Tim Noble and Sue Webster – Deadalive (2012), Saatchi Gallery

Over the past several years, the artists’ studio, RS&A, has commissioned 16 recognized artists to create their own chess sets and boards, allowing them to explore and reconfigure the image of the classic game.  Including sets by Maurizio Cattelan, Tracey Emin, Tom Friedman, Damien Hirst, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama and Paul McCarthy, the full collection is currently on view at Saatchi Gallery in London.

Yayaoi Kusama – Pumpkin Chess (2003), Saatchi Gallery

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‪‬Art Below turns ad space into art space beneath Regents Park (site of Frieze) Tube station in London, with works by 20 Saatchi Gallery New Sensations Prize finalists [AO Newslink]

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Dirk Skreber, Untitled (Crash 1) (2009)

The Shape of Things to Come: New Sculpture at Saatchi Gallery features 20 sculptors throughout the space, marking the first ever exclusive sculptural exhibition at the Chelsea, London showroom. The international range of artists, some well-known and some up-and-coming, produced mixed media compositions of all sizes. An overarching theme of experimentation pervaded, both with human form and bright-colored whimsy. Geometric and architectural forays are present in the work of Sterling Ruby, Roger Hiorns, and Peter Buggenhout, with more figurative developments by Thomas Houseago and David Thorpe.

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Charles Saatchi “the original collector who deals” publishes new edition of “The History of the Saatchi Gallery” [AO Newslink]

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Subodh Gupta, Spill, 2007, and Still Steal Steel #1, 2007. All photos via Saatchi Gallery unless otherwise noted

For the first time in France, Tri Postal art space presents 60 works by 28 artists from the collection of London’s Saatchi Gallery, showcasing contemporary Chinese, South Asian, and Middle Eastern artists with works in all media.  Dealer Charles Saatchi has been a pioneer in the acquisition of contemporary Asian Art, aptly naming the exhibition after the ancient trade route between Europe and Asia. Tri Postal is located in Lille, a one hour train ride from Paris.

Zhang Huan, Ash Head No. 1, 2007

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Emily Prince in front of her installation at the Saatchi Gallery, via the Guardian

An installation by Emily Prince, featuring graphite pencil miniature portraits of slain U.S. soldiers, is drawing additional attention to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 additional troops to bolster the mission in Central Asia. The installation, titled American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (But Not Including the Wounded, nor the Iraqis, nor the Afghans, features almost 5,300 sketched portraits and is on display at the Saatchi Gallery in London through May 7th.

The 28 year old artist, only a few years out of Stanford and UC Berkeley but who already has participated in a Venice Biennale, was motivated to draw the portraits by her frustration following George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004. “I was feeling hopeless and frustrated, and I think I somehow needed to channel that energy,” Ms Prince expressed via Bloomberg. She was also quoted by the Daily Telegraph, saying that “I am disturbed about how easy it is to be disassociated from the war if like me you don’t have a relative who is involved.”  Based in San Francisco, she will continue to produce the drawings until the conflicts come to an end.

Andre D Tyson Riverside, CA Date of Death: April 22, 2007 by Emily Prince, via Saatchi Gallery, via Saatchi Gallery

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Nikolaevsky Hall, via State Hermitage Museum

Currently on view at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is a collaborative project between the renowned London based Saatchi Gallery and the initiative “Hermitage 20/21” titled “Newspeak: British Art Now.”  The exhibition features works by British artists that recently gained recognition in the United Kingdom through their alliance with Charles Saatchi. The exhibition at the State Hermitage is their international debut.

Steven Claydon

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PTG.75 (2007) by Eric and Heather ChanSchatz, via Saatchi

Currently on display at the Saatchi Gallery is “Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture.” Saatchi presents the work of more than 30 artists, mostly from New York and Los Angeles many of which have never been previously shown in the United Kingdom. The exhibition highlights the ambition and breadth of new ideas being explored by American artists such as Francesco DiMattio and Gedi Sibony, Aaron Young and Agathe Snow from New York, Guerra de la Paz from Miami, and Mark Grotjahn and Sterling Ruby from Los Angeles.

