the end of his piece that Scull “received a check for around $1m” from the sale, while Sotheby Parke-Bernet “made something more than $200,000 on the evening’s activity”.

The larger point is this: The Scull sale proved the secondary market was running hot for living post-war artists from multiple movements. But that outcome was still uncertain enough to convince the Sculls that they were better off accepting a sure thing than risking a potential disaster in hopes of an even bigger payday.

Oracle or outlier?

The 1973 Scull auction lives on in art market history as the apotheosis of high-end commerce transformed into a VIP social event. So many spectators arrived that Sotheby Parke-Bernet had to ease them into the building in groups of ten, with most having to be seated in overflow rooms equipped with TVs simulcasting the proceedings in the main gallery—a setup Dennison of Sotheby’s calls “the first livestream, in a way”.

Despite the auction houses’ best efforts, however, in retrospect the event is less a template-setter than an apex that has rarely, if ever, been reached again.

“Now it’s in large part the trade and then the people secreted up in skyboxes,” Dennison says of the crowds at major evening sales. “You come and do your duty and get out to have dinner by 8 o’clock.”

Powerful as Scull and Sotheby Parke-Bernet’s marketing was in driving the jet set to the auction room, Cockburn’s contemporaneous account of the sale suggests the excitement was short-lived for anyone without a financial stake in the proceedings. After Johns’s White Map sold for a record $240,000, Cockburn writes, the inconvenient truth of the auction settled on those assembled: “On and on we go: a bored pall descends. Everyone realises it is a matter of listening to a cash register for an hour.”

This reality check of the mood necessitates another about the sale’s ultimate legacy. Although the Scull auction has been mythologised in hindsight as the market event that legitimised high-dollar, rapid resales of works by living artists, the truth is more complicated—whether you look further back from 18 October 1973, or further forward.

To the first point, it’s not uncommon for people in the trade to miscast the Scull sale as the first time a collector ever used an auction house to offer lots by artists still drawing breath. This is “simply not true”, says Olav Velthuis, a professor at the University of Amsterdam specialising in economic sociology. The earliest modern example, he says, is probably the sale of works owned by the Peau de l’ours (Skin of the bear) consortium—now considered the first art fund—at the Parisian auction house Drouot in 1914.

In fact, the Sculls had previously sold pieces by living artists, albeit at a much smaller scale, in two auctions prior to 1973: a 1965 sale comprising 12 works that brought a combined $165,000 (the proceeds of which went to establishing the Robert and Ethel Scull Foundation), and a 1970 sale of four works that made $197,000 in total.

Looking forward from the 1973 Scull auction, there is also little, if any, evidence that other collectors of contemporary art rushed to follow in the couple’s footsteps. “It did not mean that the next season we saw this and that estate” at auction, says Dennison of the sale’s success. Velthuis adds that the 1973 Scull auction “surely did not trigger a whole series of comparable sales soon afterwards”. The most proximate examples he could offer were the 1988 auction of select contemporary works from the Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine collection, the 1988 sale of Andy Warhol’s personal collection and the 1989 auction of the Paul Mellon collection.

But even these possibilities deviate from the Sculls’ completely discretionary sale of contemporary works in 1973. The first two examples were precipitated by the deaths of Emily Hall Tremaine and Warhol, respectively. The Mellon sale was discretionary, but the works offered were largely, if not entirely, Impressionist and Modern.

In fact, if you want to know who was behind the next notable collection of contemporary works to reach auction for any reason, the best answer is probably the Sculls themselves.

Overshadowed by the 1973 auction is the fact that Robert and Ethel Scull entered into divorce proceedings only two years later. The battle over who was entitled to which assets raged for another 11 years, and it may have gone on even longer had Robert not died in 1986. His death led to a pair of back-to-back auctions at Sotheby’s that same year to disperse the couple’s holdings, with Ethel being awarded only a 35% share of the proceeds by the courts. (Relatedly, the official title of the 1973 sale was “Works From the Collection of Robert C. Scull”, a fact later used against Ethel to argue that she was less than an equal partner in their art acquisitions.)

When it comes to the 1973 auction, then, Robert Scull’s greatest marketing success was not the number of spectators at Sotheby Parke-Bernet that night, the ample contemporaneous media coverage of the sale or the record prices achieved there. It was the way these elements have gone on to produce a kind of shadow puppet in the art market’s memory: what we have come to see from afar looks more substantial than what was actually there.

