Richard Prince gets a profile in the New York Post, cataloguing his often controversial practice, and the impact it has left on the world of contemporary art. “For Richard, the lawsuits are also the artwork,” says his friend and fellow artist Harmony Korine. (more…)
Artists are teaming up to assist in the fallout from a massive 8.1 magnitude earthquake rocked the country and left 90 dead, as many cultural centers, museums and galleries send resources to help deal with the damage caused. “This is a good opportunity to invite all the cultural centers, all the spaces, museums, artists that want to come,” says artist Demian Flores. “Reconstruction in Juchitan is going to be a long road.” (more…)
The last of Francis Bacon’s Pope paintings will hit the auction block this fall at Christie’s in London, estimated to sell for over £60 million, the BBC reports. “It is a tragic premonition which unites Bacon’s two greatest muses, the Pope and George Dyer, for the first and only time,” Francis Outred, Christie’s head of post-war and contemporary art says of the work. (more…)
Sanford Biggers presented by monique meloche, via Art Observed
Situated just beyond the tourist traps of Navy Pier, the EXPO Chicago art fair attracted visitors out over the lapis waters of Lake Michigan for the sixth iteration offering another year of global arts attention on the Windy City. British artist Roger Hiorn‘s deliciously fun, foam spawning A retrospective view of the pathway is prominently placed in the front yard of the space, serving as a prominent lure for the show, and indicative of this same international flavor. As well as partnering with the Palais de Tokyo and Institut Francais for an exhibition of emerging French and Chicago artists at the DuSable Museum of African American History, the press release heralded this year as the “most global edition to date.”
Sam Lewitt, Stranded Asset (2017), All photos via Anna Corrigan for Art Observed.
Now through October 21, 2017, Galerie Buchholz presents FILLER, an exhibition by American artist Sam Lewitt, following on and extending the artist’s project Stranded Assets, currently on view in the 57th Venice Biennale. (more…)
Marianne Boesky’s Aspen location gets a spotlight in Architectural Digest this month, an Annabelle Selldorf-designed exhibition space that has been a major project for Boesky since 2007. “If you don’t have unlimited funds to buy an existing turnkey dream space,” the gallerist says, “you have to get creative with whatever circumstances you’re given. Here, the location worked and more importantly the price was right.” (more…)
Stuart Shave’s Modern Art Gallery is set to open a second London location, the Art News reports. “For some time, I have been looking for a second space that would allow the gallery to program multiple shows at one time, to give scope to bring new artists into the gallery, as well as to work more spontaneously when the opportunity arises,” Shave says. (more…)
Documenta is facing an operating deficit of over $8 million, the Art Newspaper reports, with city and state governments taking on loans to keep the exhibition running. “Documenta is inextricably linked with Kassel,” Christian Geselle, the mayor of Kassel said. “We want Documenta to continue in Kassel as a world-ranking exhibition of contemporary art.” (more…)
The new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island features a range of art installations by artists including Michael Riedel, Matthew Day Jackson and Alison Elizabeth Taylor, among others, the New York Times reports. “The entire building is designed to spur imagination and innovation and sometimes unintentional interactions,” said Patricia Harris, chief executive of Bloomberg Philanthropies, which helped in the building commissions. (more…)
The New York Times profiles the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma, and notes how well many Miami arts institutions handled the storm. “It’s an existential question,” says collector Mera Rubell. “Ultimately, how can we predict what’s going to happen anywhere?” (more…)
Ann Freedman has settled her final of several lawsuits against her in the Knoedler Gallery court cases, bringing its long narrative to a conclusion. “Neither the government nor these individuals ever accused Ann of wrongdoing,” Freedman’s lawyer, Luke Nikas says. (more…)
The Art Market Monitor has a piece on the increasingly complex connections between collector Dmitriy Rybolovlev and various officials in the Monaco government, indicating that the Russian billionaire may have wielded undue influence on the small country’s justice system. I have always said that Mr. Rybolovlev had privatized the justice system in Monaco its profit. There is now evidence that the police, the prosecutor’s office and the equivalent of the Minister of Justice have done everything possible to constitute an association of criminals in order to carry out a scam in the judgment,” says Paris based lawyer Francis Szpiner, who is pushing for a broader investigation of this situation. (more…)
