AO Art Observed™

Richard Armstrong, the new Director of the Guggenheim via NY Times.

As anticipated by Art Observed earlier this month in a report here, Richard Armstrong of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has been named the new Director of the Soloman R. Guggenheim Foundation and its flagship the Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.  The announcement made yesterday by the Board of Trustees follows an extensive seven-month international search. The search begin February 2008 after Thomas Krens resigned as Director of the Guggenheim after nearly 20 years. Armstrong served four years as Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Carnegie Museum prior to his appointment as director there. He has also worked previously as the curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art where he organized four biennials and as curator at La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, California.

Guggenheim Chooses a Curator, Not a Showman [NYTimes]
Guggenheim Foundation Names New Director Richard Armstrong [Art Daily]
Richard Armstrong appointed director of the Guggenheim [The Art Newspaper]

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KAWS with SpongeBob acrylic piece included in his exhibit Saturated, via hypebeast

This weekend marked the opening of Saturated, KAWS’ first solo show since 2002. The exhibition held at Miami’s Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin was curated by Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D fame and included pop-art acrylic works inline with the artists signature style. The paintings’ subjects included animated icons SpongeBob SquarePants and the Smurfs. The collection like previous work by KAWS includes well known imagery as an attempt to be produce art that is universally understood, transcending languages and cultures. The artist who came to fame in the early 90’s through subverting images on billboard, bus shelter, and phone booth advertisements has previously reworked the animated icons The Simpons, Mickey Mouse, and Michelin Man among others.

Interview: KAWS [The Moment]
KAWS’ Saturated at Emmanuel Perrotin [The World's Best Ever]
KAWS “Saturated” Show Opening [hypebeast]
Opening Nite: KAWS’ “Saturated” [supertouch]

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Dash Snow (co-author of NEST), Brian McPeck (of A.R.E. Weapons) and Kembra Pfahler (of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black and author of Beautalism) at Santo’s Party House; photo taken by Bijoux Altamirano

Last Monday night, September 15th, AO was on site at Santo’s Party House for Deitch Projects’ book launch. Deitch Projects has released two new books, NEST by Dash Snow and Dan Colen and Beautalism by Kembra Pfahler. The celebration was kicked off by performances by The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, led by Kembra Pfahler, the author of Beautalism and frequent collaborator of Deitch projects, and a short set from TV Baby.

CURRENT READING: Nest: Dash Snow Dan Colen: Deitch Projects [The Imagist]
Nest and Beautalism Book Launch at Santos Party House [The World's Best Ever]
Deitch projects book launch [ArtLoversNewYork]
Hint Tip: Deitch Projects [Hintmag]
Nest: July 26, 2007 to August 18, 2007 [Deitch Projects]
The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black [MySpace]

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Rendering of Herzog & de Meuron’s 56 Leonard St. tower including the site specific sculpture designed by artist Anish Kapoor via Andrea Schwan Inc.

The design for Pritzer Prize winning architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron’s Tribeca tower was released earlier this week. The $650 million project will be 57-stories high with condominiums ranging from 1,430 square feet to 6,360 square feet, and is projected to be open in 2010. The tower is said to house 145 residences each with its unique floor plan and complete with a private balcony. The translucent skyscraper will be the first high-rise commission for the Swiss architects, who have had their hand in designing the Beijing National Stadium in China for the recent 2008 Olympic games, the Tate Modern in London, and the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The contemporary artist Anish Kapoor has been commissioned to install one of his signature stainless steel, reflective sculptures on the ground floor. The tower will appear to be resting a top his sculpture, and will be the first permanent public artwork for the artist in New York City.

