Damien Hirst, Auction: Beautiful Inside My Head Forever / “ANATOMY OF AN ANGEL” – Carrara marble

Last week Jay Jopling, Damien Hirst’s long time dealer in London out of the White Cube gallery, in an email statement, denied that the gallery has a “mountain” of unsold works before a Sotheby’s sale as reported by much of the media, including by Art Observed, over a week ago. Jopling did not directly dispute the number of works held it White Cube’s stock but said: “”The appetite for Damien’s art is such that we never have enough and I’m always keen to have as much work on consignment as possible.” The dialog relates to Damien Hirst’s controversial direct sale of 223 works through Sotheby’s of London on September 15–16.

Hirst’s Dealer Denies `Mountain’ of Unsold Works Before Auction [Bloomberg]
White Cube Says Number of Hirst Works in Stock Is Normal [ArtInfo]
Hirst in the Hamptons [NYSun] Aug 28
Hirst Alert! [ArtInfo] Aug 27
Galleries hit as Damien Hirst tees off [TimesOnlineUK]
D-day for Damien: Is Hirst about to turn the art market on its head or finally come a cropper? [The Independent]
A disclosure of White Cube’s unsold Damien Hirst inventory before the artist’s controversial September 15th direct sale by Sotheby’s [ArtObserved]

(more…)

Diana and Actaeon by Titian via the BBC

The National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London have initiated a joint campaign to buy two paintings by Titian.  The seventh Duke of Sutherland, who is 68, is offering the works to the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London for £50m each.  If Diana and Actaeon is sold to the National Galleries of Scotland, Diana and Callisto will be offered for a similar sum to the National Gallery in London in 2013.  The two paintings are part of the Bridgewater collection which since 1945 has been on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland. The Bridgewater collection also includes three paintings by Raphael, a Rembrandt, a Van Dyck, a Tintoretto and two more Titians. Though the Duke is definitively seeking to sell the two works, Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon , he has offered the works to the national galleries for a lower price than the works would fetch in an open market sale, though there are significant tax implications for selling to a national collection. The BBC quotes the National Gallery of Scotland’s director, John Leighton.”The Bridgewater Loan … is the most important Old Master paintings loan to any public museum in the world,” “Losing Diana and Actaeon would be like the Mona Lisa being taking out of the Louvre”.

U.K. National Galleries Seek 50 Million Pounds for Titian Work [Bloomberg]
Race to save £300 million Titians for UK [The Art Newspaper]
£100m appeal to keep Titian works [BBC]
Don’t let these dramatic Titians leave Britain [TelegraphUK]
The battle of the Titians [GuardianUK]
Art auction: National galleries scramble to keep Titians as duke cashes in [GuardianUK]
Who might buy the Titians? Meet the new collectors of the art world [GuardianUK]
Is it worth spending £50m on a Titian? [GuardianUK]

(more…)

Martin Kppenberger’s Zuerst die Füsse (Feet First)

The Pope condemns late German artist Martin Kippenberger’s crucified frog sculpture [GuardianUK] and more here [NYTimes]
A critique of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Waterfalls’ as ineffective “shock and awe” public art [NYSun]
Jeff Koons on Night Talk [YouTube via ArtFagCity]
Guggenheim Foundation receives $1 million from National Endowment for the Humanities [ArtForum]
Banksy’s auction-donated $137,000 work to support Ken Livingstone invalidated due to his anonymity [ArtInfo]
Damien Hirst to open his 2nd ‘Other Criteria’ retail shop next to Sotheby’s on New Bond Street, London [Blomberg]

Work Comes Out of Work, Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz via ArtDaily

Kunsthaus Bregenz will be showing more than 60 large-format drawings by the major American artist, Richard Serra. It is the first such showing of the artist’s graphic ouevre in Europe since 1992. The exhibition will include six work-series, spanning two decades of Serra’s career. Arranged on four levels, the included pieces are the large-format “Diptychs,” 1989, the series “Weight and Measure,” 1994, “Rounds,” 1996/97, “Out-of-rounds,” 1999, and the most recent works “Solids,” 2007/08, and “Forged Drawing,” 2008. Works on display have been selected with the artist from important private collections and museums in Europe and the US, as well as new pieces produced by Richard Serra especially for the exhibition in Bregenz.

