Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché sells at Christie’s, via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Dashing through a 34-lot auction in style, Christie’s has entered the November auction week in impressive style, bringing a flurry of sales during its curated “The Artist’s Muse” auction tonight that saw several world records fall, and achieved an impressive tally of over $491 million for the evening, especially considering the 10 lots that failed to sell.

Amedeo Modigliani, Nu Couché (1917-18), via Christie’s (more…)

A new book about “superflat” art in Japan has been written by sociologist Adrian Favell. He examines “cool Japan,” a methodology of spinning Japanese culture to western audiences, and its effect on the success of artists like Murakami and Nara, as well as the current movement away from superflat in Japanese art. The book is entitled “Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990-2011” (more…)

–>
Yoshitomo Nara, No Hopeless, 2007

The current retrospective of Japanese Neo-Pop artist Yoshitomo Nara at the Asia Society is his first in New York, showcasing over one hundred works in a variety of mediums–including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, installations, poems, and drawings–all with the artist’s signature kowa kawaii, or “creepy-cute” aesthetic. Before the visitor enters the exhibition, there is an outdoor installation of Nara’s sculpture White Ghost, on view at Park Avenue and 67th and 70th streets. The sculptures are identical, and face each other across three blocks, acting as komainu, or protective guardians of entrances. The sculptures display a combination of slightly-sinister features with the aesthetic of friendly cartoons, a strategy repeated throughout the many works in the exhibition. Watch the AO Onsite video of White Ghost below:

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Installation view, Yoshitomo Nara, 2010. All images via Tomio Koyama Gallery.

Yoshitomo Nara has unveiled his first series of ceramic sculptures at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo.  Nara has been studying sculpture for the past year at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, where he created almost 20 pieces.  Nara’s new work maintains his characteristic stylization of children, a trademark painter A.R. Penk has described as “angelic.” Like Nara’s drawings, his sculptures seem both innocent and disconcerting: lines are thick and simple, colors are bold and basic, eyes are either closed or blank.  Nara’s subjects, however, often cry, bleed, possess fangs, and brandish knives.  Of this conflation of puerility and severity, Nara explains, “I kind of see the children among other, bigger, bad people all around them, who are holding bigger knives…”

Installation view, Yoshitomo Nara, 2010

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

–>
Futura, Jules de Balincourt, Dustin Yellin, Eric White, Tom Sachs, Shepard Fairey, Jeffrey Deitch, Lance Armstrong, Mark Parker, Geoff McFetridge, José Parlá, Dzine posing in front of a painting by Cai Guo Qiang; photo courtesy of Black Frame

A day before seven bicycles with frames designed by contemporary artists, and used by Lance Armstrong in his comeback season for July’s Tour de France, raised $1.3 million, an exhibition of artwork commissioned to benefit the legendary cyclist’s cancer foundation opened at Deitch Projects.  Launched in Paris at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, STAGES- the exhibit comprised of commissioned works created by over twenty established contemporary artists, is currently on view at New York’s Deitch Projects. Artists involved include Cai Guo-Qiang, Rosson Crow, Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, Catherine Opie, Os Gemeos, Raymond Pettibon, Andreas Gursky, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha and Tom Sachs. STAGES will run through November 21, 2009.  AO interviews some of the artists to find out their personal connection to the cause of STAGES, their view on creating commissioned work and the story of their involvement with the project powered by Lance Armstrong Foundation and Nike and its goal of raising awareness of cancer.

–>
Rosson Crow in front of her piece “Texas Cycle Show”

Works presented in STAGES manifest not merely a vast array of mediums and stylistic approaches, they also speak of a multitude of equally appropriate paths the artists have taken in building the show.

Rosson Crow about STAGES: “This whole thing is incredible and overwhelming, it is a really awesome show with a great cause. Charity work is something that I love doing so this was a really cool opportunity. This painting that I did for the show is called ‘Texas Cycle Show’ and is based on an 1800′ cycle exposition. I made it Texas because both Lance and I are from Texas… kind of bringing the historical Texas vibe… and of course the bicycles I thought were perfect for a Lance Armstrong show [laughs]” When asked about any personal connections that the artist has with the cause, Rosson Crow comments that “it is hard to find anybody whose life has not been affected by cancer, so I think that everybody has a personal relationship to it in some way.”

–>
Yoshitomo Nara, “Fire” via STAGES

More text, images and interviews after the jump… (more…)

“Extremities (smooth, smooth),” Pipilotti Rist’s contribution to “Walking in My Mind,” the Hayward Gallery. via The Guardian.

