“Study for self portrait” (1964) by Francis Bacon was valued at $40 million but was a no sale at Christie’s last Wednesday, via Artnet

The New York Times called it: “easily the worst two weeks of high-end Impressionist, modern and contemporary art auctions in more than a decade” and though gravity of this statement belies some successful sales in the November auctions, in the end there seems to be little question that the art auction landscape has shifted to become a buyer’s market.

The November auctions from Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips lasted roughly two weeks with approximately a 2/3 sell rate and 143 of the 399 offerings failing to sell. The sales would total under $1 billion, well below their combined minimum estimate for the sales of $1.7 billion. Sotheby’s and Christie’s brought in roughly $728.9 million for the Impressionist, modern and contemporary art primary sales which is down $1.6 billion from November, 2007 and $1.3 billion from November, 2006.

The summary points seem to be, in part, that there were some indisputable failures of the unsold works such as Roy Lichtenstein’s Half Face With Collar, seen below, from Sotheby’s Tuesday evening auction (estimated at $15 million to $20 million) and the Bacon self-portrait, seen above, at Christie’s on Wednesday (estimated at $40 million). The Bacon failing to sell was for many a symbol of the current market situation in that it stood in sharp contrast to the Sotheby’s May sale of the Francis Bacon triptych for $86.2 million to Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich (when it thus became the most expensive contemporary artwork sold at auction).

However, there were still some records and strong showings with works such as the Malevich, seen below, at $60 million (at estimate), which was a record for a Russian painting, and Munch’s Love and Pain aka “Vampire,” seen below, for $38.1 million above its $30 million estimate (both on Monday the 3rd at Sotheby’s) and a Juan Gris, seen below, at an artist record of $20.8 million, also above its estimate of $12 million to $18 million, at Christie’s auction on Thursday the 6th. Nonetheless, most works sold in the low range, or below estimate, or not at all with works by artists that show up infrequently performing generally better and works that show up more often at auctions, such as the Warhols and Hirsts, faring poorly.

Also of note in summarizing the November auctions was the Monday the 3rd Sotheby’s success of the big name financiers Henry Kravis of KKR who sold Edgar Degas’s “Dancer in Repose” for $33 million and former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld selling 16 Modern and Impressionist drawings for $13.5 million against estimates of $15 million to $20 million, but clearing a reported $20 million guarantee nonetheless from the house.

All this leads to the final recurring news point of the auctions: the painful result of over-market guarantees by the major houses. The applicable guarantees were set in pre-bust summer headier times, but when in place during the November sales they would cost the auction companies losses in the many tens of millions. In two weeks of sales the auction houses guaranteed 80 artworks worth $405.8 million but sold only 60, for a combined total of $342.3 million and an estimated loss of $63.6 million (according to the Wall Street Journal’s calculations). Sotheby’s publicly reported that guarantees were responsible for a $28.2 million loss at its contemporary art auctions last week which adds up to total losses from Sotheby’s from guarantees of roughly $52 million this fall. Bill Ruprecht of Sotheby’s said of the guarantee drubbing: “We’re preparing for a different market. We are out of the guarantee business at least for a while.”

Sotheby’s Says It Lost $10.6 Million More From Art Guarantees [Bloomberg]
In Faltering Economy, Auction Houses Crash Back to Earth [NYTimes]
Making Sales Look Stronger [Wall Street Journal]
Call This One ‘Crisis With a Pipe’ [Wall Street Journal]
Art boom over as auctions fail to bring home Bacon [TimesUK]
Art makes loss but Fuld is still an old master [TimesUK]
Art sales: The week that brought the boom to an end [GuardianUK]
Unsuccessful Auctions OK With Shafrazi [NY Mag]

Previously by ArtObserved:
AO November Auction Roundup 4 of 5: Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Art Sale, New York, Thursday, November 13th, Results “brutal” but Phillip’s clear due to lack of Guarantees

AO November Auction Roundup 3 of 5: Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art, New York, Wednesday, November 12th: Basquiat’s “Boxer” sells while the Bacon does not, “The market is adjusting down”

