AO Art Observed™

School, 2008 Subodh Gupta [ All images via Hauser & Wirth unless otherwise noted]

Currently showing at Hauser & Wirth London, 15 Old Bond Street is “School,” a selection of most recent works by Subodh Gupta.  The show features forty five brass stools paired with stainless steel thali trays (traditional Indian trays with multiple compartments used for meals containing several dishes).

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The Raising of Lazarus, 2007 (David Zwirner Gallery)

Chris Ofili’s familiar hits are brought together with his more mature recent works for the first time in a mid-career survey at the Tate Britain, London, through 16 May 2010. The collective effect of the show is a kaleidoscope of wild humor, brilliant color and raw energy. What is striking about the exhibition is its unique position within the growing contemporary canon: firstly, Ofili is unusual as a painter in a conceptual era, and, secondly, he is intensely concerned with the aesthetic. The paintings in this exhibition are richly ornamented; their surfaces are imaginatively constructed from such incongruous materials as elephant dung (Ofili’s signature), map pins and glitter. The paintings are structural and highly tactile, and the viewing experience is a sensory event. This perhaps most evident in The Upper Room, a collaboration with the architect David Adjaye to design an independent and enclosed viewing space. The audience is guided down a barely lit corridor into a dim, yet glittering chamber that enhances the spiritually of viewing paintings which reference both the Christian and Hindu faiths.

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Tacita Dean’s Christmas tree, ‘Weihnachtsbaum‘ at Tate Britain via Zimbio

The Tate has been embracing the Christmas spirit this week with a series of headlining seasonal happenings.  The Tate Christmas Tree 2009, “Weihnachtsbaum” designed by Tacita Dean, shocked critics by actually appearing “Christmassy”[Bloomberg]  This weekend, Tate Modern’s vast Turbine Hall was taken over by Rob Pruitt’s festive ‘Flea Market’ – originally held at Gavin Brown’s Passerby gallery in New York in the late 1990s, this event was programmed to coincide with the Tate Modern exhibition Pop Life: Art in a Material World, in which Pruitt also appears [POP Magazine]

Italian police have seized works of art belonging to Carlisto Tanzi – founder of the Italian firm Parmalat who collapsed in a massive fraud scandal in 2003. The 19 paintings and drawings, included works by Picasso, Monet and Van Gogh, and is estimated to be worth more than 100million euros [BBC News]

Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon that will appear in New York’s Madison Square Park in March 2010 via ArtInfo

Antony Gormley has announced plans to install 31 nude sculptures cast from his own body in and around Madison Square Park in Manhattan’s Flatiron District beginning March 26 [NY Times]

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Richard Wright’s winning wall painting, via TimesOnline

Last night, Richard Wright was announced the winner of the prestigious Turner Prize at a ceremony in Tate Britain. Wright’s highly intricate gold-leaf painting that won him the prize can be seen across one wall of the Turner Prize exhibition currently on display at Tate Britain through January 6, 2010.   Wright lives in Glasgow and so follows an illustrious line of Scotland-based winners – from Douglas Gordon back in 1996 to Martin Creed in 2001 and Simon Starling in 2005. At 49, Wright is the oldest man to win the prize since the under-50 age limit was imposed in 1991.

Wright rejected painting on canvas in the late 1980s and has become best known for his wall paintings which are temporarily crafted onto walls in overlooked places with the knowledge that they will soon be erased – almost everything Wright has created since this decision has been destroyed. His paintings combine graphic imagery and intricate patterning from sources as varied as Medieval painting, graphics and typography.

Four artists, working a variety of media, were in contention for the prize – Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer, and Richard Wright – Hiorns had been the critics’ favorite going into the competition.