Wall Art Market Growing at 5.6% CAGR to Hit $34.77 billion by 2031 Growth, Share Analysis, Company Profiles

By in Art World News

Wall Art Market Growing at 5.6% CAGR to Hit $34.77 billion by 2031 Growth, Share Analysis, Company Profiles

Wall Art Market

Wall Art Market size was valued at $20.40 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $34.77 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2022 to 2031.

PORTLAND, OREGON, UNITED STATES, December 5, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — The global wall art market size was valued at $20.40 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $34.77 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 5.6% from 2022 to 2031. Wall Art Market The study presents an impending revenue forecast of the industry for the next few years coupled with imminent market trends and opportunities. Moreover, the study also doles out different logical tables and graphs to identify the complexities of the market.

Request Sample Report at: –
https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/17281

A complete and wide-ranging evaluation of the aspects that drive and restrain market growth is also provided throughout the study. This detailed exploration of the market size and its proper segmentation help the market players define the prevalent opportunities that are looming large.

The report helps clients in comprehending their first-hand knowledge of the global market while providing a full-fledged understanding of the regional-level analysis of each segment. At the same time, the study contains in-depth information of the frontrunners that are active in the industry along with their financial agenda, segmental profits, company trends, services/products offerings, and major adopted stratagems.

The Plant-based Baby Care Products report keeps a perfect tab on the market share of several companies, recent market trends, revenue forecast, and new product launches across the market. The report includes company profiles that delineate the revenue share of the top competitors in the market. Simultaneously, the report provides revenue forecasts for four regions and more than twenty major countries across Asia-Pacific, LAMEA. North America and Europe.

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https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout-final/e5d6599dc6494bac486c21bc67c009c7

Wall Art Key Players
Wayfair, 1000 museums, Z gallerie, Saatchi art, Etsy, Minted, Artfinder, Society 6, Paintru, Red bubble, Art.com, One kings lane.

The Plant-based Baby Care Products report is analyzed across Type, Application, End-Use

Type
✤Modern
✤Abstract
✤Others

Price Point
✤Premium
✤Mass

Sales Channel
✤Auction Houses
✤Specialty Stores
✤E commerce
✤Others

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https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/17281

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Analysis of COVID-19 impact
The outbreak of the pandemic has had a massive impact on the majority of industries and the Wall Art was also not an exception in this regard. The report provides a detailed study on the micro- and macro-economic impact during the pandemic. Additionally, it emphasizes the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Wall Art in the form of qualitative study. The report offers explicit details regarding the market extent and shares during this unprecedented time. At the same time, the major strategies adopted by the market players to combat the global crisis are also covered under the report. Last but not least, the report highlights how the pandemic has distorted the supply chain of the market and takes in a post-COVID-19 analysis too.

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Babson Faculty Honored Among Best Undergraduate Professors

By in Art World News

Babson Faculty Honored Among Best Undergraduate Professors

Anjali Bal and Erik Noyes have much in common. 

The two Babson College associate professors are innovative, popular teachers who stand at the forefront of important and emerging issues in society, incorporating their research into their classrooms. 

And, both were named Monday to Poets & Quants’ 50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors of 2023. Babson was one of 14 institutions with multiple faculty members selected from more than 650 nominations for the sixth edition of the list. 

Bal, associate professor of marketing, focuses her research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in arts, entertainment, and sports marketing. “These industries significantly impact the world around us and make up much of what we think of as culture,” she said. Bal, at Babson since 2014, also is an inaugural Babson Presidential Research Scholar and a longtime advocate for DEI in higher education. She was awarded the Babson Pride Award in 2020 and the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award in 2022. 

Noyes, associate professor of entrepreneurship, focuses his research on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to drive entrepreneurship and innovation. “AI can help entrepreneurs, educators and students innovate in entirely new ways – and we’ve only seen the beginning” he said. Noyes, who has been at Babson since 2007, also is the founding faculty director of the Weissman Foundry and recently was appointed The Michael London ’92 and Stephen H. Kramer ’92 Term Chair in Entrepreneurship. 

Both Bal and Noyes shared their thoughts on their work, its impact on students, and this prestigious recognition. 

Q&A with Anjali Bal 

Your research centers on arts, entertainment, and sports marketing. How do you incorporate subjects that drive popular culture into the classroom, and how does it resonate with students, fans and non-fans alike? 

Anjali Bal smiles for a portrait photo
Anjali Bal, associate professor of marketing, focuses her research on diversity, equity, and inclusion in arts, entertainment, and sports marketing.

