Andy Warhol, Knives (1981-82), All images are by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Nahmad Contemporary is currently presenting an impressive three-person exhibition at its Madison Ave exhibition space, contextualizing the work of both Christopher Wool and Wade Guyton through the artistic lens of Andy Warhol, making the latter artist’s impact all the more apparent in the work of the former two.  Combining the appropriation of existing imagery and the borrowed aesthetics of mainstream commercial imagery with a certain sense of spare visual arrangement, the show is a striking visual tour de force, connecting diverse focal points and concepts over a shared sense of composition and technique, especially in the sense of the gallery space as a transformational context. (more…)

The decision to build a statue depicting Andy Warhol is causing fierce debate in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, as politicians rally against the decision to monumentalize the artist’s contributions.  “Even abroad, Andy Warhol and Pop art are not recognized as great art but as a fad, and testifying to this is the fact there are only two monuments to Warhol, while this would make Belgrade only the third city in the world to recognize him in this way,” says Uros Jankovic, the vice president of the Democratic Party of Serbia. (more…)

Steven Parrino, Untitled (1991), all images courtesy Patrick Seguin

On-view through November 26^th, 2016, Galerie Patrick Seguin presents Olympia, in collaboration with New York-based gallery and bookstore Karma, one in a series of annual shows hosted by the gallery, entitled Carte Blanche, in which international galleries are invited to organize and curate exhibitions at the Paris space.  Drawing on a wide range of artists’ works on paper, the show features pieces by Wade Guyton, Sigmar Polke, Willem de Kooning, Louise Bourgeois, Pablo Picasso, and more. (more…)

Andy Warhol, 20 Pink Maos (1979), via Phillips

Complementing the offering of new works across town at Regent’s Park, Phillips London has opened a week of auctions around Frieze Week, closing out its 30-lot sale this evening with a consistent sale, seeing 6 of the evening’s 30 lots go unsold to reach a final tally of £17,867,750. (more…)

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hannibal (1982), via Sotheby’s

With the opening days of Frieze London also come the opening forays into the secondary market for the fall calendar for the British capital, with Phillips, Sotheby’s and Christie’s each trying their hand at a market that has seen distinctly turbulent, albeit occasionally impressive results for what many are calling a sales slump.  Coming off a sluggish summer with an above expectations at Phillips’ New, Now, Next sale of young artists in the past weeks, market spectators and the odd speculator are watching the Contemporary Evening Sales closely this week.

Rudolf Stingel, Untitled (2007), via Phillips

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Jared Leto is producing and starring in a biopic about the life of Andy Warhol, adapting Victor Bockris’s 1989 biography as the basis for the screenplay, written by Oscar-nominated writer Terence Winter.   (more…)

Rachel Whiteread, Yellow Edge (2007-2008), via Art Observed

Continuing its slow but steady expansion around the globe, Gagosian Gallery has inaugurated a new exhibition space in downtown San Francisco, opening a spacious and beautifully lit gallery on Howard Street, just across from the recently re-opened SFMoMA.  Taking the opportunity to flex its roster in its new home, the gallery has curated a strong exhibition, Plane.Site, taking intersections of form, practice and material across a variety of artists from the gallery’s expansive representation. (more…)

A visitor to the SFMoMA this week tripped and fell into a an Andy Warhol Triple Elvis, resulting in the painting’s removal from the gallery for inspection and repairs.  The damage reported to the painting was noted as “minimal,” by conservators. (more…)

The Warhol Museum has purchased one of Andy Warhol’s rare Paint by Numbers works, a piece that has long eluded the museum’s collection.  “That was in my top three list, along with a 40 by 40 ‘Marilyn’ and an early comic book painting,” Eric Shiner, the museum’s director, told the NYT. (more…)

Andy Warhol’s Hamptons estate has sold to dealer and collector Adam Lindemann for $50 million, the WSJ reports.  The record price for the Montauk home, which has been held by J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, was a dream buy for Lindemann, who has collected Warhol for years. “It was like seizing the opportunity,” Lindemann says.
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Art Market Monitor takes a look at what it calls a cooling market for Andy Warhol works, noting the trends of expansion and contraction of the artist’s median price over the past decade and a half.  “The Warhol market, and by extension the Contemporary art market, has moved far and fast in a short period,” the article reads.  “Taking time to consolidate would not be a bad thing for art or the art market.” (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art will be on hand at Art Basel this year, selling a series of Andy Warhol-branded skate decks featuring the artist’s famous Campbell’s Soup Cans, and other selections from his catalog.  The MoMA Shop will be on view at the Delano from November 30 through December 6.  (more…)

Louise Bourgeois, Spider (1997), via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Christie’s continued its impressive run of record-setting sales last night, with a steady, competitive sale tonight that ultimately brought a final tally of $331,809,000, with 13 of the 70 lots offered passing (barring several withdrawn, high-priced lots).  (more…)

Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché sells at Christie’s, via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Dashing through a 34-lot auction in style, Christie’s has entered the November auction week in impressive style, bringing a flurry of sales during its curated “The Artist’s Muse” auction tonight that saw several world records fall, and achieved an impressive tally of over $491 million for the evening, especially considering the 10 lots that failed to sell.

