Afro Apparition, Chris Ofili (b.1968) all pictures from Sotheby’s unless otherwise noted.

Today Sotheby’s London held their October Contemporary Art Auction to coincide with Frieze Art Fair which is currently underway in London’s Regent’s Park and art observed was on site with coverage.  The 223 lot auction comprised of work, in a range of media, by leading post-war artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Chris Ofili, Gerhard Richter, Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Frank Auerbach, Anthony Gormley, Farhad Moshiri and Yan Pei Ming. 73% of the contemporary works were sold and the eventual total of the sales came in at  12,757,125 GBP. All sale totals stated in this article include buyer’s premiums and come directly from Sotheby’s official website or courtesy of The Baer Faxt.

Fuego Flores, Jean-Michel Basquiat

Related Links:
Sotheby’s Homepage
Autumn Fairs are a Barometer for the Art Market [NYTimes]
Can Frieze reheat the art market? [The Independent]

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Skull with Ashtray and Lemon, Damien Hirst (2006/07) via Wallace Collection

Currently on show at the relatively traditional Wallace Gallery in London is, “No Love Lost: Blue Paintings,” an exhibition of 25 paintings by the multi-millionaire artist Damien Hirst.  Not only is this exhibition unusual in its location, but it, most importantly, sees Hirst steer dramatically away from the work for which he is best known.  Through this exploration Damien Hirst has placed himself a bit in the firing line and faced an significant amount of hard-hitting criticism.

Damien Hirst reflects amid his exhibition at the Wallace Collection via The Londonist

Related Links:
The Wallace Collection Homepage
Damien Hirst – The Blue Paintings at the Wallace Collection review [The Telegraph]
Dark days for Damien Hirst [Reuters]
Insult to Old Masters [TimesOnline]
Hirst abandons sharks, butterflies for oil painting: Interview [Bloomberg]
Are Hirst paintings any good? No. They are not worth looking at. [The Independent]
Damien Hirst: Dead on arrival [TIME]
Damien Hirst enters his Blue Period with imitations of mortality [The Guardian]
Stop it Damien Hirst. You’re just embarrassing yourself [The Evening Standard]
It couldn’t get worse for Damien Hirst [The Telegraph]
Hirst sets sights on joing Old Masters [Financial Times]
Damien Hirst at the Wallace Collection – review [Londonist.com]
Damien Hirst might have forgotten that he couldn’t paint [The Telegraph]
Damien Hirst at the Wallace Collection, W1 [TimesOnline]

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Frieze Art Fair entrance in Regent’s Park, London

Art Observed is currently on site at the seventh edition of Europe’s largest contemporary art fair: Frieze which is on show in London’s Regent’s Park through October 18th.  The 164 exhibiting galleries represent the most exciting contemporary artists working today and for the past two years Frieze Art Fair has attracted over 60,000 visitors over the three day period for which it is active.  In addition to this, the fair not only attracts curators and collectors but encourages participation by all: over the three days the fair presents a curated program of talks, artists’ commissions and film projects, many of which are interactive or performative and encourage visitors to engage with art and artists directly.

A view of the booth of Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin with work from Xavier Veilhan in the foreground and Duane Hanson in the background at Frieze Art Fair via abcnews.go.com

Related Links:
Art out of the ordinary [TimesOnline]
Frieze gets off to fizz-popping start [The Guardian]
A chair you can actually sit on [WSJ]
Autumn Fairs Are a Barometer of the Art Market [NYTimes]
Abramovic, Paltrow browse at Freize as buyers haggle [Bloomberg]
Chill of recession hits London Frieze art bonanza [Reuters.com]
Introducing the Frieze Art Fair [Telegraph.co.uk]
Party of the Weel: No sign of the Crunch at Frieze Art Fair [The Independent]
Recession chill hits Frieze Art Fair [Channel4.com]
Roll up for moody modern masterpieces:it’s the Frieze art fair [The Guardian]
Frieze Art Fair Opens to Steady Sales, Gray Art [WSJ]
Frieze Art fair: test your knowledge. A quiz to find out if you’re an art aficionado or Frieze faker [The Guardian]
London Calling a Spate of Artists to their Openings [NYTimes]
More text and images after the jump….. (more…)

