Billionaire Roman Abramovich has purchased a collection of works by Ilya Kabakov, Russia’s most expensive living artist. The collection of over 40 works ranges from early installations and albums to paintings, and is estimated to have totaled over $60 million. “It’s one of the largest Kabakov collections in the world,” said Emilia Kabakov, the artist’s wife and collaborator since 1989. (more…)
Dasha Zhukova, partner of über-collector Roman Abramovich, head of Garage Center, Moscow, to launch fashion-art magazine in September called ‘Garage’ [AO Newslink]
This Wednesday, Lucian Freud passed away in his London home at the age of 88. According to Mr. Freud’s dealer, William Acquavella of Acquavella Galleries, Freud suffered a brief illness before his death. Freud’s career is characterized by his thickly-painted portraits of friends and family, which brought forward and repositioned the genre of portraiture in the twentieth century.
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Iwan Wirth at Hauser and Wirth
Art Observed is on site this week for Art Basel 42, the world’s largest contemporary art fair. Art Observed was on site for the VIP vernissage of the main fair. Officially the fair opens Wednesday, with a duration of 5 days from June 15th to the 19th. Roughly $1.75 billion of artwork is reportedly for sale by 300 galleries from 35 countries at the fair this year. Initial energy from the fair can be gauged to be very brisk with many gallerists reporting healthy buying activity. Already mega-collectors such as Eli Broad and Dasha Zhukova, girlfriend and partner of Billionaire collector Roman Abramovich were spotted at the fair as was actor Will Ferrell. Bloomberg reported that a 1969 Mark Rothko abstract was sold by L&M Arts for over $5 million. More coverage of events from Art Observed will follow this week.
more images after the jump…
New Holland Island, via architettura.it
Adding to an assortment of yachts and football clubs, Roman Abramovich has purchased the entire New Holland Island in St. Petersburg. For nearly $400 million, island plans center around a museum complex – complete with hotels and shopping – to house a portion of the Russian oligarch’s extensive art collection. Among the collection are such high profile pieces as Francis Bacon‘s 1976 “Triptych” and Lucian Freud‘s 1995 “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping,” for which Abramovich paid record-setting prices at Sotheby’s New York and Christie’s, respectively, on an extravagant pair of back to back evenings in 2008.
More story after the jump…
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Quilt by Alexandre da Cunha, and Six Billboards by Angus Fairhust, Art Basel. Image via Art Daily, AP Photo/Keystone/Georgios Kefalas.
Yesterday marked the end of the most highly-attended Art Basel to date. The 41st annual contemporary art fair boasted 306 galleries from 36 countries, and AO was on site to peruse the work of some 2,5000 artists. 62,500 dealers, collectors, curators, high-profile shoppers, artists, and art appreciators navigated installations, browsed gallery booths, mingled, and enjoyed the city of Basel. Artists, established and newcomers both, showcased works ranging from Polaroids to performance pieces, paintings to videos, sculptures to large-scale installations. A social and teeming affair with an obvious commercial edge, Basel’s sales were optimistic. Picasso, Warhol, Prince, Hirst, de Kooning, Pollock, and other similarly established artists reigned supreme as the focus of this year’s event. Franck Giraud, a New York dealer, spoke to the New York Times about the lack of prominently featured up-and-comers: “Is it because that’s what the market wants, or is it because dealers didn’t want to take risks? I think it was a bit of both.” Nonetheless, certain galleries used Basel as a platform to introduce new artists and show off their latest signings.
