From Figuration (Installation View), via Skarstedt Gallery

Currently on view at Skarstedt Gallery’s London location is a compelling exploration of figurative sculpture, titled From Figuration.  Welcoming a host of high-profile names, including George Condo, Thomas Schütte, Jonathan Meese, Rosemarie Trockel, Rebecca Warren, and Paul McCarthy, the exhibition seeks to capture a broad range of approaches and themes expressed by this particular niche in the field of sculpture. (more…)

Jonathan Meese will direct Wagner’s Parsifal opera in 2016 at the Bayreuth Festival. The artist who calls himself the “Dictator of Art” was invited by the Wagner sisters; Andris Nelsons is to conduct.  (more…)

Jonathan Meese, Mona Lisa (2006-2007). All images via the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.

German-born multimedia artist Jonathan Meese is showing a new series of his politically and philosophically radical work at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Seeking “maximum precision” Meese offers a graphically reduced but highly alert perspective; mythology, history, characters, symbols, and figures all exist within an exploded sociological determinism. The artist has been producing these approximately 100 large scale lithographs since 2003, based largely on Meese’s desire to work fast, and display his morbid, melted lexicon quickly.

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Jonathan Meese, Wir, Erzkinder lernen Macht (Süsses Dorf der Verdammtin) = Die Gören (2007) via Tim Van Laere Gallery

On view at the Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp until June 25th, is Jonathan Meese’s 2007 sculpture, Wir, Erzkinder lernen Macht (Süsses Dorf der Verdammtin) = Die Gören. The show, which opened on May 12th, is part of the gallery’s ongoing focus on significant sculptural work in their outdoor exhibition space.

Artist Jonathan Meese (far left) at exhibition opening via Tim Van Laere Gallery

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Daniel Templon and the artist Jonathan Meese at Daniel Templon Gallery all photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed

Art Observed was on site to meet German artist Jonathan Meese for his opening reception at the Daniel Templon Gallery in Paris. Renowned for his unconventional and at times rebellious behavior in the Berlin art scene, the St. Neutralité exhibition marks the first opening for the artist after a two-year hiatus from gallery shows. Now 40, Meese returns filling two venues of the gallery—the Rue Beaubourg exhibits the artist’s recent paintings, and the Impasse Beaubourg houses an installation of new and old sculptures. Citing Paris as the “City of Love,” Meese chose it as the debut home for his new “lighter,” more humorous works.

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Tiermetabolismus V (Katzchen) by Jonathan Meese at Bortolami Gallery, Art Basel Main Fair, Hall B, Booth I-09.

Art Observed will be on site as of today for the ninth edition of the America’s biggest contemporary art fair: Art Basel Miami Beach which will open to the public on Thursday December 2 and will run through Sunday, December 5.

The main section of the fair will house over 180 galleries and over 40,000 are expected following the December 2nd opening.  Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler are the main fair organizers alongside its main sponsor UBS with Cartier, NetJets and AXA Art as the associate sponsors.  While Art Basel is still the main draw, the NADA Fair (the New Art Dealers Alliance) up the road at the Dauville Beach Resort will open to the public Thursday December 2. It will run through Sunday December 5 and also should not be missed.

Untitled (Art Fair Floor) by Ryan Reggiani.  Kate Werble Gallery at Nada Art Fair, booth 312.

The fair week is notable for its bridging of the Latin American buyers with American and British art centers as well as its uniquely intense amalgamation of social, media, fashion and other spheres of influence into the business of selling art.

The global art market seems to have stabilized this year and the main fair, along with its very significant satellites, should be met with lively buying this round.  Beyond this, all around Miami, the social calendar will be infused with events to the point where there is little chance to avoid regretfully missing something.

A view of an installation by Terrence Koh at The Island, an event during the week (see bel0w).

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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.

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Polar Bears of the Liro, Marc Quinn (2008) Sold within estimate range for £97,250

The Contemporary Sales at Phillips de Pury & Company on Saturday October 17 offered a truly diverse selection of works from premier Contemporary artists. The 43-lot evening sale included four unique works by Martin Kippenberger from the Bleich-Rossi Collection alongside exciting works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucio Fontana, Steven Parrino, On Kawara, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Jonathan Meese. The Day sale kicked off with a charity auction of twenty-one works by internationally renowned artists, including Anselm Kiefer, Rudolf Stingel and Francesco Vezzoli, to benefit the EMERGENCY charitable organization. The total sales from the Day sale amounted to £2,643,713 and the Evening sale brought in £4,104,950 against a low estimate of £5 million.

Concetto Spaziale, Lucio Fontana (1958-60)

Related Links:
Phillips de Pury & Company Website
Full List of Auction Results [Phillips de Pury]
Basquiat sells as buyers get picky at Choosy at $6.7 million auction [Bloomberg]
Signs of Life in London’s Art Market [WSJ]
A Whole New Spectrum of Buyers [Art Market Monitor]

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Jonathan Meese, “mutter mit roter Brille und roetlicher Perlenkette,” part of “The Figure and Dr. Freud,” a group exhibition on at Haunch of Venison New York.

