AO Art Observed™

Richard Prince, Nurse in Hollywood #4 (2004)

Fueled by 22 choice works from the collection of the embattled CNET founder Halsey Minor, which sold for $21.1 million, Phillips de Pury & Company’s evening sale last night wrapped-up a hugely successful week of contemporary art auctions in New York. Overall, the boutique-sized auction house sold 58 of the 74 lots on offer for a grand total of $37.9 million. Unlike its uptown rivals, Phillips saw no lots make over $5 million with only seven exceeding the $1 million mark. Nevertheless, the result is superior to the auction house’s last Contemporary evening sale in New York in November 2009, when they managed to bring in only $7,099,250. While a few familiar faces featured in the crowd, including Miami collector Donald Rubell and the fashion mogul Marc Jacobs, most of the action was dominated by anonymous telephone bidders – with the majority of winning bids being taken by Michaela de Pury and Michael McGinnis, head of Phillips’s contemporary art department worldwide.

In March this year Halsey Minor was instructed by a court order to give up dozens of artworks to satisfy a $21.6 million delinquent loan to ML Private Finance L.L.C., an affiliate of Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch. While last night’s sales may cover the majority of this payment, Minor is also under a court order to pay Sotheby’s a further $6.64 million in a dispute over three artworks he had purchased at auction and later refused to pay for. Meanwhile, in the state of California, a trial is underway on issues between him and Christie’s auction house. More works from Minor’s collection are coming on the block at Phillips today and on June 9.

More images, related links and a full round-up of the sale 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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Gavin Turk, Pop (1993), showing with Tate Modern’s “Pop Life: Art in a Material World” through January 17. Image via The London Paper.

Tate Modern is currently showing works by artists that embrace mass media and popular culture. Its motto is Andy Warhol’s proclamation that “good business is the best art,” and artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Tracey Emin, and more present works that are, accordingly, a blend of popular and left of center culture. “Pop Life: Art in a Material World,” which also features a new piece by Takashi Murakami, closes on January 17.

Foreground, House of Martin Luther King (1990), by Rob Pruitt and Walter Early; background, Damien Hirst’s False Idol (2008). From “Pop Life,” images via The Guardian.

more images and story after the jump…

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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…)

Kirsten Dunst on the set of a production by Takashi Murakami in collaboration with McG via aarting

Tate Modern’s “Pop Life: Art in a Material World,” features a video that is a collaboration between McG – famous Hollywood director, and Murakami – Japan’s king of pop art: starring actress Kirsten Dunst on the streets of Akihabara in Tokyo for “Turning Japanese” by rock band The Vapors [The Wall Street Journal]
A 1984 work by Chinese artist Li Keran sold for $940,000, the most for a print at a Hong Kong auction, where bidding led by mainland buyers has taken many prices several times above estimates [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s Asia sales in Hong Kong revealed that demand for Chinese paintings, while firm, is mixed; as the market is still vulnerable, less pricey, quality pieces were the ones to realize numbers higher than their estimates [Reuters]
Works including those by Renoir, Pollock, Degas and Rembrandt stolen from the home of a retired Harvard Medical School professor and collector, and his business partner; only authentic pieces were taken, leaving behind impeccable reproductions [Boston Globe via Art Market Monitor] in related Uncooperative and unable to produce evidence that the stolen art existed, Angelo Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, become suspects of the theft to which allegedly they are victims [ArtDaily]

Tracey Emin via Guardian UK

Discouraged by British government’s top rate tax, Tracey Emin threatens to abandon England for France where she claims the politicians understand the importance of supporting culture and art [Guardian UK] in related At the London’s Frieze Art Fair, in the booth of New York’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Tracey Emin, known for her confessional artwork, is offering to make customized artworks based on answers to fifteen personal questions [Artinfo]
Fanjul paintings nationalized by Cuba in an exhibit in Museo del Prado in Madrid involve legal consequences as the Museum is being investigated by the US department of state for illegal trafficking of a work of art owned by US citizen confiscated by Cuban government [The Art Newspaper]
Turner Prize exhibit at Tate Britain in London this time startles the viewers with the lack of now expected blood, outrage and other shock factors [Bloomberg]
The Bloomberg administration makes an announcement of its plan to give nonprofit cultural groups access to gallery and theater space in city owned properties and help artists develop business plans [Crain's Business]

