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The presence of NFTs in the art world took a large uptick recently. While having existed since 2017, non-fungible tokens—unique digital files which are verified through a blockchain not dissimilar to cryptocurrencies—have been causing a buzz over the past month with high-profile artists such as Grimes making millions off of NFT sales. While there is much debate on whether this booming trend is a move of progress in the art world for cutting out the middleman, or just a new face on the same closed circle, there is at least one group that is using the avenue of NFTs to maximum notoriety: Burnt Banksy.

Self-proclaimed “art and NFT enthusiasts”, Burnt Banksy made headlines this past week for an act that isn’t hard to guess. As the group geared up for the auctioning of an NFT representing Banksy’s 2006 work I can’t believe you morons actually buy this shit, they filmed one of their members setting flame to the original copy of the work and posted it to YouTube on March 3rd. The six-minute video features one of the group’s members, clad in a face mask and sweater featuring Banksy’s Girl With Balloon, taking a lighter to every side of the print to slowly burn it.

“We see this event encapsulating the first-ever major transition of a physical art piece into a digital one,” the group states on their video. “We view this burning event as an expression of art itself. We are generating a new form of artwork via the creation of this unique NFT that is a direct representation of the physical.”

But a large portion of the art world sees through the action as a stunt—a bombastic way to drive up the price of a hot-selling format with little-to-no artistic merit. Notoriety and money seem to be the primary aims of the event, and in that sense, Burnt Banksy succeeded, with the NFT of Morons going for $380,000 in auction and the action being talked about across arts publications.

Burnt Banksy, in partnership with SuperFarm (an NFT selling platform) and Injective Protocol (a medium for trading across blockchains), are apparently planning on similar stunts in collaboration with other artists.

Despite the clamour the event has caused, there is, in truth, little difference between the drives of Burnt Banksy and countless other collectors and sellers who are merely out for the money. In this way, it seems like the boom of NFT has simply transferred the norms of the industry to a digital forum. While some may speculate a meaning derived from the original intent of Morons and the context of the burning with the NFT auction, it is hard to see this as much more than a means to make a hot commodity that much hotter.

In this week’s Art World Roundup: At long last, works by women have been permanently hung in the Rijksmuseum Gallery of Honour, the original tweet by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has hit the market as a NFT collectible, and the estate of late artist Robert Indiana reaches a settlement with the Morgan Art Foundation. Meanwhile, George Clooney signs letter calling for the UK to return Elgin Marbles and Without Walls announces their 2021 programme of works to be enjoyed as the UK (hopefully) leaves lockdown.

The Rijksmuseum is “catching up” on women’s history

At long last, the Rijksmuseum has hung artwork by women its prestigious Gallery of Honour. Coinciding with International Women’s Day, The Serenade (1629) by Judith Leyster (c. 1600-1660), Still Life with Flowers in a Glass Vase (c.1690-c.1720) by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), and Memorial Portrait of Moses ter Borch (1667/1669) by Gesina ter Borch (1633-1690) were hung in the gallery. Featured alongside some of the most well-known Dutch masterpieces, the inclusion of the three works let visitors in on a well-known secret: women have always been part of the history of art. The museum houses a collection of around one million artworks and it is unknown how many of those are actually by women. So, the Rijksmuseum initiated a research programme, headed by Jenny Reynaerts, curator of 19^th-century paintings at the museum, to better understand the contribution women have made to the museum’s collection and Dutch cultural history. So far, more than 29,000 artworks by nearly 3,000 women have been identified by Reynaerts. Furthering their investigation, the Rijksmuseum is working with students from the University of Amsterdam on a project called “The Wife Of,” which is identifying and filling out information regarding the women represented with their husbands in the museum’s portrait collection. According to Reynaerts, the museum is also working to create a better picture of the women who have played a role in the Rijksmuseum’s history, including female donors, collectors, and curators, often referred to as assistants in the past. “The museum is catching up in the field of women’s history,” Reynaert said in a press release. In an interview, she pledged that “from now on the museum will always have female painters in the gallery.”

