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Sophie Calle, Photograph by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, courtesy the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Currently on view, through October 24th, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is a new exhibition from Sophie Calle. One of France’s most well known contemporary artists, Calle has most recently made her imprint on New York with her 2009 exhibition at the Paula Cooper Gallery with “Take Care of Yourself,” a body of work created for the French Pavilion of the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Organized by Whitechapel Gallery, London in collaboration with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in Tilburg, Holland, Louisiana Contemporary: Sophie Calle presents a number of playful works from 1979-2009, which blur the line between art and reality. Dabbling in adult affairs with the demeanor of an innocent, playing child, Calle often takes on the role of an undercover detective. Her conceptual works entice viewers with undertones of voyeurism, humour and subtlety.

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Installation shot, courtesy The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

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The Education of the Virgin, circa 1617, oil on canvas, which was recently reattributed to Diego Velázquez, at the Yale University Art Gallery. Image courtesy Yale University.–>

Just days after a Caravaggio masterpiece that had been stolen two years ago was recovered in Berlin, Yale University reported today that they have discovered a painting in their museum’s storage which could be attributed to 17th-century Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. In a statement released from the university, they relate that the discovery was made in the midst of a “multi-year preparation for a major renovation and expansion currently underway.”

In a thorough review of their vast holdings, this unsigned painting seems to have slipped under the radar, having been previously attributed to an “unknown 17th-century Spanish painter.” The work was donated to the Yale University Art Gallery in 1925 by two brothers, wealthy Yale alumni Henry and Raynham Townshend, whose family, from New Haven, had owned it for more than 40 years. At the time of donation, the provenance reports stated that the painting was 300+ years old and in poor condition, but after six years of recent study, the work has now been reattributed to the Spanish master himself, whose Las Meninas (1656) is one of the jewels of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.

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Ernesto Neto, posing on a landing in the interior of “The Edges of the World,” 2010, courtesy of the Independent.

Internationally renowned Brazilian artist, Ernesto Neto, launched Festival Brazil with his exhibition “The Edges of the World” at the Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre. The show, which Neto has been planning for over a year, is said to be the artist’s most ambitious exhibition to date. “The Edges of the World” consists of a series of interconnected site-specific installations in the Hayward’s two main galleries and on its three sculpture terraces. The Independent called Neto’s exhibition a “dazzling playground for adults.” A visit to the show is indeed an interactive experience as viewers are encouraged to engage with their surroundings and each other.

Ernesto Neto, the interior of “The Edges of the World,” 2010, courtesy of Fad.

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A work by Santiago Sierra, 111 Constructions Made with 10 Modules and 10 Workers (2004). All images by Art Observed unless otherwise noted.

It is not an accident that La Monnaie Vivante (The Living Currency), a performance art event after Pierre Klossowski, is being staged, or rather, experienced in Berlin. A bold experiment in deconstructing reality and fiction, the piece finds its place in a time when much of contemporary debate revolves around performance and participation art, as well as the a re-evaluation of the market value of an art object. La Monnaie Vivante, presented by Pierre Bal-Blanc as part of the 6th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art at Hebbel am Ufer, is an evolving and infinitely complex project that can be best characterized by its attempt to deconstruct memory as an archive, and in exhibiting content in an open and unstable format. Expanding upon the long tradition of experiential and participation art of Futurism, Dada, The Situationist International, and Fluxus, La Monnaie Vivante aims to establish a dialogue between current and historical investigation of the body in the fine arts and to activate further exploration of the concept of the body within domains of music, dance, and theater. Thus, this particular section of the Biennale becomes an arena for the possible merging and emancipation of form.

Audiences gathered and shifted in response to the events taking place in and around the theater.

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Image still from Christies.com video In the Salesroom: Andy Warhol’s Silver Liz, via Christies.com

The results of Christie‘s Post-War and Contemporary Art auction in London last night are a relief after this week’s lackluster Sotheby‘s auction and the let-down at Phillips de Pury & Co. on Thursday. The sale earned £45,640,200 against the pre-sale estimate of £40.9-58.1 million for 63 lots, selling 84% by lot and 85% by value (totals realized include buyer’s premium, estimates do not). The combination of higher-quality works, lower starting prices, and a greater variety of material presented is thought to have contributed to the success of the sale, even amidst a drop in the stock market.

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Tragic Anatomies (1996) by Jake and Dinos Chapman, via Artnet

Renowned advertising tycoon and art collector Charles Saatchi, 67, announced today that he would gift the Saatchi Gallery and over 200 works of art to the nation. Located in the Duke of York Square in Chelsea, the gallery will be renamed the Museum of Contemporary Art London in 2012 once Saatchi retires. The works which will be donated total more than $37.5 million and are situated in a 70,000 square foot gallery, one of the largest spaces in the world. Among the works to be donated  include Tracey Emin‘s “My Bed” (1998), Jake and Dinos Chapman‘s “Tragic Anatomies” (1996), Richard Wilson’s oil room (1987), and Kader Attia‘s “Ghost” (2007).

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Pablo Picasso, Personnage, 1971, courtesy of Jan Krugier Gallery.

Currently on display at Jan Krugier is a presentation of roughly thirty Pablo Picasso works, which, when seen together, showcase the development of the artist’s style throughout his career. The works in the show are either a part of the Jan Krugier inventory or the Mariana Picasso Collection. Second only to the Musée Picasso in Paris, the Marina Picasso Collection is the largest grouping of works from Picasso’s estate. Jan Krugier has been the exclusive agent of the collection for the last forty years. Many of the works featured in “A Century of Picasso” have never before been shown in the United States.

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