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Spiegel in Kabine mit Passtücken (Spiegel von Michelangelo Pistoletto), Franz West (1996) Image Via Museum Ludwig

Currently on view at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne is Auto-Theatre – the first major European retrospective of Franz West. For this exhibition, West himself grouped over 40 works in themed constellations allowing the visitor to experience the sheer complexity and singularity of his oeuvre. The title Autotheater (Auto-Theatre) points to the performative, interactive dimension of his work and included are the West’s earliest Adaptives (Passstücke) and collages from the 1970s, papier-mâché sculptures, furniture and site-specific installations, his picture walls from the Eighties and his latest sculptures for public spaces.

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Olafur Eliasson, Multiple shadow house, 2010. Installation view. Images via Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.

Olafur Eliasson is currently on show for the sixth time at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, through March 20, in a spectacular exhibition that extends the artist’s study of modes of perception, specifically concerning one’s experience of space and time. In this instance Eliasson’s particular fascination is the phenomena of light, movement and color and the relationship between them.

Multiple shadow house, 2010. Installation view

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Os Gemeos, Rinha, 2010

On show at the Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milan, is the much anticipated “Nos Braços de um Anjo” (In the Arms of an Angel), the second exhibition of works by Brazlian twins Os Gemeos (Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo). This exhibition presents a series of entirely new, and previously unseen, works that include large canvases, musical sculpture-objects, mechanical and interactive site-specific installations actually created inside the gallery walls.

O Devoto, 2010
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Sarah Morris, “Beijing Intersecting” (2009), one of the proposals for filling the Guggenheim’s void as part of its 50th anniversary show. Photo by Art Observed.

AO was at the press preview for “Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim” as the museum celebrates the 50th anniversary of its Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on the East Side. For this new exhibition, organizer Nancy Spector commissioned two hundred proposals from artists, designers, and architects to fill the void.  Through April 28, proposals are on the walls of the Guggenheim, a set of dreams and interventions.

Detail from “Remember Beuys” (2009), by Bolles+Wilson, at the Guggenheim. Photo by Art Observed.

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School, 2008 Subodh Gupta [ All images via Hauser & Wirth unless otherwise noted]

Currently showing at Hauser & Wirth London, 15 Old Bond Street is “School,” a selection of most recent works by Subodh Gupta.  The show features forty five brass stools paired with stainless steel thali trays (traditional Indian trays with multiple compartments used for meals containing several dishes).

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Sterling Ruby, “Pig Pen” (2009-2010), on view at PaceWildenstein.

Through March 10, Sterling Ruby has two new pieces at PaceWildenstein’s downtown gallery.  On view are “Pig Pen” and “Bus,” two industrialized traps that confine, says a gallerist, humanity’s basic primitivism. This is an artist’s apocalyptic endgame.

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Sterling Ruby, “Bus” (2010) at PaceWildenstein.

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A photo taken with a mobile phone, although picture-taking was prohibited during the exhibition via NY Times

When Tino Sehgal‘s work took over the Guggenheim Museum in New York on January 29th it was a quiet experience. There were no opening parties, no fuss and none of that Art World glitter to make one jump from exuberant excitement.  The walls of Frank Lloyd Wright’s majestic rotunda were stripped bare and seem to have newly acquired a long lost naïveté.  The lobby still brimmed with crowds of people clustered around the impenetrable center. The Kiss unfolded, rolled and scattered itself in a graceful poise of a feline. The subtly choreographed sequence of animated poses referenced erotic works from Rodin, to Courbet, to Jeff Koons. Occasionally, a couple or a small group of visitors would creep closer for a brief encounter or settle in contemplative thought on the floor of the proposed stage.

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Every March for the past 12 years, artists, galleries, collectors, critics and curators from all over the world have made New York their destination during Armory week. Launching the week of cultural activities, Mayor Bloomberg predicted that 60,000 visitors are expected bring in around $44 million. The week’s main event, The Armory Show, opened its doors to a record number of VIP ticket holders yesterday morning reflecting a renewed optimism in the art market. This year, the show has expanded to include 285 dealers, up from 239 in 2009. Pier 94, at 12th Avenue and 55th Street, showcases 211 cutting-edge contemporary galleries, institutions and non-profit art organizations, a further 78 dealers specializing in Modern and Secondary market works at the adjacent Pier 92.