Construction Begins On Herzog & De Meuron’s 56 Leonard Street [Artdaily]
Olympic Bird’s Nest architects design NY high-rise [Associated Press]
A Stack of Houses [NYTimes]
Fantastical Form in TriBeCa: Herzog & de Meuron’s 56 Leonard St. [NYSun]
At 57 Stories, 56 Leonard St. to Tower Over Tribeca [Tribeca Tribune]
One’s Huge, the Other’s Crazy [NYMag]
Herzog & de Meuron reach for the sky [World Architecture News]
Herzog & de Meuron’s Plans Unveiled for New York City Tower [ArtForum]
New York Developer commissions Anish Kapoor for Herzog & de Meuron residential project in Tribeca [ArtObserved]

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Cubist Still Life by Arshile Gorky, one of the paintings stolen from the Los Angeles’s couples home via LA Times

An unidentified elderly couple of Enico, Los Angeles were at home preoccupied while a thief, or possible thieves, entered their home and stole an art collection worth millions of dollars. At least a dozen paintings were stolen including works by Marc Chagall, Hans Hofmann, Chaim Soutine, Arshile Gorky, Emil Nolde, Lyonel Feininger, Diego Rivera, and Kees van Dongen. Each stolen work was worth at least six figures, some of them closer to $1 million. While the theft occurred in August police waited until September to publicly announce the crime and the $200,000 reward for information leading to the return of the paintings. The couple remains unidentified by police as does the source of the reward money. It remains unclear if was a single thief, or a group. Police are also uncertain if it was a common thief-likely to pawn off the paintings immediately, or a more sophisticated thief with ties to collectors or criminal gangs specializing in pilfered artwork. Art theft is by FBI estimates is a $6-billion-a-year global industry.

Swift L.A. art heist claims couple’s collection worth millions [LA Times]
A Dozen Artworks Stolen from L.A. Collectors’ Home [ArtInfo]
Find stolen paintings, collect $200,000 [Two Coats of Paint]

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Damien Hirst’s “The Golden Calf” / calf, 18 carat gold, glass, gold-plated steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with Carrara marble plinth / Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: £10,345,250 via monstersandcritics

Sotheby’s quotes Damien Hirst as saying “I think the market is bigger than anyone knows. I love art, and this proves I’m not alone.” After much fanfare and controversy, and against the surreal backdrop of a severe financial market collapse led by Lehman Brothers buckling in the largest bankruptcy in US history, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” Damien Hirst’s direct-to-the-market auction by Sotheby’s London, was a conclusive success. Perhaps boosted in part by a recently lower British pound, the groundbreaking sale collected $127 million dollars (£70 million) on the first day, and an additional $72.9 million dollars (£40.9 million) on the second day for a grand total just shy of $200 million dollars, beating the previous record for the auction of a collection by a single artist formerly held by Picasso by roughly ten times, which fetched $20 million for an 88-work collection in 1993. Over three sessions, 218 of the 223 lots changed hands with some works sellng for well below their low estimates and others selling for multiples of high estimates.

Sotheby’s Website
Does Hirst auction point to a bull market in art? [WallStreetJournal]
Hirst’s Two Day Auction Raises 115.5 million pounds [Bloomberg]
Hirst auction beats 62 million pound estimate [BBC]
Hirst Auction a Paradigm-Smashing Success [CultureGrrl]
AO News roundup: Damien Hirst’s ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ auction at Sotheby’s London is happening right now [ArtObserved]
Jopling responds, and Hirst’s Sotheby’s sale bandwagon rolls on amidst the buzz and controversy [ArtObserved]
A disclosure of White Cube’s unsold Damien Hirst inventory before the artist’s controversial September 15th direct sale by Sotheby’s [ArtObserved]

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Damien Hirst poses beside his work of art ‘The Incredible Journey‘ at Sotheby’s in London on Monday, September 8 via Art Daily

Damien Hirst’s Sotheby’s sale, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, is taking place in London this afternoon and this evening.  The Sotheby’s sale is made up of 223 lots and estimated at over $115 million. There has been a flurry of more recent news and skepticism surrounding this controversial event as the Sotheby’s/Damien Hirst PR machine kicked into full gear. Perhaps most notable in the press buzz was that the globally respected Australian art critic, Robert Hughes, last week referred to Hirst’s artwork in the sale as “absurd” and “tacky commodities.” This press event was notable in that it actually elicited a response from Hirst himself. The Telegraph reports that Hughes has labeled Hirst’s formaldehyde tiger shark, which was sold by Charles Saatchi in 2004 for nearly $10,000,00, as “the world’s most over-rated marine organism.” Additionally, there was buzz in the press of Sotheby’s stock reacting to lower price estimates before the sale. Art Observed will have a roundup of the relevant news stories, a review of the sale, its results and ramifications when the auctions closes in a matter of hours.

