AO Art Observed™

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) via artfact

Given the current state of the art market, the recent news of London’s Tate Modern’s decision to reject a gift of 30 Rothko paintings 41 years ago sounds almost painful.  An investigation into the Tate’s archives reveal that in 1967 Rothko offered the London museum the generous gift which is now speculated to be worth $1billion. The offer included works from the artist’s 1961 retrospective at the MoMA and his Seagram mural paintings from 1958.

How the Tate made a $1billion mistake over Rothko [Independent, UK]
Documents shed light on Tate’s $1billion Rothko blunder [Guardian, UK]
Tate ‘lost out’ on Rothko works [BBC]
Tate ‘turned down Rothko paintings worth $1bilion’ [Telegraph, UK]

read more after the jump…

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Still Life With Old Shoe (1937), Joan Miró via NYTimes

Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937 at MoMA is the first major museum exhibition to display the chronological process of Miró’s practices and ideologies used to attack conventions and disrupt market values in this vital decade. The exhibition uses Miró’s 1927 claim of “wanting to assassinate painting” as its launch point to explore his lineage in 12 groups, which includes 90 paintings, collages, objects, and drawings. The exhibition takes a step-by-step perspective of the reinvigoration and radicalization of Miró’s sustained series. Additionally the exhibition is symptomatic of the European reaction to the end of the roaring twenties and insemination of political tensions that would culminate in 1939. The exhibition begins with a group of works composed on unprimed canvas and concludes with a single painting from 1937: Still Life with Old Shoe and is culmination of works created in Paris, Montroig (a rural village on the coast of Catalonia), and Barcelona. The exhibition is organized by Anne Umland the Curator or the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the The Museum of Modern Art. It will be on view in The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery, sixth floor, from November 2, 2008, through January 12, 2009.

MoMA Opens Exhibition Focusing on the Transofrmative Dcade of Joan Miró’s Work [ArtDaily]
Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting, 1927-1937 [TheArtNewspaper]
Angry Young Man [TheNewYorker]
Miró, Serial Murderer of Artistic Convensions [NYTimes]
Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927-1937 [Museum of Modern Art]
Miró, Miró on the Wall [ArtNet]

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Damien Hirst via TheDailyMail

Science, Damien Hirst’s corporation, tops the ArtReview power 100, Gagosian follows, and MoMA’s Kathy Halbreich is first woman to make the top 10 [ArtInfo]
Designer Yohji Yamamoto uses museum curators in New York, Paris, London and Antwerp as models in latest campaign [TheMoment]
PaperMag’s latest issue interviews artworld figures such as Terence Koh, Cecily Brown, Tauba Auerbach, Shepard Fairey and James Fuentes [PaperMag]
Sotheby’s secures $250 million loan from Bank of America while cutting auction guarantees [Bloomberg}
A Liechtenstein billionare is on his second attempt to build 23,000 sf Las Vegas Museum of Contemporary Art [ArtForum]
What happens to the corporate artwork of failed companies? [WallStreetJournal]
Jake Chapman interviewed on, for example, his ideal home: with six or seven of his enemies hanging from trees in front of it [GuardianUK]
Fashion designer Stella McCartney and Artist Ed Ruscha together on Iconoclasts [SundanceChannel]

The Peaceable Kingdom, by Edward Hicks, the subject of a dispute between Halsey Minor and Sotheby’s, via Wikimedia

The founder of CNET sues Sotheby’s, citing non-disclosure of its economic interest in a painting sold to him, which he has withheld payment for [Bloomberg] more on this here [LATimes] and here [Wall Street Journal] and here [New York Times]
A prediction that the new leadership of the MoMA and Guggenheim will broaden and focus each institution respectively [NewYorkMag]
A profile of the emerging Zoo Fair artists at the National Academy in London [Guardian]
In a recent interview, Tracey Emin addresses her being raped at age 13 in Margate as well as her being a victim of child abuse [ThisisKent]
Artist builds a custom environment to work for 3 months at the Whitney for an upcoming exhibit of photographs of the happenings [ArtInfo] more on this here [New York Times]

Cellophane House at the MoMA site, for sale starting at $1.75 million

MoMA is selling homes from the pre-fab exhibit; separately, Warhol’s final home pulled off the market [Wall Street Journal]
Which exhibits to see while at Frieze, London October 16-19 [New York Sun]
British businessman/collector allocates $5.5 million for 40 sculptural works to coincide with the London Olympics in 2012 [Art Info]
Inside Dafen, China’s production of 3.75 million fake “replica” paintings [Bloomberg]
“Young British Artist” Sam Taylor Wood will cover The Passions’ ‘I’m in Love with a German Film Star’ in a single produced by the Pet Shop Boys [FactMag via ArtFagCity]

‘Study for Agony I’ (1946-7) by Arshile Gorky, part of a Christie’s auction which will include works from the Kathleen and Richard Fuld collection, via Art Market Monitor

“I’ve been selling things for the past few years, but nobody cared until now,” Kathleen Fuld was reported to have said to the New York Times in an interview with Carol Vogel. Kathleen Fuld, trustee of MoMA–and wife of beleaguered Lehman Brothers’ CEO Richard Fuld–recently announced that she will be auctioning 16 works of post-war and contemporary art through Christie’s on November 12th, following a related report  (covered by AO) that Lehman may sell some or all of its 3,500-work corporate collection. The Fulds make regular appearances on ARTNews list of Top 200 collectors, and have been collecting since the 1980s, focusing mostly on drawings and studies that yield insight into the artists’ creative process. The auction will include drawings from the likes of Barnett Newman, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning and Agnes Martin, and is expected to raise $15 to $20 million.

Study in Financial Agony: Lehman Chief’s Wife Hires Christie’s to Auction $20 M. Collection [New York Observer]
Fallen Tycoon to Auction Prized Works [Wall Street Journal]
Kathy Fuld, Wife of Lehman CEO, to Auction Artworks [Bloomberg]
Lehman Brothers CEO is a top art collector. For a few more minutes. [C-MONSTER]
The Russians Aren’t Coming, They’re Already Here! Lehman Chair Looks to Moscow to Sell His Art Collection [New York Observer]
Fuld Folds Paper [Art Market Monitor]
Modern Drawings Head for Auction [New York Times]

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Francois Pinault via the TheLuxeChronicles

In February 2009, works from Francois Pinault’s collection coming to Moscow’s Contemporary Culture Centre “Moscow Garage” [RussiaIC]
Hirst’s $100 million diamond encrusted skull to begin its world tour in … Amsterdam [NYSun]
MoMa selects a Chief Curator of Painting from in-house [NY Times] and, the Guggenheim may soon appoint a new Director from Carnegie Museum [NY Times]
The Jeff Koons-in-Versailles debate continues on [TimesOnline]
Matthew Barney is on Ovation TV, airing Wednesday [OvationTV via C-Monster]
New on the global art scene Roman Abramovich’s girlfriend, Dasha Zhukova, basically summarized [Wall Street Journal]