How the Los Angeles Fires Affected the Art World
Although the fires are still burning, we are starting to understand the severity of the damage to Los Angeles. In the arts and culture community, dozens, if not hundreds, of people have lost their homes, and in some cases decades worth of art — lost artists. studios and personal assets, while collectors lost their entire treasures.
artist Kathryn Andrews, who lost his home, has been actively reporting on Instagram about fellow artists who have seen their homes or studios go up in flames in various wildfires. In Friday’s post, she listed the following artists who have lost their homes or studios: Analia Saban, Kelly Akashi, Daniel Mendel-Black, Kate Mosher Hall, Amir Nikravan, Christina Quarles, John Knuth, Salomón Huerta, Adam Ross, Beatriz Cortez, Asher Hartman, Alice Konitz, Molly Tierney, Marwa Abdul-Rahman, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Mark Whalen, Jean Robinson, Baroness Rebecca, Rachelle Sawatsky, Grayson Revoir, Camilla Taylor, Tara Walters, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, And Andy Ouchi, as well as couples Diana Thater And T. Kelly Mason And Jill Spector And Bret is unique. These are just the things that Andrews can confirm — she added that she knows “a few other people but [is] awaiting official confirmation before posting.”
Person in charge Paul Schimmel took to Instagram to announce that he had lost his house and his dealer John Cheim do the same. On Friday, co-founder Blum & Poe Jeff Poe announced that his Malibu home had been destroyed. Artists Ross Simonini And Alec Egan speak the New York Times that they had lost their home and studio—Egan had just completed a full show of works scheduled to go on view at LA gallery Anat Ebgi later this month. artist Paul McCarthy lost the Altadena house he had lived in for decades, and his daughter, the merchant Mara McCarthy, told time that he would postpone his upcoming show with Hauser & Wirth in London. She also lost her home, as did her brother, Damon McCarthy.
artist Ruby Neri and artists Torbjørn Vejvi losing the home they shared with their daughter. Martine Syms posted on Instagram that her family’s home of 40 years was no more. Designer Alix Ross, Previously half of Online Ceramics brand, lost its home. artist Ariane Vielmetter losing the house that had been in her family for generations—it had been the home of her mother, a prominent Los Angeles dealer Susanne Vielmetter. Altadena Alto Beta Gallery, founded by the artist Brad Eberhard, burned to the ground. There are certainly many artists and members of other art communities who have lost their homes. The damage right now is immeasurable and could last for a long time.
And galleries across the city, even those far from the fire site, are currently closed. Opening ceremonies scheduled to take place this weekend at galleries such as Gagosian, Karma, François Ghebaly, David Kordansky Gallery and Regen Projects, have been postponed.
Still, there is some reason for hope, or at least gratitude. The Getty Mansion was engulfed in flames during the worst of the Palisades fires, but the J. Paul Getty Trust—which has the largest endowment of any museum on earth, with about 8 billion dollars in the treasury—saying the museum was able to escape with minimal damage and its thousands of works of art safe. The key to its survival is constant mitigation through year-round bush clearing, as the museum knows that fires can happen at any time and an operations room is set up on Tuesday mornings to direct 16 on-site staff at the Villa. The galleries also have double walls, which help protect the more than 44,000 objects at the Villa, some of which are Greek, Roman and Etruscan ruins dating back to 6,500 BC. And when the fire spread to the pedestrian gate, a fire extinguisher was used to extinguish it in just a few minutes. you can read Full tick at Los Angeles Times.
