Collector-Philanthropist Dorothy Tapper Goldman Dies at 78, Hermitage Amsterdam Settles Name Dispute , and More: Morning Links for August 1, 2023

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The Headlines

PHILANTHROPIST DOROTHY TAPPER GOLDMAN, who amassed a formidable collection of historical documents, and who sold her ultra-rare copy of the U.S. Constitution at auction in 2021 for $43.3 million, died on July 23 of breast cancer at the age of 78, Sam Roberts reports in the New York Times. Goldman’s late husband, real estate developer S. Howard Goldman, also collected important papers, and while he sold off many pieces before his death in 1997, he left his wife the Constitution copy. It was purchased by billionaire art collector Ken Griffin at Sotheby’s, beating out a crypto collective. She used the funds to support the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New-York Historical Society, and other institutions.

UNDERGROUND DISCOVERIES. Archaeologists in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City found ceramics and other artifacts at the site of a Teotihuacán village around 450 to 650, the Miami Herald reports. ●   Researchers at work in Rabat, Malta, found a Roman house that dates backs two millennia, the Times of Malta reports. One cool feature of this abode: It had a waste disposal system. ● And scholars operating in the village of Lio Piccolo, north of Venice, found a Roman gemstone engraved with a mythological figure—a rare sighting—during an excavation dive, Newsweek reports.

The Digest

SunRay Kelley, “a hero in the world of unarchitected, alternative, and vernacular building,” died last month at the age of 71, of a blood clot, Penelope Green writes. Kelley completed around 70 fantastical constructions, mostly in North America, including many on his sprawling estate in Washington State. [The New York Times]

Comedian Paul Reubens, who played the beloved character Pee-wee Herman, died of cancer on Sunday at 70. In 1987, Glenn O’Brien wrote an illuminating essay on Pee-wee, describing him as “a beacon, incandescent, illuminating. He’s a flaming star—one very, very intense thing.” [Artforum]

The Hermitage Amsterdam and Belgium’s Hart magazine have reached a settlement over the former’s plan to change its name to H’ART Museum, after splitting with Russia’s Hermitage. (The latter’s editors had objected.) The agreement will involve the periodical changing its name. [NL Times and AD]

Sotheby’s will offer Réne Magritte’s 1955 painting La Valse hesitation—of disturbingly masked apples—in October in Paris with a top estimate of €15 million (about $16.5 million). It’s a big moment for the Surrealist: Belgian researchers just said that they found a portrait of a woman hidden under one of his works. [Penta/Barron’s]

While the art scene in the massive Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen is still small, “artists and curators are setting up their own venues, out of a strong sense of ownership and responsibility towards their hometown,” Erika Na reports. [South China Morning Post]

Madonna shared to Instagram a photo of herself holding, as she explained, “a Polaroid taken by Andy Warhol of Keith Haring wearing a jacket with Michael Jackson’s face painted on it. A perfect triangle of Brilliance.” The photo was a gift from talent manager Guy Oseary, she said. [@madonna/Instagram via The Art Newspaper]

The Kicker

A HOT STREAK. It is a good moment for art in the New Yorker. Last week brought Patrick Radden Keefe on dealer Larry Gagosian; this week, it’s Ariel Levy on painter Lisa Yuskavage. The Yuskavage profile features guest appearances from peers like John Currin and Kerry James Marshall—and the artist herself strolling the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, beholding Manet’s Blonde with Bare Breasts (1878). She said of those breasts, “They’re so . . . presentational. Kind of the greatest breasts in Western art, in terms of naturalness.” Her paintings, of course, are giving Manet a run for his money in that category. [The New Yorker]