AO Art Observed™

Emmanuel Perrotin, dealer of Murakami, Cattelan, on taking risks: “People imagine it must be easy for me now, but every day is more difficult…you’re still only as good as your last show” [AO Newslink]

Read the interview via TheArtNewspaper

This Wednesday, Lucian Freud passed away in his London home at the age of 88. According to Mr. Freud’s dealer, William Acquavella of Acquavella Galleries, Freud suffered a brief illness before his death. Freud’s career is characterized by his thickly-painted portraits of friends and family, which brought forward and repositioned the genre of portraiture in the twentieth century.

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Google Doodle commemorates Alexander Calder’s 113th birthday [AO Newslink]

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Christie’s first-half sales make record-breaking £2 billion ($3.2 billion), 15% increase due to growing international market [AO Newslink]

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André, Love Graffiti: Annabelle (2011).  All images by S. Zabrodski for Art Observed, unless otherwise stated.

MOCA’s exhibition, ‘Art in the Streets’ has proven to be a hugely popular, if not highly contentious, addition to L.A.’s summer arts scene. Located at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, the massive space includes the work of around 50 artists in a range of media including murals, photography, installations, graffitied vehicles, and re-created cityscapes. The show has come under fire for its glorification of what many perceive as vandalism. Indeed, the area surrounding Geffen Contemporary saw a spike in graffiti following the opening of ‘Art in the Streets’ in mid-April. As with any survey show, there have been many objections relating to both the inclusion and exclusion of certain artists. Even before the opening, MOCA Director, Jeffrey Deitch, drew criticism for the museum’s censorship of Italian street artist Blu’s mural depicting coffins covered with dollar bills. The mural was painted over after Deitch deemed it insensitive given its location near a veteran’s memorial. Both in spite of and because of these debates, the show has sparked a discourse that is significant for both artists and audience- since the show has opened, Banksy, one of the artists included in the exhibit,  has begun sponsoring free admission on Mondays to pull in even more viewers to an already record-breaking show. Bansky is quoted as saying, “I don’t think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it.” The exhibition was slated to travel to the Brooklyn Museum in 2012, but was recently cancelled due to financial constraints.

Swoon, Ice Queen (2011)

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Thomas Struth, Pantheon, Rome (1990), via Whitechapel Gallery.

London’s Whitechapel Gallery is showing a survey of German photographer Thomas Struth’s photographs, spanning over thirty years – 1978-2010.  The exhibition consists of early black and white photos to more recent, large-scale photos, over seventy in total.  Struth is undoubtedly one the most important photographers of the past forty years, and this exhibition shows the artist’s talent for highlighting our global interconnectedness through themes like technology, religion, and art itself.

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Glenn Brown, Layered Portrait (After Rembrandt) 7 (2008), via Gagosian Gallery

On display through July 23^rd 2011 at Genevas’s Gagosian Gallery, are etchings by the artist Glenn Brown.  Known for his appropriation of images, here Brown employs portraits by Lucien Freud, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Urs Graf. By first digitally altering the source images and then layering his reworked interpretations, Brown creates composite paintings which serve as the basis for his etchings.

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Gavin Turk, Nail (2011), via GavinTurk.com

YBA fixture Gavin Turk‘s first piece of public art, Nail, has been on view at One New Change shopping center, near St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the City of London since May. Commissioned by the developer, the 12-meter bronze sculpture of a rusty nail is permanent and its plain design purposefully allows it to remain open to interpretation. Turk is known for his ironic, often intentionally offensive installations; he famously failed to complete his master’s degree at the Royal College of Art in 1991 after his masters’ thesis project- consisting of a mock historical plaque declaring “Gavin Turk, Sculptor, Worked Here 1989-1991″- was rejected by the school.  The incident served as a turning point and a breakthrough for the artist, ultimately dictating the direction Turk’s career.

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Dan Colen, Disappearing Act (2011) via Carlson Gallery

New York based artists Dan Colen is currently showing a small but wide-ranging collection of work at the intimate Carlson Gallery. ‘Come Out Come Out Wherever you Are!’  is a multifaceted selection of the artists’ sculptural and photographic work and dedicated to Dash Snow, who died from a heroin overdose in 2009. Exhibited in two conjoining rooms inside a tower block right at the heart of the city, the show’s designation as remembrance of a friend lost injects the work with a poignant endurance. The show also features work by Hanna Liden, a friend and collaborator who is also known as part of the definable group of New York based artists that have been active in the city for the past few years. The show is listed as focusing on the following themes: Religion, Kids Stuff (Death Stuff), Idols and Assholes, Bullshit Magic, Death Stuff (Kids Stuff), Heroin, Erstwhile Boners and/or a Nostalgic Fisting and Re-intarnation.