Jack Dorsey has entered the chat

NFTs (non-fungible token) have certainly taken the art world by storm as the newest form of collectible. In the digital age, it’s really no surprise, and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is getting in on the action. Dorsey has put an NFT version of his original Twitter post up for auction. The March 21, 2006 post simply reads “just setting up my twttr” referencing the original spelling of the social media website. Almost 15 years old to the date, the OG tweet has received more than 150,000 likes and its NFT is currently sitting with a $2.5 million bid. Sina Estavi, CEO of blockchain trading platform Cryptoland and the Bridge Oracle cryptocurrency, holds that bid and has led bidding all week. NFTs have been a hot commodity as last month, Grimes sold NFT artworks for a total of $5.8 million and an NFT version of the Nyan Cat GIF sold for more than $561,000. A work by Banksy was recently set ablaze by a group of financial traders who made the performance into an NFT. The extent of NFTs has yet to be seen, but for the moment, they’re on a roll.

just setting up my twttr

— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006

Update: new development in the legal battle over Robert Indiana’s legacy

Late artist Robert Indiana is best known for his LOVE and HOPE sculptures that can be found in major cities spreading a little cheer in bold block lettering. Now there is a little hope for peace concerning the artist’s legacy and estate. Indiana’s estate has reached an out-of-court settlement with the Morgan Art Foundation, which has represented and held the copyrights to the artist’s works for many years, to settle years of back and forth. While details have not been released, a New York district court filed a notice stating that the compromise “should fully resolve all claims.” The saga of Indiana’s legacy is not yet over, but this is certainly a major step towards resolution. For instance, publisher Michael McKenzie and Jamie Thomas, who was Indiana’s long-term caregiver, were not involved in last week’s settlement. Just a day before Indiana died in 2018, the Morgan Art Foundation filed a lawsuit against McKenzie and Thomas claiming that they were isolating the artist and illegally producing artworks in Indiana’s name. A hearing between the Indiana estate and McKenzie is set to take place later this month. So, this is merely on hurdle in getting to the bottom of how Indiana’s artworks will be handled.

Not just another Monuments Man

Actor George Clooney is well known for many accomplishments and you probably remember the 2014 movie he starred in and directed, Monuments Men. In real life, though, Clooney has taken a staunch stance on repatriation and called on the UK to return cultural works to their original countries. Of particular interest to the actor has been the Marbles of the Parthenon, held at the British Museum. The marble works are often referred to as the Elgin Marbles after Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, who sold the marbles to Britain in the early 1800s. Clooney joined a group of scholars, professionals, and cultural figures in signing a letter addressed to Janet Suzman, chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, demanding that the Elgin Marbles be returned to Greece. “There are indeed many objects of historical value that must be returned to their original owners,” Clooney expressed to Suzman. “However, none of them is as important as the Marbles of the Parthenon. […] The Parthenon Sculptures must be returned to their original owner.” For more than four decades, similar pleas have been made, but these calls have never been successful. In 2019, British Museum director Hartwig Fischer made controversial statements saying the works would never be returned and Britain has historically claimed the marbles were unable to be returned because Greece didn’t have the infrastructure to properly care for the historic works. The latter is no longer the case as in 2009, Greece unveiled a stunning new museum created with one purpose: to house the Marbles of the Parthenon. The Acropolis Museum sits within eyeshot of the Parthenon and was designed by Swiss-American architect Bernard Tschumi. The museum currently presents plaster casts of the marbles held in London alongside the sculptures Elgin left behind. In a 2009 interview, archaeologist Naya Charmalia, said that the stark contrast between the bright white plaster casts and the original stone was intentional. “Everyone understands at once what is missing,” she said, “because if you say numbers, you can’t understand, but you can see how many are missing.”