Currently showing at the Hayward Gallery are the minds of ten artists — or, at least, how the artists feel they can represent the melding of product and creative process.  Ten installation artists from around the world are featured in the show.  Some are relative newcomers who are showing new pieces at the Hayward, like Swedish Bo Christian Larsson and Japanese Chiharu Shiota, who exhibit for the first time in London, and Dutch artist Mark Manders, who shows for the first time in a major British exhibition. Others are more well-established, including Yayoi Kusama and Turner prize-winner Keith Tyson, as well as the late controversial American artist Jason Rhoades.  Also exhibiting are Charles Avery (UK), Thomas Hirschhorn (Switzerland), and Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland).

Related links:
Hayward Gallery: Walking in My Mind
Art Review: Walking in My Mind Hayward Gallery, London SE1 [The Observer]
Thoughts go astray at the Hayward Gallery’s Walking in My Mind show [The Guardian]
Dark delights from the lonely mind of Japanese genius Yoshitomo Nara [The Independent]

Yoshitomo Nara in “Walking in My Mind.” Via The Guardian.

more pictures and story after the jump…

(more…)

Ed Ruscha’s ‘Vital to the Core’ via STAGES

On view now at Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris is ‘STAGES,’ a fundraising exhibition organized by Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong, featuring artists such as Ed Ruscha, Shepard Fairey, Richard Prince, and a number of others. The exhibition runs concurrently with the Tour de France, which ends on Sunday, July 26th. In addition to the gallery exhibition, which is planned to tour the world after its run at Emmanuel Perrotin, Livestrong has teamed up with Nike and Supertouch to curate a line of artist-designed bikes for Lance to ride during the Tour. Those artists include KAWS, Yoshitomo Nara, and Damien Hirst, who designed the bike for the final stage of the Tour de France. ‘STAGES’ runs July 15-August 8, 2009 at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, after which it will open at the Armory Center in New York on October 2, according to the LA Times.

The Bike Shepard Fairey designed for Lance Armstrong via Supertouch

STAGES09
Hirst to Help Lance Armstrong’s Health Charity Raise $4 Million [Bloomberg]
Damien Hirst Has Designs on Lance Armstrong’s Bike [NY Times]
Nike Livestrong STAGES Exhibition [High Snobiety]
Preview: Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG x Nike Stages Exhibition @ Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin [Arrested Motion]
Lance Armstrong x Nike Sportswear – “Stages” Touring Art Exhibition Supporting Livestrong [Arrested Motion]
Lance Armstrong x Nike Sportswear “Stages” Touring Art Exhibition [Hypebeast]
Lance Armstrong x Trek x Damien Hirst Stages Project Bike [Limited Hype]
Marc Newson for Lance Armstrong – TREK Art Bike [Freshness]
Lance Armstrong’s New Trek Madone Bikes By Kaws & Barry McGee [High Snobiety]
Tom Sachs‘ Lance’s TequilaBike For Girls [The World’s Best Ever]
Stages exhibition, Paris [Wallpaper]
Interview: KAWS @ Stages, Paris [DailyduJour]
AFC+: Will Damien Hirst Remind Lance Armstrong of His Mortality? [Art Fag City]
PARIS///LANCE ARMSTRONG’S TREK ART BIKES COME TO LIFE IN THE WINDOW OF COLETTE [Supertouch]
NEWS///LANCE ARMSTRONG SURGES BACK TO ACTION IN THE TOUR DE FRANCE ON A MARC NEWSON TREK TTX ART BIKE [Supertouch]
ANNOUNCING “STAGES”: LANCE ARMSTRONG’S SUPERTOUCH-CURATED ANTI-CANCER ART SHOW OPENING JULY 16TH [Supertouch]
Lance Armstrong rides bike decorated by Damien Hirst [Art Review]
L.A. artists lend a hand to Lance Armstrong [LA Times]
Livestrong x Stages | Recap [Limited Hype]
Trek Lance Armstrong STAGES Bike by Yoshitomo Nara [Hypebeast]

The bike Yoshitomo Nara designed for Lance Armstrong for the Tour de France via Hypebeast

more images and story after the jump…

(more…)

–>
Yoshitomo Nara installation view, via Marianne Boesky Gallery.

For Yoshitomo Nara’s fourth solo show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, the Japanese pop artist pairs new paintings and drawings with two large-scale sculptures.  Created with his collaborative group YNG – formally known as “Yoshitomo Nara + graf – the two stylized pine tree abodes are made of reclaimed wood and recall the feeling of a woodman’s cottage or some surreal abode.  The interiors are filled with sketches and doodles created in the artist’s hand, along with stuffed animals that match the playful, fairy-tale feeling of Nara’s work.