Donald Judd concrete constructions in Marfa Texas via Hip-Ster-Krit

6 of 15 concrete constructions built by Donald Judd in Marfa Texas required repair and conservation work, October 10th the works will once again be open to the public [Artinfo]
A look at the Chinese Gao brothers who are shocking their country with brave, politically challenging art works, such as a life-size sculpture of Mao whose body is only reunited with his head on ‘special occasions’ [The New York Times]
When most artists’ prices are decreasing in a recession, a few go up: Italian Maurizio Cattelan is one of those who thrive in the tough economic times, an analysis of his work reveals some truths on the variables of the art market [The Economist]

Damien Hirst posing in front of his work via ARTblog +

A portrait of Damien Hirst built through an interview: his influences, unusual artistic paths (such as painting) and mediums to come, and a subjective depiction of the artist’s personality [Times Online] in related Hirst tells BBC that he will not be producing large scale installations and will rather concentrate solely on painting by applying oil to the canvas with his hands, something he has been secretly doing these recent years [BBC] and in related the FT reports that Hirst lays off much of his staff, closes two studios and is actually making paintings himself; while the galleries give no comments on the unsold works worth millions [Financial Times]
As art fairs struggle to retain exhibitors, a new modern and contemporary fair in Abu Dhabi signs up forty-eight names, including PaceWildenstein, Gagosian, Acquavella and White Cube [Lindsay Pollock] related 50 paintings from the New York Guggenheim Museum to be shown in Abu Dhabi [Arts Abu Dhabi]

‘Fuego Flores’ by Jean Michel Basquiat via Auction Publicity

Sotheby’s October Contemporary Art Auction, estimated to realize in excess of £9 million, will include works by leading artists, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anish Kapoor, Andy Warhol, Chris Ofili, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley and Yan Pei-Ming [Auction Publicity]
Following in the footsteps of Anselm Kiefer and Toni Morrison, Umberto Eco has been named the next guest curator at the Louvre; the show “Vertige de la Liste” (Vertigo of Lists) will revolve around his chosen theme “the list” [Artinfo] in related news, talks are underway to open a McDonald’s restaurant and a McCafé at the Louvre next month [Telegraph]
An art dealer from Stockholm, Sweden has been accused of faking works by heavyweight modernists including Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele [Artnet]

Child of lonely – performance by Terence Koh October 6 at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Photo Olivier Zahm via purple DIARY

Terence Koh prepared his first solo show at the Parisian gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, which takes a form of an imaginary opera in eight acts, the first act taking place October 6, 2009 [The Art Newspaper]
The four artists shortlisted for Turner Prize 2009 are: Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright; the winner is to be announced December 7th [Turner Prize 2009]
Jerry Saltz writes about new galleries emerging despite the economic crises, provides a list of new galleries to see and comments on the effects of the recession on the female artists [New York mag]

The current state of the building to house Sperone Westwater and the computer rendering of it via Lindsay Pollock

A concrete foundation is rising at the site of the future Sperone Westwater gallery designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster on the Bowery; the 10 story building will rise only one block away from New Museum [Lindsay Pollock]
As opposed to expanding outside their home in LA, Tim Blum and Jeff Poe open a new 21,000 square foot space conveniently located in front of their existing gallery on South La Cienga Boulevard, Los Angeles [Los Angeles Times]

Jacket designed by JR via The World’s Best Ever

A jacket from JR’s Face2Face Project comes in a limited edition of only 100 [The World's Best Ever] in related A video interview with JR in Paris about his project Women are Heroes, which allows the viewers to call a number and hear an interview with one of the chosen women for the project [Vernissage TV]
An interview with Dasha Zhukova that notes her easy acceptance in the art world [Guardian UK]
28 as opposed to 40 exhibitors had pulled out of the Frieze Art Fair, yet despite the equally disappointing numbers, many lesser known, but in no way inferior galleries, will get a shot at the famous art fair [Telegraph]

