Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City.
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Anish Kapoor announced as the label designer for Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2009. Mouton has commissioned a different artist to produce its label every year since 1945, including Picasso, Andy Warhol, Chagall, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon. [AO Newslink]
Tom Sachs, James Brown’s Hair Products (2009). All images via Tom Sachs.
The press release for Work, Tom Sachs’ current show at Sperone Westwater Gallery begins with quotes from both himself and soul pioneer James Brown on the word itself. It’s a fitting introduction for Sachs, who has continually explored the nature of “work” in contemporary art through pop art tropes of “readymade” objects by emphasizing the handmade nature of the piece, or occasionally by simulating it, bringing dialogues on authorship and originality to the forefront. For this show, Sachs takes major cues from the Godfather of Soul, commonly nicknamed “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business,” enshrining Brown through his own worldly possessions. These repurposed artifacts range from sculptures of his hair dryer, replicas of his hair products, and a piece called James Brown’s Last Supper: a TV Dinner tray housed in a television cum road-case that blends Brown’s demise with the inescapable nature of his legacy.
Tom Sachs, Cinderblock (2011)
The Financial Times lists the most influential women of 2011, beginning with artists Iwona Blazwick, Shirin Neshat, Gallerist Barbara Gladstone, Frieze Art Fair Co-Director Amanda Sharp, and collector Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani [AO Newslink]
Neo Rauch, Heilstätten (2011). All images via David Zwirner.
Wedding a definitively German identity with a surrealist perspective and an unmoored historical context, Neo Rauch’s current show of new work, Heilstätten at David Zwirner in New York, provides an intriguing view of an artist and country coming to terms with its own past. A frequently cited practitioner of hauntological symbolism, Rauch’s paintings are heavy with the weight of their own implications. Strangely distended figures culled directly from the history books of German art inhabit evocative and surreal scenes that blend Communist art propaganda with German history and a disambiguation of perspective. The result is a collection of paintings that are equally nostalgic and political, and occasionally tragic.
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Walton Ford discusses Audubon and human-animal relations in studio interview [AO Newslink]
Michaël Borremans, The Knives (2010)
Michaël Borremans: The Devil’s Dress is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at David Zwirner in New York. Borremans’ art is heavily influenced by 18th and 19th century artists, including Édouard Manet and Diego Valázquez, and his painterly style recalls works from both the Romantic and Realist periods. “One of the reasons I consciously chose to work in painting is that you can’t use it only as a medium. It has this historical connotation, and either you want [that connotation] or you don’t want it. So if you paint, you should make use of that. It’s inherent to the medium, and it’s very important. If you don’t want it, take another medium. It’s as simple as that. Therefore this dialogue with other painting is to me very essential,” Borremans said in an interview in 2007.
Installation view
Allora & Calzadilla, Under Discussion (2005); still. All images courtesy the artist and Lisson Gallery.
Collaborative duo Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla’s interdisciplinary body of work permeates the realms of sculpture, photography, video, social interventions, and performance, engaging with both art and activism. Now at Lisson Gallery in London is “Vieques Videos 2003–2010,” three video works addressing the island of Vieques, shown together for the first time. From 1941 until 2003 Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, was occupied by the US Military and used as a weapons testing range. A grassroots civil disobedience campaign, led by inhabitants of Vieques, gained international support and led to the eventual evacuation of the military, though environmental and political concerns remain largely unresolved. Informed by and engaging with weighty political, historical, and social issues, Allora & Calzadilla often employ the absurd, creating a more approachable framework for confronting overwhelming material.
Allora & Calzadilla, Half Mast\Full Mast (2010); still.
Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez, Portrait of a Gentleman, 1631-34, via Bonhams.com
A newly discovered portrait by the famed 17th century Spanish painter Diego Velazquez sold at Bonhams in London yesterday for £3 million, or $4.7 million. The sum represented nearly half of the earnings at Bonhams’ Old Master Paintings sale. The painting was brought to Bonhams’ Oxford location in 2010 as part of a group of paintings by the 19th century British artist Matthew Shepperson. Questions about the painting’s attribution led to an investigation of the portrait by both in-house and outside experts. The Velazquez attribution was aided by the use of x-ray technology. The painting is one of only about 100 works by the artist known to exist, very few of which are in private hands. The painting sold for $4.7 million, reportedly to an American buyer.
