Global contemporary art events and news observed from New York City. Suggestion? Email us.

AO Newslink

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

The first edition of Frieze Masters will run from October 11-14th, with a focus on ancient to modern art; it will open alongside 10-year-old contemporary Frieze Art Fair, both in Regent’s Park in London. The Masters section will host talks by artists such as Cecily Brown, Glenn Brown and Luc Tuymans to discuss the effect that historical work has on their own practice. Dealers are expecting crossover from both fairs and some, such as Hauser and Wirth, have booths at both. The interior has been designed by Selldorf Architects, using natural light and high ceilings, allowing viewers to “wander from one century to another”. (more…)

AO Newslink

Sunday, August 26th, 2012

Cecily Brown, Glenn Brown, and Luc Tuymans have been announced as featured speakers in the inaugural Frieze Masters Talks, an addition to the fair this year. The program will bring together artists, directors, and curators to discuss how contemporary artists engage with art past and present. Jasper Sharp, responsible for programming the talks said, “I look forward not only to learn how each artist in their own way approaches, draws on or rejects historical work, but also to discover and reconsider specific works from their chosen collections with a different eye.”

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AO Auction Results — London: Phillips de Pury Contemporary Art Evening Auction, June 28, 2012

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Olympics (1984) which sold for a record-breaking price of £6 million

This evening in London, Phillips de Pury‘s Contemporary Art Evening exceeded pre-sale estimates of £15.1- £21.1 million, with sales totaling £23.4 million. Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s Olympics (1984) at £6 million broke the record for a Warhol-Basquiat collaboration. With three pieces in the auction selling for over a million pounds, the take was over twice the amount received just a year ago for the auction house. Of 30 original lots, 2 were withdrawn (including a Cindy Sherman piece) and 4 were passed on. Although the total sum was not as large as the sales of either Christie’s or Sotheby’s, it was the only auction house to surpass pre-sale estimates for this week.

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AO Auction Results – London: Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012


Shot of the Contemporary Art Evening Auction. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Last night in London, Sotheby’s demonstrated a sound Contemporary Art Evening Sale, with sales totaling £69 million, against an estimate of £57-82 million. They possessed a good sell-through rate at 87.3% by lot and 93.4% by value. In a press release, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe, was quoted: “The auction this evening was led by blue-chip artists, such as Bacon, Basquiat, Richter and Lichtenstein… With buyers from 15 different countries, the global demand for this area of the market continues to be underlined.” Despite the overall formidable sales of last night, Sotheby’s did not receive quite the same reception as it did in its evening auction in New York in the Spring.


Glenn Brown, The Tragic Conversion of Salvador Dalí (After John Martin) (1998), which sold for £5.2 million with an estimate of £2.2-2.8 million

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AO Auction Preview – London: Post-War and Contemporary Sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips de Pury, June 26 – 28, 2012

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012


Yves Klein, Le Rose du bleu (RE 22) (1960)

This week in London, the focus will shift towards Contemporary Art, for the second consecutive week of  summer auctions. According to the Telegraph, these contemporary sales hold the highest pre-sale estimates ever offered by the London houses. Total sales expected from Sotheby’s range from £57.51 – 82.48 million, while Christie’s are in excess of £120 million. Last week’s Impressionist and Modern Sales were more subdued than the record breaking auctions held in New York this past May. Based upon these record pre-sale estimates, there may be similar hopes for this week’s round of sales.


Yves Klein, Rélief éponge bleu (RE 51) (1959)

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Don’t Miss – Geneva: Glenn Brown at Gagosian Gallery through July 23rd, 2011

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011


Glenn Brown, Layered Portrait (After Rembrandt) 7 (2008), via Gagosian Gallery

On display through July 23rd 2011 at Genevas’s Gagosian Gallery, are etchings by the artist Glenn Brown.  Known for his appropriation of images, here Brown employs portraits by Lucien Freud, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Urs Graf. By first digitally altering the source images and then layering his reworked interpretations, Brown creates composite paintings which serve as the basis for his etchings.

More text and images after the jump… (more…)

Go See – Berlin: Glenn Brown at Max Hetzler Gallery, until May 28th, 2011

Sunday, May 15th, 2011


Glenn Brown, The Shallow End (2011), via Max Hetzler

Presented through May 28, the exhibition of Glenn Brown’s recent work at Max Hetzler ’s satellite gallery presents fascinating examples of the Tuner Prize-nominated artist’s recent work. As part of Gallery Weekend Berlin, the solo exhibition is exhibiting portraiture and figurative paintings as well as “paint-sculptures” in a grandiose apartment in the chic Savigny-Platz district of Berlin.


