Robert Gober, Untitled (2000-2001), via Matthew Marks

Recalling the title of Robert Gober’s 2014 MoMA show, The Heart is Not a Metaphor, the artist’s current show at Matthew Marks presents an embedded perspective, a uniquely engaged perspective, into Gober’s own internal world. His father built his childhood family house, and, in a similar sense, Gober was also a house-builder, starting his life of art making creating miniature dollhouses.   (more…)

Robert Rauschenberg, Tablet Series (1974)

Currently on view at Luxembourg and Dayan, the group exhibition In The Making seeks to shed light on the often overlooked, yet crucial creative dialogue between the artist and their assistant or assistants in the studio.  Organized by Tamar Margalit, the exhibition, which runs through April 16th, unfolds in a manner similar to a family tree, connecting infamous or remote dots in New York art scene after the 1950’s through shared studio spaces, practices, and the informal education process that often occurs in the relationship between artist and their hired team. (more…)

Greater New York at MoMA PS1, all photos via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

America is Hard to See, the Whitney recently proclaimed, opening the doors on a space that made the city around it part of its exhibition program.  For the most recent iteration of MoMA PS1’s Greater New York exhibition, the museum and its curators attempt a similar program, turning to the artists living and working in and around New York to present a deep, nuanced exploration of life in the metropolis. (more…)

Robert Gober, Untitled (1997), all photos via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

Taking the fraught emotional landscape of early childhood as its central focus, Skarstedt Gallery’s London location is currently presenting a subdued but emotionally poignant group show, exploring the use and manipulation of the objects, scenarios and symbolism of youth as a productive force for a group of the gallery’s artist.  Exhibiting work from Robert Gober, the late Mike Kelley and Vija Celmins, the stripped-down exhibition carries an impressive punch. (more…)

Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXVIII (1977), via Phillips

Sales resumed for New York’s fall auction weeks yesterday evening, as a Sunday sale at Phillips combined early 20th Century works and contemporary artists in a brisk sale that began strong but stumbled towards the later half of the sale, as 9 of 52 lots ultimately went unsold, achieving a final tally of $66.9 million (just within estimate). (more…)

Katharina Fritsch, St. Michael (2008), via Matthew Marks

Simple yet explanatory, Sculpture is Matthew Marks Gallery’s current exhibition, bringing together the most recent three dimensional works by artists Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Jasper Johns, Charles Ray, Ellsworth Kelly and Martin Puryear. Adopting the newest in the medium as its main concept, this group exhibition presents an opportunity for gallery goers to view and compare current modalities in the art of sculpture. (more…)

Installation view, Cellblock I, Andrea Rosen Gallery. All photos on site by Erica Simone for Art Observed

The Andrea Rosen Gallery opened Cellblock I at its main space on December 1st, 2012, and simultaneously inaugurated its new, second location–just down the street at 544 West 24th Street–with Cellblock II. Both shows, held together under the theme (and anti-theme) of imprisonment, were curated by the prominent scholar and curator Robert Hobbs.

Robert Motherwell’s Dover Beach III at Cellblock II, Andrea Rosen Gallery

Hobbs is well-known for his work as an art historian and writer. He has been the Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University since 1991, and a visiting professor at Yale University for eight years. He is known as the definitive Robert Smithson scholar, and has contributed seminal writings on many of the artists he selected to show, including Alice Aycock, Beverly Pepper, and Kelley Walker. (more…)

All photos taken on site by Aniko Berman

On Monday, September 24, Gemini G.E.L. at Joni Moisant Weyl, the New York gallery for the famed Los Angeles print workshop, hosted its Artists for Obama event celebrating the Artists for Obama 2012 limited edition portfolio created and sold to support Obama’s reelection efforts. For the campaign, 19 artists have come together to create a portfolio of limited edition prints, with all proceeds going to the Obama Victory Fund. Of the 150 examples, 60 have already sold at $28,000 each; at the end of the project, Gemini G.E.L. hopes to raise 4.2 million dollars for the campaign. An additional sweepstakes offers supporters a chance to win the full portfolio for a $250 contribution to the fund.

