AO Art Observed™

Suprematist Composition (1916) by Kazimir Malevich, via Art Daily

Despite the ongoing deterioration of global stock markets, including, at the time of this article, a 61% decline in the Russian Stock Market since May, Sotheby’s is confident that it will break the $20.9 million record set for  the sale of Russian art at auction by Kandinsky set in 1990.  ‘Suprematist Composition,’ composed by Kazimir Malevich in 1916, is widely considered a masterpiece of early 20th century avant garde art–Sotheby’s calls it “one of the greatest modern paintings ever offered for sale.” It is expected to fetch $60 million dollars when it goes on sale at the Impressionist and Modern Art auction on November 3rd.  The piece goes on sale after Malevich’s heirs recouped it from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Sotheby’s optimism in the face of recent subpar auction performances [AO] is due to what they say is the unprecedented quality of the work and the historical importance of the artist, who has recently risen in profile to the ranks shared by Picasso, Pollock, Chagall and other marquee 20th century artists.  Sotheby’s is also counting on the interest of Russia’s billionaire art collectors, who have had a major impact on art markets this decade, paying record prices and avidly acquiring trophy works by the likes of Damien Hirst as well as Russian artists. The results of Sotheby’s prediction remains to be seen and some of the factors that will affect the outcome certainly have developed for the worse, as Bloomberg estimates that Russia’s billionaires have lost close to $230 billion of their net worth in the recent Russian stock market’s decline.

Sotheby’s: Suprematist Composition (1916), Lot #6, Impressionist and Modern Art Fall Sale [Sotheby's]
“Suprematism” by Kasimir Malevich, plus selection of artwork [Artchive]
Sotheby’s expect Malevich to smash Russian record [Reuters]
Heirs to Auction Russian Painter’s Work [New York Times]
Malevich Painting May Fetch More Than $60 Million [Bloomberg]
Restituted Malevich to Be Sold at Sotheby’s [ArtInfo]
Sotheby’s To Auction One of the Greatest Modern Paintings Ever Offered for Sale [ArtDaily]
Sotheby’s predicts Russian Malevich masterpiece to fetch a record-smashing £33million [Daily Mail]
Abramovich, Deripaska, Oligarchs Lose $230 Billion [Bloomberg]

a history of the current painting and how it came to auction after the jump…

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Richard Serra via TigerofSweden

With his show on at Gagosian London, [AO] a lookback at the soon-to-be-70 iconoclast Richard Serra [Guardian UK]
New York gallery sues Ex-Enron official Jeff Shankman regarding his attempted extortion of six figure sums lest he “go public” that works sold to him were fake [Bloomberg]
Irish group begins futures market trading based on famous Mei-Moss art price index [Financial Times]
Controversially Christie’s-owned Haunch of Venison gallery moving to landmark, Victorian, David Chipperfield-renovated building owned by the Royal Academy [ArtInfo]
Arab and Iranian art on the rise, the sales of which grew from £1 million in 2006 to £17 million (thus far) in 2008 with 260% price increases in that time [TelegraphUK]
In related, Sotheby’s announces intentions to open branch in Doha, Qatar [ArtDaily]

Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID) 1-year stock chart, via Yahoo! Finance

Sotheby’s (BID) stock declined by 14% on Monday, October 6th, 2008, to close at the lowest levels since July 2005 according to Bloomberg.  By ArtObserved’s calculations, Sotheby’s has lost more than 75% of its value since falling from its October 12th, 2007 high of $57.12 to today’s close of $13.86.  Besides the general buckling of the US Stock markets, Sotheby’s stock’s decline has presumably also been due to concerns about the buoyancy of the art market (as specifically reflected in this past weekend’s Asian art sales by Sotheby’s) which some analysts consider to be overheated and on the verge of a decline, especially in light of the global financial contagion.  Despite the overwhelming success of the landmark Damien Hirst direct to market auction less than a month ago in London (as reported by AO here), overall in the past month, Sotheby’s shares have dropped three times that of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Evidence supporting the decline in the market is mounting: several recent auctions have failed to make the grade, including one recently featuring previously extremely in-demand artwork of Banksy. Some hoped that the continued influx of funds into the art market from collectors in ‘new markets’ such as Russia, China, India and the Persian Gulf, would prop up prices in Western markets and in burgeoning domestic contemporary art scenes. The results of Sotheby’s fall sale of Asian contemporary art however, selling a sector of the market which had previous momentum that seemed relentless, poke holes in that assertion. The auction failed to sell 19 of 47 of its headline lots, including pieces by Subodh Gupta, Zheng Xiaogang, Yue Minjun and Takashi Murakami. “Today’s results aren’t acceptable, they’re very poor. The contemporary Chinese art market has raced ahead too quickly and now people can’t prop it up anymore,” a Taiwanese dealer was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal.