“I always say, ‘I am a culture junkie.’ I have always been fascinated by learning about culture. Sports, arts, and entertainment are all at the forefront of culture. I have a rule that I don’t do any research that isn’t interesting. I find that if things are interesting to me, they tend to be interesting for students. Students tend to love when I bring research into the classroom. This year, that has meant looking at data from Disney, Simone Biles, Bud Light, Barbie, and more in my Principles of Marketing, Sports Marketing, and Brand Management courses. I tend to embed the data into classwork so that students are getting a more robust picture of the marketplace by doing their own research, reading articles, applying it, and, of course, seeing how I interpret what is going on in the market. I love bringing in data that shows fan behavior. Non-fans also seem to like to look at data because at the core it grants all of us the opportunity to examine phenomena in a more meaningful way. Plus, I love teasing New England fans; data just makes that teasing academically valuable.” 

Sports and entertainment often are at the forefront of diversity discussions. How has that influenced your research, your teaching, and your advocacy on campus? 

“Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are my passions. And, I would say that is true for every avenue of my life, from parenting and my private life to teaching and scholarship. Sports, arts, and entertainment are not only at the forefront of discussion but also the forefront of societal change. I am driven by seeing how we can do better as business leaders. I started my career in the arts because I believed the arts was the most powerful avenue to make change. I still believe that. Though I would add that sports and entertainment also have that power. Athletes like Serena Williams and Simone Biles are changing the world. But, so, too, are so many people who play sports for fun, on college campuses or at the national level. Accessibility has been a new area of learning for me. I have a cousin who worked for a civil rights organization for people who live with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And, I have learned so much about how we can do better as society for people with disabilities. As I have gotten older, come to terms with my own challenges, and become a mom, aunt, and professor, providing access to those who might not always have it, has become a driving force. Access is often the avenue to opportunity; when people have access and opportunity, they can drive the change our society desperately needs.” 

As an innovative professor, what motivates you? 

“Making the world a better place. Learning and connecting. And, having fun. Life is too short to be bored. You can quote me on that.” 

What does this recognition from Poets & Quants mean to you? 

“This is an amazing honor. I am humbled and grateful to my colleagues, alumni, and students for their unwavering support and kindness. I will endeavor to deserve it.” 

Read more on Anjali Bal from Poets & Quants. 

Q&A with Erik Noyes 

You have been a leading figure at the crossroads of entrepreneurship and AI, integrating AI activities into classes last spring and developing a new course, Entrepreneurial Opportunities in AI, this fall. How do you incorporate such a fast-developing technology into the classroom? And, what has the reaction of students been so far?  

Erik Noyes smiles for a portrait photo
Erik Noyes, associate professor of entrepreneurship, focuses his research on the potential of artificial intelligence to drive entrepreneurship and innovation. (Photo: Laurie Swope)

“The short answer is constant experimentation with AI. My background before Babson was in corporate innovation and corporate new ventures, specifically focused on futurism. So, for the past 25 years, I have been tracking and interrelating technology and market trends. Starting in 2019, I made significant investments in the generative AI space, realizing that this is going to create such fascinating opportunities for how we teach in higher ed. Specifically, AI is not just all of the modeling and insane math, but it’s a breakthrough in human-computer interaction—there’s a computing accessibility breakthrough. For example, ChatGPT finally made AI broadly usable such that it’s an asset for experiential teaching and learning—that was a critical moment. If ChatGPT hadn’t happened, it would have been much more cumbersome to attempt all these innovations and experiments in the classroom. A sizable portion of Babson’s students are futurists, and they are living on the technical edge and are theoretically and practically fascinated with where the world is going on every dimension. It’s not that I’m just leading the students. It’s that we’re both totally on fire, and I’m trying to create a forum where we can co-process and experiment together.” 

You also co-led the creation of The Generator, Babson’s new interdisciplinary AI lab at the Weissman Foundry. How has that evolved, and what are your hopes for the future?  

“Artificial intelligence as a field is interdisciplinary, but people don’t conceptualize it that way. They think it’s about models and algorithms and math, and just the realm of computer scientists. But the field by its nature is much broader than that. So, a team of faculty from different disciplines at Babson—IT, theater, strategy, writing, and prototyping—we’re putting our arms around the broader scope of the field. We’re trying to help lead the College into the AI age, building AI capabilities and community among the faculty, and trying to quickly scale AI offerings and capabilities to the students. It’s a tight, six-member faculty team, and we’re leaning on Babson’s deep history of interdisciplinary collaboration to interpret and process this AI moment. In time, The Generator will be a globally leading interdisciplinary AI lab—I have no doubt. It’s a vehicle for Babson to yet again define entrepreneurship education, but it’s not just that. It’s about creative expression. It’s about idea generation in all fields. It’s about performance and art and design. It’s about new forms of AI-enabled collaboration. We have an opportunity to show the world how to do an interdisciplinary AI lab built on Babson’s one-of-a-kind culture.” 

