Kazimir Malevich, Self Portrait (1908-1910), State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

In 1915, Kazimir Malevich first exhibited his Black Square, a simple, powerful statement on the possibilities for painting in the face of contemporaries still bound up in the exploration of figurative painting and impressionist tropes.  The piece marked a bounding leap forward for modernist practice, or rather, a point of entry in its own right to the early concepts of abstraction.

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Painting (with Black Trapezium and Red Square) (1915), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (more…)

Rock Climbing Wall at DISown, via Art Observed

Dis has always had one foot in the world of fashion.  Its close ties to Hood by Air and Telfar Clemens notwithstanding, the New York-based collective has a long history of covering contemporary fashion and arts with a similarly detached eye, always seeking to underline the commodity culture lurking behind the guise of both “high arts.”  Now, the group is taking its longtime skirting of the line between art and commerce to a new level, opening its “retail diffusion” shop DisOwn at Red Bull Studios this week during Armory Week.

DISown at Red Bull Studios (Installation View), via Dis (more…)

Giacomo Balla, Mercury Passing Before the Sun (1914), via Art Observed

From the opening lines of the The Futurist Manifesto, on view near the ground floor of the Guggenheim’s current historical survey of the early 20th century Italian avant-garde, one can detect a certain mechanistic determinism, a powerful, single-minded focus on the power of industry, science and machines.  F.T. Marinetti’s famous lines summon the roar of the engine, and the hum of electricity in equal measure, damning an Italy obsessed with its own past, and embracing a new future as a world power.

Umberto Boccioni, Elasticity (Elasticità), (1912), Courtesy Guggenheim Museum (more…)

Margaret Lee at Jack Hanley (Installation View), via Art Observed

Currently on view, Closer to right than wrong/ Closer to wrong than right is Margaret Lee’s second solo show at Jack Hanley Gallery. For the exhibition, Lee—co-founder of the Lower East Side gallery 47 Canal, an arbiter of art-world cool—has assembled a showroom of sorts, featuring an array of furniture-like pieces festooned with a uniform black and white Dalmatian print. While Lee’s previous work frequently dealt in a brash take on domestic objects, such as eggplant or cucumber-shaped telephones, the tone of the current exhibition is comparatively subdued. A tongue-in-cheek minimalism prevails, with polka dots turning the installation’s assorted objects—a chair, a lamp, a side table, and even a painting on the wall—into the sort of kitsch that undermines what could otherwise be mistaken as a serious design sensibility.

Margaret Lee at Jack Hanley (Installation View), via Art Observed (more…)

The opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics last week prominently featured the touchstones of the Russian avant-garde, The Art Newspaper notes.  References and tributes to Malevich, Tatlin and Rodchenko could be seen throughout the ceremony, but some critics noted that the inclusion of these artists was a bid by Vladimir Putin to culturally tie the country closer to Europe.   “He needs to feel that attempts to become European are immediately appreciated and not rejected,” says Marat Guelman, the curator and former museum director forced from his post at the Perm Museum over political critiques. “Otherwise if he sees that whatever he does he is trashed, he’ll spit on it all and start building an Orthodox Iran.”  (more…)

Michael Beutler, Weaving Workshop (2009-2013) all images courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

At the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is the largest ever textile show presented by the museum to date, including more than 100 woven works by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger, as well as several contemporary artists. The show will remain on view through February 9th.

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Taking a cue from its country’s robust banking operations, the Swiss art market is luring more foreign buyers to the country for the purchase of Swiss works.  “A lot of collectors see that Swiss art has a very high standard in comparison with international movements, and our most important artists, like Hodler, Cuno Amiet and the Giacometti family, were not only Swiss but European avant-gardists.” Urs Lanter, head of Sotheby’s Switzerland unit says. (more…)

A German investigation into a multi-million dollar art forgery ring has led to the arrest of two suspects, and the seizure of over 1,000 objects.  The illegal operation specialized in avant-garde Russian works of the 20th century, including forged pieces by Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Natalia Goncharova.  “It’s well known that avant-garde works are particularly subject to forgery purely on stylistic grounds,” says auctioneer William MacDougal. “It’s not that difficult to paint a convincing black square. It’s much more difficult to forge a Rembrandt, for instance.” (more…)

The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns, (Installation View) © Felix Clay 2013. Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery

Taking a diverse look at Marcel Duchamp’s influence on artists around the globe, the Barbican in London is currently presenting The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns, following the artist’s influence on several modern masters in the fields of composition, choreography and the visual arts. Featuring around 90 works by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, as well as choreographic work by Merce Cunningham and works by John Cage, the show takes great pleasure in crossing the disciplines of art, dance and music to reflect the multi-faceted work of these artists.

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1950 replica of 1917 original) Photo Felix Clay 2013, Courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery. (more…)

It was 100 years ago this week that the first Armory Show brought the avant-garde of Europe to the United States, turning conceptions of painting and art-making on its ear.  Lasting only four weeks, the show offered American art-goers some of the first glimpses of work by Picasso, Edvard Munch, Duchamp, and many more.   (more…)