AO November Auction Roundup 2 of 5 (AO On-Site): Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York, Tuesday, November 11th: Sotheby’s crushed by guarantees, Eli Broad: “It’s a half-price sale”

AO November Auction Roundup 1 of 5: Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art, New York, Thursday November 6th: “Obviously, prices have changed”

AO Auction Results: Christie’s “The Modern Age,” the Alice Lawrence and Hillman family collections sell for less than 50% of estimate as Rothko and Manet headliners are pulled

AO Auction Results: Sotheby’s New York Impressionist and Modern Art, despite select notable sales, overall results were poor

more images after the jump…

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Diane Brown, President of RxArt and artist Terry Richardson at last year’s RxArt Ball via Style.com

RxArt is hosting “The Party 2008” (formerly the RxArt Ball) in honor of Jeff Koons tonight from 7pm to 10pm at the A Milk Gallery Project located at 450 West 15th Street in New York City. The event is part cocktail party, part silent auction and is expected to be a festive evening attracting artists, designers, and socialites alike. The gracious co-chairs for this year are Larry Gagosian of Gagosian Gallery, Antonio Homen of Sonnabend Gallery, and Lazaro Hernandez & Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler. All guests will receive a copy of the the limited edition puzzle by Dan Colen. Tickets are available online here.

RxArt Official Website

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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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“Untitled, boxer” (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, sold by Metallica band member Lars Ulrich for $13.5 million via Artnet

CHRISTIE’S POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART, New York, Wednesday, November 12th

Total Lots Offered: 75
Total Lots Sold: 51
Total Sales Value: $113.62 million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $227 million

Christie’s New York sale of contemporary art, held on the evening of Nov. 12, 2008, was dominated by American buyers and totaled $98,480,000 ($113,627,500 with premium) or about half of the low value of its estimate of $227,150,000 to $321,350,000. 51 of 75 lots sold, or 68%, with nearly a third failing to sell. Two lots sold for over $10 million, and 32 lots sold for over 1 million dollars. Buyers were 60% American, 18% European and Russian, 0% Asian and 24% “other.” Notable attendees were tennis legend John McEnroe and billionaire Eli Broad.

Like Sotheby’s evening sale a day before, Christie’s was also damaged by its guarantees of 39 lots when 12 were brought in with a combined low estimate of $48 million, (typically a price near where an auction house will guarantee). The total guaranteed low estimate was $90 million. Overall, 24 of the 75 lots failed to find buyers which indicates a buy-in rate of 32% by lot and 55% by value. The total for this sale does not compare well to Christie’s fall contemporary sale in 2007 which totaled $325 million. Christie’s reportedly reduced their reserves and as such 52% of the lots sold below the low estimate.

Several new auction records were set, including those by Paul McCarthy and Robert Irwin, however, prices were generally below pre-sale low estimates. Some positives came from the sale including a $15 million Richter and a $13.5 million Basquiat as well as new auction records for Joseph Cornell and Yayoi Kusama. The headliner lot Francis Bacon’s Study for Self-Portrait was unsold against a low estimate $40 million or more, but no bid approached even $30 million. Many other major lots went unsold, including five sequential lots including three Warhols and a Richter valued at up to $10.0 million to $15 million.

Credit crunch hits the art market [Guardian]
Mixed Results for Contemporary Art Sale at Christie’s [NY Times]
Christie’s New York Auction Sells 68% of Contemporary Artworks [Bloomberg]
Lehman’s Fuld and Wife Sell Drawings Below Estimate [Bloomberg]
Francis Bacon portrait pulled from sale after failing to attract bids [Telegraph UK]
Art market in shock as Christie’s calls halt to Francis Bacon sale [TimesUK]
Art Market Watch – $113.6 million at Christie’s Contemporary [ArtNet]
Crappy Art Market Fails to Take Revenge on Richard Fuld [NYMag]
No Bailout at Christie’s [Artinfo]
The art of avoiding the credit crunch [GuardianUK]
Credit crunch hits the art market [GuardianUK]

more with pictures after the jump…

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Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York, Tuesday, November 11th
Total Lots Offered: 63
Total Lots Sold: 43 (68.2%)
Total Sales Value: $125.1 million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $202.4 million

