Jerry Saltz Criticizes Pace Gallery's Growth Fantasy; Magritte Damaged by Child

Jerry Saltz, writing in New York Magazine, excoriates Pace Gallery as a symbol of the art market's failed growth logic, calling it a 'Fyre Festival of mega-galleries.' Under Marc Glimcher, Pace expanded aggressively—more artists, locations, projects—but now must cut roughly 50 artists and 50 staff. Saltz argues the model was 'optimized for a vision of the art market that never materialized.' Separately, a child at the Israel Museum punctured René Magritte's 'The Castle of the Pyrenees' with a pine cone; the 1959 work, originally commissioned by Harry Torczyner, is being restored. In other news, Stefan Niggemeier criticizes Kulturstaatsminister Wolfram Weimer for his recurring use of 'Eigentlichkeit' as a vague rhetorical device. Curator Helen Molesworth, in Cultured, reflects on sloth as an ambivalent state of withdrawal and creativity, citing artists like Lee Lozano, Robert Barry, and Marcel Duchamp. Freddy Langer eulogizes photographer Duane Michals in FAZ, highlighting his narrative sequences and the series 'Things are Queer.' Julie Belcove profiles Jenny Holzer in the Financial Times ahead of her Art Basel Icon Award, focusing on her 'Redaction Paintings' that transform redacted US government documents. Finally, the missing portrait of Angela Merkel in the Bundeskanzleramt's gallery of chancellors remains unaddressed, with the office stating only that they will 'provide information in due course.'