A spiraling sculpture designed by Turner Prize-winning artist Anish Kapoor, in collaboration with leading structural designer, Cecil Balmond, has been chosen as the monument to mark the London 2012 Olympic Games. When finished, the 377-foot sculpture will stand taller than Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty and is set to dominate the east London landscape, perhaps as a permanent attraction for generations to come.  Kapoor and Balmond’s Orbit, which will be placed between the aquatics center and the main stadium, was chosen from a shortlist of three, beating tower-based bids by the artist Antony Gormley and the architects Caruso St John.Indian steel magnet, Lakshmi Mittal, is providing about $24 million of the total cost of the structure, with the remaining amount coming from the Greater London Authority. From the beginning, the award of the Olympics to London has been regarded as bad news and so, the unveiling of this colossal monument has provided much opportunity for jestering. Officially titled ArcelorMittal Orbit, suggested nicknames are rolling in thick and fast: The Guardian favored suggestions such as ‘The Leaning Tower of Umbilical Cord’, another suggested ‘Hubble Bubble’ or the ‘Colossus of Stratford’

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“The Clipper” – The Marianne Vitale Experience presented by Kunstverein NY at White Slab Palace. Photograph by Christopher Marcus.

On Saturday, March 28, Biennialist Marianne Vitale brought together a group of writers, performers, poets, and thinkers to realize a collaborative artist cabaret – THE CLIPPER. The performance was presented by Kunstverein NY as part of YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE AN HOUR AGO – a monthly series that is guest-curated by performance artists, filmmakers, and writers that will be presented at White Slab Palace on the last Sunday of each month, from 6-8pm. The evening staged gallery-grade performance art angst, supported by a full, live jazz/rock ensemble.  Taking us back to the Seventies (1970, 1870 and 1770) on a mock ship stage, replete with ol’factory mood-setting dead fish decoration, the experience meshed nightclub glamarama with Musikverein-ish social opera via a Royal-Court-like contemporary art jestering.  Characters got interactive with seaweed tossing, singing sailors and a happy sea-woman, amidst a revolutionary who cleans up the conceptual act after a human clam unloaded salty water onto the crowd.  Screaming drunkards, lovers, a dancing drag, and a silent naked golden muse masthead paint a tableau of today – lambasting fraudulent eco-capitalism, problematizing political pirates, and debating and delighting in dead-end debauchery.  The troupe delivered the evening’s themes, both simple and complex, to an audience who each shared a moment of their own stardom for some part of the rough half hour. The occasional reading from the script on stage reminded viewers that this was a coordination of mostly performance artists deft in-the-moment energy.

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“The Clipper” – The Marianne Vitale Experience presented by Kunstverein NY at White Slab Palace.

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Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, MoMA. Installation view with Portrait with Flowers, 2009. All photos by Ipek Irgit for Art Observed unless otherwise noted.

Marina Abramović is notorious for the centrality of her own body within her artwork. True, Abramović’s career can be read as a sort of bewildering physical endurance test, yet this would seemingly belie, a more important relationship than the artist to her own body, but the relationship between the artist, artwork and audience. In the case of her newest performance, The Artist is Present, part of the retrospective of the same name at MoMA, the artist is very much present, but most significantly the audience is present also.  In an interview on the MoMA website Abramović discusses her belief in the essential role the audience plays in performance art, if not all art work, “The work is done for the audience, without the audience the work doesn’t exist, it doesn’t make any meaning.”