UK outdoor arts programme announces 2021 season

Without Walls has been bringing outdoor arts to the people of the UK since 2007, but the pandemic has set an unusual stage for the consortium of festivals and arts organisations. As the works brought together through Without Walls are outdoor, they are actually quite accommodating for COVID precautions, including social distancing measures. So, their upcoming season of 21 projects are likely to be a salve after more than a year of abnormal life. “This new outdoor art programme from Without Walls will bring audiences together in a safe way to share moments of global empathy and joy,” says Without Walls. “From the epic and spectacular, to the intimate and emotional, the Without Walls 2021 commissions offer a timely moment to explore social justice, family relationships, environmentalism, identity, and much more.” These are the projects included in Without Walls’ 2021 programme:

• Arrivals + Departures, Yara + Davina, London
• Black Victorians, Jeanefer Jean-Charles, London
• Bonded, Alleyne Dance, London
• Do what yah Mama told yah!, Just More Productions, London
• Future Cargo, Requardt & Rosenberg, London
• Good Youtes Walk, Far From the Norm, London
• IRMÃ-sisters, Damae Dance, Manchester
• Mayfly, Kapow Dance Circus Theatre, Manchester
• MEarth Mothers, Beady Eye, Canterbury
• Recovery Poems, Emergency Exit Arts and Robert Montgomery, London (Greenwich)
• Robo Selfie, Seth Honor / Kaleider, Exeter
• Roll Play, Simple Cypher, London
• Strong Enough, Strong Lady Productions – Charmaine Childs, Essex
• The Hidden Music of Trees, Jason Singh, Devon
• The Invisible Man, Altered States, Manchester
• The Lost Opera, Ashley Peevor, Bristol
• The Rascally Diner, LAStheatre, London
• TOAST, Pif Paf, Sheffield
• Up My Street, The Cultural Assembly, Essex
• What happened to you?, Nikki Charlesworth, Nottingham
• Why?, Gravity & Levity, Brighton

Click to view slideshow.

The painter Nina Chanel Abney has been on a steady ascent since she first unveiled her visceral fusions of abstraction and figuration at the Kravets Wehby Gallery in New York City in 2008.

Since then, she quickly developed a distinctive method, improvising images using scores of stenciled shapes and symbols, and graffiti-like touches of spray paint. Her large-scale, colorful, abstracted figurative works have been likened to masters like Romare Bearden, Stuart Davis and Henri Matisse. Addressing subjects as diverse as race, politics, religion, sex and art history, Abney shies away from linear storytelling and creates disjointed narratives that almost look overloaded yet balanced in some order with a bold and dynamic style.

Abney has been quickly embraced by museums, collectors and curators alike in the past few years. Her ascent in the art market has been steady and well-earned, making the Chicago-born artist a leading figure in contemporary art. Her work is included in collections around the world, including the Brooklyn Museum, The Rubell Family Collection, Bronx Museum, and the Burger Collection in Hong Kong.

Her oeuvre spans paintings, public murals, 3D figures, interactive anNina Chanel Abney continues to reach new heights imation and even augmented reality pieces. Her work can be found in public spaces, on basketball courts, in major museums and in renowned private collections worldwide. Her latest exhibition was on view in December of last year at Jack Shainman Gallery, where Abney has had representation since 2016.

The exhibition at Jack Shainman Gallery was Abney’s second solo show with the gallery and focused on scenes of Black leisure and joy. A year after signing with the gallery, she received her first solo museum exhibition organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at North Carolina’s Duke University. The exhibition ultimatley traveled to museums in three more cities across the country and set the stage for Abney to enter the secondary market. In 2018, her 2012 canvas Country Ken appeared at a Christie’s sale with a high estimate of $7,000 but ended up selling for $47,500.

Following the tremendous success of her auction debut, works by Abney have continued to reach new heights. To date, Sotheby’s holds her auction record which was for Paradise Found (2009), a surreal canvas featuring bathers in a hot tub which held a £70,000 estimate but sold for over triple that amount (£225,000) in 2019.