Miranda July via Vice

Miranda July creates a series of photographs to imitate and bring attention to the extras in iconic movies [Vice]
An Italian professor, Dr Seracini, has been working on technology that can enable the search for the largest painting Leonardo da Vinci ever painted – The Battle of Anghiari, a work he believes to be hidden underneath the frescoes in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio [The New York Times]
MoMA received an unexpected gift this month – an estate, estimated to be worth more than $10 million, belonging to the late Michael H. Dunn, a bachelor from Derby, Vermont [The New Yorker]

A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death, Takashi Murakami

Currently on display in a side room at Gagosian Gallery’s w24th Street warehouse complex, NYC  is Picture of Fate: I am but a Fisherman Who Angles in the Darkness of his Mind.  This is a one-painting exhibition showcasing a major new work by Takashi Murakami: A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death. This small show appears at the same time as the large exhibition of his work currently on show at the Emannuel Perrotin Gallery, Paris.

A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death, Takashi Murakami

Related Links:
Gagosian Gallery Homepage
Takashi Murakami Does Death [NYTimes]
In Chelsea, a Chapetr in Abstract Art and Some Long Verse [NYTimes]
Murakami Confronts Mortality [The L Magazine]
Anselm Reyle and Takashi Murakami open at Gagosian Gallery [ARTCO]

More pictures and text after the jump…
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Murakami aluminum bears via Billionaire Boys Club

Galerie Emannuel Perrotin is showing, until October 17, an important collection of new works by Takashi Murakami.  The exhibit brings together seventeen paintings, including three monumental ones, as well as five sculptures and two movies.  Coming shortly after the end of Murakami’s retrospective exhibition, which traveled from the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art to New York, Frankfurt and Bilbao, at a time when Murakami’s work is very much in the public eye, this exhibit is entitled “Takashi Murakami Paints Self-Portraits” and is dedicated to the portrayal of the artist himself, through the means of the various characters who populate his work.

Kaikai Kiki and Me, Takashi Murakami (2008) via Galerie Perrotin

Related Links:
Takashi Murakami Artist Page [Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin]
Kaikai Kiki Co. [Official Website]
Murakami Paints Himself Warhol [Interview Magazine]
Takashi Murakami: in the court of the king of cute [Times]
Openings: Takashi Murakami “Self-Portraits” @ Emmanuel Perrotin [Arrested Motion]
Artist Takashi Murakami talks on how he paints [Guardian]

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Rembrandt’s portrait of an unknown man via Times Online

Estimated at £25m, a portrait by Rembrandt is expected to raise a record price for the artist at Christie’s in London [Guardian UK]
Despite crisis, Mikhail Piotrovsky- the director of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg is planning an expansion, reinstallation and several new international venues [ARTnews]
Tate’s plan to increase display space by 60% is challenged by a £140m shortfall; donation for the past year amount only to £4m due to recession [The Independent] in related Tate announces upcoming exhibitions of Gauguin, Picasso and Chris Ofili [Guardian UK]
More on ex art-dealer Anthony d’Offay, who traded a $160m profit for a chance to provide the British public with an access to contemporary and modern art [Bloomberg]
Reuters Felix Salmon calls on Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn who claims that Damien Hirst’s sales are recovered to levels seen at peak of the art market boom; Salmon claims the analysis by Reyburn is unsubstantiated [Reuters and Bloomberg via ArtMarketMonitor]

Ai WeiWei via Twitter

Ai Weiwei publishes on twitter images of himself going in for surgery after undergoing an attack by Chinese police [The Art Newspaper]
RoseLee Goldberg, Performa’s founding director, reads an excerpt from the Futurist Manifesto, announces details and gives hints about the surprise performances and their locations [Artinfo]
The director of the MET, Thomas Campbell, shares that the painting reattributed to Velazquez last week, “Portrait of a Man”, may soon travel to the Prado Museum in Madrid [ArtDaily]
More on the Artist Pension Trust, an investment vehicle that provides artists, who rarely engage in financial planning, with financial security when they retire [Guardian UK]
An antique shop in New Mexico put on sale a Van Gogh sketch for his painting Night Cafe, from a May 13 burglary, worth $250,000-1million, for $250 [Artinfo]

