AO Art Observed™

Banksy iPhone App available for mapping all known Banksy works [AO Newslink]

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André, Love Graffiti: Annabelle (2011).  All images by S. Zabrodski for Art Observed, unless otherwise stated.

MOCA’s exhibition, ‘Art in the Streets’ has proven to be a hugely popular, if not highly contentious, addition to L.A.’s summer arts scene. Located at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo, the massive space includes the work of around 50 artists in a range of media including murals, photography, installations, graffitied vehicles, and re-created cityscapes. The show has come under fire for its glorification of what many perceive as vandalism. Indeed, the area surrounding Geffen Contemporary saw a spike in graffiti following the opening of ‘Art in the Streets’ in mid-April. As with any survey show, there have been many objections relating to both the inclusion and exclusion of certain artists. Even before the opening, MOCA Director, Jeffrey Deitch, drew criticism for the museum’s censorship of Italian street artist Blu’s mural depicting coffins covered with dollar bills. The mural was painted over after Deitch deemed it insensitive given its location near a veteran’s memorial. Both in spite of and because of these debates, the show has sparked a discourse that is significant for both artists and audience- since the show has opened, Banksy, one of the artists included in the exhibit,  has begun sponsoring free admission on Mondays to pull in even more viewers to an already record-breaking show. Bansky is quoted as saying, “I don’t think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it.” The exhibition was slated to travel to the Brooklyn Museum in 2012, but was recently cancelled due to financial constraints.

Swoon, Ice Queen (2011)

more images and story after the jump…

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Mr. Brainwash of Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop plasters LA for new Red Hot Chili Peppers album (with cover by Damien Hirst) [AO Newslink]

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Banksy, A clip from Exit Through the Gift Shop (via The New York Times)

The Oscars tonight are intrinsically linked to the contemporary art market, with new players like Banksy wreaking havoc on the academy while a charismatic actor/emerging artist  James Franco hosts the ceremony. As the show draws ever-closer, uncertainty blankets the unfolding succession of events.  In the weeks leading up to the Oscars, where his film Exit Through the Gift Shop has been nominated for Best Documentary alongside Vik Muniz, Banksy’s graffiiti has been hotly debated as it appeared throughout the Los Angeles area. The multitude of works further underscores the question of his actual identity, especially as an Oscar nominee.  Banksy is famous for being faceless; his anonymity fuels the curiosity and  hype surrounding his street art.  His work has been decried as vandalism, lauded as satirical genius, and sold at Urban Outfitters in the form of his book, Wall and Piece.

Gus Van Sant, James Franco, and Larry Gagosian at this weekend’s opening (via the Billy Farrell Agency)

more images and story after the jump…

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Still, Waste Land, via Oscar

Documentary films by Vik Muniz and Banksy have both been nominated for an Academy Award in the same category of Best Documentary Feature. Muniz’s stirring Waste Land and Banksy’s clever Exit through the Gift Shop will face off at the Oscars in Hollywood on February 27, with hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco. The question of Banksy’s presence is especially hyped as the artist’s true identity is entirely secretive—as dictated by his edgy work and persona, he appears only in silhouette throughout his own film.

Still, Exit through the Gift Shop, via Oscar

More text, images, and film trailers after the jump…

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Banksy, Save or Delete Jungle Book, 2001 (est. £60,000-80,000, realized £78,000), via Bonhams

Tuesday night’s auction of Urban Art at Bonhams in London – the fourth auction of its kind the house has mounted – realized just over £455,000 for 51 of 67 lots sold. Attesting to interest in the artist following the release of his film Exit Through the Gift Shop, ten Banksy lots offered at the sale accounted for approximately half of the evening’s earnings. The top lot was Banksy’s Save or Delete Jungle Book, which sold for £78,000 against presale estimates of £60,000-80,000. The image was created for a poster campaign about deforestation but was never circulated due to copyright issues with Disney.

