[Artists news]Dealer Kavi Gupta Mired in Lawsuits, Artist Raquel Rabinovich Dead at 95, National Museum in Damascus Reopens, and More: Morning Links for January 10, 2025

[Maheso]

DEALER KAVI GUPTA’S LEGAL TROUBLES. Chicago dealer Kavi Gupta, who has championed many artists featured in major international exhibitions, is facing lawsuits and claims of mismanagement, reports Brian Boucher for Artnet News. Artist Jeffrey Gibson, who represented the US at the Venice Biennale, filed a suit against Gupta’s gallery in 2023 alleging unpaid sales proceeds to the tune of nearly $640,000. The gallery responded at the time that those funds were spent on production expenses, per their contract with the artist. Then, dealer Thomas McCormick also sued Gupta in June 2024, alleging the misuse of funds from a refinanced loan on their co-owned building at Gupta’s main location on West Washington Blvd, in addition to falling behind on rent. Gupta’s lawyer has denied those allegations. But several people familiar with the gallery’s operations told Artnet News anonymously that the gallery and Gupta’s troubles go far deeper and the alleged practices far more widespread than previously known.

IN MEMORIAM. The artist Raquel Rabinovich, known for her land art and monochromatic paintings, has died at age 95. Born in Buenos Aires in 1929, she studied in Europe before moving to the US, where Rabinovich became an active member of the Hudson Valley artistic and Buddhist communities, reports Hyperallergic and Artnet News. “To me, when I see something—say, the world around me, art, or people—I realize that’s not all there is,” she said in 2021. “There is something behind, something beyond. Because it’s not obvious or visible, I feel inclined to explore it and discover what is there.” Her work is in collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., and in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum of American Art. Yet observers say she has not received deserved recognition. “She leaves behind a rich legacy as a visual artist built over more than seven decades of rigorous practice,” stated the Raquel Rabinovich Art Trust, which also announced her death after a short battle with cancer.

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https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/kavi-gupta-lawsuits-national-museum-syria-morning-links-1234729749/