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Ron, Will Cotton via Artnet
-Eric Fischl, Chie Fueki, Hilary Harkness, Will Cotton, Francesco Clemente, Peter Halley and Barbara Kruger are all a part of the long list of artists who have created, dedicated and portrayed Ron Warren in their works; Mary Boone’s assistant he has always played an understated yet influential role leading to a Mary Boone Gallery exhibition in his honor [The New York Times]
-The 2009 edition of the Power 100 by ArtReview is released with Hans Ulrich Obrist taking the first place and the list showcasing some changes in the influences and forces of the art world; the top ten include dealers and artists as Larry Gagosian, Francois Pinault, Eli Broad and Bruce Nauman [ArtReview]
-In related, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, the director of Serpentine Gallery, just voted to be the art world’s most powerful figure by the Power 100, gives an idea of how busy his week gets [The Independent]
-A $310 million collection of Mark Rothko paintings to be shown next spring in artist’s first Moscow solo exhibition at Dasha Zkukova’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture [Bloomberg]
To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)
Frieze Art Fair entrance in Regent’s Park, London
Art Observed is currently on site at the seventh edition of Europe’s largest contemporary art fair: Frieze which is on show in London’s Regent’s Park through October 18th. The 164 exhibiting galleries represent the most exciting contemporary artists working today and for the past two years Frieze Art Fair has attracted over 60,000 visitors over the three day period for which it is active. In addition to this, the fair not only attracts curators and collectors but encourages participation by all: over the three days the fair presents a curated program of talks, artists’ commissions and film projects, many of which are interactive or performative and encourage visitors to engage with art and artists directly.
A view of the booth of Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin with work from Xavier Veilhan in the foreground and Duane Hanson in the background at Frieze Art Fair via abcnews.go.com
Related Links:
Art out of the ordinary [TimesOnline]
Frieze gets off to fizz-popping start [The Guardian]
A chair you can actually sit on [WSJ]
Autumn Fairs Are a Barometer of the Art Market [NYTimes]
Abramovic, Paltrow browse at Freize as buyers haggle [Bloomberg]
Chill of recession hits London Frieze art bonanza [Reuters.com]
Introducing the Frieze Art Fair [Telegraph.co.uk]
Party of the Weel: No sign of the Crunch at Frieze Art Fair [The Independent]
Recession chill hits Frieze Art Fair [Channel4.com]
Roll up for moody modern masterpieces:it’s the Frieze art fair [The Guardian]
Frieze Art Fair Opens to Steady Sales, Gray Art [WSJ]
Frieze Art fair: test your knowledge. A quiz to find out if you’re an art aficionado or Frieze faker [The Guardian]
London Calling a Spate of Artists to their Openings [NYTimes]
More text and images after the jump….. (more…)
Dash Snow and his daughter Secret via TinyVices
Following Dash Snow’s untimely death early last Tuesday morning, articles such as this one from The Guardian labeled Snow as an “art icon.” The Independent cited the artist as “a mythical hero of an artistic underworld.” There was a cynical editorial on Dash Snow from Canada [Toronto Star via Art Market Monitor] And within 48 hours of Dash Snow’s death, New York Magazine speculated on the market for his work, and later that that his work might be pulled from an charity auction in Watermill next weekend. Terence Koh dedicated a performance in the UK [The Moment] and Brazilian street art duo OS Gemeos dedicated their Houston and Bowery mural to the artist [NYMag] There was an extensive image collection of the artist and his work from Tiny Vices. and finally a eulogy from the artist’s friend Glenn O’Brien [Purple-Diary]
A work by John Baldessari via the Tate
The Tate Modern will launch a major John Baldessari retrospective, his first in the UK, on October 13th [Tate]
Bob and Roberta Smith and Wolfgang Tillmans will be Tate trustees [FAD]
Zevs bombing the Armani store with his dripping Chanel Trademark via SlamXHype
Graffitti artist Zevs arrested in Hong Kong before a major gallery show [SlamXHype]
In related, 3 are arrested for conducting a counterfeit Banksy printing operation [The Art Collectors]
A mockup of London’s Playing the Building installation via David Byrne.com