Shepard Fairey, Peace Goddess on Wood, 2008 (est. £8,000-12,000, realized £27,600), via Bonhams

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Exhibition View, Chapman Brothers faux show Good News! at Orel Art. Via Times Online

British Art Brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman’s fake identities, art movement, and exhibition as Russian artists is on view after a quiet opening [TimesUK]
Gallery owners reveal the difficulties of running their business in times of the economic crisis [Forbes], yet some of L.A.’s resilient galleries find opportunities in the crisis: such as reduced rent [Los Angeles Times]

Wassily Kandinsky’s ‘Dramatic and Mild,’ estimated to sell between $6-8 million at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Fall Auction via ArtDaily

Part of the Arthur Sackler Collection is to be auctioned this fall by Sotheby’s, including a rare Kandinsky painting [ArtDaily]
Christie’s sales fell 35% in the first half of the year, though the auction house accounts for 61% of all global auction sales [Bloomberg] and a breakdown of Christie’s first half results [Art Market Monitor]

Cindy Sherman’s self-portait for Vogue

Cindy Sherman takes a self-portrait for Vogue in couture, parodying the magazine’s many domestic fashion spreads [Vogue via Economist]

Basquiat Reeboks via Solediction

Reebok releases a line of high tops featuring the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat [Solediction]
A charity auction in September to raise funds for orphans in Africa will featureworks by prominent YBAs such as Tracey Emin and Antony Gormley, as well as David Bowie, while also including work by South African artists like Marlene Dumas as well as emerging artists [Independent]

The bike Damien Hirst designed for Lance Armstrong to ride in the last stage of the Tour de France via Daily Mail

PETA outraged over Damien Hirst’s use of dead butterfly wings on Lance Armstrong’s bike [Daily Mail]
Richard Prince buys a townhouse on the Upper East Side for $11.5 million [NY Observer]
The pop-up Lola Gallery opens in Southampton [Vanity Fair]

Bill Viola’s ‘Ocean Without a Shore,’ which premiered at the church of San Gallo at the 2007 Venice Biennale via FAD

Bill Viola has been commissioned to create two altarpieces for permanent display in St Paul’s Cathedralin London [FAD]
A new program offers a master’s degree in international art crime [NY Times]
Chelsea art dealers predict that the presence of the High Line will kill the art scene there [Artnet]

Billionaire art collector Eli Broad via Forbes

Forbes names the top ten billionaire art collectors, including François Pinault, Eli Broad, and David Geffen [Forbes]
In related, Vice Chairman of Forbes, Christopher “Kip” Forbes, selling 36 works through private transactions [Bloomberg]
In further related, a growing number of collectors prefer private transactions, the publicity can come after the deal is made [Bloomberg]

Carsten Höller at the Double Club, Via Guardian

Carsten Höller’s Double Club  “modern day Studio 54″ moving to Paris from London [Guardian]
As visitors wait in line for up to 3 hours, the Banksy show in Bristol extends its visiting hours into the evening [Evening Standard]

Will Cotton’s studio via Whitewall

A look inside Will Cotton’s studio [Whitewall]
Tracey Emin tells in her interview the difficulties she had to face: from tapeworm to family troubles [Times Online]
An interview with Eric Fischl on 9/11 and bull fighting in his Soho studio [Artnet]
An almost conclusively thorough article on Dash Snow [NY Times]

Dash Snow and his daughter Secret via TinyVices

Following Dash Snow’s untimely death early last Tuesday morning, articles such as this one from The Guardian labeled Snow as an “art icon.”   The Independent cited the artist as “a mythical hero of an artistic underworld.”   There was a cynical editorial on Dash Snow from Canada [Toronto Star via Art Market Monitor]   And within 48 hours of Dash Snow’s death, New York Magazine speculated on the market for his work, and later that that his work might be pulled from an charity auction in Watermill next weekend. Terence Koh dedicated a performance in the UK [The Moment] and Brazilian street art duo OS Gemeos dedicated their Houston and Bowery mural to the artist [NYMag] There was an extensive image collection of the artist and his work from Tiny Vices. and finally a eulogy from the artist’s friend Glenn O’Brien [Purple-Diary]

A work by John Baldessari via the Tate

The Tate Modern will launch a major John Baldessari retrospective, his first in the UK, on October 13th [Tate]
Bob and Roberta Smith and Wolfgang Tillmans will be Tate trustees [FAD]

Zevs bombing the Armani store with his dripping Chanel Trademark via SlamXHype

Graffitti artist Zevs arrested in Hong Kong before a major gallery show [SlamXHype]
In related, 3 are arrested for conducting a counterfeit Banksy printing operation [The Art Collectors]

A mockup of London’s Playing the Building installation via David Byrne.com

David Byrne reprises his downtown New York Playing The Building sound in architecture installation at London’s Roundhouse August 8th through the 31st [Roundhouse.org]

The video for Madonna’s ‘Candyshop,’ featuring video by Marilyn Minter via YouTube

Marilyn Minter’s Green Pink Caviar is used as a video backdrop for Madonna’s song “Candyshop” [Artnet]

A rendering of Herzog de Meuron’s expansion to the Tate Modern via World Architecture News

