Peter Fischli and David Weiss (Installation View), via Sprüth Magers
On view at Sprüth Magers Berlin is a solo exhibition of work by the collaboration between artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss (often shortened to “Fischli/Weiss”), which explores themes of transition, globalization and ephemerality through a selection of plastic sculptures and photographic installations. (more…)
Fischli / Weiss, DÜNNWANDIGE RÖHRE AUS TON, LIEGEND, 2012, courtesy of Sprueth Magers
Peter Fischli and David Weiss currently have an exhibition at the Sprueth Magers gallery in London, which displays somber overtones coinciding with Weiss’ untimely death in April of this year.
An array of clean-cut unfired clay and industrial-looking rubber has been meticulously molded and scrupulously carved to mimic everyday objects of construction in the form of “walls, corners and tubes”. The works, executed between 2010 and 2012, and are connected to the group of works that the artists displayed at the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011. The clean, particular presentation of the scaled objects on virgin white plinths is a visual departure from earlier works.
Toby Ziegler‘s The Cripples, image via Art Observed
Back in 2003 in Frieze’s first year, no major international art fair had ever been hosted in London before. Frieze Art Fair, organized by Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, has helped take London from being a city without a focused art scene to its current state at the center of the European art market. Now in its tenth year, Frieze Art Fair in London’s Regent’s Park has seen around 60,000 visitors, with 264 dealers from 35 countries hoping to sell work (valuing an estimated £230m) created by more than 2,400 artists within 175 of the world’s leading galleries.
An Aaron Young motorcycle burn out work at Massimo de Carlo in Milan, photo via Art Observed
‪‬Artist David Weiss died this morning of cancer at age 66, half of the Fischli/Weiss duo and represented by Matthew Marks Gallery
Yves Klein all photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed
This year marked the 2nd iteration of the House of the Nobleman, a privately sponsored exhibition which took place at the Boswall House, 15,000sqft mansion at 2 Cornwall Terrace, overlooking Regent’s Park and the Frieze 2011 Art Fair. Art Observed was on site for the private viewing. On view were works by Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, Max Ernst, Damien Hirst, Marlene Dumas, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, Sigmar Polke, Christian Boltanski, Anish Kapoor, Nick Hornby, Matthew Day Jackson, Cecily Brown, Lucian Freud, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Longo, Alexander Calder, Eugenia Emets, Francesco Clemente, Salvador Dali, Peter Doig, Olafur Eliasson, George Condo, Takashi Murakami, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Gerhard Richter.
Monet, Claude “ Chemin dans le brouillard”, (1879)
more images after the jump…
Jeff Koons, Ushering in Banality, 1988. Polychromed wood. All photos by Christian Saltas, unless otherwise noted.
The Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary Europe (FACE) is a collaboration between five non-profit art foundations: the Deste Foundation in Athens, Greece; the Ellipse Foundation in Cascais, Portugal; the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy; La Maison Rouge in Paris, France; and Magasin 3 Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. Established in 2008, the FACE alliance is dedicated to the promotion of emerging international artists by supporting the production and exhibition of new works. Their first initiative takes the form of a traveling exhibition entitled “Investigations of a Dog.”
Bruce Nauman, Untitled (Suspended Chair, Vertical III), 1987.
The exhibition draws its title from a 1922 short story by Franz Kafka, and the selection of works take up the existentialist themes present in Kafka’s work: disillusionment, humanity, and marginalization. Among participating artists are: Maurizio Cattelan, Roberto Cuoghi, Mark Dion, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Urs Fischer, Fischli & Weiss, Claire Fontaine, David Hammons, Thomas Hirschhorn, William Kentridge, Kimsooja, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Mark Manders, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Martin Parr, Aurel Schmidt, Santiago Sierra, Lorna Simpson, and Kara Walker.
More text and images after the jump… (more…)
Team Gallery Booth at Art Basel 2010, Image via Art Basel.