David Byrne reprises his downtown New York Playing The Building sound in architecture installation at London’s Roundhouse August 8th through the 31st [Roundhouse.org]
The video for Madonna’s ‘Candyshop,’ featuring video by Marilyn Minter via YouTube
Marilyn Minter’s Green Pink Caviar is used as a video backdrop for Madonna’s song “Candyshop” [Artnet]
A rendering of Herzog de Meuron’s expansion to the Tate Modern via World Architecture News
Much publicized plans to expand the British Museum and the Tate could be tabled as funds come into question [TimesUK]
A look at some of the recent graduates and potential YBA’s at Goldmith’s degree show in London [GuardianUK]
Olafur Eliasson speaks about using space and light via Ted
An engaging video of Olafur Eliason speaking about perception [Ted]
The Wall Street Journal has an excerpt from the book Provenance, which documents one of the greatest cons in the history of art forgery [Wall Street Journal]
Lawrence Salander via Bloomberg
Lawrence B. Salander was arrested for the 2nd time for what the Manhattan District Attorney called the biggest art fraud in New York history [Bloomberg]
A video interview with American painter Ellsworth Kelly [The Art Newspaper]
Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova via Fashion Week Daily
According to rumors, Moscow curator Dasha Zhukova and 2008 mega-collector Roman Abramovich have split [Fashion Week Daily]
Christie’s has an iPhone app, offering access to its calendar and catalogs, and soon a live-bidding component [Guardian]
Simon de Pury via Harpers Bazaar
Simon de Pury, chairman of the auction house Phillips de Pury revealed as Judge on the upcoming Bravo/Sara Jessica Parker art-world reality show [NY Times] and video of the around-the-block line in New York to apply to be on the show recently [NYArtBeat]
“Study for self portrait” (1964) by Francis Bacon was valued at $40 million but was a no sale at Christie’s last Wednesday, via Artnet
The New York Times called it: “easily the worst two weeks of high-end Impressionist, modern and contemporary art auctions in more than a decade” and though gravity of this statement belies some successful sales in the November auctions, in the end there seems to be little question that the art auction landscape has shifted to become a buyer’s market.
The November auctions from Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips lasted roughly two weeks with approximately a 2/3 sell rate and 143 of the 399 offerings failing to sell. The sales would total under $1 billion, well below their combined minimum estimate for the sales of $1.7 billion. Sotheby’s and Christie’s brought in roughly $728.9 million for the Impressionist, modern and contemporary art primary sales which is down $1.6 billion from November, 2007 and $1.3 billion from November, 2006.
The summary points seem to be, in part, that there were some indisputable failures of the unsold works such as Roy Lichtenstein’s Half Face With Collar, seen below, from Sotheby’s Tuesday evening auction (estimated at $15 million to $20 million) and the Bacon self-portrait, seen above, at Christie’s on Wednesday (estimated at $40 million). The Bacon failing to sell was for many a symbol of the current market situation in that it stood in sharp contrast to the Sotheby’s May sale of the Francis Bacon triptych for $86.2 million to Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich (when it thus became the most expensive contemporary artwork sold at auction).
However, there were still some records and strong showings with works such as the Malevich, seen below, at $60 million (at estimate), which was a record for a Russian painting, and Munch’s Love and Pain aka “Vampire,” seen below, for $38.1 million above its $30 million estimate (both on Monday the 3rd at Sotheby’s) and a Juan Gris, seen below, at an artist record of $20.8 million, also above its estimate of $12 million to $18 million, at Christie’s auction on Thursday the 6th. Nonetheless, most works sold in the low range, or below estimate, or not at all with works by artists that show up infrequently performing generally better and works that show up more often at auctions, such as the Warhols and Hirsts, faring poorly.
Also of note in summarizing the November auctions was the Monday the 3rd Sotheby’s success of the big name financiers Henry Kravis of KKR who sold Edgar Degas’s “Dancer in Repose” for $33 million and former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld selling 16 Modern and Impressionist drawings for $13.5 million against estimates of $15 million to $20 million, but clearing a reported $20 million guarantee nonetheless from the house.
