Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City.
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Anish Kapoor announced as the label designer for Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2009. Mouton has commissioned a different artist to produce its label every year since 1945, including Picasso, Andy Warhol, Chagall, Joan Miró, Salvador Dali and Francis Bacon. [AO Newslink]
Allora & Calzadilla, Umbrella and Bell (2011), front; Anish Kapoor, Untitled (2011), behind. At Lisson Gallery, booth J1. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
International collectors and art enthusiasts filled the Miami Beach Convention Center for the Wednesday preview of Art Basel Miami Beach 2011. While the maze of gallery booths could seem overwhelming, buyers were able to navigate through for a solid day of sales and works placed on reserve. Larger galleries such as Gagosian, David Zwirner, and Sprüth Magers sold several works and editions thereof. Speaking with Neil Wenman of Hauser & Wirth, “We’ve had a great response on the opening day. In particular for works by Thomas Houseago, Rashid Johnson, Paul McCarthy, Matthew Day Jackson, Richard Jackson—all works sold and all available editions.” Jenny Holzer’s new paintings at Sprüth Magers sold for upwards of $300,000, as well as Condos and Krugers at the booth. Lesser-known galleries were pleased to gain the exposure the fair offers; if not selling right away, interest was high and therefore also prospects for the remainder of the fair. Gallery Arratia Beer said the crowd was very engaged and informed, also saying, “The fair feels very international. It’s also good to see young internationals here too.” The newer Latin American presence was reportedly strong, both exhibiting and buying, as expected in Miami as opposed to the Frieze or FIAC fairs across the Atlantic earlier this year. Celebrities on hand included Julian Schnable, Eli Broad, Brett Rattner, Naomi Campbell, and Sean Combs/P. Diddy.
Larry Gagosian
Entrance D at the Miami Convention Center
Will Ryman’s Roses being installed on Miami Beach. Image via The Art Newspaper.
Art Observed is on site for this year’s 10th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach which officially runs December 1–4, with previews and parties throughout the entire week beginning on Tuesday, November 29th. More than 260 galleries from around the world will be representing over 2,000 artists, not including the several satellite shows taking place simultaneously across Miami, including NADA, SCOPE, Pulse, and the original Art Miami—twelve years Basel’s senior. Attracting 46,000 visitors in 2010, the fair is expanding every year, with various collaborations and special additions celebrating its 10th. The Swiss-based Basel art fair installment in Miami has evolved into something that may have lost some of its innocence from its earlier days but in the end has become the definitive closing party for the art market’s year. There have been many previews and summaries of the fair, the following is our view of the week to come.
Hennessy Youngman, still from ART THOUGHTZ: Relational Aesthetics. Via Youtube.
Youngman will be speaking at NADA Deauville Beach Resort on Thursday at 5 pm.
Tracey Emin, Postcard 386, via RCA
On Saturday, contemporary artists sold their work in the 18th annual“Secret Sale” at the Kensington-based Royal College of Art (RCA) in West London. This was the largest “Secret Sale” in its history, with 2,900 postcard-sized artworks by 1000 invited artists, who included RCA postgraduate students alongside fashion designer Manolo Blanhik, Icelandic artist Olafur Elaisson, and artists Tracey Emin, Anish Kapoor, Yoko Ono, and Grayson Perry. The sale aims to conclusively raise £130,000, thus providing the budget for the RCA’s Art Student Award.
Setting up the RCA Secret Sale in October, via the Guardian
The namesake of the Secret Sale stems from its gamble: both longtime collectors and new buyers buy £45 postcard-sized works of art, without knowing if the displayed work is by a famously valuable artist until the signature on the back is revealed post-purchase. After the Secret Sale, works may go onto auction at prices as high as £16,000. The artists’ identities and works themselves are now on view at the RCA website, in the numerical order that they were displayed.
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Anish Kapoor’s Orbit sculpture has reached its full 114 meter height at London’s Olympic Park [AO Newslink]
Crowds outside the Grand Palais on the public opening of FIAC, October 21, 2011. All photographs for Art Observed on site by Caroline Claisse.
After two days of previews, FIAC opened its doors to the Paris public on Friday, October 21st. Jill Silverman, Director of Paris/Salzburg-based gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, tells Art Observed that the fair presents “a very good cross section of European collectors.” FIAC is one of the most nationally-focused art fairs, boasting a solid 32% of French exhibitors, whereas last week’s Frieze in London had only 25% British galleries. American presence increased this year with several New York galleries making their debut at the fair: Matthew Marks, Eleven Rivington, Andrew Kreps, Michele Maccarone and Friedrich Petzel. After a 30+year absence, Pace Gallery made a comeback to the fair. Works by seasoned veteran Damien Hirst are exhibited at both White Cube and Gagosian. Anish Kapoor also has work spread across the fair, whose gargantuan installation Leviathan filled the entire interior of the Grand Palais earlier this year. Lisson is showing one of his signature colored concave mirrors in fire-engine red; Kamel Mennour has wine-red, Galeria Continua has green, and Kukje/Tina Kim has purple; all have different price tags. Sales have been strong thusfar; Pace Gallery’s Arne Glimcher told Artinfo, “We had sales right off the bat, it was really fascinating. I hadn’t anticipated this kind of rush, especially in this economy, where Europe is not in as good of shape as America. But I think we have the right artists.” He added, “FIAC is certainly an enormous cut above Frieze.”
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Two Less One (2011) at Galleria Continua
More on site coverage and images after the jump… (more…)
FIAC 2011 at the Grand Palais in Paris. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
FIAC 2011 (The Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain) opens this weekend in Paris for its 38th year. The international art fair, which boasts an impressive array of 168 galleries from 21 countries, will show the work of some 2,800+ artists. Running October 20–23rd, the exposition comes at the tail end of Frieze Art Fair, drawing artists, collectors, gallerists, and enthusiasts eastward from London. While the focus of Frieze leans toward contemporary, FIAC includes both contemporary and modern, including works from Picasso, Calder, and Matisse. The fair has been building momentum since 2006; Jennifer Flay, appointed general director in 2010, credits this boost to the fair’s move to the Grand Palais, one of the city’s most cherished architectural gems. The fair also expands this year to the Jardin des Tuileries, the Jardin des Plantes, the Museum of Natural History, and other venues around the city. Another innovation, a mobile application (in French) is available through Windows Phone which enables visitors to book tickets directly from their phone, as well as receive realtime news updates from the fair, find exhibitors and artists, and access videos and photos of the show.
Jay Jopling of White Cube, which is exhibiting Damien Hirst’s Where Will It End.
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Yves Klein all photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed
This year marked the 2nd iteration of the House of the Nobleman, a privately sponsored exhibition which took place at the Boswall House, 15,000sqft mansion at 2 Cornwall Terrace, overlooking Regent’s Park and the Frieze 2011 Art Fair. Art Observed was on site for the private viewing. On view were works by Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, Max Ernst, Damien Hirst, Marlene Dumas, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, Sigmar Polke, Christian Boltanski, Anish Kapoor, Nick Hornby, Matthew Day Jackson, Cecily Brown, Lucian Freud, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Longo, Alexander Calder, Eugenia Emets, Francesco Clemente, Salvador Dali, Peter Doig, Olafur Eliasson, George Condo, Takashi Murakami, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Gerhard Richter.
Monet, Claude “ Chemin dans le brouillard”, (1879)
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View of the Fair via Marquees First
The ninth annual Frieze Art Fair will be held this week with 173 exhibiting galleries from 31 countries. The event has been held in London every October since 2003, and is known for its highly innovative contemporary gallery and artist showcase. The Frieze Frame and Frieze Projects have evolved to help divide the myriad of international artists into mainstays and up-and-comers. Interactive components, including Frieze Talks, Frieze Film, and Frieze Education, further diversify the aesthetic and conceptual basis of the event. Founding Directors Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover created Frieze magazine in the early 1990s and continue to develop beyond the fall showcase, with plans for an Old Masters’ exhibition at next fall’s fair. A spring plan to host a Randall’s Island venue in 2012 is also in the works.