Image: Artist James Rosenquist

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Image: Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper and Silver Pillows, The New York Times

“Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years” is a group show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that juxtaposes fifty Warhol works with one hundred of those by his peers and successors. The show attempts to capture the scope and breadth of Warhol’s impact on contemporary art history. Presented 25 years after his death at the age of 58 in 1987, the exhibition showcases the works of both artists who have risen to fame after Warhol’s death as well that of his contemporaries. Some of the artists included are Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.

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The MET to open a major exhibition surveying Andy Warhol‘s influence on contemporary art, featuring work by Robert Gober, Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, and others, in September 2012.

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Anselm Kiefer, Winter Ade Scheiden Tut Weh Aberdein Scheiden Macht, Dass Mein Herz Lacht (Goodbye, Winter, Parting Hurts But Your Departure Makes My Heart Cheer), 2010
Listed at $100,000

Last night at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery on Chrystie street in the Lower East Side of New York, West-Village-based Foundation for Contemporary Arts held a benefit auction selling nearly 200 paintings and sculptures.  All proceeds went to programs of the FCA, “hoping to assist and encourage innovation, experimentation and potential in the arts,” this year providing 14 grants to artists, of $25k each.

A view from the balcony

The benefit was extremely well attended, with some of the artists joining as well. The large number of works represented a variety of globally well-known artists, including Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Brice Marden, Francesco Clemente, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Julie Mehretu, James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, David Salle, Frank Stella, Elizabeth Neel, Julian Opie, Cecily Brown, Vija Celmins, Robert Gober, Nate Lowman, Dan Colen, Dana Schutz, Kara Walker, and T.J. Wilcox, to name a few.

More photos after the jump…

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Masters of the Universe, Tim Noble & Sue Webster (1998-2000). All photographs by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved.

“Skin Fruit,” the much-anticipated, Jeff Koons­-curated exhibition featuring million-dollar works by the biggest names in contemporary art continues at the New Museum through June 6, 2010. The New Museum’s questionable decision to exhibit works from the collection of one of its trustees, Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou, resulted in an art world controversy that threatened to upstage the show itself from the very beginning. When a large mix of celebrities and art-world-insiders flooded the Museum for the opening reception – attendees included Cyndi Lauper, U2’s the Edge, and collectors Don and Mera Rubell – the irony of placing the ritzy collection in a museum that was once championed for its promotion of the underdog was only exaggerated. And the critics responded accordingly. Christian Viveros-Fauné lambasted that the show is totally wrong for our times “in just about every possible way.” According to the exhibition press release, the featured works by Franz West, Charles Ray, Matthew Barney, Richard Prince, Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Kiki Smith, Kara Walker, Maurizio Cattelan, Tauba Auerbach, Chris Ofili, Dan Colen and Terence Koh, amongst others, aim to “evoke the tensions between exterior and interior, between what we see and what we consume” – a curatorial spin critics say was invented in an effort to disguise a “rudderless display of art as trophy hunting” as an art exhibition. While this may be true, Skin Fruit essentially offers the common man an opportunity to view important works from one of the finest and most original collections of contemporary art in the world that have rarely, or never been seen in New York.

Revolution Counter-Revolution, Charles Ray (1990/2010)

Photo-essay and full round-up of links after the jump….
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L: Barbara Kruger, Untitled (He entered shop after shop…), 2008 R: Eric Fischl, Rebirth I: (The Last View of Camiliano Cien Fuegos), 1986. All images courtesy of Haunch of Venison, New York.

On view at Haunch of Venison New York, until May 1, 2010, is “Your History Is Not Our History.” Organized by artists David Salle and Richard Phillips, this group show presents works produced in 1980s New York City.

Including works by Donald Baechler, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Francesco Clemente, Carroll Dunham, Eric Fischl, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger,Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Malcolm Morley, Richard Prince, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Jenny Holzer, Phillip Taaffe, Terry Winters and Christopher Wool, this exhibition seeks to convey “a more accurate portrayal of the energy and experimentation that was permeating the city during that time,” says Phillips.

L: Christopher Wool, Untitled, 1988   C: Jeff Koons, Buster Keaton, 1988 R: Eric Fischl, The Old Man’s Boat & The Old Man’s Dog, 1981.