Drawings: Work Comes Out Of Work [Kunsthaus Bregenz]
Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz [Art21]
PhotoGallery / Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz [ArtDaily]
(more…)

A new Banksy mural that recently popped up in New Orleans via Supertouch

Banksy has chosen New Orleans for the location of his most recent work. Throughout the city, Banksy has created more than 12 murals that depict Abraham Lincoln as a homeless man, a marching band wearing gas masks, and a boy flying a refrigerator kite. The New York Times reports that in a statement released by Banksy, the murals were created in response to Fred Radtke, an antigraffiti campaigner also known as the Gray Ghost, who uses gray paint to cover up graffiti. The statement released by Banksy also said, “Three years after Katrina I wanted to make a statement about the state of the clean up operation.”

Banksy Tags the Big Easy [ArtInfo]
Banksy Hits New Orleans [NYTimes]
Banksy Does New Orleans [Gawker]
Banksy Paints New Orleans as Katrina Memorial [Supertouch]
Stencil artist Banksy visits New Orleans [TheAustralian]

(more…)

Le Grande Julie, Fernand Léger (1945) via Foundation Beyeler

Fondation Beyeler Presents Fernand Léger Retrospective, Paris to New York, at their space in Switzerland through September 7, 2008. On view at the exhibition are over 80 paintings, several works on paper, an original Léger film from 1924 called Ballet mécanique, in addition to approximately 20 pieces by American artists that exemplify some sort of influence from Léger and his work. Exhibition is more than just a retrospective of work completed by Léger; it also focuses on how the artist influenced the American Pop movement by exhibiting work from other well-known artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, Robert Rauschenberg, Al Held, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, and Frank Stella, all of which reference Léger’s work in one way or another. Philippe Büttner of Fondation Beyeler is responsible for curating the Retrospective.

Fondation Beyeler Presents Today in Basel Fernand Léger: Paris – New York [ArtDaily]
Fondation Beyeler, Fernand Léger Retrospective, Paris to New York [Beyeler]
Art Exhibitions: Fondation Beyeler [Yucolo]

(more…)

From My Giant Colouring Book, Jake and Dinos Chapman via Metro

Campbell Works in London is showing the touring exhibition, My Giant Colouring Book, by artists Jake and Dinos Chapman. The exhibition was developed by the Hayward Gallery and the Arts Council England, and will be at Campbell Works until September 14th. The 19 out of 21 of the work included in the exhibition are loosely based on images and dot formations from children’s connect-the-dots coloring books. The Chapman brothers, who were nominated for the Turner Prize a few years back, have also reworked the gallery space and made the ceiling just under 6 feet off the ground for added effect to the exhibition.

Campbell Works, Jake and Dinos Chapman, My Giant Colouring Book [CampbellWorks]
–>
Jake and Dinos Chapman, My Giant Colouring Book [ArtRabbit]
–>
The big art show: Jake and Dinos Chapman [TheLondonPaper]

(more…)

Kanye West and his new music video “Good Morning” via Chicago Sun Times

The hip-hop artist Kanye West ‘s video for Good Morning directed by Takashi Murakami is now released and available to be purchased on Itunes. Depicting Kanye as an animated bear, the video follows a narrative of Kanye’s eventful trip to his graduation ceremony.  Japanese contemporary pop artist Murakami created the video in his signature style of animated graphics: characters portrayed as cute cartoons in a surreal environment.  Murakami has collaborated with Kanye West in the past and is the cover artist for the Kanye West album, Graduation.   Murakami is aggressive in his collaboration with fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, but the relationship of Kanye and Murakami is an interesting fusion of two streams of pop culture that may perhaps be even more pervasive globally in the end.