Hong Kong tests art buyers’ courage [Financial Times]
Weak Sales for Sotheby’s in Hong Kong [Wall Street Journal]
Sotheby’s Shares Fall Amid Concern About Art Market [Bloomberg]
Top Lots Shunned in Post-Lehman Art Sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong [Bloomberg]
Chinese contemporary art palls in Sotheby’s HK sale [Reuters]
Pop Goes the Bubble in Chinese & Indian Art [BusinessWeek]
Credit crunch crushes art auction [BBC]
Sotheby’s Sale of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings Brings US$9,165,947 [ArtDaily]
Sotheby’s Website

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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]

Monkey Queen by Banksy, via Lyon and Turnbull

Despite an initial reluctance to identify the works as his, five pieces confirmed to be made by prolific and secretive graffiti artist Banksy went up for auction in Central London last night on September 27th. However, in a marked departure from other, recent high profile contemporary art auctions by popular artists, this time no records were broken. In fact, the Lyon and Turnbull auction struggled to drum up enough interest to meet the lower end of estimates, with some lots even being withdrawn from the auction altogether. In fact, more than two thirds of lots in the auction remained unsold when it was over (74 of 270 sold). One shocked expert even went as far as calling the auction “a bloodbath,” according to the UK’s Independent. Other artists whose works were auctioned included Kate Moss, Sam Taylor-Wood (who recently split with Jay Jopling, owner of the White Cube gallery), Peter Doherty, and Sean Scully, among others.

A prevalent opinion of art market followers is that the recent auction success on the higher end from artists such as Damien Hirst may be due to an artificial propping up of the sales from direct marketing to new buyers such as Russians and other new found pools of wealth by well oiled marketing machines such as Sotheby’s. However, for the bread and butter lower priced works, there perhaps simply is no escaping that there is less confidence and less money in the system overall.

Banksy Official Website
Lyon and Turnbull: Sale 222 page
Banksy’s artworks fail to shift [BBC News]
Banksy Works Go Unsold; Buyers Stay Away From Urban-Art Auction [Bloomberg]
Banksy Won’t Say if Works for Sale Are His [Gawker]
Art Sale Moss-acre [Independent]

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Catherine Opie via NYTimes

On Catherine Opie, whose exhibition opens at the Guggenheim today [NY Times]
Sotheby’s: Cat painting by 17-year old Damien Hirst is worthless [Guardian]
Auction of purported artist friend-of-Andy Warhol blocked by Warhol foundation due to its never having heard of the man [New York Post]
A review of “After Nature”- an apocalyptic themed exhibition at the New Museum [NYMag]
Accusations of a conflict of Interest concerning François Pinault and Jeff Koons at Versailles exhibition [ArtForum]
A full 1/2 of Gagosian Gallery’s London sales are to Russians [ArtInfo]

Sam-Taylor Wood and Jay Jopling via Art Info.

“Young British Artist” couple Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor-Wood are separating after 11 years of marriage. The two have both been a constant force within the British contemporary art world.  Jopling’s White Cube gallery represents famed British artists Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, and the Chapman brothers among an international roster that includes Chuck Close, Andreas Gurksy and Jeff Wall.  Taylor-Wood is a Turner Prize winning artist whose photo and video work has included celebrities Elton John, Jude Law and Benicio Del Toro among others. The artist furthered her fame in 2002 when she created a video portrait of David Beckham sleeping. The announcement follows Jopling in the news alongside Damien Hirst’s record breaking sotheby’s auction last week in which the artist cut Jopling and other dealers out of the selling process. The couple has stated that no other parties were involved in the split which they have described as “amicable.” Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor-Wood have two daughters together.

Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor-Wood separate after 11 years [The Times UK]
Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor-Wood split after 11 years of marriage [Telegraph]
Art’s golden couple Sam Taylor-Wood and Jay Jopling split after 11 years of marriage [Daily Mail]
Jay Jopling and Sam Taylor-Wood Separate After 11 Years [Art Info]

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Love and Pain by Edvard Munch via Art Market Monitor.

