To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.
The Headlines
ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON, the Museum of Modern Art in New York was evacuated and closed early after two of its employees were stabbed, ARTnews reports. The two, who are both 24, were taken to a nearby hospital, described as being in stable condition, and expected to recover. As of Sunday evening, police were seeking a suspect, Gary Cabana , 60, who allegedly attacked the staffers after being denied entry to a film screening, the New York Times reports. Police released footage of the violence and photos of the man, per the Associated Press. Friends of Cabana told Gothamist that he has worked as a Broadway usher and has a history of mental illness. The museum remained closed on Sunday and said that it plans to reopen on Tuesday.
Related Articles
BREAKING GROUND. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has selected the Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to design its long-awaited new modern and contemporary art wing, which is estimated to cost $500 million and create 80,000 square feet of space, the New York Times reports. This will be the most high-profile project so far from Escobedo, 42, whose projects have included a temporary Serpentine Pavilion in London in 2018 and the La Tallera Siqueiros art space in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 2012. Back in October, she told Wallpaper that, when she received the Serpentine commission, its coordinator told her, “Things are going to change very drastically for you.” Escobedo continued, “I didn’t believe it at the time, but she was right.” Late last year, the Met lined up a $125 million donation for the wing from Oscar Tang and Agnes Hsu-Tang. The museum estimates construction will be complete in seven years.
The Digest
ARTIST COMMUNITIES. For Vogue, Dodie Kazanjian checked in with five women artists—Ruby Neri, Lily Stockman, Megan Reed, Hilary Pecis, and Austyn Weiner—who all have studios in the same complex in Los Angeles’s Frogtown neighborhood. And for the New York Times, Steven Kurutz took a look at East Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Summertime Gallery.
Artist and activist Nan Goldin spoke during a video hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court tied to a $6 billion settlement between state attorneys general and the Sackler family, whose company Purdue Pharma has been accused of contributing to the opioid crisis. “Their legacy is forever tainted,” Goldin said. [Reuters and @SacklerPain/Instagram]
President Biden nominated more than a dozen people to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, including art patron Barbara Gamson, who is a trustee at the Menil Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado. [Press Release/White House]
Artist Mandy El-Sayegh discussed how a mental-health crisis led to changes in her work. She just opened a show at Lehmann Maupin in Palm Beach, Florida, and has another one the way at UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles next month. [Tatler]
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is undertaking restoration on eight of the 105 Sol LeWitt wall drawings that are on view in its majestic retrospective of that work. The grand show runs until 2043. [The Art Newspaper]
Architect Daniel Libeskind has designed a $7,000 decanter for Hennessy’s Richard Hennessy cognac. The firm’s master blender, Renaud Fillioux de Gironde, described the pairing of liquid and design as “a masterpiece within a masterpiece.” [Forbes]
The Kicker
FROM A ROCK TO A HARD PLACE. NFTs of Etherrocks—simple rock graphics released in an edition of 100 in 2017—have traded for seven figures, but one was recently listed for less than a penny and promptly purchased, according to blockchain records reviewed by Vice . The price was an error, the result of a collector apparently intending to list the NFT for 444 Ethereum (more than $1 million) and instead asking 444 Wei (a minuscule sliver of one ETH). The buyer has since listed it for around $600,000. A Twitter user claiming to be the unfortunate seller wrote, “In one click my entire net worth of ~$1 million dollars, gone.” Be careful out there, NFTers. [Vice]
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism