AO Art Observed™

Richard Prince ‘Nurse Hat Chair’ via Wallpaper

Richard Prince, in collaboration with Richard Prince, curates a furniture exhibit in Paris with his ‘Nurse Hat Chair’ [Wallpaper]
A reputed Jackson Pollock painting of questionable authenticity, purchased for $5 in 1992, goes on sale in Toronto for $50 million US [ArtInfo] Oct. 31
Terence Koh, artist on a bike, interviewed [Dejour Magazine]
A guide to London gallerist Steve Lazarides, now showing on the Bowery, and the Outsiders art movement [IndependentUK]
‘Pulse Park’ is a public art light installation in Madison Park, Manhattan that senses heart rates [NYMag]
Turner Prize winning video artist Steve McQueen interviewed [Scotland on Sunday]
The state of Sotheby’s art lending business [NYMag]

The Grand Palais in Paris, the Site of the 2008 FIAC art fair

Seen as selling more established contemporary artists, the 158-gallery strong FIAC art fair, back to Central Paris since 2006, was by consensus more successful than Frieze this year [Artreview] more here [TheArtNewspaper] here [Bloomberg] and here [Financial Times]
Jeff Koons’s Versailles installation of 17 works drew over 250,000 people and has been extended to January [Associated Free Press]
Tel Aviv as a contemporary art destination [NYTimes]
Jake Chapman on his new book: The Marriage of Reason & Squalor [ArtForum]
Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfalls exhibit brought 1.4 million visitors and $69 million to New York City [Crain'sNewYork]
Damien Hirst co-directs a bloody Sienna Miller in music video for The Hours [TheSun]
Steve Lazarides, agent to Banksy, is working on New York space following the success of the The Outsiders show on the Bowery in September [The Evening Standard via TWBE]

Banksy’s controversial One Nation Under CCTV via hutley.net

Banksy issues a statement on London City removal of his CCTV work [Time via TWBE] and a video of Banksy’s pet store/charcoal grill in NYC [Wooster Collective]
At the Whitney: Leonard Lauder, Cindy Sherman, Mary Boone, Donatella Versace, Christina Ricci, Sting and assorted socialites show up for the Gala and Studio Party [ArtInfo]
Art and Commerce: Julian Schnabel, sponsored by Mastercard, completes portrait of sweepstakes winner [Tradingmarkets]
A quiet but strong video of Jenny Holzer at the Guggenheim, New York [Vernissage.tv]
Takashi Murakami, a bit hurt perhaps from the his Phillips Frieze auction, comments on the art market: “Everyone is very nervous. Everything is negative” [NYMag]
And in the latest in Damien Hirst: the Guardian quotes his art market comments from four years ago: “they would sell your granny to Nigerian sex slave traders for 50 pence and a packet of woodbines” [GuardianUK] his cover art for British band The Hours [Brand Republic] and Sarah Thornton has a thorough summary of Hirst and some of his series: “he faces all the problems of an aging rock star” [TheArtNewspaper]

Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) Concetto Spaziale, Forma sold at Sotheby’s London last Tuesday

Sotheby’s £13.6 million, 20th Century Italian Art sale holds up within estimate last week [ArtDaily]
Jerry Saltz has a fairly grim prognosis for the art market [NYMag] while The Economist suggests more resilience, where “bulk-buying big names is gone, and the rare and the beautiful are back in vogue” [The Economist]
Sotheby’s, with $375 million of cash at last count, takes a $15 million loss on guarantees this month [Bloomberg]
Damien Hirst’s £50 million ‘For the Love of God,’ exhibiting in Amsterdam in November, will go on auction if not sold privately [The Art Newspaper] more Hirst: Toddington Manor, his 188 year old, soon to be exhibition space, shows its new side [Daily Mail]
An artist-in-residency for 30 studios planned for Governors Island [NYTimes]
23-year old Vito Schnabel plans to open 4,300 sf Chelsea gallery and is soon to show Terence Koh [ArtNet via ArtInfo}

