The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present an exhibition in the fall featuring major cubist works, including pieces by artists such as Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, and Pablo Picasso. The 79 artworks that will be exhibited in the show were donated to the Met last springby Leonard Lauder. The show will be the first time that Lauder’s gift, which is valued at over $1 billion, will be exhibited as a whole; it will run from October 20th to February 16th, 2015.

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Juan Gris, Figure Seated in a Café (Man at a Table) (1914). via New York Times

Leonard Lauder, the former chairman of Estée Lauder and a noted collector of early 20th century art, has donated a vast collection of Cubist works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, valued at more than $1 billion. (more…)

Exterior View, Wolfsonian FIU. All photos by A. M. Ekstrand for ArtObserved

On Friday, December 7th, 2012, the Wolfsonian Museum at FIU held a reception for its shows on view:  “Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection”,  “Esther Shalev-Gerz: Describing Labor” and “Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from the Wolfsonian Collection”. The exterior of the Mediterranean-revival style building recently underwent conservation and its dramatically lit 1926 cast stone façade welcomed invited guests.

Maria Likarz Fashion 1911 (more…)

Banksy’s controversial One Nation Under CCTV via hutley.net

Banksy issues a statement on London City removal of his CCTV work [Time via TWBE] and a video of Banksy’s pet store/charcoal grill in NYC [Wooster Collective]
At the Whitney: Leonard Lauder, Cindy Sherman, Mary Boone, Donatella Versace, Christina Ricci, Sting and assorted socialites show up for the Gala and Studio Party [ArtInfo]
Art and Commerce: Julian Schnabel, sponsored by Mastercard, completes portrait of sweepstakes winner [Tradingmarkets]
A quiet but strong video of Jenny Holzer at the Guggenheim, New York [Vernissage.tv]
Takashi Murakami, a bit hurt perhaps from the his Phillips Frieze auction, comments on the art market: “Everyone is very nervous. Everything is negative” [NYMag]
And in the latest in Damien Hirst: the Guardian quotes his art market comments from four years ago: “they would sell your granny to Nigerian sex slave traders for 50 pence and a packet of woodbines” [GuardianUK] his cover art for British band The Hours [Brand Republic] and Sarah Thornton has a thorough summary of Hirst and some of his series: “he faces all the problems of an aging rock star” [TheArtNewspaper]