Marina Abramovic, The Artist is Present, 2010

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Joseph Beuys, Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler (Make the Secrets Productive), 1977

Currently on show at PaceWildenstein, through April 10, is an exhibition of twelve rare Joseph Beuys sculptures. To complement this over 90 black and white Ute Klophaus photographs documenting the several of the artists ‘Aktion’ works will also be on display as well as four films of also documenting happenings in the series. Moreover, a separate screening room is showcasing rare footage and interviews with Beuys. As a whole this exhibition is truly unique particularly considering the infrequency with which these works have been shown; a show of this nature has not been arranged in New York in a number of decades. What is significant about such a show is it tests the limits of how much the audience really thinks they know and have seen of Beuys’s work. For someone so loved in America it exposes how little of the works we have seen in actuality. Very physically present works are well balanced by iconic performances that remain only through documentation and finally footage of the artist. One the gallery’s directors in conversation with Vernissage TV said that for him: “you have in America respect without understanding, or without any kind of depth to the experience.” This exhibition attempts to rectify this situation.

Joseph Beuys, La rivoluzione siamo Noi, 1972

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Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, 2010 recipients of the Pritzker Prize

Just announced, this year not one but two architects have been awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizama, the lead architects of the Japanese firm SANAA, were praised by the jury thus, “For architecture that is simultaneously delicate and powerful, precise and fluid, ingenious but not overly or overtly clever; for the creation of buildings that successfully interact with their contexts and the activities they contain, creating a sense of fullness and experiential richness; for a singular architectural language that springs from a collaborative process that is both unique and inspirational; for their notable completed buildings and the promise of new projects together.”

New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 2007

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Installation View via Artdaily.org

Currently on view at White Cube Gallery, 25-26 Mason’s Yard, is the exhibition of new works by a renowned German artist Franz Ackermann, titled Wait. It is Ackermann’s third exhibition at the White Cube, this time including not only his signature large-format canvasses on display on the lower level, but also an newer installation occupying the ground floor of the gallery.

The installation, which consists of artwork produced in the variety of media, centers around the painting titled ‘Citizen,” depicting a disproportional goggled face of a military pilot.   Among other components of the installation is a spinning wall-mounted painting, with seven deadly sins written on its frame, a video and chunks of raw wood randomly placed on the floor of the gallery.

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Installation View  All photographs are via Gagosian Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, 6-24 Britannia street, London is the exhibition titled “Crash, Homage to J.G. Ballard” , a group show dedicated, as the name suggests, to the oeuvre of J.D. Ballard, a prominent British novelist and short-story writer, a representative of the New Wave movement in science fiction.  The exhibition was put together to pay tribute to the enormous cultural influence of J.D. Ballard’s fiction on many visual artists. The impressive selection of works by  such prominent artists as Ed Ruscha, Richard Hamilton, AndyWarhol and Helmut Newton illustrates profound engagement of the writer with the works of visual artists of his generation and their mutual influence.

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Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010 Designed by Jean Nouvel via Serpentine Gallery

Jean Nouvel, winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2008, is to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion that will open in July on the Serpentine Gallery’s lawn in London’s Hyde Park – the Pavilion will operate as a public space, a cafe and a venue for ‘Park Nights’ until October. Over the past decade, Nouvel’s challenge has been undertaken by a whole raft of architectural luminaries, including Zaha Hadid, Olafur Eliasson, and Frank Gehry. This year’s design is a contrast of lightweight materials and dramatic metal cantilevered structures. The entire design is rendered in a vivid red reflecting the iconic British images of traditional telephone boxes, post boxes and London buses. The building consists of bold geometric forms, large retractable awnings and a freestanding wall that climbs 12m above the lawn, sloping at a gravity defying angle. It experiments with the idea of play in its incorporation of the French tradition of outdoor table-tennis.

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Rosson Crow, The Dakis Joannou Collection at the New Museum, 2010 All images via Deitch Projects

Currently in its last days at Deitch Projects 18 Wooster Street location is an exhibition of new paintings by Rosson Crow exploring the rebellious and lawless side of New York history. Entitled ‘Bowery Boys,’ the super-scale works comment on a long line of underground “bad boys” who have existed in New York City from the 1800s to the present day. Deitch Projects’ reputation for exhibiting and supporting the current generation of rebellious youth from this lineage makes this a fitting location for Crow’s sassy attempt to mimic the spirit of gangs, graffiti, drugs and illicit sex so inherent to the city she has called home for the past six months.