Kanye West’s new video, “Good Morning” [SunTimes]
Video Premiere: Kanye West’s ‘Good Morning’ [Aceshowbiz]
Kanye West Gets All Cute and Cuddly [Eonline]
Kanye West Meets Takashi Murakami [New York Magazine]
(more…)

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]

Pool Party by Dana Goldstein via Viceland

The 6th annual Vice Photo Show has uprooted from L.A. and is now in New York until August 31st. In culmination with Vice Magazine’s 2008 photo issue, they have put together a gallery space below their New York office in Brooklyn, to exhibit some of the photos featured in the issue. Photographers whose work will be featured in their temporary gallery include Jonathan Black, Naomi Fischer, Ryan McGinley, Roe Ethridge, Rennie Ellis, Jerry Hsu, Richard Kern, David Markey & Jordan Schwartz, Aaron Rose, Luck Stephenson, Nick Zinner & Aliya Naumoff, Chris Shonting, Maggie Lee, Jens Mollenvanger Patrick O’Dell, and a section curated by Tim Barber. The work is also available for purchase.

The 2008 Vice Photo Show [TWBE]
2008 Vice Photo Show [VillageVoice]
2008 Vice photo issue and photo show [Hauteconcept]
New York – The Second 2008 Vice Photo Show [ViceMag]

(more…)

Painting of Myra Handley by artist Marcus Harvey via Time

At a promotional event in Beijing for the London 2012 Olympics, a video montage produced by Visit London has sparked controversy when a photo of a painting by British artist Marcus Harvey came across the screen. The painting depicts the British child murderer, Myra Hindley; as an unintentional representation of British Heritage. The video was intended to promote London and the coming 2012 Olympics, but the quick glimpse one of London’s most prominent murderers was likely done in accidentally rather than in “poor taste”. The painting is very recognizable as a major fixture in Charles Saatchi’s famous 1997 Sensation shown in London and the Brooklyn Museum.

Myra Hindley casts Olympic shadow [Telegraph]
2012 Hindley image use condemned, view footage of the event here [BBC]
Olympics: London tourism body attacked over murderer portrait in promo [AFP]
Monster Movie [Times]
Censoring provocative art is the worst advert for 2012 [GuardianUK]

(more…)

Evil Is Banal, Dumas self-portrait, Marlene Dumas (1984) via New York Magazine

Faces of Marlene Dumas will come to New York [New York Magazine] –
The 7,500 square feet Devi Art Foundation, India’s first contemporary art museum [New York Times]
A highlight of some new shows in Chelsea for the Fall, starting Sept 4th [NYSun]
Sao Paulo heatedly debates when graffiti is considered urban art [NY Sun]
Francesco Clemente on Charlie Rose last week [Charlie Rose – Youtube]

Damien Hirst – “The Kingdom” 2008 via The Wall Street Journal

The Art Newspaper has this weekend disclosed the extent of unsold inventory, over 200 works, that are held at Damien Hirst’s gallery in London, White Cube, run by Jay Jopling. The article illuminates a situation for the artist, one of the most successful in the world, but also one of the most prolific, in which his traditional market may be less able to absorb the works at the pace at which he is aiming to produce them. This evolving landscape has presumably led Hirst to explore, through the landmark and controversial upcoming September 15th Sotheby’s London sale, new sales portals and new pools of buyers. The Art Newspaper disclosure however, could perhaps have some ramifications for the Sotheby’s sale itself, as sophisticated buyers may take into account this newly exposed trove of similar work to that being auctioned, and simple supply and demand economics might as a result negatively affect pricing.

Revealed: the art Damien Hirst failed to sell [The Art Newspaper]
200 unsold Damien Hirst works looking for an owner at Sotheby’s [TimesOnlineUK]
Hirst’s Marketing End Run [Wall Street Journal]
Auction, Damien Hirst ‘New Inside My Head Forever’ [Sotheby’s]
Several Lucrative Art Series To End, Says Damien Hirst [ArtObserved]
Update: Damien Hirst goes to Auction at Sotheby’s, September 15-16, 2008 [ArtObserved]
Hirst’s ‘Golden Calf’ could sell for $16-$24 million at Sotheby’s London [ArtObserved]

(more…)

Dakis Jaonnou’s Yacht “Guilty” Designed by Jeff Koons

More on Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou’s Jeff Koons-designed yacht [GQ]
Interview with Takashi Murakami: “maximalist” [Esquire]
More on Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World [Portfolio]
A telling selection of 30 years of quotes from Tracey Emin [GuardianUK]
Portrait auctioned for $21,850 in 1998 by Christie’s is now attributed by some to Leonardo Da Vinci and may sell for over $50M [NewYorkTimes]

Triptych, 1976 via Sotheby’s.