Damien Hirst - Beautiful Inside My Head Forever (Evening Sale) [Sotheby’s]

Hirst’s Pricey Zoo Fills Sotheby’s With Bling: Martin Gayford and Sotheby’s Falls on Speculation Hirst’s Sale May Flop and Damien Hirst Sells Pickled Beasts, Pockets Profits: Interview [Bloomberg]

Hughes Denounces Hirst’s Art as “Absurd” and Hirst Hits Back at Hughes [ArtInfo]
Damien Hirst’s art ‘absurd’ and ‘tacky’, says critic Robert Hughes [Telegraph]
Hirst hits back at Aussie critic [Sydney Morning Herald]

Damien Hirst Presents His Works of Art In Historic Sale to be Held at Sotheby’s in London and Upcoming Sotheby’s Auction and Hirst’s Publishing Company, Other Criteria, Share Similar Aim, to Democratize Art [Art Daily]

Form a queue for Damien Hirst’s sale of the century and Commentary: Hirst betting his reputation on this sale and Does Damien Hirst’s auction at Sotheby’s mean the end of the gallery? [Times Online]

Day of the dead: Robert Hughes explains and Hirst’s auction does not demean the art world and Reformed Britart rebel takes time out with £65m sale [Guardian]

Bad Boy Makes Good and Hirst vs. Hughes [TIME]
Damien Hirst goes for broke at Sotheby’s [IHT]
The Gist: Damien Hirst’s ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ Sale [New York Mag]
The Midas touch that turns the art world lethally cold [Financial Times]
Damien Hirst: “I’m a Punk at Heart” [New York Observer]
Rembrandt? I’m just like him, says Hirst – it’s all about cash [Independent]
Report: Hirst Auction Critical To Market Confidence [NYSun]

Damien Hirst sale at Sotheby’s previously covered by Art Observed here, here, and here [Art Observed]

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Forbidden Love, Faile (2006) via TAC
Lot 230: Forbidden Love, Faile (2006) / Estimate: $21,700 - $36,100 / Hammer Price: $39,703

On Saturday, September 6th, Phillips de Pury & Company held it’s Saturday @ Phillips sale featuring some of the most notorious names in Street Art. Until now, there had never been a Street Art auction of this magnitude. Many of the artists featured at the September 6th Saturday @ Phillips had never been to auction before, because of the nature of their work, and the anonymity of Street artists. The end total including premium was just under $850,000. Those that sold for the most and exceeded their estimates were works by Faile, Andres Serrano, Carcel Dzama, Swoon, and Banksy. Although one of Banksy’s pieces sold for over double its estimate, the well-known street artist also had two pieces among the unsold lots.

Philips Results [The Art Collectors]
Street art bonanza at Phillips de Pury auction [Design Week]
Saturday @ Phillips [Phillips de Pury]
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Proposed design for Sperone Westwater gallery building on Bowery, designed by Norman Foster, via Curbed

The Sperone Westwater gallery recently announced its $8.5 million acquisition of a building on the Bowery, just a block away from the New Museum, solidifying the area’s reputation as a burgeoning art hub. The five story, twelve thousand square foot pre-war building will be re-designed by Lord Foster, whose work includes landmarks such as the Reichstag, the Heart Tower, and the 30 St Mary Axe in London (better known as The Gherkin). The proposed new building’s facade will boast glass tubes, and a bold red cube-shaped moving room as a highlight, setting the building apart as a unique, modern piece of architecture in an older neighborhood.

Sperone Westwater
Foster and Partners
BLOCKBUSTER: Norman Foster plans Bowery Gallery Building [Curbed]
SoHo apartment building sells for $8.5 million [CoStar]

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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]

The New Museum (center) and its new acquisition (to the right), via Art Daily

After unveiling its $50 million, SANAA-designed new location last December, the New Museum recently announced its acquisition of 231 Bowery, a building to the immediate south of its current location, for $16.6 million. The building, which is currently home to a restaurant equipment distributor and several offices, has 47,000 square feet of space, which will be used as office and storage space until plans are finalized for new programs.