AO is on site at Art Basel, Switzerland, where Wednesday marked the official, public opening of the international show. On the roster was an inaugural Conversation Series speech by Paul McCarthy, an Art Film at Stadtkino Basel, and an Artist’s Talk with Rodney Graham at Kunstmuseum. If the congenial and thronged atmosphere hadn’t tipped us off to the anticipation surrounding this year’s exhibitions, Tuesday’s sales would have been a clear indication. A $15 million Picasso 1960 plaster maquette, Personnage, was snatched up immediately from Krugier Gallery by one of the VIP guests (an American collector) invited to Basel’s early opening, as was a line drawing by the same artist, one by Egon Schiele, and paintings by Max Ernst and Paul Klee. Sara Kay of the Geneva- and New York-based Kugier Gallery was unable to disclose the buyer of yesterday’s Picasso sale, but ten minutes after the purchase’s confirmation noted to Art Info that “[The] piece went to a very important collector with the best modern masters. This is museum-quality, not trophy-level. It’s a very serious piece.” Skarstedt Gallery also enjoyed a meritorious patronage yesterday, with sales including a Christopher Wool painting, Untitled, for $800,000, a Barbara Kruger photograph for $700,000, a Cindy Sherman piece for $500,000, and two works by George Condo: The Madman and The Colorful Banker, which fetched $375,000 and $225,000, respectively. Hufkens Gallery sold a Louise Bourgeois etching, A Baudelaire (#7), which the late artist completed several months before her death in May, for $650,000 to a European collector. Cheim & Read boasted a lucrative afternoon as well, with sales including a $2 million Joan Mitchell abstraction, a $125,000 Sam Francis drawing, a $100,000 Ghada Amer painting, Paradise, and a 28-strong Bourgeois watercolor series, Les Fleurs. Lisson Gallery sold two Anish Kapoor‘s for $742,000. Richard Prince‘s Student Nurse brought Gagosian $4.2 million, and Paul McCarthy’s bronze suites–Sneezy and Dopey–yielded Hauser & Wirth a combined total of $3 million. Blum & Poe sold a dyptich by Takashi Murakami for $1 million. White Cube reportedly sold six of Damien Hirst‘s new paintings, as well as Hirst’s “Memories of Love,” valued at $3.48 million. Lehmann Maupin sold two neon works by Tracey Emin, each for $74,000.
Damien Hirst, ““Memories of Love,” at White Cube’s booth, sold for $3.48 million. Image by Art Observed.
More images and text after the jump…
An installation view of the hundreds of international periodicals that compose Fischli and Weiss’s monumental exhibit “Sun, Moon and Stars,” at Matthew Marks’ 522 West 22nd location. The exhibit has been described as a “redaction of late capitalism.” Via Contemporary Art Daily
Currently on show at the trio of Mathew Marks’ galleries in Chelsea is a unique, multi-part exhibit by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The duo, who have been collaborating since 1979, are renown for their “academic and playful” installations that evoke the “randomness of existence,” and are widely considered to be the foremost Swiss contemporary artists. “Clay and Rubber,” is currently installed at the 523 West 24th gallery location and consists of 26 sculptures of everyday objects–from a dish to a drawer to a hiking boot–dating from 1986 to the present. Exploring the aesthetics of the commonplace, the iconic sculptures are composed of clay and jet-black rubber and rest on white pedestals, making for a compelling and rather sensual scape of distinctive texture and color. “Sun, Moon Stars and Rain,” at the 522 West 22nd location, is the monumental installation– consisting of an encyclopedic compilation of 800 magazine advertisements taken from hundreds of international periodicals. The concept began as a project commissioned by a Swiss corporation for their annual report. Displayed in 38 tables of glass and wood, the installation totals 330 feet in length and functions as a kind of narrative with subtle sociological insight and curious color scheme associations throughout, evoking myriad interpretations. Lastly, “Sleeping Puppets” occupies the third gallery at the 526 West 22nd location and consists of their newest sculpture– two animals asleep on a pile of blankets. The work recalls the duo’s 1980 films “The Least Resistance” and “The Right Way,” in which the artists dressed in rat and bear costumes in search of adventure–scaling Alpine slopes and crossing rivers– all the way from Los Angeles to the Swiss Alps.
