Hilma af Klint, Paintings for the Future (Installation View), via Art Observed

It’s been a long time coming for the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint.  Born in 1862 in Stockholm, her works during the years leading up to and after the turn of the 20th Century marked an increasingly surreal departure from the studied realism of her peers, and into a state of abstraction the made her a leading voice in the development of the language and practice of modernism. Yet af Klint’s work is also frequently held aside from her peers of the era, that is, until now, with an ambitious and thrilling Guggenheim exhibition aiming to put her work back into its proper historical and aesthetic context. (more…)

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 19 (1921), via Art Observed

The Guggenheim Museum has opened its doors on an expansive exhibition of work by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, exploring the Bauhaus member’s impressive contributions to the development of 20th Century Modernism. Combining his explorations in sculpture, painting, film, photography and even installation, the exhibition places the artist’s enthusiasm for technological progress into conversation with the present day. (more…)

A profile piece in the New Yorker this week focuses on artist Kader Attia, and his recent project at the Guggenheim, in which he recreated the  M’zab hilltop fortress in the Algerian city of Ghardaïa from over 700 pounds of couscous.  “Everyone knows that Braque and Picasso were strongly influenced by the tribal, primitive art of Africa,” he says. “This never happened in architecture. We don’t know the influence of traditional architecture on architects like Le Corbusier.” (more…)

Fischli/Weiss, Rat and Bear (Sleeping) (2008), via Art Observed

The Guggenheim has opened its doors to Swiss collaborative Fischli/Weiss for the retrospective show How to Work Better, exploring the pair’s lighthearted, often satirical manipulations of reality and art history through their unique modes of creation. (more…)

Anne Collier, May/Jun 2009 (Cindy Sherman, Mark Seliger) (2009), all photos via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

The Guggenheim’s Photo-Poetics: An Anthology, curated by Jennifer Blessing, senior photography curator at the museum, delves into methods utilized by artists to diverge from traditional notions of photography as a chronicle of tangible reality.  Such capturing of verité leaves the stage for investigation of process, material, and expression in works by ten contemporary photographers, spanning three floors at the museum’s side galleries, and guiding viewers through various sections containing selections of work by a single artist, among them Sara VanDerBeek, Erin Shirreff and Kathrin Sonntag to name a few. (more…)

Alberto Burri, Grande sacco (Large Sack) (1952). Photo: Antonio Idini, Soprintendenza alla Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, courtesy Ministero dei Beni e le Attività Culturali e del Turismo

The chasm between experience and representation seeps through the full expanse of The Trauma of Painting, a major Alberto Burri retrospective at the Guggenheim, an ambitious exhibition that’s as much an exploration in process as it is an embodiment of wartime and its brutal demands on humanity. Born in 1915 in the Italian town of Città di Castello, Umbria, a region steeped in the grandeur of Renaissance art, Burri’s early years were overshadowed by both World Wars.  While beginning his career as a doctor, his capture by the British and his internment in Texas during WWII propelled him into painting.  Without a formal artistic education, Burri developed a practice stemming from his training as a physician, evoking elements of abjection and corporeal tactility. (more…)

The Guggenheim has launched its first online arts initiative, the Ã…zone Futures Market, which allows participants to play an imagined market influenced by the emergence of various new technologies, including innovations in space travel and green energy.  “I see the museum as a machine for making sense of history for a public audience, both distant histories and those unfolding in the present” says curator Troy Conrad Therrien.  “For museums to fulfill their mandate in this environment, they need to experiment with new types of exhibitions to address contemporary issues that will shape our future.” (more…)

Pablo Picasso – The Maids of Homer (1957), courtesy The Guggenheim Museum

Pablo Picasso, whose relentless explorations of form, representation and perspective fundamentally shifted the art world as one of the defining minds of the 20th century avant-garde.  Moving among a broad variety of approaches, techniques and media, the Spanish painter and sculptor created a vast body of work that defined him as a singular talent and powerful voice for years to come.  Now, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City is exhibitinf a massive exhibition of Picasso works, focusing on the black and white works.