George Michael via TelegraphUK

At Frieze, George Michael and partner annouce plans for 10,000 sf Dallas space for $200 million in British contemporary art [FirstPost]
Emily Rauh Pulitzer gives $45 million for Harvard’s collection, as well as 31 works, incuding Picasso, Modigliani, and Giacometti valued at an additional $200 million [Boston Globe]
Jackie Wullschlager summarizes 20 years following Damien Hirst’s curated “Freeze” show of YBA ’s [FinancialTimes]
Two new London outposts for existing galleries: Yvon Lambert across from White Cube and Pilar Corrias in Rem Koolhaas-designed space in Fitzorivia [ArtReview.com]
A Fernando Botero video interview on his Circus series, and part two here [Vernissage]
In new Moscow Museum of Modern Art branch, Sotheby’s previews 50 20th-century works, including Bacon, Warhol and Picasso to be sold for estimated $200 to $300 million in New York in November [The Moscow Times] more on that, and Christie’s Moscow previews, here [NYTimes]

Damien Hirst via TheDailyMail

Science, Damien Hirst’s corporation, tops the ArtReview power 100, Gagosian follows, and MoMA’s Kathy Halbreich is first woman to make the top 10 [ArtInfo]
Designer Yohji Yamamoto uses museum curators in New York, Paris, London and Antwerp as models in latest campaign [TheMoment]
PaperMag’s latest issue interviews artworld figures such as Terence Koh, Cecily Brown, Tauba Auerbach, Shepard Fairey and James Fuentes [PaperMag]
Sotheby’s secures $250 million loan from Bank of America while cutting auction guarantees [Bloomberg}
A Liechtenstein billionare is on his second attempt to build 23,000 sf Las Vegas Museum of Contemporary Art [ArtForum]
What happens to the corporate artwork of failed companies? [WallStreetJournal]
Jake Chapman interviewed on, for example, his ideal home: with six or seven of his enemies hanging from trees in front of it [GuardianUK]
Fashion designer Stella McCartney and Artist Ed Ruscha together on Iconoclasts [SundanceChannel]

Richard Serra via TigerofSweden

With his show on at Gagosian London, [AO] a lookback at the soon-to-be-70 iconoclast Richard Serra [Guardian UK]
New York gallery sues Ex-Enron official Jeff Shankman regarding his attempted extortion of six figure sums lest he “go public” that works sold to him were fake [Bloomberg]
Irish group begins futures market trading based on famous Mei-Moss art price index [Financial Times]
Controversially Christie’s-owned Haunch of Venison gallery moving to landmark, Victorian, David Chipperfield-renovated building owned by the Royal Academy [ArtInfo]
Arab and Iranian art on the rise, the sales of which grew from £1 million in 2006 to £17 million (thus far) in 2008 with 260% price increases in that time [TelegraphUK]
In related, Sotheby’s announces intentions to open branch in Doha, Qatar [ArtDaily]

Rubens’ The Apotheosis of James I - via the TimesUK

Before deadline, Tate raises £5.7m to keep Flemish master Paul Rubens sketch The Apotheosis of James I [GuardianUK]
The Queen’s composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies declared Damien Hirst’s art to be “bejewelled trinkets” [TimesUK]
Takashi Murakami’s bi-annual Geisai Fair, an upstart artist free for all, drew 1,176 applicants [TheArtNewspaper]
A weighty review of Louise Bourgeois’s art as: “a comprehensive assault on my sense of wellbeing” [GuardianUK]
An insightful summary of where the art market is headed [Wall Street Journal]
With his show at the Serpentine, Gerhard Richter interviewed [The National via ArtMarketMonitor]

The Peaceable Kingdom, by Edward Hicks, the subject of a dispute between Halsey Minor and Sotheby’s, via Wikimedia

