Head of a Muse, Raphael via Guardian UK
-Offered for the first time at public auction as part of Christie’s Old Masters sale, Raphael’s drawing “Head of a Muse”- a study for a figure in one of his Vatican frescoes, if it achieves its estimate £12-16million, will break the auction record for an old master drawing currently held by Michelangelo’s and Leonardo da Vinci’s works [Guardian UK]
-As art collectors become more cautious with their purchases, dealers at Frieze and FIAC fairs put works on reserve, among them $40 million Mondrian allegedly put on hold for Bernard Arnault [Bloomberg]
-Ms. Temkin, the chief curator of painting and sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, introduces unexpected changes, unframing certain paintings and subjecting the almost sacralized permanent collection to frequent renewal [The New York Times]
“Your Mercury Ocean” Skateboard by Olafur Eliasson via aarting
-Another collaboration between Mekanism and Olafur Eliasson results in a 13-ply deck 3d patterned skateboard with a mirror coating [aarting]
-In related, Olafur Eliasson commissions by the mayor of Copenhagen to design a bridge for the Danish capital; the artist shares his plans for a transparent bridge in a close vicinity to the water [The Art Newspaper]
– The survey carried out by the Art Fund, the UK’s independent art charity, shows that despite the substantial drop in public funding and investment income, a figure that proves to grow in the context of economic fall is the number of visits to museums [Art Knowledge News]
-In the midst of economic uncertainty, gallery Matthew Marks, which represents artists such as Jasper Johns, and Peter Fischli and David Weiss, plans on expansion with a new space on the West Coast [The New York Times]
To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week…
200 one dollar Bills, Andy Warhol via Auction Publicity
– The Sotheby’s fall auction of Impressionist and Modern Art taking place Novemer 4, 2009 presents classic works both by Impressionist including Renoir, Pissaro, Sisley and by Modernists such as Picasso, Giacometti, Derain, Miró [Auction Publicity] and the Sotheby’s fall Evening Sale of Contemporary Art on 11 November 2009 offers paintings and sculptures by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Bruce Nauman [Auction Publicity]
-Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale taking place Novemeber 10, 2009, offers collectors a selection of major works by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Jeff Koons among others [ArtDaily]
– Richard L. Weisman, art collector who reported Warhol series stolen from his home, decides to forgo a multimillion-dollar insurance policy as to protect his privacy, as LAPD translates the decision as symptomatic of Weisman’s initial involvement in the theft [Los Angeles Times]
Artist Nancy Spero via Sheree Rensel
-Nancy Spero, artist famous for her figurative art addressing the many issues of gender politics, passes away October 18, 2009 at the age of 83 in Manhattan due to heart failure [The New York Times]
-The movie “Untitled”, which opened October 23 at Angelika in New York, featuring international art stars and works reminiscent of artists in the likes of Jeff Koons and Chapman brothers, is an “art-house flick” mocking the exclusive in its content contemporary art [The Moment]
-In related, Adam Goldberg speaks of his role in “Untitled” [New York Magazine]
-In lieu of money owned by DSB Bank, recently declared bankrupt, 130 paintings worth $60 million seized with no prior warning from the permanent collection of a Netherland art museum as collateral for a $48 million loan [UPI via ArtInfo]
Installation view of work by Joseph Kosuth along the walls of Louvre via Louvre
-Joseph Kosuth’s French sentences in neon tubing are suspended along the walls of medieval Louvre [ArtDaily]
-Contrary to reports, Shepard Fairey’s lawyers, in his litigate conflict with the Associated Press concerning his “Hope” poster, have not quit despite the artist’s confession to details dramatically altering the case [Los Angeles Times]
-In related, the conflict around Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster may potentially be precedent setting as the artist calls the case an exception [The Boston Globe]
-In related, after a successful show at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, Shepard Fairey’s retrospective opens at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh [The Art Collectors]
Klaus Haus, Andrea Zittel photographed by Dean Kaufman via W Magazine
– Klaus Biesenbach’s Manhattan apartment is spare to a conceptual level [W Magazine]
-In related, Biesenbach, currently Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art at MoMa and Chief Curatorial Advisor at P.S. 1, is appointed Director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center [P.S.1 MoMA]
-Norwegian inventor Hans Gude Gudesen buys the island home of one of the most celebrated filmmakers- Ingmar Bergman, where he plans to built a center for artists and scientists [Bloomberg]
Visualization of Herzog & de Meuron design for Miami Art Museum via Building Design
-The Miami Art Museum reveals plans for a new home, worth 120,000 square feet- thrice the size of their current space, to be designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron [ArtInfo]
-In related, Terence Riley resigns his position as director of the Miami Art Museum, but will continue to advise about the museum’s new home in downtown Miami scheduled to open in 2013 [The New York Times]
-The hedge-fund billionaire and art collector, Steven A. Cohen, accumulated a roughly 6 percent stake in Sotheby’s, leading to speculations about whether Mr. Cohen may be interested in owning an auction house, yet more recent facts speak for the contrary, as the collector’s firm sells all of its Sotheby’s stock [Arts Beat]
-World’s biggest banks have some of the largest collections of art, where Deutsche Bank UBS and JPMorgan Chase combined boast pieces in the amounts that approach the trove of the Museum of Modern Art, hence the works in their possession should be made available to public eye more often (Banks Hoard Troves of Art) [The New York Times]
Sotheby’s to auction off modern and Impressionist artworks, including works by Picasso, Monet and de Chirico offered by financier Louis Reijtenbagh; estimates predict $40 million (Financier to Auction $40 million Paintings: Art Buzz) [Lindsay Pollock]
Young Archer via NY Post
-The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Young Archer yet again excites a debate as to whether it is of Michelangelo’s authorship as the pros and cons are weighed down (Is This a Michelangelo?) [New York Magazine]
-The General deputy of the Bisclay County Council announces his intention to build a new annex of the Guggenheim museum in Urdabai [Art in America]
London mayor, Boris Johnson, plans to build a £15 million monument- an enormous rust-red tower funded by Britain’s richest man- Lakshmi Mittal, in celebration of 2012 Olympics, Gormley and Kapoor rumoured ot be in the running for the design [Guardian UK]
