The Guardian has a piece documenting some of Keith Haring’s most iconic designs scrawled across automobile and motorcycle exteriors. The artist had done a number of pieces on cars and trucks, including one on a vintage Land Rover, and another on a 1990 BMW Z1. (more…)
Andy Warhol, 20 Pink Maos (1979), via Phillips
Complementing the offering of new works across town at Regent’s Park, Phillips London has opened a week of auctions around Frieze Week, closing out its 30-lot sale this evening with a consistent sale, seeing 6 of the evening’s 30 lots go unsold to reach a final tally of £17,867,750. (more…)
The Church of the Ascension in Morningside Heights is looking to sell its building at West 108th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, leaving residents concerned about the future of a Keith Haring mural that snakes throughout the building. “They know the Harings are here but they don’t really care about them,” resident Denis McFarling says of developers who have come to view the building. “They don’t really know how unique they are.” (more…)
The Keith Haring Foundation is moving forward with a lawsuit over the exhibition of 165 works falsely attributed to Keith Haring. While the organizers of the offending event, Haring Miami, agreed to remove all falsely attributed works, the organization said in a statement: “The Foundation plans to continue to pursue this lawsuit, carrying the message that it will enforce the Foundation’s rights and protect the artist’s legacy in every case of suspected fraud.” (more…)
The Martos Gallery’s Suzanne Geiss is bringing legal action against hedge fund manager Jarett Posner, claiming that he said he would sell his 1984 Keith Haring for $1.6 million. She filed papers in the Manhattan Supreme Court to force Posner to transact the deal. “There was never a sale. I’ve never heard of anything like this in my life,” Posner said. “I’ve never met the person, never agreed to anything.” (more…)
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation We The People via Art Observed
Curator Alison Gingeras and artist Jonathan Horowitz have teamed up to organize an exhibition at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation’s new project space in Chelsea which coincides with the upcoming election. Using the famous opening words of the constitution as a framework, We the People explores identity politics and creates a vision of the American demographic that both embodies and contests the categories that politicians and pollsters have used to divvy up the American population in recent years.
Norman Rockwell, courtesy Norman Rockwell Museum Collection ©1943 SEPS
Keith Haring-style Google Doodle today, May 4, honors the artist on what would have been his 54th birthday
Keith Haring, Matrix (1983). All images copyright Keith Haring Foundation.
On now at The Brooklyn Museum is ‘Keith Haring: 1978-1982.’ This dynamic multi-media exhibition provides a comprehensive survey of Haring’s early work. Best known for his “Crack is Wack” landmark mural, “The Radiant Baby,” and other stylistically similar cartoons made with thick lines of black Sumi ink, Haring also produced work in other mediums such as film and print. This show is comprised of 155 works on paper, multiple videos, and more than 150 personal objects of Haring’s, including notebooks, flyers, posters, subway drawings, and photographs; all of which, put together, capture and encapsulate the excitement and energy of New York City’s club and art scenes in the 1980s. The exhibition narrates viewers through the period in Haring’s career immediately following his arrival in New York City through the establishment of his studio space and the beginning of his interest in street art.
Sturtevant. Photo by Loren Muzzey. All images courtesy the artist and Moderna Museet unless otherwise noted.
For half a century, Sturtevant has built her practice on the citation of other artists’ works. Challenging authorship through acts of appropriation long before it was made popular by the likes of Sherrie Levine and Richard Prince, Sturtevant made her artistic debut in 1965, when she presented a roomful of Warhol silkscreen flowers at a gallery mere months after the originals had been created. Although largely overlooked until recent years, Sturtevant won a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at last year’s Venice Biennale. Her latest exhibition, Image over Image, opened March 17th at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Showcasing 30 works, 4 of which are the artist’s “originals,” the exhibition fosters a sort of wall label guessing-game. As visitors travel from room to room they are confronted with familiar works from modernist art history—a Jasper Johns here, a Duchamp there. Among other artists cited in this exhibition are Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring, Félix González-Torres, John Waters, and Paul McCarthy.