Paul McCarthy, White Snow Cake (2011). Bronze Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Multimedia artist Paul McCarthy brings fairy tales to Hauser & Wirth‘s New York gallery space in a second installation of the series. Works included in “The Dwarves, The Forests” are based on the drawings that made up the 2009 show “White Snow.” The exhibition series will continue, as Hauser & Wirth’s Andrea Schwan tells Art Observed, with a third installation, in which pieces from “The Dwarves, The Forests” will serve as sets for video art, to be hosted by the gallery sometime in 2013. On view until December 17, “The Dwarves, The Forests” includes pieces cast in bronze and wrapped in gauze, and one, White Snow and Dopey, Wood (2011), that is McCarthy’s first wood sculpture.
Paul McCarthy, White Snow and Dopey, Wood (2011). Black Walnut.
More images, story, and related links after the jump…
Martin Boyce, Turner Prize award ceremony, December 5, 2011 via Daily Mail
After much anticipation, the Turner Prize winner has been announced. Martin Boyce won with a series of installed sculptures that was originally shown in the Venice Biennale in 2009. He is one of three Scottish artists to accept the prize within the last three years. The exhibition transformed a room at the Baltic Arts Center in Gateshead, who held the competition for the very first time. The well known photographer Mario Testino presented the £25,000 award last night. Karla Black, another Scottish artist, along with Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw were the other shortlisted artists to be nominated.
Martin Boyce, Do Words Have Voices, 2009 via Daily Mail
Richard Hughes, Dead Flies (2010). Anton Kern Gallery. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Art Basel Miami Beach attracted some 50,000 visitors for the fair’s 10th edition this year in Miami South Beach. Showcasing over 2,000 artists represented by over 260 galleries, the decadent week seemed to exist outside of the current dubious economic situation worldwide. Miami Beach Convention Center hosted the main fair, housing an endless number of gallery booths, a VIP Collectors Lounge, and Art Basel Conversations throughout the week. Nearby the Bass Museum of Art opened a solo exhibition by Erwin Wurm, its front lawn, Collins Park, spotted with sculptures by artists such as Antony Gormley and Damien Hirst. Seventeen satellite fairs got in on the action as well, Art Observed focusing on NADA and OHWOW in particular, while Scope, Pulse, Design Miami, and Art Miami, among others, also drew crowds. The week would not be complete without its exhausting nightlife, exclusive events at hotels like Delano, Mondrian, Raleigh, Shelborne, Shore Club, The Standard Miami, and W, partying late into the morning hours.
Lucian Freud, Seated Figure (1980-82); The Painter’s Mother (1972). Richard Gray Gallery.
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Zhang Huan, 49 days nO. 1 (2011). Blum & Poe. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Collins Park, located just outside of The Bass Museum of Art on Collins Avenue just off the ocean, held the Art Public sector of Art Basel Miami Beach 2011, including artists such as Antony Gormley, Glenn Kaino, Thomas Houseago, and Zhang Huan,. The following is a photoset of the works.
Artist Glenn Kainto participating in his Levitating the Fair piece
Agathe Snow, Hear No Evil, See No Evil (2008-2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Alexandra Bregman.
OHWOW’s It Ain’t Fair lived up to its name as a successful destination apart from the Art Basel main fair last week. Located in Miami’s Design District, the show featured 20 artists in the fourth consecutive curated group show by OHWOW, this year’s theme: Materialism. As explored in Marxist philosophy, materialism at its most literal, tangible entity, focuses on the tactile rather than the abstractly metaphorical. Experimental materials served to manifest the ideology, with David Benjamin Sherry’s sand-filled photograph frame, Justin Beal’s use of plexiglass and plastic wrap, and the unique approach of Angel Otera, peeling and reapplying paint. “There’s not a bad piece in here,” said Operations Director Lydia Ruby. By Saturday evening, the gallery had sold most works on view, and had noted the remarkable curiosity and intellectualism overheard in the showroom.
