Antony Gormley, Still Standing (2011-12). Installation view. Via AntonyGormley.com.

British sculptor Antony Gormley has been given the opportunity to place seventeen new works in the Dionysius Hall of the classical Greek and Roman galleries of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.  The exhibition is titled Still Standing: A Contemporary Intervention in the Classical Collection; the unique juxtaposition of contemporary sculpture in a classical setting sheds new light on the Hermitage Museum.

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Antoine Dorotte’s Una Misteriosa Bola (2011). All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.

Just a stone’s throw from the Grand Palais, the host site of FIAC 2011, sculptures abound at the Jardin des Tuileries. Works include those by Urs Fischer, Antony Gormley, and Navid Nuur.

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Vincent Mauger, La somme des hypothèses (2011)

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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.

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Jay Jopling of White Cube, which is exhibiting Damien Hirst’s Where Will It End.

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Installation view of “For the Time Being” at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, (Antony Gormley is at right) All images Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

Antony Gormley with Cumulate (2011)

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Antony Gormley,  MEME CLII (2011). Via Anna Schwartz Gallery

Antony Gormley‘s new work, a series of small iron sculptures, is being exhibited at Anna Schwartz Gallery from March 17th through April 23rd. The show’s title, “MEMES”, draws inspiration from the analogical relationship between genes and the unit of social information named memes–a cultural phenomenon that transmits information through self-replication and mutates in order to successfully adapt to its environment. These properties provide a syntactic framework for Gormley’s series, where he aims to set up a correlation between the dynamic and unpredictable meme, and the individual iron-cast sculptures.

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Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1990 (est. £5-7 million), via Sothebys.com

The February auctions continue this week in London with Contemporary Art sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips de Pury. The day after Valentine’s Day buyers can cozy up to sixty lots at the Sotheby’s Contemporary art evening sale that are estimated to bring upwards of £30 million. The following night Christie’s will offer sixty-four lots that are expected to fetch £36-52 million. Phillips de Pury closes the week’s auctions with a twenty-nine lot sale that carries an estimate of £5.8-8.5 million. Christie’s is the only house to have officially released their 2010 global sales figures, and the numbers are impressive. The company sold £3.3 billion (or $5 billion) worth of art last year, more than any previous year in their 245-year history. Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art London, revealed that the firm sold $845 million worth of Contemporary art in 2010 and that this is the third-highest total at the company in the field. At November’s Contemporary art auctions Phillips de Pury debuted a sparkling new gallery space on Park Avenue in New York and had the biggest sale of the week when Andy Warhol’s Men in Her Life sold for $63.4 million. It was a good year for Contemporary art, and the results of this week’s sales are expected to indicate whether the market will continue to recover in 2011 as it did in 2010.

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Andy Warhol, Nine Multicoloured Marilyns (Reversal Series), 1979-1986 (est. £2-3 million), via Sothebys.com

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Antony Gormley, Transport (2011) via Kentish Gazette

Antony Gormley, famed English sculptor and creator of the well known public installations featuring manifestations of the human form “Angel of the North” (Gateshead, England) as well as “Event Horizon“(New York/London) and “One and Other” (London) recently unveiled his newest creation in an uncanny location – a crypt within Canterbury Cathedral dating back to the 12th century. The  2 meter-long piece, entitled “Transport”, hovers suspended from the vaulted ceilings in permanent limbo. Shaped in the form of the human body, the work is entirely constructed from hand-made nails re-purposed from a recent restoration. Though seemingly gruesome, Gormley is in fact attempting to explore a higher level of meaning above the physical realm. The specific form calls attention to the idea of our own mortality, as Gormley seemingly is pointing at the transient nature of the human body.

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Exposure (2010) by Antony Gormley, via Artdaily–>

One of Antony Gormley‘s most intricate sculptures to date, a massive, squatting human figure, now stands 25 meters high near the Dutch city of Lelystad. The work, entitled Exposure, is five meters higher than Gormley’s most famous sculpture, Angel of the North, and weighs approximately 60 tons. The figure is composed of 5,000 hand-cut metal rods, each of a different length, and fastened with 14,000 bolts. The artist spent more than five years planning and creating the gargantuan structure, which would stand 100 meters tall if fully-erect.