Edvard Munch’s 1894 painting Love and Pain, known as Vampire, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York November 3, 2008. The piece has been in private hands for the past 70 years and will be the feature work during Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art. It is estimated that the painting will sell for $35 million surpassing the existing Munch record of $30.8 set this past May for Girls on a Bridge. The painting which is said to represent love, sex, and death shows a woman and man in embrace. It is one of four paintings by Munch that explores the same theme, the other three works are housed in institutions in Oslo and Gothenburg. Curiously, the work was painted within years of Bram Stoker publishing the hugely popular ‘Dracula’ which may have caused the painting to be effectively renamed in popular culture. [Coxsoft] Prior to its sale the work will be displayed at Sotheby’s London from October 3-7, and in Moscow from October 16-19.

Iconic Masterwork by Edvard Munch to be Sold by Sotheby’s New York on November 3, 2008 [Sotheby's Press Release]
Munch’s Vampire to be auctioned [BBC News]
Munch’s Vampire Comes to Market [Art Market Monitor]
Munch’s Vampire Goes Up for Sale With $35 Million Estimate [Art Info]
Iconic Masterwork by Edvard Munch to be Sold by Sotheby’s New York in November [Art Daily]

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Daria “Dasha” Zhukova, via Guardian.

More on Roman Abramovich’s Dasha Zhukova, straight from Moscow onto the art scene, and more on her and the Moscow Garage here [Times Online] [Guardian] On Gagosian’s Moscow Chocolate factory, and more on Gagosian in Moscow here [Financial Times] [Art Info]
After the sale, perhaps the most insightful Hirst Sotheby’s auction and art market summary article we’ve found [The Economist]
Christie’s sale in Zurich to auction significant Peter Fischli/David Weiss shown at Tate Modern in 2007 [Art Daily]
With Francis Bacon at the currently at the Tate, a video interview from 1985 [Small Drawings via C-Monster]

Damien Hirst’s “The Golden Calf” / calf, 18 carat gold, glass, gold-plated steel, silicone and formaldehyde solution with Carrara marble plinth / Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium: £10,345,250 via monstersandcritics

Sotheby’s quotes Damien Hirst as saying “I think the market is bigger than anyone knows. I love art, and this proves I’m not alone.” After much fanfare and controversy, and against the surreal backdrop of a severe financial market collapse led by Lehman Brothers buckling in the largest bankruptcy in US history, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” Damien Hirst’s direct-to-the-market auction by Sotheby’s London, was a conclusive success. Perhaps boosted in part by a recently lower British pound, the groundbreaking sale collected $127 million dollars (£70 million) on the first day, and an additional $72.9 million dollars (£40.9 million) on the second day for a grand total just shy of $200 million dollars, beating the previous record for the auction of a collection by a single artist formerly held by Picasso by roughly ten times, which fetched $20 million for an 88-work collection in 1993. Over three sessions, 218 of the 223 lots changed hands with some works sellng for well below their low estimates and others selling for multiples of high estimates.

Sotheby’s Website
Does Hirst auction point to a bull market in art? [WallStreetJournal]
Hirst’s Two Day Auction Raises 115.5 million pounds [Bloomberg]
Hirst auction beats 62 million pound estimate [BBC]
Hirst Auction a Paradigm-Smashing Success [CultureGrrl]
AO News roundup: Damien Hirst’s ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ auction at Sotheby’s London is happening right now [ArtObserved]
Jopling responds, and Hirst’s Sotheby’s sale bandwagon rolls on amidst the buzz and controversy [ArtObserved]
A disclosure of White Cube’s unsold Damien Hirst inventory before the artist’s controversial September 15th direct sale by Sotheby’s [ArtObserved]

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Damien Hirst poses beside his work of art ‘The Incredible Journey‘ at Sotheby’s in London on Monday, September 8 via Art Daily

Damien Hirst’s Sotheby’s sale, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, is taking place in London this afternoon and this evening.  The Sotheby’s sale is made up of 223 lots and estimated at over $115 million. There has been a flurry of more recent news and skepticism surrounding this controversial event as the Sotheby’s/Damien Hirst PR machine kicked into full gear. Perhaps most notable in the press buzz was that the globally respected Australian art critic, Robert Hughes, last week referred to Hirst’s artwork in the sale as “absurd” and “tacky commodities.” This press event was notable in that it actually elicited a response from Hirst himself. The Telegraph reports that Hughes has labeled Hirst’s formaldehyde tiger shark, which was sold by Charles Saatchi in 2004 for nearly $10,000,00, as “the world’s most over-rated marine organism.” Additionally, there was buzz in the press of Sotheby’s stock reacting to lower price estimates before the sale. Art Observed will have a roundup of the relevant news stories, a review of the sale, its results and ramifications when the auctions closes in a matter of hours.