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All photos by Gautier Pellegrin for Art Observed unless otherwise noted
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The major exhibition Paris-Delhi-Bombay, currently on view at Centre Pompidou through September 19th, displays work by nearly 50 artists mainly based or born in India. Many emerging and high-profile Indian artists have been showing recently in Paris—both the work at Indian Summer, organized at Ecole des Beaux Arts, and Anish Kapoor‘s monumental intervention at the Grand Palais, have included work by Indian artists both already established in Europe as well as those still up-and-coming.
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Anish Kapoor to design a mobile, 700 person capacity, inflatable “pneumatic structure” concert hall for Northern Japan to bring music and performing arts to the areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami [AO Newslink]
Annette Schonholzer and Marc Spiegler, co-directors Art Basel 2011. All pictures by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.
This year’s Art Basel has been a profitable one, and indicates the stability of the current market. With approximately $1.75 billion worth of artwork to buy, million dollar works sold fast this year. Yet while money is liberally dispensed, it is conservatively directed, suggestive of a post-Recession desire to spend without erring. The high market is specified, but sale and aesthetic trends stay consistently upbeat.
Meyer Riegger Karlsruhe, Berlin
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Yutaka Sone Little Manhattan (2007-2009) at David Zwirner Gallery – All images by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed
Art Observed remains on site in Basel, Switzerland for Art 42 Basel 2011. The following is our second of the photosets of the main fair. Stay tuned for more coverage of the main fair before the end of the week as well as profiles of the satellite exhibitions and events.
Artist Wim Delvoye before one of his sculptures at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
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Anish Kapoor Push – Pull (2008) – All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed
Art Observed begins its onsite coverage with a photoset of the people and works of Art 42 Basel’s Art Unlimited and Art Statement. Since 2000, Art Unlimited is Art Basel’s exhibition platform for projects that transcend the art booth formats. It includes video projections, large-scale installations, oversized sculptures and often live performances. Selected by the Art Basel Committee, it has been curated this year and since the beginning by Geneva curator Simon Lamunière.
Art Statements, also at the main fair, consists mainly of emerging artists. Art Statements features one-artist stands from rising galleries globally and is found in Hall 1.
Gallerist Tony Shafrazi
Inside the main fair today – All photos by Art Observed unless otherwise noted
Art Observed has arrived on site at Art 42 Basel. The exhibitions officially take place June 15th through 19th of this week in Basel, Switzerland, the cultural capital bordering France, Germany, and Switzerland, showcasing contemporary works of varied media. Every summer, the international venue hosts a myriad of dually up and coming and seasoned artists from galleries worldwide, with this year’s number of artists ranking at 2,500, with 300 galleries and 27 single stands . Unlike the Venice Biennale, Art Basel caters to the collector rather than the innovator, housing some of the best and brightest art marketeers as much as artists and curators from around the world. As indicative of an ever-increasing sense of globalization in art, Basel now represents 35 countries from six continents, with the United States most fully represented, representing 70 of the 300 galleries. Last year’s art show hosted a total of 62,500 noted creatives and collectors, curators, dealers and viewers.
Inside the main fair today
Art Observed will be updating throughout the exhibition, both through the site and on twitter.
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Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore, the site of Anish Kapoor’s “Ascension.” All photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.
Anish Kapoor‘s new project at the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice is “Ascension.” Backed by Galleria Continua (in collaboration with Fondazione Giorgio Cini and illycaffe), the project is curated by Lorenzo Fiaschi. In the site-specific installation, a column of white smoke rises from a circular base at the intersection between the transept and the nave of the basilica, making the immaterial tangible.