Rosson Crow, Bowery Boys, installation view

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View of Art Dubai in the Medinat Jumeirah – All photos by Art Observed unless otherwise noted

On March 17^th his Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai officially opened Art Dubai for its fourth edition.  The Middle East’s best attended contemporary art fair, this year record number of international and regional collectors attended the Jumeirah Patron’s Preview.  This year’s fair exhibited 1500 works from 72 leading International and regional galleries presented 1500 made by around 500 artists.

Visitors at Art Dubai, via Capital D Studio

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This morning ArtObserved attended the official press preview of New York’s latest public art show – Antony Gormley‘s ‘Event Horizon.’ Through August 15, 31 life-size figures cast from the artist’s own body will inhabit the pathways and sidewalks of Madison Square Park, as well as the rooftops of the many architectural treasures that populate New York’s Flatiron district, including the Empire State building. Event Horizon marks Gormley’s public art debut in the US – a milestone for an artist who has created some of the most important public art pieces of our time that include Angel of the North and Another Place in the UK. Antony Gormley originally created Event Horizon for London’s Hayward Gallery in 2007 – the sculptures were installed on bridges, rooftops and streets along the South Bank of London’s Thames River. Event Horizon will run together with Gormley’s Breathing Room II – on show at Sean Kelly Gallery through May 1, 2010. Full coverage of both events will follow shortly.

Antony Gormley introduces his installation this morning in Madison Square Park alongside New York’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg

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Gagosian Gallery, 17-19 Davies Street, London. All images via Gagosian Gallery unless otherwise noted.

Starting February 10, Gagosian Gallery at 17-19 Davies Street, London holds the exhibition entitled “Arshile Gorky: Virginia Summer 1946″, featuring works on paper by the renowned Armenian-American artist. The exhibition at Gagosian Gallery coincides with the major retrospective at Tate Modern, London that includes 178 works by the artist and covers his entire career. The show at Gagosian focuses on the works produced by Gorky during the summer of 1946, when the artist was recovering from a cancer operation in a remote farmhouse in Virginia. Still too weak to paint, Gorky produced three hundred works on paper during that summer, fourteen of which are on display at Gagosian Gallery.

Untitled (Last Painting), Arshile Gorky, 1948

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Luc Tuymans The Secretary of State , 2005 on display at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. All images via SFMOMA unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a very significant retrospective of the work of Luc Tuymans,  a renowned artist from Antwerp, Belgium.  This comprehensive retrospective is the first American show of such scale for the artist. The traveling exhibition opened in September 2009 at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, then on January 3, 2010 it traveled to SF MoMA. The show will then travel to Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. The exhibition features seventy five paintings produced since 1975 to the present. The retrospective is co-curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (and former SFMOMA Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture), and Helen Molesworth, Maisie K. and James R. Houghton Curator of Contemporary Art at the Harvard Art Museum (and former chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts).

CCTV, 2009

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Left: Self-Portrait Smoking Pot (In the style of Joe Bradley), Chris Martin (2009-2010) Right: Portrait of Joe Bradley, Chris Martin (2009)

Currently on show at Mitchell-Innes & Nash is a two person show featuring Joe Bradley and Chris Martin. The austere, often bare canvases by Bradley offer a dramatic contrast to the characteristically large, boisterous works exhibited by Chris Martin and so presented side-by-side, like a lecture in Art History, contrasting these sensibilities offers the viewer an opportunity explore the wide spectrum of today’s approach to the painting practice and, in turn, raises the question of movements in Contemporary art. The exhibition marks a continuation of an ongoing dialogue between the two artists from an interview published in ‘The Journal’ in Fall 2009 in which the two discuss an artists freedom to create without really knowing what it is they’re doing.

