Cy Twombly, Untitled (New York City) (1968), via Sotheby’s
Tonight Sotheby’s has logged its response to Christie’s moderate outing last evening, as the auction house’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale saw steady, albeit occasionally slow proceedings, bringing a final sales tally of $294,850,000 with 13 of the 57 lots offered going unsold. (more…)
A series of works attributed to Jackson Pollock are being contested, after an analysis of the work uncovered paints not commercially available until after the artist’s death. “The earliest forms of this class of pigment appeared on the commercial market in 1910 (PY1), with others following in the 1920s (such as PY4-6),” the report reads. “However, the date of introduction of PY74 is commonly given in the literature as 1957. This consequently raises a number of issues.” (more…)
Jackson Pollock, Portrait and a Dream (1953), courtesy Tate Liverpool
Jackson’s Pollock’s early black paint pours return from a 30 year exhibition hiatus this summer at Tate Liverpool, showcasing some of the largest works that were created between 1951 and 1953 in this approach. While often lacking the vibrant color that often defined the artist’s work in the “pour” technique, these works reflect a refinement of much of Pollock’s previous innovation. Many of the artist’s works in this exhibition have never been seen in the United Kingdom, and demonstrate major significance in identifying Pollock’s stylistic shifts during the later years of his career. (more…)
Joyce Pensato, Mouse Mask (2015), all images courtesy Petzel Gallery
To advertise her fourth solo show at Petzel Gallery, Joyce Pensato released a short video, a brashly black and white, slapstick affair, set to classic ragtime piano tunes. In it, superhero Batman is knocked upside the head and shipped off to the exhibition, while Pensato, playing the gun moll in round-framed dark sunglasses, imitates her dumbly-smiling cartoon portraits. The video perfectly encapsulates Castaway, a new series of black and white cartoon portraits, erasure-paintings and drawings, both large-scale and small-scale, in addition to digital c-prints of the artist’s studio space. (more…)
Princeton University has announced that Samuel Hunter, professor of art and archaeology, emeritus, at the university, has died at 91. Before Hunter came to Princeton in 1969, he had already spent over 20 years as a curator, museum director, and professor of modern and contemporary art. As associate curator of painting and sculpture at MoMA, Hunter organized the first major exhibitions of work by Jackson Pollock and David Smith at the museum. The author of over 50 books on modern and contemporary art, Hunter has been called “one of the pioneers of the study of modern art as an academic field”. (more…)
The Tate has unveiled their 2015 lineup, which will include sculptor Alexander Calder‘s first retrospective at the Tate Modern, from November 2015 to the spring of 2016. The Tate Modern will also present an a large exhibition of works by the South-African artist Marlene Dumas in Spring 2015 in addition to the show “The World Goes Pop,” an exploration of Pop Art in the ’60s and ’70s. At the Tate Britain, Cornish sculptor Barbara Hepworth will be featured during Summer 2015, and the museum will also present exhibition of works by painter Frank Auerbach during the following autumn season. At the Tate Liverpool, the late work by Jackson Pollock will be exhibited in a summer show titled “Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots”. (more…)
The recent discovery of what may in fact be the last painting Jackson Pollock created before his untimely death has placed Pollock experts against forensic investigators, with many art historians debating the work’s origins. “I don’t think there’s a Pollock expert in world that would look at that painting and agree it was a Pollock,” says Francis V. O’Connor, a co-editor of the definitive Pollock catalog. (more…)
The hotly contested painting Red, Black, and Silver has been authenticated as the final painting from artist Jackson Pollock, given to his mistress shortly before his death in 1956. The painting had long believed to have been a Pollock, but was blocked from authentication by Pollock’s wife, Lee Krasner, who held a personal vendetta against his mistress, Ruth Kligman. That changes today, now that authorities have found strands of Pollock’s hair in the canvas, as well as sand unique to the beaches around his East Hamptons home. “The world was flat. Now it is round. It’s Galileo. Science can now be used to authenticate the art. We are [tracing] the painting back to where it was executed. It’s very CSI.” Says artist and Kligman estate trustee Jonathan Cramer. (more…)
Jackson Pollock’s No. 19, 1948 will be on the auction block at Christie’s next month, part of the auction house’s May 15th sale of Contemporary and Post-War Art in New York. A classic “drip-painting” by the artist, the work last sold at auction for $2.4 million in 1993, and is estimated to sell between $25 and $35 million. “You can see the circular movement of Pollock’s hand,” Said Worldwide Post-War and Contemporary Art Chairman Brett Gorvy said. “It’s one of those paintings you get lost in.” (more…)
Jim Dine (Installation View), via Pace Gallery
In a refreshing break from his figurative painting and Pinocchio art, Pace Gallery presents a collection of new abstract paintings by Jim Dine. The paintings are large, romantic, intense renderings of universal situations and emotions – sometimes literally, with titles like “A Fingerprint of Stars”, a painting that reaches fourteen feet wide and five feet tall.
