Pablo Picasso, Le violon (Titre attribué : Nature morte) (1914) © Succession Picasso 2015 / photo Centre Pompidou, MNAM-Cci, dist. Rmn-Grand Palais / droits réservés

Having pioneered the vivid forms and perspectival innovations of Cubism during the course of his career, pushing that initial formal innovation into the vastly divergent forms, there can be little doubt of Pablo Picasso’s monumental impact on the path of modern art.  This influence sits at the core of Picasso.Mania, a playful yet impressively curated exhibition currently on view at the Grand Palais in Paris.  Pairing works from both before and after the artist’s massively influential impact on the world of 20th Century Art, the exhibition presents a contemporary perspective to the name, the myth, the reputation of the artist. (more…)

The Grand Palais will close for an ambitious two-year renovation project, the Art Newspaper reports, which will cost upwards of â‚¬393 million, and which will also enable the institution to more effectively manage multiple exhibitions and projects at the same time.  “Today, to use a gallery, you must choose a time when the nave is not taken up with an event. Most of the increase in turnover will come from the management of separate spaces, optimizing the occupancy rate,” says former Grand Palais head Jean-Paul Cluzel. (more…)

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, L’Ètrange Cité (Strange City), via Art Observed

In 2010, Christian Boltanski spread piles of clothes reaching to fifty tons around the interior of Grand Palais. Three years before Boltanski, Anselm Kiefer brought in cement and metal along with dust and debris into this patriarchal symbol of French industrial awakening. Richard Serra, Daniel Buren and Anish Kapoor are among the other superstar artists who have marked their signatures in this historical building in response to France Ministry of Culture’s annual Monumenta project, which invites an artist to create a new body of work to be exhibited inside the impressive architecture of Grand Palais. On view through June 22nd is this year’s commission L’Ètrange Cité (Strange City) by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, arguably Russia’s most celebrated names in contemporary art.

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, L’Ètrange Cité (Strange City), via Art Observed (more…)

Rankin, A. Galerie, Paris, all photos by Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

Launched in 1998, the Art Paris fair has charted a course of its own through the increasingly glutted calendar of sales events internationally, sitting squarely between the behemoth proceedings of New York’s Armory Show and the bustle of Hong Kong’s recent Art Basel edition.  This past weekend saw the 2014 edition of the Art Paris Art Fair come and go, as 140 galleries set up shop in the Grand Palais for several days of strong sales, and an impressive attendance count of 58,387, up 10% from last year.   (more…)

FIAC crowds, photo by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed

FIAC closed today, Sunday October 21st, with dealers reporting strong sales and a collective sigh of relief that the proposed inclusion of artwork over €50,000 to France’s wealth tax had not passed.  The fair was, by all accounts, well-organized and exhibited an impressive program of young galleries alongside work by established blue-chip artists. This year the fair added exhibition space in the Salon d’Honneur, the newly-renovated upper floor of the historic Grand Palais.  In past years the fair has seen more European collectors, but this year dealers reported sales to many collectors from Asia, Russia and the Middle East as well. The fair was directed by Jennifer Flay.

Marc Quinn, The Origin of the World, 2012, photo by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed

(more…)

FIAC Grand Palais, photo courtesy We Want Contrast for Art Observed

FIAC, one of Europe’s main three art fairs, held its vernissage last night in Paris at the Grand Palais. Dealers saw strong blue chip sales, including an $8 million Joan Miro panting, despite concerns over France’s proposed increase in wealth taxes and a strong Frieze and Frieze Masters in London the week before.

Gilles Fuches, President Prix Marcel Duchamp

All photos by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

The crowd at FIAC

FIAC has added more contemporary work from the second half of the 20th century in the last two years, attracting big collectors like Francois Pinault, Bernard Arnault, Alberto Mugrabi and Omer Koc.

(more…)

Grand Palais, courtesy FIAC

FIAC, or the 39th International Contemporary Art Fair, will open tomorrow (Thursday) in Paris, with a VIP preview today, with 184 galleries exhibiting at the Grand Palais, and this year utilizing the restored Salon d’Honneur as well, which lies at the center of the structure. As in past years, galleries will exhibit sculpture at the Tuilieries Garden nearby. Approximately 65,000 visitors are expected to attend.

Tuilieries Garden courtesy FIAC (more…)

‪‬Daniel Buren discusses his interactive installation at the Grand Palais in Paris, with large raised colored discs and mirrors on the floor, “There isn’t one [angle] better than the other, for me at least”

(more…)

All photographs by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

MONUMENTA is an invitation from the French Ministry for Culture and Communication for an internationally-renowned contemporary artist to create a site-specific work for the Grand Palais in Paris; this year’s invitation went to Indian-born Anish Kapoor. With 13,500 square meters of space, the Palais serves as a magnificent backdrop for artistic interaction. Previous invitations include Anselm Kiefer (2007), Richard Serra (2008) and Christian Boltanski (2010).

