Archive for March, 2012

Saturday, March 31st, 2012

‬Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow (1961) could sell for $45 million at Sotheby’s in May, perhaps the most important Rothko brought to auction since 2007. Additional lots in the sale include work by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. [AO Newslink]

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Saturday, March 31st, 2012

‬60 Minutes’ Morley Safer revisits his 1993 conceptualism question, “Is it Art?” tomorrow night, this time examining the role of art fairs in terms of Art Basel Miami Beach. [AO Newslink]

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Saturday, March 31st, 2012

‬MTV’s “Art Breaks” series from 1985 is set to air again this year. Once featuring Jean-Michel Basqiuat, Keith Haring, Richard Prince, and Kenny Scharf, it will now debut 30 up-and-coming artists, as curated in part by MoMA PS1. [AO Newslink]

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Saturday, March 31st, 2012

‬Four stolen paintings by Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline, Fernand Leger, and Jean DuBuffet have been recovered in Cologne, Germany, now at an estimated value of $1 million. The six works were originally stolen in 1988 from Solomon Gallery in New York. When one by Karl Apfel and another by Motherwell were recovered previously in 2003 and 2012 respectively by art collectors, they prompted the now conclusive police investigation. [AO Newslink]

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Bologna: Marcel Broodthaers ‘L’espace de l’écriture’ at the Museo de Arte Moderna di Bologna through May 6, 2012

Saturday, March 31st, 2012


All installation images via Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna. Photos: Matteo Monti

Marcel Broodthaers. L’espace de l’écriture is the first comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s works to be exhibited in Italy. The Museo de Arte Moderna di Bologna (MAMbo) has, with this exhibition, created an homage to Broodthaers highlighting the developments and achievements of his short artistic career. The works on view—all on loan from prestigious international collectors—provide an exceptional opportunity for the MAMbo to introduce a wider Italian public to nearly fifty works by the artist. The broad selection of work on display demonstrates the artist’s main themes, influenced by his years spent as a poet, such as the relationship between art and language, the status and cult of the artwork, and criticism of the museum. According to the press release, “The curatorial project of the exhibition is intended to verify how the relationship between image, object and word constitutes the central and constant theme of Marcel Broodthaers’ research and has strongly conditioned his entire creative process.”

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Friday, March 30th, 2012

‬Vincent Van Gogh would celebrate 159 years today, born March 30, 1853 in Zundert, the Netherlands, later committing suicide at age 37 when he “walked into a wheat field and shot himself in the chest” and died two days later [AO Newslink]

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Friday, March 30th, 2012

‬Knoedler Gallery in second recent lawsuit regarding artwork authenticity as a South Carolina family filed a $25 million lawsuit on Wednesday after paying $8.3 million for Rothko’s ‘Untitled 1956,’ which they claim to be “a canvas that is unsalable and worthless” [AO Newslink]

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Friday, March 30th, 2012

‬Channel 4 in Britain to air TV program ‘Damien Hirst: Thoughts, Work, Life,’ the evening of April 3rd, “an intimate and revealing portrait” [AO Newslink]

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Los Angeles: Urs Fischer ‘Beds and Problem Paintings’ at Gagosian Gallery through April 7, 2012

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Urs Fischer by Urs Fischer Oscar the Grouch Madame Fisscher
Click Here For Urs Fischer Books

 
Urs Fischer, Problem Painting (2011). All images via Gagosian Gallery.

In his first exhibition with Gagosian Gallery Swiss-born, New York-based artist Urs Fischer presents a group of large-scale paintings and sculptures in the exhibition Beds and Problem Paintings. The installation at Gagosian is comprised of three parts: a series of paintings, a duo of fabricated beds, and a grouping of boxes reminiscent of the artist’s 2009 Service à la Française.

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Thursday, March 29th, 2012

‬Yayoi Kusama and Phyllida Barlow to create new works for first Kiev International Biennale, titled ‘The Best of Times, The Worst of Times. Rebirth and Apocalypse in Contemporary Art,’ to run May 24 through July 31, 2012, and also include works by Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Chapman Bros, and Paul McCarthy [AO Newslink]

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Thursday, March 29th, 2012

‬Financier and Dartmouth alum Leon Black donates $48 million to Dartmouth College to build new visual arts center featuring a commission by Ellsworth Kelly, “We hope this building fosters creativity among Dartmouth’s students and faculty — that it inspires them to dream big, be courageous, take artistic risks — and infuses them with the life-changing power of the visual arts,” [AO Newslink]

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AO Interview: Nir Hod on ‘Mother’ at Paul Kasmin Gallery through April 28, 2012

Thursday, March 29th, 2012


Nir Hod and literary figure Salman Rushdie. All photos on site for Art Observed, at the opening by Samuel Sveen, studio by Jonathan Beer.

Nir Hod’s most recent body of work, titled Mother, opened last night at Paul Kasmin Gallery. The Israeli-born artist is known for creating work that is both strange and beautiful, sharing the sumptuousness found in glamour and fashion advertisements. This new series of paintings takes its inspiration from the widely discussed Holocaust photo “Boy from the Warsaw Ghetto.” History has mainly focused on unmasking the identity of the young boy, centered in the photo with his arms raised in surrender, leaving the matriarchal female figure to his immediate right largely unnoticed. In tribute Nir Hod has singled out the woman, depicting her repeatedly—ten times—in a variety of hues, in an effort to give her story new life. In a recent visit to the artist’s studio in Chelsea, Art Observed had the chance to discuss this new series with the artist.