Caravaggio, The Supper at Emmaus via Artinfo

The National Gallery in London is sending Caravaggio’s The Supper at Emmaus to be exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago from October 10, 2009 to January 31, 2010 [Fine Art Publicity]
Since Thursday, 110 galleries, most of them in Chelsea opened their doors to the new art season, showcasing what sells, what is missing on the art scene and which gallery spaces are more beneficial to the sales [New York Magazine]
Pope Benedict XVI organizes an art summit reaching out to 500 contemporary artists to reunite in Vatican [BBC via Art Market Monitor]  in related After his initial refusal to participate in Vatican’s art initiative, that will attempt to reestablish the dialogue between spirituality and art, Bill Viola rearranges his schedule and accepts Pope’s invitation [Artnet]
Curator of Modern and contemporary art at Menil Collection, Franklin Sirmans will be appointed chief curator oc contemporary art in LACMA and will assume his position in January [Culture Monster]

Anish Kapoor via Times Online

After an attempt to investigate the very nature of the scale of Anish Kapoor’s work and the man behind the work in an article published last week, Times Online writes on Anish Kapoor’s retrospective, providing a survey of the artist’s career, at the Royal Academy [Times Online]
An interview with Turner Prize winning video artist Steve McQueen where the artist speaks of his childhood, artistic influences, his musical preferences and view on art world and Artist Yoshimoto Nara speaks of musical, artistic and personal influences on his work [Guardian UK]

Velazquez, Las Meninas via The Wall Street Journal

Velazquez’s “Las Meninas”- an enigmatic work that has contributed to the shift of its very medium from the realm of craft to that of art [The Wall Street Journal]
Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, Marc Quinn, Antony Gormley and other contemporary artists donating works to Sotheby’s “Art for Africa Auction” on tonight [ArtDaily]
September 16, at the Guggenheim International Gala, a $1.2m Ellsworth Kelly painting received by the Museum as a gift was auctioned [Auction Central News]
The life and death of Dash Snow [Guardian UK]
Art critic, Holland Carter, proposes smaller and more smartly curated shows to take place of large blockbuster exhibits [The New York Times]
A new 37,000-square-foot outdoor space is lent temporarily to Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for exhibitions and performances by developers postponing their building projects, hence the name- LentSpace [The New York Times]

Richard Serra, Shift (Detail) via Arts Journal

As a 1970 iconic earthwork by Serra outside Toronto remains endangered, a litigious battle concerning access to and protection of the artwork continues [Arts Journal]
New York’s Armory show will move in geographic pattern from representing one city to another, its first choice is Berlin [Lindsay Pollock]
A short interview by brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, discussing their drawings [Guardian UK]
David Zwirner is to be the first dealer to solely represent The Estate of Dan Falvin [David Zwirner]
New works by Julian Schanbel, Paul Chan, John Currin and Francesco Vezzoli are currently on show at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in an exhibition inspired by Mary Magdalene [metoperafamily.org]
Book review: “I Sold Andy Warhol (too soon)” by Richard Polsky [WallStreetJournal]

Zac Posen, RTW Spring 2010. Via WWD.com

Rosson Crow designs floral prints for Zac Posen’s Spring RTW collection [wwd.com]
Julian Schnabel is selling pieces from his art collection, including work by Picabia, Braque and Balthus to finance his divorce [New York Post]
The Roman Empire – Russia’s Roman Abramovich’s toychest of expensive things, inlcuding works by Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud, is examined [Wall Street Journal]
Sales of Chinese art at Sotheby’s Total: $15,532,479 Exceeding Expectations [ArtDaily]
The king of Japanese Contemporary Art, Takashi Murakami, speaks openly about the state of the art market, his legacy and his upcoming plans [Artinfo.com]
An encounter with Takashi Murakami in the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel, New York following his opening at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea [NYTimes]

A recent work by Takashi Murakami via Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin

This morning in Paris, during event to promote the launch of a show of work on September 13th by French pop artist Xavier Veilhan at Château de Versailles, the Versailles museum director Jean-Jacques Aillagon announced to the Associated Free Press that Japanese artist Takashi Murakami had been chosen to appear at the venerable institution in 2010.  Murakami is often described as the “Japanese Warhol” due perhaps to his Pop art style and extremely prolific production of work.  Of course another artist often described in this way is Jeff Koons, who in the winter of last year displayed many of his significant sculpture pieces at Versailles, which though iconic as contemporary art, were perhaps incongruous to that particular location.

