Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City.
Please note that for the time being, ArtObserved is pre-launch and under construction.
Suggestion? Email us.


AO Preview: Phillip’s London Contemporary Art Auctions, June 29-30

Friday, June 27th, 2008

Nine Multicolored Marilyns, Andy Warhol (1979-1986) via Phillips

Phillips de Pury & Company is holding it’s Contemporary Art Sale on June 29 and 30. The sale highlights works from Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Willem de Kooning, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paul McCarthy, and many other distinguished contemporary artists.

Phillips Contemporary Art Sale [Phillips]

(more…)

NEWSLINKS 04.24.08

Thursday, April 24th, 2008


Lowman and Colen’s, Wet Pain, at Maccarone via NY mag

A critique of Dan Colen and Nate Lowman at Maccarone [NY mag]
Supreme launches Marilyn Minter skate decks [Supertouch]
Collector/Art in America owner Peter Brant’s supermodel wife editor of Warhol’s Interview [Sassybella]
Antwerp’s low profile art gallery gems [NY Times]
Sotheby’s Previews $30 million of contemporary art in an upscale Russian mall [Bloomberg]
Update: Murakami as a capitalist in Brooklyn [The Economist]

NEWSLINKS 04.21.08

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008


Banksy’s graffiti in London via Supertouch

Banksy’s possibly largest most brazen, work to date [Supertouch]
Update: Murakami’s superflat: “epidemic wanderlust produced by psycho-socio-sexual binarism”[NYObserver]
Update: Rothko kin successfully transfer his remains [NY Times]
“The New York canon” from Acconi to Warhol [New York mag]
Painter Ross Bleckner to write a memoir [Daily news]
Whitney Biennial annex at Henri Bendel window [Artnet]
Centre Pompidou cancels Calder exhibition due to lack of funds [Art NewsPaper]

NEWSLINKS: April 7th, 2008

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

battle-of-trafalgar-as-seen-from-the-mizen-starboard-shrouds-of-the-victory-1806-8.jpg
‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory,’

J.M.W. Turner, 1806-8, via Tate

Tate sends 100 Turners to Moscow despite frigid diplomatic relations [ArtForum]
Update: French art market eclipsed by China [Financial Times]
Jasper Johns: Most successful artist ever? [New York Sun]
Russian artist Anna Mikhalchuk disapeared in Berlin [Artdaily]
View of Olafur Eliasson sculpture in Munich [contemporist via C-Monster]
Update: Interview of Whitney chief curator on Biennial’s process [Wall Street Journal]
Warhol’s Upper East Side townhouse for $5.99M 
[New York Times]

Sonnabend private estate sale largest on record

Monday, April 7th, 2008

koons.JPG
Jeff Koon’s “Rabbit” 1/3 (1986) via Artinfo.com

Famed art dealer Ileana Sonnabend’s art collection was sold in two private transactions by her children this past week. Valued at nearly $1 billion, Sonnabend’s collection included works by artists such as Rauschenberg, Warhol, Koons, Johns, Lichtenstein and Twombly.

A Colossal Private Sale by the Heirs of a Dealer[The New York Times]
Sonnabend’s Children Part with $600 Million Worth of Art to Pay Off Estate Taxes[Art Forum]
Sonnabend’s Children Sell Most of $900 Million Collection[Bloomberg News]
Sonnabend Works Sold in Private Auction [Art Info]

(more…)

NEWSLINKS 04.01.08

Monday, March 31st, 2008


Gregory Crewdson via New York Magazine

Gregory Crewdson’s elaborate, freaky-suburban, cinema set works [NYMag]
On the art pilgrimage to Judd’s Marfa, TX [Wall Street Journal]
A Tom Otterness sculpture to Dumbo [New York Sun]
Why Asian nations are bargain hunting Japanese Art [Herald Tribune]
Banksy works headline U.K. regional auction [Bloomberg]
Update: Overview of the Armory Show [Artinfo]
Update: Warhol’s “Ten portraits of Jews of the 20th century” [NYTimes]
Update: Armory sales hold despite economic slowdown [artnewspaper]
An over-the-front-desk look at the “gallerinas” of Chelsea [NYTimes]
C-Monster at the Whitney
[Time Magazine]