In a new twist, New York’s now defunct Knoedler Gallery, which has faced several lawsuits in the past few years for selling forged works attributed to Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others, is now being sued by its investor David Mirvish for failing to sell two authentic works. The gallery shut down after allegations of selling a fake Pollock for $17 million came to light, effectively breaching an agreement between Mirvish and the gallery to sell two Pollock masterpieces. “David Mirvish, one of the world’s foremost art collectors, fervently believes in the authenticity of the works and is determined to receive that to which he is entitled,” said Mirvish’s lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr. (more…)
Sotheby’s saleroom with Rothko, No 1 (Royal Red and Blue) photo by ArtObserved
Last night Sotheby’s held its highest grossing auction ever. The Contemporary Art Evening Sale totaled over $375 million, just over the projected high estimate of $374 million. Auctioneer Tobias Meyer rejoiced stating “I can hardly express how thrilled we are.” According to Sotheby’s, it has experienced a record-breaking year in 2012, with Contemporary Art sales totaling over $1 billion.
Rothko, No 1 (Royal Red and Blue) Courtesy Sotheby’s
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Auction houses have reported new consignments for November sales. Two collectors, Steven A. Cohen and Douglas S. Cramer, will be consigning works for the November 14 auctions at Christies. Sotheby’s announced “a seminal group of masterworks that provide a panoramic view of Abstract Expressionism” for its November 13th sale, including Mark Rothko‘s No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) from 1954 and a 1951 Jackson Pollock drip painting .
Jackson Pollock’s Red, Black & Silver has been pulled from Phillips de Pury & Company‘s Sept. 20th auction, because of a Vanity Fair profile on the painting’s controversial history. Supposedly Pollock’s last painting ever made, the work was owned by the late Ruth Kligman, Pollock’s mistress. She died in 2010, and it was never authenticated by Lee Krasner or the Pollock-Krasner Authentication Board, who could not corroborate the information given about the work. The executor of Kligman’s estate, Davey Frankel, stated: “Following the article in Vanity Fair, the [Kligman] Trust was approached by parties interested in possibilities for further study of the painting, and felt it in the interest of Ruth and Red, Black & Silver to investigate these options before taking the painting to auction.” The piece is still consigned to Phillips for a future sale. (more…)
Jackson Pollock, “Ocean Greyness” (1953), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
This summer, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum celebrates a groundbreaking period in its history with “Art of Another Kind,” an installation featuring works collected primarily from 1949-1960. This era began with Solomon R. Guggenheim’s passing. The movement caught fire under new director James Johnson Sweeney’s affinity for the explorative and abstract work of artists he referred to as “tastebreakers,” and ended soon after the museum’s 1959 relocation to Frank Lloyd Wright‘s iconic white structure docked in the Upper East Side.
Judit Reigl, “Outburst” (1956), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Jackson Pollock’s “Mural on Indian Red Ground” valued at $250 million, has returned to the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art after being detained (in transit from Tokyo) at Iran customs due to outstanding debt by the Culture Ministry.
Andy Warhol, Double Elvis [Feris Type] (1963)
On the heels of a tireless and groundbreaking week in the New York art world, the fervor continues with the major auction houses hosting their Contemporary Art Sales—beginning tonight at Christie’s. Last week’s Impressionist and Modern Art Sales saw unforeseen prices and several world records set, namely the near $120 million paid for Edvard Munch‘s The Scream. In tandem with both the Frieze Art Fair and NADA Art Fairs’ inaugural New York editions—both held this past weekend—the Contemporary Sales possess an auspicious platform this season. The strength of last week’s sales proves the collectors’ attention to the trophy market, with many big ticket and highly recognizable works on the block this week.