Much publicized plans to expand the British Museum and the Tate could be tabled as funds come into question [TimesUK]
A look at some of the recent graduates and potential YBA’s at Goldmith’s degree show in London [GuardianUK]

Olafur Eliasson speaks about using space and light via Ted

An engaging video of Olafur Eliason speaking about perception [Ted]
The Wall Street Journal has an excerpt from the book Provenance, which documents one of the greatest cons in the history of art forgery [Wall Street Journal]

Lawrence Salander via Bloomberg

Lawrence B. Salander was arrested for the 2nd time for what the Manhattan District Attorney called the biggest art fraud in New York history [Bloomberg]
A video interview with American painter Ellsworth Kelly [The Art Newspaper]

Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova via Fashion Week Daily

According to rumors, Moscow curator Dasha Zhukova and 2008 mega-collector Roman Abramovich have split [Fashion Week Daily]
Christie’s has an iPhone app, offering access to its calendar and catalogs, and soon a live-bidding component [Guardian]

Simon de Pury via Harpers Bazaar

Simon de Pury, chairman of the auction house Phillips de Pury revealed as Judge on the upcoming Bravo/Sara Jessica Parker art-world reality show [NY Times] and video of the around-the-block line in New York to apply to be on the show recently [NYArtBeat]

Os Gemeos at work on their mural in at Houston and Elizabeth via The Art Collectors

Brazilian street art duo Os Gemeos are completing a mural on the corner of Houston and Bowery in New York on the site of the Keith Haring tribute memorial [The Art Collectors]
A rare interview with Bruce Nauman after he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale [The Art Newspaper]
The British Museum has raised 2/3 of the $200 million for its new Herzog & de Meuron-designed wing [Bloomberg]

Hirst’s recurring butterfly imagery adorns Lance Armstrong’s bike frame via Designweek

With perhaps one of the more thought provoking of the Livestrong bike creations, Damien Hirst has designed the bike Lance Armstrong will use during the final stage of the Tour de France with his recurring mortality metaphor of butterflies [Galerie Perrotin]
A breakdown of ArtNews’s Top 200 Collectors: 81% collect contemporary, 34% collect modern, 9% collect Impressionist, and 9% collect Old Masters [ArtNews]

Digital rendering of Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne’s menagerie on New York’s Park Avenue via NY Times

From Sept. 13 through Nov. 20, Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne’s animal menagerie will adorn the medians between 52nd and 57th Streets in Midtown Manhattan [NY Times]

Franz West’s The Ego and the Id via the The Public Art Fund

In related, Franz West’s 20 foot ‘The Ego and the Id’ will be installed Central Park at 5th Ave & 60th tomorrow, on loan from Amalia Dayan and Adam Lindemann through March [PublicArtFund]
BBC1 announces a four-part documentary focusing on Picasso, Dali, Matisse and Warhol, airing next year [BBC]
The Castlestone art fund is buying Post War art from deceased and non-producing artists such as Picasso and Warhol as it posits that pricing has dropped 20-40% from last year [International Advisor via ArtMarketMonitor] and a related email gaffe from Castlestone [ArtNewspaper]

Performance view of Anselm Kiefer’s ‘Am Anfang’ via Opera de Paris

German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer directed and designed, ‘Am Anfang,’ or ‘At the Beginning,’ for the Opera de Bastille in Paris, is currently running [TheGuardian]
In related, contemporary artist Zhang Huan will design and direct a 250 year anniversary production of Handel’s Semele in Brussels for the 2009/10 season [ArtDaily]

A new Banksy mural in Africa via SlamxHype

A number of Banksy murals in Africa have popped up, possibly in Mali [World's Best Ever] and related, 120,000 have visited the artist’s exhibition in his hometown of Bristol [BBC Bristol via FAD]
Charles Saatchi has replaced his Abstract America show his Kings Road gallery for an installation promoting the Jaguar XJ [Vogue]

John Morton at the site of his sound installation in Central Park via NY Times

A pedestrian tunnel in Central Park is the site of an immersive sound installation by John Morton [NY Times]
A brush fire near Getty Center caused Getty museum officials to evacuate 1,600 visitors and 800 employees [LA Times]

Michael Jackson series by Andy Warhol via ArtDaily

A portrait of Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol is dropped from a NY auction after overwhelming inquiries [ArtDaily]
Phillips de Pury & Company is launching a series of new theme auctions, including 21st century art and “New York, New York” [Artdaily]
Abu Dhabi Art, a new art fair, will debut in November [Artinfo]

