The life and career of influential artist and collector Claude Simard will be celebrated at Jack Shainman Gallery on May 17
Who: Hank Willis Thomas, Leslie Wayne, Sarah Douglas, Ian Berry, Jack Shainman
What: Roundtable discussion in conjunction with “If I Had Possession over Judgement Day: Collections of Claude Simard,” running through September 24 at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College
Where: Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves., 212-645-1701
When: Wednesday, May 17, free with RSVP, 6:30
Why: In September 2014, influential gallerist and artist Claude Simard, the cofounder of Jack Shainman Gallery (first in DC, then NYC), passed away suddenly at the age of fifty-eight. In conjunction with the new exhibition “If I Had Possession over Judgement Day: Collections of Claude Simard,” at the Tang Museum at Skidmore, Jack Shainman Gallery will host a roundtable discussion on Simard, with artists Hank Willis Thomas and Leslie Wayne and ARTnews editor in chief Sarah Douglas, a former assistant to Simard and Shainman. The event will be hosted by Tang director and exhibition curator Ian Berry, and Shainman will be in attendance. “Simard dedicated over thirty years of his life to engaging with and enriching the lives of artists as both muse and patron,” the exhibition website explains. “His voracious drive to collect and discover resulted in a sizable collection of art and artifacts from across centuries and continents.” The Skidmore show features works by John Ahearn, Matthew Barney, Alighiero e Boetti, Nick Cave, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Leon Golub, Kerry James Marshall, Roberto Matta, Chris Ofili, Gabriel Orozco, Nancy Spero, Jessica Stockholder, Wayne, Thomas, and many others. You can read the reactions of Skidmore students to specific works in the show here. Currently on view at Jack Shainman is “Becky Suss: Homemaker.”