MoMA PS1 and DIS magazine held a sunset cocktail party during Art Basel Miami Beach 2011 honoring Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch featuring a special performance organized by DIS Magazine with DJs Telfar, Total Freedom, and Physical Therapy at the pool and Sunset Lounge of the Mondrian Hotel. A Kim Kardashian look alike contest was held. The following is a photoset from the event.
PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach
New York Magazine proclaims top ten art shows of the year, championing ‘The Clock’ by Christian Marclay [AO Newslink]
Art Critic Jerry Saltz decries crowd-pleasing interactive exhibitions of late, “this sensationalism implies that many museums have now fallen behind art” [AO Newslink]
160-year-old Knoedler & Co. gallery abruptly closes amidst scandal of Jackson Pollock’s Untitled (1950) forgery [AO Newslink]
Miru Kim, The Pig That Therefore I Am (2011). All Images by Martha Cooper for Primary Projects.
Korean-American artist Miru Kim debuted The Pig That Therefore I Am at Primary Projects in Miami’s Design District during Art Basel this week. As the title indicates, Kim’s 104-hour performance piece (which spanned four days, eight hours without breaking) involved exclusively eating, drinking, sleeping, and interacting in the gallery space’s constructed pigpen. Although Kim was behind glass, and therefore any sound she or the pigs made was muted, a gallery assistant was on site to prevent any leaning or knocking, as well as any photo or video documentation. All circulated images were taken by Primary Project’s Martha Cooper, and Bodies (IA) 1, a digital C-print of pigs taken in 2010, is available for purchase at an initial $8,000, increasing incrementally by $500 after every new edition is sold.
All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse
The Visionaire Magazine Art Basel Rio Party delivered colorful dancers to the wading pool of Delano, the pool already glowing with candles afloat. The extremely exclusive event also entertained guests with a 3-D stereoscopic projection and a Victorian table set in the shallow pool, with plenty of bed-like lounging arrangements and curtained private rooms around.
Jefferson Hack
All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Artists and gallerists headed south from the Deauville location of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) art fair to host a poolside cocktail party at Shore Club Friday night. A few large colorful abstract paintings framed the atmosphere, and a subtler Curtis Kulig banner draped above the DJ—a facade to more obscured lounging and a secret fabric gazebo.
All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse and Samuel Sveen
The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) art fair explores “new or underexposed art that is not typical of the ‘art establishment.’” Posting up nearly 50 blocks north of the main fair—Art Basel Miami Beach—the satellite fair moved to its Deauville Beach Resort location in 2009 to cut costs, making it a more affordable venture for the younger galleries while remaining a non-profit organization. Since first launching in 2003, the fair has clearly demonstrated the demand for emerging artists and their work, many of the galleries consistently selling out their booths within the first few days of the fair, if not hours. And despite this year’s questionable global economic environment, the fair proved a success once again, with galleries like Lisa Cooley, Kate Werble Gallery, The Hole, The Journal Gallery, Leo Koenig Inc., and White Columns all pleased with the results, prices topping out around $50,000. Also at the fair, multimedia artist Jayson Musson A.K.A. Hennessy Youngman lectured/performed “His History of Art” Thursday evening.
Kate Werble Gallery
Renowned Italian art dealer Mossimo De Carlo is hosting a series of solo shows from three prolific American artists known collectively as Three Amigos. Centered in Rome, the project features exhibits from Nate Lowman, Dan Colen, and the late Dash Snow, who passed away in 2009. United by their artistic ideas as well as nationality, the ‘Three Amigos’ first made waves as part of the so-called Bowery Collective in New York City.
All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Interview Magazine—founded by Warhol—and the Andy Warhol Museum debuted a never-before-seen film by the artist himself, shot on 16 mm film in 1968 with Paul Morrissey at The Standard Miami on Friday night. The film’s trailer looped throughout the night before Eric Shiner, Director of the Andy Warhol Museum, introduced “San Diego Surf.” In Warholian style, the film meandered with little plot, and most of the actors couldn’t actually surf. The party’s guest list, including celebrities from the art world and beyond, was pleasantly surprised by the evening’s flash mob: wigged and black-clad dancers performing to Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side.”
The Guardian provides a top ten list for art in 2011 [AO Newslink]