Abney has embraced her momentum and continued to produce thought-provoking work even during the pandemic. Last summer she launched her first-ever augmented reality work, Imaginary Friend (2020), with Acute Art, which tells the story of a sage-life figure who offers words of encouragement to those who need them. “Sometimes we believe nothing good can ever happen to us, so it don’t,” says the sage.

Her exploration of augmented reality in addition to her continued work as a muralist and brand collaborator, as well as her upcoming museum projects, are testaments to Abney’s commitment to making her art accessible to all and status as a major force in contemporary art today.

Photographer Eve Arnold once remarked “I would prefer photography to be a folk art – cheap and available to everybody, rather than elevated to mandarin proportions created through an artificial scarcity.” It was that quote, seen by Arnold’s grandson, Michael Arnold, who now manages her archive, that inspired a collection of prints released as posters that are selling for just £30.

Arnold is among the most recognizable names in 20^th-century photography. Born in Philadelphia in 1913, Arnold didn’t become a photographer until she was in her 40s. She went on to become as well known for her photographs of Hollywood stars, like Marilyn Monroe, as her photojournalist coverage of the Civil Rights movement and documentation of life across the globe.

The only formal training Arnold received was a course with Alexei Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research. On assignment for that course, Arnold spent time photographing the fashion industry of Harlem in 1951, a largely ignored facet of the fashion industry. Those photographs were run the following year by Picture Post magazine, as no US publication would take them. That series of photographs became Arnold’s break. In 1962, she moved to London, where she would live until her death in 2012.

In the 1950s, she became the first woman to join the Magnum agency, whose co-founder, Robert Capa, described Arnold’s body of work as landing “between Marlene Dietrich’s legs and the bitter lives of migratory potato pickers.”

Now, a series of 15 photographs, a number of which have never been seen, are being released as posters by Arnold’s estate to keep her work alive and to introduce the late photographer to new generations. According to Michael Arnold, the release and its mission reminds him of stories Arnold told him of her first show in London where she sold prints of her work at a fraction of their worth so art students could afford them; however, Arnold later found out that art dealers had snapped up the discounted works only to turn around and resell them.

The poster release exemplifies the breadth of Arnold’s works. One image shows a Mongolian woman training a horse in a beautiful green pasture while another captures a loving and playful moment between a Cuban fisherman and his family. Civil Rights Activist Training shows a Black woman reading her book as she’s trained to ignore abuse and Baby’s First Five Minutes captures an intimate moment that speaks to Arnold’s self-described obsession with birth.

A series of unseen photos from the set of Misfits, the 1961 film, offer a different side to Marilyn Monroe, who was not only a fan of Arnold’s but also a friend. The photos show Monroe working, at times unaware that her photo is being taken. “There is something about the one where she’s in the car,” Michael Arnold told The Guardian. “It’s not the typical glamour shot you often see with Monroe, there’s an ordinariness about it … she is going about her craft, she’s learning her lines. There’s something about the composition which makes it special.”

“The themes she photographed are ever-present, if not more so – racism, sexism, inequality … not to mention the humanity she brought to her work,” continued Michael Arnold. It’s that humanity emanating from each and every photograph that ties Arnold’s body of work together in a stunning fashion. And now, you can bring Arnold’s work into your own home.

The poster collection can be found at evearnold.com/posters and are available from today 11^th of March.

Flipping through the pages of an old cookbook is often an amusing experience. While most 1950s cookbooks were made in earnest and have only become comical with age, a self-published cookbook by Pop artist Andy Warhol purposefully poked fun at the fad foods of the day. Later this month, a colour copy of Warhol’s satirical cookbook will head to auction at Bonhams in their online Fine Books and Manuscripts auction.

Printed in 1959, the cookbook was created when Warhol was still working as a graphic designer and was not yet the household name he is today. He worked with interior designer Suzie Frankfurt to concoct the cookbook and now, one of just 34 colour copies will be up for grabs with a pre-sale estimate of £22,000 to £36,000.