A “plinther” participant in Antony Gormley’s One & Other via The Guardian

Antony Gormley’s ‘One&Other’ continues its 100-day run on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square in London [One & Other (livefeed)]
In related participatory British art, 23 museum visitors sufferred minor injuries during Robert Morris’s recent Bodyspacemotionthings reprisal at the Tate Modern [ArtInfo]
The Tate announces the judges of the 2010 Turner Prize [The Art Newspaper]

Gilbert and George’s ‘Hoi Polloi,’ part of their exhibition ‘Jack Freak Pictures’ via Arndt & Partner

Gilbert and George speak about friendlessness, bigotry in the art world, and their latest exhibition, ‘Jack Freak Pictures,’ opening in London at White Cube next week [Guardian]
Damien Hirst turns down the Royal Academy’s offer to become a Royal Academician [Artdaily]
Thief sentenced to two and half years in Oslo for the 2004 Munch ‘Scream’ Heist [NY Times]
Haunch of Venison will close its Zürich gallery by 2010 [ArtNewspaper]
After concerted effort by Eli Broad, MOCA announces that its financial troubles are over with a number of new gifts and trustees [LA Times] and LACMA also announces new trustees, including Dasha Zhukova, founder of Moscow’s Garage Centre [LA Times]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art responds to economic crisis, cuts 357 positions [Crain's]

Titian’s ‘Triumph of Love’ via Artdaily

Director of Tate Britain Stephen Deuchar is appointed director of Art Fund [ArtReview] in related, the Tate Britain recently bought and secured for Britain Titian’s Triumph of Love [Artdaily] and, finally the Art Fund launched an “Art Saved” resource online [Art Knowledge News]
At least 24 New York galleries have closed since the economic collapse, with a number closing for the summer [Artnet]
Connoisseurs are buying increasingly rare Impressionist and Modern masterpieces [NYTimes]
Why auctions may not be the best method for museums’ deaccessioning [Wall Street Journal]

Cai Guo-Qiang and Shen Wei speaking Lincoln Center via WSJ

Choreographer Shen Wei and artist Cai Guo-Qiang discuss their role in the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies and how changing attitudes in China have affected their work [Wall Street Journal]
ArtTactic’s Art Market Confidence Indicator shows increased confidence in the contemporary art market, with 2/3 of those survey predicting a rebound by 2011 [ArtTactic via The Art Collectors] and more cautious indicators of a rebound [Artnet]

Ji Lee’s ‘Duchamp Reloaded’ via Wooster Collective

Duchampian street sculpture in front of MoMA [Wooster Collective]
Bravo’s art reality show holds open calls and Paddy Johnson speaks with the casting director [Art Fag City]
A work painted in 1623-24 by a fellow scholar depicts Rembrandt at 16 [TheIndependent]
The Pietzch Collection, which includes many rare surrealist art works, opens to public display in Berlin [Monsters and Critics via Art Market Monitor]

Adam Kimmel stands in front of a photo of Dan Colen as the Marlboro Man via Purple

Riffing on Richard Prince, fashion designer Adam Kimmel has Dan Colen as the Marlboro Man in a series of photos by the creator of the original ads, Jim Krantz [Purple]
A look at what the latest auctions in London could mean for the outlook of the art market [Financial Times]
How London’s proximity to emerging market art buyers from Middle East, Russia and Asia may now have negative effect [Wall Street Journal]

Rachel Wardell, the first participant in Antony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ via The GuardianUK

The first participants are announced in Antony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ on the fourth plinth in Traflagar Square [Guardian]
More Intelligent Life investigates the increased interest in Picasso’s late musketeer paintings and finds links between the artist’s pacifism, the mood of the 1960s and younger collectors today [Economist]

A vandalized Banksy mural in Bristol via Bristol Evening Post

A popular Banksy mural in Bristol is vandalized as the Bristol Museum currently holds a major exhibition of the grafitti artist’s work [Bristol Evening Post via Arts Journal]
Jeff Koons describes Michael Jackson as a “contemporary Christ figure” [Bloomberg]
and Koons is now collaborating with watchmaker Ikepod to make a titanium watch [Newsweek]

Terence Koh in his studio via Whitewall

Terence Koh in his all white studio in New York [Whitewall]
Critic Jerry Saltz initiates a discussion with MoMA Chief Curator Ann Tempkin over the museum’s lack of female artists through Facebook [Edward Winkleman]
A Holocaust conference including 46 nations urges more efforts to restitute art stolen by Nazis [Bloomberg]

The entry installation via the Telegraph

Graffiti artist Bansky unveils his biggest exhibition to date at the Bristol City Museum featuring more than 100 works of which 70 are new pieces including a burned-out ice cream van. The show, which opens today, has been kept secret from the media, local politicians, and even top museum staff.  Of the exhibition the artist said, “This is the first show I’ve ever done where taxpayers’ money is being used to hang my pictures up rather than scrape them off.”