Though the Jeff Koons in Versailles show last year was generally concluded to be both a successful and well attended exhibition, with almost 1 million visitors attending, it did garner significant controversy.  Prince Charles-Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme, a French aristocrat in the line of succession to the French throne and a descendant of the palace’s original creator, Louis XIV, mounted a high profile legal challenge to the installation, which ultimately failed.  Prince Charles-Emmanuel cited the Koons exhibition as “pornographic.”  As Takashi Murakami is also known to produce relatively illicit subject matter in his art this exhibit may as well stir up some ire with French traditionalists.

Takashi Murakami is soon to have simultaneous solo exhibitions this month in both Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea on September 17th, New York and at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris on September 15th.

Related Links:
Japanese pop artist to exhibit in Versailles [AFP]

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Mirror, Hope Atherton via Rental

Leading art collectors provide works from their collections to a show organized by Claire Distenfeld- a 23 year old curator who came up with the concept of selling works that are “not masterpieces” yet are by contemporary artists with well-established names. The idea was realized quickly, within a few weeks, through Claire’s personal extensive network. Works by artists like Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Peyton, Barnaby Furnas, Jack Goldstein, Ingrid Calame, George Condo, John Wesley, Richard Prince, Mr., Marilyn Minter, Marnie Weber, David Salle, Nobuyoshi Araki, Hope Atherton, and Ryan McGuinness are on show through August, 8.

Related Links:
Don’t Panic I am Selling My Collection [Rental]
“Don’t Panic I am Selling my Collection” Exhibition [NYAB]
With Warhol, $350,000 Murakami, Hip Gallery Says: “Don’t Panic!” [Bloomberg]
Don’t Panic I am Selling My Collection- Press Release [Art News]

Untitled, George Condo at Rental via Art News

More text and pictures after the jump…

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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]

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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]

Preview of Takashi Murakami’s animated short ‘Superflat First Love’ for Louis Vuitton via Hypebeast

In 2003, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Marc Jacob collaborated on a new multicolor monogram for Louis Vuitton, resulting in a runaway hit.  Murakami made an animated short for the line, ‘Superflat Monogram.’ In the fall of 2007, ‘©Murakami’ opened at LAMOCA, complete with a Louis Vuitton store in the museum, to the ire of museum purists. The show later traveled to the Brooklyn Museum. Murakami has partnered with Louis Vuitton for a new line, called ‘Multicolore Spring Palette,’ and made a new video for this line, too, titled ‘Superflat First Love.’ The five-minute video is currently available in Japan as a mobile download, but a preview has been uploaded to YouTube and can be seen above.

View of the Louis Vuitton store in Omotesando, Japan via aarting

Louis Vuitton Animation – SUPERFLAT FIRST LOVE Premiering Soon!! [Kaikai Kiki]
Superflat First Love – Takashi Murakami For Louis Vuitton [High Snobiety]
Takashi Murakami | Superflat First Love [Hypebeast]
Louis Vuitton Superflat First Love – Takashi Murakami [Weekly Drop]
LOUIS VUITTON x TAKASHI MURAKAMI “MULTICOLOR SPRING PALLET” STORE DESIGN [aarting]
Greater Tokyo [Hint Mag]

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David Zwirner via Art Info

An interview with power gallerist David Zwirner [WSJ] and more here [WSJ]
Jerry Saltz on the controversial Adel Abdessemed video of animals killing animals on display at David Zwirner [NYMag]
The Turner Prize Shortlist is announced [ArtDaily]
ArtPrize out of Grand Rapids, Michigan will award nearly $1/2 million to its winners [ArtPrize]
Art Basel announces eight works for its public art projects [ArtDaily]
A walk through Peter Brant’s new contemporary exhibition space in Greenwich, complete with a Jeff Koons sighting [NewYorker]

An annotated view of Roxy Paine’s ‘Maelstrom’ at the Met’s Roof Garden [NYMagazine]

A self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh

Book asserts that Paul Gauguin and his sword were the cause of Van Gogh’s lost ear[NYTimes] and more here’ [TelegraphUK]

