News From Around the Art World: July 21, 2020
How will Chicago artists make it through the pandemic? 85 years ago the Feds had an answer. Could it work again?
Indeed, 85 years ago this spring, in the darkest days of the Great Depression, with more than 20 percent of Chicagoans out of work, President Roosevelt did something unprecedented. By signing an executive order creating the WPA — one of several federal programs established during the 1930s that provided regular salaries to artists — he was promoting the role of the federal government as arts patron. He was suggesting the government should play a part in directing the cultural identity of the nation itself. And by the late 1930s, about 75,000 Chicagoans — and 12,000 more in the surrounding suburbs — were working for the WPA.
By Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
Experts weigh in on alleged art forgery ring in Michigan
Art historians explain why the work of lesser known artists with rising markets, like George Copeland Ault and Gertrude Abercrombie, might become the target of a fakes scheme
By Ruth Lopez, The Art Newspaper
Street artist Left Handed Wave’s Uptown mural ties together neighborhood’s past, present
‘Beyond Human Dreams of Loveliness’ at Truman College spells out that phrase, each letter inspired by a place — past or present — central to Uptown and the surrounding area.
By Clare Proctor, Chicago Sun Times
TEFAF Cancels Fall New York Fair as Pandemic’s Far-Reaching Impact Becomes Clear
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to make it difficult for large events to be held throughout the remainder of 2020, another top art fair has been canceled, marking the second event of its kind to be called off this week alone. The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) said in a statement that it will not host its New York edition, which had been postponed from May until the end of October.
By Maximiliano Duron, artnews