As an innovative professor, what motivates you?  

“I’m an optimist, and I believe strongly in the importance of entrepreneurs and innovators to make the world a better place.” 

What does this recognition from Poets & Quants mean to you? 

“Babson is a wonderfully open-minded, interdisciplinary place, which respects individual and intellectual freedom. Each day, I’m inspired by the creativity of Babson’s students. Babson has an entrepreneurial culture that values teaching excellence. I love what I do, and I’m excited each day to collaborate with my colleagues.” 

Read more on Erik Noyes from Poets & Quants. 

Posted in Community, Insights, Outcomes

Tagged Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Education, Faculty, Undergraduate, Campus

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How to build a meaningful art collection of lasting value

By in Art World News

How to build a meaningful art collection of lasting value
image

The path to building an art collection of lasting value is seldom a clear one. Great collections are recognized as such because so few successfully navigate the pitfalls that can arise.

Collecting art has been a passion among successful individuals and families across the globe for centuries. Offering manifold benefits, an art collection can also acquire both financial and cultural value, empowering its owners to create a legacy and become influencers in the global art ecosystem.

However, it can be challenging to navigate the art market today to build a collection that:

  • Will be personally meaningful
  • Has the best chance of maintaining long-term value
  • Remains relevant over time
  • Allows a collector to create cultural impact

Guiding principles

Collections that meet these standards tend to be guided by a set of principles and hallmarks that set them apart from others. To start, great collections typically are personal and represent the individual collector’s intimate relationship with the art—mirroring their passions, interests and experiences.

Outstanding collections also adhere to standards of quality that keep them from becoming diluted. In addition, these standards foster respect and credibility for the collection and collector within the art community.

Over time, successful collectors develop a nuanced understanding of their chosen artworks and artists, enabling them to separate significant from insignificant works. As collectors acquire greater expertise, their collections in turn become more valuable.

Great collectors tend to be decisive risk-takers. Artworks of quality and rarity can be difficult to find and at times, collectors must make swift decisions to secure coveted pieces. This combination of decisiveness and risk-taking, backed by passion and expertise, make a collection an exciting reflection of artistic discoveries and personal exploration.

Collections in context

Art collecting, while intrinsically personal, is far from a solitary endeavor. Great collections often result from collaborative efforts fostered across a broad ecosystem of relationships, including:

  • Family members who, with their shared history and values, often influence a collection’s direction and spirit
  • Curators and historians who offer scholarly perspectives, helping to identify historically significant pieces.
  • Dealers and auction house representatives who provide insights into market trends and opportunities
  • Advisors who offer guidance on strategic acquisitions and collection management
  • Museum professionals who can facilitate access to a broader artistic narrative
  • Other collectors who provide camaraderie, competition and inspiration

And of course, the artists themselves, who are at the heart of it all, offer the most intimate connection to the artwork. Their thinking and ideas can significantly influence collection-building.

To learn more, see Art and collecting: Building a meaningful legacy .

To receive a copy of this comprehensive report, please contact your UBS Financial Advisor.

Main contributor: Matthew Newton, UBS Art Advisory, part of the UBS Family Office Solutions Group

Expiration: 11/30/2024

Review Code: IS2307047

The Center for Art Law Report on Anti Money Laundering and Art Review

By in Art World News

The Center for Art Law Report on Anti Money Laundering and Art Review
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The “Center for Art Law Report on Anti-Money Laundering and Art” [1]is an enlightening and comprehensive guide that explores the practices of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) in the art sector across EU member states and the UK, following the enforcement of the EU’s 5th AML Directive in 2018. This Directive brought the art world under closer scrutiny by EU’s AML regulations, particularly due to the increasing association of art financing with terrorist activities.

What sets this report apart is its pioneering effort in compiling a guide of this nature. It features survey responses from leading Art Law experts across 14 jurisdictions, offering valuable insights. The report delves into the specific AML laws that apply in each country, their approach to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), and the array of sanctions in place. Not only does this approach provide a comprehensive understanding of the diverse legal landscapes, but it also raises awareness about the implications for participants in the art market throughout Europe and beyond.

