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John Baldessari, ‘Raised Eyebrows/Furrowed Foreheads: Airplane (Concorde),’ 2009. Via ArtNet.

Currently showing at the Greta Meert Gallery in Brussels are seven pieces from the latest series by American artist John Baldessari. The selection represents a continuation of previous series, in which Baldessari explored fragmented body parts, abstraction of facial expressions and the relationship between separate parts and the whole.   His former series, which came under the titles of ‘Noses & Ears, Etc.’, ‘Arms & Legs (Specif. Elbows & Knees)’, Etc, and ‘Prima Facie, Etc.’, in addition to his work at large, has emphasized the symbiotic relationship between painting and photography. In effect, Baldessari, who has shown in more than 200 solo and 900 group exhibitions in the United States and Europe, has been credited for having helped to establish photography as a more established artistic medium.

Related Links:
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Interview with John Baldessari. [Artnet]
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John Baldessari. [Baldessari]
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Baldessari and Ono Win Golden Lions. [LATimes]
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John Baldessari. [ArtWorks]
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Interview with John Baldessari. [Art and Culture]

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Popeye, part of the new Jeff Koons exhibition at the Serpentine by the same name.

Jeff Koons’s first major exhibition in a public gallery in England opens tomorrow.  The show at the Serpentine features works drawn from public and private holdings, and some new works on display for the first time.  The “Popeye Series” “creates a world beyond taste,” appropriation art at its finest.  The extraordinary and the mundane are put side by side: Popeye and and Olive Oyl are embedded in multi-layered paint.  Garbage cans and chairs, chains and even the occasional inflatable, are put to use in the sculptures of the “Popeye Series.”

Related links:
Jeff Koons: Serpentine Gallery
Jeff Koons Presents Works from his Popeye Series at the Serpentine Gallery in London [Artdaily]
‘Popeye’ exhibition by Jeff Koons comes to Serpentine Gallery [Times Online]
Koons, with eye for pop, brings Popeye show to UK [Reuters]
Jeff Koons Popeye Series At The Serpentine Gallery from July 2nd [FAD]
Jeff Koons is not just the king of kitsch [interview with the Guardian UK]

The Telegraph comments on the exuberance and humor in the Koons exhibition.

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Peter Doig’s ‘Night Playground’ sold for £3 million, beating estimates of £1.5-2 million, via Artinfo

Rounding out the summer auctions, Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale took in £19.1 million, coming in around the lower end of estimates of £17.4-24 million.  35 out of 40 lots sold, with rates of 88% by lot and 86% by value.  The top selling lot was a large Peter Doig painting, ‘Night Painting,’ which sold for £3 million, quite above estimates of £1.5-2 million. According to the NY Times, collector François Pinault was overheard calling the sale “solid” and “serious.” Though the total value realized represents a 78% drop from last year, the high sell-through rate, consistent among the fine art auctions this season, shows that the market has settled enough for the auction houses to accurately gauge what buyers want.

Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction [Christie’s]
Bidding Is Thin at Christie’s in London [NY Times]
Doig, Richter Sell as Christie’s London Auction Total Drops 78% [Bloomberg]
Market Motors Along at Christie’s Contemporary Sale [Artinfo]
Lot by Lot: Christie’s London Cont. Evening Sale [Art Market Monitor]
Lots of Profit at the Top [Artinfo] (more…)

A look at the Duane Hanson exhibition at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

Through July 11, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin is showing works by the late sculptor Duane Hanson.  The exhibition, titled “Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions),” is comprised of hyper-realistic depictions of lost souls, and loneliness, or taken literally, illusions of the lost.

Related links:
Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
Duane Hanson Biography [Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin]
Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin – Duane Hanson [ArtSlant]

From the Duane Hanson exhibition at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin.

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Ed Ruscha’s ‘That Was Then This Is Now’ sold for £713,250, falling between estimates of £600,000-800,000, via Phillips de Pury

Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale realized £5.1 million last night, missing its low estimate of £5.4 million.  With a much smaller and deeply discounted offering compared to last year’s sale, Phillips sold 30 out of 39 lots for a 77% sold-by-lot rate, beating last year’s rate of 66%.  However, this year’s totals represent a 79% decrease in value as last year’s sale brought in £24.5 million.  Conservative estimates helped, with many lots selling above their estimates.  The highest selling lot was Ed Ruscha’s fittingly titled ‘That Was Then This Is Now,’ going for £713,250, including buyer’s premium, putting it in the middle of estimates of £600,000-800,000.