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Two 17th-century paintings by Nicholas Poussin were reportedly vandalized yesterday in the National Gallery in London.  A 57-year-old man, presumably French, sprayed Poussin’s 1634 “The Adoration of the Golden Calf” with a canister of red paint and according to a by-stander, he “seemed proud of what he had done” and made no attempt to escape the scene.

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Tobias Wong with his glass chairs (2002). Image courtesy NYT.

Last year, New York lost one of its most cherished up-and-coming artists and designers, Tobias Wong. Only 35 at the time of his death, Wong was known as a provocateur, his practice most often described as “paraconceptual” and “postinteresting.” A year after his death, he is remembered in an intimate exhibition at SFMOMA. Curated by Henry Urbach, the exhibition highlights some of Wong’s poignant works, and mark the loss of a unique voice.

Accompanying the exhibition is a touching podcast featuring interviews with Wong’s classmates, collaborators, and his fiancé Tim Dubitsky. Among those included in the podcast are Curator of Architecture and Design at SFMOMA, Henry Irbach; Pablo Griff, who worked with Wong in the early 1990s; Paola Antonelli, Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA New York; Amilia Bauer, Wong’s studio-mate at the Cooper Union; Philip Wood, founder and creative director of online retail space CITIZEN: Citizen; and Beijing-based writer, curator, artist Aric Cheng.

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Jay Jopling’s White Cube, purveyor of art by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Chapman Bros., to open first overseas branch in Hong Kong, shortly after Larry Gagosian [AO Newslink]

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Alice Neel, Ned McCabe (1964), all images via Victoria Miro Gallery

The Victoria Miro Gallery has staged an intimate selection of portraits by Alice Neel, focusing on her work with male subjects. Titled “Men Only”, the show highlights Neel’s relationship with the different men who posed for her over the years. Some are close friends, others are blood relatives, some were strangers that caught her eye, but each portrait gives a glimpse into the personality of the sitter.

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National Portrait Gallery director unveils Tate’s operation to secure stolen Turners and £24m insurance [AO Newslink]

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A Carl Andre interview regarding “Things in Their Elements” and upcoming retrospective by Dia:Beacon in 2013 [AO Newslink]

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Artist-filmmaker Miranda July has cover of New York Times Magazine, to release “The Future” this summer [AO Newslink]

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Bernar Venet, Effondrement, via Palais de Versailles

Bernar Venet‘s wood sculptures will be on view outdoors at Versailles until November. The exhibition commenced on June 1st, marking a milestone for both the 70-year-old French artist and the palace itself.

The arching wooden sculptures are spread across the entire property, positioned in various gardens and greenery. Venet, a longtime famous French modernist, had envisioned the collaborative project for many years, and was chosen to follow Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami as the first contemporary artists to be installed in the palace, in 2008 and 2010 respectively.

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Charles Saatchi “the original collector who deals” publishes new edition of “The History of the Saatchi Gallery” [AO Newslink]

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Mr. Brainwash of Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop plasters LA for new Red Hot Chili Peppers album (with cover by Damien Hirst) [AO Newslink]

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Elizabeth Peyton, Isa (2010), courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

The recently opened Paris branch of the Gagosian Gallery presents a collection of recent work by the much loved American contemporary artist Elizabeth Peyton. The small presentation of paintings and drawings represents the artist’s first solo exhibition in Paris.

Peyton’s work, consisting mostly of small “jewel-like” portraits, is surprisingly immediate and fresh although her subjects maintain a considerable distance from the viewer. Her works present both contemporary and historical subjects, some of whom have been rendered from photographs and others from life, often Peyton’s own friends.

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Klimt landscape estimated to sell for $25 million in Sotheby’s auction [AO Newslink]

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Omer Fast from “De Grote Boodschap” (2007), via NIMK.

American trained, Israeli born artist Omer Fast is currently showing three installation pieces for which he has become known; “Nostalgia” (2009), “The Casting” (2007), and “De Grote Boodschap” (2007), all at the Netherlands Media Art Institute.  All three works show Fast’s interest in the cinematic construction of narrative via documentary and film reenactment.

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Accused Picasso thief kept “small museum” of stolen art at home, with more Picassos, a Léger, Basquiat Photo [AO Newslink]

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Centre Pompidou permanently installs Calder’s Horizontal in front of façade [AO Newslink]

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