Marianne Boesky
–>
Yoshitomo Nara
–>
February 28 – March 28, 2009

RELATED LINKS

Exhibition Page [Marianne Boesky]
–>
Artist Now In Rogue Gallery [New York Post]
–>
Nara Arrested for Graffiti Before Boesky Opening [Art in America]
–>
Openings: Yoshitomo Nara in NYC [Arrested Motion]
–>
NYC///FIRST LOOK///YOSHITOMO NARA ROCKS MARIANNE BOESKY GALLERY [Supertouch]
–>
On View: Yoshitomo Nara at Marianne Boesky [The Art Collectors]
–>
Yoshitomo Nara at Marianne Boesky [NYArtBeat]

(more…)

Installation view of Yoshitomo Nara at Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, via Blum and Poe

Yoshitomo Nara’s sixth solo show with Blum & Poe features a new series of paintings and drawings, as well as a large scale sculptural installation of a prairie wagon that is as Old West as it is Modern. The wagon’s interior features a number of items: drawings, stuffed animals, and found or specially selected objects–designed to evoke innocence and nostalgia, although the subtle hint of menace usually found in much of Nara’s work is absent here.

The other pieces of the installation by the Japanese pop artist also weave in allusions to the old American West and Manifest Destiny: two paintings resembling billboards feature young girls, one playing a guitar, the other depicted alone surrounded by the words “So…how can you tell me you are lonely?” The installation reflects Nara’s and Japan’s post-war fascination with American pop culture as well as Nara’s childhood as an only child of blue collar parents, often left to his own creative devices due to his parents’ long work shifts.

Acrylic paintings in an adjacent room are typical of Nara’s oeuvre, featuring children with large eyes, more often than not alone. The eyes convey a wide array of ambiguous emotions, including fear, warmth, defiance, elation, and boredom, often in combination. The children’s eyes in the most recent paintings take on a more haunting, glassy yet somehow inviting appearance than in previous pieces due to the creative application of different colors, textures and materials. The color departs  a bit more from the pastels that have become Nara’s trademark, while the texture of the pieces differs markedly from the oil, pencil, and crayon-like pieces he has become known for, putting a new twist on a very intriguing artist who has become a star in his own country, much like his contemporary Takashi Murakami.

YOSHITOMO NARA
through January 31, 2009
Blum and Poe
2754 La Cienega, Los Angeles, CA

Exhibition page: Yoshitomo Nara at Blum & Poe
Press release: Yoshitomo Nara at Blum & Poe
Yoshitomo Nara at Marianne Boesky Gallery
Yoshitomo Nara – Artnet Profile [Artnet]
A critical essay on Yoshitomo Nara [AssemblyLanguage]

(more…)

Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID) 1-year stock chart, via Yahoo! Finance

Sotheby’s (BID) stock declined by 14% on Monday, October 6th, 2008, to close at the lowest levels since July 2005 according to Bloomberg.  By ArtObserved’s calculations, Sotheby’s has lost more than 75% of its value since falling from its October 12th, 2007 high of $57.12 to today’s close of $13.86.  Besides the general buckling of the US Stock markets, Sotheby’s stock’s decline has presumably also been due to concerns about the buoyancy of the art market (as specifically reflected in this past weekend’s Asian art sales by Sotheby’s) which some analysts consider to be overheated and on the verge of a decline, especially in light of the global financial contagion.  Despite the overwhelming success of the landmark Damien Hirst direct to market auction less than a month ago in London (as reported by AO here), overall in the past month, Sotheby’s shares have dropped three times that of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Evidence supporting the decline in the market is mounting: several recent auctions have failed to make the grade, including one recently featuring previously extremely in-demand artwork of Banksy. Some hoped that the continued influx of funds into the art market from collectors in ‘new markets’ such as Russia, China, India and the Persian Gulf, would prop up prices in Western markets and in burgeoning domestic contemporary art scenes. The results of Sotheby’s fall sale of Asian contemporary art however, selling a sector of the market which had previous momentum that seemed relentless, poke holes in that assertion. The auction failed to sell 19 of 47 of its headline lots, including pieces by Subodh Gupta, Zheng Xiaogang, Yue Minjun and Takashi Murakami. “Today’s results aren’t acceptable, they’re very poor. The contemporary Chinese art market has raced ahead too quickly and now people can’t prop it up anymore,” a Taiwanese dealer was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal.

Hong Kong tests art buyers’ courage [Financial Times]
Weak Sales for Sotheby’s in Hong Kong [Wall Street Journal]
Sotheby’s Shares Fall Amid Concern About Art Market [Bloomberg]
Top Lots Shunned in Post-Lehman Art Sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong [Bloomberg]
Chinese contemporary art palls in Sotheby’s HK sale [Reuters]
Pop Goes the Bubble in Chinese & Indian Art [BusinessWeek]
Credit crunch crushes art auction [BBC]
Sotheby’s Sale of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings Brings US$9,165,947 [ArtDaily]
Sotheby’s Website

(more…)