The week in art news: Nan Goldin arrested, Art Basel Paris kicks off, ‘drunk’ artist signed away estate, computer art pioneer dies…

Nan Goldin and Molly Crabapple arrested. The artists were arrested along with 200 other Jewish activists at a pro-Palestine and Lebanon protest outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, 14th October. The action was organised by Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist organisation. Around 500 people protested the rising stock prices of weapons companies and Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. Police charged those arrested with trespass before releasing them on bail.

Frieze avoids iceberg: ahead of the 2024 London edition, many were expecting disaster – struggling economy, high interest rates, and miserable weather don’t make for good sales – and while visitors numbers were around 10% down on previous years (90,000 visitors versus 100,000+ in recent years), sales remained respectable. Director Eve Langret said in a press statement, “It’s been an extraordinary week, marked by continued sales and a vibrant international presence on every day.” Great!

Frieze isn’t just a fair, it’s also an awards ceremony: Guatemala gallery Proyectos Ultravioleta won the Frieze London Stand Prize 2024, awarded for their presentation of works by artists Edgar Calel and Rosa Elena Curruchich. Hot Wheels Athens London won the fair’s Focus Stand Prize for its solo show of New York art-fashion collective CFGNY. While Nat Faulker at Brunette Coleman was announced as the 2024 Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize. Faulkner will host a solo show at CAC in 2025.

No rest for le wicked: Art Basel Paris kicks off today (for VIPs, at least). This is the first year the fair’s been hosted under the new branding (it was previously titled Paris+ par Art Basel, is that paris plus or paree ploo?) and the first time that it’s in its proper home in the Grand Palais. Last year, while the glass and steel structure was undergoing maintenance ahead of the Olympics, the fair was relegated to the Grand Palais Éphémère. 195 galleries are taking part in the fair, and there’s a wider public programme of arts and events taking place across the city.

Pour one out for Bjarne Melgaard: the Norwegian artist is suing a pair of former patrons to regain control over his estate. Svein Roar Grande and Stein Lie supported Melgaard through some rough years of debt and addiction. Between 2008 and 2020, they provided $10M in exchange for art. In 2020, to repay his debts, Melgaard signed his entire estate over to the two, including his rights to reproductions and to opposing sales of his work. The artist is now claiming that he was drunk when he signed the contract.

Tracey Emin slams older male artists in new interview. The Margate-based property developer told the Louis Theroux Podcast that male artists “sort of peak in their 40s” while female artists “carry on coming all your life until you’re old.” Has Emin been reading Plaster? Emin namechecked a few artists to prove her point, including Damien Hirst vs. Louise Bourgeois and Jackson Pollock vs. Joan Mitchell, “undoubtedly one of the greatest American abstract painters ever.” We don’t disagree.

Charlie XCX continued her domination of ageing millennial minds with a listening party at the Storm King Art Center, New York. The party took place on 10th October ahead of the release of her latest remix album Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. The art centre, about an hour’s drive outside of NYC, is a 500 acre sculpture park home to works by Alexander Calder, Barbara Hepworth, Sol Lewitt, Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi, Sarah Sze and more. “How motherfucking sick is this? We’re fine-art bitches now!” she told the crowd.

Naples has erected a new piece of provocative public art that has critics hiding their shame – a towering, veiny 12-metre cock by the late Italian artist Gaetano Pesce, titled Tu si’ ‘na cosa grande (you’re a big thing). Apparently, the sculpture is a take on the character of Pulcinella from the Italian commedia dell’arte. We’ve seen this trick before, back in 2014 Paul McCarthy installed a 24-metre inflatable Christmas Tree butt plug in Paris’ Place Vendome. Sadly, that one was quickly destroyed by humourless vandals. Barring any similar incidents, Pesce’s sculpture will remain in the city’s Piazza del Municipio until 19th December.

Palestine protests at the National Gallery. Last Wednesday, two activists covered Pablo Picasso’s 1901 painting Motherhood (La Maternité) in a photograph of a Palestinian mother and child, before pouring red paint on the floor. The activists, Jai Halai and Monday-Malachi Rosenfeld, intended to raise awareness of the threats facing families in Gaza and demanded an arms embargo on Israel. They were detained by security and arrested at the scene.

“These attacks have to stop.” – two days after the latest protest action, the National Museum Directors’ Council (NMDC) issued a statement calling for political attacks on artworks to end. They said the attacks have caused “enormous stress” for staff and visitors to “no longer feel safe.” “Whilst we respect the right for people to protest, and are often sympathetic to the cause, these attacks have to stop,” they wrote, pointing out that increased security means less access for the public and that art should, “continue to provide light and solace to all.”

It’s been a while since a press release about Ai-Da (“the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist”) has dropped in our inbox. According to the latest press release, the fucked-up artist android will “make history” today, as “the first A.I. humanoid robot artist” to take part in Sotheby’s Digital Art Sale (continues until 29th October). Ai-Da’s portrait of Alan Turing, named A.I. God, is estimated between £100,000 – £150,000.

Thought NFTs were old news? Think again. Christie’s auction house has “embraced” Bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol (a kind of NFT software) in a recent sale of photographs from the collection of Trevor Traina (who happens to own a Crypto / NFT software company). Each physical print in the auction was paired with a digital certificate of ownership stored on the Bitcoin blockchain. “Blockchain… is moving beyond novelty and into the mainstream art market, offering new levels of security, provenance, and ownership,” writes Dorian Batycka. Because, of course, if Bitcoin is known for anything, it’s for its legality, stability, and lack of scams.

Computer artist Lillian Schwartz dies, 97. Schwartz pioneered digital art, and helped turn the computer from a machine for scientific analysis into a tool for creativity. In 1968, Schwartz became the first female artist in residence at Bell Labs. Over the next 34 years she created digital images, films, audio, and computer analysis of artworks. Her earliest work was made with paper punch cards. Her first film, Pixillation, ran for four minutes and took two months to programme. In 1986, Schwartz used image editing software to develop a theory that Leonardo’s da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was based on a self portrait. Schwartz died on Saturday 12th October at her home in Manhattan, New York.