Bansky at Bristol City Museum [The Guardian]
An Ever better video of Bansky [The World's Best Ever]
Bansky takes over Bristol City Museum with biggest ever exhibition [Times Online UK]
Banksy plays it safe and that’s the key to his success [TimesUK]
Video: Bansky in Secret Exhibition Stunt [BBC]
In pictures: Banksy’s Bristol Show [BBC]
Video: Banksy’s back: Bristol project revealed [BBC]
Graffiti artist Banksy unveils largest project to date [CNN]
Take a Stuffy Old Institution. Remix. Add Wit. It’s Bansky v the Museum [The GuardianUK]
Banksy comes in off the streets [The Independent]
Oh, Bansky, You’ve Done it Again [Artsbeat blog, NY Times]
Secret Bansky Show Opens Tomorrow [Artinfo]
Bansky back in Bristol for biggest British Exhibition [The Telegraph]

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Damien Hirst’s skateboard decks for Supreme, via The Hundreds

Damien Hirst launches a new line of skate decks for Supreme [Hypebeast] plus a Glenn Brown interview with Supreme [Interview]
Turner prize winning British artist Steve McQueen debuts Hunger. [W Magazine via C-Monster]

John Baldessari at Mies van der Rohe’s Haus Lange of 1928, in Krefeld, Germany, via Edward Lifson

John Baldessari transforms a Mies van der Rohe house [Edward Lifson]
Metropolitan Opera puts up two Chagalls as collateral for loan in the face of a shrunken endowment [Crain's]
Art In America launches its new website [Art Fag City]

A model of Jeff Koons’s ‘Train’ to be built at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, via LACMA

LACMA moves forward with record $25 million sculpture by Jeff Koons [The Art Newspaper]
Gold Bars for a Chris Burden show at Gagosian held up in Stanford fraud case [Culture Monster]
A negative forecast for the recession’s impact on art [NewYorkMagazine]

Banksy in London, via Wooster Collective

New Banksy works appear in London [Wooster Collective]
A profile of the Guggenheim’s Richard Armstrong, a modest museum head compared to his controversial predecessor [Wall Street Journal]

KAWS’s cover for the current issue of New York, via SuperTouch

KAWS designs New York Magazine’s cover for their ‘Best of New York 2009′ issue [SuperTouch]
Jackie Wullschlager looks at the exhibitions that have come about after Anthony d’Offay’s gift of his collection to Britain [Financial Times]

Gang Gang Dance, via The Social Registry

Armory Show preview and party at MoMA featuring a performance by Gang Gang Dance [MoMA]
A profile of art collecting Mugrabi family [NY Times]
Second ever newspaper interview of Charles Saatchi [London Times]

Jake and Dinos Chapman’s remade ‘Hell’ via The Guardian

Jonathan Jones on why the Chapman Brothers’ Hell deserves to be shown at the National Gallery [Guardian]
Munich gallery Andreas Grimm shutters NY location [Hintmag]
SANAA, architects of the New Museum, to design Serpentine Pavilion [Icon]

A rug made by Francis Bacon, via London Times

Rediscovered Francis Bacon rugs are up for auction at a relative pittance versus his canvases [London Times]
Alex Katz models for J. Crew [MediaBistro]
A trend of wealthy collectors building museums to open their collections to the public [Fortune]

Encased — 5 Rows (6 Spalding Scottie Pippen Basketballs, 6 Spalding Shaq Attaq Basketballs, 6 Wilson Supershot Basketballs, 6 Wilson Supershot Basketballs, 6 Franklin 6034 Soccerballs) (1993) by Jeff Koons. Lot unsold. Estimate range: £1,800,000 to 2,200,000.

Phillips de Pury & Co. raised a total of £4.2 million at their February 12th auction of contemporary art, with 35 of 53 lots selling. The entire sale was expected to realize £6.8 million – £9.3 million.  The higher priced lots were shunned in favor of those with estimates under £500,000.