Damien Hirst - Beautiful Inside My Head Forever (Evening Sale) [Sotheby’s]

Hirst’s Pricey Zoo Fills Sotheby’s With Bling: Martin Gayford and Sotheby’s Falls on Speculation Hirst’s Sale May Flop and Damien Hirst Sells Pickled Beasts, Pockets Profits: Interview [Bloomberg]

Hughes Denounces Hirst’s Art as “Absurd” and Hirst Hits Back at Hughes [ArtInfo]
Damien Hirst’s art ‘absurd’ and ‘tacky’, says critic Robert Hughes [Telegraph]
Hirst hits back at Aussie critic [Sydney Morning Herald]

Damien Hirst Presents His Works of Art In Historic Sale to be Held at Sotheby’s in London and Upcoming Sotheby’s Auction and Hirst’s Publishing Company, Other Criteria, Share Similar Aim, to Democratize Art [Art Daily]

Form a queue for Damien Hirst’s sale of the century and Commentary: Hirst betting his reputation on this sale and Does Damien Hirst’s auction at Sotheby’s mean the end of the gallery? [Times Online]

Day of the dead: Robert Hughes explains and Hirst’s auction does not demean the art world and Reformed Britart rebel takes time out with £65m sale [Guardian]

Bad Boy Makes Good and Hirst vs. Hughes [TIME]
Damien Hirst goes for broke at Sotheby’s [IHT]
The Gist: Damien Hirst’s ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ Sale [New York Mag]
The Midas touch that turns the art world lethally cold [Financial Times]
Damien Hirst: “I’m a Punk at Heart” [New York Observer]
Rembrandt? I’m just like him, says Hirst – it’s all about cash [Independent]
Report: Hirst Auction Critical To Market Confidence [NYSun]

Damien Hirst sale at Sotheby’s previously covered by Art Observed here, here, and here [Art Observed]

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Planet (2008) by Marc Quinn, via London Telegraph

In a literal and symbolic sign of how large the scale contemporary art market has become, a seven ton, ten metre sculpture of a seven-month-old baby is up for sale to private individuals at the aptly named Beyond Limits, a Sotheby’s selling exhibition at Chatsworth, the Peak District home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The piece entitled “Planet” is one of more than twenty sculptures on display this week at Sotheby’s. The behemoth work is a bronze cast painted in a brilliant shade of white and is modeled after an earlier version inspired by a mold of the artist’s baby son. The work was produced by Marc Quinn, who achieved prominence and notoriety when his sculpture of Alison Lapper (a disabled, pregnant friend of Quinn’s and fellow artist) was placed on the fourth plinth of Trafalgar Square in 2005. Recently the artist reveled a teaser image of his golden statute of Kate Moss which will be unveiled at the Statuephilia exhibit at the British Museum, previously covered here.

Larger than life [Financial Times]
Giant baby for sale [London Telegraph]
Giant baby for sale on grounds of Chatsworth House [Telegraph]
Golden Kate Moss joins other goddesses at the British Museum’s ‘Statuephilia’ [ArtObserved]

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Frank Dunphy Damien Hirst’s Manager via D2

On Frank Dunphy the ‘Man behind Damien Hirst’ [Wall Street Journal]
More Damien Hirst pre-sale press here, and more here [TimesUK] and still more here [TIME]
Moscow’s largest collection of Russian art seeks a new building for Modern and Contemporary [Bloomberg]
Japanese film ‘Achilles and the Tortoise’ satirizes the art world [ArtInfo]
Sotheby’s sues buyer to collect commission [NYTimes]
Larry Gagosian is number 38 the New Establishment Top 100 [Vanity Fair]
and Harper’s Bazaar names Tracey Emin “Creative Person of the Year” [Telegraph]

Martin Kppenberger’s Zuerst die Füsse (Feet First)

The Pope condemns late German artist Martin Kippenberger’s crucified frog sculpture [GuardianUK] and more here [NYTimes]
A critique of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Waterfalls’ as ineffective “shock and awe” public art [NYSun]
Jeff Koons on Night Talk [YouTube via ArtFagCity]
Guggenheim Foundation receives $1 million from National Endowment for the Humanities [ArtForum]
Banksy’s auction-donated $137,000 work to support Ken Livingstone invalidated due to his anonymity [ArtInfo]
Damien Hirst to open his 2nd ‘Other Criteria’ retail shop next to Sotheby’s on New Bond Street, London [Blomberg]