The book deliberately mocks the haute-cuisine cookbooks of the late 1950s that were marketed towards American housewives focused on becoming the ultimate hostess. Frankfurt created the fanciful recipes, which included nonsensical descriptions, and Warhol illustrated those recipes. Warhol enlisted his mother for her calligraphy skills to write the recipes, deliberate misspellings included, adding an extra layer of whimsy to the book.

Titled Wild Raspberries, a nod to Ingmar Bergman’s film Wild Strawberries, it included recipes like “Omelet Greta Garbo,” a delicacy “always to be eaten alone in a candlelit room.” A recipe for “Seared Roebuck” offered a savvy tip for cooks: “It is important to note that roebuck shot in ambush is infinitely better than roebuck killed after a chase.” Another cheeky recipe “to be served to very thin people” was “Chocolate Balls a la Chambord.” If those recipes weren’t strenuous enough to perfect, try “Piglet a la Trader Vics,” which suggested that home cooks “Contact Trader Vic’s and order a 40 pound suckling pig to serve 15. Have Hanley take the Carey Cadillac to the side entrance and receive the pig at exactly 6:45. Rush home immediately and place on the open spit for 50 minutes…”

The book was printed by Seymour Berlin and bound by rabbis in downtown New York City. According to Frankfurt, Warhol paid four schoolboys who lived upstairs from him to colour in the 34 colour copies.

In a 1997 interview, Frankfurt called Wild Raspberries “a funny cookbook for people who don’t cook.” She continued that she and Warhol “thought it would be a masterpiece and we’d sell thousands. I think we sold 20.” Many of the cookbooks were given away to friends in the end as gifts.

Although Wild Raspberries didn’t become the success they expected, it wouldn’t be the end of Andy Warhol’s food-based works. Just a few years after illustrating Wild Raspberries, he created the first of his Campbell’s Soup Can prints, which still infatuate fans and inspire artists today. Green Coca-Cola bottles, bananas, and Life Savers were among other foods that inspired Warhol and in 1982, Warhol was filmed eating a Burger King burger as part of a work called “66 Scenes from America” by Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth.

Last September, Amy Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor appeared on the front cover of a special Vanity Fair magazine dedicated to activism. Although commissioned by Vanity Fair guest editor Ta-Nehisi Coates, Sherald said she made the portrait for Taylor’s family to keep her “alive forever.” Now, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture of Washington, DC and the Speed Art Museum of Louisville, Kentucky are jointly acquiring the portrait, thanks to a donation from the Ford Foundation and Heathland Foundation, so that it will be available to the public.

The portrait was created in honour of Taylor, a 26-year-old woman who was shot and killed by police who forced entry into her Louisville home where she was sleeping. Taylor’s name and story went on to become a major thread in the Black Lives Matter protests of last summer and has impacted countless lives. The making of the portrait was a process of reverence and Sherald wanted to see it through completely, opting to oversee its sale by orchestrating a unique partnership between museums.

Sherald felt it was crucial that the portrait of Taylor be visible to the public and accessible to the people of Louisville. “I felt like it should live out in the world,” Sherald told The New York Times. “I started to think about her hometown and how maybe this painting could be a Balm in Gilead for Louisville.” Thus, thanks to the artist’s vision, became the joint acquisition of the work by the DC and Louisville museum.

Typically, Sherald’s gallery, Hauser & Wirth, would oversee the sale of her work, but this painting was different for the artist. Sherald wanted to have a hand in each step, bringing together the museums. To do so, Sherald reached out to friend and actress Kate Capshaw who, with her husband director Steven Spielberg, has recently launched the Hearthland Foundation. With Capshaw’s help, the Ford Foundation agreed to work with the Hearthland Foundation to support the acquisition. A joint $1.2 million donation made the purchase possible.

The proceeds from the sale will expand the impact of Taylor’s portrait as Sherald plans to set up a fund seeking to support students entering into higher education with particular interest in social justice. This endeavour will be made with guidance from both foundations.