Exposure (2010) by Antony Gormley, via TheGuardian

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Damien Hirst, St. Bartholomew Exquisite Pain, 2006. Image via exhibition website.

On view at Gloucester Cathedral through October 30, 2010 is ‘Crucible,’ a large group exhibition of contemporary sculpture displaying more than 75 works of art. The show is installed in both the main building and throughout the grounds, and features work by some of Britain’s most important living artists, including Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, David Nash, Marcus Harvey, and Lynn Chadwick. Of the participating artists, 13 are members of the Royal Academy of Arts, and 1 Royal Hibernian Academian. The exhibit opened to the public on September 1, and is organized jointly by Glouster Cathedral and Gallery Pangolin.

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Horizon Field (2010) by Antony Gormley, via The Guardian

Currently on view is a unique project in the mountains of Vorarlberg, Austria produced by British artist Antony Gormley (b.1950) in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Bregenz. Entitled Horizon Field, the project consists of 100 life-size solid cast-iron figures of the human body, dispersed over an area of 150 square kilometers in the Austrian Alps. The positioning of the figures in such a special location addresses the relationship between human beings and life on earth.

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Breathing Room III (2010) by Antony Gormley, via White Cube

Currently on view at the White Cube, Mason’s Yard in London is an exhibition of new works by Antony Gormley. The artist has created a new-site specific installation and a new series of cast-iron block work sculptures. The works aim to depict how time engages with objects and how in turn objects influence human beings.

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Louise Bourgeois in her Brooklyn studio in 1992. Photo courtesy The New York Times.

Louise Bourgeois, one of the world’s most celebrated sculptors, passed away today at the age of 98. The news was announced by an Italian foundation preparing an exhibition of the artist’s work in Venice, and was confirmed by Wendy Williams, the managing director of the Louise Bourgeois Studio. The cause of death was heart attack, and occurred at the Beth Israel Medical Center. Bourgeois was a leader of feminist art, and is known most recently for her large-scale metal spider sculptures, as well as psychologically-charged roughly-textured depictions of sex organs.

Bourgeois’s 30-ft spider sculpture outside the Tate Modern in 2007. Photo courtesy the BBC.

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Antony Gormley, Breathing Room II, 2010. Installation view with lights off.

Currently on show at the Sean Kelly Gallery is an exhibition of new works by the preeminent British sculptor Antony Gormley.  This exhibition acts as a welcome compliment to Gormley’s current public art installation, Event Horizon, in Madison Square Park, continuing his career-long exploration of the human body in space. Conversely to Event Horizon, the Breathing Room exhibition investigates the human body confined within the boundaries of architecture. What is more, Gormley’s work is ostensibly the visual representation of how the body exists as a “bounding box of the mind” [Sean Kelly Gallery Press Release] and how architecture becomes fortification for the body.  Thus he draws parallels between the body and architecture, which are particularly well articulated in this exhibition.

Antony Gormley, Breathing Room II, 2010, Installation view with lights on.

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This morning ArtObserved attended the official press preview of New York’s latest public art show – Antony Gormley‘s ‘Event Horizon.’ Through August 15, 31 life-size figures cast from the artist’s own body will inhabit the pathways and sidewalks of Madison Square Park, as well as the rooftops of the many architectural treasures that populate New York’s Flatiron district, including the Empire State building. Event Horizon marks Gormley’s public art debut in the US – a milestone for an artist who has created some of the most important public art pieces of our time that include Angel of the North and Another Place in the UK. Antony Gormley originally created Event Horizon for London’s Hayward Gallery in 2007 – the sculptures were installed on bridges, rooftops and streets along the South Bank of London’s Thames River. Event Horizon will run together with Gormley’s Breathing Room II – on show at Sean Kelly Gallery through May 1, 2010. Full coverage of both events will follow shortly.