In Austria, the approach to AML is comprehensive and encompasses various laws, such as the Financial Markets Anti-Money Laundering Act, the Beneficial Owner Registry Act, and the Trade Act. These regulations prioritize due diligence, identification of beneficial owners, and ongoing monitoring of business relationships. Special attention is given to Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and transactions involving high-risk countries, requiring enhanced due diligence. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in significant sanctions.

In Belgium, a law was enacted in response to the EU AML 5th Directive, which came into effect on January 1, 2022. This law applies to art transactions and covers art galleries, dealers, auction houses, and freeports, but excludes artists and public museums. It defines ‘works of visual art’ and clarifies that NFTs are generally not included in this category. The AML regime in Belgium mandates the registration of art market participants and applies to those engaging in regular trading activities involving artworks.

These insights into Austria and Belgium exemplify the EU’s approach to AML regulations in the art sector. They demonstrate the meticulous regulatory frameworks and specific compliance requirements imposed on art market participants. However, it is unfortunate that the document did not provide direct comparisons with the US approach, which would have offered a more comprehensive understanding of the differences between the two regions in combating money laundering in the art world.

The perspective on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) in the art market differs significantly in the United States. In the U.S., the main legislation governing AML is the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which was established in 1982 and later amended by the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, a part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2020. The latter specifically addresses the regulation of “antiquities.”

Here are key aspects of the U.S. Art AML Regulations:

1. Scope of Regulation: The AML Act of 2020 includes provisions for individuals “engaged in the trade of antiquities.” This encompasses advisors, consultants, and anyone involved in the business of selling antiquities. However, the exact definition of institutions or individuals to be included under these regulations is still being finalized.

2. Rulemaking and Implementation: The responsibility for determining the scope of rulemaking lies with the U.S. Treasury, in conjunction with the FBI, Attorney General, and Homeland Security. Factors such as business size, type, and location will be considered when deciding which individuals or businesses should be regulated.

3. Concerns by FinCEN: FinCEN, a part of the U.S. Treasury, has expressed concerns regarding money laundering and terrorist financing in the trade of art and antiquities.

4. Proposed Rulemaking: In 2021, FinCEN published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, seeking feedback on various aspects related to the application of the BSA to the trade of antiquities. However, as of July 2023, no regulations pursuant to the AML Act have been drafted or proposed, and FinCEN has surpassed the deadline set by Congress for taking this action.

5. High Risks/Red Flags: The specific high risks or red flags associated with money laundering in the art market are yet to be clarified in the implementing regulations. However, there is a focus on high-value trades in antiquities and the identification of actual purchasers, as well as agents or intermediaries involved in transactions.

6. Record-Keeping and Reporting Requirements: Current regulations for financial institutions include reporting cash transactions exceeding $10,000 and filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). However, the specific requirements for antiquities dealers and a broader range of participants in the art market are still being finalized.

7. Reporting System: FinCEN provides an e-filing system for SARs, enabling regulated entities to report suspicions of money laundering.

The approach taken by the United States is still in the development stage. Key aspects, such as the scope of regulations, high-risk factors, and specific reporting and record-keeping requirements, are yet to be finalized. This stands in contrast to the more established and detailed frameworks in the European Union, where the 5th Directive has been implemented across various member states, accompanied by specific guidelines for art market participants.

While this report is innovative and comprehensive, it is important to note that it does not constitute legal advice. Rather, it serves as a valuable compilation that enhances our understanding of the intricacies of Art AML laws. The inclusion of the US approach for comparison purposes adds an extra layer of depth, making it a must-read for professionals and enthusiasts alike who are eager to navigate the complex intersection of art and AML regulations. Overall, this is an excellent read for anyone interested in either anti-money laundering laws or the global art market.

[1] Center for Art Law is a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that offers educational resources and programming for the advancement of a vibrant arts and law community. Center for Art Law – At the intersection of visual arts and the law (itsartlaw.org)

LaToya Hobbs Emphasizes the Tactile in Her Laboriously Carved Portraits of Black Women

By in Art World News

LaToya Hobbs Emphasizes the Tactile in Her Laboriously Carved Portraits of Black Women

“Erin and Anyah with Hydrangeas” (2023), acrylic and collage on carved wood panel, 48 x 60 inches. Photo by Ariston Jacks. All images © LaToya Hobbs, courtesy of the artist and Frist Art Museum, shared with permission

The belief that rest is a fundamental human right grounds the works of LaToya Hobbs, a Baltimore-based artist who carves stylized woodblocks of Black women. Often using her family, friends, and self as subjects, Hobbs creates densely textured prints and paintings depicting quiet moments of affection and connection.

