Marina Abramovic is in The Guardian this week, reviewing her plans for her own funeral, to take place in the three cities she lived longest: New York, Amsterdam and Belgrade. “I want to have three Marinas,” she says. “Of course, one is real and two fake because you can’t have three bodies.” (more…)
Artist Jane Wilson, whose work frequently explored the rich colors and hues of the midwest skyline, has passed away at the age of 90 in New York City. “The way she increasingly translated natural events — seasons of the year, times of day or night or conditions of weather — into barely representational, hovering substances of color and light is the miracle of the artist’s later work,” says Whitney Museum curator Elisabeth Sussman. (more…)
A recent US Fifth Circuit Court decision over the estate of collector James A. Elkins Jr has considerable implications for collectors leaving behind works after their death. The court decision allowed a considerable discount on the the Elkins Family’s collection, which included pieces by Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore and Jackson Pollock, as the works were owned partially by the collector’s children, and not wholly by himself. “Finally we have an applied fractional discount based on the facts,” says art lawyer Joy Berus, in Newport Beach, Calif. “These are major discounts. It’s a huge affirmation that opens the door to help art owners reduce their estates.” (more…)
Sophie Calle, Rachel, Monique (2014), all photos by Emily Heinz for Art Observed
Since May 9th until June 25th this year, the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, in conjunction with Paula Cooper Gallery, has been transformed into a gateway that marries the universality of sacred space and the experience of life and death through the singular exploration of a specific life. Artist Sophie Calle is known for her deeply emotional work and propensity for crossing the boundaries of personal and social space in a way that is successful in its dramatic and often controversial appeal to the human condition. “Rachel, Monique” may be one of her strongest works in this vein to date.
Hammer Projects: Andra Ursuta (Installation View), all images courtesy Hammer Museum
On view currently at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is an exhibition of the latest body of work from Andra Ursuta, inspired by the artist’s fear and obsession with death. The show is Ursuta’s first solo exhibition in a United States museum, and will remain on view through May 25th.
Sturtevant, the appropriation artist who worked at making manual repetitions and recreations of iconic artists and young upstarts alike, has died. Reports claim that the artist, who won the Golden Lion at the 54th annual Venice Biennale, was 84 years old, but as much information about the artist remains unknown, this is not certain. Sturtevant will be the subject of an upcoming career retrospective this November at MoMA. “Her various catalytic conversions prove that art can be (at its best?) an impetus for action—aesthetic, cerebral, insurrectionary ,” said writer Bruce Hainley. (more…)
Austrian painter Maria Lassnig has passed away at the age of 94.
Born in 1919, Lassnig’s career spanned over 50 years, and her work traces a long and intricate relationship with the history of painting and abstraction, moving from her abstract experessionist works in the 1950’s to her pioneering style of vivid color and dramatic self-portraiture, often utilizing visceral body positions and frank, revealing depictions of herself. “Her art meant everything to her and she sacrificed herself, family, relationships… she an extremely focused and extreme personality that way,” dealer Iwan Wirth told ArtInfo. “She was very headstrong, very critical of photography, fighting photography her whole life and she had no mercy when it came other painters.”
Scottish-born painter Alan Davie passed away last week at the age of 93. Davie’s expressionistic, abstract canvases earned him considerable attention during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, and was considered as a major influence on the work of David Hockney. The artist’s work is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Tate Britain. “It’s an urge, an intensity, a kind of sexual need,” Mr. Davie said recently in an interview with The Telegraph. “I don’t practice painting or drawing as an art, in the sense of artifice, of making an imitation of something. It’s something I do from an inner compulsion, that has to come out.” (more…)
Michael Majerus, your bad taste (2002), via Matthew Marks
Spread over Matthew Marks Gallery’s spaces on 502, 522 and West 22nd Street is an exhibition of works by late Berlin-based artist Michael Majerus. Presenting over twenty-five paintings and multimedia installations, the show is the most comprehensive of Majerus’s work in the United States as well as the first staged in the country since his life was cut short at the age of 35 by a plane crash in 2002.
Michael Majerus, pornography needs you (2001), via Matthew Marks
Heidi Bucher, Untitled (Herrenzimmer), (undated) via Osman Can Yerebakan
Known for her ongoing focus on the relationship between the body and architectural space, the late Heidi Bucker is being commemorated with an exhibition at the Swiss Institute. The exhibition, running through May 11th at the gallery’s SoHo space, stands out being the first solo exhibition of the artist in the United States in more than forty years.
