Piet Mondrian, Composition No. III Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black (1929), via Art Observed

The auction week has come and gone, and Christie’s has closed out a major week for both its Impressionist/Modern and Contemporary Departments, as the combined sales of its three Evening events this week have collectively brought in well over a billion dollars in sales.  This Evening, the Impressionist and Modern Evening sale added an exclamation point to the proceedings, bringing in a final tally of $202,608,000 that saw a major new record for Piet Mondrian. (more…)

The design for the Serpentine’s annual summer pavilion has been announced for 2015, a colorful, cocoon-like structure by the architectural collaborative Selgas Cano that celebrates the program’s 15th anniversary.  Selgas Cano “sought a way to allow the public to experience architecture through simple elements, [a] journey through the space, characterized by color, light and irregular shapes with surprising volumes.” (more…)

The Armory Show has announced the artists for its Special Projects section at the 2015 edition of the New York Fair, which opens in two weeks.  Projects include a limited edition series of potato chip packets by commissioned artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, unobtrusive fencing installations by Abbas Akhavan, and more.   (more…)

MoMA has announced the winner of its yearly Young Architects Program design contest, a “party artifact” titled COSMO and designed by Spanish architect Andrés Jaque.  “This year’s proposal takes one of the Young Architects Program’s essential requirements–providing a water feature for leisure and fun–and highlights water itself as a scarce resource,” said Pedro Gadanho, Curator in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design. “Relying on off-the-shelf components from agro-industrial origin, an exuberant mobile architecture celebrates water-purification processes and turns their intricate visualization into an unusual backdrop for the Warm Up sessions.” (more…)

Louise Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria (1993), all photos via Emily Heinz for Art Observed

The first sight of the Louise Bourgeois Suspension exhibition at Cheim & Read must be the closest simulation available of watching artworks ascending to heaven. There is a sense that each of the pieces are being called upwards, as their weight hangs below them, pulling them back towards the ground. However, the works don’t fight this strange, heavenly magnetism, and in fact, seem to accept to their celestial trajectory.

“Hanging is an ambivalent gesture,” says Jerry Gorovoy, her assistant and close friend of thirty years, who was kind enough to expand upon her works on the opening night of the show.  “It’s as though they’ve given up.” It’s this sense of the works’ submission that makes the tension of their bold physical presence so palpable.

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The Venice Biennale will reportedly move its opening date up a month, The Art Newspaper reports.  Scheduled to open on May 9th next year, the new dates are forcing art fairs to readjust their scheduling plans for that summer.  “We haven’t finalized the 2015 dates yet, but we’re aware of the potential crunch points in the calendar next year and are looking to make a decision in the forthcoming weeks,” says a spokeswoman for Frieze. (more…)

Continuing its recent policy to hold the Turner Prize presentation ceremony outside of London on alternate years, the Tate Britain has announced that the 2015 awards ceremony will be held for the first time in Glasgow, Scotland at the Tramway Arts Centre.  This will be the fourth time that the Turner Prize will be awarded outside of London, and could in fact be the first Turner Prize awarded outside of the UK, pending the results of the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum.

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