On Thursday, blue-chip gallery Hauser & Wirth announced that for the past several months, they’ve been working to organize “Artists for New York,” a major fundraising initiative to benefit a group of non-profit visual arts organizations across New York City that have been hardest-hit by the pandemic. In order to do so, the gallery has assembled work more than 100 truly formidable participating artists that will be sold at an online auction in October. Additionally, these works will be displayed to the public in shows at Hauser & Wirth’s New York spaces from October 1 through October 22. The organizations that will benefit from the sale include the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Dia Art Foundation, The Drawing Center, El Museo del Barrio, High Line Art, MoMA PS1, Artists Space, the New Museum, Public Art Fund, Queens Museum, SculptureCenter, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Swiss Institute and White Columns.
“We couldn’t simply proceed with ‘business as usual’ without also addressing the very real needs of the non-profit organizations that have become our community since our gallery first opened in New York City in 2009,” Marc Payot, the president of Hauser & Wirth, said in a statement. “For us, ‘Artists for New York’ is a way to support and give back to that community at a critical moment.”
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One of the centerpieces of the auction is undoubtedly a newly-created signature work by the iconic artist Jenny Holzer. Holzer rendered a piece that broadcasts one of her most famous slogans: “IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY.” However, there are many other artists whose work will be sold in order to benefit the aforementioned organizations, and the gallery hopes to raise millions of dollars in total. Some of these artists include Katherine Bernhardt, George Condo, Sam McKinniss, Cindy Sherman, Rashid Johnson and Alfredo Jaar.
The artists have agreed to donate at least half of the proceeds of the sale of their work to the 14 identified New York City nonprofit institutions. Hauser & Wirth will forego all of its normal fees and commissions.