Vincent van Gogh, “Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night” (1888). Via How Stuff Works

Beginning in January 23, 2010, the Royal Academy of Arts will host a landmark exhibition of Vincent van Gogh’s work with a focus on his private correspondence through letters. Over 35 original letters penned by Van Gogh will be showcased in this exhibition along with approximately 65 paintings and 30 accompanying drawings. The letters, as the centerpiece of the exhibition, will tie together the principal themes found in the actual artwork.

Related Links:
The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters [Royal Academy of Arts]
Van Gogh’s letters: the definitive edition [The Art Newspaper]
What Van Hogh’s letters reveal of his life [Financial Times]
The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters [Art Museum Journal]

Vincent van Gogh, “Van Gogh’s Room at Arles” (1889). Via Scituate.

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Installation view of Sol LeWitt’s ‘Forms Derived from a Cube’ via PaceWildenstein

Currently on view at PaceWildenstein‘s East 57th Street location is Sol LeWitt‘s ‘Forms Derived from a Cube,’ an exhibition featuring wall drawings, gouaches, and sculptures from the 1980s.    LeWitt used the form of the cube to create a vocabulary that formed the basis of his practice throughout his career. As a universal form, the cube requires no interpretation on the part of the viewer and allowed the artist to create a multitude of figures and images using only an essential idea.

Sol LeWitt: Forms Derived from a Cube [PaceWildenstein]
Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retrospective [MASS MoCA]

Installation view of Sol LeWitt’s ‘Forms Derived from a Cube’ via PaceWildenstein

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Jeff Koons’s giant rabbit at the Covent Garden in London via Hypebeast

A giant helium-filled Jeff Koons balloon made its UK debut on October 8th, the inflatable rabbit floated above central London, it will be displayed in Covent garden [The Independent]
Coinciding with the Frieze fair, the 10th Turbine Hall commission launches, Baldessari’s retrospective opening the same day, Hayward Gallery presents Ed Ruscha, Turner Prize coming up and many other shows and openings, turn London into the center of attention [Guardian UK]
Frieze art fair excites not merely the International art scene, but also the social diaries of those who like to mingle with the rich and famous [Guardian UK] the contemporary art event even has installations to turn its visitors into the subjects of the artwork. [The Independent] Only displaying works by contemporary living artists, Frieze has been considered 1-dimensional in the past. Frieze helps London take over the art world in October [The Independent]- but not without competition, as FIAC, the Parisian fair, is to begin next week and may steal the battle as art collectors in today’s economic climate are forced to pick which fairs they will be attending [The Wall Street Journal]

Unrecognized work by Leonardo Da Vinci via Antiques Trade Gazette

A drawing sold at auction for $19,000 in the late 1990s is now attracting attention for its authorship, if by Leonardo Da Vinci, a theory that recent research strongly suggests, the work could be worth as much as $147 million [Bloomberg]
The Wapping Project in London, often compared to Tate Modern, is expanding with the opening of the Wapping Project Bankside- a new gallery reminiscent of a New York loft to feature film, video and photography almost “a stone’s throw” from Tate [The Moment]
The Whitney Museum of American Art’s plans for a second Renzo Piana location have advanced [The New York Times]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week … (more…)

Kathy Grayson, center, at the opening of ‘New York Minute’ via Depart Foundation

New York City has been the center of the contemporary art world for over half a century, and while contemporary art production and dissemination has been influenced by globalization, with new centers of of activity gaining recognition around the world in cities such as Berlin, Moscow, or Shanghai, there’s still something about New York that attracts new and established artists alike. ‘New York Minute’ is an exhibition produced by the young Italian philanthropist Pierpaolo Barzan’s DEPART Foundation to bring the energy and sense of community found in New York’s downtown art scene to Rome, hosted by Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma (MACRO).