Contemporary Art Evening Sale [Phillips de Pury]
Ruscha Canvas Leads a London Sale [NY Times]
Phillips Contemporary: That Was Then, This Is Now [Artinfo]
Phillips Sells 77% of Contemporary Art in London on Discounts [Bloomberg]

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Dan Graham, Girls Make-up room, 1998-2000. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

Dan Graham’s first U.S. retrospective is currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The artist’s work has been highly influential since the 1960’s.  He has close personal and professional ties with Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin and Mel Bochner and as of yet his work has been seldom collected or recognized in the U.S. The show features a comprehensive sampling of his body of work in media including installation, text pieces, performance and site specific sculpture. At the core of his work, Graham is investigating public and private cultural systems and the extent to which his playful, often comic, interference can alter the way individuals relate to their surroundings, themselves and others.

Dan Graham: Beyond [Whitney Museum of American Art]
Dan Graham: Be My Mirror [Art in America]
Retrospective of Pioneering Artist Dan Graham Opens at Whitney Museum [ArtDaily]
Dan Graham: Artist’s Talk 2007 [Tate Modern]
Interview with Dan Graham [Museo Magazine]
Dan Graham: A Round Peg [NY Times]
Dan Graham – Whitney Museum of American Art [ArtForum]

Dan Graham, Figurative,1965; published March 1968 in Harper’s Bazaar. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

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Gerhard Richter, Cow, part of an exhibition of the artist’s work at MKM. via the Albertina.

Until August 23, Museum Küeppersmühle is exhibiting 80 paintings by legendary German artist Gerhard Richter.  Comprised of works drawn from private collections Burda, Ströher, Böckman, and the artist’s own,  “Paintings from Private Collections” is an exploration of colors, of their uses and limitations.  Works included span much of the artist’s career, from the early 60’s to 2007.

Related links:
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter at the MKM
Gerhard Richter: Paintings from Private Collections on View at Museum Küeppersmühle [Artdaily]
Gerhard Richter ~ Paintings from Private Collections at Museum Kueppersmuehle (MKM) [Art Knowledge News]
Gerhard Richter Portraits [National Portrait Gallery]
Gordon Burn on the paintings of Gerhard Richter [The Guardian UK]

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Andy Warhol, ‘Silver Liz,’ 1963.  Employing the mass-media technique of screen-printing, Warhol created 13 portraits of Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her fame. Via Corcoran.

Currently showing at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais is a selection from the thousand or so portraits that Andy Warhol painted in 1962 and onwards.  During that time, Warhol produced commissioned portraits of film and rock stars, fashion designers, artists, politicians and more obscure personalities using his signature technique–silkscreens, reproduced serially.  A pioneer of the Pop Art movement, his use of image repetition was seen as a commentary on the nature of consumer society and mass culture, and his focus on personalities contributed to a revival of portraiture at large. As the artist prophetically put, “All my portraits have to be the same size, so they’ll all fit together and make one big painting called Portraits of Society.  That’s a good idea, isn’t it? Maybe the Metropolitan Museum would want it someday.”

Related links:
Hidden Depths: Paris Exhibition Aims to Paint Warhol as a Modern Master [GuardianUK]
Andy Warhol’s World Wide Comes to Paris [Reuters]
Saint Laurent Portraits Out of Warhol Show [NYTimes]
The Endless Fifteen Minutes [NYMag]
Christie’s Seeking Buyer for Warhol Mao in Hong Kong [ArtInfo]
Warhol Sales Make $10.5 Million as Sotheby’s Turns to Big Names [Bloomberg]

Andy Warhol ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat,’ 1982. Warhol collaborated with Basquiat, the American graffiti artist, in the 1970s and 1980s.Via Antiques.

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Portrait of Ivan Klioune (1913) by Kazimir Malevich, via The Guardian

Currently on view at Tate Modern is a ground-breaking exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Futurist Movement.  Launched in 1909 by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with the publication of the Manifesto of Futurism on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro, the Futurist Movement borrowed elements from Cubism and Divisionism in order to create a new style that broke free from tradition and expressed the energy and dynamism of modern life.

