THE BIG STORY
Lights are flickering back on across a darkened downtown New York, and the city is slowly but surely returning to life. But no one in the art world will ever forget this week, when a freak, full-moon storm buried Chelsea in as much as five feet of water, turning the world's most important contemporary art district into a watery Pompeii. For those who consider art to be priceless, the destruction is incalculable: entire shows drowned, archives ruined, gallery businesses upended as catastrophically as Thomas Hirschhorn's now-prophetic recent installation of the sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia at Gladstone Gallery. Overnight, having a ground-floor space in Chelsea went from a dealer's dream to a curse.
But while the damage across the city's art scene (and pity the poor East Village storefront galleries and basement artist studios, where the wreckage is as yet untold) is staggering, the response to it has been inspiring. The whole of the art world has united in the gut-wrenching effort of salvaging the remains, and art journalists at publication after publication have provided the kind of around-the-clock, on-the-ground coverage that swiftly and firmly put things in perspective after Katrina. This serves as a reminder that the packed gallery openings, jubilant soirees, crammed art fairs and other festive occasions are not pure frivolity. These events bring people together during much easier times, and build the art world into a true community capable of banding together during moments of crisis
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"We want to be here for them because we see the art world as a real ecosystem. What happens downtown affects us uptown, and vice versa."
Christie's contemporary art VP Sara Friedlanderon the auction house's decision to generously offer its headquarters to displaced dealers in need of a place to plug in their laptops and get work done.
MUST READ
Goodbye to Chelsea as We Know It: In a pained dispatch from the front lines, Jerry Saltz reflects on what he saw touring the streets of the gallery district, noting that "a huge part of the New York art world has suffered a colossal blow." (NYM)
"This Is Heartbreaking": Andrew Russeth captures the immediate recovery effort after the storm in poignant words and pictures. (Gallerist NY)
Take a Video Tour of Chelsea: Artinfo's Tom Chen and Terri Ciccone survey the damage to galleries and to the site's own headquarters on West 26th Street. (Artinfo)
Reporting the Damage, Hour by Hour: The Gallerist NY team's liveblog of reports from Chelsea provided a ticker of vital updates. (Gallerist NY)
"This Is a Devastated Area": Bloomberg's Katya Kazakina provides a dire survey of Chelsea dealers' reactions to the storm, with one gallerist, Rachel Churner of Churner and Churner, estimating that she "lost $100,000 worth of art." (Bloomberg)
Dealers "Too Distraught to Speak": Former classical music critic Allan Kozinn teams up with Carol Vogel and Randy Kennedy to report out more grim details from Chelsea. (NYT)
More Troubles in the Aftermath: Julia Halperin reports that one further blow from the storm may come in the fact that insurance premiums for Chelsea spaces "are going to go through the roof." (Artinfo)
Advice on Art Insurance: In response to Julia Halperin's article, Forbes's Kathryn Tully offers a few pointers about the wisdom of art insurance, noting that the art world's treasures are by and large vastly underinsured. (Forbes)
Resilience and Community in the Wake: Linda Yablonsky relates tales of legendary artists like Cindy Sherman and Luc Tuymans venturing to Chelsea to console the dealers who had nurtured their careers. (Artforum)
Some Grateful Dealers Escaped Damage: Here's a good-news roundup of reports from dealers all over the city, from On Stellar Rays's Candice Madey to 36th Street pioneer Sean Kelly. (Artinfo)
Bushwick Galleries Were Also Spared: Benjamin Sutton reports that the hip Brooklyn art enclave fared well, with the worst damage being the destruction of an artist-designed sign at Storefront Bushwick. (Artinfo)
Reviewing What Was Lost:Roberta Smith provides a touching review of shows that she saw the Saturday before the storm and which are now grievously damaged and have been taken down. (NYT)
Rebuilding a Better Art World: In a beautiful meditation on the fragility of the vibrant gallery network that makes New York an art capital, Ben Davis points to the silver lining in the storm's wake (that it jarringly wrests our attention toward the fact of climate change) and imagines what will come "when it inevitably comes time to imagine how this dreary calamity can be processed into pictures or words and turned towards something constructive." (Artinfo)
Klaus Biesenbach Brings Relief to Far Rockaway: The MoMA PS1 director has announced on Facebook that he is filling a bus with art-world volunteers outside MoMA at 10 a.m. on November 3 to bring gas, coffee, and assistance to the reclamation effort by the waterfront. (Klaus Biesenbach)