‘New York Minute’ brings together sixty artists who live and work in New York, or are involved in its extended network, and showcases new tendencies in art that have developed out of that community. Curated by Kathy Grayson, director of New York’s Deitch Projects, the exhibition groups those new tendencies under three headings: the brash and gritty street punk aesthetic of artists such as Dash Snow, Terence Koh, Aurel Schmidt, the rainbow inflected wild figuration of Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Paper Rad, or Jules de Balincourt, and the new abstractions of artists including Tauba Auerbach, Xylor Jane, and Dan Colen.

The opening night brought thousands of young Romans looking to vibe on the energy brought to the city by the New York contingent. Kathy Grayson answered ArtObserved’s questions about what makes the New York scene so special, how ‘New York Minute’ is spreading its infectious communal energy, and what the plans are for the future.

DEPART FOUNDATION BOWS WITH “NEW YORK MINUTE” [Artnet]
New York Minute [Art in America]
Minute Made [Artforum]
Sixty New York-Based Artists Featured in Exhibition at Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Roma [ArtDaily]
The Heart of the New York Art World Beats in Italy at the “New York Minute” Show [Paper Magazine]
It’s a New York Art ‘Renaissance,’ Argues Upcoming Show [NYMagazine]
Wine-Maker Uncorks New York in Rome [Bloomberg]
New York Minute with Dash Snow, Aurel Schmidt, Barry McGee and Others [The Fader]
“New York Minute” exhibition [SLAMXHYPE]

The logo of ‘New York Minute’ by Chris Johanson via Depart Foundation

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Minutes before the silent auction begin

Held in Sotheby’s New York on October 7th, 2009, the 18th Annual Take Home a Nude event manages yet again to attract not merely those who belong to the social circles of the art world, but also guests and celebrities who may not immediately connote that world. A wide variety of works and artists were represented at the event, and although some of the names, such as those of Jeff Koons and Eric Fischl could contribute to an environment of favoritism, there was pleasantly enough no hierarchy in the curatorship, neither of the event, nor the show.

Related Links:
Take Home a Nude [New York Academy of Art]
Liev Schreiber eyes “Take Home a Nude” benefit at Sotheby’s [NY Daily News]
Take Home a Nude [Interview]
About Last Night… The “Take Home a Nude” Benefit Auction [PaperMag]

Dustin Yellin, Anatomy No 2, presented as one of the works on “Take Home a Nude”, this piece is almost a 3 dimensional painting trapped in a rubber box

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Silver Lake Operations #15 (Lake Lefroy, Western Australia, 2007) – one of Burtynsky’s industrial landscapes in Hasted Hunt Kraeutler show via Edward Burtynsky Studio

Edward Burtynsky: Oil has opened at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler on October 1st to compliment the concurrent show at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The exhibits showcase the profound work of a socially conscious Canadian photographer who has dedicated his career to documenting the changing landscape of our planet. “Oil” is series that encompasses the various stages in life of the controversial substance – petroleum, from its extraction from the depths of the Earth’s deposits to human widespread consumption to possible depletion. Burtynsky’s epic landscapes and personal efforts to bring a discussion on sustainability to the public eye were a subject of “Manufactured Landscapes” shown at Sundance Film Festival in 2007.  The show runs until November 28th, 2009.

Edward Burtynsky: Oil from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

Related links:
Edward Burtynsky Studio
Oil Exhibition [Hasted Hunt Kraeutler]
Burtynsky Profile [TED]
Burtynsky’s Fuel for Thought [Washington Post]
Oil Exhibition at Corcocan Gallery [Foreign Policy]
Eco Documentaries – Manufactured Landscapes: The Green [Sundance Channel]
Artist of the Month [Slate]
Framing Global Capitalism [The TYEE]
China: Photographs and Audio commentary [Lens Culture]

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

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Andy Warhol, “Camouflage” (1986). Via The Warhol.