The exhibition highlights the work of key Futurists such a Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini as well as works by other major artists such as Braque, Malevich and Duchamp.

New Worlds: Futurism at Tate Modern [The Guardian]
Review: Futurism Falls Flat at Tate Modern [The Guardian]
Closet Thinker: Fashion goes back to the Futurists [The Telegraph]
Celebrating Futurism at the Tate Modern [Fadwebsite]
Futurism at the Tate Modern: A Glimpse into Tomorrow’s Whirl [The Telegraph]
Tate Modern: Futurism [The Art Newspaper]
Tate Modern Marks Futurism Centenary with new show [Reuters]
Tate Modern Show brings pivotal Futurist art works together for first time [This is London]
Tate Modern Presents Today First Large-Scale Showing of Futurism in Britain in Thirty Years [Artdaily]
The Futurists’ Futile Chase After Motion [NY Times]
‘Futurism’ at Tate Modern [FT]
Secret Bansky Show Opens Tomorrow [Artinfo]
Bansky back in Bristol for biggest British Exhibition [The Telegraph]

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Andy Warhol’s ‘Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Brown (Tunafish Disaster)’ sold for £3.7 million against estimates of £3.5-4.5 million, via Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London yesterday realized £25.5 million, near the top of its estimates of £19.8-27.4, with one of the highest ever sell-through rates as only 3 of the 40 lots went unsold. The pared down sale is only a quarter of the value of last June’s sale, but along with solid results at Christie’s and Sotheby’s Impressionist sales earlier this week and brisk sales at Art Basel two weeks ago, the art market appears to have hit its bottom and has started to stabilize.  However, the highest selling lot was Andy Warhol’s ‘Mrs. McCarthy and Mrs. Brown (Tunafish Disaster),’ selling for just £3.7 million, at the low end of estimates of £3.5-4.5 million, nowhere near the blockbuster prices of a year ago.

Contemporary Evening Sale [Sotheby’s]
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction Realised $41.9 Million in London [Artdaily]
Buyers for Warhol and Calder [NY Times]
Warhol Sales Make $10.5 Million as Sotheby’s Turns to Big Names [Bloomberg]
Slim and Conservative, Sotheby’s Sale Proves a Winner [Artinfo]
The London Art Scene Feels a Chill [Wall Street Journal]

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A view of the Cy Twombly retrospective at MUMOK.

A retrospective of Cy Twombly’s work is currently showing, for the first time in Austria, at Museum Moderner Kunst [MUMOK].  On view until October 11, the exhibition includes 200 pieces, ranging in medium from photography to painting, sculpture to drawing, as well as graphic works.  The exhibition, curated by Achim Hochdorfer, features works drawn mostly from private holdings.

Related links:
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Cy Twombly
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MUMOK: Cy Twombly
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First Retrospective for Cy Twombly in Austria at Museum Moderner Kunst in Vienna [Artdaily]
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Cy Twombly – Sensations of the Moment – Restrospective [FineArtPublicity]
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Cy Twombly’s Masterpieces Inaugurate Abbott Galleries for Special Exhibitions [FAD]
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Museum Moderner Kunst (MUMOK) opens First Retrospective for Cy Twombly in Austria [Art Knowledge News]

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Pablo Picasso’s ‘Homme à l’épée’ sold for £7 million, falling squarely within estimates of £6-8 million, via Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale last night in London yielded fairly strong results, due mainly to a slimmed down offering of high quality works. The 27 lot sale realized £33.5 million, towards the higher end of estimates of  £26.8-37.3 million, with only 4 lots going unsold and a sold-by-lot rate of 85.2% and a sold-by-value rate of 90.8%. Despite trouble finding sellers, choosing lots carefully paid off for Sotheby’s with spirited bidding throughout the auction. The sale’s big star, Picasso’s ‘Homme à l’épée,’ sold for £7 million against estimates of £6-8 million. Another late Picasso painting, ‘Nu debout,’ was the second-highest lot, selling for £4.3 million, above estimates of £3-4 million.

Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale Results [Sotheby’s]
Sotheby’s Lean Strategy Pays Off [NY Times]
Sotheby’s London auction hits target at $55 million [Reuters]
Picasso’s $11.5 Million Musketeer Tops Sale as Bargains Hunted [Bloomberg]
Homme a l’epee Sells for 7 Million and Leads Sotheby’s Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art [Artdaily]
Lot by Lot: Sotheby’s I/M London Evening Sale [Art Market Monitor]
Picasso Musketeer Tops Sale by Sotheby’s [NY Times]
En Garde! Sotheby’s Sells Picasso Musketeeer Painting for $11.5 Million [WallStreetJournal]
Picasso musketeers duel at London auction houses [The Art Newspaper]
Sotheby’s Imp/Mod Sale Small but Solid [Artinfo]
Summing Up Sotheby’s I/M Evening Sale in London [Art Market Monitor]
Homme a l’epee Leads Sotheby’s Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art [Auction Publicity]

AO coverage of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on Tuesday

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Claude Monet’s ‘Au Parc Monceau’ sold for £6.3 million, well above its high estimate of £4.5 million, via Christie’s

Yesterday’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie’s in London realized £37.2 million, falling shy of estimates of £37.8-51.7 million, including buyer’s premium. 30 of the 44 lots offered sold, with a rate of 68% sold by lot and 84% by value. The highlight of the sale was Monet’s ‘Au Parc Monceau,’ which sold for £6.3 million, far above its high estimate of £4.5 million. Joan Miró’s ‘Peinture (Femme se poudrant)’ also attracted spirited bidding, selling for just under £4 million, against estimates of £2.2-2.8 million. The star lot, a Picasso Musketeer painting, ‘Man with sword,’ sold for £5.8 million, in the lower end of estimates of £5-7 million. Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale takes places tonight in London.

Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale Results [Christie’s]
Only a Few Hills in the Valley of Christie’s Season-Opening Art Auction [NY Times]
£1.5m Pissarro painting looted by Nazis withdrawn from auction [Telegraph]
Christie’s London sale falls short of low estimate [Reuters]
Buyers Focus on Works Worth the Fight [NY Times]
Monet, Picasso Fetch $20 Million; Auction Shrinks 74% [Bloomberg]
Christie’s Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art in London Realises $60.4 Million [Artdaily]
Christie’s misfires on £37m Impressionist and Modern art sale [Wealth Bulletin]
Christie’s Kicks Off London Season With Modest Imp/Mod Sale [Artinfo]
Family wrangle halts sale of £1.5m Pissarro stolen by the Gestapo [TimesUK]
Family Dispute Halts Sale of Pissarro Stolen by Nazis [Artinfo]
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Damien Hirst’s Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain, currently showing at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show. via Pinchuk Art Centre.

The Royal Academy of Arts, in collaboration with the BBC, has opened its 241st summer exhibition, showing until August 16.  The show is coordinated by Royal Academicians Ann Christopher, Eileen Cooper, and Will Alsop, and sponsored by Insight Investment.  The Summer Exhibition seeks to encompass a range of works, in all media, by both well-known and emerging artists.  Included are works of photography, sculpture and architecture, printmaking, film, and painting.  This year’s theme, “Making Space,” reflects the inclusive spirit of the exhibition, which the Times has called “the art world’s annual jumble sale.”

Related links:
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Summer Exhibition [Royal Academy of Arts]
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Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009 at Burlington House W1 [Times Online]
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Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009, review [The Telegraph]
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RA Summer Show [The Guardian UK]

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Corrida In Ronda No. 5, by Eric Fischl. Courtesy of the artist.

The Jablonka Galerie’s current exhibition features paintings by Eric Fischl. The show is comprised of new works by the artist which are centered around a particular type of bull-fighting.  The so-called Corrida paintings are showing through July 15.The series focuses on the Corrida goyesca de Ronda, the tradition of the bull fight in the Andalusian city of Ronda. Since its inception in 1954 with founder Antonio Ordoñez, the Corrida fills the city every year with color.  Fischl has captured this celebration in his paintings, which will be hosted by galleries in New York and in Málagua following their current showing at the Jablonka Galerie in Berlin.

A view of the Eric Fischl exhibition at Jablonka Gallerie.