Entitled Leviathan, Kapoor’s sculpture is a breathtaking 35 meters high. “My ambition,” the artist shares, “is to create a space within a space that responds to the height and luminosity of the Nave at the Grand Palais. Visitors will be invited to walk inside the work, to immerse themselves in colour, and it will, I hope, be a contemplative and poetic experience.”

Although Kapoor was all smiles during the inauguration of the sculpture, he took the publicity as an opportunity to show solidarity for Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Kapoor dedicated the sculpture to his incarcerated colleague, and issued a call to museums and galleries of the world to close for a day in protest of Wei Wei’s detention by the Chinese government.

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

–>
Christian Boltanski’s “No Man’s Land” at Park Avenue Armory. Image by Art Observed.

AO was on site at the Park Avenue Armory’s second annual commission, which is showing until June 13.  This year’s installment features Christian Boltanski, in an ambitious new work that fills the 55,000 square-foot Drill Hall.  It’s called “No Man’s Land,” and it involves clothing, metal cranes, and the amplified sounds of its visitors’ beating hearts.

–>
Walk-through of Christian Boltanski’s “No Man’s Land” at Park Avenue Armory. Image by Art Observed.

More images, video, and story after the jump…
–>
(more…)

–>
Portrait of Geoff Dyer Talking, Francis Bacon (1966) at FIAC, Paris

If Frieze opened willing to court the unavoidable media speculation about sales or the lack of them: FIAC, and the exhibitors it houses this year, have in the early stages proved characteristically reticent. Not to mention laconic. At least on the surface. This morning there was little sign that much of Paris and beyond would descend on the Grand Palais and the Cour Carrée du Louvre at noon.

Helvoetsluys – the City of Utrecht, 64, Going to Sea, Joseph Mallord William Turner (Exh 1832). Via Tate

In acknowledgment of the grand artistic tradition of admiration, imitation and competition, through January 31 Tate Britain will present the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner alongside some 100 related works by Old Masters and Contemporaries. Amid the 30+ artists presented are Canaletto, Titian, Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Veronese, Watteau and Constable.

Moonlight, a Study at Millbank, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1797). Via Tate

J.M.W. Turner is often regarded as one of the most artists of his time, whose work varied to include watercolors, oil paintings, drawings and prints. While Turner’s spirit is often deemed as independent, David Solkin, Professor of the Social History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, University of London who conceived the exhibition, wishes to highlight how Turner was in fact, deeply engaged with the work of other artists.

Related Links:
Tate Britain Website [Tate.org.uk]
Tate Britain exhibition revives Turner’s and Constable’s old rivalry [TimesOnline]
Turner and the Masters [Guardian.co.uk]
The Times; May 8, 1832 – Royal Academy Exhibition [TimesArchive]
Turner and Constable: We’ve lost the art of feuds for art’s sake [Telegraph.co.uk]
Revealed: how Turner began his career copying the old masters [TheIndependent]

More Images and text after the jump…

(more…)

Andy Warhol, ‘Silver Liz,’ 1963.  Employing the mass-media technique of screen-printing, Warhol created 13 portraits of Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her fame. Via Corcoran.

Currently showing at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais is a selection from the thousand or so portraits that Andy Warhol painted in 1962 and onwards.  During that time, Warhol produced commissioned portraits of film and rock stars, fashion designers, artists, politicians and more obscure personalities using his signature technique–silkscreens, reproduced serially.  A pioneer of the Pop Art movement, his use of image repetition was seen as a commentary on the nature of consumer society and mass culture, and his focus on personalities contributed to a revival of portraiture at large. As the artist prophetically put, “All my portraits have to be the same size, so they’ll all fit together and make one big painting called Portraits of Society.  That’s a good idea, isn’t it? Maybe the Metropolitan Museum would want it someday.”

Related links:
Hidden Depths: Paris Exhibition Aims to Paint Warhol as a Modern Master [GuardianUK]
Andy Warhol’s World Wide Comes to Paris [Reuters]
Saint Laurent Portraits Out of Warhol Show [NYTimes]
The Endless Fifteen Minutes [NYMag]
Christie’s Seeking Buyer for Warhol Mao in Hong Kong [ArtInfo]
Warhol Sales Make $10.5 Million as Sotheby’s Turns to Big Names [Bloomberg]

Andy Warhol ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat,’ 1982. Warhol collaborated with Basquiat, the American graffiti artist, in the 1970s and 1980s.Via Antiques.

(more…)