Antony Gormley introduces his installation this morning in Madison Square Park alongside New York’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg

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Tacita Dean’s Christmas tree, ‘Weihnachtsbaum‘ at Tate Britain via Zimbio

The Tate has been embracing the Christmas spirit this week with a series of headlining seasonal happenings.  The Tate Christmas Tree 2009, “Weihnachtsbaum” designed by Tacita Dean, shocked critics by actually appearing “Christmassy”[Bloomberg]  This weekend, Tate Modern’s vast Turbine Hall was taken over by Rob Pruitt‘s festive ‘Flea Market’ – originally held at Gavin Brown’s Passerby gallery in New York in the late 1990s, this event was programmed to coincide with the Tate Modern exhibition Pop Life: Art in a Material World, in which Pruitt also appears [POP Magazine]

Italian police have seized works of art belonging to Carlisto Tanzi – founder of the Italian firm Parmalat who collapsed in a massive fraud scandal in 2003. The 19 paintings and drawings, included works by Picasso, Monet and Van Gogh, and is estimated to be worth more than 100million euros [BBC News]

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Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon that will appear in New York’s Madison Square Park in March 2010 via ArtInfo

Antony Gormley has announced plans to install 31 nude sculptures cast from his own body in and around Madison Square Park in Manhattan’s Flatiron District beginning March 26 [NY Times]

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Head of a Muse, Raphael via Guardian UK

-Offered for the first time at public auction as part of Christie’s Old Masters sale, Raphael’s drawing “Head of a Muse”- a study for a figure in one of his Vatican frescoes, if it achieves its estimate £12-16million, will break the auction record for an old master drawing currently held by Michelangelo’s and Leonardo da Vinci’s works [Guardian UK]

-As art collectors become more cautious with their purchases, dealers at Frieze and FIAC fairs put works on reserve, among them $40 million Mondrian allegedly put on hold for Bernard Arnault [Bloomberg]

-Ms. Temkin, the chief curator of painting and sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, introduces unexpected changes, unframing certain paintings and subjecting the almost sacralized permanent collection to frequent renewal [The New York Times]

“Your Mercury Ocean” Skateboard by Olafur Eliasson via aarting

-Another collaboration between Mekanism and Olafur Eliasson results in a 13-ply deck 3d patterned skateboard with a mirror coating [aarting]
-In related, Olafur Eliasson commissions by the mayor of Copenhagen to design a bridge for the Danish capital; the artist shares his plans for a transparent bridge in a close vicinity to the water [The Art Newspaper]

– The survey carried out by the Art Fund, the UK’s independent art charity, shows that despite the substantial drop in public funding and investment income, a figure that proves to grow in the context of economic fall is the number of visits to museums [Art Knowledge News]

-In the midst of economic uncertainty, gallery Matthew Marks, which represents artists such as Jasper Johns, and Peter Fischli and David Weiss, plans on expansion with a new space on the West Coast [The New York Times]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)

Ron, Will Cotton via Artnet

-Eric Fischl, Chie Fueki, Hilary Harkness, Will Cotton, Francesco Clemente, Peter Halley and Barbara Kruger  are all a part of the long list of artists who have created, dedicated and portrayed Ron Warren in their works; Mary Boone’s assistant he has always played an understated yet influential role leading to a Mary Boone Gallery exhibition in his honor [The New York Times]

-The 2009 edition of the Power 100 by ArtReview is released with Hans Ulrich Obrist taking the first place and the list showcasing some changes in the influences and forces of the art world; the top ten include dealers and artists as Larry Gagosian, Francois Pinault, Eli Broad and Bruce Nauman [ArtReview]
-In related, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, the director of Serpentine Gallery, just voted to be the art world’s most powerful figure by the Power 100, gives an idea of how busy his week gets [The Independent]

-A $310 million collection of Mark Rothko paintings to be shown next spring in artist’s first Moscow solo exhibition at Dasha Zkukova’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture [Bloomberg]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)

Afro Apparition, Chris Ofili (b.1968) all pictures from Sotheby’s unless otherwise noted.

Today Sotheby’s London held their October Contemporary Art Auction to coincide with Frieze Art Fair which is currently underway in London’s Regent’s Park and art observed was on site with coverage.  The 223 lot auction comprised of work, in a range of media, by leading post-war artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Chris Ofili, Gerhard Richter, Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Frank Auerbach, Anthony Gormley, Farhad Moshiri and Yan Pei Ming. 73% of the contemporary works were sold and the eventual total of the sales came in at  12,757,125 GBP. All sale totals stated in this article include buyer’s premiums and come directly from Sotheby’s official website or courtesy of The Baer Faxt.