In “Erin and Anyah with Hydrangeas,” two young women—Hobbs’ stepdaughter and niece originally photographed by the artist’s husband Ariston Jacks—look directly at the viewer. One rests her head on the other’s shoulder, with puffy white flowers decorating the pinstriped backdrop. In “Flourish,” a thriving snake plant and anthurium frame the room and subject, who sits comfortably on a chair and peers out the window.

 

a black and white print of a woman wearing a gown and lounging on a couch with pillows behind her

“Unbothered” (2023), woodcut on Rieves BFK cotton paper, 24 x 32 1/4 inches

Emphasizing the necessity of care for oneself and others, these portraits are included in Hobbs’ upcoming solo show at Frist Art Museum in Nashville. Opening early next year, Carving a New Tradition celebrates the artist’s significant contributions to printmaking and considers how her oeuvre amends the art historical canon. The show contains works on paper and painted carvings, along with interpretations of works by artists like Alma Thomas, Kerry James Marshall, and Elizabeth Catlett, who often depicted Black mothers with reverence and strength.

While Catlett tended to present her subjects working, Hobbs offers an alternate mode of being, instead focusing on rest and relaxation. “The act of carving and its removal of material carries symbolic meaning related to the carving away of negativity and stereotypes needed to reveal the real version of oneself,” she says. Gouged with impeccably thin lines and delicate crosshatching, the works evidence the artist’s laborious process and profound admiration for the tactile, in both the tangible, ridged properties of her carvings and the connections elicited by human touch.

Carving a New Tradition will run from January 26 to April 28. Until then, find more of Hobbs’ work on her site and Instagram.

 

a brown and black scene of a woman resting in a chair surrounded by plants and looking out the window

“Flourish” (2023), acrylic on carved wood panel, 96 x 96 x 2 1/2 inches

a print showing a family gathered around a dinner table with artworks in the background

Detail of “Carving Out Time” (2020–21), oil-based printing ink and acrylic paint on 15 carved cherry plywood panels; 96 x 720 inches. Image courtesy of The Baltimore Museum of Art

a triptych black and white woodcut of a woman seated or resting on a chair with her head on her arms

“In need of rest” (2023), woodcut, 4 1/2 x 33 inches

a brown and black woodcut of a woman holding a vessel with her eyes closed

“A Moment of Care” (2023), woodcut; 32 1/4 x 24 inches

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article LaToya Hobbs Emphasizes the Tactile in Her Laboriously Carved Portraits of Black Women appeared first on Colossal.

What is the State of the Post-Brexit British Art Market? Here Are 5 Takeaways From a New Report

By in Art World News

What is the State of the Post-Brexit British Art Market? Here Are 5 Takeaways From a New Report

Concerns about future of the art market in the U.K. have occupied the industry over the past several years, as galleries, auction houses and collectors have faced economic hurdles caused by Brexit, the pandemic, and the war between Ukraine and Russia. But what exactly do the financial figures say?

The British Art Market Federation has commissioned Clare McAndrew’s firm Arts Economics, which also conducts the UBS Art Basel art market report, to dive deep into U.K. art market data. The result is the first of its kind financial report focusing on the British art trade since 2017. Here are five key takeaways.

The U.K. is still the world’s second biggest art market—for the time being

The U.K.’s art market accounts for 18 percent of the global industry by value in 2022, according to the report, making it the world’s second biggest behind the U.S., which had a 45 percent share. It swapped positions with China, which came in second with 20 percent in 2021, when the U.K. occupied third place with 17 percent. China’s market share dropped to 17 percent in 2022, making it the world’s third largest.

British art market report 2023

Global Art Market Share by Value 2022. Source: British Art Market Report 2023. Courtesy British Art Market Federation and Arts Economics. © Arts Economics (2023).

The French art market is not as big as most people think, despite the hype

The art world has been pivoting towards Paris in recent years, amid Brexit and the premiere of and welcome reception for the art fair Paris+ by Art Basel. International dealers have also been flocking to the city, further fueling the hype of Paris taking over London as Europe’s art market hub.