The founder of CNET sues Sotheby’s, citing non-disclosure of its economic interest in a painting sold to him, which he has withheld payment for [Bloomberg] more on this here [LATimes] and here [Wall Street Journal] and here [New York Times]
A prediction that the new leadership of the MoMA and Guggenheim will broaden and focus each institution respectively [NewYorkMag]
A profile of the emerging Zoo Fair artists at the National Academy in London [Guardian]
In a recent interview, Tracey Emin addresses her being raped at age 13 in Margate as well as her being a victim of child abuse [ThisisKent]
Artist builds a custom environment to work for 3 months at the Whitney for an upcoming exhibit of photographs of the happenings [ArtInfo] more on this here [New York Times]

A London building-side JR via Woostercollective

Some large works mark JR’s return to London from NYC (previously covered by AO here) for a solo show at Lazarides [Woostercollective]
The Tate will brand a cruise ship line focused on art [GuardianUK]
Jackie Wullschlager’s biography of Marc Chagall reviewed [The Economist]
Focusing on the sculptures of Pablo Picasso [Wall Street Journal]
Due to gambling regulatory concerns, Lazarides cancels ‘art raffle’ meant to coincide with Frieze [ArtInfo]
Tar magazine (anagram of art) debuts with a cover by Julian Schnabel [Mediabisto]
The Chapman Brothers produce a fuzzy backdrop for Stella McCartney’s spring/summer show in Paris [Independent]

Shepard Fairey via the NYTimes

Street art legend Shepard Fairey shadowed in action by the New York Times[NYTimes]
Art as an unexpected hedge amongst billionaires in uncertain times, and Sarah Thornton has more on this here [Forbes] [TelegraphUK]
Levi’s to launch limited edition jeans featuring Murakami’s flowers [Nylon]
Ex-wife of Jeff Koons/former porn star/Italian parliament member gets to keep her son [Bloomberg]
Flea market purchase revealed to be work by 17th-century Flemish master Pieter Brueghel the Younger [GuardianUK}
Art Market Blog offers another view to market conclusions drawn from last week's Kate Moss, Banksy auction,  previously covered by Art Observed here [Art Market Blog] 
A guide to buying contemporary art[TimesOnline]

Whitney Expansion plans via Culturegrrl

Whitney hits milestone for expansion approval, but will it be funded? [The New York Sun]
Video of a Jeff Koons-guided tour through his Versailles installation [VernissageTV]
Art and wine, a solid investment in financial turmoil? [The Wealth Report/WSJ]
Large and quiet, a new contemporary art space in Bologna [Times UK]
A monochromatic art book for babies features Hirst and Murakami [Guardian]
$730,000 Renoir, stolen from a Milanese family, is recovered [New York Times]
In related news: Lawyer sentenced who hid $30 million in stolen art, including a Cezanne, for 30 years [The Art Newspaper]

Cellophane House at the MoMA site, for sale starting at $1.75 million

MoMA is selling homes from the pre-fab exhibit; separately, Warhol’s final home pulled off the market [Wall Street Journal]
Which exhibits to see while at Frieze, London October 16-19 [New York Sun]
British businessman/collector allocates $5.5 million for 40 sculptural works to coincide with the London Olympics in 2012 [Art Info]
Inside Dafen, China’s production of 3.75 million fake “replica” paintings [Bloomberg]
“Young British Artist” Sam Taylor Wood will cover The Passions’ ‘I’m in Love with a German Film Star’ in a single produced by the Pet Shop Boys [FactMag via ArtFagCity]

Catherine Opie via NYTimes

On Catherine Opie, whose exhibition opens at the Guggenheim today [NY Times]
Sotheby’s: Cat painting by 17-year old Damien Hirst is worthless [Guardian]
Auction of purported artist friend-of-Andy Warhol blocked by Warhol foundation due to its never having heard of the man [New York Post]
A review of “After Nature”- an apocalyptic themed exhibition at the New Museum [NYMag]
Accusations of a conflict of Interest concerning François Pinault and Jeff Koons at Versailles exhibition [ArtForum]
A full 1/2 of Gagosian Gallery’s London sales are to Russians [ArtInfo]

Daria “Dasha” Zhukova, via Guardian.