On the heels of its Impressionist and Modern Art sale that brought in $223 million, well below its low estimate of $339 million, with only 45 of 70 lots sold as previously covered by Art Observed here, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York, held on Tuesday, November 11th, brought in $125 million against a $202 million estimate. The sale was 68.2% sold by lot, with 43 of 63 works finding buyers, marking the lowest selling rate for a multiple-owner evening sale of contemporary art held at Sotheby’s since November 1994. A third of the lots failed to sell, and most of the works that did sell went for less than their presale low estimate. The top lot of the sale was Yves Klein’s Archisponge (RE 11), seen below, which brought $21,362,500. Artist records were set tonight for Philip Guston Beggar’s Joys, which achieved $10,162,500; John Currin, Nice ‘N Easy (see above), which realized $5,458,500 (see above) and Richard Serra, 12-4-8, which fetched $1,650,000.

A Dreary Night for Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s [NYTimes]
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale defies worst fears [Reuters]
Sotheby’s New York Evening Sale of Contemporary Art Brings $125,131,500 [ArtDaily]
$125 million at Sotheby’s Contemporary [ArtNet]
The art market: Contemporary art gets hammered [FinancialTimes]
Bare Market [ArtForum]
Eli Broad Goes Shopping as Sotheby’s Art Auction Falls Short [Bloomberg]
Currin Nudes Set $5.46 Million Record at Spotty Sotheby’s Sale [Bloomberg]

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“Livre, pipe et verres” (1915) by Juan Gris, Christie’s, via Artnet

CHRISTIE’S IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART, New York, Thursday November 6th

Total Lots Offered: 82
Total Lots Sold: 46
Total Sales Value: $146.7 million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $240.7 million

This is the first of five articles that will summarize in parts the auction results following AO’s last covered Wednesday November 5th Christies Auction covered by AO here. Following a day where the Dow Jones industrial average dropped over 400 points, overall, Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art auction, the second evening sale of the week, was perhaps successful versus others in the week. Though overall sales were poor, the six guaranteed works sold. In total, 44% of the lots failed to sell, or rather, of the 82 pieces offered 36 works were brought in (37% by value). Auctioneer Christopher Burge quoted to Bloomberg after the sale: “Obviously, prices have changed, we’d be foolish not to recognize that.”

The auction totaled $146.715 million against a pre-sale estimate of $240.7 million to $337.2 million. Marquee works from Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, and Wassily Kandinsky brought high prices but works by Claude Monet and Henri Matisse met little to no interest. New world auction records were set for Cubist master Juan Gris, Henri Laurens, American artist Alice Neel and for Seurat and Magritte for works on paper. 27 of the 46 works that did sell earned in excess of $1 million. 61% of buyers were Americans, 26% Europeans and 11% (other) with 2% going to Middle Eastern buyers.

Gris Sets Record in Slow Christie’s Auction [New York Times]
World Record For Juan Gris at Christie’s New York – “20.8 Million For Livre, pipe et verre” [Art Daily]
Christie’s Impressionist Sale Falls Short; 44% Fails to Sell [Bloomberg]
Some Gloom, Some Records at Up-And-Down Night at Christie’s [ArtInfo

more detail and pictures after the jump…

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‘Chum,’ (2008) by KAWS, via Gering Lopez Gallery

The work of Brooklyn-based artist KAWS, who began his career as a graffiti artist and is now known for channeling modern pop and street culture into his art, is on display at Gering Lopez Gallery, on Manhattan’s East 57th Street. The exhibit features KAWS’ latest sculptures and paintings, including a collection of 33 candy-colored bronze sculptures of the artist’s head. ‘Chum,’ a sculpture, is a characteristically KAWS interpretation of the Michelin Man carved in red fiberglass–the sculpture is also rendered in five other unique colors. Other works on display include large acrylic paintings with bold colors and cartoon-esque forms, including several likenesses of SpongeBob Squarepants, a favorite subject of KAWS and a theme the artist explored earlier this year in an exhibition at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, as covered by Art Observed here.