NEW MUSEUM
New Museum buys adjacent building on the Bowery [ArtForum]
New Museum acquires adjacent building on the Bowery [Art Daily]

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‘Rabbit’ by Jeff Koons, as displayed at Versailles via Art Daily

Jeff Koons, an art world celebrity since the 1980’s for his stainless steel pop-art renderings of everyday, vernacular objects–and notorious for his marriage to porn star/legislator La Cicciolina–is currently on exhibit in the royal apartments and gardens of Versailles palace, west of Paris. The show, which was organized by French billionaire collector (and owner of Christie’s) Francois Pinault, will feature 17 pieces from the corpus of the man who is arguably the biggest-selling living artist, including well known works such as Rabbit, Lobster, Large Vase of Flowers and Split Rocker

Chateau de Versailles: Jeff Koons exhibition [Official Website]
Jeff Koons Takes His Contemporary Culture to Versailles [Artdaily]
Conflict of Interest Around Koons? [ArtForum]
Koons @ Versaille [Aarting]
Jeff Koons brings pop art revolution to Versailles [AFP]
French Protest Koons Show at Versailles [Artinfo]
Jeff Koons Shows His Contemporary Culture in The Château de Versailles [Raw art Weblog]
Koons’s Bunnies, Beheaded Queen Parade in Paris Fall Season and Jeff Koons’s Flashy Toys Invade Versailles, Stir French Revolt [Bloomberg]
Jeff Koons sets up at the Palace of Versailles, France in September [ArtObserved]

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The Revolution Continues, ‘Untitled’‘ (1999) by Yue Minjun, via Saatchi Gallery

Charles Saatchi, one of the UK’s wealthiest and largest art collectors, will re-open his renowned contemporary art gallery at its new home in the Duke of York’s former military barracks, following several delays and false starts due in part to construction issues. The gallery’s first exhibition will be The Revolution Continues: New Art from China, which will run from the gallery’s opening on October 9th until January 18th, 2009. The inaugural exhibit will feature 30 artists China’s white-hot contemporary art scene, including marquee names such as Yue Minjun, Fang Lijun, and Zhang Xiaogang. In line with fulfilling the new Saatchi gallery’s goal of introducing contemporary art to a broader (and younger) audience, admission to the gallery’s exhibits will be free thanks to a sponsorship deal with Phillips de Pury & Company.

Saatchi Gallery
Saatchi Gallery London: Virtual Tour
Saatchi Gallery Moves to New Home [GuardianUK]
Saatchi Finds a Home [NY Times]

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Thomas P. Campbell (Left) and Philippe de Montebello (Right) via IHT

After an arduous eight-month search, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that Thomas P. Campbell will be succeeding Philippe de Montebello as its new Director.  Come January 1st, 2009 Mr. Campbell will take over the reins from de Montebello, who has been serving as director of the Met for the past 31 years. Campbell has been with the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1995 serving in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, with a specialty in European tapestries.  Some were surprised that the relatively young Campbell was chosen over Ian Wardropper, his 57-year-old superior. The committee also reportedly considered Max Hollein, from the Städel Museum and the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt as Philippe de Montebello’s successor.

Met Museum’s New Chief Knows About Tapestries; Challenges Loom [Bloomberg]
Thomas P. Campbell Named Next Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art [Artdaily]
Met Selects Curator to Run Museum [Wall Street Journal]
Met names Thomas P. Campbell as its new director [IHT]
Met Names New Director [Artinfo]
Curator at Met Named Director of the Museum [NYTimes]
Tapestry expert named head of NY Met museum [AFP]
Met Picks New Director, Thomas P. Campbell, from Within [Gothamist]

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Planet (2008) by Marc Quinn, via London Telegraph

In a literal and symbolic sign of how large the scale contemporary art market has become, a seven ton, ten metre sculpture of a seven-month-old baby is up for sale to private individuals at the aptly named Beyond Limits, a Sotheby’s selling exhibition at Chatsworth, the Peak District home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The piece entitled “Planet” is one of more than twenty sculptures on display this week at Sotheby’s. The behemoth work is a bronze cast painted in a brilliant shade of white and is modeled after an earlier version inspired by a mold of the artist’s baby son. The work was produced by Marc Quinn, who achieved prominence and notoriety when his sculpture of Alison Lapper (a disabled, pregnant friend of Quinn’s and fellow artist) was placed on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square in 2005. Recently the artist reveled a teaser image of his golden statute of Kate Moss which will be unveiled at the Statuephilia exhibit at the British Museum, previously covered here.