Glenn Brown, Carnival (2011), via Max Hetzler

More text and images after the jump… (more…)

Don’t Miss – London: “Crash, Homage to J.G Ballard” at the Gagosian London through April 1, 2010

Saturday, March 27th, 2010


Installation View  All photographs are via Gagosian Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, 6-24 Britannia street, London is the exhibition titled “Crash, Homage to J.G. Ballard” , a group show dedicated, as the name suggests, to the oeuvre of J.D. Ballard, a prominent British novelist and short-story writer, a representative of the New Wave movement in science fiction.  The exhibition was put together to pay tribute to the enormous cultural influence of J.D. Ballard’s fiction on many visual artists. The impressive selection of works by  such prominent artists as Ed Ruscha, Richard Hamilton, AndyWarhol and Helmut Newton illustrates profound engagement of the writer with the works of visual artists of his generation and their mutual influence.

More images and related links after the jump….
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Go See – London: Glenn Brown at Gagosian Gallery through November 26, 2009

Monday, October 26th, 2009


Glenn Brown, “Christina of Denmark” (2008). Via Gagosian Gallery.

On view now until November 26, 2009, the Gagosian Gallery in London features several paintings and sculptures by Glenn Brown. This exhibition focuses on the evolution of the images that Brown borrows from other works as well as the titles he uses for his paintings, which deliberately reference pop culture. The museum describes Brown’s borrowing of images as “a slow and intuitive process over many months, by which the subject of and medium of each painting slowly morph and accumulate into ‘replicant’ versions of their former selves.”


Glenn Brown, “If you know how to get here, please come” (2009). Via Gagosian Gallery.

more images and related links after the jump…

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Go See – Turin: Glenn Brown Retrospective at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo through October 4, 2009

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009


A painting from the Glenn Brown retrospective, currently hosted by Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is showing paintings by Glenn Brown, in a new exhibition that runs through October 4.  The retrospective, organized in collaboration with Tate Liverpool, is the largest showing of the artist’s work to date, with over sixty paintings on exhibition.  The show, full of works that combines history and science fiction, is curated by Francesco Bonami and Laurence Sillars.

Related links:
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo


A painting from the Glenn Brown retrospective, currently hosted by Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.

More information and images after the jump.

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Newslinks for Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009


Anish Kapoor’s ‘Shooting into the Corner’ via The Independent

Britain’s Royal Academy opens its galleries in September to Anish Kapoor for the first single artist exhibition there since 1988 [Independent] and Kapoor’s commission for the Deutsche Guggenheim, ‘Memory,’ opens in October [Guggenheim]


Gilbert and George in Hong Kong via Financial Times

Gilbert and George describe their trip to Hong Kong for the opening of ‘Louis Vuitton: A Passion For Creation’ at the Hong Kong Museum of Art [Financial Times]
Oreg0n art dealer indicted for running gallery as a Ponzi scheme [Artinfo]


Glenn Brown’s ‘Christina of Denmark’ via Art in America

Lynn MacRitchie visits painter Glenn Brown’s studio [Art in America]
Predictions about the future of auction houses following the burst of the art market bubble
[CNBC via Art Market Monitor]


Aerial view of Governors Island via Governors Island

Creative Time announces Plot, a public art quadrennial, to take place on Governors Island this summer, with 19 international artists showing in 5 buildings previously closed to the public [Creative Time]


Pablo Picasso’s ‘Homme à l’épée’ via Philippe Sollers estimated to sell for £5-7 million at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Sale later this month

Christie’s announces its Impressionist and Modern Art Sale, with important works by Monet, Duchamp, and Picasso as highlights [Auction Publicity] and in other auction news, Latin American sales follow the downward trend [Artinfo]


Terence Koh and Tom Sachs celebrate the release of Koh’s new book at Julian Schnabel’s house via Style

Vito Schnabel holds a dinner party at Palazzo Chupi in honor of Terence Koh’s new book, ‘Flowers for Baudelaire’ [Style]
Eric Fischl is organizing a touring exhibition aimed at involving artists in the evolution of American identity in the wake of post-9/11 politics [LA Times]


Takashi Murakami signing posters for the Vogue Nippon launch via Hint

Comme des Garçons x Vogue Nippon concept shop opens, featuring Takashi Murakami collaborations [Hint]
Controversial modern museum, the Ara Pacis, in the heart of historical Rome, is vandalized [BBC]


Jenny Holzer’s ‘Monument’ via Economist

Daniel Arizona looks at how Jenny Holzer’s early aphorisms stand up now and how her new ‘Redaction Paintings’ capture today’s anxiety [Economist]
Antony Gormley and Sir Peter Blake among judges of Saatchi Gallery-Sunday Telegraph Art Prize for schoolchildren [TelegraphUK]

Newslinks for Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009


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]