Pablo Picasso – Woman Ironing (La repasseuse), Bateau-Lavoir, Paris, spring 1904,  courtesy The Guggenheim Museum
(more…)

The Hugo Boss Prize dinner at the Guggenheim scheduled for Thursday has been cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, but the committee will announce the winner tomorrow regardless. The 2012 nominees are Trisha Donnelly, Rashid Johnson, Monika Sosnowska, Qiu Zhijie, Danh Vo and Tris Vonna-Michell. (more…)

American critic Dave Hickey announces that he “quits” the art world, citing too much emphasis on money and lack of seriousness.  Hickey says the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he was required to sign a 10 page contract before sitting on a panel discussion at the Guggenheim. “What can I tell you? It’s nasty and it’s stupid. I’m an intellectual and I don’t care if I’m not invited to the party. I quit.” (more…)

‪‬The Guggenheim Museum announces mid-career retrospective of Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra to open June 29–October 28, 2012. The exhibition spans 20 years of work, featuring over 70 color photographs and five video installations, and is co-organized by the San Francisco Museum of Art, which displayed the show in February, 2012

(more…)

Relatum, Lee Ufan (1978). All images Nicolas Linnert for Art Observed unless otherwise noted.

The Guggenheim’s spiral galleries are currently showing Marking Infinity, a collection of work by artist and philosopher Lee Ufan. The retrospective reflects on the artist’s career from the 1960s to present. Filling the walls and floors of the Guggenheim are paintings on canvas, sculptures from steel plates and stones, and other mixed media installation works.

Installation view for Marking Infinity at the Guggenheim Museum, NY.

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

T.1912 by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster with The Wordless Music Orchestra at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, April 14, 2011. All Photos by Enid Alvarez

On April 14th, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum hosted an double feature of T. 1912, a performance by French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. She conceived it as a commemorative gesture on the 99th anniversary of the famous sinking of the Titanic, the massive ship that was pronounced “unsinkable” and which struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage in 1912.

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

Mona Hatoum, Suspended (2011). All images via White Cube.

Installed on three floors of White Cube Mason’s Yard in London is an exhibition showcasing new work by Mona Hatoum titled Bunker, now on view through April 2nd. Hatoum recently made headlines by joining a group of artists in threatening to boycott the Guggenheim due to allegations that the museum is mistreating laborers constructing the Abu Dhabi branch. While Bunker does not specifically address the boycott, the themes of displacement and violence permeate this latest body of work.

Mona Hatoum, Bunker (2011)

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Hannah Hoch, Roma (1925). Via Focus.de

Chaos and Classicism: Art in France, Italy, and Germany, 1918-1936, currently on at the Guggenheim, is more history lesson than study of art object.  A mix of known artists with the unknown, names like Hannah Hoch, Picasso and the  little remembered Amleto Cataldi (whose third Google result is someone’s Facebook profile) are shown contextualized within this period of political transformation.  Curated by Kenneth E. Silver—author of Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War, 1914-1925, which is considered an authority on interwar modernism—Chaos and Classicism offers an illustration of how art can just as easily support, as it does challenge, institutional power. Traveling up the Guggenheim’s ramp, the exhibition lays bare the changing sentiment of the period—from a reliance on the order and beauty of Classicism after the horrors of the first world war to fascism’s adoption of those same classical themes for world take over.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

James Turrell, Cherry, 1998. Image via Almine Rech Gallery.

Currently on view in Brussels at Almine Rech is the gallery’s first solo exhibition by American artist James Turrell (b. 1943). Since the 1960s, Turrell has created innovative and unconventional installations in which he attempts to sculpt optical perception and “the concrete nature of light,” generating meditative, often-sublime experiences for the viewer.  The works on display represent more than three decades of Turrell’s experimentation with light as a physical material, including examples of his early Projection series, his Apertures, and his more recent engagement with holography.

James Turrell, Acro Red, 1968. Image via Almine Rech.

(more…)

Louise Bourgeois in her Brooklyn studio in 1992. Photo courtesy The New York Times.

Louise Bourgeois, one of the world’s most celebrated sculptors, passed away today at the age of 98. The news was announced by an Italian foundation preparing an exhibition of the artist’s work in Venice, and was confirmed by Wendy Williams, the managing director of the Louise Bourgeois Studio. The cause of death was heart attack, and occurred at the Beth Israel Medical Center. Bourgeois was a leader of feminist art, and is known most recently for her large-scale metal spider sculptures, as well as psychologically-charged roughly-textured depictions of sex organs.

Bourgeois’s 30-ft spider sculpture outside the Tate Modern in 2007. Photo courtesy the BBC.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

On May 4, the exhibition titled “Peasant da Vincis” curated by the renowned American-Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang opened in Shanghai. “Peasant da Vincis,”  featuring a combination of inventions by Chinese peasants and works by the artist that explore the subject of human creativity. It is also the inaugural show for Rockbund Art Museum, the first contemporary art museum in the historic riverfront area of Shanghai, known as the Bund. Architect David Chipperfield redesigned the interior to create a contemporary art museum in the historic building that originally housed one of the first museums in China.