Larger than life [Financial Times]
Giant baby for sale [London Telegraph]
Giant baby for sale on grounds of Chatsworth House [Telegraph]
Golden Kate Moss joins other goddesses at the British Museum’s ‘Statuephilia’ [ArtObserved]

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Verso, ‘Starry Night’ (2008) by Vik Muniz via Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Brazil and Brooklyn based artist Vik Muniz attempts to tell the true tales behind the masterpieces in his exhibition, Verso.  Until October 11th, spectators can witness the three dimensional mixed media works created to imitate famous works such as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Seurat’s La Grande Jatte.  Muniz closely studied the back of the canvases for over six years to achieve photo-realistic perfection. This series also includes works that imitate backs of archived photographs from the New York Times. Verso is the artist’s personal exploration of originality found in the ‘backs’, which is invisible from the ‘fronts’. His seemingly tedious process uncovers the roots through copying labels, glue stains, dates, and even the slightest dents with precision.

Vik Muniz - Artist’s official website
Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
Vik Muniz - Verso [Artcal]

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Vawdavitch, Franz Kline (1955) via Artinfo

Next Friday, September 12, the new Haunch of Venison gallery in New York City will open its doors for the first time with an exhibit called “Abstract Expressionism – A World Elsewhere”. The exhibition will feature over 60 works from Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Aaron Siskind, David Smith and Clyfford Still. The Christie’s owned gallery represents notable artists such as Bill Viola, Keith Tyson, and Wim Wenders and has additional locations in London and Zurich. When the gallery was purchased last year by François Pinault, the owner of Christie’s auction house, there was a substantial amount of controversy surrounding the transaction. The purchase of the gallery presented a new take on the relationship between auction houses and galleries, and how the line might blur between the primary and secondary markets of the art world.

Christie’s auction house buys London’s Haunch of Venison contemporary art gallery [IHT]
Haunch of Venison’s New York Moment [The Imagist]
American Perspective [Artinfo]
Auction Houses Vs. Dealers [NYSun]
Haunch of Venison - “Abstract Expressionism—A World Elsewhere” [Haunch of Venison]

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Sam Taylor-Wood via TelegraphUK

Sam Taylor-Wood, YBA artist turned filmaker (and wife of White Cube Gallery owner Jay Jopling), to direct John Lennon film [FirstPost]
Selling dealer weighs in on the Leonardo Da Vinci portrait authenticity debate [NYTimes]
More on the contemporary art market’s surge in China [Financial Times]
Louvre to lend 17th-century art to Japan [ArtInfo]
Charlene Weisler documents NY Street art [New York Sun]
A critique of Jeff Koons-in-Chicago as “overexposure” [WallStreetJournal]

White Gloves, KAWS, 2001via Phillips

Phillips de Pury & Company is holding an auction of street art pieces on September 6th, as part of their Saturday@Phillips series. On sale will be a large collection of pieces ranging from paintings, photographs, jewelry, toys, and other various pieces from well-known artists like Kaws, Invader, Judith Supine, Beejoir, and Bast. The auction represents the growing popularity of the street art movement, the influence of which can be seen on fashion shows, advertising, and galleries and museums in the contemporary art world.

The Word on the Street, by Alex Smith [PhillipsArtExpert]
Urban Art Auction At Phillips de Pury September 6 [Highsnobiety]
The Word on the Street [Phillips]

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Francois Pinault via the TheLuxeChronicles

In February 2009, works from Francois Pinault’s collection coming to Moscow’s Contemporary Culture Centre “Moscow Garage” [RussiaIC]
Hirst’s $100 million diamond encrusted skull to begin its world tour in … Amsterdam [NYSun]
MoMa selects a Chief Curator of Painting from in-house [NY Times] and, the Guggenheim may soon appoint a new Director from Carnegie Museum [NY Times]
The Jeff Koons-in-Versailles debate continues on [TimesOnline]
Matthew Barney is on Ovation TV, airing Wednesday [OvationTV via C-Monster]
New on the global art scene Roman Abramovich’s girlfriend, Dasha Zhukova, basically summarized [Wall Street Journal]