But Art Economics’s report suggests that the idea of Paris ousting London from its cultural throne is far from reality. France is the fourth biggest art market, but it only holds seven percent of the global share in 2022, less than half of that of the U.K. The U.K. also holds a bigger share than the European Union altogether, which had a 12 percent share in the same year.

But U.K.’s art market share had been declining long before Brexit 

Many industry players, from dealers to auction houses and art fair operators have been citing how Brexit has been affecting their businesses since the decision to leave the European Union came into effect in January 2020. But how bad is it?

The U.K. accounted for 20 percent of global art sales in 2020, the year when the country officially left the E.U. The country’s art market sales also hit the lowest in that year with a total at $9.9 billion.

The country’s art sales gradually picked up in 2021, totaling $11.4 billion, and inched forward to $11.9 billion in 2022. The market share percentage in 2021 (17 percent) and 2022 (18 percent), however, fell below that of 2020. It also remained below the pre-pandemic level of $12.2 billion in 2019.

The declining trend, however, began much earlier. In fact, since its 2008 peak, when the U.K. cornered 34 percent of the global art market, its share has been steadily dropping through to 2016, when it had a 21 percent portion.

By comparison, the U.S. market appears to be recovering well from the pandemic. From 2020’s $21 billion in art sales (a 42 percent share of the global market) its share rose to $28 billion in 2021 (43 percent) and $30.2 billion in 2022 (45 percent).

Treasure House Fair London

The Treasure House Fair, London. Courtesy of the Treasure House Fair.

The U.K. is selling fewer high-value artworks at auctions

The report also took stock of the sales of high value artworks, noting that the U.S., the U.K., and China, the world’s top three art markets, together accounted for 96 percent of the auction sales of lots over $1 million, with 32 percent of the lots priced at $10 million or more.

The U.K.’s share in this category has been declining, however. In 2022, 14 percent of the lots valued at more than $1 million were sold at U.K. auctions, and 13 percent were priced more than $10 million. The numbers were up slightly from 2021 but they were substantially lower than those in 2019, where the U.K. accounted for 19 percent of lots pricer over $1 million and 18 percent of those more than $18 million.

The U.K. art market’s global status hinges on its cross-border trade

Global trade is decisive on whether a place can be an art market hub and this can be reflected by its imports and exports. Data from the U.N. Comtrade collected by Arts Economics showed that the U.K.’s imports of art and antiques dropped significantly after Brexit, from $3.2 billion in 2019 to $2.1 billion in 2020, dipping further to $1.9 billion in 2021 before climbing back up to $2.8 billion in 2022. The trend also corresponded to the decline of the U.K.’s global art market share.

Import and export data collected from the U.K. government’s customs bureau HMRC shows that the trade has been declining since 2019, with non-E.U. trade accounting for 55 percent of the imports and 71 percent of exports in 2022.

New works by Damien Hirst at Gagosian's booth at Frieze London. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.

New works by Damien Hirst at Gagosian’s booth at Frieze London. Photo: Linda Nylind, courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.

Although artworks can be brought in to the U.K. under temporary admission, dealers have said that the increasing red-tape for imports and exports of artworks after Brexit has made it more challenging to bring art to sell in the U.K. While places like the U.S. and Hong Kong, which is the main art trading hub of China, have no tariffs on art (but tariffs are applied on art imported from China to the U.S.), this is not the case in the U.K.

The U.K. government has vowed to review these measures in 2024.

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‘Power Figures’ Share Messages of Love and Healing in vanessa german’s Totemic Assemblages

By in Art World News

‘Power Figures’ Share Messages of Love and Healing in vanessa german’s Totemic Assemblages

“Of Thee We Sing” (2023), steel, plywood, dibond, and resin, 144 x 96 x 96 inches. Photo by Steve Weinik. All images © vanessa german, courtesy of the artist and Kasmin Gallery, shared with permission

Through found materials that range from feathers to glass bottles to astroturf, vanessa german (previously) assembles evocative, ritualistic sculptures that she describes as “power figures.” Often life-size or larger, german’s totemic sculptures are tied to the artist’s activism, confronting systemic racism and white supremacy, misogynoir, discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, and the destructive extraction of natural resources.

The lists of media for each work read like poems of love, hope, and grief. In “Blue Bird,” Nike trainers pay homage to a young man killed on a street corner in Pittsburgh, where german is based. In “I love you in the house. Or, The Multidimensionality of Resilience,” she emphasizes the heaviness of “used stories, stories used up, the weight of it all—refracted as tho through a prism.”