The highest priced lot was Martin Kippenberger’s Portrait of Paul Schreber (Designed by Himself), which sold for £432,000, at the low end of its presale estimate of £400,000 to £600,000. The 8-foot high oil, lacquer and silicone is an abstract portrait of Paul Schreber, an early 20th century German judge who suffered several nervous breakdowns, and was the subject of a seminal clinical psychology paper by Sigmund Freud. The portrait is based on a sketch in Schreber’s autobiography, where he draws what he imagines his brain to look like: one healthy side and one ill side. Dan Colen’s Untitled (Going, Going, Go. . .), of a candle whose smoke spells out the painting’s title, sold for £92,500, more than double the high estimate. This sale also set a new auction record for the artist.

Zeng Fanzhi’s Huang Jiguang, from 2006, sold for £360,000 against pre-sale estimates of £200,000 to £250,000. The 11 foot wide depicts a Chinese war hero from the Korean War, who is famous for having sacrificed himself in a crucial battle. Mixing historicity and myth with an abstract landscape as background, Fanzhi is one of China’s foremost contemporary artists and is known for his Mask series.

A Jeff Koons sculptural installation featuring a glass-encased vitrine stocked with various basketballs and soccer balls failed to sell. It was the only lot priced higher than £1 million, and failed to generate a single bid despite being the cover lot by a prominent name.

The auction results were unimpressive on the whole, reflecting the general sense of ambivalent malaise that still plagues the art market. The consensus among many dealers and collectors is that it is a buyer’s market, and many sellers have not adjusted their pricing expectations to reflect the ongoing correction–until this mismatch is corrected, there will continue to be anemic auction results.

Auction Page: Phillips de Pury Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Koons Work Snubbed for Cheaper Art in London as Bargains Sought [Bloomberg]
Phillips Sale Misses the Mark [ArtInfo]
ART MARKET WATCH: £4.2 million at Phillips London [Artnet]
Phillips de Pury & Company’s London Contemporary Art Sale Results Confirm Market Demand for Quality Works [ArtDaily]

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The Grand Palais in Paris, the Site of the 2008 FIAC art fair

Seen as selling more established contemporary artists, the 158-gallery strong FIAC art fair, back to Central Paris since 2006, was by consensus more successful than Frieze this year [Artreview] more here [TheArtNewspaper] here [Bloomberg] and here [Financial Times]
Jeff Koons’s Versailles installation of 17 works drew over 250,000 people and has been extended to January [Associated Free Press]
Tel Aviv as a contemporary art destination [NYTimes]
Jake Chapman on his new book: The Marriage of Reason & Squalor [ArtForum]
Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfalls exhibit brought 1.4 million visitors and $69 million to New York City [Crain'sNewYork]
Damien Hirst co-directs a bloody Sienna Miller in music video for The Hours [TheSun]
Steve Lazarides, agent to Banksy, is working on New York space following the success of the The Outsiders show on the Bowery in September [The Evening Standard via TWBE]

Banksy’s controversial One Nation Under CCTV via hutley.net

Banksy issues a statement on London City removal of his CCTV work [Time via TWBE] and a video of Banksy’s pet store/charcoal grill in NYC [Wooster Collective]
At the Whitney: Leonard Lauder, Cindy Sherman, Mary Boone, Donatella Versace, Christina Ricci, Sting and assorted socialites show up for the Gala and Studio Party [ArtInfo]
Art and Commerce: Julian Schnabel, sponsored by Mastercard, completes portrait of sweepstakes winner [Tradingmarkets]
A quiet but strong video of Jenny Holzer at the Guggenheim, New York [Vernissage.tv]
Takashi Murakami, a bit hurt perhaps from the his Phillips Frieze auction, comments on the art market: “Everyone is very nervous. Everything is negative” [NYMag]
And in the latest in Damien Hirst: the Guardian quotes his art market comments from four years ago: “they would sell your granny to Nigerian sex slave traders for 50 pence and a packet of woodbines” [GuardianUK] his cover art for British band The Hours [Brand Republic] and Sarah Thornton has a thorough summary of Hirst and some of his series: “he faces all the problems of an aging rock star” [TheArtNewspaper]

Nuggets by Banksy, at the Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill, via the New York Times

Two new Banksy rat murals have gone up (following two previous murals, as covered by AO here and here); one at the corner of Houston and MacDougal, the other at Canal and West Broadway. The murals are tie-ins for The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill, Banksy’s new installation/storefront in the West Village and his first official show in New York. The storefront features a number of animatronic representations of animals and food derived from animals, highlighting the disintermediation between the two due to excessive processing and the contemporary consumerist, fast food culture. “I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming,” said Banksy, quoted through a publicist in the New York Times. “But it ended up as chicken nuggets singing.”