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Anish Kapoor, Her Blood (1998). Via Manchester Art Gallery
UK-based artist Anish Kapoor‘s retrospective at Manchester Art Gallery will be closing June 5th. The exhibition, aptly titled “Flashback” by the Arts Council Collection, chronicles more than 20 years worth of work. “Flashback” has been on view in Manchester since March, and will continue to tour England with shows lined up at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery from November 19th, 2011 to March 11th, 2012, and the Longside Gallery in Yorkshire Sculpture Park from June 16th to November 4th, 2012.
Anish Kapoor, White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers (1982). Via Manchester Art Gallery
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All photographs by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.
MONUMENTA is an invitation from the French Ministry for Culture and Communication for an internationally-renowned contemporary artist to create a site-specific work for the Grand Palais in Paris; this year’s invitation went to Indian-born Anish Kapoor. With 13,500 square meters of space, the Palais serves as a magnificent backdrop for artistic interaction. Previous invitations include Anselm Kiefer (2007), Richard Serra (2008) and Christian Boltanski (2010).
Entitled Leviathan, Kapoor’s sculpture is a breathtaking 35 meters high. ”My ambition,” the artist shares, “is to create a space within a space that responds to the height and luminosity of the Nave at the Grand Palais. Visitors will be invited to walk inside the work, to immerse themselves in colour, and it will, I hope, be a contemplative and poetic experience.”
Although Kapoor was all smiles during the inauguration of the sculpture, he took the publicity as an opportunity to show solidarity for Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Kapoor dedicated the sculpture to his incarcerated colleague, and issued a call to museums and galleries of the world to close for a day in protest of Wei Wei’s detention by the Chinese government.
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Anish Kapoor, Shooting Into the Corner, via The Telegraph
Last week brought the grand opening of Anish Kapoor‘s latest exhibition, his first ever in his native India. Kapoor claims to embrace his Indian heritage but believes that an artist’s identity should be based on their creativity, not nationality. He has in fact been looking for a suitable exhibition space in India for nearly a decade, finally deciding on the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Mehboob Film Studios.
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, via Flickr
More story after the jump…
Sky Mirror, Red (2009) by Anish Kapoor, via The Guardian
On view in London’s Kensington Gardens is a major exhibition of outdoor sculpture by London-based artist Anish Kapoor. Presented jointly by the Serpentine Gallery and the Royal Parks, the exhibition displays works not previously shown together in London. Dispersed throughout the gardens, Kapoor’s sculptures are made from highly-reflective stainless steel, which create large mirrored surfaces to distort the image the surrounding environment.
C-Curve (2007) by Anish Kapoor, via The Guardian
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Untitled 1, Julie Mehretu. Estimated: $600,000—800,000. Price Realized: 1,022,500.
118 artworks that once hung in the corporate offices of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sold to bidders at Sotheby’s auction house in New York today for $12.3 million, exceeding the high-end estimate of $12 million. The sale comes almost exactly two years after the investment bank filed the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States and its proceeds will be used to pay off the $613 billion owed to creditors. Today, Kimberly Macleod, spokesperson for Lehman Brothers commented: “We are delighted that Sotheby’s delivered the value we sought on behalf of the creditors and that the result was at the top of the pre-sale estimate.”
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Anish Kapoor with his work, Vertigo (2008), via Guggenheim Bilbao
Currently showing at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain is an exhibit of works by Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor. Kapoor is known for his simple, large, monochromatic pieces. His work has been shown internationally and is featured in many large cities around the world. According to the gallery’s website, this show is the first large-scale exhibition of Kapoor’s work shown in Spain.
Shooting into the Corner (2008-09) by Anish Kapoor, via A World to Win
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Shooting into the Corner, Anish Kapoor, 2009. Image via Scai the Bathhouse.
Anish Kapoor has installed five new sculptures at Scai the Bathhouse, Tokyo. This is the third time Kapoor has exhibited his sculptures at the Japanese contemporary art gallery. Although from Mumbai, India, Scai’s location prompted Kapoor to draw inspiration from Japanese craft, and to collaborate with an urushi lacquerware artist.
Untitled, Anish Kapoor, 2009. Image via Scai the Bathhouse.
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