Heidi Bucher, Untitled (9 Objects), (1972-1987), Courtesy Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (more…)
The Wall Street Journal has published a memorial to sculptor Anthony Caro written by Karen Wilkin, a curator and former assistant who spoke at a memorial service for the artist last year, remembering the artist’s demanding nature and quick intuition. “While Tony was invariably pleased when you were excited and enthusiastic about particular works, she writes, “he was far more interested in the problematic, recalcitrant ones. And he was always eager to respond to suggestions from fresh eyes—respond immediately, that is, by working on the sculpture.” (more…)
Sir Anthony Caro, via New York Times
The widely recognized British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro passed away today after suffering a heart attack. He was 89. A former assistant to Henry Moore, Caro first made a name for himself in the 1950’s and 60’s, creating roughly rendered, abstract structures which he used as a gradual transition away from the traditionally figurative work of the medium. “I have been trying to eliminate references and make truly abstract sculpture, composing the parts of the pieces like notes in music,” he said in 1975.
Sir Anthony Caro, Déjeuner sur l’herbe II (1989), via Tate Modern (more…)
An investigation into the death of David Hockney’s studio assistant, Dominic Elliott, has revealed that the young artist died as the result of drinking acid. Elliott, whose autopsy revealed the presence of several drugs in his system, had been drinking with Hockney’s former partner, John Fitzherbert. “I cannot comment on any of the lifestyle habits he has,” Mr Hockney said in a statement. (more…)
American sculptor Walter De Maria, via LA Times
Walter De Maria, the New York sculptor known for his monumental sculptures that helped pioneer the conceptual, minimalist and land art movements of the mid to late twentieth century, has passed away in Los Angeles at the age of 77.
Walter De Maria, The Broken Kilometer (1977), via New York Magazine (more…)
Ronnie Cutrone, Photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, (1998), via Huffington Post
Artist Ronnie Cutrone passed away this past Sunday, at the age of 65. Perhaps best known for his time as pop artist Andy Warhol’s assistant from 1972 to 1982, Cutrone had been a regular at Warhol’s Factory since 1965, when he was still in high school. At the age of 15, Cutrone became a go-go dancer with the Velvet Underground as part of the band’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable show, and befriended many of the artists associated with the West Village arts scene of the 70s and 80s, including Lou Reed and Jim Morrison.
Ronnie Cutrone, Quick Change Artist (2004), via Galerie Gmurzynska, Art Basel Miami 2011
Artist David Hockney has broken the silence surrounding the death of his assistant, 23-year old Dominic Elliott. Elliott’s death, the causes of which remain somewhat of a mystery, sidelined the painter, forcing him to take a break from his prolific work. “The spring didn’t start until late April this year. I wasn’t doing anything much, had nearly given up, and was still thinking about going to LA when my assistant, Jean-Pierre, said I didn’t really have an option. I had to continue with the work. And he was right. I’m not going to retire. I just keep working and that’s what I think I should do.” (more…)
Damien Hirst, Forbidden Fruit (2012-3), via White Cube Hong Kong
White Cube Hong Kong is currently presenting Entomology Cabinets and Paintings, Scalpel Blade Paintings and Colour Charts, a broad exhibition of new work by British artist Damien Hirst. Through the three series on view, Hirst explores life’s dualities through the beauty and horror of both the Natural world and modernity.
Damien Hirst, The Judged (2012), via White Cube Hong Kong
Over the past two years, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist has sought to bring a controversial piece by artist John Baldessari to realization, which would require exhibiting a human cadaver in a gallery space, viewed through a small peep-hole. The work has been attempted several times, but has faced staunch legal opposition and considerations over the will of deceased body being included in the final product. Says Obrist: “It’s not excluded that one day it will happen. You need the consent of the person obviously before they die. At the same time you need the consent of the family as well as legal authorization.” (more…)
Artforum is reporting that dealer and artist Daniel Reich recently passed away, taking his own life on Christmas Day of last year. He was 39 years old. Reich began showing art in 2001, and established his own gallery in Chelsea, which closed in 2011. “Change is hard, but it’s also good,” he said at that time. “It resets you, it returns you to that initial energy, the fire that you had, way back then, when you knew that you wanted to do this.” (more…)
Paul Klee, Comedians’ Handbill (1938), via Metropolitan Museum of Art
On view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through February 24, “Late Klee” presents a concentrated survey of the last fifteen years of Paul Klee’s life and career. The one-room exhibition consists largely of small-sized works on paper and cardboard, each representing a facet of the artist’s prolific oeuvre and wide-ranging interests. (more…)