MTV’s “Art Breaks” series from 1985 is set to air again this year. Once featuring Jean-Michel Basqiuat, Keith Haring, Richard Prince, and Kenny Scharf, it will now debut 30 up-and-coming artists, as curated in part by MoMA PS1. [AO Newslink]
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild at Galerie Sho Booth, Pier 92
On the third and final day of the Armory Show 2012 both spirits and sales were high amongst the 228 exhibitors. Besides the notable success of David Zwirner’s solo booth by Michael Riedel, which sold out entirely in the first 30 minutes of the fair, many of the other galleries also benefited from the sales of their high-ticket items throughout the three-day exhibition. Art Observed spoke with representatives from various exhibitors including the Susan Sheehan Gallery, Spanierman Modern, Meredith Ward Fine Art, Art in General, Sprüth Magers, and the Gary Snyder Gallery. (more…)
All photos by Art Observed by Aubrey Roemer
The “Third and a half” Brucennial opened last night in New York City, the 2012 edition titled, “Harderer. Betterer. Fasterer. Strongerer.” At 159 Bleecker Street, the high-ceilinged art-filled space reached its capacity of 15,000—with a line around the block—shortly after opening its doors at 6 PM. Organized by the anonymous Bruce High Quality Foundation and Vito Schnabel, a large main room, balcony, and basement, were covered with paintings, sculptures, video-works, and other installations by artists both established and less so. Running the gamut from friends of the Bruces to a Damien Hirst spot painting, exhibiting artists of note include Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, Sigmar Polke, Julian Schnabel, Anselm Reyle, Francesco Clemente, Aurel Schmidt, Dan Colen, David Salle, George Condo, Rashid Johnson, Dash Snow, Terence Koh, Richard Prince, Joseph Beuys, Scott Campbell, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tom Sachs, Andy Warhol (collaboration), and Dustin Yellin.
Paul McCarthy, Cultural Gothic (1992). All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Art Observed was on site for the private Tuesday evening preview of the Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation show American Exuberance. Throughout 28 gallery spaces in a 45,000 sq ft museum, 190 works by 64 artists explore the American condition today through art, dissecting the paradoxical arenas of culture, economics, and politics. A 244-page catalog includes written commentaries by 13 of the artists from the notable roster, as follows: Thomas Houseago, Richard Jackson, Rashid Johnson, Nate Lowman, Richard Prince, Sterling Ruby, Haim Steinbach, Ryan Trecartin, and to name a few. About a quarter of the works were made in 2011 specifically for the show. Also, Art Observed returned the next morning on Wednesday for Jennifer Rubell’s 11th annual breakfast, which is presented every morning throughout the week, treats visitors to a small jar of fresh yogurt, to be ‘anointed’ with honey dripping from the ceiling.
Collecting dripping honey at Jennifer Rubell’s Incubation yogurt and honey breakfast.
–>
Keith Haring, Red (1982-1984), all images courtesy of Gladstone Gallery
A solo show of Keith Haring’s work is currently on view at Gladstone’s 21st street Gallery in New York. Haring, a major influence on New York public art, produced in his short lifetime an impressive body of work. Both drawings and paintings were executed with a boldness that distinctively blended figurative work with abstraction. His signature cartoon-like figures are composed purely of out-lines and possess not only weight but a sense of movement and vibrancy.
Though Haring purposefully steered clear of a profession in graphic design, his work is innately graphic and he himself did not shy away from making his art accessible to the general public through . Known for his New York City murals, the large-scale works in this exhibition have the same pulsating quality, as if they too were created on a wall on Houston or FDR Drive. One such work in the show, Untitled 1982, which measures approximately 9 x 10 ½ feet, resonates with the sounds of Haring’s New York of the 80s even in the quiet atmosphere of the gallery.
