issue 024: on impermanence & significance

Highlights from Frieze London Week, tons of art world news, and some deep dives into the work, artists, and shows that this is all about.

Hi artsies,

Buckle up for a behemoth of a newsletter. Somehow, even with Frieze and the big auctions in London, the rest of the art world didn’t slow down whatsoever. There are plenty of artist interviews, exhibition reviews, and deep dives into the work and artists behind it all in store for you.

Going through this issue’s mix of articles and reflecting on my art-filled travels last week, I’ve been thinking about the balance between impermanence and significance. Art fairs are amazing to me—so much effort for something so fleeting, and that very scarcity is what’s coveted. Art, on the other hand, endures. Its significance is its permanence.

I feel the same about travel—the art, the meals, the streets—all the more special because they’re ephemeral.

This week’s issue leans into the tension between what’s passing and what endures—from Gerhard Richter’s quiet mysticism to Coco Fusco’s reflections on legacy, from Claire Fontaine’s dazzling nihilism to the rediscovery of overlooked masters like Minnie Evans.

Enjoy!

---

Frieze London Week

From the pre-show roundups to post-show highlights, the coverage around Frieze London, Frieze Masters, 1-54, Clarissa, and galleries throughout London was honestly pretty overwhelming this week. I gathered a few of the roundups I felt captured the work the best:

• ARTnews: Frieze London’s Best 8 Booths, From a Solo Show of Samia Halaby to a Pharaonic Treasure

• Elephant: The Very Best of London’s Frieze Week 2025: Outside of the Tent

• Artsy: The 10 Best Booths at Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2025

• Galerie: The Top 10 Highlights from Frieze London 2025

• Dazed: Here’s what not to miss at Frieze 2025

• The Art Newspaper: In the frame: photography comes to the fore at Frieze London and beyond & At Frieze London, a new section explores the flow of cultural influence between Africa and Brazil

• ArteFuse: Highlights from Frieze Masters, London & Highlights from Frieze Art Fair 2025, London

• Whitewall: First Look: What Not to Miss at Frieze Masters 2025

Or, read about trends and top sales here and here.

Show Reviews

Some long-awaited blockbusters plus some under-the-radar gems to get you inspired for an artful getaway this fall.

---

A Closer Look at the Work & Artists

---

Artist Interviews

---

Art World News

Auctions:

• London Sees Its Best Evening Auction Results in Years - read for a recap of the week’s London auctions

• Peter Doig Painting Nets $19 M. in Christie’s Solid 20th/21st Century Evening Sale that Totals $142.9 M.

• Christie’s London Day Sale, Where a Michelangelo Pistoletto Sold for Seven Times Its Estimate, Shows a Market Still Chugging Along

• Francis Bacon Painting Sells for $17.6 M at Sotheby’s London, Leading $63.3 M. Sale

• David Hockney’s iPad Drawings Sell for $8.3 M. at Sotheby’s London, Doubling Sale’s High Estimate

• $3.2 M Basquiat Headlines Smaller Phillips London Sale, Down 30 Percent From Last Year

• Gene Hackman’s Personal Collection Goes Up for Sale

• Christie’s Will Sell Works From Bill and Dorothy Fisher Collection, Led by $6 M. Signac

• Collector Patricia Phelps de Cisneros to Sell $15 M. Calder Mobile at Christie’s

Museums & Biennales:

• Smithsonian Closes as Government Shutdown Enters Third Week

• Thieves Steal Priceless Napoleon-Era Jewels in Daring Daylight Heist at the Louvre in Paris

• London’s Courtauld Gallery and Institute receives landmark £30m donation

• India Plots First Venice Biennale Pavilion in Seven Years

• Louvre Acquires Its First Video, a Piece Inspired by the Tuileries Gardens

• Who is Chiara Camoni, the artist who will represent Italy at the Venice Biennale 2026

Fairs & Galleries:

• Sean Kelly Gallery Nixes Los Angeles Shows, Will Operate Privately

• San Francisco’s Altman Siegel Closes After 16 Years, Saying the Market Has Grown ‘Too Difficult’

• Pace Is Bringing Modigliani Painting for ‘Around $10 M.’ to Paris to Mark Collaboration With Scholar Marc Restelllini

• Olney Gleason Announces Exclusive Representation of Work by Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner

• Jenkins Johnson Gallery to Open Tribeca Outpost on Marian Goodman Gallery’s Third Floor

• Almine Rech reopens in London with downsized gallery

• Thinking bigger: gallery stalwarts Sadie Coles, Maureen Paley and Stuart Shave on why they’re expanding to new London spaces

• Tate Acquires Three Works by Female Artists at Frieze Through £150,000 Fund

• The Arts Council Collection Acquires Works by Five Artists at Frieze London

Obituaries:

• Tony Fitzpatrick, indefatigable artistic polymath from Chicago, has died, aged 66

Other

• Ireland Commits to Basic Income for Artists after Trial Programme

• Artists Plan Nationwide Protests Against ‘Authoritarian Forces’

• Creative Australia awards Khaled Sabsabi $100,000 grant months after dumping from Venice Biennale

• Picasso Work Goes Missing in Transport Between Madrid and Granada

• Climate Activists Deface Christopher Columbus Painting on Day Marking His Arrival to Americas

---

What a week! Buckle up for Art Basel Paris next week.

‘til then,

tld-art

P.S. I started a running list of the NYC late fall shows I’m interested in. Check it out here.