Jay Jopling shows a client around the White Cube booth, all photographs by Oskar Proctor for Art Observed

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Marina Abramovic and Klaus Biesenbach at Moma

Marina Abramovic gave a lecture Monday evening at the MOMA as a precursor to her major retrospective which will open there on March 14th. Abramovic has had a prolific career as a performance artist, much of her work pushes the boundaries of the physical body in endurance based pieces that posit her body as the art object.  The lecture was introduced by Klaus Biesenbach, director of MoMA’s PS1, as a way for Abramovic to speak before entering into a lengthy period of silence, a requirement for the main performance piece to the show, her longest solo piece ever performed.  She will spend over 600 hours in the museum over a period of three months without speaking or moving.

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“Eierstapel” (2009), part of the new Wolfgang Tillmans show at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans

Through March 13, Andrea Rosen is hosting 85 new works by the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, in an exhibition that diverges from much of his typical series. A picture of a baby opens the show, which includes pictures of the Gaza security fence, a triathlon, egg cartons, cities, nature… “Previous shows,” Tillmans tells Dominic Eichler, “…often included absurd moments and odd subject matter that had nothing to do with the core narrative of the ‘real’ utopias portrayed in my pictures. But this show reverses the balance – a few pictures from ‘my world’ are met with a majority of ‘outside’ world.”

Installation view of the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition at Andrea Rosen. ©Wolfgang Tillmans. Photo by Jeremy Lawson

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SEKU: Here at the Center of Pain is Radiance (2010), by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

Currently on view at Sadie Coles in London are new drawings by Matthew Barney in correlation with his project “Ancient Evenings,” a performance work in partnership with composer Jonathan Bepler. Intimate and delicate, Barney’s drawings allude to each of the seven acts emphasizing in particular the themes of mythology, death, rebirth, and reincarnation. The works are based on Norman Mailer’s erotic and allegorical novel Ancient Evenings (1983) which re-envisages ancient Egyptian mythology and the seven passages of the soul after death: Ren, Khu, Sekhem, Ba, Ka, Khaibit, and Sekhu.

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Djed: The Case for Saving Detroit (2010), by Matthew Barney, via Sadie Coles

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Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View All images via Hauser and Wirth unless otherwise noted

Currently showing at Hauser and Wirth Gallery, 32 East 69 St., New York, NY is “MONALISA”, an exhibition of works by an American artist  Ida Applebroog. The present exhibition is a debut of the entirely new body of work, with a centerpiece of a rudimentary wooden structure that the artist’s calls “MONALISA’s House”. The structure’s walls are covered by one hundred drawings of the artist’s genitals that she produced in the seclusion of her bathroom, while living in California in 1969. The artist speaks about her work: “It was a certain period of my life and before I got into the tub I’d sit with a full-length mirror on the floor. It was before my own radicalization.”

Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View

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Strange Attractors, Aki Sasmoto – all photographs by Oskar Proctor for Art Observed.

This week the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York opened its doors for the 75th edition if its defining exhibition: The Biennial. Simply titled, 2010, the show rejects an organizational theme and instead uses time as its marker in a matter-of-fact cross-section of American art today. The show is one of the smallest in the Biennial’s history – works by only 55 artists and collaborative teams are displayed on four floors of the museum’s ‘Breur Building’ in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. This year the entire third floor of the building has been taken dedicated video installation – first exhibited at the Biennial in 1975 – a sure sign that video work has now reached maturity, worthy of recognition as an independent art form. In addition, the museum’s fifth floor is devoted to artists in the Whitney’s permanent collection who have shown in past Biennials.

Francesco Bonami, Curator of Whitney Biennial 2010

Whitney Biennial 2010 – Interview with curator Francesco Bonami via VernissageTV

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“zycles 3075” (2009), part of the new show of Thomas Ruff’s works at David Zwirner Gallery.