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

At PMA, “Head of a Woman” (1937-38). Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

AO visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, which are both showing survey exhibitions of the avant-garde in Paris in the early twentieth century. “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris,” at PMA, is an exhaustive display of thirty years of Picasso, from 1905 to 1945, following him through the development of Cubism and artist communities in Paris. The Guggenheim’s show is smaller and less concentrated on Picasso; it includes thirty works by Picasso, Léger, Chagall, Braque, and more, where the PMA’s 200-strong exhibition includes works by Picasso collaborators and contemporaries as they interact with his own.

At the Guggenheim, Pablo Picasso, “Mandolin and Guitar (Mandoline et guitare)” (1924). Oil with sand on canvas Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York  Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

More images, story, and relevant links after the jump…

(more…)

–>
Robert Ryman at PaceWildenstein Gallery at 32 E 57 Street in New York.  Installation View.  All images via PaceWildenstein Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at PaceWildenstein Gallery is “Robert Ryman: Large-small, thick-thin, light reflecting, light absorbing” – the exhibition of thirty new paintings of the renowned minimalist American artists. Executed in Ryman’s signature monochromatic palette the paintings on display measure ten to thirty square inches and represent a wide gamut of experimentation in materials, including wood, MDF board, aluminum, and stretched cotton. The works appear strong and indestructible, although painted on the paper-thin material Tyvek. In addition to traditional graphite and ink, Ryman employs such painterly materials as acrylic varnish, enamel and epoxy. To hang the paintings to the walls, the artist will use regular staples, which are a traditional integral part of his aesthetics.

–>
Robert Ryman at Pace Wildenstein. Installation View

More images, text and related links after the jump…
–>
(more…)

Sarah Morris, “Beijing Intersecting” (2009), one of the proposals for filling the Guggenheim’s void as part of its 50th anniversary show. Photo by Art Observed.

AO was at the press preview for “Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim” as the museum celebrates the 50th anniversary of its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on the East Side. For this new exhibition, organizer Nancy Spector commissioned two hundred proposals from artists, designers, and architects to fill the void.  Through April 28, proposals are on the walls of the Guggenheim, a set of dreams and interventions.

Detail from “Remember Beuys” (2009), by Bolles+Wilson, at the Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

More images, story, and relevant links after the jump…

(more…)

A photo taken with a mobile phone, although picture-taking was prohibited during the exhibition via NY Times

When Tino Sehgal‘s work took over the Guggenheim Museum in New York on January 29th it was a quiet experience. There were no opening parties, no fuss and none of that Art World glitter to make one jump from exuberant excitement.  The walls of Frank Lloyd Wright’s majestic rotunda were stripped bare and seem to have newly acquired a long lost naïveté.  The lobby still brimmed with crowds of people clustered around the impenetrable center. The Kiss unfolded, rolled and scattered itself in a graceful poise of a feline. The subtly choreographed sequence of animated poses referenced erotic works from Rodin, to Courbet, to Jeff Koons. Occasionally, a couple or a small group of visitors would creep closer for a brief encounter or settle in contemplative thought on the floor of the proposed stage.

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

Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View All images via Hauser and Wirth unless otherwise noted

Currently showing at Hauser and Wirth Gallery, 32 East 69 St., New York, NY is “MONALISA”, an exhibition of works by an American artist  Ida Applebroog. The present exhibition is a debut of the entirely new body of work, with a centerpiece of a rudimentary wooden structure that the artist’s calls “MONALISA’s House”. The structure’s walls are covered by one hundred drawings of the artist’s genitals that she produced in the seclusion of her bathroom, while living in California in 1969. The artist speaks about her work: “It was a certain period of my life and before I got into the tub I’d sit with a full-length mirror on the floor. It was before my own radicalization.”

Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View

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

stazione (Rialto Mercato), Emily Jacir (2008) via Alexander and Bonin

Emily Jacir: Dispatch is the artist’s second solo exhibition shown at Alexander and Bonin Gallery in New York City. The exhibition runs through November 28 and features works from two of Jacir’s most recent projects, Lydda Airport – a short film that takes place at the eponymous location sometime in the mid to late 1930’s. Also to be featured at photographs and the brochure of Jacir’s stazione, which was conceived for the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009 but never realized due to its unexpected cancellation by Venetian municipal authorities without explanation.

More images, text and related links after the jump…..
(more…)