Haunch of Venison’s New York branch is showing “The Figure and Dr. Freud,” a group exhibition by 31 artists from the last century.  These include past and currently producing artists, from the sculptor Alberto Giacometti to the painter Daniel Richter.  The show, which closes on August 22, focuses on the human figure as the artists have rendered it, through the lenses of the late Dr. Freud’s psychoanalytic theories.

Related links:
Haunch of Venison
Sigmund Freud [freudfile]

David Salle, “With All Due Respect Sir, We Need Modesty Blaise,” at Haunch of Venison.

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Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer

The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck is host to Jonathan Meese’s first major retrospective since Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen presented his works in 2006.  The show features nearly all of the artist’s sculptural work together for the first time, a number of large paintings, and sound and film installations. At the opening of the exhibition, Meese gave a performance, proclaiming the Arch-State of Atlantisis on the banks of the Rhine.  Meese takes up the mantle of Joseph Beuys, who used Atlantis as a symbol of the loss of natural spirituality. Beuys’s work touching on Atlantis, including his film trilogy ‘Atlantis,’ is represented in the exhibition, as well as work that came out of the Atlantis-Project of Helga and Hans-Jürgen Müller. Curated by Daniel Schreiber, the exhibition places Meese’s work in dialogue with that of Beuys and the Atlantis-Project. The exhibition is aimed at presenting “a world formula” that Meese claims will lead humanity towards the “dictatorship of art,” a utopic future that is a foundational strain in his work.

Arp Museum
Jonathan Meese: Erzstaat Atlantisis [Jan Bauer]
Jonathan Meese and his Ore State of Atlantisis [Goethe Institute]
Arts.21: Jonathan Meese – Arch-State of Atlantisis [Deutsche Welle]

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Invitation to Jonathan Meese’s ‘Casinoz Babymetabolismn’ via re-title

Showing now at Stuart Shave Modern Art in London is Jonathan Meese’s solo show ‘Casinoz Babymetabolismn.’ It is comprised of paintings, sculptures, and collages, and centers around a rather unlikely subject: Scarlett Johansson. Giving a tour to Art Review, Meese said, ‘This exhibition is a total homage to metabolismn Scarlett Johansson. There you see the mouth of Scarlett Johansson eating a human strawberry, and that is wonderful. If this mouth says that art will rule the world soon, all politicians have to go home…all politicians have to leave the parliaments so that art can rule the world totally.’

Jonathan Meese at Stuart Shave Modern Art [Modern Art]
Jonathan Meese, Casinoz Babymetabolismn [Art Review]
Jonathan Meese – “CASINOZ BABYMETABOLISMN” (Put DR. NO’S MONEY in your mouth, Baby) [Artnet]

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Jonathan Meese outside Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac with one of his sculptures, via Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

Now on display at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, Austria is German artist Jonathan Meese’s most recent sculptural works. Meese has been known in particular as a performance and installation artist but has recently renewed his artistic focus on the classic forms of painting, drawing, and sculpture. Though varied are his mediums Meese’s works are known to employ a constant theme of symbols, signs, and badges that serve as figurative allusions to characters in history, fictional literature, and current pop culture that are as varied as Stalin and Scarlet Johannson.  The artist’s work also serves as a reflection and reconstruction of German history and mythology.  This exploration has lent the artist to be compared to fellow German artist Anselm Kiefer whose work, especially that of the 1970’s, drew substantial inspiration from the history of Nazi Germany.
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Press Release [Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac]
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Jonathan Meese at Thaddaeus Ropac [Contemporary Art Daily]
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Ich bin ein artist [TheMoment]

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German artist Jonathan Meese via TheMoment

Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, and Javier Peres as players in the Berlin art scene [NY Times- The Moment]
more Jonathan Meese, headlining Friday at the Journal Gallery, Brooklyn [The World’s Best Ever]
Valuable, yet difficult to execute and display “extreme” art [ArtInfo]
Rothko, Bacon highlight a very British-painter-based fall exhibit lineup in London [Bloomberg]
On “democracy” as a trend in British contemporary art, and how pricing can suffer from it [Guardian]
Deborah Harris is the new managing director of the Armory Show [ArtForum]
Director Sir Nicholas Serota sets 1 year deadline for funds for Transforming Tate Modern project [London SE1]
In more Tate news: 2007/8 acquisition year for the Tate Collection brought a record $111 million – 494 work harvest [Art Daily]

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron via Financial Times

On Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Swiss architects of the Tate Modern [Financial Times]
Amy Cappellazzo of Christie’s entertains in her home to support Pratt Institute [NYSun]
French designer Agnes B.’s other hat: art dealer [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s reprises monumental sculpture exhibition and sale in Chatsworth, UK [Art Daily]
German artist Jonathan Meese remixes Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, underwear stapled to walls involved [NYTimes]

Hernan Bas Painting via Hikari

A not to miss on the Miami Art Basel agenda, is the famous Rubell Family Collection. Displayed in the design district in a large, blockish, museum-esque building. While a private collection, there’s nothing private feeling about it, including the vacuous galleries, bookstore and several banners on light posts proclaiming its presence. It’s clear that the Rubell’s have contributed and shaped the contemporary art world as we know it.
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