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Thursday, March 29th, 2012

‬Socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor’s estate has been settled after five years, distributing approximately $100 million to education, culture, and parks, with $20 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art [AO Newslink]

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Thursday, March 29th, 2012

‬Leonardo da Vinci’s original ‘Mona Lisa’ painting has been redated from 1503-6 to 1503-19, with the Prado’s version and ‘Virgin Child with St Anne’ also possibly redated, the Louvre verifying such based on recent scientific work and additional drawings [AO Newslink]

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Thursday, March 29th, 2012

‬In the New York Times, Maxwell Snow, younger brother of the late Dash Snow, discusses current exhibition at Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, ‘100 Headless Women’ in context of family and life [AO Newslink]

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Thursday, March 29th, 2012

‬Sotheby’s CEO William F. Ruprecht, “responsible for securing a number of the company’s most high-value and successful auction and private sales consignments,” earned $7 million in 2011, up 18% from 2010, as Sotheby’s in total profited $171.4 million [AO Newslink]

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Vienna: Cindy Sherman ‘That’s me – That’s not me’ at Sammlung Verbund Vertical Gallery through May 16, 2012

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012


Cindy Sherman, Untitled (1975). All images via Art Phalanx (© Cindy Sherman).

Vienna’s Sammlung Verbund is currently showing nearly fifty early Cindy Sherman photographs at their Vertical Gallery. The exhibition, That’s me – That’s not me, concentrates on works that Sherman produced before moving to New York City in 1977. They thus offer a rare glimpse into the artist’s formative years, and predate her more well-known Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980), which critics and art historians have traditionally taken to be Sherman’s foundational works.


Cindy Sherman, Untitled (ABCDE) (1975/1985)

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Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

‬The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation aims to grow endowment from $18 million to $350m over the next fifteen years through the sale of art and real estate, possibly surpassing the Andy Warhol Foundation while hoping to contribute to an artist-generated grant landscape with “a dedication to exploration and more risk-taking commissions” [AO Newslink]

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New York: ‘Ten Ten’ Group Show Pop-up by Jason Alexander through March 30, 2012

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012


Curators Jason Alexander, “That’s not actually part of the show, we just liked the way it looked.” All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

The duo Jason Alexander—Jason Lee and Alexander Shulan—have set up a two-floor pop-up show in a former Chinatown sewing machine repair shop, Ten Ten, from which the show draws its name. The DIY exhibition of 17 young New York based artists includes Peter Demos, Debo Eilers, Ryan Foerster, and Ben Schumacher, as well a curator himself, Jason Lee—the self-inclusion an admitted faux pas. According to co-curator Shulan, the collection is unrestrained, loud, politically incorrect, non-AbEx (Abstract Expressionist), messy, with parts of it that “just don’t even work.” The diverse sculptures and images, a Porsche seat and chained pineapples, are set in dialogue amid wooden crates, broken sewing machines, and other remnants of the shop. The press release is a brief history of the sewing machine, providing something of a context of the space, while the curators otherwise chose to let the work speak for itself. Shulan said each of the young artists are either currently showing at galleries “or should be.” A few of the artists were also current or former assistants to more established artists; Jared Madere to Jenny Holzer, and Valerie Keane to Olaf Breuning and Ryan Sullivan.

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Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

‬Museum of Contemporary Art Australia reopens after $55 million renovation with ‘Marking Time’ exhibition to include both well-known and lesser-known artists, with Christian Marclay’s ‘The Clock’ 24 hour screenings each weekend, and after-hours entirely nude group tours of the museum led by Stuart Ringholt [AO Newslink]

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Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

‬The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation donates ‘Early Bloomer [Anagram (a Pun)]‘ to the White House be placed in the family dining room, the fourth contemporary work within the White House Collection amongst two works by Joseph Albers and one by Georgia O’Keeffe [AO Newslink]

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AO On Site – New York: Kehinde Wiley ‘The World Stage: Israel’ at The Jewish Museum through July 29, 2012

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012


Kehinde Wiley at the opening of The World Stage: Israel at The Jewish Museum. All photos on site for Art Observed by Perrin Lathrop unless otherwise noted.

In the most recent iteration of his World Stage series, American artist Kehinde Wiley turns his eye on Israel. Wiley broadly considers The World Stage a project geared toward taking the “cultural temperature.” More specifically, the series represents a mission to picture young black men globally and has already brought the artist to India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Lagos (Nigeria), Dakar (Senegal), and China. With The World Stage: Israel, now on view at The Jewish Museum in New York, Wiley brings the African and Jewish Diasporas into convergence.

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Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

‬Cézanne preparatory watercolor study for Card Players series surfaces in estate of late Texas doctor, to be auctioned at Christie’s in New York May 1 for an estimated $20 million ceiling [AO Newslink]

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Kiev, Ukraine: Jeff Wall ‘In light, black, colour, white, and dark’ at Pinchuk Art Centre through April 1, 2012

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012


Jeff Wall, standing with Young man wet with rain (2011). Images via PinchukArtCentre © 2012. Photographed by Sergey Illin

Canadian photographer Jeff Wall presents his first ever solo show in Eastern Europe at the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, Ukraine, titled In light, black, colour, white, and dark. The exhibition includes 16 photographs and 7 light boxes, a mixture of Wall’s recent works and iconic images from the artist’s personal collection.

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