KAWS
Through December 23rd, 2008
Hours: Tues-Sat, 10am-6pm
Gering Lopez Gallery
730 East 57th Street, New York, NY

Exhibition page: KAWS at Gering Lopez Gallery
Press Release: KAWS at Gering Lopez Gallery
Artist Bio: KAWS
Official Site: KAWS
Fine Art Two-fer [New York Post]
KAWS at Gering Lopez [The World’s Best Ever]

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‘Hamm Bergswerk OST’ (2008) by Andreas Gursky, via Matthew Marks Gallery

Andreas Gursky’s sixth exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery is currently on display. The exhibit features five photographs, all taken within the last two years including two pictures of Cocoon, a massive nightclub in Frankfurt designed by Gursky’s friend Sven Vath, a well known electronic musician and DJ. The club’s name inspires its architecture, as it mimics a hive or the imagined insides of a cocoon, and the photographs depict swarms of people dancing, extending the metaphor. The Cocoon pieces follow Gursky’s interest in electronic music, and previous photographs of large raves and electronic music concerts. ‘Hamm Bergswerk OST’ was shot in a coal mine close to Dusseldorf, Gursky’s home town, depicting the ceiling of one of the mine’s locker rooms, where the miners store their clothes in an unconventional way. While the exhibition is small, the scale of the photographs is very large, typically towering over the viewer, with broad panoramas full of absorbing detail that immerses the spectator.

ANDREAS GURSKY
through December 23rd, 2008
Matthew Marks Gallery
523 W 24th Street
New York, NY

Exhibition page: Andreas Gursky
Press Release: Andreas Gursky at Mathew Marks Gallery
Artist Page: Andreas Gursky
No glow sticks required [GQ]

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T-shirt and pair of jeans featuring original artwork by Damien Hirst, via BlackBook

Damien Hirst has teamed up with Levi’s to produce ‘Damien Hirst x Levi’s x Warhol Factory Collection,’ a series of limited edition jeans, t-shirts and denim jackets. The collection features over 12 pieces featuring motifs and aesthetics found in Hirst’s art: tropical butterflies, skulls, and an array of spin-painted colors. Buyers can expect to find the collection at a select group of Levi’s stores in major global cities as well as fashion boutiques. T-shirts start at $83, while jeans will retail at $230. There is also a series of spin painted jeans in Levi’s signature 501 style, which will only be available via silent auction in key cities in Asia, Europe and North America–for price tags in the range of $23,000.

Art Star Damien Hirst Creates New Levi’s Jeans [Women’s Wear Daily]
Damien Hirst x Levi’s x Warhol Factory [Denimology]
Introducing $23,000 Denim, Courtesy of Damien Hirst [BlackBook]

J.M. Turner Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, exhibited 1842 via Tate Britain

This Wednesday The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and The Tate Britain in London agreed to hold the first major exhibition in Russia of works by J.M.W. Turner, the renowned 19th century British painter. The exhibition will be solely financed by the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, who was ranked the 142nd richest man in the world in the 2007 Forbes 400 and who is the largest shareholder (24%) of Arsenal Football Club.

Billionare Takes Tate Works to Moscow [Guardian]
Usmanov Explains Why he Backed Turner Show [Bloomberg]
Turner Exhibition Set to Open in Russia [ArtDaily]
Tate sends Turners to Pushkin [TimesOnlineUK]
Press release from Tate Britain

More info and images after the jump… (more…)

The Economist is long on Richard Serra: “slow-burning Mr Serra will be one of the artists whose work will continue to shine long after he is gone” [TheEconomist]
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The defensive financial strategies art auction houses take during a market downturn [The Art Newspaper] and in related, financing for fine art is correspondingly receding [Portfolio]
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A look inside the highly specialized art storage business [Financial Times]
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The Tate Modern may have accidentally hung 2 Rothko’s sideways [TimesUK]

Highly controversial supposed Jackson Pollock drip painting is for sale for $50 million in Toronto [CBC]
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London’s Colony Room, favored bar of Lucian Freud and Damien Hirst, may close [TimesUK]
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50 to 75 Modern and Contemporary German works of art including some by Rosemarie Trockel, Georg Baselitz and Candida Höfer donated to the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard [Artdaily]
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Yvonne Force Villareal, sets up an APFlab (“Art Production Fund”) on Wooster street in Soho, New York [NYTimes]