Terence Koh at his Chinatown studio via BlackBook

Terence Koh’s “personal” fashion style [Blackbookmag]
15 years of Contemporary public art: Jeff Koons to Rachel Whiteread [New York Times]
Damien Hirst opening retail store next to Sotheby’s, London [Bloomberg]
More on Myra Hindly minor scandal [Guardian], previously covered here [AO]
Sotheby’s Australia fine art auction sold only 49% of its inventory [Art Market Monitor]
Hirst’s $100M Skull begins its world tour in…Amsterdam [NYSun]
Lucian Freud portrait model destroys £17M + painting [Dailymail]

Damien Hirst - “The Kingdom” 2008 via The Wall Street Journal

The Art Newspaper has this weekend disclosed the extent of unsold inventory, over 200 works, that are held at Damien Hirst’s gallery in London, White Cube, run by Jay Jopling. The article illuminates a situation for the artist, one of the most successful in the world, but also one of the most prolific, in which his traditional market may be less able to absorb the works at the pace at which he is aiming to produce them. This evolving landscape has presumably led Hirst to explore, through the landmark and controversial upcoming September 15th Sotheby’s London sale, new sales portals and new pools of buyers. The Art Newspaper disclosure however, could perhaps have some ramifications for the Sotheby’s sale itself, as sophisticated buyers may take into account this newly exposed trove of similar work to that being auctioned, and simple supply and demand economics might as a result negatively affect pricing.

Revealed: the art Damien Hirst failed to sell [The Art Newspaper]
200 unsold Damien Hirst works looking for an owner at Sotheby’s [TimesOnlineUK]
Hirst’s Marketing End Run [Wall Street Journal]
Auction, Damien Hirst ‘New Inside My Head Forever’ [Sotheby's]
Several Lucrative Art Series To End, Says Damien Hirst [ArtObserved]
Update: Damien Hirst goes to Auction at Sotheby’s, September 15-16, 2008 [ArtObserved]
Hirst’s ‘Golden Calf’ could sell for $16-$24 million at Sotheby’s London [ArtObserved]

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Famed street artist Swoon and crew float junkyard utopia downstate to Deitch Studios in LIC [NYTimes]
Anthony Haden-Guest on the effect’s of global financial turmoil on corporate art sponsorship [Portfolio]
Assume Vivid Astro Focus installs colorful window display at the Modern restaurant at the MoMa [NYSun]
A critique of Sarah Thornton’s book, ‘Seven Days in the Art World’ (with Video) [Art Market Monitor]
Sotheby’s holds a preview for $120.8M of Damien Hirst’s direct auction works in New Delhi, India and the Hamptons [Bloomberg]

Ryan McGinley shooting for Wrangler Jeans via Radar

Ryan McGinley is making ads for Wrangler jeans (running only in Europe) [Radar via Artfagcity]
Sotheby’s consolidates Asian art auctions from New York to Hong Kong [Bloomberg]
Taryn Simon commissioned by Nike to shoot the Men’s US Olympic Basketball team [SuperTouch]
Stained-glass cathedral window by Marc Chagall is shattered by vandals in France [NYTimes]
The global effects of four major types of art crimes: vandalism, theft, looting and forgery [Art Info]

Superstition, Damien Hirst, 2007 Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills via ABC News

In a video interview from July recently posted on Sotheby’s website, Damien Hirst casually revealed that several of his highest earning series would be coming to an end in 2008. These include his spin and butterfly paintings and conceptual medicine cabinets. Hirst also speculated that production of his dot paintings would significantly slow, and that his formaldehyde works of animals are growing numbered as well.

Damien Hirst: An Interview with Tim Marlow [Sotheby's]
Damien Hirst Says He’ll End High-earning Series [Artinfo]
Hirst Will Stop Making Spin, Butterfly Paintings, Drug Cabinets [Bloomberg]

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Sotheby’s, the global auction house, showed a decline in profit by 11% in the second-quarter: net income marked $95.3 million ($1.49 per share). This is a drop from $107.3 million ($1.64 per share) versus the same time last year, however it is a net profit versus a net loss from last quarter. According to Sotheby’s, the decline is due to recent change to auction schedule. Chief Executive William Ruprecht assured that while wealthy customers with continues to drive the business, Sotheby’s is less likely to be affected by economic woes. Despite the profit drop the news was seen by some analysts as positive in its show of resilience. According to one analyst quoted by Bloomberg: “The demand side is very strong. It’s driven by commodity wealth, particularly in oil.”

Sotheby’s corporate site
Sotheby’s Says Rich Still Buying [Forbes]
Sotheby’s second-quarter profit falls [Reuters UK]
Sotheby’s Profit Falls 11 Percent After Sale Change [Bloomberg]