Related links:
Eric Fischl at Jablonka Galerie (pdf)
Eric Fischl [artist homepage]
Jablonka Galerie

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Gary Hume, ‘Two Girls,’ (2009).  Via Artnet.

Currently showing at Matthew Marks Gallery are 13 paintings by British artist Gary Hume.  Known for emerging onto the London art scene in the 1990’s with his ‘door paintings,’  Hume’s latest work evokes the rural environment of his studio space; an old barn in the Catskills of upstate New York, where all pieces were completed.  While representational paintings of hospital doors were found in Hume’s earlier work, his current show includes barn doors, along with images of blackbirds, roses and daisies, “all things he sees from his window.”

Related Links:
Gary Hume: Yard Work [Matthew Marks]
Gary Hume at Modern Art, Oxford [ArtObserved]
Art: In Living Color [VOGUE]
Profit and Gloss [Guardian]
Gary Hume Interview [White Cube]

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Pablo Picasso’s ‘Homme à l’épée’ estimated to sell between £5-7 million via Christie’s

The summer auction season starts next week with the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sales in London at Christie’s on Tuesday, June 23, and at Sotheby’s the following evening.  Both sales feature a late Picasso painting,part of his Muskateers series, painted by the artist on successive days and both titled ‘Man with a sword.’  The Sotheby’s Picasso is estimated to sell between £6-8 million and the Christie’s Picasso is estimated between £5-7 million. Both auction houses each offered a Muskateer painting in the spring auctions, with one failing to meet its reserve and the other selling for $14.6 million. This era of Picasso’s works has been enjoying a wave of popularity after Gagosian Gallery’s ‘Mosqueteros’ exhibition (as covered by AO here) earlier this spring gaining record attendance, as well as two major museum shows in Paris and London focusing on the artist’s late career. The Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sales take place on Thursday, June 25 at Sotheby’s, Monday, June 29 at Phillips de Pury, and Tuesday, June 30 at Christie’s.  Though healthy sales at Art Basel last weekend have boosted confidence in the market, this season’s estimates are down over 70% from last year.

Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Phillips de Pury Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Monday, June 29, 2009
Sotheby’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Thursday, June 30, 2009
Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale with Specialists Helena Newman and Alexander Platon [Video; Sotheby’s]
Contemporary Art Evening Sale with Specialists Oliver Barker, Cheyenne Westphal and Alexander Branczik [Video; Sotheby’s]
En garde! Rival houses offer Picasso musketeers [Reuters]
Can Buying Impressionist Art Make You Happy? [Wall Street Journal]
Christie’s Resumes Cutting Jobs After May N.Y. Auctions Decline [Bloomberg]
Battle of the Picasso paintings [TelegraphUK]
London Sales Estimates Down 70 Percent From Last Year [Artinfo]
Warhol, Prince Works Fail to Save Art Sales From 70% Decline [Bloomberg]
After Basel, Dealers Have High Hopes for London Sales [Wall Street Journal]
Artworks by Goya, Fragonard, David and Turner for Sotheby’s July Old Master Paintings Auction [Art Auction Publicity]
Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Auction Expected to Take £20 million [Art Auction Publicity]
Doig painting of Canadian childhood could fetch $3 M [Montreal Gazette via Art Market Monitor]
Duchamp, Miró, Marc, Monet and Picasso Highlight Christie’s Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art [Artdaily]
London Contemporary Art Auctions [The Art Collectors]
Phillips de Pury & Company Announce Highlights of the Forthcoming London Contemporary Art Sales [Artdaily]
Picasso, Monet and Giacometti, for Sotheby’s Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art [Art Auction Publicity]
Sotheby’s London Contemporary Art Evening Sale to Present Three Rare Andy Warhol Paintings [Artdaily]
The art market: Picasso endures [Financial Times]
Art Market Watch [Artnet]
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A sculpture of horses and a carriage at Versailles by Xavier Veilhan via artcollc

On September 13, Xavier Veilhan will follow in Jeff Koons’s footsteps by bringing contemporary sculpture to the Chateau de Versailles [ArtCoLLC]
On the lack of transparency in the art market reflected in this year’s Art Basel [Economist]
An interview with Chuck Close in which he discusses how his perceptive disabilities are reflected in his work [Wall Street Journal]