‘Revolving Hotel Room,’ by Carsten Holler, on display at ‘theanyspacewhatever’ at the Guggenheim, via New York Times

‘theanyspacewhatever,’ which opened at the Guggenheim on October 24th, aims to capture and evoke the zeitgeist of the early 1990s art world. The exhibition contains installations, pieces, and performances by Pierre Huyghe, Angela Bulloch, Liam Gillick, Maurizio Cattelan, Carsten Höller, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, and Rirkrit Tiravanija–artists who primarily come from the non-visual arts. The opening event, entitled ‘Opening,’ was a participatory piece by Pierre Huyghe where most of the museum’s lights were shut off, with the only illumination coming from headlights distributed to the attendees. The gaze of those in attendance defines the artwork both literally and figuratively–a self-consciously contrived conceit which reflects the spirit of the exhibition. ‘Opening’ will occur again on November 17th and December 8th. Another notable piece is the Revolving Hotel Room by Carsten Höller, a rotating bed and hotel room set that can be booked by visitors who wish to sleep there, offering a chance to live at the Guggenheim, if only for a night (unfortunately however, it’s sold out).

theanyspacewhatever
through January 7th, 2009
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 5th Avenue at 89th Street, New York, NY

Exhibition page: theanyspacewhatever
A Nighttime Spin at the Guggenheim [New York Times]
Museum as Romantic Comedy [New York Times]
Night at the Museum [ArtForum]
Night at the Museum [NewYorkMagazine]
theanyspacewhatever at the Guggenheim Museum [VernissageTV]

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A London studio visit interview with Anish Kapoor [GuardianUK]
Richard Prince, who opened at Gagosian Chelsea tonight, interviewed on VBS.TV [VBSTV]
Three public art projects from Jeff Koons, Daniel Arsham, and John Henry will be at Art Basel Miami Beach [Artdaily]
All about Maia Norman, Damien Hirst’s companion [TimesUK]
How the current times can offer art bargains [Bloomberg]
The Asian Contemporary Art Fair, on in New York from Thursday to this Monday the 10th at Pier 92, 52nd Street & 12th Avenue [Official Site]
Two portraits authenticated as Van Goghs from 1886 Paris [cbcnews]
Former MET Director Philippe de Montebello and Paula Zahn to host 13’s SundayArts [ArtDaily]
Murakami ‘Wraps’ Louis Vuitton corner on 5th and 57th in Manhattan [WWD via Kempt]

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Damien Hirst’s first exhibition with Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in 1991 via Perrotin Gallery

Damien Hirst has surprised the art world again by announcing that he will reignite his relationship with Parisian gallerist, Emmanuel Perrotin, who in 1991, was one of the first two dealers to exhibit the artist. Perrotin considers Hirst to be an old friend and claims to be the only dealer to never profit from Hirst’s stardom. It is too early to tell, but it is suggested that a solo exhibition will be scheduled for 2010, but neither Hirst nor Perrotin have indicated if this is the beginning of a longer lasting artist-dealer relationship. Perrotin and Hirst’s partnership comes after Hirst’s infamous Sotheby’s auction, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,” previously covered by AO here in which noted art critic Robert Hughes accused Hirst of cutting dealers out of the action. “Everyone has written that Hirst wanted to bite the hand that fed him,” says Perrotin. “But there’s a difference between asserting independence and turning your back on dealers.” Whether Hirst is playing a well-calculated ironic card out of his ever-evolving deck or simply scratching the back that once scratched his own is still to be seen.

