Your 5 weekly art world updates

Happy Monday June 19th 2017!

It's time for your weekly dose of art world updates, so grab a coffee and find out what's happening in the museum as well as in the field and on the market. 

1. This past weekend Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum opened up the doors of their summer exhibition: a major retrospective of 19th century photography. New Realities features 300 photographs from the museum’s own collection, including works by internationally renowned artists such as William Henry Fox Talbot and Gustave Le Gray alongside Dutch greats such as George Hendrik Breitner and Willem Witsen. In honour of this exhibition, Vogue is publishing a special art supplement alongside their summer issue. World-famous photographer and guest-editor in chief Mario Testino will reveal his curated selection from the exhibition, explaining that ‘knowing history is essential to understanding the pictures of now’.

New Realities. Photography in the 19th century is on show at the Rijksmuseum from 17 June until 17 September 2017 and Vogue’s summer issue will be available in stores on June 22nd.

2. Speaking of Dutch greats, The Leiden Collection is currently being exhibited in the National Museum of China. The collection was established by American investor Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife Daphne Recanati-Kaplan and includes paintings by none other than Rembrandt and Vermeer. After years of careful planning and negotiating, this will be the first time ever in history that the Chinese public is able to witness some of the most important masterpieces from the Golden Age in the flesh on their home grounds. Fun fact: in China Rembrandt is known as Lun Bo Lang.

Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection is on show at the National Museum of China from 17 June until September 3rd.


_{Johannes Vermeer, A young woman seated at the virginals, ca. 1670-1672, oil on canvas, 25,2 x 20 cm, The Leiden Collection, New York.} 

3. Moving back to our own capital, London-based artist Ben Wilson is exchanging his hometown for Amsterdam as of this week Wednesday. Wilson, also known as the ‘chewing gum man’ has been famous in London since 2004 for decorating the sidewalks by painting on pieces of chewing gum. In the past thirteen years he has done over 10.000 pieces and Galerie Hamer in Amsterdam is now releasing the first monograph of his work. Wilson himself will appropriately guide visitors from the Central Station to the gallery where a special exhibition to celebrate the release is being held.

Works from the The Chewing Gum Alchemist will be on display on the Leliegracht 38 in Amsterdam on June 23rd and 24th.


_{Ben Wilson at Muswell Hill, UK.}

4. Yesterday was the final day of Art Basel 2017 and with numerous reports of strong sales we can carefully begin to assume that it has once again been a successful year for the Swiss leg of the world’s most important contemporary art fair. Just to give you an idea, on the second day the international gallery Hauser & Wirth sold a piece by Piero Manzoni (Achrome, 1958–59) for $11.2 million as well as a Philip Guston with an asking price of $15 million, we can only imagine…
   

5. With Art Basel closing this past weekend, this leg of the official ‘Grand Tour’ (Venice Biennial, Art Basel, Dokumenta14) also came to an end. But fear not, the European art scene will be in full swing all summer because Skulptur Projekte 2017 in Münster runs through to October 1st. This decennial (!!) exhibition aims to activate the historical, architectural, social, political and aesthetic contexts of art in the urban realm. Every ten years, artists are invited by a curatorial team - this year comprised of initiator Kasper König, Britta Peters and Marianne Wagner - to create whatever they want on to place it wherever they want within the city’s boundaries. Sculptures by over 30 participants can now be spotted all over town, making this a very exciting and refreshing happening and a must-see festival to visit this summer!
   
   
   _{Claes Oldenburg, Giant Poolballs, 1977, Aasee.}