Before going on national tour, the Milwaukee Art Museum will be showcasing the later works of Andy Warhol in an exhibition titled “Warhol’s Last Decade.”  The exhibition promises to be the first United States art show to focus exclusively on Warhol’s last pieces. Containing around 50 works lent by private collectors and institutions including The Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the exhibition is divided into thematic sections like abstract works, collaborations, black-and-white ads, camouflage patterns, oxidation paintings, death and religion pieces, self-portraits, and Warhol’s Last Supper series. This exhibit is one of three shows with a focus on Warhol’s life and career. The others, which are currently on display, are “Andy Warhol: Pop Star” and “Figurative Prints: 1980s Rewind.”

Related Links:
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Andy Warhol: The Last Decade
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Joseph Ketner on Andy Warhol’s Last Decade
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Milwaukee Art Museum Displays Works from Andy Warhol’s Last Decade [Washington Examiner]
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Recap: Andy Warhol: The Last Decade [The Decider]
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Milwaukee museum displays Warhol works [SF Chronicle]
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Warhol: The Last Decade [Capitol Times]
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Exhibit of Warhol’s Late Work Opens at Milwaukee Art Museum [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel]

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‘Mark Leckey in the Long Tail,’ Amy C. Elliott © 2009

Last weekend was the fifth performance in the Museum of Modern Art’s Performance Exhibition Series.  British artist Mark Leckey, who won the Turner Prize last year, gave the North American premier of ‘Mark Leckey in the Long Tail,’ described as ‘part lecture, part monologue, and part living sculpture.’ The Long Tail is an idea originally described by Wired’s Chris Anderson, which explains business and broadcast distribution adhering to a 20-80 Pareto curve, with the top 20% of items vastly more popular.  As the Internet disseminates media and corporate hegemony, countless niches have opened up and been made readily accessible to consumers. Companies like Amazon.com and Netflix are able to offer more items at lesser volumes.  Those niche interests represent the Long Tail.

Leckey’s talk applied the theory of the Long Tail to his own research of images. Beginning with a photo of a Felix the Cat sculpture in an NBC studio, Leckey explained how he was able to discover the origins of the photo and the meaning behind its mise-en-scène through exploring varied, and often quite small, communities online.

Performance 5: Mark Leckey [MoMA]
Mark Leckey [Gavin Brown’s Enterprise]
The Long Tail [Wired]
Interview with Mark Leckey [Rhizome]
Mark Lecky in the Long Tail at MoMA [ArtReview]
Mark Leckey Wags the Long Tail [Artinfo]
Mark Leckey in a Long Tail World [Frieze]
Arts Watch [The Lowdown]
An American Tail [ArtForum]
Mark Leckey wins UK’s 2008 Turner Prize [ArtObserved]

‘Mark Leckey in the Long Tail,’ courtesy Amy C. Elliott © 2009

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Installation view of Cy Twombly’s sculpture show via Gagosian Gallery

The Gagosian Gallery Uptown is currently exhibiting the recent sculpture works of Cy Twombly. The show coincides with several others around the world that highlight diversity of themes and media that comprise Twombly’s oeuvre. Among these is the inaugural exhibition of Gagosian Athens outpost titled “Leaving Pathos Ringed with Waves” assembled of the artist’s  four new paintings. The other two exhibits are “Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works, 2000-20007” at the new wing of The Art Institute of Chicago and “Cy Twombly: Sensations of the Moment” held at Museum Mederner Kunst, Vienna. The New York-based show is on view until October 31st, 2009.