SculptureCenter Collects Aid Donations: The Long Island City institution will be accepting donations of food and goods that will be dispersed to victims of the storm, and it will be waiving its admission fee this weekend. (SculptureCenter)
Arts Organizations Raise Relief Funds: See options for how you can support the recovery effort. (Artinfo)
MoMA Releases Emergency Conservation Guidelines: The museum has disseminated its protocol for restoring art in times of crisis, and will hold a seminar on procedures from noon to 2 p.m. on November 5. (MoMA)
A FEW STATUS REPORTS
David Zwirner said that an exhibition of work by Luc Tuymans and Francis Alÿs had suffered "a lot of damage, but it would be impossible at this point to say how much. I have a feeling that many of the pieces can be restored." (NYT)
Zach Feuer Gallery suffered terrible losses, with the dealer estimating that "perhaps 2 percent of my inventory escaped damage? and saying that Kate Levant's entire new show seemed to be destroyed. (NYT and Artinfo)
Printed Matter, the fabled emporium of artist books and editions, has been ravaged, with reams of material in its basement (which was used to store its archives) lost beyond repair. (Bloomberg)
The Kitchen has announced that it closed "due to serious damage sustained in our theater" and will reschedule performances of Richard Maxwell's Neutral Hero and the opening of Matt Keegan and Eileen Quinlan's exhibition "Y? O! G... A" for dates to be announced shortly. (The Kitchen)
Hauser & Wirth's construction site for its enormous new second-floor gallery on West 18th Street was undamaged. (HuffPo)
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery states that "due to the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Sandy" the gallery "will be closed until further notice." (Nicole Klagsbrun)
Gagosian Gallery states that "our galleries there have sustained serious water damage from the Hudson River surge" and that its coming shows of work by Ed Ruscha and Henry Moore have been postponed to a date to be announced later. (Gagosian)
Postmasters Gallery's basement flooded but no art was damaged. (HuffPo)
The construction site for the Whitney Museum's new downtown building was "largely spared" by the storm. (Artinfo)
Hasted Kraeutler Gallery sent out a release stating, "We wanted let you to know that luckily, the gallery survived Hurricane Sandy. We did, however sustain some damage. Once the power is restored to the area, we can begin our clean up and prepare to host visitors again soon." (Hasted Kraeutler)
Newman Popiashvili Gallery states that "due to the hurricane the gallery will be closed until further notice." (Newman Popiashvili)
POSTPONEMENTS & CANCELLATIONS
The party to celebrate the Guggenheim's announcement of Danh Vo as the winner of this year's $100,000 Hugo Boss Prize was cancelled. (Guggenheim)
The Editions | Artist's Book Fair has cancelled it's much-anticipated 15th-anniversary edition that was planned for Chelsea's former Dia building out of solidarity with its gallery partners. (EAB)
Sotheby's has pushed back its Impressionist and Modern art evening sale to November 8. (Bloomberg)
The Drawing Center has postponed the public reopening of its building to November 8th, with a celebratory champagne press preview to take place on the morning of November 7th. (Drawing Center)
The Armory Show has postponed its fete for 2013 commissioned artist Liz Magic Laser to November 27th. (Armory Show)
Grey Area has postponed the launch of its new collaboration with Helmut Lang to 7-9 p.m. on November 8. (Gray Area)
Performa has postponed its Relache gala to November 29. (Performa)
Pace Gallery is "fortunate to report that our galleries escaped major damage," and has postponed the opening of "Kienholz: The Ozymandias Parade / Concept Tableaux" until 6-8 p.m. November 7th. (Pace Gallery)
Andrea Rosen Gallery has announced that it hopes to reopen "in approximately two to three weeks' time," and that the show "Cellblock I & Cellblock II," curated by Robert Hobbs, will open then. (Andrea Rosen Gallery)
Toomer Labzda Gallery has postponed the opening of its show by Alina & Jeff Bliumis to 6-8 p.m. on November 11. (Toomer Labzda)
Dodge Gallery has pushed back the openings of "Flesh and Bone: Darren Blackstone Foote" and "Bigger Than Shadows," curated by Rich Blint and Ian Cofre, until 6-8 p.m. on November 10. (Dodge Gallery)
Third Streaming Gallery has announced that it will remain closed until further notice due to outages from the storm. (Third Streaming)
Lu Magnus has "been lucky to survive unscathed" and has postponed the opening of its new show by Caitlin Masley to 6-8 p.m. November 17. (Lu Magnus)
On Stellar Rays has postponed JJ Peet's opening until 6-8 p.m. on November 4th. (On Stellar Rays)
Andrew Kreps Gallery has postponed it's opening of Goshka Macuga's new show to 6-8 p.m. November 10. (Andrew Kreps)
Rachel Uffner Gallery has postponed the opening of Barb Choit's new show to 6-8 p.m. November 4th. (Rachel Uffner)
Lehmann Maupin has postponed the opening of Mickalene Thomas's new show indefinitely, with a new date to be announced soon. (Lehmann Maupin)
