The Week in Art: 5 May 2025
More attacks on cultural institutions, more tariffs, as well as Morley's Fried Chicken, Sinners, TEFAF and Klimt
Last week’s Week in Review, this week:
Trump cuts the National Endowment for the Arts:
The Trump administration is keen to throw its fiscal weight around again this week, adding to recent assaults against key cultural institutions, including Harvard and the Smithsonian. On Friday, Trump signalled his intention to eliminate key arts agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in line with his recent moves to decrease the size of the federal government, allegedly to cut bureaucracy and increase accountability, though critics see this as a broader attack against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across government.
There is resistance, though. Harvard has pitched a fight against the Trump administration in response to the freezing of its funding, while the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ shutdown was stopped by the U.S. District Court on 1 May.
Trump’s tariffs continue to affect the art market:
New York Art Week begins next week, with a range of fairs from industry behemoths: Frieze, NADA and the Future Art Fair are among those exhibiting. One of the best known, TEFAF, looks to be among the worst affected, reports ARTnews, as many of its exhibitors sell items which are vulnerable to tariffs. Most original works of art as well as antiques over 100 years old are still exempt from tariffs, however taxes will be placed on all Chinese works (7.5%), steel and aluminum sculptures (25%) and all jewellery, furniture and design pieces (10%). There is still much ambiguity around the issue, with analysts claiming this gives some insight into slapdash and ill-considered legislation, and possibly the administration itself.
Click here for last week’s Week in Art.
The Cult of Morleys:
Some lighter news, then. The sign of the cult favourite chicken shop franchise Morley’s Fried Chicken is set to be displayed in the London Museum’s (formerly Museum of London) new site in Smithfield meat market. It will feature in the museum’s ‘Hanging Out’ display, a nod to the chain’s cultural relevance in South London which is seen not just as a place to buy food, but as a third space where communities gather. In the past, it has appeared as the backdrop for Rap, Drill and Grime videos, including Stormzy’s ‘Big for Your Boots’ and Krept’s ‘Morley’s Freestyle’.
Sinners opens to warm reception and double-standards:
Ryan Coogler’s new smash hit Sinners makes a splash in its opening week, and controversy too. The Black Panther and Creed director’s new film flies in the face of the Hollywood machine-algorithm - it is no reboot, adaptation or superhero sequel - yet it’s a smash hit with cinemagoers. The film, which threads the vampiric into a 1930s Jim Crow-oppressed Mississippi, was bizarrely chastised by Variety, which called its $63.5 million opening, ‘a ways away [from being profitable]’. This led to rebuttal from actor-director Ben Stiller, who queried ‘in what universe does a 60 million dollar opening for an original studio movie warrant this headline?’, no-doubt preempting criticism that this observation draws on some industry double standards. (Variety appears to have deleted the article following the blowback.) The film’s success is not a complete surprise, however. It stars Michael B. Jordan, a box office magnet, while Coogler has his own devoted fans, who flock to cinemas for his strong Black-led performances and racial commentaries.
The Art Market:
The National Gallery has purchased an altarpiece for a staggering $20 million (dated 1500-10) despite the artist being unknown. (Even their nationality is unknown, though it is suspected to be French or Netherlandish; the work was first documented in Belgium in 1602.) The sale was funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery of London and bought through Sotheby’s from a private collection. It has been praised for its ‘iconographical oddities’ by Emma Capron, the curator of early Netherlandish and German paintings at the gallery, who is responsible for the acquisition.
The sale of a Klimt portrait which was sold for $32 million in Austria in 2024 has fallen through due to scepticism about its provenance, reports Austrian paper Der Standard. Portrait of Fräulein Lieser (1917) had previously been lost for nearly 100 years, adding to doubts about its authenticity.