Cy Twombly in front of one his paintings via The Guardian

Related links:
Gagosian Gallery
Cy Twombly Press Release [Gagosian]
Gagosian Athens Inauguration Press Release [Gagosian]
Cy Twombly: The Natural World [The Art Institute of Chicago]
Cy Twombly: Sensations of the Moment [MUMOK]
Jonathan Jones on Cy Twombly [The Guardian]
Eli Broad Bags a Twombly at Gagosian [Lindsay Pollock blog]
Cy Twombly “Eight Sculptures” [NY ArtBeat]

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Xavier Veilhan Photo ©: François-Thibaut Pencenat

One of the most prominent French artists, Xavier Veilhan, created a site-specific show at Versailles to run through December 13, 2009. Recognized for his work that transcends disciplines and employs an array of mediums, Veilhan, unlike many contemporary artists, makes art historical references while maintaining his very own recognizable style. Oftentimes, it is in recreation of the archetypal that the French artist’s singularity is manifested.  Figures and forms rooted in the collective memory of art history seem to be stripped down in their physicality, yet the very act of reduction translates into a broader measure of proliferating rather than voiding, when it is directed towards the archetype.

Fascinated by modernity, Veilhan considers the notion in its historical expression: “after World Wars I and II, it is difficult to feel the same way that Boccioni did with the idea of modernity,”  explains the artist. Similarly, his interests while transcending the imposed boundaries of present disciplines, stay respectful and sensitive to the complexity of their past.

Interview with Xavier Veilhan:

Manan Ter-Grigoryan for Art Observed: To jump right in, tell me how it all started for you. Not in Versailles, but your path as an artist?

Xavier Veilhan: I grew up in boring suburbs… and I saw that for a lot of art students there was a lot of art but also a lot of partying! (Laughs) It was a time of new radio, free radio; I worked a little bit in the radio. There was lot of traveling… I traveled to Germany, studied a little bit in art school. It was a very carefree time. I met a lot of people in those times… then I started to get more focused on visual arts and work with Pierre Huyghe and that’s when we started doing some shows. In 1989 I had my first solo show in Italy. It was important to use a kind of universal language for me, to be international.

Xavier Veilhan for Versailles via Chateau de Versailles

Interview and more images after the jump… (more…)

Kirsten Dunst on the set of a production by Takashi Murakami in collaboration with McG via aarting

Tate Modern’s “Pop Life: Art in a Material World,” features a video that is a collaboration between McG – famous Hollywood director, and Murakami – Japan’s king of pop art: starring actress Kirsten Dunst on the streets of Akihabara in Tokyo for “Turning Japanese” by rock band The Vapors [The Wall Street Journal]
A 1984 work by Chinese artist Li Keran sold for $940,000, the most for a print at a Hong Kong auction, where bidding led by mainland buyers has taken many prices several times above estimates [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s Asia sales in Hong Kong revealed that demand for Chinese paintings, while firm, is mixed; as the market is still vulnerable, less pricey, quality pieces were the ones to realize numbers higher than their estimates [Reuters]
Works including those by Renoir, Pollock, Degas and Rembrandt stolen from the home of a retired Harvard Medical School professor and collector, and his business partner; only authentic pieces were taken, leaving behind impeccable reproductions [Boston Globe via Art Market Monitor] in related Uncooperative and unable to produce evidence that the stolen art existed, Angelo Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, become suspects of the theft to which allegedly they are victims [ArtDaily]

Tracey Emin via Guardian UK

Discouraged by British government’s top rate tax, Tracey Emin threatens to abandon England for France where she claims the politicians understand the importance of supporting culture and art [Guardian UK] in related At the London’s Frieze Art Fair, in the booth of New York’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Tracey Emin, known for her confessional artwork, is offering to make customized artworks based on answers to fifteen personal questions [Artinfo]
Fanjul paintings nationalized by Cuba in an exhibit in Museo del Prado in Madrid involve legal consequences as the Museum is being investigated by the US department of state for illegal trafficking of a work of art owned by US citizen confiscated by Cuban government [The Art Newspaper]
Turner Prize exhibit at Tate Britain in London this time startles the viewers with the lack of now expected blood, outrage and other shock factors [Bloomberg]
The Bloomberg administration makes an announcement of its plan to give nonprofit cultural groups access to gallery and theater space in city owned properties and help artists develop business plans [Crain’s Business]