‪‬Long Island dealer Glafira Rosales and companion Jose Carlos Bergantiños Diaz involved in FBI investigations regarding authenticity of several paintings by artists including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Jean-Michel Basquiat [AO Newslink]
‪‬Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow (1961) could sell for $45 million at Sotheby’s in May, perhaps the most important Rothko brought to auction since 2007. Additional lots in the sale include work by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. [AO Newslink]
‪‬Miami condo developer Martin Margulies collateralizes $80 million loan for 24-story tower from U.S. Trust with 59 pieces of modern art including works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, and Jasper Johns [AO Newslink]
‪‬The New York Times surveys the behind-the-scenes legal policies of the art authentication and insurance world, using the Knoedler Gallery’s forgery of Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Koonig, the deterioration of Matisse’s colors, an elbow accident with a private Picasso, and the re-appropriation lawsuit against Richard Prince to examine how to best protect a collection from fraud or damage.
[AO Newslink]
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Dara Friedman, Bim Bam, 1999, courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art is the first part of a two-part exhibition titled “Off The Wall.” The exhibition at large brings together thirty works from 1946 to the present involving performative actions and seven iconic works by Trisha Brown. Part one, “Thirty Performative Actions,” was curated by Chrissie Iles, the Whitney’s Anne and Joel Ehrenkrnaz curator and is scheduled to be on display until September 19th. Part two, “Seven Works by Trisha Brown,” will run from September 30th to October 30th. This section features the return of the Trisha Brown Dance Company to the Whitney. Many of Brown’s dances were performed at the museum in 1971, so in addition to the performances taking place in the fall there will be video footage of Trisha Brown’s past work.
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“Off The Wall” Opening at The Whitney Museum of American Art on June 30th, 2010, photograph courtesy of Taylor Derwin.
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Quilt by Alexandre da Cunha, and Six Billboards by Angus Fairhust, Art Basel. Image via Art Daily, AP Photo/Keystone/Georgios Kefalas.
Yesterday marked the end of the most highly-attended Art Basel to date. The 41st annual contemporary art fair boasted 306 galleries from 36 countries, and AO was on site to peruse the work of some 2,5000 artists. 62,500 dealers, collectors, curators, high-profile shoppers, artists, and art appreciators navigated installations, browsed gallery booths, mingled, and enjoyed the city of Basel. Artists, established and newcomers both, showcased works ranging from Polaroids to performance pieces, paintings to videos, sculptures to large-scale installations. A social and teeming affair with an obvious commercial edge, Basel’s sales were optimistic. Picasso, Warhol, Prince, Hirst, de Kooning, Pollock, and other similarly established artists reigned supreme as the focus of this year’s event. Franck Giraud, a New York dealer, spoke to the New York Times about the lack of prominently featured up-and-comers: “Is it because that’s what the market wants, or is it because dealers didn’t want to take risks? I think it was a bit of both.” Nonetheless, certain galleries used Basel as a platform to introduce new artists and show off their latest signings.
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Untitled, Maurizio Cattelan (2001) Estimate: $3–4 million Price Realized: $7.9 million
Last night, Sotheby’s confirmed the art market’s return to form as 50 of the 53 lots on offer sold at its Contemporary art sale. Tallying $189,969,000 in sales, well over the house’s $162 million pre-sale estimate, 39 works fetched more than one million dollars, with two selling for more than $30 million, and seven making more than $5 million. Further to this, the sale achieved the two top lots achieved so far at New York’s Contemporary sales week, surpassing Christie’s sale of Jasper Johns Flag for $29 million on Tuesday night – Andy Warhol’s Self-Portrait more than doubled its high estimate to sell for $32,562,500, and an Untitled Mark Rothko painting from 1961 soared over the high estimate to sell for $31,442,500.
Self Portrait, Andy Warhol (1986). Estimate: $10-15 million. Price Realized: $32,562,500
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