More text and images after the jump… (more…)
With his “May Day” show opening at Deitch Projects this Saturday May 1st, and an OBEY Clothing pop-up shop at 151 Orchard Street, Shepard Fairey has been busy putting-up work all over the city. In addition to his Deitch mural on Houston Street in the spot made famous by Keith Haring in the early-‘80s, a collaboration with COPE2 in the Bronx and mural projects in Williamsburg and SOHO – another mural appeared this morning on an 80-foot piece of plywood wrapping the Ace Hotel at the corner of Broadway and 29th Street. Guests visiting the hotel on May 1 are able to book the “May Day” package: an OBEY May Day t-shirt, a signed off-set print, and two tickets to the MAY DAY after-party.
More photos and related links after the jump….
(more…)
Rosson Crow, The Dakis Joannou Collection at the New Museum, 2010 All images via Deitch Projects
Currently in its last days at Deitch Projects 18 Wooster Street location is an exhibition of new paintings by Rosson Crow exploring the rebellious and lawless side of New York history. Entitled ‘Bowery Boys,’ the super-scale works comment on a long line of underground “bad boys” who have existed in New York City from the 1800s to the present day. Deitch Projects’ reputation for exhibiting and supporting the current generation of rebellious youth from this lineage makes this a fitting location for Crow’s sassy attempt to mimic the spirit of gangs, graffiti, drugs and illicit sex so inherent to the city she has called home for the past six months.
Rosson Crow, Bowery Boys, installation view
More text, images and related links after the jump….
(more…)
On show at the Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milan, is the much anticipated “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel), the second exhibition of works by Brazlian twins Os Gemeos (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo). This exhibition presents a series of entirely new, and previously unseen, works that include large canvases, musical sculpture-objects, mechanical and interactive site-specific installations actually created inside the gallery walls.
O Devoto, 2010
More images and text after the jump…
(more…)
Gavin Turk, Pop (1993), showing with Tate Modern’s “Pop Life: Art in a Material World” through January 17. Image via The London Paper.
Tate Modern is currently showing works by artists that embrace mass media and popular culture. Its motto is Andy Warhol’s proclamation that “good business is the best art,” and artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Tracey Emin, and more present works that are, accordingly, a blend of popular and left of center culture. “Pop Life: Art in a Material World,” which also features a new piece by Takashi Murakami, closes on January 17.
Foreground, House of Martin Luther King (1990), by Rob Pruitt and Walter Early; background, Damien Hirst’s False Idol (2008). From “Pop Life,” images via The Guardian.
more images and story after the jump…
–>
Encased — 5 Rows (6 Spalding Scottie Pippen Basketballs, 6 Spalding Shaq Attaq Basketballs, 6 Wilson Supershot Basketballs, 6 Wilson Supershot Basketballs, 6 Franklin 6034 Soccerballs) (1993) by Jeff Koons. Lot unsold. Estimate range: £1,800,000 to 2,200,000.
Phillips de Pury & Co. raised a total of £4.2 million at their February 12th auction of contemporary art, with 35 of 53 lots selling. The entire sale was expected to realize £6.8 million – £9.3 million. The higher priced lots were shunned in favor of those with estimates under £500,000.
The highest priced lot was Martin Kippenberger’s Portrait of Paul Schreber (Designed by Himself), which sold for £432,000, at the low end of its presale estimate of £400,000 to £600,000. The 8-foot high oil, lacquer and silicone is an abstract portrait of Paul Schreber, an early 20th century German judge who suffered several nervous breakdowns, and was the subject of a seminal clinical psychology paper by Sigmund Freud. The portrait is based on a sketch in Schreber’s autobiography, where he draws what he imagines his brain to look like: one healthy side and one ill side. Dan Colen’s Untitled (Going, Going, Go. . .), of a candle whose smoke spells out the painting’s title, sold for £92,500, more than double the high estimate. This sale also set a new auction record for the artist.
