AO Art Observed™

‪‬ New ‘Droit de suite’ bill introduced to Congress seeks to allot 7.0% of the sales proceeds from art sold at public auction; half to museums and half to artists as royalties [AO Newslink]

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‪‬ Ai Weiwei interviewed, discusses struggling with Chinese authority and spreading ideas “I have a chance to talk to you. Millions of people in their lives can never even clearly state their life and emotions and will die in this darkness.” [AO Newslink]

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‪‬ Mark di Suvero’s 30-foot steel sculpture ‘Yoga’ (1991) installed for one year, as first in new art series at Brooklyn Bridge Park [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Shea Hembrey single-handedly fabricates biennial art book of 100 made-up artists in 2 years as a work of “satire and reverence,” the project titled ‘Seek: 100 artists in 2011′ [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Tate Triennial 2012 cancelled due to questionable success, the museum instead reviewing the programme and focusing on the Tate Britain Millbank project [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Metropolitan Museum of Art collaborates with Google Goggles to recognize over 76,000 works through mobile app, “yet another milestone in our effort to provide global access to our collections.” [AO Newslink]

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Installation view of Uta Barth at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. All images via Tanya Bonakdar.

In her current solo exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, the German-born and Los Angeles-based photographer Uta Barth presents works from her recent partner projects, …and to draw a bright white line with light (previously shown in her 2011 solo exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago) and Compositions of Light on White. Both series carry the themes of atmospheric flux, the passage of time, and ephemerality that have come to characterize Barth’s practice. Long recognized for her rigorous examination of the conventions of photography and the poetics of visual perception, Barth takes on the role of the observer at the window in these most recent series.

Uta Barth, …and to draw a bright white line with light (Untitled 11.2) (2011)

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Pablo Picasso, Study of a Torso (1895). All Images Courtesy of the Frick Collection.

Picasso’s Drawings (1890–1921): Reinventing Tradition marks Pablo Picasso‘s first showcase at the Frick Collection, featuring more than 60 works on paper from the beginning stages of what spanned into a legendary 80-year career. The exhibition was developed by the Senior Curator at the Frick Collection and Picasso expert Marilyn McCully, as well as Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Following the Frick display, Picasso’s drawings will be on view at the National Gallery from February through May. This is the artist’s first major retrospective in 20 years, and is accompanied by an extensive series of lectures and seminars.

Pablo Picasso, Self Portrait (1901-1902)

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Jonathan Meese, Hot Earl Green Sausage Tea Barbie (First Flush) (2011), via Bortolami Gallery

Berlin-based painter and performance artist Jonathan Meese is currently holding his third exhibition at Bortolami Gallery in New York City. The show opened with a performance piece, “War ‘Saint Just (First Flash)’” on November 4th, in league with the ongoing Performa 2011. Performa was curated in cohesion with Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, and featured approximately 100 performances at varied New York spaces, utilizing themes of Russian constructivism and 1920s vaudeville under the title “33 Fragments”  through November 21st. Meese’s concurrent installation at Bortolami, Hot Earl Green Sausage Tea Barbie (First Flush) continues to showcase photos, posters, paintings, and sculptures through December 23rd.

Jonathan Meese, War ‘Saint Just (First Flash)’ (2011), via Jonathan Meese

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‪‬Richard Serra’s 80-foot sculpture, titled ‘7,’ unveiled at MIA Park inauguration on grounds of Islamic Museum of Art in Doha, Qatar [AO Newslink]

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Russian physicist and German investment banker create Malevich Foundation to oppose commercial development and erect Architekton-esque arts center on Kazmir Malevich’s grave site near Moscow‪  [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Antony Gormley debuts ‘Witness’ empty chair sculpture at British Library piazza to commemorate writers oppressed by censorship and tyranny at 90th anniversary of English Pen conference [AO Newslink]

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‪ Crochet artist Agata Olek solicits fans for legal funds after mysterious legal trouble in London that lands her behind bars [AO Newslink]

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George Condo, Purple Compression (2011). All images via Skarstedt Gallery.

George Condo is currently showing eleven new works from his ongoing series Drawing Paintings at the Skarstedt Gallery in New York. Combining techniques of spontaneous drawing and more calculated painting, the series blends charcoal lines with pastel acrylics in Condo’s signature figurations. The large colorful canvases are busy with eyes and teeth, bowties and breasts, with the series-within-a-series, Compressions, leaving small stretches of blank canvas outside the compressed scenes. Condo says of the series, “They are about freedom of line and color and blur the distinction between drawing and painting. They are about beauty and horror walking hand in hand. They are about improvisation on the human figure and it’s consciousness.”

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Shepard Fairey designs cover of Time Magazine 2011 Person of the Year: The Protestor (with Ai WeiWei as runner up) [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Tracey Emin appointed Professor of Drawing at Royal Academy Schools in London; Emin “excited to be teaching again” [AO Newslink]

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Ugo Rondinone, ERSTERJUNIZWEITAUSENDUNDELF (2011). All images courtesy of Almine Rech Gallery.

New Horizon is the sixth solo exhibition by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone at Almine Rech Gallery Brussels. For the first time since 1997 the artist’s iconic “horizon paintings” are being presented along with a series of watercolors. The now New York-based multi-media artist has continually questioned the relationship between viewer and artwork as well as the role of the artist and his place in the world. This series of works offer an entry point into the artist’s personal meditations around these inquiries while challenging the notion of public versus private domains.

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‪Damien Hirst interviewed before his show of ‬300 spot paintings in 11 Gagosian galleries “‘What would be more appealing … to have made the Mona Lisa painting itself or have made the merchandising possibilities — putting a postcard on everyone’s walls all over the world? Both are brilliant, but in a way I would probably prefer the postcards” [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Tracey Emin to sell limited edition prints and works out of new east London shop, Tracey International [AO Newslink]

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Designer Adam Kimmel and Leelee Sobieski commission artist Dan Attoe for short film ‘Dan Attoe Makes a Painting’ featuring battle scene with a sasquatch [AO Newslink]

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‪‬London Tate’s partnership with BP Oil up for review in 2012: renewal protested by petition of 8,000 while Tate trustees defend good that has come from BP contributions [AO Newslink]

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Nan Goldin, Swan-like embrace, Paris (2010). All images courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery.

Nan Goldin: Scopophilia at Matthew Marks Gallery is the artist’s first exhibition in New York since 2007. Scopophilia, referring to the love of looking, contemplates Goldin’s images gathered from throughout her career, presenting them alongside recent photos shot at the Musée de Louvre. Her unprecedented after-hours access to the Louvre’s collections gave rise to new pairings and new interpretations of older work, as well as a 25-minute slide show.

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Spencer Sweeney at Gavin Brown’s enterprise. All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

Alongside owning and operating the well-known downtown venue Santo’s Party House, Spencer Sweeney divides his time among music, visual arts, and event promotion. Accordingly, his current show at Gavin Brown’s enterprise, The Pharaoh’s Lounge, explores the intersection of these interests, with a show that blurs the lines between art installation, night club, and, quite literally, a hookah lounge. Dara Friedman also presents separately a black and white film, The Dancer, in an additional space of the gallery.

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‪‬Doug Aitken to illuminate Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC with 360-Degree “Liquid Architecture” Projection This Spring [AO Newslink]

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