Artist site: Banksy
Exhibition site: Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill
ArtObserved Profile: Banksy
Banksy exhibition features chicken nuggets [TelegraphUK]
Banksy Unveils Singing Chicken Nuggets at New York “Pet Supply Shop” [ArtInfo]
Where Fish Sticks Swim Free and Chicken Nuggets Self-Dip [New York Times]
Banksygate 2008: Banksy opens new show in New York! [Gothamist]
Banksy rats now in NYC! [Art Fag City]

VILLAGE PET STORE AND CHARCOAL GRILL
89 7th Avenue South – between West 4th Street and Bleecker
10am to 12am every day
through October 31st, 2008

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Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID) 1-year stock chart, via Yahoo! Finance

Sotheby’s (BID) stock declined by 14% on Monday, October 6th, 2008, to close at the lowest levels since July 2005 according to Bloomberg.  By ArtObserved’s calculations, Sotheby’s has lost more than 75% of its value since falling from its October 12th, 2007 high of $57.12 to today’s close of $13.86.  Besides the general buckling of the US Stock markets, Sotheby’s stock’s decline has presumably also been due to concerns about the buoyancy of the art market (as specifically reflected in this past weekend’s Asian art sales by Sotheby’s) which some analysts consider to be overheated and on the verge of a decline, especially in light of the global financial contagion.  Despite the overwhelming success of the landmark Damien Hirst direct to market auction less than a month ago in London (as reported by AO here), overall in the past month, Sotheby’s shares have dropped three times that of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Evidence supporting the decline in the market is mounting: several recent auctions have failed to make the grade, including one recently featuring previously extremely in-demand artwork of Banksy. Some hoped that the continued influx of funds into the art market from collectors in ‘new markets’ such as Russia, China, India and the Persian Gulf, would prop up prices in Western markets and in burgeoning domestic contemporary art scenes. The results of Sotheby’s fall sale of Asian contemporary art however, selling a sector of the market which had previous momentum that seemed relentless, poke holes in that assertion. The auction failed to sell 19 of 47 of its headline lots, including pieces by Subodh Gupta, Zheng Xiaogang, Yue Minjun and Takashi Murakami. “Today’s results aren’t acceptable, they’re very poor. The contemporary Chinese art market has raced ahead too quickly and now people can’t prop it up anymore,” a Taiwanese dealer was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal.

Hong Kong tests art buyers’ courage [Financial Times]
Weak Sales for Sotheby’s in Hong Kong [Wall Street Journal]
Sotheby’s Shares Fall Amid Concern About Art Market [Bloomberg]
Top Lots Shunned in Post-Lehman Art Sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong [Bloomberg]
Chinese contemporary art palls in Sotheby’s HK sale [Reuters]
Pop Goes the Bubble in Chinese & Indian Art [BusinessWeek]
Credit crunch crushes art auction [BBC]
Sotheby’s Sale of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings Brings US$9,165,947 [ArtDaily]
Sotheby’s Website

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Shepard Fairey via the NYTimes

Street art legend Shepard Fairey shadowed in action by the New York Times[NYTimes]
Art as an unexpected hedge amongst billionaires in uncertain times, and Sarah Thornton has more on this here [Forbes] [TelegraphUK]
Levi’s to launch limited edition jeans featuring Murakami’s flowers [Nylon]
Ex-wife of Jeff Koons/former porn star/Italian parliament member gets to keep her son [Bloomberg]
Flea market purchase revealed to be work by 17th-century Flemish master Pieter Brueghel the Younger [GuardianUK}
Art Market Blog offers another view to market conclusions drawn from last week's Kate Moss, Banksy auction,  previously covered by Art Observed here [Art Market Blog] 
A guide to buying contemporary art[TimesOnline]

Bansky mural at Howard St. and Broadway photo by ArtObserved

The large-scale Banksy piece on the corner of Howard St. and Broadway in Soho is the second entire-building-facade work found in downtown Manhattan this week (the first covered by ArtObserved here) and is also the second collaboration between Banksy and the professional advertisement firm, Colossal Media.  The massive rat, filled with fast scrawling black-lines to appear as if done in crayon or marker, stands next to dripping red letters reading, “LET THEM EAT CRACK.” 