More text, images and related links after the jump:
Head of a Muse, Raphael via Guardian UK
-Offered for the first time at public auction as part of Christie’s Old Masters sale, Raphael’s drawing “Head of a Muse”- a study for a figure in one of his Vatican frescoes, if it achieves its estimate £12-16million, will break the auction record for an old master drawing currently held by Michelangelo’s and Leonardo da Vinci’s works [Guardian UK]
-As art collectors become more cautious with their purchases, dealers at Frieze and FIAC fairs put works on reserve, among them $40 million Mondrian allegedly put on hold for Bernard Arnault [Bloomberg]
-Ms. Temkin, the chief curator of painting and sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, introduces unexpected changes, unframing certain paintings and subjecting the almost sacralized permanent collection to frequent renewal [The New York Times]
“Your Mercury Ocean” Skateboard by Olafur Eliasson via aarting
-Another collaboration between Mekanism and Olafur Eliasson results in a 13-ply deck 3d patterned skateboard with a mirror coating [aarting]
-In related, Olafur Eliasson commissions by the mayor of Copenhagen to design a bridge for the Danish capital; the artist shares his plans for a transparent bridge in a close vicinity to the water [The Art Newspaper]
– The survey carried out by the Art Fund, the UK’s independent art charity, shows that despite the substantial drop in public funding and investment income, a figure that proves to grow in the context of economic fall is the number of visits to museums [Art Knowledge News]
-In the midst of economic uncertainty, gallery Matthew Marks, which represents artists such as Jasper Johns, and Peter Fischli and David Weiss, plans on expansion with a new space on the West Coast [The New York Times]
To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)
Untitled (Sleeping Puppets), Peter Fischli/David Weiss at Eva Presenhuber
The Eva Presenhuber gallery in Zürich is currently showcasing works by Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The gallery has previously worked with the duo in 2005 and 2007. The show will feature video, sculpture, photography and more by the duo. One of the videos being shown is a short film where the artists are wearing animal costumes yet assume roles and engage in experiences that stay within the realms of humans. The show closes on July 31.
Related links:
The Odd Couple – Interview with Peter Fischli and David Weiss [Frieze]
Eva Presenhuber
Chain, Peter Fischli/David Weiss. Via Eva Presenhuber
more images and story after the jump…
Tony Cragg’s Big Head (2009), courtesy of the Marian Goodman Gallery, photo by Art Observed.
The 40th installment of Art Basel runs this year from June 10 to the 14th. The annual event, dubbed the “Olympics of the Art World” by the New York Times, includes this year over 2,500 artists, and works exhibited in almost 300 galleries around the world. Works range in medium, from painting and drawing to sculpture, installation art, photography, and video. Featured are both old masters of modern art and contemporary artists: among this year’s roster are the works of Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp and more, alongside that of today’s artists, including John Baldessari, Vanessa Beecroft, and Rebecca Horn.
Related links:
Art_Base [Official Website]
Art Basel Catalog
Art Basel 40 Celebrates the First Art Basel Weekend with Special Presentations [ArtDaily]
Art Basel Shows Works of Art by 2,500 Artists at World’s Premier International Art Fair [ArtDaily]
Editor’s Picks: Art Basel Preview [ArtInfo]
Il Tempo del Postino – “The World’s First Visual Arts Opera” [ArtKey]
The art market: The biggest fairs around the world [the Financial Times]
Trading Places [the Financial Times]
Meanwhile, in Basel, Contemporary Works You Can Buy [Wall Street Journal]
Brad Pitt Buys Big at Basel, with a Little Push from Eli Broad [Wall Street Journal]
Preview sales defy all expectations [The Art Newspaper]
For Art Lovers, Basel Doesn’t End at the Fair [New York Times]
Warhol Price Slashed as Art Basel Fights Slump With Bargains [Bloomberg]
Pitt Buys in Basel as Broad Browses, $2 Million Sculpture Sells [Bloomberg]
Liste: Quality Uneven but Spirits High [ArtInfo]
To Bling or Not to Bling? [ArtInfo]
Locals Rule: Alternative Art Spaces Gear Up for Art Basel [ArtInfo]
BASELMANIA 2009 [ArtNet]
Preview sales defy all expectations [ArtNewspaper]
Forty Years of Art Basel [The Art Newspaper]
On March 19, The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture (GCCC) in Moscow celebrated the opening of A Certain State of the World? Highlights from the François Pinault Foundation Collection, an exhibition of international contemporary art from the collection of François Pinault curated by Caroline Bourgeois. The show includes works -curated along themes of war, the society of spectacle and the globalized world- by thirty three top-ranking artists from North-America, Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and Asia, working with a variety of media. Amid many noteworthy pieces, visitors can admire Jeff Koons’ famed Hanging Heart (1994-2006). Hanging Heart sold for $23.6 million on auction at Sotheby’s in November 2007 and was first publicly displayed at the inaugural exhibition of François Pinault’s Collection at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Other artists included in the exhibition are: Chen Zen, Bill Viola, Francesco Vezzoli, Joana Vasconcelos, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Marion Tampon Lajarriette, Cindy Sherman, Paul Pfeiffer, Philipe Parreno, Takashi Murakami, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Kimsooja, Y.Z. Kami, Pierre Huyghe, Subodh Gupta, Johan Grimonprez, Loris Gréaud, Dan Flavin, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Liu Dahong, Maurizio Cattelan, Cao Fei, Carlos Amorales, Francis Alÿs, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla and Adel Abdessemed.