NEWSLINKS 03.25.08

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008


John Baldessari, Carsten Holler, Nathalie Djurberg and Thomas Demand; Prada’s Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada; the curator Germano Celant;Francesco Vezzoli via the New York Times

Miuccia Prada as global patron of the arts [NY Times Magazine]
The expansion of South Korean art galleries in Chelsea [New York Sun]
Update: “Warhol’s Jews” the Sun reviews
[New York Sun]
Salander profiled as a martyr of sorts for old masterworks [New York Mag]
On Artist Zhang Huan’s [Men's Vogue]
Hockney donates fifty works to Tate Britain [the Times.UK via ArtForum]
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster chosen for Turbine Hall [Guardian UK]
Sonnabend’s collection to be sold to pay taxes on $400 million estate [Crains]

FBI Busts Seven in $5 Million International Art Print Scam

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008


US Attorney announcing charges via Chicago Sun-Times

Buyers of ‘limited edition’ signed fine art prints take note– the Feds have indicted an international ring of several dealers making, forging signatures, and selling fake prints by Chagall, Picasso, Calder, Warhol and other big name artists. Utilizing Ebay, galleries and art fairs to sell the works, the fakes were made by reproducing from original artworks and by creating prints in the ’style’ of a particular artist.

Official FBI Press Release[FBI]
7 dealers from US and Europe indicted [Chicago Tribune]
Same dealer was imprisoned for fraud in the 90s [Chicago Sun-Times]

(more…)

Warhol’s Jewish Portraits to Re-Open at the Jewish Museum March 16

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

Warhol’s portraits installed via c-monster

This weekend the Jewish Museum in New York will open Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered. When Warhol completed the series in 1980 — which he referred to as his “Jewish Geniuses”- it raised many eyebrows. This exhibit considers not only how and why Warhol made the works, but how the broad cultural concept of “Jewishness” has evolved in the past 25+ years.

Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered [Jewish Museum]
Andy Warhol Biography [warholfoundation.org]
Remounting a Controversy [New York Sun]
Reaction then and now [c-monster]
Jewish for Fifteen Minutes [New York Post]

(more…)

NEWSLINKS 03.10.08

Monday, March 10th, 2008


Rembrandt self-portrait via the New York Times

Last for sale Rembrandt self-portrait is at Maastricht Art Fair [NY Times]
Update: Review of Jeff Wall at the Marian Goodman Gallery [NY Sun]
Warhol, Emin to have solo exhibitions at Hayward Gallery, London [Bloomberg]
Chris Burden, next public art piece at Rockefeller Center [artinfo]
“Biba,” at Coningsby Gallery, London: Kate Moss buys, notables attend [The Moment]

GO SEE: Andy Warhol, Strange World Drawings at Paul Kasmin Gallery, February 28 - March 29

Monday, March 3rd, 2008


Warhol’s Private Drawings via Artfacts

From February 28th to March 29th the Paul Kasmin Gallery is presenting Andy Warhol’s new exhibition “Strange World” a collection of Andy Warhol’s blotted-line drawings created between 1948 and 1959.

Warhol Exhibition [Paul Kasmin Gallery]
Andy Warhol’s exhibition [Warhol Foundation]
Andy Warhol’s drawings at Paul Kasmin Gallery [Daily News]

(more…)

GO SEE: SOTHEBY’S CONTEMPORARY ART SALE, LONDON, FEBRUARY 27TH

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008


Zhang Xiaogang “Big Family” via Artprice

Sotheby’s gears up this year for its February 27th contemporary auction with flag-ship pieces such as Warhol’s 1986 `Three Self- Portraits’ and Bacon’s 1969 painting`Study of Nude With Figure in a Mirror’ as well as a more trendy selection of Chinese contemporary art.

Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s to Offer Three Self Portraits by Andy Warhol [Arts Gallery]
Bacon Nude, Warhol Self-Portraits Star in U.K. Sales [Bloomberg]
London’s Grand Finale [The New York Sun]
Sotheby’s Offers $19 Million of Chinese Contemporary Art [Bloomberg]

(more…)

Video: Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Auction - Feb 27th

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Sotheby's Contemporary Auction Video Still
Video Still of Sotheby’s Francis Outred introducing auction items via Sotheby’s (Click to View)
Sotheby’s director, Francis Outred, gives a walkthrough of various contemporary pieces available in their upcoming auction in London. He details works from Lucio Fontana, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, and Andreas Gursky. The auction will take place February 27th at 7:00pm.

Sotheby’s Private View [Sotheby's]

What’s Happening at Interview Magazine and Art in America?

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

sandrabrantingridsischy.jpg
Sandra Brant and Ingrid Sischy
Photo: via New York Observer

On January 23, Ingrid Sischy announced her resignation as editor-in-chief of Interview Magazine after 18 years at the helm.

Her decision came about after Sandra Brant, CEO and Publisher of Brant Publications which publishes Interview Magazine as well as Art in America sold her 50% share to her ex-husband Peter Brant who had been co-owner. (more…)

Go See: Warhol Photographs at the Timothy Taylor Gallery in London

Thursday, January 24th, 2008


Warhol via Timothy Taylor Gallery

The Timothy Taylor Gallery is currently hosting a Warhol exhibit, “Portraits & Landscapes”. The exhibit features over 200 10″ x 8″ black and white Warhol photographs.

(more…)

Go See: UBS Art Collection at Mori Art Museum

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008


Roy Lichtenstein’s Crying Girl via UBS

On February 2nd the Mori Art Museum in Japan is opening an exhibit featuring around 140 works from over 60 artists in the UBS art collection. The exhibit will include such prominent artists as Gursky, Araki, Warhol, and Miyamoto. This exhibit exemplifies the frequent partnerships between museums and corporate collectors.
UBS Collection at Mori Museum [Mori Museum]

Newslinks 1.22.08

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008


Warhol Self-Portrait via Bloomberg

Three Warhol Self-Portraits Priced to Sell at Close to $29 Million [Bloomberg]
Guggenheim Accepts Creative Donation from Deutsche Bank [NY Times]
Serpentine Gallery’s Next Pavilion: A Frank Gehry Design [Bloomberg]
Vik Muniz’s Clinton Hill Loft [Media Bistro]
London Galleries to Watch [This is London]

Burton’s Warhol Collection

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008


Warhol boards via Megadasher

Burton has release an Andy Warhol collection for the 2008 season. The collection covers jackets, pants, boards, boots, and bags.

Burton x Warhol [Transworld]

The Man With 800 Warhols

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008


Jose Mugrabi via WSJ.com

Since moving to New York from Colombia over 20 years ago, Mr. Mugrabi has become a leading collector of Andy Warhol works—often setting pricing precedents at auctions. After receiving a 179% return on investment from his first Warhol purchase, Mr. Mugrabi has become fixated on collecting Warhol specifically. He says, “Every empire has its influences, and I realized Andy was the authentic American.” He now owns 800 of the artist’s works.

Wall Street Journal

Warhol’s “Car Crash” rakes in green

Saturday, May 12th, 2007

Warhol Green Car CrashOn a cloudy day in May, in a drab gray room in Rockefeller Center, three hours ticked by at a normal pace. Within these 3 three hours, nearly $400 million worth of postwar and contemporary art was sold at the Christie’s auction house Wednesday evening. Only one day before, the post-war and contemporary art auctions at Sotheby’s closed at a grand total of $255 million, enabling the two-day total sales in Manhattan alone to surpass a cool half-billion dollars with ease. The undoubted financial star of Christie’s evening was Andy Warhol’s silkscreen painting “Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I).” Inspired by a 1963 Newsweek photo depicting a car crash that impaled one driver on a telephone pole, the painting ignited a heated bidding war between two parties, urging bids to as high as $64 million. (more…)