AO Art Observed™

Tulips, Jeff Koons, 1995-2004 on loan to the embassy for the next decade, via artinthepicture

The second largest U.S. Embassy building has opened in Beijing at 600,000 square feet, with a reported $550M in building expenses by the San Francisco firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. On its grounds are works by notable American and Chinese contemporary artists including Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Rauschenberg, Betty Woodman, Martin Puryear, Maya Lin, Yun-Fei Ji, and Hai Bo.

New Embassy Is a Firm U.S. Flag in China [NYSun]
Beijing US Embassy Opened August 7th [CNReviews]
U.S. Embassy in Beijing [Art 21]
U.S. Shortchanges Artists [Portfolio]
‘The Pyrotechnic Imagination’, watch Cai-Guo-Qiang create the gunpowder work inside the U.S. Embassy [NYTimes]
The US Embassy in Beijing Highlights Jeff Koons’s Art [Art Market Monitor]

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Cai Guo-Qiang “I want to believe” via I Love This World

Cai Guo-Qiang has “I Want To Believe” at Beijing’s National Art Museum for the Olympics [Artdaily]
and the artist was also behind the pyrotechnics at the opening ceremony [art 21]
Electronic band Underworld produces an art exhibition [NYSun]
In the tail of an embezzlement inquiry, Guggenheim Bilbao admits to a $6.17M loss due to the purchase of Richard Serra works in dollars versus euros [The Art Newspaper]
In Bern, Switzerland Paul McCarthy’s work ‘Complex Shit’ - a massive, inflatable depiction of dog feces - breaks from its moorings and knocks out a power line and some windows before crashing into a children’s home [GuardianUK] more here [The Independent]

Stephanie Seymour (wife of Art Collector and Art in America owner Peter Brant) in Jeff Koons
for Gap; via Nylon

The Gap, working in close partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Production Fund, recently released a collection of 13 t-shirts designed by contemporary artists who have all been past Whitney Biennial participants. Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Babara Kruger, Ashley Bickerton, Kiki Smith, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Marilyn Minter, Cai Guo-Qiang, Kenny Scharf, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Hanna Liden, and Sarah Sze are all participating.

Gap Partners with the Whitney to Launch Artist Edition T’s [Gap]
Gap Artist Edition T Shirts [LA Times]
Turning Shirts Into an Artforum [USA Today] (more…)

Anselm Keifer, Secret Life of Plants(2008) via Bloomberg

From April 15 to June 29, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London is presenting a unique exhibition on the subject of books in art or of books as art. “Blood on Paper” is an exploration of how artists have interpreted and utilized the book medium. The works range from the conventional book format to large-scale installations and sculptures, such as Anselm Keifer’s enormous book made of lead (pictured).

“Blood on Paper” [Victoria & Albert Museum]
“Bacon’s Trash, Hirst’s Furniture Become Books: Martin Gayford” [Bloomberg]
“The Writing on the Wall“ [Financial Times]
“Works That Speak Volumes” [Financial Times]
“Blood on Paper: the Art of the Book” [The Independent] (more…)

“Dog Test” by Robert Longo via Forbes

Longo Quoted on “Dog Test” Drawing Sold Recently in London [Forbes]
Forged Monet discovered last week in German Museum [Herald Tribune]
Chinese art market takes France’s third place standing [Art Newspaper]
Update: Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim Museum [NYTimes]
Update: More Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim [Wall Street Journal]
Update, Video: Guo-Qiang’s Gun-Powder Works [NYTimes via C-Monster]
Orginally £300, Banksy piece up for £150,000 [Guardian]
Two W. 25th St. gallery buildings sold for $48.75 million [The Real Deal]

“Electric Fountain” at the Rockefeller Center via NYTimes

3,390 bulbs light the electric fountain at NY’s Rockefeller Center [NYTimes]
On what it means to “bring in” a Work at Auction [NYSun]
Major Highway threatens artists’ haven in Marfa [Time via C-Monster]
Danish collector puts her Hirsts on view in Copenhagen [Art Newspaper]
A critical look at Cai Guo-Qaing’s Guggenheim exhibition [NYSun]

Scaffolding was built under the boat via The Guggenheim Museum

The Cai Guo-Qiang retrospective, “I Want to Believe,” opens February 22 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The exhibit represents the first solo show by a Chinese-born artist at the Museum.

Scaling New Heights at the Guggenheim [The New York Sun]
Cai Guo-Qiang, I Want to Believe [Guggenheim Museum]
Cai Guo-Qiang [Art Observed]

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Cai Guo-Qiang: 1st Chinese born artist with Guggenheim retrospective [New York Times]
New five-year contract for Lowry at MOMA (Not the MET) [The New York Times]
Ordway Prize, America’s Turner, announced; Driskell Prize also announced [ArtInfo]
Co-Head of I-Banking at Morgan Stanley named to Tate Board [Bloomberg]
Economist: German Expressionism is back [Economist via C-Monster]
Waning art sales spells cancellation for fledgling Duesseldorf art fair [Bloomberg]
Madrid’s famed “art triangle” adds a new cultural center to it’s roster [The Canadian Press]