A self-portrait of Paul Gauguin

And a refute of the assertion here [Bloomberg] and another non-believer here [GuardianUK]

Art Collector Nicolas Berggruen

Nicolas Berggruen to open private museum in Berlin [ArtNewspaper]
The Getty Museum will cut 205 people from its work force [NYTimes]
Sotheby’s cuts its dividends and plans to cut more jobs [Bloomberg]
Art + Auction publisher Louise T. Blouin MacBain cuts executive salaries [NYPost]

A work by Nam June Paik via  albrightknox.org

The Smithsonian receives the complete Nam June Paik archives [ArtInfo]

‘Burn, Baby, Burn’ by Roberto Matta

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has acquired a 10′ x 30′ work by Roberto Matta [CultureMonster]

JR in Brazil

JR shows up in Brazil with more installations [WoosterCollective]
California Judge dismisses suit against MOCA regarding Takashi Murakami prints [LATimes]
NYTimes has an article on the resurgence of private sales amidst high profile failures at auctions [NYTimes]
New York Magazine on opportunities to be had in the art world [NYMag]
And an anonymous forecast on artists by their contemporaries [NYMag]
Impressionist works and their value [Economist]

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]

Huang Yongping's Sixty-Year Cycle Chariot sold for double the high estimate of $194,00, setting a new auction record for the artist, via Artdaily

Contemporary Asian Art Sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong brings in $8.5 million USD, well wthin expectations with over half of the lots above estimate [Artdaily] more here [Bloomberg] and here [AuctionPublicity] and here [Economist] and here [Artinfo]
and finally more here [China Daily via ArtPatrol]
And in related: The Getty acquires 9 contemporary Chinese photographs for $100,000, boosting its Asian collection despite a tighter budget [Bloomberg]

Takashi Murakami will soon debut a new collaborative collection with Louis Vuitton [HypeBeast]
New York financier/art collector Ezra Merkin charged with $2.4 bilion fraud, the proceeds of which were used to fill his apartment with $91 million worth of art including Mark Rothko works from his collection, one of the largest in the world for the artist [Guardian UK]

Terence Koh via Glob

Kate Moss by Damien Hirst on the cover of Tar Art Magazine, Via New York Times

Kate Moss by Damien Hirst is the new cover of Tar Magazine (anagram for “art”) [NY Times]
Art funds launched in 2008, such as the London-based Art Trading Fund, are shelved due to failure to raise required funds [ArtNewspaper]
Art:21, Art in Twenty-First Century is now available for free on Hulu [Hulu]

"G8" by Andrei Molodkin via Financial Times

Russian Artist Andrea Molodkin, previously cited by AO here, prepares for Venice Biennale [Financial Times]
Jeff Koons is speaking at Strand Books tonight at 7:00-8:30 in New York [Via FAD]
New York Old Masters dealer Lawrence Salander is indicted and pleads guilty in $88 million charge [Bloomberg]

A look inside Rome’s MAXXI designed by Zaha Hadid via c-monster

A preview of the MAXXI in Rome, $108 million art museum designed by Zaha Hadid [c-monster]
Adam Lindemann, financier, collector and author of Collecting Contemporary launches a new book from Taschen: Collecting Design [ArtInfo]

Flash Art’s current cover featuring a portrait of Barack Obama by Marlene Dumas via Art Fag City

Marlene Dumas’s portrait of Barack Obama is the cover of Flash Art [Art Fag City]
Madonna’s art collection is estimated at £80 million pounds [TimesUK]

A selection from the site via The World’s Best Ever

A timeline of modern & contemporary art artists by movement, school, style, period, theme & art prize [The-artists.org via The World's Best Ever]
Richard Serra to receive honorary degree from Pratt Institute at its 120th Commencement on May 18th [MediaBistro]

Interview with photographer Nan Goldin on why she is auctioning some of the curiosities she has collected [TelegraphUK]
SFMOMA announces plans for a future expansion, doubling gallery space [SF Chronicle]

A preview of SANAA’s design for the 2009 Serpentine Pavillion via Architect’s Journal

SANAA, the Japanese architectual duo behind the New Museum, release first glimpse of design for the 2009 Serpentine Pavilion [Architect's Journal]
Jim Dine donates 40 drawings influenced by Greek and Roman sculpture to the Morgan Library [Artinfo]