A still from Deadpan by Steve McQueen via the GuardianUK

Beginning July 1st, Creative Time will present Turner Prize winner and current UK Venice Biennale representative Steve McQueen’s Deadpan on the MTV screen in Times Square [Creative Time]
Parkett Art magazine marks 25 years this June 25th in Chelsea, NY [EFlux]
Conceptual artist Dan Graham is speaking at 192 Books in Chelsea, New York on Wednesday, July 1 [192Books.com]

Trafalgar Square’s empty fourth plinth, which will host Antony Gormley’s ‘One & Other’ via Guardian UK

The first round of participants have been announced for Antony Gormley’s living statue project: ‘One & Other,’ on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth in ondon [BBC]

A previous installation of Terracotta Army via VisitStHelens

In related, Anthony Gormley sets up his 40,000 figure “Terracotta Army” in a Devon, UK barn [TelegraphUK]
Dartmouth receives a $50 million donation to support the visual arts [Dartmouth]
Architect Richard Meier is designing major expansion for the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills [LA Times]

Picasso’s ‘Le Moulin de la Galette’ owned by the Guggenheim, allegedly sold under Nazi duress, via Artnet

Judge issues written memo chastizing MoMA and Guggenheim and heirs of Nazi victim for secret settlement over two Picasso paintings in restitution case [Bloomberg]
The Whitney kept it festive this week for its annual Art Party and auction in West Soho, New York [Park Avenue Peerage]
Behind the scenes shots of the making of Banksy’s Bristol exhibition [The WorldsBestEver]

‘Screentest’ for designer Adam Kimmel’s new campaign via Hint

Black and white films and stills by Andy Warhol’s long-time assistant Gerard Malanga from Designer Adam Kimmel’s look book, exhibited at Thaddeus Ropac gallery, feature art world figures Matthew Barney, Francesco Clemente, Ryan McGinley, Dan Colen, Aaron Young and Nate Lowman [AdamKimmel]

Still from Brett Gorvy’s interview with Andy Warhol’s assistant, Gerard Malanga, via Christie’s

In related (to the Kimmel story), Christie’s Brett Gorvy speaks Gerard Malanga on Warhol’s ‘Death and Disaster’ series [Christie’s via Art Market Monitor]

Moody’s, which currently has Sotheby’s bonds below investment grade placed its debt on review for a possible downgrade [Bloomberg] More on the damage to Sotheby’s profits here [ArtNewspaper]
Guy Bennett, co-head of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art department worldwide, resigns [NY Times]
Christie’s begins more salary cuts [Bloomberg]
Citing financial difficulties, Bellwether Gallery closes after a ten year run [Art Fag City]
the Art Institute of Chicago lays off 20 staff members [Chicago Tribune via Artsjournal]
With its endowment down by 18%, the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum will lay off 25 full-time staff [CrainsNewYork]
Art museum attendance in the US is down 23%-26% [ArtReview]
And a summary on the methods New York galleries are using to deal with the recession [NYTimes]

Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer

The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck is host to Jonathan Meese’s first major retrospective since Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen presented his works in 2006.  The show features nearly all of the artist’s sculptural work together for the first time, a number of large paintings, and sound and film installations. At the opening of the exhibition, Meese gave a performance, proclaiming the Arch-State of Atlantisis on the banks of the Rhine.  Meese takes up the mantle of Joseph Beuys, who used Atlantis as a symbol of the loss of natural spirituality. Beuys’s work touching on Atlantis, including his film trilogy ‘Atlantis,’ is represented in the exhibition, as well as work that came out of the Atlantis-Project of Helga and Hans-Jürgen Müller. Curated by Daniel Schreiber, the exhibition places Meese’s work in dialogue with that of Beuys and the Atlantis-Project. The exhibition is aimed at presenting “a world formula” that Meese claims will lead humanity towards the “dictatorship of art,” a utopic future that is a foundational strain in his work.

