Takashi Murakami, Oval Buddha 2010, Chateau de Versailles, via Luxuo–>

Controversy over the Takashi Murakami exhibition at Versailles continued this past week as Prince Sixte Henri de Bourbon-Parm, descendant of King Louis XIV, filed a court order to suspend showing of the manga inspired contemporary pieces in the royal apartments. According the the Independent, the French aristocrat has taken the action out of “respect of the château and of his ancestors” and opposes the display because it has degraded “supreme good French taste.”  He joins the voices of the over 12,000 opponents who have signed petitions to remove Murakami’s playful works since the show was announced at the beginning of this past summer.

Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme, via tvhl.info.com–>

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Tongari- Kun in the Salon de Hercule at the Chateau de Versailles, via Artinfo

Currently on view at the Château de Versailles are works by renowned Japanese Pop artist Takashi Murakami. The internationally celebrated contemporary artist exhibits 22 works throughout the Palace and the gardens, including 11 pieces created specifically for the exhibition. The show follows the international success of Jeff Koons, who exhibited at the Palace in 2008, and French Pop artist Xavier Veilhan, who created site-specific works at Versailles in 2009.

Kaikai & Kiki in the Salon de Venus at the Chateau de Versailles, via Artinfo

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A work by Takashi Murakami at the Palace of Versailles, via Chateau de Versailles00>

The forthcoming exhibition of works by acclaimed Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami at the Palace of Versailles has sparked protests by French traditionalists and conservative groups.  Due to open on the 14th of September, the show will feature 22 works by the artist displayed throughout the Palace and the gardens including 11 pieces created specifically for the exhibition. As with the Jeff Koons’s exhibition, which showed at Versailles in 2008, a group of traditional supporters of the historic Versailles Palace protested against a commercial and at times sensationalist artist showing work in such a landmark of French history.

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The First Annual Art Awards via Guggenheim.org

Last night, October 29, marked the inauguration of a new annual art event: Rob Pruitt presented The First Annual Art Awards at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New Yorkin association with the city’s oldest alternative art space, White Columns.

The awards were conceived by artist, Rob Pruitt, as a performance-based artwork; for the occasion he recruited the characters of Index Magazine’s wry satirical web series, Delusional Downtown Divas. The New York Times have reported that “…the Divas schemed to infiltrate the art establishment by any means possible. In one segment they pitched a tent in the Guggenheim, doing their laundry in the lobby fountain.”

Jeffrey Deitch and Kembra Pfahler at The First Annual Art Awards at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum via style.com

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Xavier Veilhan Photo ©: François-Thibaut Pencenat

One of the most prominent French artists, Xavier Veilhan, created a site-specific show at Versailles to run through December 13, 2009. Recognized for his work that transcends disciplines and employs an array of mediums, Veilhan, unlike many contemporary artists, makes art historical references while maintaining his very own recognizable style. Oftentimes, it is in recreation of the archetypal that the French artist’s singularity is manifested.  Figures and forms rooted in the collective memory of art history seem to be stripped down in their physicality, yet the very act of reduction translates into a broader measure of proliferating rather than voiding, when it is directed towards the archetype.

Fascinated by modernity, Veilhan considers the notion in its historical expression: “after World Wars I and II, it is difficult to feel the same way that Boccioni did with the idea of modernity,”  explains the artist. Similarly, his interests while transcending the imposed boundaries of present disciplines, stay respectful and sensitive to the complexity of their past.

Interview with Xavier Veilhan:

Manan Ter-Grigoryan for Art Observed: To jump right in, tell me how it all started for you. Not in Versailles, but your path as an artist?

Xavier Veilhan: I grew up in boring suburbs… and I saw that for a lot of art students there was a lot of art but also a lot of partying! (Laughs) It was a time of new radio, free radio; I worked a little bit in the radio. There was lot of traveling… I traveled to Germany, studied a little bit in art school. It was a very carefree time. I met a lot of people in those times… then I started to get more focused on visual arts and work with Pierre Huyghe and that’s when we started doing some shows. In 1989 I had my first solo show in Italy. It was important to use a kind of universal language for me, to be international.

Xavier Veilhan for Versailles via Chateau de Versailles

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Detail of a photograph by Virginie Marielle, Installation view of Veilhan’s work at main courtyard of Versailles via Veilhan Versailles

Works by French artist Xavier Veilhan are currently being shown at the Chateau de Versailles, its gardens, and Royal and Main Courtyards.  Veilhan, born in Lyon, lives and works in Paris. The artist covers a variety of mediums including sculpture, film, photography, painting and installation art. A 50 foot long coach and horses in purple, a color Veilhan sees as complex and ambiguous when at the backdrop of its perception is the idea of Monarchy and Royal power, is the first work encountered upon the nominal entrance to the exhibit. Also, among the works being shown is a statue of a girl, delicate and quiet in color as opposed to other works, it complements Versailles to a degree where it may be passed unnoticed by the visitor of the show. Also showing are sculptures and installations that tackle the worlds of photography and politics. A statue of Gagarin, first man to fly to space, titled “Le Gisant” is laid on the ground of the Royal Courtyard. The show runs through December 13, 2009.