Fuego Flores, Jean-Michel Basquiat

Related Links:
Sotheby’s Homepage
Autumn Fairs are a Barometer for the Art Market [NYTimes]
Can Frieze reheat the art market? [The Independent]

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Jeff Koons’s giant rabbit at the Covent Garden in London via Hypebeast

A giant helium-filled Jeff Koons balloon made its UK debut on October 8th, the inflatable rabbit floated above central London, it will be displayed in Covent garden [The Independent]
Coinciding with the Frieze fair, the 10th Turbine Hall commission launches, Baldessari’s retrospective opening the same day, Hayward Gallery presents Ed Ruscha, Turner Prize coming up and many other shows and openings, turn London into the center of attention [Guardian UK]
Frieze art fair excites not merely the International art scene, but also the social diaries of those who like to mingle with the rich and famous [Guardian UK] the contemporary art event even has installations to turn its visitors into the subjects of the artwork. [The Independent] Only displaying works by contemporary living artists, Frieze has been considered 1-dimensional in the past. Frieze helps London take over the art world in October [The Independent]- but not without competition, as FIAC, the Parisian fair, is to begin next week and may steal the battle as art collectors in today’s economic climate are forced to pick which fairs they will be attending [The Wall Street Journal]

Unrecognized work by Leonardo Da Vinci via Antiques Trade Gazette

A drawing sold at auction for $19,000 in the late 1990s is now attracting attention for its authorship, if by Leonardo Da Vinci, a theory that recent research strongly suggests, the work could be worth as much as $147 million [Bloomberg]
The Wapping Project in London, often compared to Tate Modern, is expanding with the opening of the Wapping Project Bankside- a new gallery reminiscent of a New York loft to feature film, video and photography almost “a stone’s throw” from Tate [The Moment]
The Whitney Museum of American Art’s plans for a second Renzo Piana location have advanced [The New York Times]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week … (more…)

Kirsten Dunst on the set of a production by Takashi Murakami in collaboration with McG via aarting

Tate Modern’s “Pop Life: Art in a Material World,” features a video that is a collaboration between McG – famous Hollywood director, and Murakami – Japan’s king of pop art: starring actress Kirsten Dunst on the streets of Akihabara in Tokyo for “Turning Japanese” by rock band The Vapors [The Wall Street Journal]
A 1984 work by Chinese artist Li Keran sold for $940,000, the most for a print at a Hong Kong auction, where bidding led by mainland buyers has taken many prices several times above estimates [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s Asia sales in Hong Kong revealed that demand for Chinese paintings, while firm, is mixed; as the market is still vulnerable, less pricey, quality pieces were the ones to realize numbers higher than their estimates [Reuters]
Works including those by Renoir, Pollock, Degas and Rembrandt stolen from the home of a retired Harvard Medical School professor and collector, and his business partner; only authentic pieces were taken, leaving behind impeccable reproductions [Boston Globe via Art Market Monitor] in related Uncooperative and unable to produce evidence that the stolen art existed, Angelo Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, become suspects of the theft to which allegedly they are victims [ArtDaily]

Tracey Emin via Guardian UK

Discouraged by British government’s top rate tax, Tracey Emin threatens to abandon England for France where she claims the politicians understand the importance of supporting culture and art [Guardian UK] in related At the London’s Frieze Art Fair, in the booth of New York’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Tracey Emin, known for her confessional artwork, is offering to make customized artworks based on answers to fifteen personal questions [Artinfo]
Fanjul paintings nationalized by Cuba in an exhibit in Museo del Prado in Madrid involve legal consequences as the Museum is being investigated by the US department of state for illegal trafficking of a work of art owned by US citizen confiscated by Cuban government [The Art Newspaper]
Turner Prize exhibit at Tate Britain in London this time startles the viewers with the lack of now expected blood, outrage and other shock factors [Bloomberg]
The Bloomberg administration makes an announcement of its plan to give nonprofit cultural groups access to gallery and theater space in city owned properties and help artists develop business plans [Crain’s Business]

Donald Judd concrete constructions in Marfa Texas via Hip-Ster-Krit

6 of 15 concrete constructions built by Donald Judd in Marfa Texas required repair and conservation work, October 10th the works will once again be open to the public [Artinfo]
A look at the Chinese Gao brothers who are shocking their country with brave, politically challenging art works, such as a life-size sculpture of Mao whose body is only reunited with his head on ‘special occasions’ [The New York Times]
When most artists’ prices are decreasing in a recession, a few go up: Italian Maurizio Cattelan is one of those who thrive in the tough economic times, an analysis of his work reveals some truths on the variables of the art market [The Economist]

