The week in art news: NYC dealer Barbara Gladstone dies, senior shakeup at Gagosian, Sotheby’s credit rating downgraded and more…

New York gallerist Barbara Gladstone dies, 89. From the 1980s, onwards, Gladstone was an influential figure on the NYC scene, instrumental in developing the careers and markets of a staggering number of artists, including Ed Atkins, Ian Cheng, Matthew Barney, Thomas Hirschhorn, Anish Kapoor, Sarah Lucas, Richard Prince, Rachel Rose and Rosemarie Trockel. Her gallery also represented the estates of Keith Haring, Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Mapplethorpe. Gladstone died in Paris after a “short illness,” according to an email.

London artist Luke Silva dies, 25. An announcement posted on Silva’s personal Instagram said, “Luke’s kindness, incredible talent, and unique vision left an indelible mark on the world. Our deepest sympathies are with his family and friends, and all who were touched by his work. His legacy will continue to inspire us all.” Silva graduated from Central Saint Martin’s in 2021. He exhibited with Sherbet Green, earlier this year.

Husband and wife leave Gagosian. Bloomberg reports that the former chief operating officer Andrew Fabricant is leaving the global mega gallery, as is his wife, Laura Paulson, the former director of Gagosian’s art advisory firm. Their departure follows the recent hiring of Brooke Lampley. What’s behind the moves? Is Larry sorting out his line of succession?

The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition has only just opened, but already it’s attracting hatchet jobs. The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones called the show “a gasping death-rattle of mediocrity, a miserable garden party of vapid good taste.” He ends the article by suggesting that the RA give it up. “Just because the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has been going on since 1769 does not mean it must continue forever.” Fighting talk.

Bargain basement Basquiat: if you’ve ever wanted to buy a Basquiat, here’s your chance. In 2022, his 1982 triptych, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict, was listed at Christies at $30M, however it was quietly withdrawn before the sale. Artnews reports it’s now turned up at Sotheby’s at $15-20M. The cut-price painting by the high-profile artist is another bad sign for the art market.

Sotheby’s isn’t doing any better. Last week, S&P Global downgraded the auction house’s credit rating from ‘B’ to ‘B-’ due to falling revenue and rising costs. S&P reckons the company only has a 50/50 chance of “meaningful recovery” in the event of a default. The announcement statement adds, “The negative outlook reflects that we could lower our rating on Sotheby’s over the next 12 months if the company does not demonstrate material credit metric improvement.”

Basel sales: bullish or bullshit? Mixed reports came out of Basel last weekend. On the first day, Iwan Wirth shrugged off the “doom porn” surrounding the art fair. However Dominique Lévy followed up, saying the art market had forgotten the word “nuance.” The weekend ended with reports that small gallery sales at Liste were subdued. As Janelle Zara noted in her Substack, “an Art Basel director once told me that if dealers tell you they’re doing fine but they’ve heard their peers are not, it means they’re also not doing fine.”

Kehinde Wiley shows cancelled. The Minneapolis Institute of Art cancelled its upcoming show of Wiley’s work following more allegations of assault. The travelling exhibition, ‘An Archaeology of Silence’, was due to open in February 2025. Following the MIA’s announcement, the Pérez Art Museum, Miami also cancelled their showing of the exhibition, due to run between July and January 2025, over Art Basel Miami. Wiley denies the allegations.

Anya Gallaccio commissioned to design the London AIDS Memorial. The memorial, a metal sculpture of a cored tree ring, will stand on South Crescent, Store Street in Fitzrovia, near the former site of the Middlesex Hospital, the first in the UK to have a ward dedicated to HIV/AIDS victims.

Photographer disqualified from AI competition for entering real photo. Miles Astray’s photograph, F L A M I N G O N E (pictured above), was shortlisted and ended up placing 3rd in the jury’s choice and 1st in the people’s award of the AI category of the 1839 Awards, a photo competition whose jury includes members of the New York Times, Phaidon Press, Getty Images, the Centre Pompidou, Christie’s, and Maddox Gallery. When Astray revealed no AI had been used in its creation, he was disqualified.

Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate to reopen in Chicago. Construction work has blocked off access to the sleek, stainless steel sculpture in Grainger Plaza, Millennium Park, since last August. The reopening has been repeatedly delayed, but is now supposed to go ahead before the end of the month. The work, constructed between 2004-06 is known locally as ‘The Bean’, and is one of the most popular tourist sites in the city.

Artists honoured in King Charles III’s birthday list. Choreographer and director Wayne McGregor was knighted, artist Tracey Emin and philanthropist Hannah Rothschild were made dames, and sculptor Andrew Logan was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Who says the arts are a dead end career?

Unmissable read: last week, the New Yorker published the definitive story of how Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, destroyed his one-of-a-kind Tadao Ando-designed house in Malibu, Miami. The longread describes a recipe for disaster: Ye’s handyman-turned-architect caught between an unstoppable ego and an immovable, concrete object.