The New York Times has a piece on the fallout over Sam Durant’s controversial Scaffold work at the Walker Center in Minnesota, and and a number of staff departures at the institution, pointing to demanding working conditions under director Olga Viso. “Obviously the Walker has a slight cloud over it right now,” says Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. “It’s a cloud; not a downpour, but it needs to get out of it quickly.” (more…)
Indonesian-Chinese Collector Budi Tek is pressing the Chinese government to overhaul its restrictions on private museums, even as he battles pancreatic cancer. “I am still full of ambition. That’s what’s keeping me alive—and thinking positively,” he says. (more…)
The Hirshhorn has acquired artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s long-running Me and My Mother series, which includes footage of the artist being spit on repeatedly by his mother. The museum also acquired pieces by Shirin Neshat, Deb Sokolow, and Mika Tajima, among others. (more…)
Robert Rauschenberg, Rhyme (1956), via Art Observed
Closing out its run at MoMA this month, Robert Rauschenberg’s impressive retrospective show, Among Friends, is a monument to the spirit of the post-War U.S. and its most exploratory artists, focused through the lens of a single painter. Drawing together some of Rauschenberg’s most iconic and challenging pieces alongside a range of works by his collaborators, friends and lovers, the artist’s pieces trace a life dedicated to the act of creating, and of challenging the work itself to push beyond the thin line between art and life itself. (more…)
Mary Heilmann, Ray (2017), via Art Observed
In the early years of her career, artist Mary Heilmann embraced a utilitarian approach to the art object, drawing domestic materials, scrap pieces and other objects into a swirling orbit of bright colors and bold, thick strokes of paint. Drawing on the energy and vitality of the minimalist language, and its conceptual charge to the body of modern painting, Heilmann’s work embraced both a subdued look at the real landscape of the modern American, and the manifold images that float through it each day. (more…)
Bloomberg has a piece this week on preparations underway in Miami to preserve and save art in the face of the powerful Hurricane Irma currently bearing down on the coastal city. “It’s always scary and dangerous. You can’t take any chances,” says developer Craig Robins. “At this point there isn’t much you can do. You’ve secured everything and now you can only pray. You pray it goes out to sea or gets weaker.” (more…)
The nation of Luxembourg is completing negotiations to move its national pavilion at the Venice Biennale to a space in the Arsenale. “This is a focal point of the Biennale and I am convinced that, thanks to this decision, the Grand-Duchy will have an increased visibility from the Biennale of Architecture in 2018,” says prime minister Xavier Bettel. (more…)
The New Art Dealers Alliance has added a group of thirteen new members, as it continues to grow and evolve. New galleries include Mexico City’s Lulu, London’s Arcadia Missa, and New York’s Signal. The organization will celebrate its new members this December at NADA Miami Beach. (more…)
The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is partnering with the Museum of Modern Art for a new exhibition, the Art Newspaper reports, presenting key works from the museum’s full holdings, including examples by Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, and Cindy Sherman. “MoMA is a beacon for Modern art in the West, and for decades its narrative of art historical Modernism was uncontested,” says the Fondation’s artistic director, Suzanne Pagé. “It has also established itself [with] its discernment regarding the art of today, an institution possessed of a clear-eyed vision of its future. Today, the doxa [common belief and opinion] are being reassessed.” (more…)
La Biennale Paris art fair is preparing to open its doors, as the New York Times charts the adjustments and tweaks to its programming made to make it more competitive in the current art market. “In order to compete as a major fair, you have to be part of the annual calendar or someone will take that slot,” says fair president Christopher Forbes. (more…)
The Financial Times analyzes the current state of the contemporary art market, examining how demands placed on galleries by the international fair circuit and other situations have made it increasingly difficult to compete with mega-galleries. “If you add everything up on a booth for emerging artists, it’s difficult to see how galleries can make the costs back,” says gallerist Laura Bartlett, who recently closed her London exhibition space. “I gained so much profile through international fairs; they just need to be as flexible as possible now and adapt to the market.” (more…)
Sotheby’s has unveiled a collection of 400 works and objects from the estate of painter Howard Hodgkin, which it will place on sale in the coming months through a series of auctions. “If Howard needed it he bought it, sometimes for a lot of money once he could afford it,” says the artist’s partner, writer Antony Peattie. “He didn’t believe in bargains and if something was really good he went ahead and paid the price for it.” (more…)