The David Zwirner Gallery is currently showing Thomas Ruff’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. On view are two new series by the artist, whose photography has explored landscape, the nude, portraiture and even architecture through appropriated, computer-generated, and traditional images. “zycles” and “cassini,” at David Zwirner through March 13, draw in patrons as they notice the details that yield a snowballing structural complexity.

Thomas Ruff, “cassini 26” (2009), at David Zwirner.

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Self-Portait as an Artist (1888), by Vincent Van Gogh, via The Royal Academy of Arts

Currently on view at the Royal Academy of Art is a major exhibition of the work of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1893) and his incredible written correspondence. The show exhibits 35 original letters which have rarely been exhibited to the public due alongside 65 paintings and 30 drawings. The grouping of such works in different artistic disciplines reveals how closely the artist’s writing was interlocked with his painting.

Still-Life with a Plate of Onions (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh, via The Royal Academy of Art

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Sighicelli, Untitled (White) 2006

Currently showing at Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue  is an exhibition of work by Elisa Sighicelli entitled ‘The Party is Over.’  The show encompasses nine photographic works and two video installations that explore themes of stillness and motion – specifically, of places ‘suspended in time.’ Sighicelli’s images capture a variety of structures, from billboards and a planetarium to tangles of bamboo scaffolding against a building. Different qualities of light are used in each piece to convey the information of an infrastructure in all it’s mood and glare – materials of metal and concrete begin to take on emotional qualities. “I always think of my photos as shot by an alien somehow– you have a feeling of displacement, but at the same time you think you recognize something…”

Sighicelli, Untitled (Empty Square) 2009 Via Gagosian

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Before the star lamp, Olafur Eliasson 2010. All Images Via Galeria Elvira Gonzalez Homepage

“Kepler was Wrong”, the exhibition of the new works by the renowned Danish artist Olafur Eliasson is on view at Galeria Elvira Gonzalez, Madrid from January 19 through March 6, 2010. “Kepler was Wrong” features works created especially for this particular exhibition, the first solo show for Eliasson in this gallery.  The artist takes on a humorous argument with Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, whose theories provided the foundation for Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation.  Eight works on display at Galeria Elvira Gonzales treat different aspects and elements related to the universe, outer space and extraterrestrial traveling, such as the dark side of the moon, gravitation, meteorites etc.  For this particular exhibition, Eliasson creates his own variant the universe that includes seven installations and a large panel of black – and –white photography Jokla Series(2004).
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Kiki Smith, Walking Puppet, 2008. Papier-mâché with muslin overall © Kiki Smith, Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. Image Courtesy the Brooklyn Museum

On February 11th ArtObserved was on-site at the media preview of Kiki Smith’s latest lofty installation based on her thoughts on the passage of one’s life and artistic development. ‘Kiki Smith: Sojourn’ is on view at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, The Brooklyn Museum, through September 12, 2010, marking the fourth site-specific installation as part of a grand, long-term project. Other venues included Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, Germany (March 16–August 24, 2008) and traveled to Kunsthalle Nürnberg (September 18–November 16, 2008) and Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (February 19–May 24, 2009).

ArtObserved in conversation with Kiki Smith at the opening of “Kiki Smith: Sojourn”, The Brooklyn Museum

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Bread or Alive (2004) by Johannes Deinmling, via Kunstalle Dusseldorf

Currently showing at the Kunstalle Dusseldorf is “Eating the Universe. Food in Art.” The exhibit reflects on the term “Eat Art” coined by Swiss Artist Daniel Spoerri after he opened his restaurant in Burgplatz in Dusseldorf proceeded to found the Eat Art Gallery in 1970. The gallery inspired artists to produce works out of edible materials and food wastes. The exhibition’s title “Eating the Universe” was first used by Peter Kulbelka, former professor for film and cooking at the Studeschule in Frankfurt, for his 1970’s TV show on cooking as an art form. “Eating the Universe. Food in Art” reveals the continual link between food and art and their joint impact on life.

A Visitor looks at Thomas Rentmeister’s Untitled (2007) made of sugar and a shopping cart, via Artdaily

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A still from Steve McQueen’s “Giardini” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery through March 6.