Damien Hirst posing in front of his work via ARTblog +

A portrait of Damien Hirst built through an interview: his influences, unusual artistic paths (such as painting) and mediums to come, and a subjective depiction of the artist’s personality [Times Online] in related Hirst tells BBC that he will not be producing large scale installations and will rather concentrate solely on painting by applying oil to the canvas with his hands, something he has been secretly doing these recent years [BBC] and in related the FT reports that Hirst lays off much of his staff, closes two studios and is actually making paintings himself; while the galleries give no comments on the unsold works worth millions [Financial Times]
As art fairs struggle to retain exhibitors, a new modern and contemporary fair in Abu Dhabi signs up forty-eight names, including PaceWildenstein, Gagosian, Acquavella and White Cube [Lindsay Pollock] related 50 paintings from the New York Guggenheim Museum to be shown in Abu Dhabi [Arts Abu Dhabi]

‘Fuego Flores’ by Jean Michel Basquiat via Auction Publicity

Sotheby’s October Contemporary Art Auction, estimated to realize in excess of £9 million, will include works by leading artists, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anish Kapoor, Andy Warhol, Chris Ofili, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley and Yan Pei-Ming [Auction Publicity]
Following in the footsteps of Anselm Kiefer and Toni Morrison, Umberto Eco has been named the next guest curator at the Louvre; the show “Vertige de la Liste” (Vertigo of Lists) will revolve around his chosen theme “the list” [Artinfo] in related news, talks are underway to open a McDonald’s restaurant and a McCafé at the Louvre next month [Telegraph]
An art dealer from Stockholm, Sweden has been accused of faking works by heavyweight modernists including Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele [Artnet]

Child of lonely – performance by Terence Koh October 6 at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Photo Olivier Zahm via purple DIARY

Terence Koh prepared his first solo show at the Parisian gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, which takes a form of an imaginary opera in eight acts, the first act taking place October 6, 2009 [The Art Newspaper]
The four artists shortlisted for Turner Prize 2009 are: Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright; the winner is to be announced December 7th [Turner Prize 2009]
Jerry Saltz writes about new galleries emerging despite the economic crises, provides a list of new galleries to see and comments on the effects of the recession on the female artists [New York mag]

The current state of the building to house Sperone Westwater and the computer rendering of it via Lindsay Pollock

A concrete foundation is rising at the site of the future Sperone Westwater gallery designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster on the Bowery; the 10 story building will rise only one block away from New Museum [Lindsay Pollock]
As opposed to expanding outside their home in LA, Tim Blum and Jeff Poe open a new 21,000 square foot space conveniently located in front of their existing gallery on South La Cienga Boulevard, Los Angeles [Los Angeles Times]

Jacket designed by JR via The World’s Best Ever

A jacket from JR’s Face2Face Project comes in a limited edition of only 100 [The World’s Best Ever] in related A video interview with JR in Paris about his project Women are Heroes, which allows the viewers to call a number and hear an interview with one of the chosen women for the project [Vernissage TV]
An interview with Dasha Zhukova that notes her easy acceptance in the art world [Guardian UK]
28 as opposed to 40 exhibitors had pulled out of the Frieze Art Fair, yet despite the equally disappointing numbers, many lesser known, but in no way inferior galleries, will get a shot at the famous art fair [Telegraph]

Miranda July via Vice

Miranda July creates a series of photographs to imitate and bring attention to the extras in iconic movies [Vice]
An Italian professor, Dr Seracini, has been working on technology that can enable the search for the largest painting Leonardo da Vinci ever painted – The Battle of Anghiari, a work he believes to be hidden underneath the frescoes in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio [The New York Times]
MoMA received an unexpected gift this month – an estate, estimated to be worth more than $10 million, belonging to the late Michael H. Dunn, a bachelor from Derby, Vermont [The New Yorker]