Untitled, Joe Bradley (2010)

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Lawrence Salander, flanked by attorney, Charles Ross (left) and son, Jonah Salander. Image via NY Daily News–>

Yesterday, the beleaguered New York art dealer, Lawrence Salander, pleaded guilty to engineering a $120 million art investment scam that duped wealthy clients including tennis star John McEnroe and actor Robert De Niro and financial institutions like Bank of America.  The one-time co-owner and manager of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries LLC, admitted to an array of schemes, from selling shares of the same work of art to multiple owners to selling artwork and pocketing the proceeds.  Salander, who filed for bankruptcy in 2008, is expected to be sentenced to six to 18 years in prison and must pay $120 million in restitution to victims under a plea agreement. in which he pleaded guilty to 28 counts of grand larceny in state Supreme Court in New York.

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Another Nauman piece at PMA, which is exhibiting his audio shows “Days and Giorni” through April 4. Image via Art21.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, home to one of Bruce Nauman‘s earliest pieces, “The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths” (1967), is showing two new audio series by this much beloved contemporary artist. With this new exhibition, he tampers with time: in both “Days” and “Giorni,” multiple voices recorded separately recite the days of the week. “Days” is in English; “Giorni” is in Italian, and was recorded in a single day. Both fill the echoing gallery spaces of PMA until the show’s close on April 4.

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Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, Pablo Picasso (1903)

Christie’s, London have announced that they will offer an important and highly celebrated masterpiece by Pablo Picasso in their evening auction of Impressionist and Modern Art in London on 23 June 2010. Painted in 1903, Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, gained notoriety as the subject of a lengthy legal battle over how it came to be sold during the Nazis rise to power in Germany.  The painting had been consigned for sale at Christie’s in New York in November 2006 but was withdrawn from the auction at the request of the vendor, The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, after an 11th hour ownership challenge from German Professor, Julius Schoeps, based on the sale of the painting in the 1930s. In January this year, representatives of Mr. Schoeps announced they had reached a settlement agreement with the trustees of The Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, relinquishing all claims of title to the painting. The painting was acquired at auction in New York in May 1995 for $29.2 million by The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation – a charity founded by the celebrated composer in 1992 to promote arts, culture and heritage in Britain. On this occasion, Christie’s have valued the painting at £30 million to £40 million – potentially, a record-breaking price for the artist – and all proceeds will benefit The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation.

Related Links:
Record estimate for disputed Picasso painting [BBC News]
Christie’s to Offer a Famed Blue-Period Picasso [Art Info]
Lloyd Webber to Sell $60.9 Million Picasso Portrait for Charity [Bloomberg]
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Picasso set to raise £30m for charity [Telegraph.co.uk]
Lloyd Webber’s Picasso to be sold after Nazi row settled [AFP]
Picasso’s Absinthe Drinker set for auction [Times Online]
Andrew Lloyd Webber to auction £40m ‘Nazi’ Picasso [Daily Mail]
Lloyd Webber’s Picasso Finally Set for Auction [NY Times]
Picasso owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber sets record pre-sale estimate [Guardian.co.uk]

Liam Gillick, Discussion Bench Platform, 2010. Exhibition View

Currently on show at Casey Kaplan Gallery is an exhibition of new works by Liam Gillick. This is an exhibition of three parts; however, each eloquently converse and all display Gillick’s familiar brand of socially motivated neo-Minimalism and neo-Conceptualism. The Discussion Bench Platforms in particular demonstrates Gillick’s concern for public/audience participation and integration into the work. Furthermore, it is another manifestation of Gillick’s attempts to level the balance of functionality and aesthetic quality. Powder-coated aluminum benches are set up in the gallery space to compliment new discussion platforms converting the gallery into a designated space for thought.