More text and images after the jump…

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Untitled, Ellsworth Kelly (1959) via Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

Currently showing at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, England are a selection of early, unseen drawings by one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century – Ellsworth Kelly. Executed by Kelly between 1954 and 1962, the drawings have traveled to Middlesbrough directly from the artist’s New York studio where they have been hidden for more than 50 years. The 23 works are all studies for larger pieces and have been presented now, for the first time ever, to illustrate an important period in the artist’s career during which he pioneered his much-admired abstract style that has been integral to the evolution post-war American art.

More text, images and related links after the jump….
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Simon de Pury at the helm at the auction in front of the Philip Guston

Last night’s contemporary auction at Phillips de Pury fell short of its low estimate of $12.2 million, bringing in $7.7 million, with 12 of the 43 lots going unsold.  The sale’s highlight, an untitled Robert Gober sculpture of a Farina cereal box valued at $2.5-3.5 million, went unsold with only one bid at $1.6 million.  An untitled Anish Kapoor sculpture, estimated at $800, 000-1.2 million, also was met with no bids.  However, one of the auction highlights, Philip Guston’s painting, ‘Anxiety,’ was the highest selling lot, going for $1 million, just making its low estimate. John Baldessari’s painting, ‘Person with Pillow: Desire/Lust/Fate,’ sold for $290,500, missing its estimate of $300,000-400,000.  It had sold at Sotheby’s a year and a half ago for nearly double that amount.  Many artists however, such as Zeng Fanzhi, whose show just concluded at Acquavella Gallery in New York and was covered by Art Observed here did break auction records (work shown below), the details of which are after the jump.

Phillips Contemporary Auction Falls Short of Estimate [NY Times]
Phillips Limps to the Finish Line [Artinfo]

Zeng Fanzhi’s ‘Little Boy’ via Phillips de Pury sold for $446,500 against estimates of $250,000-300,000

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Philip Guston’s ‘Anxiety’ via Phillips de Pury, estimated to sell for $1-1.5 million.

The last of the post-war and contemporary art auctions takes places tonight at Phillips de Pury & Company in New York.  Pre-sale estimates are $12.2-17 million for 43 lots. Highlights include a late Philip Guston painting, a sculpture of a Farina cereal box by Robert Gober, estimated at $2.5-3.5 million, and an Anish Kapoor sculpture, estimated at $800,000-1,200,000.  AO will be on site to cover the auction, starting at 7pm tonight.

Phillips de Pury & Company
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New York Contemporary Art Part I Sale
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Thursday, May 14, 2009, 7pm
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450 West 15th St
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New York, NY

Phillips de Pury & Company
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Phillips de Pury & Company Announces the Highlights from its Forthcoming New York Contemporary Art Part I Sale [Artdaily]

Martin Kippenberger’s ‘Untitled’ via Sotheby’s sold for $4.1 million, falling within estimates of $3.5-4.5 million and setting a new record at auction for the artist.

Sotheby’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale resulted in another disappointment for the beleaguered auction house following last week’s thin Impressionist and Modern Art sales. Total sales were estimated at $51.8-72.4 million for 49 lots, but the total came up short at $47 million, with 9 lots failing to sell. However, the auction is not viewed as disastrous, considering Sotheby’s put very little money up front, and the star of the show, a Jeff Koons sculpture from his ‘Celebration’ series, did manage to sell, unlike at last week’s auction.  However, ‘Baroque Egg With Bow (Turquoise/Magenta)’ fell short of its $6 million low-estimate, selling for $5.4 million to Larry Gagosian.  The piece was put up by hedge fund manager Daniel S. Loeb, who originally bought it from Gagosian in 2004 for what is believed to be around $3 million.

While the dollar amounts were nothing compared to a year ago, the auction did sell 81.2% of its lots, with 78.1% of total value realized. Still, the auction comes on the heels of Sotheby’s 1st quarterly earnings report, posting a loss of $66.7 million with the market looking tepid for some time to come.