Banksy Goes Legal: Rent Walls & Hires Painters[Supertouch]
Banksy Reacts To Wall Street [TheWorlds Best Ever]
A Could-Be Banksy Mural Appears on Soho Wall [NYTimes]
Banksygate 2008: Natives Respond [Gothamist]
Banksy Official Website

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Banksy mural at Wooster and Grand St, via The World’s Best Ever

A three story high rat wearing an I Heart New York t-shirt, caught red handed drawing another rat, was erected on Saturday near the intersection of Wooster and Grand Streets in SoHo. Unmistakably done in Banksy’s signature style, the mural was actually painted by Colossal Media, a professional firm, and not the artist himself. The mural was comissioned, although its not exactly clear by whom. There is also speculation that Banksy himself may have been near the site of the mural as it was going up, or at least may have been in the city for the Lazarides Gallery’s Outsiders show on Bowery, which AO recently recently covered On Site.

New Banksy piece in NYC’s SoHo [The World's Best Ever]
Banksy mural going up right now in SoHo [Gothamist]

Monkey Queen by Banksy, via Lyon and Turnbull

Despite an initial reluctance to identify the works as his, five pieces confirmed to be made by prolific and secretive graffiti artist Banksy went up for auction in Central London last night on September 27th. However, in a marked departure from other, recent high profile contemporary art auctions by popular artists, this time no records were broken. In fact, the Lyon and Turnbull auction struggled to drum up enough interest to meet the lower end of estimates, with some lots even being withdrawn from the auction altogether. In fact, more than two thirds of lots in the auction remained unsold when it was over (74 of 270 sold). One shocked expert even went as far as calling the auction “a bloodbath,” according to the UK’s Independent. Other artists whose works were auctioned included Kate Moss, Sam Taylor-Wood (who recently split with Jay Jopling, owner of the White Cube gallery), Peter Doherty, and Sean Scully, among others.

A prevalent opinion of art market followers is that the recent auction success on the higher end from artists such as Damien Hirst may be due to an artificial propping up of the sales from direct marketing to new buyers such as Russians and other new found pools of wealth by well oiled marketing machines such as Sotheby’s. However, for the bread and butter lower priced works, there perhaps simply is no escaping that there is less confidence and less money in the system overall.

Banksy Official Website
Lyon and Turnbull: Sale 222 page
Banksy’s artworks fail to shift [BBC News]
Banksy Works Go Unsold; Buyers Stay Away From Urban-Art Auction [Bloomberg]
Banksy Won’t Say if Works for Sale Are His [Gawker]
Art Sale Moss-acre [Independent]

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Soon-to-be-former Lehman Brothers corporate headquarters

Lehman Brothers may sell some or all of its 3,500-work corporate art collection [Bloomberg]
How the Wall Street firm implosion jeopardizes New York arts funding [NY Sun]
French art dealers, armed with currency arbitrage, settle into Manhattan [The Art Newspaper]
7 artists recontextualise the River Thames [GuardianUK]
Following ‘Pest Control,’ ‘Vermin,’ a second Banksy authentication group emerges [Art Info]
Five 17th century Dutch paintings stolen in 2002 at $4.2M of insurable value are recovered [BBC]

Forbidden Love, Faile (2006) via TAC
Lot 230: Forbidden Love, Faile (2006) / Estimate: $21,700 – $36,100 / Hammer Price: $39,703

On Saturday, September 6th, Phillips de Pury & Company held it’s Saturday @ Phillips sale featuring some of the most notorious names in Street Art. Until now, there had never been a Street Art auction of this magnitude. Many of the artists featured at the September 6th Saturday @ Phillips had never been to auction before, because of the nature of their work, and the anonymity of Street artists. The end total including premium was just under $850,000. Those that sold for the most and exceeded their estimates were works by Faile, Andres Serrano, Carcel Dzama, Swoon, and Banksy. Although one of Banksy’s pieces sold for over double its estimate, the well-known street artist also had two pieces among the unsold lots.

Philips Results [The Art Collectors]
Street art bonanza at Phillips de Pury auction [Design Week]
Saturday @ Phillips [Phillips de Pury]
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A rather political work by Banksy spotted in Alabama via Supertouch

Banksy, moving north from New Orleans, (previously covered by AO here), to Alabama [Supertouch]
In October an artist will allow you to stay in a hotel room set up at the Guggenheim [GuardianUK]
New York Magazine highlights 30 art shows for the Fall [NYMag]
Explaining the dearth of Japanese curators [JapanTimes via Artsjournal]
Two books reviewed on the exploits Han van Meegeren: master forger [NYSun]
The Moment reports on vast industrial artspaces at Manifesta 7 in the Italian Alps [The Moment]