Liam Gillick, Discussion Bench Platform, 2010. Exhibition View

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Time Stops but the Clock Disappears, 2008. (Spinning)

Don’t miss James Rosenquist’s exhibition of new works at Acquavella Gallery, New York. The exhibition is an extension of Rosenquist’s perennial fascination with the Universe and the Unknown, as well as Time and Space. The artist said of his obsession: “There’s so much we know nothing about.  Here we are in our natural environment and the mysteries of the universe are all around us. I want to paint these mysteries.” [Gallery Press Release]

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Last night, over 600 members of the New York art community rallied together at Sotheby’s for a silent auction in support of the ongoing effort by ‘Tools for Thought’ to help rebuild Haiti. Prominent figures in the art world were encouraged to sign and donate an object to be auctioned: inventory ranged from works of art to tools of the trade, also included were personally significant objects such as a skateboard that was donated by the artist Marilyn Minter. Among the most coveted items of the evening were works by Dan Colen, Roxy Paine and Aurel Schmidt. Guest were not only entertained by the bidding wars the ensued in the room and on the telephones, but were entranced by a beautiful set from the ‘Godmother of Punk,’ Patti Smith who also donated ‘My Horse in Namibia’ – a print featuring unique poetry by the singer (below).  Smith was not the only participating artist in attendance – amongst others Nate Lowman, Andrew Cramer, Aurel Schmidt, Andrew Levitas, Michael Clyde Johnson, Joe Bradley, Marco Perego, Kenny Scharf and Gordon Hull dotted the crowd.

Tools for Thought was formed in January 2010 by Diana Campbell and Julie Rgolia in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti that left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.  Still growing, the foundation hopes to continue in uniting the art community in this same manner, one project or region at a time.

Purple Tree by Dustin Yellin

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Candice Breitz, Factum Kang, From the series ‘Factum,’ 2009

Don’t miss Candice Breitz’s third exhibition at the White Cube in Hoxton Square, London. The exhibition, entitled “Factum” after Robert Rauschenberg’s almost identical canvases, Factum I and II, is an investigation into four twins and one triplet. Breitz has created beautifully intimate video portraits of each twin, which when coupled together in a kind of diptych, reveal the subtleties and nuances that make one individual. It is an extension of her perpetual fascination with repetition, identity and portraiture. By examining a phenomenon we wrongly presume as naturally and biologically identical we are encouraged to accept how very different twins really are.

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Robert Ryman at PaceWildenstein Gallery at 32 E 57 Street in New York.  Installation View.  All images via PaceWildenstein Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at PaceWildenstein Gallery is “Robert Ryman: Large-small, thick-thin, light reflecting, light absorbing” – the exhibition of thirty new paintings of the renowned minimalist American artists. Executed in Ryman’s signature monochromatic palette the paintings on display measure ten to thirty square inches and represent a wide gamut of experimentation in materials, including wood, MDF board, aluminum, and stretched cotton. The works appear strong and indestructible, although painted on the paper-thin material Tyvek. In addition to traditional graphite and ink, Ryman employs such painterly materials as acrylic varnish, enamel and epoxy. To hang the paintings to the walls, the artist will use regular staples, which are a traditional integral part of his aesthetics.

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Robert Ryman at Pace Wildenstein. Installation View

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Mark Rothko, Black on Maroon, Mural, Section 3 (1959), from “The Seagram Murals” via ArtInfo

Mark Rothko’s beautiful work The Seagram Murals returns to Tate Liverpool after more than twenty years since it opened the museum in 1988. The entire ground floor gallery has been altered for the show – the walls being painted grey according to Rothko’s specification and mood lighting installed in order amplify the dramatic qualities of the piece, creating a complete emotive viewing experience.

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Reclining Figure (1951), by Henry Moore, via The Guardian

Currently on view at Tate Britain is an exhibition celebrating the work of renowned sculptor Henry Moore (1898-1986).  With a display of over 150 stone sculptures, wood carvings, sculptures, bronzes, and drawings, the show revisits the legendary works of one of the masters of twentieth century art.  The show attempts to emphasize the revolutionary in Moore. It highlights his fight to preserve the figurative tradition for three decades by challenging and yet incorporating  elements of abstraction.

Seated Nude with Mirror (1924) by Henry Moore, via Tate Britain

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