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Xavier Veilhan at Chateau de Versailles via Chateau Versailles

Related Links:
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Veilhan Versailles [Chateau Versailles]
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Veilhan Bio [Gering & Lopez Gallery]
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Contemporary Art Storms Versailles [Telegraph]
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Veilhan Versailles [Veilhan Versailles]

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Veilhan at Versailles, Interview with Xavier Veilhan via Vernissage TV

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A recent work by Takashi Murakami via Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin

This morning in Paris, during event to promote the launch of a show of work on September 13th by French pop artist Xavier Veilhan at Château de Versailles, the Versailles museum director Jean-Jacques Aillagon announced to the Associated Free Press that Japanese artist Takashi Murakami had been chosen to appear at the venerable institution in 2010.  Murakami is often described as the “Japanese Warhol” due perhaps to his Pop art style and extremely prolific production of work.  Of course another artist often described in this way is Jeff Koons, who in the winter of last year displayed many of his significant sculpture pieces at Versailles, which though iconic as contemporary art, were perhaps incongruous to that particular location.

Though the Jeff Koons in Versailles show last year was generally concluded to be both a successful and well attended exhibition, with almost 1 million visitors attending, it did garner significant controversy.  Prince Charles-Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme, a French aristocrat in the line of succession to the French throne and a descendant of the palace’s original creator, Louis XIV, mounted a high profile legal challenge to the installation, which ultimately failed.  Prince Charles-Emmanuel cited the Koons exhibition as “pornographic.”  As Takashi Murakami is also known to produce relatively illicit subject matter in his art this exhibit may as well stir up some ire with French traditionalists.

Takashi Murakami is soon to have simultaneous solo exhibitions this month in both Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea on September 17th, New York and at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris on September 15th.

Related Links:
Japanese pop artist to exhibit in Versailles [AFP]

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A sculpture of horses and a carriage at Versailles by Xavier Veilhan via artcollc

On September 13, Xavier Veilhan will follow in Jeff Koons’s footsteps by bringing contemporary sculpture to the Chateau de Versailles [ArtCoLLC]
On the lack of transparency in the art market reflected in this year’s Art Basel [Economist]
An interview with Chuck Close in which he discusses how his perceptive disabilities are reflected in his work [Wall Street Journal]

A still from Deadpan by Steve McQueen via the GuardianUK

Beginning July 1st, Creative Time will present Turner Prize winner and current UK Venice Biennale representative Steve McQueen’s Deadpan on the MTV screen in Times Square [Creative Time]
Parkett Art magazine marks 25 years this June 25th in Chelsea, NY [EFlux]
Conceptual artist Dan Graham is speaking at 192 Books in Chelsea, New York on Wednesday, July 1 [192Books.com]

Trafalgar Square’s empty fourth plinth, which will host Antony Gormley’s ‘One & Other’ via Guardian UK

The first round of participants have been announced for Antony Gormley’s living statue project: ‘One & Other,’ on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth in ondon [BBC]

A previous installation of Terracotta Army via VisitStHelens

In related, Anthony Gormley sets up his 40,000 figure “Terracotta Army” in a Devon, UK barn [TelegraphUK]
Dartmouth receives a $50 million donation to support the visual arts [Dartmouth]
Architect Richard Meier is designing major expansion for the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills [LA Times]

Picasso’s ‘Le Moulin de la Galette’ owned by the Guggenheim, allegedly sold under Nazi duress, via Artnet

Judge issues written memo chastizing MoMA and Guggenheim and heirs of Nazi victim for secret settlement over two Picasso paintings in restitution case [Bloomberg]
The Whitney kept it festive this week for its annual Art Party and auction in West Soho, New York [Park Avenue Peerage]
Behind the scenes shots of the making of Banksy’s Bristol exhibition [The WorldsBestEver]

‘Screentest’ for designer Adam Kimmel’s new campaign via Hint

Black and white films and stills by Andy Warhol’s long-time assistant Gerard Malanga from Designer Adam Kimmel’s look book, exhibited at Thaddeus Ropac gallery, feature art world figures Matthew Barney, Francesco Clemente, Ryan McGinley, Dan Colen, Aaron Young and Nate Lowman [AdamKimmel]

Still from Brett Gorvy’s interview with Andy Warhol’s assistant, Gerard Malanga, via Christie’s

In related (to the Kimmel story), Christie’s Brett Gorvy speaks Gerard Malanga on Warhol’s ‘Death and Disaster’ series [Christie’s via Art Market Monitor]

Moody’s, which currently has Sotheby’s bonds below investment grade placed its debt on review for a possible downgrade [Bloomberg] More on the damage to Sotheby’s profits here [ArtNewspaper]
Guy Bennett, co-head of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art department worldwide, resigns [NY Times]
Christie’s begins more salary cuts [Bloomberg]
Citing financial difficulties, Bellwether Gallery closes after a ten year run [Art Fag City]
the Art Institute of Chicago lays off 20 staff members [Chicago Tribune via Artsjournal]
With its endowment down by 18%, the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum will lay off 25 full-time staff [CrainsNewYork]
Art museum attendance in the US is down 23%-26% [ArtReview]
And a summary on the methods New York galleries are using to deal with the recession [NYTimes]