AO Art Observed™

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]

more pictures after the jump…

(more…)

Place (Village) 2006-08, via New York Times

British artist Rachel Whiteread’s installation Place (Village) (2006-08) is currently on view for the first time in The United States at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  This recent work is the centerpiece of an exhibition simply titled Rachel Whiteread which also features a selection of the artist’s earlier pieces including casts of doors, the insides of boxes, and wood flooring, as well as drawings and collages.

Museum of Fine Arts Press Release for Rachel Whiteread
A Talk with Rachel Whiteread [Time]
Rachel Whiteread at MFA [Big Red & Shiny]
Rachel Whiteread - Hidden Corners of the Neighborhood [NYT]
Whiteread at MFA - It Takes a Village [HubArts]
Rachel Whiteread’s Dramatic Installation [ArtDaily]
Missed Oppurtunity at The MFA [Boston Globe]

More information and pictures after the jump… (more…)

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]

‘I give you all my money 2008′ by Cathy Wilkes, a finalist at 2008’s Turner Prize, via Guardian

The Turner Prize is exhibiting this year’s finalists starting September 30th at the Tate Britain, in London. Founded in London in 1984 to support the development of contemporary artists under 50 years of age, the prize is widely considered one of the art world’s highest honors. This year’s finalists are Runa Islam, Goshka Macuga, Mark Leckey and Cathy Wilkes–the first time in the prize’s history that three of its four nominees are women. The works shown run the gamut from installation art to film.  Past award recipients have included Wolfgang Tillmans, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor and Steve McQueen.

Turner Prize page at the Tate Britain
A mannequin on a toilet and dry porridge – it’s the Turner Prize [Independent]
The Turner Prize 2008: who cares who wins? [Telegraph]
Turner Prize Nominees Offer Supermarket Checkouts, Broken China [Bloomberg]
Video: Take a tour of the Turner prize 2008 [Guardian]
Turner Prize 2008: Who’s Who [Guardian]
Dummies and china compete for Turner [Financial Times]
Turner fight begins again [Financial Times]
Nurses and Curses: Adrian Searle on this year’s Turner Prize finalists [Guardian]

(more…)

Snow Scene at Argenteuil 1875 by Claude Monet (1840-1926) via Guardian

On view at Tate Britain: 18 masterpieces recently bequeathed to British National Gallery, including works by Degas, Freud, Monet, worth roughly $200,000,000 [GuardianUK]
The art/fashion, Vuitton/Richard Prince link in London [Bloomberg]
Mutualart.com’s Top Art Exhibitions for 2008 [Businessweek]
French art thief pleads guilty in botched $4.7M masterworks sale, indictment covered by AO here [NYSun] [AO]
2009 Turner Prize judges announced [TheArtNewspaper]
MOMA buys 3 Jasper Johns works for undisclosed sum (note: 2 years ago a Johns sold for $80M) [NYTimes]

Dasha Zhukova via daylife

26-year old “Dasha” Zhukova building Moscow contemporary space backed by billionaire Roman Abramovich (recent global record buyer of Freud and Bacon) [artinfo]
More on David Byrne ‘playing the building’ in New York [NY mag]
Turner Prize-winner Mark Wallinger may build 164 ft horse in Kent, UK for ‘Angel of the South’ project [Guardian.co.uk]
Christie’s Paris sells Louise Bourgeois spider for record $4.5M [Bloomberg]
A revisit of the Young British Artist Freeze show after 20 years [Guardian.co.uk]

“Study for Head of George Dyer” by Francis Bacon via Bloomberg

Sotheby’s to sell $15.6M Bacon portrait of suicidal boyfriend [Bloomberg]
IMPei’s new Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar [Financial Times]
Turner Prize announces 2008 Short List [Artforum]
Was Spring NY auction bidding “eerily thin?” [Wall Street Journal]
Update: Tate Street art exhibition includes only non-British [Financial Times]

Damien Hirst Mother and child divided via ArtKnowledge

From April 25 to July 13, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo presents the show “History in the Making: A Retrospective of the Turner Prize.” It is the first exhibition at the Museum regarding the Turner Prize and gathers works from all the former recipients of the prestigious art award given in the UK.

Mori Art Museum to host exhibit of all past Turner Prize winners [Art Knowledge News]
Japan’s Mad Cow Ban Nearly Ensnares Hirst Artwork [ArtInfo]
Retrospective of the Turner Prize [Art Mori Museum]

(more…)

Andy Coolquitt, JSUT, 2007 via Art Review

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