AO Art Observed™

Vito Schanbel, who curated the show along with Anna Wintour at the opening, via Park Ave Peerage.  Schanbel above is seen in shoes with no socks as the artist Terence Koh requested all guests take their shoes off upon entering the show.

Terence Koh’s most recent exhibition, “Flowers for Baudelaire,” is on display now and consists of 51 paintings of varying sizes created using titanium paint, corn syrup, and powdered sugar. At the show the artist used a fog machine to create added effect. The show was curated by Vito Schnabel, a close friend of Koh’s and the son of the artist Julian Schnabel. The exhbit and was held at the home of Oliver Sarkozy, the half-brother of France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy. The artist maintained that the works were edible at the opening, even licking a painting in example though few of the guests such as Anna Wintour, Cynthia Rowley and Salman Rushdie ventured to taste the works. Others in attendance for the opening and after party were artists Dash Snow and Agatha Snow, Museum of Modern Art curator Klaus Biesenbach, gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, music mogul Lyor Cohen and photographer Todd Eberle. The Upper East side space, formerly the studio of late photographer Richard Avedon, was painted entirely white -floors, walls, and ceiling- as part of the display.

The Paintings at Terence Koh’s New Show Are Possibly Edible [NY Magazine]
Koh Goes White: Hot Art [Bloomberg]
Now Licking | Terence Koh [The Moment]
Terence Koh Revealed [Hint Mag]
Uptown Baby [Vmagazine]
Palazzo Koh [Park Avenue Peerage]

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“Untitled (77/23 — Bernstein)” (1977) by Donald Judd sold for $3,218,500 against an estimate of $4.0 million, via ArtInfo

PHILLIPS DE PURY’S CONTEMPORARY ART SALE, New York, Thursday, November 13th

Total Lots Offered: 51, originally 56
Total Lots Sold: 30
Total Sales Value: $9.6 Million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $23-$32 Million

Before Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Art sale began in New York on Thursday evening November 13th, five works were withdrawn, including John Currin’s Standing Nude from 1993 (est. $500–700,000), pictured below, Richard Prince’s Untitled (Tire Planter) from 1999 (est. $120–180,000), and an Anselm Kiefer work. Total sales were $9,608,700, which was less than half of the low estimate of $23 million. By way of comparison, a comparable Phillips sale a year ago fetched $42.3 million. In the end, 41% of the lots (21 lots) were unsold (51% unsold by value) and those that did sell did so at below estimates. Anything estimated to sell at more than $1 million was either withdrawn or went unsold. In attendance were collectors such as Adam Lindemann, Stavros Merjos, Stefan Edlis of Chicago, Maria Baibakova, Mera and Don Rubell, Zurich dealer Doris Ammann, and executives from the Russian luxury goods giant Mercury Group which, as covered by Art Observed here, recently purchased the Phillips de Pury auction house.

Despite the dismal outcome of the totals, Phillips de Pury’s in the end appeared prescient versus its competitors Sotheby’s and Christie’s who both got crushed by over guaranteeing works in a down market, by contrast, Phillips guaranteed none of the 51 works offered, save for a single neon text 2005 sculpture by Kendell Geers, which had a low estimate of $60,000 and sold for $56,250. In a comparable sale last November, Phillips guaranteed about half the lots.

$9.6 Million at Phillips De Pury [ArtNet]
Phillips Sale Totals Less Than Half the Low Estimate [New YorkTimes]
Phillips Goes with the Downward Flow [ArtInfo]
Hirst Painting Flops at ‘Brutal’ New York Art Auction [Bloomberg]

more story and pictures after the jump…

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Richard Prince ‘Nurse Hat Chair’ via Wallpaper

Richard Prince, in collaboration with Richard Prince, curates a furniture exhibit in Paris with his ‘Nurse Hat Chair’ [Wallpaper]
A reputed Jackson Pollock painting of questionable authenticity, purchased for $5 in 1992, goes on sale in Toronto for $50 million US [ArtInfo] Oct. 31
Terence Koh, artist on a bike, interviewed [Dejour Magazine]
A guide to London gallerist Steve Lazarides, now showing on the Bowery, and the Outsiders art movement [IndependentUK]
‘Pulse Park’ is a public art light installation in Madison Park, Manhattan that senses heart rates [NYMag]
Turner Prize winning video artist Steve McQueen interviewed [Scotland on Sunday]
The state of Sotheby’s art lending business [NYMag]