Zeng Fanzhi’s Huang Jiguang, from 2006, sold for £360,000 against pre-sale estimates of £200,000 to £250,000. The 11 foot wide depicts a Chinese war hero from the Korean War, who is famous for having sacrificed himself in a crucial battle. Mixing historicity and myth with an abstract landscape as background, Fanzhi is one of China’s foremost contemporary artists and is known for his Mask series.
A Jeff Koons sculptural installation featuring a glass-encased vitrine stocked with various basketballs and soccer balls failed to sell. It was the only lot priced higher than £1 million, and failed to generate a single bid despite being the cover lot by a prominent name.
The auction results were unimpressive on the whole, reflecting the general sense of ambivalent malaise that still plagues the art market. The consensus among many dealers and collectors is that it is a buyer’s market, and many sellers have not adjusted their pricing expectations to reflect the ongoing correction–until this mismatch is corrected, there will continue to be anemic auction results.
Auction Page: Phillips de Pury Contemporary Art Evening Sale
–>
Koons Work Snubbed for Cheaper Art in London as Bargains Sought [Bloomberg]
–>
Phillips Sale Misses the Mark [ArtInfo]
–>
ART MARKET WATCH: £4.2 million at Phillips London [Artnet]
–>
Phillips de Pury & Company’s London Contemporary Art Sale Results Confirm Market Demand for Quality Works [ArtDaily]
Keith Haring Mural
A week ago, Angel Ortiz, an artist known as LA II added his own touches to the Keith Haring tribute mural, covered in April by AO here, that has stood at Bowery and Houston streets since April. With the help of artist and gallerist, Clayton Patterson, Mr. Ortiz filled in blank spaces on the public mural, which he deemed fair game. It is yet another chapter in a 20 year long legal dispute with The Haring Foundation. He claims the Foundation has failed to credit collaborative work he did as an underage teenager with Haring in the early to mid eighties.
Haring’s ‘Silent Partner’ Speaks [NYsun]
–>
Keith Haring’s Silent Partner [VillageVoice]
–>
Arts Brief: Writing on the Wall [NYpress]
–>
Little Angel Was Here: A Keith Haring Collaborator Makes His Mark [NYTimes]
–>
Keith Haring’s mural in the East Village [Art Observed]
Rob Pruitt, Viagra Falls (2008) via Tony Shafrazi Gallery
“Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns?” runs from May 9 – July 12 at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York. Gavin Brown and Swiss artist Urs Fischer organized this show, which has been garnering a strong amount of publicity. Be sure to click on Art Observed’s exclusive covering of the opening. The exhibition celebrates juxtapositions throughout art and pays homage to Shafrazi’s legendary defacing of Picasso in the seventies by irreverent displays of art work out of context with traditional presentation. Different mediums, spaces, and uses of objects are shown. There are works from a wide range of artists, including, Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, Cindy Sherman, to Rirkrit Tiravanija.
Tony Shafrazi Gallery
When Artworks Collide [NY Times]
Tony Shafrazi Defaces ‘Guernica’ Again [NY Magazine]
Picks: Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns?” [ArtForum]
Tony Shafrazi Defaces ‘Guernica’ Again [NYMag]
AO on site: Fischer & Brown at Tony Shafrazi Gallery [ArtObserved]
Haring’s mural on Houston and Bowery via Deitch Projects
To celebrate the 50th birthday of the artist Keith Haring, who died of AIDS in 1990, Deitch Projects and the Keith Haring Foundation hired artists to re-create the artist’s mural work from the original.
“Keith Haring Mural to Be Recreated on the Bowery” [ArtInfo]
–>
“A Keith Haring Mural to Be Recreated (in Day-Glo, of Course)” [NY Times]
–>
“Keith Haring Tribute on East Houston” [Gothamist]
–>
“A Downtown Icon Is Re-Created” [NY Sun]
–>
Keith Haring: Houston Street and Bowery Mural [Deitch Project]
–>
Keith Haring’s foundation [Keith Haring Foundation]