Hirst adds Perrotin to his dealer roster [ArtNewspaper]
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Pandora: Hirst goes back to his roots with Paris show [IndependentUK]
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Gallerie Perrotin [Gallerie Perrotin]
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Still Life With Old Shoe (1937), Joan Miró via NYTimes

Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927–1937 at MoMA is the first major museum exhibition to display the chronological process of Miró’s practices and ideologies used to attack conventions and disrupt market values in this vital decade. The exhibition uses Miró’s 1927 claim of “wanting to assassinate painting” as its launch point to explore his lineage in 12 groups, which includes 90 paintings, collages, objects, and drawings. The exhibition takes a step-by-step perspective of the reinvigoration and radicalization of Miró’s sustained series. Additionally the exhibition is symptomatic of the European reaction to the end of the roaring twenties and insemination of political tensions that would culminate in 1939. The exhibition begins with a group of works composed on unprimed canvas and concludes with a single painting from 1937: Still Life with Old Shoe and is culmination of works created in Paris, Montroig (a rural village on the coast of Catalonia), and Barcelona. The exhibition is organized by Anne Umland the Curator or the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the The Museum of Modern Art. It will be on view in The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Gallery, sixth floor, from November 2, 2008, through January 12, 2009.

MoMA Opens Exhibition Focusing on the Transofrmative Dcade of Joan Miró’s Work [ArtDaily]
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Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting, 1927-1937 [TheArtNewspaper]
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Angry Young Man [TheNewYorker]
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Miró, Serial Murderer of Artistic Convensions [NYTimes]
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Joan Miró: Painting and Anti-Painting 1927-1937 [Museum of Modern Art]
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Miró, Miró on the Wall [ArtNet]

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On Wednesday November 5th, Christie’s conducted its sale of the estates of two separate widows (the Alice Lawrence and Hillman family collections) bearing similar works of mostly late 19th and early to mid-20th century pieces, in an auction thus titled “The Modern Age.” These auctions included works by headliners such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Mark Rothko, Fernand Léger, Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio De Chirico and René Magritte. The event followed the latest Sotheby’s auction for Impressionist and Modern art on Monday (as covered by AO here) which disappointedly totaled $223.8 million against the $338 million low estimate. Additionally, the Modern Age sale corresponded to a particularly steep post-presidential race drop in the public equity markets in which the Dow plunged 486 points.

The auction results were no surprise considering the current tepid environment in the art market: The two collections listed 58 lots, of which 17 did not sell, for a total sale of $47 million, which was less than half of its $104 million low estimate. Christie’s said 51% of buyers were American and 29% European. Though Surrealist lots by Magritte (see image above) and De Chirico (see below) did well, of the lots that were brought in were the most expensive of the sale, notably, Manet’s “Fillette sur un banc/Girl on a Bench,” a 1880 portrait of a girl with a wide-brim hat estimated at $12-18 million (see image below), and Rothko’s “No. 43 (Mauve),” estimated at $20-30 million. Other works by Cézanne, Renoir, and de Kooning also failed to sell.

Bleak Night at Christie’s, in Both Sales and Prices [NY Times]
Art-Market Rout Persists: Rothko Snubbed at Auction [Bloomberg]
Buyers Cool to Private-Collection Art at Christies [Reuters]
Market Forces Bring Fire-Sale Prices for Christie’s “Modern Age” [Art Info]
The Modern Age: Property from the Hillman Family Collection [Art Daily]
Christie’s Wan and Woeful Night [CultureGrrl]
Christie’s Website

more auction results, quotes and images after the jump…

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Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent via Artnet

Rivington Arms, the young, trend setting gallery that opened in a retail space on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side in 2001, before moving to its current space off the Bowery, is closing in January.  The partners, Mirabelle Marden, 29, and Melissa Bent, 31, are fixtures not just in art but also in fashion (they have been featured in Uniqlo ads throughout the city, in Vogue and the New York Times Style section) and in the New York social scene.  The duo cited causes for the breakup that were unrelated to the economy: “It had to do with where each of us wanted to take the gallery.  We are not ending because we are getting crushed out.”

Rivington Arms to Close [ArtInfo]
Rivington Arms to Close [ArtForum]
Rivington Arms to Close as Partners Differ on Gallery’s Future [Bloomberg]
Rivington Arms

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Kazimir Malevich’s 1916 painting Suprematist Composition sold for $60 million via International Herald Tribune.