Rembrandt’s portrait of an unknown man via Times Online

Estimated at £25m, a portrait by Rembrandt is expected to raise a record price for the artist at Christie’s in London [Guardian UK]
Despite crisis, Mikhail Piotrovsky- the director of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg is planning an expansion, reinstallation and several new international venues [ARTnews]
Tate’s plan to increase display space by 60% is challenged by a £140m shortfall; donation for the past year amount only to £4m due to recession [The Independent] in related Tate announces upcoming exhibitions of Gauguin, Picasso and Chris Ofili [Guardian UK]
More on ex art-dealer Anthony d’Offay, who traded a $160m profit for a chance to provide the British public with an access to contemporary and modern art [Bloomberg]
Reuters Felix Salmon calls on Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn who claims that Damien Hirst’s sales are recovered to levels seen at peak of the art market boom; Salmon claims the analysis by Reyburn is unsubstantiated [Reuters and Bloomberg via ArtMarketMonitor]

Ai WeiWei via Twitter

Ai Weiwei publishes on twitter images of himself going in for surgery after undergoing an attack by Chinese police [The Art Newspaper]
RoseLee Goldberg, Performa’s founding director, reads an excerpt from the Futurist Manifesto, announces details and gives hints about the surprise performances and their locations [Artinfo]
The director of the MET, Thomas Campbell, shares that the painting reattributed to Velazquez last week, “Portrait of a Man”, may soon travel to the Prado Museum in Madrid [ArtDaily]
More on the Artist Pension Trust, an investment vehicle that provides artists, who rarely engage in financial planning, with financial security when they retire [Guardian UK]
An antique shop in New Mexico put on sale a Van Gogh sketch for his painting Night Cafe, from a May 13 burglary, worth $250,000-1million, for $250 [Artinfo]

Caravaggio, The Supper at Emmaus via Artinfo

The National Gallery in London is sending Caravaggio’s The Supper at Emmaus to be exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago from October 10, 2009 to January 31, 2010 [Fine Art Publicity]
Since Thursday, 110 galleries, most of them in Chelsea opened their doors to the new art season, showcasing what sells, what is missing on the art scene and which gallery spaces are more beneficial to the sales [New York Magazine]
Pope Benedict XVI organizes an art summit reaching out to 500 contemporary artists to reunite in Vatican [BBC via Art Market Monitor]  in related After his initial refusal to participate in Vatican’s art initiative, that will attempt to reestablish the dialogue between spirituality and art, Bill Viola rearranges his schedule and accepts Pope’s invitation [Artnet]
Curator of Modern and contemporary art at Menil Collection, Franklin Sirmans will be appointed chief curator oc contemporary art in LACMA and will assume his position in January [Culture Monster]

Anish Kapoor via Times Online

After an attempt to investigate the very nature of the scale of Anish Kapoor’s work and the man behind the work in an article published last week, Times Online writes on Anish Kapoor’s retrospective, providing a survey of the artist’s career, at the Royal Academy [Times Online]
An interview with Turner Prize winning video artist Steve McQueen where the artist speaks of his childhood, artistic influences, his musical preferences and view on art world and Artist Yoshimoto Nara speaks of musical, artistic and personal influences on his work [Guardian UK]

Velazquez, Las Meninas via The Wall Street Journal

Velazquez’s “Las Meninas”- an enigmatic work that has contributed to the shift of its very medium from the realm of craft to that of art [The Wall Street Journal]
Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, Marc Quinn, Antony Gormley and other contemporary artists donating works to Sotheby’s “Art for Africa Auction” on tonight [ArtDaily]
September 16, at the Guggenheim International Gala, a $1.2m Ellsworth Kelly painting received by the Museum as a gift was auctioned [Auction Central News]
The life and death of Dash Snow [Guardian UK]
Art critic, Holland Carter, proposes smaller and more smartly curated shows to take place of large blockbuster exhibits [The New York Times]
A new 37,000-square-foot outdoor space is lent temporarily to Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for exhibitions and performances by developers postponing their building projects, hence the name- LentSpace [The New York Times]

Richard Serra, Shift (Detail) via Arts Journal

As a 1970 iconic earthwork by Serra outside Toronto remains endangered, a litigious battle concerning access to and protection of the artwork continues [Arts Journal]
New York’s Armory show will move in geographic pattern from representing one city to another, its first choice is Berlin [Lindsay Pollock]
A short interview by brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, discussing their drawings [Guardian UK]
David Zwirner is to be the first dealer to solely represent The Estate of Dan Falvin [David Zwirner]
New works by Julian Schanbel, Paul Chan, John Currin and Francesco Vezzoli are currently on show at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in an exhibition inspired by Mary Magdalene [metoperafamily.org]
Book review: “I Sold Andy Warhol (too soon)” by Richard Polsky [WallStreetJournal]