Picasso Portrait seen here at the home of Julian Schnabel highlights Christie's Impressionist Sale [via artinfo

Maurizio Cattelan, Ostrich, 1997, Via the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture

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]

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Bokan Camoulfage Pink (2009) by Takashi Murakami, via The Gagosian Gallery

Currently displayed at the Gagosian’s Davies Street gallery in London are new paintings by Takashi Murakami.  The compact exhibition features three larger scale paintings including new work in the Time Bokan series and from his trademark Kakai and Kiki characters.  The Kaikai and Kiki (2009) painting is accompanied by new paintings in the Time Bokan series that Murakami began in 1933. A central image in Murakami’s work is the skull-shaped mushroom cloud borrowed from the Japanese anime TV series from the 1970s. Found in both Time- Camouflage Moss Green and Bokan-Camouflage Pink, the cloud symbolizes the fall of the villain at the end of each episode but can be likened as well to the atomic bombing of Japan.

Exhibition Page: Takashi Murakami’s New Paintings

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Monkeys (Ladder) (2003) by Jeff Koons. Sold for £1.38 million ($2 million) against estimates of £1.4 million to £2 million.

Following last week’s encouraging results, Christie’s post-war and contemporary auctions could only be described as lacklustre, while not entirely disheartening.

The auction realized a total of £8,392,750, or $12,085,560, with 79% of lots being sold. While still somewhat robust, it pales in comparison to last week’s figures which tended to be in the 90% range. 48% of the 29 lots were sold above their estimates, with one work of auctioned for over £1 million. European buyers put in a strong showing, comprising 66% of auction participants, with the remainder breaking down as follows: 4% UK, 27% Americas and 4% Asia.

Jeff Koons’ playful Monkeys (Ladder) was the highest priced lot, pulling in £1.38 million ($2 million) against estimates of  £1.4 million to  £2 million–just barely falling short of the lower estimate.  The oil on canvas piece forms a part of the artist’s Popeye series, and was offered for auction for the first time during the evening sale.

Two of the highest profile lots on auction failed to sell. A lot by Francis Bacon, Man in Blue IV, went unsold–considered by the auction house and several dealers who were present as “perhaps too academic.” The sitter is an unknown man who Bacon is thought to have had an affair with at the Imperial Hotel in Henley-upon-Thames, where the painter resided for some time.  His features are obscured and more attention is given to his clothing, posture and form. The  lot was expected to sell for between £4 million and £6 million, which would have made it the priciest lot on sale.

Mark Rothko’s lot also went unsold. Green, Blue, Green on Blue, from 1968, was expected to bring in between £2.5 million and £3.5 million, and would have been the second highest priced lot after Bacon’s.

Christie’s Sale Total Halves; $12.2 Million Rothko, Bacon Fail [Bloomberg]
Francis Bacon portrait fails to sell at auction [Telegraph UK]
Christie’s Auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art Realises $12.1 Million [ArtDaily]
The Golden Rain Dries Up at Christie’s [ArtInfo]

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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

Dasha Zhukova and the Moscow Garage organize a 17-artist public video installation which includes work by Doug Aitken, Fischli and Weiss and Pippilotti Rist [GuardianUK]

Still from Kaikai Kiki Animation Episode 1, Planting the Seeds 2007 via LA Times.

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is set to open an animation studio in Los Angeles next summer, 2009.  The studio, which should accommodate roughly 30 employees, will take up approximately 9,000 square foot (6,220 square feet on the first floor and 2,760 square feet on the second level) in a building on North Highland Avenue and will be operated by Kaikai Kiki, Murakami’s production and management company.

Murakami said in a statement: “This studio represents a great step in the evolution of Kaikai Kiki and gives me a closer proximity to the community of artists with whom I hope to collaborate as I continue my explorations of animated and live-action film.”

The new studio’s first major project will be an animated feature-length film based on the series of  shorts, “Planting the Seeds,” that premiered last winter at Murakami’s MoCA exhibition.  Kaikai Kiki has already produced the music video for Kanye West’s Good Morning (as covered by Art Observed here.)