The results of the Sotheby’s New York Impressionist and Modern Art auction Monday night were overall dissapointing, despite some noteworthy lot results of works by Malevich, Degas and Munch. Fears of an art-market meltdown have been fueled by recent lukewarm results at London’s Frieze art fair and the abrupt pulling from the auction of the 1909 Picasso that was expected to sell for over $30 million. While the Sotheby’s evening total on Monday stood at 45 works sold for $223.8 million, it was well below its initial estimates of $337 million to $476 million, which were set over the summer before the financial crisis. The sale was the lowest for an Impressionist evening sale at Sotheby’s since May 2001. David Norman, an executive vice-president at Sotheby’s was quoted by the Guardian as saying “Anyone would expect people to be more circumspect in this environment. We’re selling in a very uncertain world.”

Auction Season Opens With Little Enthusiasm [NY Times]
Art Market `Corrects’ as Lots Go Unsold at Sotheby’s [Bloomberg]
Three Big Lots Pace Respectable Showing at Sotheby’s [ArtInfo]
New York sales hit record highs amid signs that the art market is dropping [Guardian UK]
Work by Kazimir Malevich sold for record $60 million [International Herald Tribune]
Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition Sets Record at Sotheby’s Sale [Art Daily]
Opening of Fall Art-Auction Season Marked by Crappy Sales, Great Deals [NYMag]
Flat result at NY season’s first art auction [Reuters]
Munch artwork fetches record $38m [BBC]

more results 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]

Danseuse au Repos, the 1879 painting by Edgar Degas is a highlight of this evening’s Sotheby’s auction though it remains to be seen if it will sell for its estimated $40 million, via NY Times

After extremely high sales in May which tallied $1.56 billion, and then more recently lackluster sales in London which missed low estimates by up to $40 million, as covered by Art Observed here, the art world is up for a major test in the next two weeks as Sotheby’s and Christie’s begin tonight selling contemporary, impressionist, and modern works that add up to high estimates of $1.76 billion, including a work by the Russian Kazimir Malevich (“Suprematist Composition” 1916, a $60 million geometric work) and a $40 million self-portrait by Francis Bacon and other works from high profile financiers Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. co-founder Henry Kravis and Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Officer Fuld.

Despite Pablo Picasso’s 1909 painting ‘Arlequin’ (which was estimated at $30 million) being pulled before the Sotheby’s auction recently, this evening’s Sotheby’s impressionist and modern art sale is slated to tally about $320 million and includes 71 lots including “Danseuse au repos” by French Impressionist Edgard Degas which is expected to go for $40 million (pictured above).

This auction will be followed by Christie’s $153 million high estimate November 5th sale which includes works from the estates of the widows, Rita Hillman and Alice Lawrence, and then a November 6th sale, comprised of art from various owners, estimated to total up to $344 million. Sotheby’s November 11th sale of contemporary art could total up to $281.6 million and features works by John Currin, Richard Prince, and Yves Klein. Following that is Christie’s November 12th sale with a high estimate of $321.7 million, featuring Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich’s Jean-Michel Basquiat painting of a boxer at an estimate of $12 million.

On Auctions Overall:
Big Prices, Big Risks at Fall Art Auctions [NY Times]
NY art auctions under microscope amid financial crisis [AFP]
Art world dreading declines at upcoming key NY sales [Reuters]
Kravis, Fuld Brace for N.Y. Auctions as Collectors Lower Prices [Bloomberg]
Falling under the hammer [Financial Times]
It’s not a pretty picture Christie’s, Sotheby’s may be on the hook [New York Post]
Art sales face acid test in midst of credit crunch [Financial Times]
Exceptional Work by Francis Bacon Leads Christie’s New York Post-War & Contemporary Art Sale [ArtDaily]
Things Are Cold, Clammy at City Auction Houses [NYObserver]

From ArtObserved:
Metallica’s drummer to sell Basquiat painting at Christie’s New York, November 12th auction; ‘Boxer’ to be displayed during Frieze Art Fair in London [ArtObserved]
Sotheby’s hopes to smash Russian art at auction record with $60 million sale of Malevich painting in New York on November 3rd [ArtObserved]

On withdrawn Picasso:
Picasso work withdrawn from Sotheby’s sale [Reuters]
Picasso painting pulled from sale [BBC News]
Picasso Work Is Withdrawn From Sotheby’s Sale [NY Times]
Sotheby’s Withdraws Picasso’s Arlequin From Impressionist and Modern Art Sale [Art Daily]
Picasso Withdrawn From Sotheby’s Imp-Mod Sale [Artinfo]
Picasso painting withdrawn from Sotheby’s auction [Associated Press]