Amedeo Modigliani, Nu Couché (1917-18), via Christie’s (more…)

Adam Lindemann is reportedly in contract to buy a Montauk estate formerly owned by Andy Warhol.  “I knew Andy in the early 1980s as a very young man, and I’m a collector of his work . . . I’m very lucky to have this opportunity to live out this dream. It’s a work of art.” (more…)

Sotheby’s has announced a major commission for its fall sale in New York, one of Andy Warhol’s iconic Mao works, estimated to sell for $40 million or more.  The work is the artist’s first in the series of Mao paintings, and came from an idea by dealer Bruno Bischofberger, who suggested Warhol paint the most famous person in the world.  “‘I was just reading in Life magazine that the most famous person in the world today is Chairman Mao. Shouldn’t it be the most famous person, Bruno?'” Interview editor Bob Colacello recalls the artist saying. (more…)

An article in The Guardian this week looks behind the veneer of Andy Warhol’s New York cool, showing an artist who loved weightlifting, jewelry and his family life.   “When we were all together as a family, my mom would sometimes question Uncle Andy about his art,” says nephew James Warhola.  “You know, ‘What’s that meant to be?’, or even ‘Why are you wasting your time on this?’ And he would give as good as he got – not in a hostile way, but saying that this was his work, it had value and importance for him. He had studied art and was very knowledgeable.” (more…)

Converse has released a new line in collaboration with the Andy Warhol estate, placing the artist’s iconic banana print from the Velvet Underground’s first album cover onto the heel of a pair of Chuck Taylors.   (more…)

Plans for a New York outpost of the Andy Warhol Museum have reportedly been abandoned, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  “Despite the efforts of both the museum and the developers, an internal study of business and other operational considerations led the museum to this decision,” Director Eric Shiner said in a statement. (more…)

Jeremy Deller (curator), “Love is Enough” installation view (2014). via Modern Art Oxford

In Love is Enough at Modern Art Oxford, artist Jeremy Deller brings together the work of William Morris and Andy Warhol, two renowned artists from vastly disparate eras who served as something of artistic icons of their respective generations.  Drawing on a uniquely perceptive appreciation of both artists, Deller has created a seamless installation that shows a conversation across centuries over the accessibility of art and its purpose in countering the harshness of industrialism. (more…)

Andy Warhol, Shadows (Installation View), Photo by Brian Forrest. © 2014 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork.

In the late 1970’s, Andy Warhol embarked on a new printing project, replicating a single photographic image of the artist’s studio bathed in shadow, a single “cap” of light hovering just to the left of center.  Reproducing the image over one hundred times in a series of color pairings, shades and contrasts, the work created a haunting, surreal environment, currently on view at MOCA in LA for a landmark exhibition of the piece on the West Coast. (more…)

A set of celebrity portraits by Andy Warhol on sale at Sotheby’s New York in the upcoming weeks may earn as much as $57 million, Bloomberg reports.  The works include images of Liz Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Jackie Onassis Kennedy and more.  “Warhol has international appeal,” says Suzanne Gyorgy, head of art advisory and finance at Citi Private Bank. “That kind of art is in a league of its own.” (more…)

Tate Liverpool has announced plans to open an exhibition focusing on the work of Andy Warhol this November, the first major solo exhibition of the artist’s work in Northern England.  The expansive exhibition will include over 100 works from the artist’s career, and will also include a recreation of the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. (more…)

The New York Times reports that MoMA and the Andy Warhol Museum have partnered in order to digitize Andy Warhol‘s film works. During his career, Warhol used a 16-milliliter film camera to shoot over 600 films such as the famous “Screen Tests” series, the  feature length film “Chelsea Girls”, and “Empire”, an eight-hour long single shot of the Empire State Building. Despite Warhol’s prolificacy, only a small portion of the films have been available to the public through the MoMA and online. This new partnership hopes both to preserve the fragility of the film and to expose the public to a lesser-known facet of the artist’s well-publicized career.  (more…)