Archive for May, 2012

AO Newslink

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

‬Parrish Art Museum to re-open in Water Mill on the East End of Long Island, November 10th.  The 34,400 sqft building will nearly triple its current exhibition space.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

‬The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC has applied for a visa to allow artist Ai Weiwei to attend the opening of his exhibition. “The museum…is “optimistic” that the artist, although still at odds with the authorities, will be allowed to make the trip.”

(more…)

AO Newslink

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

‬Award winning documentary “Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present” to premier at NYC Film Forum June 13 and show through June 26.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

‬The Cy Twombly foundation has paid $27.75  million for a 25-foot-wide Beaux Arts mansion near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with plans to convert it into a museum dedicated to his work. Twombly was “a towering figure in American art. It is only fitting that there should be a permanent space in New York dedicated to his achievements,” says Nicola Del Roscio, foundation president.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

‬The Economist writes on the political and economic factors behind mainland China-based galleries expanding into Hong Kong: “A presence in Hong Kong makes a lot of sense for us. We can show [our artists’] work to a wider and more diverse audience” says Steven Harris, founder of M97 in Shanghai.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Collector sues Chicago gallery for losing signed instructions for Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing #448”, “The unique nature of Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings renders their accompanying certificates of authenticity critical to the works’ value,” reads the complaint.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Joan Miró’s “Peinture (Étoile Bleue)” to lead Sotheby’s London auction June 19, estimated to bring £15m-£20m. “[This is] one of Miró’s most important paintings, effortlessly bridging the transition between figurative and abstract art,” says Helena Newman of Sotheby’s Europe.

(more…)

Berlin: Anthony McCall ‘Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture’ at Hamburger Bahnhof through August 12, 2012

Thursday, May 31st, 2012


Anthony McCall, You and I Horizontal, (2006),  installation view at Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, (2006). Photo: Blaise Adilon. All images via Hamburger Bahnhof.

Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture, Anthony McCall’s largest museum exhibition to date is on now at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof. McCall’s solid light films, such as Line Describing a Cone, from the 1970s established the artist’s reputation as being part of the cinematic avant-garde. After a break of twenty years, McCall began making films again in 2003, utilizing new technologies, like digital projection. The current exhibition consists of seven such projections; five single projections and two double projections, and of these three are horizontal while four are vertical.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

The WSJ reviews art dealer Michael Findlay’s book “The Value of Art” and his critical views on commoditization: “One of the signs of a decaying culture is a reverence for form over content,” he writes.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

‬Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to collaborate with Hermès for new collection of scarves, featuring patterns from his photography exhibition “Colors of Shadow”.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

Yayoi Kusama’s traveling exhibition to make its final stop at the Whitney on July 2. “This survey celebrates a career of exceptional duration and distinction, tracing the development of Kusama into one of the most respected and influential artists of her time.”

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

‬A new interview with artist and social activist Ai Wei Wei highlights his continued conflict with the Chinese government: ““It has never been important to stay, until now”, “I never really think I have done too much. I just gave one person’s opinion and I tried to be calm and I never did anything to hurt anyone”.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

NY Times reports on the theories and paradoxes behind the value of art “Art is often valuable precisely because it isn’t a sensible way to make money.”

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

George Condo‘s cover art for Kanye West‘s new single “Cold” released.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

Christie’s to offer the “The Lock” by John Constable, expected to sell at £20 million to £25 million, at its Old Master & British Paintings Evening Auction in London on July 3rd. “This superb landscape…is sure to attract bidding from museums and collectors from all over the world,” says Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Europe.

(more…)

AO On Site – New York: Hanna Liden ‘Ghost Town’ at Maccarone Gallery through June 16, 2012

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

New York-based artist Hanna Liden’s show Ghost Town is on now at Maccarone Gallery in the West Village. The show features mixed media sculptures, installations, and photographs; most of which represent Liden’s recent work steeped in a visual language specific to downtown Manhattan. However, three photographs of a female Greco-Roman style sculpture belong to a previous body of work that Liden has been waiting to showcase. These photos, with the close-up of the engraved graffiti on the body of the sculpture, are imbued with the same urban specific aesthetics that comprise the rest of the show.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

‬Larry Gagosian enlists architect Annabelle Selldorf to help open a café including new gallery space at his flagship Gagosian Gallery on 980 Madison Avenue.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

‬A review of notable culinary destinations within the art hamlet of Marfa, Texas “the extreme rural center-of-the-universe equivalent to New York.”

(more…)

AO Newslink

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

Jackson Pollock’s “Mural on Indian Red Ground” valued at $250 million, has returned to the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art after being detained (in transit from Tokyo) at Iran customs due to outstanding debt by the Culture Ministry.

(more…)

AO on Site – New York: Robert Wilson Video Portraits at Times Square Through May 31, 2012

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012


Robert Wilson, Video Portraits (2007). All photos by Ryann Donnelly for Art Observed.

Short films by avant-garde theater director and visual artist, Robert Wilson are on view in New York’s Times Square every night through May 31, from 11:57 pm until the stroke of midnight. Wilson’s 2007 series, Video Portraits, fuses time-based cinematography with the decisive moment of a still photograph, capturing subjects such as Robert Downey Jr., Issabella Rosselini, Johnny Depp, and Macaulay Culkin.

Read More…

(more…)

AO Newslink

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

‬Nine artworks donated to the Tate, including pieces by David Hockney, Lucian Freud, and Jacob Epstein, “[this gift] greatly enriched the national collection of art”, says director Sir Nicholas Serota

(more…)

AO Newslink

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

The Dia Art Foundation hires architect Roger Duffy to construct its new Chelsea home, “We want to make sure that 22nd Street will re-engage with new generations of artists,” says Dia’s director Philippe Vergne.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

‬Forbes writes on Ukraine’s shift from its Soviet past towards a landscape more conducive to contemporary art thanks to such endeavors as the First Kiev International Biennale and the Pinchuk Art Center, now featuring a solo exhibition by Anish Kapoor.

(more…)

AO Newslink

Monday, May 28th, 2012

‬A taxidermied bull and cockerel by Damien Hirst—aptly titled ‘Cock and Bull’—is installed four meters above Mark Hix’s new east London restaurant, Tramshed, which serves a simple menu of mainly steak and chicken

(more…)