Auction Information:
Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale – Sotheby’s November 3 [Sotheby’s]
Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale November 5th [Christie’s]

more pictures from the Sotheby’s Sale and other auctions after the jump…

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Crying Sanrio sculptures by Tom Sachs (to correspond with his show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac) at the Trocadero, Paris, via Supertouch

After a show at Lever House in New York earlier this year (previously covered by ArtObserved here), Tom Sachs’ crying sculptures based on Sanrio characters went on display in Paris. The three sculptures were available for public viewing through November 2nd at the Place du Trocadero, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and were an off-site installation of Sachs’ show at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.  Entitled “Miffy,” “Hello Kitty,” and “My Melody,” the sculptures appear to be made of foamcore, known to be Tom Sachs’ favorite material. They are actually made of bronze, and constructed to mimic foamcore and the cut and paste aesthetic found in many of the artist’s works.  The show will run until November 22nd, 2008, at the Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

TOM SACHS
through November 22, 2008
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
7 Rue Debelleyme
Paris, France

Artist page: Tom Sachs
Tom Sachs’ show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
Press Release at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
PARIS///TOM SACHS’ CRYING KITTYS AT THE TOWER OF EIFFEL [Supertouch]
Tom Sachs Exhibition at The Eiffel Tower Paris [RawArt]

More pictures after the jump…

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Kehinde Wiley’s exhibition at Deitch Projects on Saturday Night photo by Art Observed

Kehinde Wiley opened his third solo show at Deitch Projects in SoHo last night. The exhibition, DOWN, includes seven large-scale portraits done in Wiley’s signature style. Kehinde Wiley is known for creating his own version of contemporary portraiture that appropriates young African American men in the place of more well known portraits of old world power figures, religious icons etc.. For his newest solo exhibition he has chosen to depict seven young men from Brooklyn in poses inspired by the fallen warriors and saints that appeared in the old 18th and 19th century paintings of Holbein, Mantegna, Houdon, Maderno, Retout and Clesinger. The young men are shown in old traditional poses of religious figures or leaders in the moment of death or repose, but their expressions and dress are wholly their own. The largest of the portraits is a breath taking 25 feet in length and has an asking price of $300,000. The exhibit will be on view until December 20th, 2008.

Art in Review; Kehinde Wiley [NYTimes]
Kehinde Wiley “Down” At Deitch Projects [Highsnobiety]
Kehinde Wiley on the Difference Between His Art and His Cooking [NYMag]
Kehinde Wiley at Deitch Projects [The Worlds Best Ever]
MIA interviews visual artist Kehinde Wiley [Interview Magazine]
Kehinde Wiley + Deitch [This Hearts On Fire]
Kehinde Wiley @ Deitch NY [Dailydujour]
Kehinde Wiley “Down” [Deitch Projects]

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Alexander Calder, Josephine Baker IV (1928) via Artnet

Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933 at the Whitney Museum showcases Calder’s works of portraiture, video, and figuration that are seldomly giving such widespread recognition.  Molding from industrial steel wire, Calder’s figures range from toast-of-the-town 1920s dancer Josephine Baker to tennis champion Helen Wills to John D. Rockefeller playing golf.  One of the highlights of the show comes by way of Jean Painlevé’s 1955 film “Le Grand Cirque Calder 1927,” in which Calder introduces his figures one by one while manipulating them through low-tech mechanics to animate their activities. This performance drew savvy audiences including many vanguard types like Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian and can be viewer here. The Whitney has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder in any museum and is the exclusive venue for this landmark exhibition, co-organized with the Centre Pompidou.

Calder At Play: Finding Whimsy in Simple Wire [NYTimes]
Video of Calder performing the “Circus” from a 1955 film by Jean Painleve [Youtube]
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, Exhibition at the Whitney Museum [DesignBoom]
Animalism by Charlie Finch [Artnet]
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1927-1933 [Whitney Museum of American Art] (more…)