Arp Museum
Jonathan Meese: Erzstaat Atlantisis [Jan Bauer]
Jonathan Meese and his Ore State of Atlantisis [Goethe Institute]
Arts.21: Jonathan Meese – Arch-State of Atlantisis [Deutsche Welle]

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A line in  Scotland (1981) by Richard Long, via The Guardian

Currently on view at the Tate Britain is “Richard Long: Heaven and Earth.” This major exhibition is the artist’s first survey in London in eighteen years providing a venue on which to better understand the artist’s portrayal of the relationship between art and landscape. The exhibition features sculptures, large-scale mud wall works, and new photographic and text works which document his walks around the world.

Richard Long: Heaven and Earth [Exhibition Page]
Richard Long: Heaven and Earth at Tate Britain, review [GuardianUK]
Richard Long Retrospective at Tate Britain [Times Online]
Richard Long takes art for a walk at Tate Britain [The GuardianUK]
Richard Long at Tate Britain [Financial Times]
Art of the outdoors goes on show at the Tate [The GuardianUK]
A Hymn of Love to the Earth [The GuardianUK]
Take a Walk on the tame side with Richard Long [This is London]

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The Deste Foundation released this “preview” image days before “Blood of Two,” took place on Hydra Island. Via [The Moment]

Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton collaborated, for the first time, on an unusual exhibition this week. “Blood of Two,” a site-specific instillation, acted as an inauguration of sorts for the Deste Foundation’s move to their new “mysterious yet evocative”  location: Slaughterhouse, a project space on the Greek Island of Hydra.  Preceding the event was an exclusive dinner for the artists, collectors and curators, hosted by the founder of the foundation, art collector and Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou.

Related Links:
Arty Party, A Postcard from Hydra [The Moment]
Now Viewing, Blood of Two [The Moment]
Arty Party | A Postcard from Hydra [TheMoment]
Nobody Does it Better [Art Info]
The Deste Foundation [Deste]
Elizabeth Peyton at The New Museum [Art Observed]

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Installation view of Aleksandra Mir’s ‘Triumph’ via The Curated Object

‘Triumph’ at the Shirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt is Aleksandra Mir’s first solo show in Germany.  Inspired by a friend who had been a famous athlete in his youth and kept mementos of his achievements, Mir placed an ad in the local newspaper in Palermo, Italy, where she lives, asking for old sports trophies. Within a few months, Mir collected 2,529 trophies and had them cleaned and archived. In the exhibition, the trophies are displayed individually and in groups on plinths and the floor, or piled on top of each other like detritus. Mir explores the power of the trophy, both a coveted symbol of accomplishment and a garish, mass-produced item of little value.

Aleksandra Mir: Triumph
Shirn Kunstalle
Aleksandra Mir: Triumph [The Art Newspaper]
Venice Biennale 2009: interview with Aleksandra Mir [adgblog]

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A look at the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti, featured in an exhibition at Fondation Beyeler.

The summer exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, showing from May 30th until October 11, features 150 sculptures by the late Alberto Giacometti.   The exhibit is comprised of sculptures, drawings, paintings and more, drawn from museums, family holdings, and private collections.  Also displayed are works by Giacometti’s father, the painter Giovanni Giacometti; his brother Diego, a sculptor; and his uncle Augusto, who worked in paint and mosaics.

Related links:
Fondation Beyeler – Giacometti
Giacometti/Fondation Beyeler [Vernissage TV]
Fondation Beyeler Opens Exhibition Including Works by Alberto Giacometti and His Family [Artdaily]
Alberto Giacometti Biography [artDirectory]
Biography of Augusto Giacometti [Rai International online]
Art in Review: Alberto Giacometti [New York Times]

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In Ink Line, part of a new Charles Ray exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery, ink falls in a continuous line to the floor. Via 16miles.

Until June 27, the Matthew Marks gallery is home to an exhibition of three early works by Charles Ray.  Featured are Ink Line, Moving Wire, and Spinning Spot, constructed in 1987-88.  This exhibition is the first in which Ink Line is shown publicly, while Moving Wire and Spinning Spot are showing for the first time in over two decades.

Related links:
Charles Ray [ArtCat]
Charles Ray [Art + Culture]
Dude, You’ve Gotta See This [New York Magazine]
The Uncomfortably Great Charles Ray Show at Matthew Marks [The Village Voice: Bones]
Charles Ray at Matthew Marks Gallery [Art Observed, 2007]

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