Zac Posen, RTW Spring 2010. Via WWD.com

Rosson Crow designs floral prints for Zac Posen’s Spring RTW collection [wwd.com]
Julian Schnabel is selling pieces from his art collection, including work by Picabia, Braque and Balthus to finance his divorce [New York Post]
The Roman Empire – Russia’s Roman Abramovich’s toychest of expensive things, inlcuding works by Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud, is examined [Wall Street Journal]
Sales of Chinese art at Sotheby’s Total: $15,532,479 Exceeding Expectations [ArtDaily]
The king of Japanese Contemporary Art, Takashi Murakami, speaks openly about the state of the art market, his legacy and his upcoming plans [Artinfo.com]
An encounter with Takashi Murakami in the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel, New York following his opening at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea [NYTimes]

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Angel of the North (Life-Size Maquette), Antony Gormley 1997. Via Chatsworth

Currently on display in the grounds of Chatsworth House, home to the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, is Sotheby’s ‘Beyond Limits‘; a selling exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture which the auction house claims is their “largest and most diverse to date.” The exhibition will continue through November 1.  It will be the fourth year of the installation, which has become known as one of the most prestigious platforms for displaying monumental works in an outdoor setting.  On display are bronze sculptures by Henry Moore and Aristade Millol, as well as contemporary pieces by Antony Gormley, Marc Quinn, Subodh Gupta and Fernando Botero.  All works on display are available for private sale.

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Three Piece Reclining Figure: Draped, Henry Moore (1975). Via Sotheby’s

Related Links:
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Chatsworth House Homepage [Chatsworth House]
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‘Beyond Limits’ Event Page [Chatsworth House]
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‘Beyond Limits’ Catalogue [Sotheby’s]
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‘Beyond Limits’ Press Release [Sotheby’s]
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VIDEO TOUR Beyond Limits: A Selling Exhibition of Monumental Sculpturewith Simon Stock, Deputy Director, Impressionist & Modern Art [Sotheby’s]
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In Pictures: Giant Sculputres at Chatsworth House [BBC NEWS]
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Big-money sales behind closed doors [Telegraph.co.uk]

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Detail view Critical Mass II, Antony Gormley’s work exhibited currently at Kunsthaus Bregenz

Four major installations by a British contemporary artist Antony Gormley, made over the last fifteen years, are presented at Kunsthaus Bregenz. Body and Fruit, Allotment, Critical Mass and Clearing are works currently showing in the Austrian exhibition space. The latter four series by Antony Gormley all explore the artist’s favored themes: body, memory and self-knowledge. The dialogue aroused when these themes involve the viewer becomes an essential part of Gormley’s art. “Every experience in some way is given depth by previous experience” A.Gormley. The show runs through October 4, 2009.

Related Links:
Antony Gormley, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria [Antony Gormley]
Antony Gormley [Kunsthaus Bregenz]
Bregenz Art Museum [Interior Design]
Antony Gormley at Kunsthaus Bregenz [Vernissage TV]
Antony Gormley [White Cube]

Antony Gormley at Kunsthaus Bregenz via Vernissage TV

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Some of the 40,000 clay figures from Field for the British Isles. Via Torre Abbey

One of the largest Medieval Monasteries in the UK is hosting the most recent addition to Antony Gormley’s Turner-prize-winning  Field series, Field for the British Isles. Earlier works from this series were created and displayed in Mexico, Sweden, London and Porto Velho in the Amazon Basin. The show runs through August 23, 2009. Presently Gormley’s One & Other project is underway on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London.

Related Links:
Torre Abbey Homepage [Torre Abbey]
Field for the British Isles event page [Torre Abbey]
Antony Gormley’s ‘terracotta army’ invades Devon barn [Telegraph.co.uk]
Historic Abbey to show prestigious artwork [BBC Devon]
Field for the British Isles project page [AntonyGormley.com]
Antony Gormley: Field (2004 at Tate Liverpool) [Tate.org.uk]

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