Seeing the sale through is the final page of the process Sherald embarked on in this commission. Somewhat surprisingly, Taylor’s portrait is only Sherald’s second ever commission – the official portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama was her first – and it was the first time the artist’s subject was deceased.

To create the portrait, Sherald took the time to get to know Taylor posthumously. She spent time with Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, to better understand Taylor’s personality, character, and sense of style. Sherald had the opportunity to watch videos of Taylor, talk to her friends, and see photos of her, which included images taken by artist LaToya Ruby Frazier.

According to Palmer, Taylor was always put together. “You wouldn’t catch her not together,” she told Sherald, “she definitely took pride in what she looked like and how she carried herself.” So, Sherald worked with Atlanta-based designer Jasmine Elder of JIBRI to create the turquoise gown Taylor is depicted wearing in the portrait. With the permission of her family, Sherald also included the engagement ring Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker had bought for her in anticipation of proposing.

Sherald’s portrait of Taylor is a cathartic experience and personal interpretation of a life that should still be here. Founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and now the secretary for the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III summed up the painting saying it “captures both the joy and the pain of this moment.”

Taylor’s portrait will be included in the Speed Museum’s “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” exhibition focused on Taylor that is to open next month. The exhibition is curated by Allison Glenn, an associate director of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, and will include works by Sam Gilliam, Lorna Simpson, Kerry James Marshall, and Glenn Ligon. The exhibition will travel to the Smithsonian later this year.

In February, Pompeii announced that Gabriel Zuchtriegel, would become the new director of the one of Italy’s most prized historic sites: Pompeii. While the news did not sit well with everyone, the 39-year-old German archaeologist doesn’t seem too worried about ruffling feathers and already has big plans for the ancient ruins.

According to the Times, Irene Bragantini and Stefano De Caro resigned from their posts on the committee, which acts as a board for Pompeii. In a letter to Massimo Osanna, the outgoing director of Pompeii, the pair stated: “We believe that the minimum conditions for collaborating with [Zuchtriegel] do not exist. […] His CV doesn’t have sufficient depth and it is difficult to see that he has the experience to make decisions and run conservation and restoration where it costs millions and millions but is easy to make mistakes.”

Zuchtriegel was selected out of a pool of more than 40 applicants and comes to Pompeii after working as the director of Paestum, an area of ancient Greek ruins in the Campania region of Italy, since 2015. When the young archaeologist was selected for that post, similar issues arose. He was not only one of the first non-Italians selected to organise a major Italian landmark but he was also the youngest person ever put in charge of such a site. So, Zuchtriegel is somewhat used to rocking the boat.

Despite the concerns raised by Bragantini and De Caro, Zuchtriegel has the support of Osanna and Dario Franceschini, culture minister of Italy. “He did a fantastic job at Paestum, where there was rain leaking into the museum when he got there,” said Osanna. “He focused on maintenance, doubled the visitors, let them inside temples for the first time and drew in local residents.” Franceschini echoed that praise saying that Zuchtriegel “did and incredible job” while working at Paestum and hopes that he’ll produce similar results at Pompeii.

In an interview with The Guardian, Zuchtriegel remarked that the situation was “more or less the same at Paestum.” He continued saying: “I’m relatively young for such a position, especially for Italy. But the way to respond is with results. I’m not one who sees the director as the person who knows and decides everything. My task is to share and develop a vision together with the board and colleagues, and as fast as possible.”

Zuchtriegel, who became an Italian citizen last year, already has big plans for the ancient site, including making it more accessible, navigating the end of the pandemic, and actually putting excavation on hold. “We will not be doing new excavations just for the sake of doing them,” Zuchtriegel said. “For one, what is excavated must also be conserved and protected. Excavation is always a kind of destruction because you excavate layers and context that you can’t redo, it’s a one-time operation that needs to be done very carefully with everything documented. But we can’t exclude that in the future there will be new methods and new possibilities, so we should also leave something for future generations.”