The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
A Certain State of the World?
Highlights from the François Pinault Foundation Collection
Obraztsova street 19 A, Moscow
March 20 – June 14, 2009
RELATED LINKS
Gallery Website (in Russian) [The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture]
Interview with Daria Zhukova on the Eve of the Opening Night [Financial Times]
A Review of the Opening Night [Saatchi Gallery]
A Review by The Guardian [The Guardian]
Article on Russian Art World and the GCCC [The Economist]
Article on Daria Zhukova and the Exhibition [The First Post]
Article on Daria Zhukova and the Exhibition [The Times UK]
Exhibition Review [The Moscow Times]
Installation view, Sonne, Mond und Sterne (2008) by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, via Wallpaper
Named after a nursery rhyme in German, Sonne, Mond und Sterne (Sun, Moon and Stars) is the most recent installation by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, currently on display at Spruth Magers Gallery in Berlin. Fischli and Weiss, known for installations that are equal parts academic and playful, have been working together for almost 30 years and are arguably the foremost Swiss contemporary artists. Sonne, Mond und Sterne is the result of media conglomerate Ringier AG commissioning a work of art for their annual report, and is devised from 800 pages of advertisements torn from magazines, arranged to depict a ‘visual encyclopedia of late capitalism,’ a ‘psychogram of a certain moment of society,’ according to Peter Fischli.
The 800 pages originally appeared in Ringier’s annual report in book form, giving them a certain linearity which is not present when the advertisements are presented in installation form: its aesthetic and sociological insight is not overtly normative, and begs interpretation without necessarily explicitly imposing a narrative.
Fischli and Weiss’s oeuvre revolves around examining and revisiting things that would not give most people pause, things that are taken for granted in our daily existence, elevating them to something more beautiful by transforming the way in which they are portrayed, viewed and analyzed. They live and work in Zurich, Switzerland, and have represented their country at the Venice Biennale. Their installations, sculptures and films belong to the most esteemed collections, including the Tate Modern in London and New York’s Guggenheim Museum.
SONNE, MOND UND STERNE
Spruth Mager Gallery
Berlin, Germany
through January 31st, 2009
Exhibition Page: Sonne, Mond und Sterne at Spruth Magers
Press Release: Sonne, Mond und Sterne
Fischli/Weiss exhibition, Berlin [Wallpaper]
Other: Fischli and Weiss at Matthew Marks Gallery
A film by Fischli and Weiss: The Way of Things [MedienKunstNetz]
The Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City via panoramio.com
Mexico City opens a new 3,300 sq. m, $20 million contemporary art museum [TheArtNewspaper]
Sculptor Richard Serra awarded the Order of Arts and Letters of Spain [ArtDaily]
A Sotheby’s video offers refreshing transparency into its process in the current environment [Sotheby’s]
In more video, Takashi Murakami on money and art, New York vs. Tokyo and more [TMagazine – The Moment]
And finally, video of Damien Hirst on his Statuephilia installation in London [Aarting]
Tom Sachs opens his online store [tomsachs.org via supertouch]
Gallerist/web presence Edward Winkleman announces his book ‘How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery’ [edwardwinkleman]
The Louvre finds 3 possible Leonardo Da Vinci drawings on the back of his painting [Bloomberg]
Gallerist Mellissa Bent, artist Hope Atherton and artist Georgia Sagri make the scene at Rivington Arms via ArtForum
On the closing of Lower East Side Gallery Rivington Arms [ArtForum] more on this here [NYObserver]
Similarly, the International Asian Art Fair is canceled [ArtInfo] Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin Miami, opened in 2005, will also close [ArtLurker]
The installation entitled ‘Moscow on the Move’ via the Guardian