Exhibition Page [Saatchi]
Saatchi Gallery’s Abstract American Show [The TimesUK]
Saatchi Shows Young American Artists [Artinfo]
Never mind the Pollocks: The New Generation of American Art [The Indpendent]
“Abstract America” at Saatchi Gallery [FT]
America Abstracted in London’s Saatchi Gallery [The Guardian]
Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture on View at the Saatchi Gallery [Artdaily]

Greeting Card 10a (2007) by Aaron Young, via Saatchi

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Anish Kapoor’s ‘Shooting into the Corner’ via The Independent

Britain’s Royal Academy opens its galleries in September to Anish Kapoor for the first single artist exhibition there since 1988 [Independent] and Kapoor’s commission for the Deutsche Guggenheim, ‘Memory,’ opens in October [Guggenheim]

Gilbert and George in Hong Kong via Financial Times

Gilbert and George describe their trip to Hong Kong for the opening of ‘Louis Vuitton: A Passion For Creation’ at the Hong Kong Museum of Art [Financial Times]
Oreg0n art dealer indicted for running gallery as a Ponzi scheme [Artinfo]

Glenn Brown’s ‘Christina of Denmark’ via Art in America

Lynn MacRitchie visits painter Glenn Brown’s studio [Art in America]
Predictions about the future of auction houses following the burst of the art market bubble [CNBC via Art Market Monitor]

Aerial view of Governors Island via Governors Island

Creative Time announces Plot, a public art quadrennial, to take place on Governors Island this summer, with 19 international artists showing in 5 buildings previously closed to the public [Creative Time]

Pablo Picasso’s ‘Homme à l’épée’ via Philippe Sollers estimated to sell for £5-7 million at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Sale later this month

Christie’s announces its Impressionist and Modern Art Sale, with important works by Monet, Duchamp, and Picasso as highlights [Auction Publicity] and in other auction news, Latin American sales follow the downward trend [Artinfo]

Terence Koh and Tom Sachs celebrate the release of Koh’s new book at Julian Schnabel’s house via Style

Vito Schnabel holds a dinner party at Palazzo Chupi in honor of Terence Koh’s new book, ‘Flowers for Baudelaire’ [Style]
Eric Fischl is organizing a touring exhibition aimed at involving artists in the evolution of American identity in the wake of post-9/11 politics [LA Times]

Takashi Murakami signing posters for the Vogue Nippon launch via Hint

Comme des Garçons x Vogue Nippon concept shop opens, featuring Takashi Murakami collaborations [Hint]
Controversial modern museum, the Ara Pacis, in the heart of historical Rome, is vandalized [BBC]

Jenny Holzer’s ‘Monument’ via Economist

Daniel Arizona looks at how Jenny Holzer’s early aphorisms stand up now and how her new ‘Redaction Paintings’ capture today’s anxiety [Economist]
Antony Gormley and Sir Peter Blake among judges of Saatchi Gallery-Sunday Telegraph Art Prize for schoolchildren [TelegraphUK]

The James Turrell Museum of the Hess Art Collection in Argentina

James Turrell Museum of the Hess Art Collection opens its 18,000 sf space in Argentina, almost 8,000 sf above sea level [Reuters]
The Tate galleries issue over 400 video and audio lectures, talks, debates for free on iTunes [Apple]
A video look inside the studio of Jeff Koons [Tate]
Bruce Nauman in his studio, in anticipation of his representing the US in Venice [NYTimes]

Portrait of Nicholas Roerich via Reuters

Despite the above portrait of Nicholas Roerich by his son fetching $2.9M, close to 3x its high estimate of $1.1 million, sales of Russian art in New York by Sotheby’s and Christie’s clear an unsubstantial $27 million versus last year’s $64 million [Reuters]
Is the value of the work of Richard Prince particularly at risk in this recession? [Portfolio]
Angus Murray launches Castlestone’s $50M Modern Art Fund [Portfolio Advisor]