Andrew Dickson, Arts Editor of the Guardian, talks to Turner Prize winner Richard Wright, Stephen Deuchar, Carol Ann Duffy, and 2001 Turner winner Martin Creed via The Guardian

Richard Wright: 2009 Turner Prize Winner [The Guardian]
A Turner Prize Winner Who Takes Viewers By Surprise [NY Times]
Turner Prize Winner Richard Wright Shocks World  – Actual Art [Daily Mail]
Richard Wright Who Wrecks His Own Work Wins Turner Prize [Bloomberg]
I’d Like Him to Do My Living Room Wall [TimesOnline]
School of Art [BBC News]
You could call Wright’s art Minimalist, but it is also luxurious [Independent]
Richard Wright Wins Turner Prize [Financial Times]
Fresco Painter Richard Wright Wins Turner Prize [Reuters]

The Royal College of Art Secret Postcard fundraiser via The Guardian

-The Royal College of Art’s Secret 2009 event has 2,500 postcards for sale for £40, made by artists including Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry and Yoko Ono.  Though buyers don’t know who the artist is until after they buy. [Times UK]

-Penelope Curtis has been appointed director of Tate Britain, the first woman to hold a directorship at Tate. [Guardian]

-Tracey Emin opens a new exhibition in New York, that, while popular, comes nowhere near the levels of sales or attendance she normal receives in Britain. [NY Times]

An artist’s rendering of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Cirkelbroen’ bridge to be built in Copenhagen via Artinfo

-Olafur Eliasson has designed a bridge to be completed by 2012 in Copenhagen’s harbor. Called ‘Brikelbroen,’ the bridge is comprised of five circles that take pedestrians on a winding path rather than straight across. [Artinfo]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)

The First Annual Art Awards via Guggenheim.org

Last night, October 29, marked the inauguration of a new annual art event: Rob Pruitt presented The First Annual Art Awards at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New Yorkin association with the city’s oldest alternative art space, White Columns.

The awards were conceived by artist, Rob Pruitt, as a performance-based artwork; for the occasion he recruited the characters of Index Magazine’s wry satirical web series, Delusional Downtown Divas. The New York Times have reported that “…the Divas schemed to infiltrate the art establishment by any means possible. In one segment they pitched a tent in the Guggenheim, doing their laundry in the lobby fountain.”

Jeffrey Deitch and Kembra Pfahler at The First Annual Art Awards at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum via style.com

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Richard Wright’s untitled wall painting, via Times UK

Now on view at Tate Britain is an exhibition of the four artists shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize, Britain’s most prestigious – and most controversial – art prize. Featuring Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer, and Richard Wright, the exhibition showcases both works for which the artists were nominated as well as new works. The winner of the prize will be announced on December 7, 2009, via a live televised broadcast. Though the Turner Prize has been awarded to well-regarded artists including Anish Kapoor, Rachel Whiteread, and Wolfgang Tillmans, it has been the source of controversy for its attentions to unconventional YBAs like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. This year’s nominees, however, have been noted for their lack of shock tactics. Gone are Emin’s dirty sheets and used condoms, replaced by Wright’s delicate wall drawing and Skaer’s archaeological assemblages.

Lucy Skaer’s ‘Black Alphabet’ via Tate

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Helvoetsluys – the City of Utrecht, 64, Going to Sea, Joseph Mallord William Turner (Exh 1832). Via Tate

In acknowledgment of the grand artistic tradition of admiration, imitation and competition, through January 31 Tate Britain will present the work of Joseph Mallord William Turner alongside some 100 related works by Old Masters and Contemporaries. Amid the 30+ artists presented are Canaletto, Titian, Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Veronese, Watteau and Constable.

Moonlight, a Study at Millbank, Joseph Mallord William Turner (1797). Via Tate

J.M.W. Turner is often regarded as one of the most artists of his time, whose work varied to include watercolors, oil paintings, drawings and prints. While Turner’s spirit is often deemed as independent, David Solkin, Professor of the Social History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, University of London who conceived the exhibition, wishes to highlight how Turner was in fact, deeply engaged with the work of other artists.

Related Links:
Tate Britain Website [Tate.org.uk]
Tate Britain exhibition revives Turner’s and Constable’s old rivalry [TimesOnline]
Turner and the Masters [Guardian.co.uk]
The Times; May 8, 1832 – Royal Academy Exhibition [TimesArchive]
Turner and Constable: We’ve lost the art of feuds for art’s sake [Telegraph.co.uk]
Revealed: how Turner began his career copying the old masters [TheIndependent]

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Eva Rothschild at Tate Britain. Via Art Knowledge News.

The Duveen Comission series presents a hitherto relatively unknown artist, Eva Rothschild, at the Tate Britain.  The exhibition consists of just one work, which fills the 70-meter space.  Accordingly, the piece explores volume and space, as it (per Tate) “fills and disrupts the grandeur of these neoclassical galleries with a chaotic, energetic presence.”  Says the artist, “I’m hoping to create something that will agitate the architecture of the Duveens Galleries, tangling with your perception of the space.”

