The Headlines
FRESCO FIND. After 90 years, forgotten frescoes by Maxine Albro were recently discovered beneath nine layers of paint in the historic building of Ebell of Los Angeles, a women-focused organization dedicated to education, arts, and culture, reports the Los Angeles Times. Painted in 1933, the murals were covered up just a few years after they were made because the organization voted to remove them. The frescoes depict female seers from ancient Greek and Roman mythology, and were highly controversial in the 1930—some critics said the paintings were too bright and “out of harmony” with the garden. The paintings were largely forgotten until Ebell executive director Stacy Brightman hired a conservator to find them. It turned out that the frescoes had been painted over to ensure that they could be recovered. Unfortunately, the building also needs to undergo seismic retrofitting, so until that’s completed, the frescoes must remain beneath the paint that has kept them hidden for nearly a century.
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ANOTHER SABSABI CANCELATION. A planned exhibition by Khaled Sabsabi was canceled one month after the Sydney-based artist was dropped as Australia’s Venice Biennale representative, the Guardian reports. The Monash University Museum of Art (Muma), in the Melbourne suburb Caulfield East, has “indefinitely postponed” its Sabsabi exhibition, which was due to open May 8. The decision was made after “consultation with our communities,” after having “identified [that] there is a need for the museum to deepen its collaboration and engagement on this exhibition.” Per the Guardian, the choice to postpone the show appears to have come from Monash University, “not the staff at Muma.”
The Digest
Endeavor, the parent company of Frieze, was acquired by the private firm Silver Lake Partners at an equity value of $13 billion. The sports and entertainment company Endeavor Group was also renamed WME Group, and its founding CEO Ari Emanuel has become its executive chairman. Since the company went public in 2021, Endeavor’s stock prices have sunk, prompting the group to consider selling the Frieze art fair. [ArtReview]
Mexican artist Javier Marín and Spanish artists Miquel Barceló and Cristina Iglesiaswere asked to give their proposals for the completion of the main façade of Barcelona’s famously unfinished Sagrada Familia cathedral, designed by Antoni Gaudí. One or more of their proposals will ultimately be selected. [Le Figaro]
The Brooklyn Museum has paused layoffs, thanks to a city funding increase of $100,000 for this fiscal year and voluntary buyouts for nearly 30 staffers. “However, we continue to await confirmation of the promised additional funding for next fiscal year,” director Anne Pasternak said. Without it, the museum “will unfortunately need to move ahead with the previously planned reductions by June 30, 2025.” [Hyperallergic]
The actions of two men who vandalized a public Paddington Bear statue in Newbury, Berkshire, “were the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for,” said district judge Sam Gooze, who sentenced the 22-year-olds to unpaid work and demanded they pay fines of £2,725 ($3,500) each for the damage caused earlier this month. [BBC]
The Kicker
ARTISTS AND THEIR MENTORS. Sixteen women talk to Cultured about the mentors who shaped them, highlighting the life-changing importance of such relationships within art communities and practices. From Bisa Butler to Marilyn Minter to Jill Magid, these artists take us through their formative years. One artist, Barbara DeGenevieve, who mentored Sheree Hovsepian , is no longer alive to read the latter’s words. She died in 2014, leading Hovsepian to “often wonder, if she were still alive, what would she think of what is happening in the world today,” says Hovsepian. “But I also think about how Barbara’s influence lives on through the artists she mentored—those of us who push boundaries, challenge conventions, and expand the discourse in our own ways.”