AO Art Observed™

Whalers by Turner via Bloomberg.

From July 1st, through September 21, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is hosting the first retrospective exhibition of J.M.W. Turner. The exhibition will contain 140 diverse paintings. Most works come from Tate Britain which is the most comprehensive collection of the artist’s work in the world. Turner’s paintings represent seascapes, historical subjects, and modern scenes usually with a characteristic use of light.

Turner at the MET [Metropolitan Museum of Art]
J.M.W. Turner at the Metropolitan Museum Slideshow [NYTimes]
Storm-Tossed Visionary of Light [NYTimes]
Bloated Turner Show Arrives at Met Museum in Blaze of Colors [Bloomberg]
Nature Painted With Force [NY Sun]

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Anish Kapoor via Time

Time Magazine on Anish Kapoor [Time]
Tracey Emin’s controversial selections for Royal Academy include zebra bestiality, closeups of masturbation during menstruation, and barbed wire hula-hooping [The Daily Mail]
Separately, Hirst invited to join Royal Academy, and has yet to reply [[TimesUK]
Banksy friend/street artist Nick Walker to tag undisclosed British landmarks with laser [Artinfo]
Private art insurance premiums jump 30% year on year [Wall Street Journal]
Salander furniture/antique sale garners $1.6 million [Bloomberg]
The Met is closer to a new Director [New York Sun]
The Vatican begins a contemporary art initiative[the Independent]

Kauffman Desert House in Palm Springs via greatbuildings

Christie’s auction of Neutra house didn’t actually close [NYTimes]
Recent auction results belie underlying market weakness [Economist]
Herzog & de Meuron to design Kolkata Museum of Modern Art [ArtForum]
Ukranians as a new force in art buying [Financial Times]
A financial take on the state of the art market [TheStreet.com]
Guggenheim and Met hunt for museum heads [New York Sun]

Balloon Flower (Magenta) via jeffkoons

A Jeff Koons sculpture, Balloon Flower (Magenta), which has been in the Dallas collection of Howard and Cindy Rachofsky for seven years, is set to be auctioned at Christie’s London June 30 and may fetch $23.5 million. The sculpture, originally purchased for $1 Million, has gained value as Koons has emerged as one of the world’s most influential contemporary pop artists. Balloon Flower is from the same “Celebration” series as the sculptures which are currently on view on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Koons Prices Balloon, ‘Flower’ Will Be Sold [NYTimes]
Jeff Koons: Iconoclast [Sundance]
Koons Sculpture to Fetch Millions[Bloomberg]
Christie’s Announces Sale of Koons [Art Daily]
Rachofsky’s Sell Koons to Focus Collection [Dallas News]
Koons Balloon Soars to Auction [ArtInfo]

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Photos: Christian Coleman for ArtObserved
“Banksy Does New York,” the first New York gallery show for British-born street-artist Banksy, opened this Sunday, December 2nd, at Vanina Holasek Gallery on West 27th Street.

Just this October more than 50 Banksy works went to auction at Bonhams and Sotheyby’s, both in London. Nearly all the works sold for at least double their top estimate. (more…)