All this leads to the final recurring news point of the auctions: the painful result of over-market guarantees by the major houses. The applicable guarantees were set in pre-bust summer headier times, but when in place during the November sales they would cost the auction companies losses in the many tens of millions. In two weeks of sales the auction houses guaranteed 80 artworks worth $405.8 million but sold only 60, for a combined total of $342.3 million and an estimated loss of $63.6 million (according to the Wall Street Journal’s calculations). Sotheby’s publicly reported that guarantees were responsible for a $28.2 million loss at its contemporary art auctions last week which adds up to total losses from Sotheby’s from guarantees of roughly $52 million this fall. Bill Ruprecht of Sotheby’s said of the guarantee drubbing: “We’re preparing for a different market. We are out of the guarantee business at least for a while.”
Sotheby’s Says It Lost $10.6 Million More From Art Guarantees [Bloomberg]
In Faltering Economy, Auction Houses Crash Back to Earth [NYTimes]
Making Sales Look Stronger [Wall Street Journal]
Call This One ‘Crisis With a Pipe’ [Wall Street Journal]
Art boom over as auctions fail to bring home Bacon [TimesUK]
Art makes loss but Fuld is still an old master [TimesUK]
Art sales: The week that brought the boom to an end [GuardianUK]
Unsuccessful Auctions OK With Shafrazi [NY Mag]
Previously by ArtObserved:
AO November Auction Roundup 4 of 5: Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Art Sale, New York, Thursday, November 13th, Results “brutal” but Phillip’s clear due to lack of Guarantees
more images after the jump…
Duane Hanson’s “Flea Market Lady” staffs Emmanuel Perrotin’s booth at Frieze via New York Magazine
In the midst of perhaps the most spectacular global financial and credit market cave-ins ever experienced, The Frieze Art Fair in London, one of the three largest contemporary art fairs, felt a slowdown in some attendance indicators, sales volume and pricing; a harbinger of similar buyer sentiment reflected in anemic sales totals from all of the three major contemporary art auctions that followed in London over the weekend from Sotheby’s, Phillips and Christie’s respectively. In light of the true magnitude of the global wealth disrupted in recent weeks, overall, the output of the Frieze art fair and the concurrent contemporary art auctions likely could have been worse. The following is a roundup of the news and images looking back from the close of the Frieze fair as well as detailed summaries of each auction.
Takashi Murakami’s “Tongari-Kun” 2004. Though it was headliner of the Phillips Auction on Saturday, it failed to sell. Image via Phillips
Newslinks, images and more on the Frieze Art Fair and on the Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips auctions after the jump…
Dasha Zhukova, via Daylife
Daria “Dasha” Zhukova, daughter of an oligarch, girlfriend of Roman Abramovich, and a symbol of the recent Russian push into contemporary art [NYTimes]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner’s photography show at Fuse Gallery in the East Village [Supertouchart]
Both Qatar and Abu Dhabi want Philippe de Montebello, who is leaving the Met, for a directorship [NYsun]
More on the Frank Gehry-designed summer pavillion at Serpentine Gallery in London [NYTimes Tmagazine]
Amidst art-world controversy, Sir Nicholas Serota, Tate’s director of 20 years made “permanent employee” [Independent]
Guernica, Pablo Picasso (1937) via BBC
Picasso’s famous Guernica in ‘stable but serious’ condition and deemed ‘too fragile to move,’ more here [Daily Telegraph] [The Guardian]
Bravo picked up Sarah Jessica Parker’s art reality show, covered in March by AO here [Gawker]
The Sun on Twombly’s first retrospective in 15 years, showing at the Tate Modern [NYSun]
Review of Richard Prince at Serpentine: ‘the coolest artist alive’ [Telegraph]
The Economist begins a summer series on collectors, starting with a historical view [The Economist]
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich finances Russia’s first retrospective by postwar artists in a 150 work show at his girlfriend ‘Dasha’ Zhukova’s galllery [Bloomberg]
This photograph taken in Jamaica four years ago, is believed to be Banksy via Daily Mail
After a year long investigation, Graffiti artist Banksy revealed? More here, and here [Daily Mail], [NYTimes], [Supertouchart]