More on Roman Abramovich’s Dasha Zhukova, straight from Moscow onto the art scene, and more on her and the Moscow Garage here [Times Online] [Guardian] On Gagosian’s Moscow Chocolate factory, and more on Gagosian in Moscow here [Financial Times] [Art Info]
After the sale, perhaps the most insightful Hirst Sotheby’s auction and art market summary article we’ve found [The Economist]
Christie’s sale in Zurich to auction significant Peter Fischli/David Weiss shown at Tate Modern in 2007 [Art Daily]
With Francis Bacon at the currently at the Tate, a video interview from 1985 [Small Drawings via C-Monster]

Soon-to-be-former Lehman Brothers corporate headquarters

Lehman Brothers may sell some or all of its 3,500-work corporate art collection [Bloomberg]
How the Wall Street firm implosion jeopardizes New York arts funding [NY Sun]
French art dealers, armed with currency arbitrage, settle into Manhattan [The Art Newspaper]
7 artists recontextualise the River Thames [GuardianUK]
Following ‘Pest Control,’ ‘Vermin,’ a second Banksy authentication group emerges [Art Info]
Five 17th century Dutch paintings stolen in 2002 at $4.2M of insurable value are recovered [BBC]

Tracey Emin and her sparrow, now returned via BBC

For second time in 3 months, Tracey Emin’s 4-inch Liverpool sparrow is stolen then returned [BBC]
Photo profile of collector / Art in America and Interview-owner Peter Brant [TMagazine-New York Times]
Art Basel commits Miami Beach for 3 years [ArtForum]
Midtown gallery sued after improperly safeguarded Dali’s are stolen [New York Post]
Oliafur Eliasson interviewed [GuardianUK]
New art fair Art Berlin Contemporary opens with 70 artists and 40 Berlin galleries [ArtReview]

Lucian Freud’s rarely-seen, unfinished Portrait of Francis Bacon via Artdaily

Lucian Freud’s unfinished Francis Bacon portrait to be auctioned by Christie’s London in October [Art Daily]
MoMA purchases Chinese contemporary art from private collection [Art Newspaper]
Osaka museum pulls three Chagall’s after authenticity is questioned [Art Info]
Jeff Koons “Man of Trust documentary” sold in €2,500 limited edition kangaroo mirror boxes at Colette [World's Best Ever]
On the vulnerability of the global art market “which has risen so very high on little more than PR and salesmanship” [Financial Times]

German artist Jonathan Meese via TheMoment

Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, and Javier Peres as players in the Berlin art scene [NY Times- The Moment]
more Jonathan Meese, headlining Friday at the Journal Gallery, Brooklyn [The World's Best Ever]
Valuable, yet difficult to execute and display “extreme” art [ArtInfo]
Rothko, Bacon highlight a very British-painter-based fall exhibit lineup in London [Bloomberg]
On “democracy” as a trend in British contemporary art, and how pricing can suffer from it [Guardian]
Deborah Harris is the new managing director of the Armory Show [ArtForum]
Director Sir Nicholas Serota sets 1 year deadline for funds for Transforming Tate Modern project [London SE1]
In more Tate news: 2007/8 acquisition year for the Tate Collection brought a record $111 million - 494 work harvest [Art Daily]

Frank Dunphy Damien Hirst’s Manager via D2

On Frank Dunphy the ‘Man behind Damien Hirst’ [Wall Street Journal]
More Damien Hirst pre-sale press here, and more here [TimesUK] and still more here [TIME]
Moscow’s largest collection of Russian art seeks a new building for Modern and Contemporary [Bloomberg]
Japanese film ‘Achilles and the Tortoise’ satirizes the art world [ArtInfo]
Sotheby’s sues buyer to collect commission [NYTimes]
Larry Gagosian is number 38 the New Establishment Top 100 [Vanity Fair]
and Harper’s Bazaar names Tracey Emin “Creative Person of the Year” [Telegraph]