Murakami, who, like Andy Warhol, is known for blurring the boundaries between high and low art, created the superflat monogram for Louis Vuitton and his animated characters are also featured in Louis Vuitton advertisements.

Murakami animation studio coming to LA [LA Times]

Videos and images after the jump… (more…)

Stamford After Brunch, John Currin, 2000

After John Currin’s recent success, against the market, at the November auctions (as covered by AO here), an analysis of his work complete with slideshow [Slate via Artmarketmonitor]
NightTalk has an interview with gallerist Mary Boone [Clipsyndicate]
Some NYC galleries are expanding in a downturn [ArtInfo]

Murakami's Kaikai Kiki "High and Lo" sneakers

Murakami’s Kakai Kiki creates a signature sneaker [TheMoment]
Undeniably influential through his iconic images during the Obama campaign, street art legend Shepard Fairey named a GQ man of the year [Supertouch]
Damien Hirst soon to open his bed and breakfast in Devon, UK [FirstPost]
Tracey Emin states that despite the seeming art-recession, she is “pretty credit-crunch proof” [TelegraphUK]
With prices lower at auction, MoMA acquires [NYTimes]

Kaws does cover art for Kanye West via theartcolectors

Kanye West uses Kaws for his cover art (Takashi Murakami has also had the privilege) [theartcollectors]
Art collector Aby Rosen’s Core Club, featuring works by such artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat and De Kooning, owes its founding members funds [NYPost]
A closer look into the ramifications of the art “crash” [WallStreetJournal]

Frank Gehry's Art Museum of Ontario via the NYTImes

“Untitled, boxer” (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, sold by Metallica band member Lars Ulrich for $13.5 million via Artnet

CHRISTIE’S POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART, New York, Wednesday, November 12th

Total Lots Offered: 75
Total Lots Sold: 51
Total Sales Value: $113.62 million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $227 million

Christie’s New York sale of contemporary art, held on the evening of Nov. 12, 2008, was dominated by American buyers and totaled $98,480,000 ($113,627,500 with premium) or about half of the low value of its estimate of $227,150,000 to $321,350,000. 51 of 75 lots sold, or 68%, with nearly a third failing to sell. Two lots sold for over $10 million, and 32 lots sold for over 1 million dollars. Buyers were 60% American, 18% European and Russian, 0% Asian and 24% “other.” Notable attendees were tennis legend John McEnroe and billionaire Eli Broad.

Like Sotheby’s evening sale a day before, Christie’s was also damaged by its guarantees of 39 lots when 12 were brought in with a combined low estimate of $48 million, (typically a price near where an auction house will guarantee). The total guaranteed low estimate was $90 million. Overall, 24 of the 75 lots failed to find buyers which indicates a buy-in rate of 32% by lot and 55% by value. The total for this sale does not compare well to Christie’s fall contemporary sale in 2007 which totaled $325 million. Christie’s reportedly reduced their reserves and as such 52% of the lots sold below the low estimate.

Several new auction records were set, including those by Paul McCarthy and Robert Irwin, however, prices were generally below pre-sale low estimates. Some positives came from the sale including a $15 million Richter and a $13.5 million Basquiat as well as new auction records for Joseph Cornell and Yayoi Kusama. The headliner lot Francis Bacon’s Study for Self-Portrait was unsold against a low estimate $40 million or more, but no bid approached even $30 million. Many other major lots went unsold, including five sequential lots including three Warhols and a Richter valued at up to $10.0 million to $15 million.

Credit crunch hits the art market [Guardian]
Mixed Results for Contemporary Art Sale at Christie’s [NY Times]
Christie’s New York Auction Sells 68% of Contemporary Artworks [Bloomberg]
Lehman’s Fuld and Wife Sell Drawings Below Estimate [Bloomberg]
Francis Bacon portrait pulled from sale after failing to attract bids [Telegraph UK]
Art market in shock as Christie’s calls halt to Francis Bacon sale [TimesUK]
Art Market Watch – $113.6 million at Christie’s Contemporary [ArtNet]
Crappy Art Market Fails to Take Revenge on Richard Fuld [NYMag]
No Bailout at Christie’s [Artinfo]
The art of avoiding the credit crunch [GuardianUK]
Credit crunch hits the art market [GuardianUK]

more with pictures after the jump…

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