AO Art Observed™

Arcangelo Sassolino via Men’s Vogue

Arcangelo Sassolino’s mechanical sculptures: art with highly destructive potential [Men's Vogue]
Bond no9’s perfume tribute to Andy Warhol’s would-be 80th birthday [Art News Blog]
Will a statue of the Queen Mary replace art commissions on Fourth plinth? [Guardian]
The Met lends 28 significant modern sculptures to University of Texas [NYtimes]
Whitney Museum selling five nearby townhouses [CrainsNYBusiness]
The Sovereign, a new European art prize, controversially combines award and auction [Financial Times]

Paul McCarthy’s “Spinning Room” (2008) at the Whitney Museum of American Art via NYTimes

An exhibition of new and barely seen works from one of America’s most important artists, Paul McCarthy, is open at the Whitney Museum of American Art. McCarthy, who increased his notoriety when he transformed the Maccarone Gallery into a chocolate factory last November, now has “Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement Three Installations, Two Films” at the Whitney through October 12. The show was curated by Chrissie Iles and is designed by McCarthy, in part to address the viewer’s sense of perception.

Whitney to Present Paul McCarthy: Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement [Artdaily]
A Trip Through the Revolving Doors of Perception [NYTimes]
On View Now: Paul McCarthy [The Whitney]
Maccarone now officially home of Peter Paul Chocolates [ArtObserved]
(more…)

Image via NY Mag

The Whitney Museum wil exhibit Robert Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids until September 7.  Curated by Sylvia Wolf, “Polaroids: Robert Mapplethorpe” presents a selection of photographs not usually associated with this artist. This more spontaneous body of work is a combination of portraits, still lifes and erotica and shows links to his later, more recognizable stylized images.  These instant photographs work as a view into the photographic growth of the artist between the years of 1970 and 1975, as well as a testament to the full dynamic of this soon-to-be unavailable medium.

Spontaneity was the message [NY Times]
Shoot to thrill [New Yorker]
Polaroids: Mapplethorpe [Whitney Museum]
Whitney Museum of American Art to Present Polaroids: by Robert Mapplethorpe [ArtDaily]
Robert Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids [The Art Newspaper] (more…)

Leonard Lauder via The New York Times

Lauder Steps Down as Whitney Chair [NY Times, Art Forum]
“The primary market has only one event, and that is Art Basel” [Bloomberg]
A look at the work of the Guggenheim’s Chief Conservator [NySun]
An Interview with Nan Goldin in her Paris home [The GuardianUK]

Stephanie Seymour (wife of Art Collector and Art in America owner Peter Brant) in Jeff Koons
for Gap; via Nylon

The Gap, working in close partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Production Fund, recently released a collection of 13 t-shirts designed by contemporary artists who have all been past Whitney Biennial participants. Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Babara Kruger, Ashley Bickerton, Kiki Smith, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Marilyn Minter, Cai Guo-Qiang, Kenny Scharf, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Hanna Liden, and Sarah Sze are all participating.

Gap Partners with the Whitney to Launch Artist Edition T’s [Gap]
Gap Artist Edition T Shirts [LA Times]
Turning Shirts Into an Artforum [USA Today] (more…)

The plan of the new whitney downtown via the NY Sun

The subject of some buzz for a while but officially announced a few days ago, a new Whitney museum will be built downtown in the Meatpacking district, opening in 20012. Thus far, the reaction of the community towards the Renzo Piano designed building has been very positive.

So Far, Community Backs Whitney’s Downtown Vision [NY Sun]
The Whitney Expands Downtown [The Gothamist]
Whitney Unveils Renzo Piano Design for Downtown Space [Artinfo]
Downtown Whitney gets support [The Real Deal]
Whitney’s Downtown Sanctuary [Ny Times]
Renzo Piano’s Plans for Downtown Whitney Outpost [ArtForum]

(more…)

Gagosian Gallery via the New York Times

On artists trading up galleries [NY Times]
Will the Whitney branch out overseas? [NY Mag]
The “masterpiece effect:” 40% of old master works at Christie’s NY fail to sell [Financial Times]
Multimillion dollar art fabricators to the likes of Jeff Koons [NY Times]
Gallerist, former Deitch Projects director James Fuentes’s gallery/home [Time Out NY]
What happens to ‘buy-ins:’ the standard 20-30% of lots that don’t sell at auction [WSJ]

‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory,’

J.M.W. Turner, 1806-8, via Tate

Tate sends 100 Turners to Moscow despite frigid diplomatic relations [ArtForum]
Update: French art market eclipsed by China [Financial Times]
Jasper Johns: Most successful artist ever? [New York Sun]
Russian artist Anna Mikhalchuk disapeared in Berlin [Artdaily]
View of Olafur Eliasson sculpture in Munich [contemporist via C-Monster]
Update: Interview of Whitney chief curator on Biennial’s process [Wall Street Journal]
Warhol’s Upper East Side townhouse for $5.99M  [New York Times]

Gregory Crewdson via New York Magazine

Gregory Crewdson’s elaborate, freaky-suburban, cinema set works [NYMag]
On the art pilgrimage to Judd’s Marfa, TX [Wall Street Journal]
A Tom Otterness sculpture to Dumbo [New York Sun]
Why Asian nations are bargain hunting Japanese Art [Herald Tribune]
Banksy works headline U.K. regional auction [Bloomberg]
Update: Overview of the Armory Show [Artinfo]
Update: Warhol’s “Ten portraits of Jews of the 20th century” [NYTimes]
Update: Armory sales hold despite economic slowdown [artnewspaper]
An over-the-front-desk look at the “gallerinas” of Chelsea [NYTimes]
C-Monster at the Whitney [Time Magazine]

Sonic Youth via Aquarium Drunkard

Richter’s “Kerze,” famously a Sonic Youth cover, for auction at Sotheby’s [Cinemablend]
Sonic Youth’s new touring art exhibit could be featured at the Whitney [NYMag]
New Saatchi Gallery in West London, will show only Contemporary [UK Times Online]
Video: Interview with Damien Hirst [Charlie Rose]
Review Contemporary Art on the Lower East Side [Bloomberg]

On Wednesday, June 6, the Whitney Museum of American Art played host to ART PARTY, a charitable event whose proceeds benefited the Whitney’s 40-year-old Independent Study Program, at Skylight Studios. The guestlist featured an array of celebrities who ran the gamut from Ivanka Trump and Kate Bosworth to Freddie Prinze Jr. and Moby. The music of DJ La Jauretsi powered the event while visual performances by Joshua Light Show and Bec Stupak dazzled guests with a spray of dreadlocks and fluid hula hoop movements. The affair’s dresscode, “Hippy Chic”, revealed refreshingly whimsical pieces by Hervé Léger worn by Arden Wohl, by ThreeAsFour worn by Genevieve Jones and, of course, a slew of damsels garbed in the host’s Max Azria summer frocks. (more…)