Damien Hirst via TheDailyMail

Science, Damien Hirst’s corporation, tops the ArtReview power 100, Gagosian follows, and MoMA’s Kathy Halbreich is first woman to make the top 10 [ArtInfo]
Designer Yohji Yamamoto uses museum curators in New York, Paris, London and Antwerp as models in latest campaign [TheMoment]
PaperMag’s latest issue interviews artworld figures such as Terence Koh, Cecily Brown, Tauba Auerbach, Shepard Fairey and James Fuentes [PaperMag]
Sotheby’s secures $250 million loan from Bank of America while cutting auction guarantees [Bloomberg}
A Liechtenstein billionare is on his second attempt to build 23,000 sf Las Vegas Museum of Contemporary Art [ArtForum]
What happens to the corporate artwork of failed companies? [WallStreetJournal]
Jake Chapman interviewed on, for example, his ideal home: with six or seven of his enemies hanging from trees in front of it [GuardianUK]
Fashion designer Stella McCartney and Artist Ed Ruscha together on Iconoclasts [SundanceChannel]

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]

Caroline Copley, Sabrina Blaichman, and Genevieve Hudson-Price, co-founders of 7Eleven Gallery via NYSun

In space from a developer father, three 21 year olds launch mobile 7Eleven gallery [NYSun]
In other prominent roots news: Rupert Murdoch’s daughter joins Tate board [Bloomberg]
Baltic Center for Contemporary in court over controversial Terence Koh exhibit [Artinfo]
Second Brazilian art theft arrest: works found under suspect’s bed [Artdaily]
Street artist KAWS officially introduced to the art world; to hold first gallery show [NYTimes]

Warhol remains as a chinese winter garden in my heart (self-portrait), 2006, Terence Koh via ArtNews

The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt presents two simultaneous solo exhibitions by Bavarian artist Michael Sailstorfer and Chinese-Canadian artist Terence Koh. Both Sailstorfer’s “10 000 Stones” and Koh’s “Captain Buddha” make use of ready-mades and found objects to present their own artistic statement. Each artist’s installation work comments on his surroundings, though in different ways.

The Art Newpaper [The Art Newspaper]
Current Exhibitions [Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt]
Terence Koh and Michael Sailstorfer at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt [Artipedia]
Michael Sailstorfer: Tire with popcorn [Art Magazine]
Terence Koh [ArtNews]

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Terence Koh via Peres Projects

On May 10-June 21, 2008, Peres Projects will be showing his 5th Year Anniversary of “The Whole Family” at Peres Projects in Los Angeles, CA. The exhibition dedicated to the 5th anniversary of Peres Projects, and is a re-creation of the gallery’s first show, which was also Koh’s first show.

Terence Koh at Peres Projects in Chinatown [Los Angeles Times]
Terence Koh [artfacts.net]
Peres Projects [Peres Projects]

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Koh via Queerty

Many have expressed outrage over Chinese-born artist Terence Koh’s recent exhibit at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. The most offensive piece seems to be an 18″ sculpture of Jesus with an erection. The exhibit is entitled “Gone, Yet Still”.

Gallery Shocks with Explicit Plaster Christ [Times Online]
Immodest Jesus Statue Riles Christians [United Press International]

Thomas Zipp on Paper - Via Hikari

Weather was clear and sunny the day the fair opened, many escaping the heat into the hordes of people who had purchased tickets or somehow found their way into the exclusive Vernissage, or opening of the fair. While some seem determined to close the details on any hot pieces that managed to make to the fair yet unsold (many pieces are sold to collectors before the galleries even make it to the fair) most seemed to just be milling around aimlessly. However there was a buzz in the air and excitement to see such masterpieces as Basquiats that were hidden for years in a private collection at Jan Krugier’s booth, a breathtaking 5 channel video piece by Doug Aitken at 303 Gallery’s booth and a performance utilizing a piece by Jim Shaw (performed by his assistant) complete with four armed electric guitar and burlap hooded cloak.

More Images post-jump
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