Donald Judd concrete constructions in Marfa Texas via Hip-Ster-Krit

6 of 15 concrete constructions built by Donald Judd in Marfa Texas required repair and conservation work, October 10th the works will once again be open to the public [Artinfo]
A look at the Chinese Gao brothers who are shocking their country with brave, politically challenging art works, such as a life-size sculpture of Mao whose body is only reunited with his head on ‘special occasions’ [The New York Times]
When most artists’ prices are decreasing in a recession, a few go up: Italian Maurizio Cattelan is one of those who thrive in the tough economic times, an analysis of his work reveals some truths on the variables of the art market [The Economist]

Damien Hirst posing in front of his work via ARTblog +

A portrait of Damien Hirst built through an interview: his influences, unusual artistic paths (such as painting) and mediums to come, and a subjective depiction of the artist’s personality [Times Online] in related Hirst tells BBC that he will not be producing large scale installations and will rather concentrate solely on painting by applying oil to the canvas with his hands, something he has been secretly doing these recent years [BBC] and in related the FT reports that Hirst lays off much of his staff, closes two studios and is actually making paintings himself; while the galleries give no comments on the unsold works worth millions [Financial Times]
As art fairs struggle to retain exhibitors, a new modern and contemporary fair in Abu Dhabi signs up forty-eight names, including PaceWildenstein, Gagosian, Acquavella and White Cube [Lindsay Pollock] related 50 paintings from the New York Guggenheim Museum to be shown in Abu Dhabi [Arts Abu Dhabi]

‘Fuego Flores’ by Jean Michel Basquiat via Auction Publicity

Sotheby’s October Contemporary Art Auction, estimated to realize in excess of £9 million, will include works by leading artists, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anish Kapoor, Andy Warhol, Chris Ofili, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley and Yan Pei-Ming [Auction Publicity]
Following in the footsteps of Anselm Kiefer and Toni Morrison, Umberto Eco has been named the next guest curator at the Louvre; the show “Vertige de la Liste” (Vertigo of Lists) will revolve around his chosen theme “the list” [Artinfo] in related news, talks are underway to open a McDonald’s restaurant and a McCafé at the Louvre next month [Telegraph]
An art dealer from Stockholm, Sweden has been accused of faking works by heavyweight modernists including Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele [Artnet]

Child of lonely – performance by Terence Koh October 6 at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Photo Olivier Zahm via purple DIARY

Terence Koh prepared his first solo show at the Parisian gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, which takes a form of an imaginary opera in eight acts, the first act taking place October 6, 2009 [The Art Newspaper]
The four artists shortlisted for Turner Prize 2009 are: Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright; the winner is to be announced December 7th [Turner Prize 2009]
Jerry Saltz writes about new galleries emerging despite the economic crises, provides a list of new galleries to see and comments on the effects of the recession on the female artists [New York mag]

The current state of the building to house Sperone Westwater and the computer rendering of it via Lindsay Pollock

A concrete foundation is rising at the site of the future Sperone Westwater gallery designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster on the Bowery; the 10 story building will rise only one block away from New Museum [Lindsay Pollock]
As opposed to expanding outside their home in LA, Tim Blum and Jeff Poe open a new 21,000 square foot space conveniently located in front of their existing gallery on South La Cienga Boulevard, Los Angeles [Los Angeles Times]

Jacket designed by JR via The World’s Best Ever

A jacket from JR’s Face2Face Project comes in a limited edition of only 100 [The World’s Best Ever] in related A video interview with JR in Paris about his project Women are Heroes, which allows the viewers to call a number and hear an interview with one of the chosen women for the project [Vernissage TV]
An interview with Dasha Zhukova that notes her easy acceptance in the art world [Guardian UK]
28 as opposed to 40 exhibitors had pulled out of the Frieze Art Fair, yet despite the equally disappointing numbers, many lesser known, but in no way inferior galleries, will get a shot at the famous art fair [Telegraph]