Through March 6, New York’s Marian Goodman Gallery is showing two films by Steve McQueen.  This is the American debut of “Giardini,” the 30-minute, two-projection film which premiered at the 2009 Venice Biennale and is set on its grounds. “Static” (2009) is showing for the first time, made specifically for the exhibition and centered around the Statue of Liberty. Perspective and national monument are satirized and subverted, recreated in this new exhibition.

A still from Steve McQueen’s “Static” (2009), on view at Marian Goodman Gallery, along with “Giardini,” through March 6.

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Untitled (GUT/1361), 2008

Last Thursday, ArtObserved were on site at Team Gallery for the opening of an exhibition of new work by twin brothers and artistic collaborators, Gert and Uwe Tobias. The title of the exhibition, “Come and See Before the Tourists Will Do – The Mystery of Transylvania,” was originally used by the brothers in 2004 to describe a body of works that acted as mock-advertising for low-budget horror movies set in their native Transylvania. Initially it was a reaction the Romanian governments proposal to build a “Dracula Park” in order to encourage tourism in the area. In this rendition of the series they chose a number of European vampire film titles from which to construct their lively woodcut “posters” around. The works are very much informed by folklore and regional mythologies and thus are concerned with the construction of cultural identity.

Artist Uwe Tobias (right) at the opening of Come and See Before the Tourists Do – The Mystery of Transylvania at Team Gallery on February 11, 2010. Photographs by Oskar Proctor.

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Untitled, Ellsworth Kelly (1959) via Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art

Currently showing at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, England are a selection of early, unseen drawings by one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century – Ellsworth Kelly. Executed by Kelly between 1954 and 1962, the drawings have traveled to Middlesbrough directly from the artist’s New York studio where they have been hidden for more than 50 years. The 23 works are all studies for larger pieces and have been presented now, for the first time ever, to illustrate an important period in the artist’s career during which he pioneered his much-admired abstract style that has been integral to the evolution post-war American art.

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The Bus Driver, 2009 ,oil on linen ,71,1 x 60,9 cm via Sprüth Magers Gallery

Sprüth Magers Gallery in Berlin is hosting “Family Portraits” – an exhibition of new works by American contemporary artist George Condo.  Condo’s most recent exhibition at Sprüth Magers took place in 2008, at the inauguration of Sprüth Magers’ new Berlin premises. In 2010, Condo brings to Sprüth Magers a series of figurative oil paintings. His collaboration with this renowned German gallery began as early as 1984 in Cologne, where Condo was briefly a member of the group “The Young Wild” (Die Jungen Wilden), whose colorful palette and highly expressive pictorial style starkly differed from then-popular Conceptual art and Minimalism. Drawing the inspiration from classic art ranging from Diego Velasquez to Pablo Picasso, the members of the group incorporated the elements of graffiti and comic books into their work. Condo’s genre of choice is grotesque portraiture, where Cubist-like distorted facial features successfully co-exist with imposing compositions reminiscent of the 17^th Century Old masters.

Family Portraits, George Condo via Sprüth Magers Gallery

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Relief éponge or (RE 47 II),  Yves Klein Estimate: £5 – £7 million. Price Realized: £5,865,250. Image via Christie’s

Last night, Christie’s evening sale of post-war and Contemporary art in London totaled £39,149,500, exceeding the pre-sale estimate of £26,290,000 to £38,260,000. More than half of the lots offered sold above estimate, and in selling 9 works over  £1 million (16 over $1 million), the auction house easily surpassed the equivalent figure for all three of their auctions of Post-War and Contemporary art in London last year.  The evenings auction confirmed that not only has confidence returned to the art market but also that there is a real hunger from international collectors in this market – Europeans dominated the bidding, eventually accounting for 41% of the sales, 22% of works sold to Americans, 31 percent went to Britain. Four percent went to Asia. Particularly strong prices were realized for classic European artists including Yves Klein as well as Joana Vasconcelos and Alighiero Boetti, both of whose work established world record prices.The strong results at our international auctions during the second half of last year encouraged vendors who were previously resistant to consign works of art, and the increased supply of quality works fed a strong demand and led to competitive bidding.

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