Damien Hirst with The Hours and the painting he created for their album cover via The GuardianUK

Win the £125,000 orignal painting Damien Hirst made for The Hours’ new album cover [GuardianUK]
MoMA sued by heirs of George Grosz over three works the artist left behind when fleeing Nazi Germany [NY Times]
In related, Austrian city of Linz may return $15 million Gustav Klimt to Holocaust victim [Bloomberg]

A shot of the scene sans Mona Lisa via Vanity Fair

A excerpt from a new book on the famous theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 [Vanity Fair]
A summary of how dramatically US Museums have been hit by the economic slowdown [ArtNewspaper]
In directly related, a timeline of Museums and the recession [ArtInfo]
The “hottest” art exhibitions of summer 2009 according to Times UK [TimesUK]
London usurps New York as top auction location for 2008, bolstered mainly by Damien Hirst’s Sotheby’s sale [ArtInfo via ArtFagCity]
The low profile nature of private sales causes them to rise in popularity due to the impact of public failure of sales at auction [NYTimes]

Saatchi-online’s billboard partnership with Clearchannel via ArtDaily

Clearchannel partners with Saatchi’s to promote through its billboards Saatchi-online’s commission-free online art sales [ArtDaily]
In related, The 10 winners of the Guardian/Saatchi art competition are announced [Guardian UK]
The world’s largest art prize, decided by vote, launches in Grand Rapids, Michigan [artprize.org]
The Park Avenue Armory in New York announces an annual commission for it’s Drill Hall, on May 14th its inaugural exhibition will be Ernesto Neto [ParkAvenueArmory]
Christie’s auction house creates a specific unit to divest of corporate art works [Crain’sNY]
On its 5th anniversary, the UK’s Art Council Initiative interest free loan program has supported a total of £10.5 million worth of arts purchases involving 12,500 people [Artscouncil]

Damien Hirst’s custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle via Motorcycle News

Damien Hirst creates a custom Harley Davidson for charity [Motorcycle News]
Lawsuit alleges fraud from Louis Vuitton in Murakami 2007-08 LA MOCA exhibition due to prints being merely “factory leftovers from handbag production” [LATimes]
In related, Murakami protege Mr. collaborates on a Lucien Pellat-Finet clothing collection [Hypebeast]
Following the National Portrait Gallery in London announcing its shortlist of three artists for the 2009 BP Portrait Award, an in-depth article on craft [IndependentUK]
Vacant retail locations as exhibition space in London [GuardianUK]

Richard Serra’s Equal Parallel: Guernica-Bengasi, 1986, returned to El Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, Madrid via Art Daily

Missing Sculptures by Richard Serra are replaced at El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia [ArtDaily]
How Art Capital Group is providing liquidity backed by significant fine art [The New York Times]
A new book on the world’s largest unsolved art theft, the Gardner Museum Heist [Wall Street Journal]
A new Julian Schnabel-designed steak house back room? [NYMag]
The Moscow Art Fair has been postponed [Bloomberg]

A still from the Marcel Dzama video via Pitchfork

Animated Marcel Dzama for NASA’s video [TheWorldsBestEver]
The Prado’s conclusion that Colossus is not a Goya is brought into question [Wall Street Journal]
How the Brooklyn Museum’s Shelly Bernstein expands the institutions presence via internet outreach [New York Observer]
Francis Bacon, and a new exhbition in the unlikely city of his death [New York Times]
An agreement reached with further clarifies the collection boundaries between the UK’s National Gallery and the Tate [Guardian UK]

Assume Vivid Astro focus via the TheMoment

Assume Vivid Astro focus collaborates with the New York Times [TheMoment]
The last days of Soho’s Guild and Greyshkul gallery [New York Times]
A detailed new report on the growing impact of China, Russia, India and the Middle East in the global art market [ArtDaily]
How the fall of the art boom is useful to trim the movement of blockbuster art to the only fleetingly interested masses [Newsweek]
Mega dealer David Nahmad on the market’s rise and fall: “It’s almost a fraud. I would never advise my clients to buy contemporary art.” [IndependentUK]