Beginning September 11th, Tate Britain will be hosting an exhibition of the work of Francis Bacon (1909-1992) in anticipation of the artist’s upcoming centenary in 2009.  World-renowned for his figure paintings and studies of the human body, the exhibition will contain works of this nature as well as Bacon’s signature landscapes and animal representations. The Tate display will contain about 60 works which will reflect the development and output of Bacon’s career, which began in 1928 after a brief stint as an interior decorator. Although little of his work survived his proclivity to destroy it prior to his notable achievement of the Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion in 1945, he was fittingly recognized as one of the most significant artists of his generation. Today, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent artists of 20th-century art, with works such as his Triptych, 1976 selling for $86 million at auction, which is a record-breaking figure for a post-war work of art.

Tate: Press Release [Tate]
Francis Bacon: behind the myth [Telegraph]
Francis Bacon at Tate Britain: a hidden interest in women [Telegraph]
The power and the passion [Guardian]
Francis Bacon comes to Tate Britain [DigitalArts]

(more…)

James Powderly, via freetibet2008

Street artist James Powderly detained in Bejing for laser projection of political artwork [ArtForum], with more on the incident here [Artinfo]
Undercover FBI agents in the US targeting increasingly shady art theft world [WallStreetJournal]
Cans Festival, a street art milestone, covered previously by AO here, will soon re-open in London [World’sBestEver]
Tribute exhibit for artist Blinky Palermo, “24 Colors – for Blinky” at Dia:Beacon [NYTimes]
A dark parody on the lucrative potential of a murdered Damien Hirst’s preserved body sold to wealthy Russians [ArtNet] and relative commentary in the New York Times [NYT]

Blakeley White-McGuire, in front of Jeff Koons’s Red Flower sculpture via LMCC

This week in lower Manhattan, two sculptures in the Financial District were integrated into a series of performances entitled “Hostile Takeover”, by Richard Move’s Moveopolis! dance company. On Tuesday, “Mariko Mori Drawings”, a piece based on Japanese anime, was held at William Tarr’s Rejected Skin sculpture on Water Street. Then on Wednesday, Blakeley White-McGuire, a former Martha Graham dancer performed “Red Cicciolina” in front of the 7 World Trade Center site of Jeff Koons’ sculpture. White-McGuire portrays La Cicciolina, former Italian cabinet member and porn star, as well as ex-wife of artist Koons.

Move In and Around Manhattan [NYSun]
Lady Talk [TimeOut]
Richard Move’s MoveOpolis! [LMCC]

(more…)

Famed street artist Swoon and crew float junkyard utopia downstate to Deitch Studios in LIC [NYTimes]
Anthony Haden-Guest on the effect’s of global financial turmoil on corporate art sponsorship [Portfolio]
Assume Vivid Astro Focus installs colorful window display at the Modern restaurant at the MoMa [NYSun]
A critique of Sarah Thornton’s book, ‘Seven Days in the Art World’ (with Video) [Art Market Monitor]
Sotheby’s holds a preview for $120.8M of Damien Hirst’s direct auction works in New Delhi, India and the Hamptons [Bloomberg]

Richard Serra via Art Inf

A documentary, Thinking on Your Feet, directed by Maria Anna Tappeiner on the contemporary sculpting giant Richard Serra is on screen at Film Forum in New York until September 2nd.  Screening of the movie created hype among the Serra enthusiasts well before its premiere yesterday, drawing attention from media. The documentary enables spectators to follow the production process of the artist’s major grand scale sculpture ‘The Matter of Time,’ which was commissioned by Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain for $20 million. In the film, a breathtaking scene where 40 ton solid steel plates are put together manually was included to highlight the on going dynamic tension between human labor, mathematics, and gravity that Serra persistently communicates through his sculptural works. It is the tale of a contemporary sculptural legend condensed into 94 minutes that Serra fans should not miss.