Related links:
Tate Britain: British Art from 1500
Tate: Tate Britian Duveens Commission 2009 Supported by Sotheby’s
Lost in triangulation [The Guardian UK]
Eva Rothschild’s Tate Britain girders get an angle on high-minded art [Times UK]
Eva Rothschild to Create Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2009 [FineArtPublicity]
Little-known artist takes over the Tate [The Independent]

Eva Rothschild at Tate Britian, via The Guardian.

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A line in  Scotland (1981) by Richard Long, via The Guardian

Currently on view at the Tate Britain is “Richard Long: Heaven and Earth.” This major exhibition is the artist’s first survey in London in eighteen years providing a venue on which to better understand the artist’s portrayal of the relationship between art and landscape. The exhibition features sculptures, large-scale mud wall works, and new photographic and text works which document his walks around the world.

Richard Long: Heaven and Earth [Exhibition Page]
Richard Long: Heaven and Earth at Tate Britain, review [GuardianUK]
Richard Long Retrospective at Tate Britain [Times Online]
Richard Long takes art for a walk at Tate Britain [The GuardianUK]
Richard Long at Tate Britain [Financial Times]
Art of the outdoors goes on show at the Tate [The GuardianUK]
A Hymn of Love to the Earth [The GuardianUK]
Take a Walk on the tame side with Richard Long [This is London]

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‘Mass mind (steel version) by Eva Rothschild via Artdaily

Irish artist Eva Rothschild will create a sculpture for the Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2009.  The planned single work will span the whole of the Duveen Galleries, over 200 feet long. Speaking of the commission, Rothschild said, “I’m hoping to create something that will agitate the architecture of the Duveens Galleries, tangling with your perception of the space.” The neo-classical galleries will provide an engaging background for the artist, whose works are typicaly geometric, light, and spare.  Last year’s Duveens Commission was Martin Creed’s ‘Work No. 850,’ where runners ran as fast as they could through the galleries every thirty seconds. Rothschild’s work will be on view at Tate Britain June 29 – November 29, 2009.

Tate Britain Duveens Commission: Eva Rothschild [Tate]
Tate Britain to get 200ft mega-sculpture [Telegraph]
Artist Eva Rothschild takes on annual Tate display [Reuters]

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

Charles II as Prince of Wales in amour (ca.1637-38) by Anthony Van Dyck, via Tate Britain

Van Dyck and Britain, now showing at the Tate Britain, displays 60 magnificent paintings, drawings, and prints by Belgian-born Sir Anthony Van Dyck. The exhibit also includes a range of supporting and comparative material from public and private collections in Britain and internationally. It tells the story of Van Dyck’s incredible impact on British visual culture and reunites 17th century aristocratic family members such as Katherine, Duchess of Buckingham and her two sons, George II Duke of Buckingham and Lord Francis Villiers, works that have never been displayed together before. Also exhibited are works from his English predecessors such as Peter Lely and John Singer Sargent. The Royal Collection, The National Trust and many private lenders have loaned works to the exhibition.

Van Dyck and Britain [Tate Britain]
Anthony Van Dyck’s Portraits of Nobility [FT]
Van Dyck and Britain, Tate Britain, London [The Independent]
Van Dyck and Britain at Tate Britain, Review [The Telegraph]

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You are the Weather (1994-6) by Roni Horn, picture via the Independent

Roni Horn’s work is on display at the Tate Modern, in her most comprehensive retrospective to date and her first solo museum show in London. The show, Roni Horn aka Roni Horn, incorporates works from the beginning of her career in the mid-1970s through the present.

Horn’s oeuvre touches on several recurring themes, namely identity, mutability and water, at least one of which is likely to appear in some form in her pieces. Additionally, the artist also explores relationships between identical objects being presented in different emotional and spatial contexts, thereby creating different experiences of the same subject. The diptych Dead Owl from 1997, and the sculpture Paired Gold Mats — For Ross and Felix from 1994 embody this idea, and are on display at the Tate.