Sotheby’s Sale Fails to Meet Low Expectations [WSJ]
In ‘a Recalibrated Market,’ Auction Buyers Take Over [NY Times]
Bidders respond to lower prices for contemporary art [Reuters]
Sotheby’s Contemporary Sale Solid but Subdued [ArtInfo]
Loeb Sells Koons Egg for $5.5 Million at Sotheby’s in New York [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s Tax Benefit Offsets Average Daily Loss of $1 Million [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s shares tumble after weak auction [Crain’sNewYork]
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Jeff Koons’s ‘Baroque Egg with Bow (Turquiose/Magenta)’ via NY Times goes on sale at Sotheby’s with estimates between $6-8 million

The spring Post-War and Contemporary Art auctions take place this week in New York at Sotheby’s tonight, Christie’s tomorrow night, and Phillips de Pury on Thursday night. Last week’s Impressionist and Modern Art auctions, covered by AO here, and also here, brought in far less than a year ago, but considering the economic climate were viewed as middling successes (aside from Sotheby’s spectacular Picasso and Giacometti flops).  However, the contemporary sales will be more of a litmus test for a chastened market.  After years of record-setting sales, this year all three auction houses have reined in the estimates, no longer providing the guarantees to sellers that burned them last fall.

Sotheby’s is offering 49 lots, with total estimates of $52–72.2 million, compared to the $362 million it brought in last spring. Highlights include an untitled painting by Martin Kippenberger of a fat man with balloons and Jeff Koons’s ‘Baroque Egg with Bow (Turquiose/Magenta),’ part of the artist’s ‘Celebration’ series, which includes ‘Hanging Heart,’ a sculpture that set the record for a living artist at auction in the fall of 2007. While ‘Hanging Heart’ sold for $23.6 million, ‘Baroque Egg with Bow (Turquiose/Magenta)’is expected to sell for $6-8 million.  Christie’s is offering 54 lots, with total estimates of $71.5–104.5 million.  On the catalog cover is Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ‘Mater,’ a rare occurrence of a female figure within Basquiat’s oeuvre, expected to sell for $5-7 million. A number of works from the collection of Betty Freeman are also up for auction, including David Hockney’s portrait of the philanthropist in her home, ‘Beverly Hills Housewife,’ estimated to go for $6-10 million.  Lastly, Phillips de Pury & Company is offering 43 lots, with estimates of $12.2–17 million. Highlights from that sale include a Robert Gober sculpture of a Farina cereal box, estimated at $2.5-3.5 million, and a late, figurative painting by Philip Guston, estimated at $1-1.5 million.

The sales also include a number of Minimalist works by artists such as Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, and Agnes Martin.  Many experts view these works as under-priced, and present more in museum collections than private collections.  This round of sales sees fewer works by the Pop artists that made headlines in the boom times like Warhol and Rauschenberg.

Rare and Spectacular Master Works Highlight Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Sale [Artdaily]
Little Warhols [NY Mag]
Phillips de Pury & Company Announces the Highlights from its Forthcoming New York Contemporary Art Part I Sale [Artdaily]
The art market: Skinny sales and demoted billionaires [Financial Times]
Jeff Koons’s rabbit: market news [Telegraph]
The Art Market Is Back? Now That’s Surrealism [WSJ]
Sotheby’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale [Sotheby’s]
Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale [Christie’s]
Phillips de Pury Contemporary Art Part I Sale [Phillips de Pury]

partying at the Art Basel via the New York Times

The 39th Annual Art Basel, visited by 60,000 guests over the course of the fair, proved to be a very successful showcase of the world’s most famous artists. Basel, on the Rhine where Switzerland meets France and Germany, created a perfect setting for wealthy collectors, art enthusiasts, and 300 international exhibitors to network and indulge among the most stylish and cultured of the art world.

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Brad Pitt Buys Table at Art Basel; Mittal, Abramovich Browse [Bloomberg]
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The 39th Edition of Art Basel Closes With Outstanding Results [artdaily]
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Ellsworth Kelly, Basking in Basel [New York Times]
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Pre-Partying With the Jet Set of the Art World [New York Times]
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Russians Help Art Basel Shake Economic Woe, Falling U.S. Demand [Bloomberg]
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The Art Fair Explosion and Its Fallout [WSJ]
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In Basel, Contemporary Art Enjoys a Bounty of Friends [NYTimes]
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Picture perfect [Financial times]
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Art Basel, Switzerland, Is On, Right Now [Art Observed]

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