The Week in Art: 14 April 2025
More auctions, as well as Tesla, 'David Hockney 25', Art Dubai and Cannes
Last week’s Week in Review, this week:
Warhol’s Big Electric Chair expected to fetch $30 million at Christie’s New York
As I have reported on in recent weeks, there has been a global slump in art market sales, largely due to Trump’s tariffs. However, like last week’s Turner Venice, Seen from the Canale della Giudecca, there are some notable exceptions. This week, ARTnews reported that Christie’s plans to auction Andy Warhol’s Big Electric Chair (1967-’68) in its May evening sale in New York. The painting is expected to fetch $30 million.
Click here for last week’s Week in Art.
Everyone Hates Elon (and his Swasticars):
Campaign group Everyone Hates Elon staged a performance this week taking sledgehammers and sharpies to an anonymously donated 2014 Tesla Model S, taking influence from Mexico City-based artist and sculptor, Chavis Mármol who has been crushing Teslas with monumental sculptures since March 2024.
This mirrors sentiment in the US and Europe, with the police being called into protect a Tesla dealership in Chicago during a Women’s Day march (with Trump subsequently branding attacks on the cars domestic terrorism) and several vehicles being set alight in Germany. Tesla’s stock price is roughly the same level as before Trump was elected in November.
Possible ‘water palace’ emerges after Myanmar earthquake:
Following the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that shook Myanmar on 28 March, killing over three and a half thousand and injuring five thousand more, possible ruins of a water palace from the Konbaung Dynasty era have emerged from the earth’s fissures. Reports from Tada-U, a town in central Myanmar have revealed what archaeologists believe could be the ruins of a ‘water palace’ from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Another 5.5 magnitude aftershock was reported yesterday.
Largest-ever Hockney show at Foundation Louis Vuitton:
The 11-room, 400-object-strong ‘David Hockney 25’ focuses on the last 25 years of the artist’s career, including images made on his iPad in Normandy during lockdown and some never-before-seen works including Play Within a Play Within a Play and Me with a Cigarette, (2025).
Art Dubai opens 18th show:
Art Dubai is set to open its 18th edition, bucking the lull in the global art trade owing to an increase in wealthy patrons locally. The fair opens with a VIP (read Very Important Petrocrats) preview on 16 April at the Madinat Jumeirah hotel with over 120 galleries showcasing their wares, as the city continues to bolster its buying-power reputation on the global stage.
Cannes film festival Official Selection announced:
Partir un Jour by Amélie Bonnin opens the 78th edition of the festival and includes films by Wes Anderson (The Phoenician Scheme), Ari Aster (Eddington), Spike Lee (Highest 2 Lowest) and Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning). It runs from 13-14 May.
Highest 2 Lowest features the long-awaited reunion of Lee and Denzel Washington, who co-stars alongside Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice and A$AP Rocky and is based on Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (1963)