Yu Youhan Dies at 80, Ruling in Franz West Case, New CEO for Art Bridges Foundation and More: Morning Links for December 19, 2023

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The Headlines

JOBS REPORT. The Art Bridges Foundation, which was founded by collector and philanthropist Alice Walton to provide financial support and art loans to museums across the United States, has tapped Anne Kraybill to be its next CEO. Kraybill has previously been director and CEO of the Wichita Art Museum in Kansas and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Both institutions are among the some 230 that have partnered with Art Bridges, which recently gave funding to the Whitney Museum in New York so that it can offer free admission on the second Sunday of each month. Meanwhile, artist Jordan Casteel—a painter of vidid portraits—has been elected to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s board, alongside four other new trustees: Gerrard Bushell, Yan Huo, Pablo Legorreta, and Steve Stoute.

THE INFLUENTIAL CHINESE PAINTER YU YOUHAN, whose celebrated work ranged from pioneering Political Pop work in the 1980s (including depictions of Mao Zedong) to beguiling and spectral abstractions, died at 80, Ocula reports. Yu was also a revered teacher at the Shanghai Arts and Crafts College for some 30 years, where his students included figures like Ding Yi, Qin Yifeng, and Wang Ziwei, ArtAsiaPacific notes. Exhibited widely on the international stage, his art is now on view in shows at the Taikang Art Museum in Beijing and elsewhere.

The Digest

One of the climate protesters who smeared paint on the case for Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1881) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., earlier this year pleaded guilty to injuring museum property, a charge that can bring up to five years in prison. Sentencing will be in April. Another indicted activist said he will go to trial. [The Washington Post]

Artist Tracey Emin, who has had serious surgeries in recent years amid a bout with cancer, said that she is recovering in Thailand after her intestine “nearly exploded.” “Not cancer but horrible complications with my intestines brought on by an infection, scar tissue and made a million times worse by flying,” she said on Instagram. [AFP/The Guardian]

Austria’s Supreme Court of Justice ruled that the late sculptor Franz West’s art should go to his private foundation, as he stipulated shortly before his death, and not his widow and children, who challenged that arrangement. The ruling, Anny Shaw writes, “signals a victory for Gagosian, who has represented the private foundation since its inception, over his rival David Zwirner, who continues to represent the estate and the Franz West Archive.” [The Art Newspaper]

Model, photographer, and United Nations High Commission for Refugees ambassador Helena Christensen has curated a show at the Ukrainian Museum in New York titled “Wearloom: Ukrainian Garments,” which looks at the nation’s traditional garments. [WWD]

Journalist Anderson Cooper took a look at how antiquities were smuggled out of Cambodia throughout the 20th-century—and how the country is now trying to get them back. [60 Minutes]

The Kicker

PRICE CHECK. Artist Grayson Perry slammed the EDF electricity company for allegedly raising his monthly bill from £300 (about $380) to £39,000 ($49,400) by accident and attempting to withdraw that amount from his account, the BBC News reports. “Your call centre has been no help,” Perry tweeted. While declining to comment on specific cases, EDF said that “usual changes to direct debit amounts can sometimes occur when there is an erroneous meter reading.” Yikes. [BBC News]