Miranda July via Vice

Miranda July creates a series of photographs to imitate and bring attention to the extras in iconic movies [Vice]
An Italian professor, Dr Seracini, has been working on technology that can enable the search for the largest painting Leonardo da Vinci ever painted – The Battle of Anghiari, a work he believes to be hidden underneath the frescoes in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio [The New York Times]
MoMA received an unexpected gift this month – an estate, estimated to be worth more than $10 million, belonging to the late Michael H. Dunn, a bachelor from Derby, Vermont [The New Yorker]

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Svayambh, Anish Kapoor via The Guardian

Currently on show at London’s Royal Academy is a major solo exhibition of one of the most influential sculptors of our time, Anish Kapoor. The 1991 Turner Prize winner’s work has taken over the main galleries of the Museum and serves as a survey of his entire body of work to date, as well as introducing the viewer to new and previously unseen pieces.

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Anish Kapoor via The Royal Academy

Related Links:
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Royal Academy Homepage
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Anish Kapoor Official Homepage
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Anish Kapoor, Royal Academy, London [The Independent]
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Anish Kapoor: A very fine mess [Guardian UK]
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Kapoor Fires Cannon, Makes Mess at Royal Academy: Interview [Bloomberg]
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“Bloody” Anish Kapoor sculptures on show at Royal Academy [M&C]
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Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy [Times Online]
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Anish Kapoor [Guardian UK]
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Shooting Into the Academy [The Wall Street Journal]
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Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy, London [Financial Times]
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Bringing beauty and beast into the drawing room [Economist.com]
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Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy review by Lucy Charkin [fadwebsite.com]

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A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death, Takashi Murakami

Currently on display in a side room at Gagosian Gallery’s w24th Street warehouse complex, NYC  is Picture of Fate: I am but a Fisherman Who Angles in the Darkness of his Mind.  This is a one-painting exhibition showcasing a major new work by Takashi Murakami: A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death. This small show appears at the same time as the large exhibition of his work currently on show at the Emannuel Perrotin Gallery, Paris.

A Picture Of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death, Takashi Murakami

Related Links:
Gagosian Gallery Homepage
Takashi Murakami Does Death [NYTimes]
In Chelsea, a Chapetr in Abstract Art and Some Long Verse [NYTimes]
Murakami Confronts Mortality [The L Magazine]
Anselm Reyle and Takashi Murakami open at Gagosian Gallery [ARTCO]

More pictures and text after the jump…
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Maya Lin’s ‘Three Ways of Looking at the Earth’ via PaceWildenstein

Maya Lin’s first solo exhibition with PaceWildenstein, ‘Three Ways of Looking at the Earth,’ is currently on view in New York.  The exhibition includes three large-scale installations, excerpted from her museum show ‘Systematic Landscapes,’ which premiered at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle in 2006.  The sculptures look at different topographies, two real and one imagined, in a dramatic downshift of scale, allowing viewers to experience inaccessible or impossible landscapes in an unfamiliar perspective, challenging their relationship to the natural world. Lin remarked in the catalog essay for ‘Systematic Landscapes,’ “A strong respect and love for the land exists throughout my work.  I cannot remember a time when I was not concerned with environmental issues or when I did not feel humbled by the beauty of the natural world….these works are a response to that beauty.”

Maya Lin Studio
Maya Lin: Three Ways of Looking at the Earth [PaceWildenstein]
Maya Lin: Three Ways of Looking at the Earth [The Scout]
Maya Lin: Three Ways of Looking at the Earth [L Magazine]
Three Ways of Looking at the Earth [Examiner]

Maya Lin’s ‘Three Ways of Looking at the Earth’ via Maya Lin Studio

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Blue Mountain (1908-09) by Wassily Kandinsky, via The Guggenheim

Currently on view at the Guggenheim in New York is “Kandinsky”, a retrospective of the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky.  A visionary artist and theorist, Kandinsky was the pioneer of abstraction.  The first comprehensive exhibition of the artist’s work in the United States since three surveys which were displayed by the Guggenheim in the 1980s, the exhibition presents around 100 of Kandinsky’s most important works from 1902 to 1942 drawn primarily from the three largest collections of the artist’s work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, and the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau in Munich as well as also from significant private and public collections. The retrospective focuses on key events which shaped the artist’s life and oeuvre notably those of two world wars and the Russian Revolution. The retrospective also marks the Guggenheim’s 50th Anniversary celebration.