Richard Serra, Man of Steel [The Sun]
Watching as Richard Serra Thinks Big and Does Big [NYT]
Richard Serra at Film Forum [Art 21]
Man of Steel [Art Info]
Richard Serra: Thinking On Your Feet [Film Forum]
Listen to a podcast by Lynne Cook [Film Forum]

(more…)

Jeurgen Teller and his son via New York Magazine

Art auctionable fashion photographer (and husband to London gallerist Sadie Coles) Jeurgen Teller [New York Mag]
A billionaire’s $4 million, 14,000 sf gallery to sell his mother’s art in midtown Manhattan [Bloomberg]
After her big art event in Moscow, more on Daria “Dasha” Zhukova [Times Online]
Curating the Met’s acquisition of the complete Diane Arbus archive [NYsun]
Police recover final piece stolen during the daylight theft at Estacao Pinacoteca Museum, Sao Paulo [Art Daily]

Skaters on the mini ramp at the opening reception of Cannibal Carnival via SuperTouch

Neckface opened his show “Cannibal Carnival” (previous coverage of this show on AO here) with an eventful ceremony. The wall space New Image Art was covered in spray paint graffiti, otherwise painted in black and white and red. Though relatively new the art scene, Neckface maintains very strong press and web coverage and extremely high attendance for his events. His reputation as very prolific tagger in many cities cements his position within street art, which is growing in acceptance as an artistic medium worthy of investment as exemplified by the street artist Banksy selling works in the six figures, auction houses setting aside entire auctions for street art and the Tate Modern mounting very significant street art exhibitions. On the opening night of Saturday August 16th, the venue accommodated over 1,000 mixed crowd of art lovers, skaters, and alike. During the reception, pro skaters rode boards on the mini ramp/cage specially built for this occasion.

Hollywood: Nasty Neck Face’s “Cannibal Carnival” bloodbath at New Image Art [Super Touch]
Neck Face’s Opening Reception [GrindTV]
Neckface “Cannibal Carnival” Art Show Slideshow [Transworld Skateboarding]
The skate ramp at the Neckface show at New Image Gallery in L.A. [C-Monster]
Video Clip of the opening here, and here [Youtube]

more pictures after the jump…

(more…)

Blood Moon Ausar performing at Matthew Barney’s party via Super Touch

Last Saturday, infamous artist Matthew Barney held an out of the ordinary party at his studio in Queens, NY. His party featured free performances by death metal bands such as Inquisition, Dagon, Krallice, Copremeis, and S.M.E.S, expressing the artist’s passion for black metal. To add to the provoking ambiance, several Hawaiian style pigs on skewers, hand roasted and carved by Barney himself, served the hungry guests.

NYC: Matthew Barney’s Black Metal Pig Roast [Super Touch]
Matthew Barney Hosts Black Metal Pig Roast [Cremaster Fanatic]
View more pictures from the event by Jae Saam Trio on Flickr

(more…)

Larry Gagosian at the opening of Center of Contemporary Culture Moscow (CCCM) via Style.com

Moscow is anticipating a worthy contemporary art scene brought by Larry Gagosian. Building upon the strong review from last year’s first show, Gagosian Gallery is making its presence in Russia. “For what you are about to receive” is Gagosian’s a second exhibition will be held at Red October Chocolate Factory, opening on September 18th until Ocober 25th. Artist Aaron Young will be presenting a motorcycle performance Arc Light for the opening of the show (AO has exclusive video from Aaron Young’s motorcycle show in New York here). This show will exhibit works by well-known contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons, Willen de Kooning, Richard Serra and Takashi Murakami. Curated to explore the conceptual relationship between commercial production and artistic abstraction, the show is intended to engage the viewers with modern materialism.

Gagosian Gallery in Moscow [Artnet News]
Gagosian Gallery
Read more about the exhibition at the Russian art blog IZO here and here.

(more…)

Dasha Zhukova, via Daylife

Daria “Dasha” Zhukova, daughter of an oligarch, girlfriend of Roman Abramovich, and a symbol of the recent Russian push into contemporary art [NYTimes]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner’s photography show at Fuse Gallery in the East Village [Supertouchart]
Both Qatar and Abu Dhabi want Philippe de Montebello, who is leaving the Met, for a directorship [NYsun]
More on the Frank Gehry-designed summer pavillion at Serpentine Gallery in London [NYTimes Tmagazine]
Amidst art-world controversy, Sir Nicholas Serota, Tate’s director of 20 years made “permanent employee” [Independent]