The artist also has a special artistic relationship with Iceland, assembling To Place, a series of photography books on the island, its glaciers, hot springs, volcanoes, geysers and rivers that examine the constant geological flux of that country. The Weather is You, a series put together between 1994 and 1996, is also set in Iceland, consisting of photographs of a young woman emerging from various hot springs under different climactic conditions, which in turn subtly affect her facial expression and the composition of the photograph.

The rest of the exhibit is comprised of various photographic installations and sculptures that typically employ glass as a medium, but may also contain a diverse array of media ranging from gold to rubber. The west windows of the Tate will be uncovered so as to expose Horn’s sculptures to shifting natural light, which will interact with the glass, water and other media in unique ways, rendering each experience of the work as exceptional.

RONI HORN AKA RONI HORN
through May 25th, 2009
Tate Modern Museum,
Bankside Power Station,
25 Sumner Street London SE1

Exhibition Page: Roni Horn aka Roni Horn, Tate Modern
Tate Gallery to Show Roni Horn aka Roni Horn [ArtDaily]
Enigma variations: The curious world of Roni Horn [Independent UK]

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Abstraktes Bild 809-3 (1994) by Gerhard Richter, via the Tate

Under a program called “Artist Rooms,” the British public (and anyone visiting the United Kingdom) will be able to enjoy a large and diverse collection of contemporary art, including works by Joseph Beuys, Jenny Holzer, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus, Gerhard Richter, Gilbert and George, Damien Hirst and other prominent and influential artists ranging from the immediate postwar period to the present.

The works originally belonged to Anthony d’Offay, one of contemporary art’s most powerful dealers and collectors. d’Offay relinquished his 725-piece collection worth £125 million to the British and Scottish governments; the dealer effectively sold his collection to the governments for £26.5 million, far below market value . The collection was then transferred it to the National Galleries of Scotland and the Tate.

The works are set up in a series of 50 rooms featuring 25 artists, located at 18 galleries and museums throughout the United Kingdom, in an ambitious effort to broaden the audience and geographical reach of contemporary art. Sir Nicholas Serota, head of the Tate, expressed the hope that the show could be kept on the road indefinitely(as reported last February by Art Observed here).  The Art Fund, an arts charity, is working in conjunction with the Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, and has pledged £250,000 a year to help keep the “permanent tour” going.

“Artist rooms” marks the first time a national collection is being shown simultaneously across the UK, and the first room will open on March 2nd, 2009 at the Tate Britain, featuring the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay.

Rooms with a view: £125m art collection tours UK [Guardian]
Art collection to be split and shown around UK [Reuters]
Artist Rooms Collection of Contemporary Art Goes Nationwide [ArtDaily]
British Dealer Anthony D’Offay Sells 725 Works to Tate for Reported Fifth of Their Value [ArtObserved]
Exhibition page: Artist Rooms collection at the Tate
Exhibition page: Artist Rooms collection at the National Galleries of Scotland

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Mark Leckey receiving the Turner Prize, via the Guardian

The only male among the four artists selected as nominees for this year’s Turner Prize emerged as the winner of what is widely considered Britain’s most important contemporary arts competition, held at the Tate Britain museum for the last 24 years. Mark Leckey’s Cinema in the Round clinched the Turner Prize, joining the ranks of Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread,  the Chapman Brothers, Tomma Abts, Steve McQueen, among many other now prominent artists.  The Turner Prize is awarded to the best artist under 50 by a jury which changes every year.  Leckey’s works included films that examined the role of movies and other media in the daily lives of viewers, and how they see themselves.  Cinema in the Round examined this theme in depth, referencing external cultural imagery drawn from such as sources as Felix the Cat, Homer Simpson, Titanic the movie and Philip Guston.  Leckey beat out fellow artists Runa Islam, Cathy Wilkes, and Goshka Macuga for the £25,000 prize, which was presented by musician Nick Cave.  The other competitors took home £5,000 as consolation prize.

Official Site: Turner Prize 2008
Video: ‘I want a TV show,’ Interview with Mark Leckey [Guardian]
Photos: Turner prize 2008: Happy go Leckey [Guardian]
Modest art: out goes the controversy as magpie of the artworld steals the show [Guardian]
‘Felix the Cat’ Artist Mark Leckey Wins Turner Prize [Bloomberg]
Mark Leckey Wins Prestigious 2008 Turner Prize – World’s Top Contemporary Art Award [ArtDaily]

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