Many of german’s pieces contain visual symbols or written messages that tap into societal expectations, desires, or fears, like the mirrored face of “Epigenetic (Grace),” which reflects the words “You look like your Mother” back to the viewer as the figure holds out another mirror. In “SITTING IN THE POWER OF BEING EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE,” a glass dessert cloche, which we associate with displays of sweetness, forms the sculpture’s head. Inside, handwriting on a pink sheet of paper reads, “The thing that hurt me the most: abandoning myself.”

german draws on the history of Congolese Nkisi figures, spiritual vessels that contain sacred substances, which supernatural forces may bring forth into the corporeal world. Using textiles like denim jeans, garments she has worn on special occasions, quilts, and various yarns and twines, she adds objects ranging from keys and nails to beads and bright paint. The artist grounds us in our physical reality through the use of recognizable everyday objects, summoning creativity and tenderness as tools for healing.

Find more of german’s work on Kasmin Gallery’s website, and follow the artist’s Instagram for updates.

 

A mixed-media sculpture of a bird-like creature with Nike shoes on its head and a chair with an air conditioner on its back.

“Blue Bird” (2022), street bird: like fast-talking street corner creatures with leather jackets, grief bird, sorrow bird, heartbreak bird tryin just to figure out how it all goes, love bird, angel bird, wood, tar, oil pastels, ceramic bits, for how we love to talk about the flying Africans, love, earthling love songs, gold chains inspired by fast-talking street corner men, carved wood ashtray feet, blue Nikes for the boy who they killed on the corner of Kelly and Homewood and how he sold water and had a whole life ahead of him—which is a cliche that i am certain not everyone even believed on his behalf, old wooden chair with chippy paint, old boom box, Astro turf, how it feels to outlive children, a love song for the open sky, liberty, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes., 70 1/2 x 24 x 48 inches. Photo by Diego Flores

“SITTING IN THE POWER OF BEING EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE” (2022), 26 x 24 x 14 inches. Photo by Wendy Timana

A mixed-media sculpture made of different pairs of blue jeans all balled up with yarn and twine.

“I love you in the house. Or, The Multidimensionality of Resilience” (2023), blue jeans, blue genes, yarn, twine, wire, wood, foam, used stories, stories used up, the weight of it all—refracted as tho through a prism., 62 x 40 x 30 inches. Photo by Wendy Timana

A mixed-media sculpture of a wooden figure with bright green paint on its body, with multiple faces made from masks. It sits on a sawhorse with a swan.

“BLACK SWAN, or, THE ENVY” (2022), green, green with, green with envy, sick, sick to, sick to my, sick to my stomach, heart ache, green pigment, white, pigment, pink pigment, blue pigment, black pigment, a clutch of 7 knock-off tribal masks found in nyc before my Madison square park talk, love of the big body, the constant ache of being under the eye of white supremacist delusion, a wholeness calling up the night, a random punch drunk miracle, a hope song, a body bag filled with lies, a shoe horn aching to be a unicorn, a critical neighbor with a big mean mouth, grief, letting go, a saw horse, hand carved black swan., 97 3/4 x 28 1/2 x 43 3/4 inches. Photo by Diego Flores

“Epigenetic (Grace)” (2023), wood, blue, silk flowers, mirror, a way of being alive that is feeling first, the sunrise, glass beads, beaded glass trim, locks and keys, a holiness, wire, twine, yarn, vintage French beaded flowers, ceramic flowers, key chains, the inclination to fold the tongue over inside of ones own self, cloth, falling in love, bird figurines, small black dolls, safety, glass leaves, a wail, grace., 65 x 28 x 40 inches. Photo by Jordan Whitten

A mixed-media sculpture of a stylised Black figure seated on a white swan, which is seated on a sawhorse.

“WHITE SWAN” (2022), saw horse, disco body, fabric, wire, twine, hair grease, rage, hurt in the heart, a snarl, a fat ass, a hero, hand carved white swan decoy, a place to hide in plain sight, plaster, wood glue, plaster gauze, the burden of the ego, bullies becoming bullies, 18k gold leaf, glory, heart ache healed, glory, rest, sequin fabric, heat, love, masturbation, a mirror to help you watch yo back, yarn, wire, found body form, grace, redemption, a healing., 92 1/2 x 29 x 39 1/2 inches. Photo by Diego Flores

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article ‘Power Figures’ Share Messages of Love and Healing in vanessa german’s Totemic Assemblages appeared first on Colossal.

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