Lucian Freud has painted a wine label for Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2006 [Forbes]
Sotheby’s reports $2.8 billion in sales in 2008 [ArtDaily]
UK Government cuts VAT taxes after court rules that video and light art is sculpture in a case involving Dan Flavin and Bill Viola works imported by Haunch of Venison [The Art Newspaper]
How the Whitney recently benefited from the weakness of the corporate system [NYTimes]
The Times UK and Saatchi Gallery begin a top 200 artist survey with results to be announced in May [TimesUK]

Untitled from the Like Everyday Series (2000-2001) by Shirin Ghadirian, via The Saatchi Gallery

The Saatchi Gallery’s new show “Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East” showcases work completed by more than 20 contemporary artists from the region, including from Iran, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Algeria.  Avant-garde painting, sculpture and installations from emerging Middle Eastern artists adorn the space of the Chelsea gallery.  The works exhibited are hard hitting and graphic yet aim to touch upon the sensitive subjects of the region including the horrors of conflicts in the past and present exploring suppressed sensuality and the examination of a woman’s place in the Muslim world.

Exhibition Page: Unveiled: New Art From the Middle East
Saatchi and Middle Eastern Art [FT]
Saatchi Show Unveils Vibrant Middle Eastern Arts Scene [Reuters]
Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East at the Saatchi Gallery [The Telegraph]
In Pictures: Middle Eastern Art [BBC]
Art Review: The veil is Lifted on Hidden Talent [Timeout London]

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Installation view of Will Ryman’s ‘The Bed’ via Saatchi

Will Ryman’s sculptural installation ‘The Bed’ is on view at Saatchi Gallery in London through May 6, 2009. The work is constructed out of papier mâché and is centered around a 26-foot-long bed with a sleeping man, surrounded by empty malt liquor cans, cigarette butts and various debris from a night of lonely indulgence.  It depicts a scene described as ‘somewhere between Sunday morning lie-in bliss and nervous breakdown.’ The exaggerated scale and clumsy construction depicts a cartoonish world while also presenting a formidable spectacle.  In his artist’s statement, Ryman said that ‘The Bed’ originated with his childhood impression of his parents’ bed being much bigger than it actually was, and is an exploration of one’s distorted perspective of one’s place in the world and relationship to surroundings.

Will Ryman [Saatchi]
Huge bed sculpture installed at gallery [Worthing Herald]
Another unmade be receives the Saatchi treatment [Evening Standard]

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Sonic Youth via Aquarium Drunkard

Richter’s “Kerze,” famously a Sonic Youth cover, for auction at Sotheby’s [Cinemablend]
Sonic Youth’s new touring art exhibit could be featured at the Whitney [NYMag]
New Saatchi Gallery in West London, will show only Contemporary [UK Times Online]
Video: Interview with Damien Hirst [Charlie Rose]
Review Contemporary Art on the Lower East Side [Bloomberg]

Andy Coolquitt, JSUT, 2007 via Art Review

Galleries worth leaving Chelsea for [Art Review]
Details of 46,000 artworks stolen by Nazis [Bloomberg]
Interview with Armory Show chief Katelijne De Backer [Art Fag City]
Artist Hope Atherton on Peter Doig, soon to open at Tate [Style]
No market for stolen art: art thieves will have difficulty selling loot [NYSun]
Poussin Paintings together again [NYTimes]
Saatchi/HarperCollins join to sponsor a book design competition for Sean Dixon’s debut novel [Londonist]
Top Moscow contemporary art galleries merge [Bloomberg]
The Finnish version of the UK’s Turner prize: More of a marketing tool? [NYSun]

Schandra Singh’s Lazy River via the Saatchi Gallery

Indian Art at Saatchi in London [The Saatchi Gallery]
Hedging with Art in Uncertain Markets [The Wall Street Journal]
Most Hyped Art Sales of 2007 [Bornrich.org]
UK gets the Go Ahead from Russia’s Royal Academy of Art [BBC]