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Red Spot II (1921) by Wassily Kandinsky, via The Guggenheim

Press Release [The Guggenheim]
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The Angel in the Architecture [NY Times]
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Return of a Giant [WSJ]
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Kandinsky’s Influence on Painting Is Far-Reaching [Newsweek]
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Personal Photographs by Munter and Kandinsky Illuminate Guggenheim Retrospective [Artdaily]
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Falling Apart and Holding Together: Kandinsky’s Development [Artnet]
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A detail from Monet’s “Water Lilies” triptych via NYTimes

After a 7-year long absence, the Museum of Modern Art has brought its Waterlilies back along with an interesting recent acquisition and two paintings on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The breathtaking triptych still holds the power to engulf the viewer in its transcendent and meditative quality. The accompanying paintings complete the experience by physically surrounding one in their lightness of color, spontaneous and sometimes pensive stroke, and a velvet-like surface that suggests a deeper psychological imprint of Monet, who worked on these particularly large pieces for years towards the end of his life. The exhibition, occupying a specially intimate gallery space, will be on view until April 12th, 2010.

Related Links:
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MoMA Homepage
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Moanin’ With Monet [ArtNet]
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Serenade in Blue [NY Times]
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Water World [New Yorker]
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Monet’s Water Lilies Light Up MoMA [NY Sun]
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MoMA Presents… [Art Daily]

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

Detail from “Spiritual Americana” by Richard Prince via Telegraph.co.uk

On Tuesday the British Metropolitan Police visited the Tate Modern exhibition ‘Pop Life: Art in a Material World‘ to investigate the exhibition of ‘Spiritual America‘ by Richard Prince: an image depicting a 10-year-old, naked Brooke Shields. It was reported yesterday that officers were consulting with the Crown Prosecution service over whether the image breaches the Obscene Publications Act. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said, “The officers have specialist experience in this field and are keen to work with gallery management to ensure that they do not inadvertently break the law or cause any offense to their visitors,” according to the United Kingdom Press Association. The image has now been officially withdrawn from the show which opened on Monday.

Brooke Shields via People.com

Related Links:
Tate Modern
Richard Prince Website
Photo of nude 10-year-old Brooke Shields, ‘Spiritual Americana’, part of Tate Modern Pop Art exhibit [NYDailynews]
Brooke Shields picture withdrawn from Tate Modern show after Police Visit [Telegraph.co.uk]
Brooke Shields Controversy: Tate Modern exhibits hardcore porn in same show [Telegraph.co.uk]
Naked Police power in the Gallery [Guardian.co.uk]
Nude Brooke Shields photo “Spiritual America” closed-off from Museum-going public [WallStreetJournal]

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Jeff Wall’s ‘Knife Throw’ via Marian Goodman

Currently on view at Marian Goodman Gallery is an exhibition of new photographs in both color and black-and-white by Jeff Wall. In this exhibition, Wall continues to explore a practice of neo-realism and ‘near-documentary’ that has characterized his work over the past several years. Developing from a practice of documentary and reportage photography, Wall moved into a more cinematographic area of staged, studio photography. His recent photos represent a convergence of those practices.

Jeff Wall’s ‘Hillside in Sicily’ via Marian Goodman

Related Links:
Marian Goodman Gallery Hompage
Jeff Wall: artist’s page [Marian Goodman Gallery]
Jeff Wall talks about his work [MoMA]

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