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Ad agencies reverse the long-evident trend of artists poaching from popular ads by creating popular ads that poach from artists [NYTimes]
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A profile of Roman Abramovich’s girlfriend, Daria “Dasha” Zhukova, a new player on the art scene [TimesUK]
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Previously thought ‘fake’ is a Rembrandt, but not a self-portrait [The Art Newspaper]
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The Sun reviews Art Market tome ‘The $12 Million Stuffed Shark’ previously covered by AO here [NYSun]
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On Page Six: 303 Gallery employee fired for mistaking Marc Jacobs for a homeless man and Andres Serrano keeps it gritty in his new Chelsea show [NYPost]
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MoMA assembles modern prefab houses in adjacent vacant lot [NYTimesMag]
Amy Winehouse via musikxtrema
Roman Abramovich pays Amy Winehouse $2 million to open girlfriend Daria Zhukova’s 8,000 square meter Moscow gallery [Ria Novosti]
Tom Sachs Interview[artinfo] and double show review [NYTimes]
Two Picasso prints ($612K) stolen from Brazil museum by force [Int. Herald Tribune]
Sotheby’s floating $300 million of convertible notes [Bloomberg]
1.27 Million pound record for indian art sale[Bloomberg]
London new mayor keeping art on fourth plinth[artinfo]
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]
Visitors Outside Art Basel in Switzerland via myswitzerland.com
Freud Painting Sells for $12 Million [Bloomberg]
New Freud Paintings Enter the Market [Times Online, UK]
Roman à Clef [artforum]
The painting, titled Girl in Attic Doorway and dating from the mid 1990s, was reserved during much of the fair’s preview yesterday. The work sold today via Freud’s international agent, Acquavella Galleries, for $12 million to a buyer who wished to remain anonymous. This sale follows Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s record-breaking purchase of Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping for $33.6 million at Christie’s last month, making the British painter “the world’s most expensive living artist.”
A view of Art Basel via the NY Times
The largest international contemporary art fair opened June 4th (through June 8th) in Basel, Switzerland. The show, run by Annette Schonholzer and Marc Speigler, has occurred every spring since its inception in 1970. An estimated 60,000 people are expected to show up at the four-day fair. This number includes artists (2,000), collectors, galleries (300), as well as art enthusiasts, representing thirty different countries viewing art in the mediums of painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance and video art.
Art Basel Takes Off [NY Sun]
Art Basel, world’s largest art fair, opens in Switzerland [Sun sentinel]
Art Basel Awaits Sales [NY Sun]
At Art Basel, Old Names and Few Showstoppers [NY Times]
Art Basel heats up [the Moment]
Art Basel:El Dorado of the international art world set to open in Switzerland [art daily]
Abramovich Prowls art basel;$8 Million Murakami “Budha” sells [Bloomberg]
Dasha Zhukova via daylife
26-year old “Dasha” Zhukova building Moscow contemporary space backed by billionaire Roman Abramovich (recent global record buyer of Freud and Bacon) [artinfo]
More on David Byrne ‘playing the building’ in New York [NY mag]
Turner Prize-winner Mark Wallinger may build 164 ft horse in Kent, UK for ‘Angel of the South’ project [Guardian.co.uk]
Christie’s Paris sells Louise Bourgeois spider for record $4.5M [Bloomberg]
A revisit of the Young British Artist Freeze show after 20 years [Guardian.co.uk]
Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich via impactlab
Last week’s contemporary auctions in New York were anchored by two record-setting painting sales. Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold at Christie’s for $33.6 million and Francis Bacon’s Triptych sold at Sotheby’s for $86 million. It has just been reported that billionaire Roman Abramovich was the buyer behind both deals.
Roman Abramovich [Forbes]
Abramovich Brings Home the Bacon (and Freud) [Art Newspaper]
Abramovich Sets Record Art Transfer [Times UK]
Abramovich spends $120 Million [Bloomberg]
Dasha Zhukova to open Russian Gallery [Art Newspaper]
Abramovich Revealed as Freud and Bacon Buyer [Telegraph]
Bacon Tops Biggest Sales at Sotheby’s [ArtObserved]
Freud Sets Records at Christie’s [ArtObserved]
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