Artist’s Model Posing For ‘The Old Bugler, Among the Fallen, Battle of Beaune-Roland, 1870’ In The Studio Of An Unknown Military Painter, Paris, 1885 by Rodney Graham, via Hauserwirth

Currently showing at the Lisson Gallery in London, England until July 31, 2010, is a solo exhibition of works by Canadian artist Rodney Graham. Graham is well-known for his schooling in the field of conceptual art, which places the idea of a work of art above the importance of its execution. Graham often creates art out of art; one title alludes to a British horror film by the same name. As a whole, Painter, Poet, Lighthouse Keeper is a versatile and creative exhibit: it contains light boxes, paintings, and short films by Graham. The Lisson Gallery is working with MACBA, Barcelona and Hamburger Kunsthalle to host the exhibit.

Lighthouse Keeper with Lighthouse Model (1955 2010) by Rodney Graham, via Lisson Gallery

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Red Curve in Relief (2009) by Ellsworth Kelly, via Villa Medici.

Currently on view at the French Academy in Rome the Villa Medici is an exhibition featuring the work of two great artists: Twentieth-century American artist Ellsworth Kelly (b.1923) and French Neoclassical master Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) who was once the director of the Villa Medici. The show will explore the relationship between the two artists despite the many centuries which separate them.

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Preliminary Study (1989) by Rosemarie Trockel, via Kunstmuseum Basel

Currently showing at Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland through September 5^th, 2010, is an exhibition of works by German artist Rosemarie Trockel. Trockel is an artist of contrasts. Her early “knitting pictures” are an example of such; they consist of logo-stamped wool stretched thin across a series of frames. The logos belong to large corporations or countries. For example, one logo uses the symbol of the Soviet Union superimposed on the colors of the United States’ flag. Besides the obvious intimations of a power struggle through the use of symbols, another contradiction can be noted. Knitting is traditionally a woman’s job, but the frames and the logos recall industrial production and manufacturing, or traditional male jobs. While these “knitting pictures” are not on display at the Kuntsmuseum, other equally suggestive works are. The Kunstmuseum in Basel is working with the Kunstmuseum in Bonn, Germany, to coordinate the exhibit.

Untitled (2000) by Rosemarie Trockel, via Kunstmuseum Basel

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Tornado (2000-2010) by Francis Alÿs, via inglebygallery

Currently showing at the Tate Modern in London until September 5, 2010, is a series of works by artist Francis Alÿs. Alÿs is famous for sacrificing his own comfort and health for the sake of art, as he does with his “Tornado” video (2000-10) on display at the Tate. A still of this video serves as the picture on the museum’s banner of the exhibit, entitled Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception. The picture shows a man, bent against the wind and obscured by dust, essaying to reach the center of the storm. This footage was collected over the course of a decade, as Alÿs struggled both to keep his cameras intact (he reportedly lost six) and to capture the sense of “adrenaline” that he craved. While many works are videos, other media are included, such as paintings.

Re-enactments (2000) by Francis Alÿs, via Tate

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J. M. W. Turner, Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino, 1839 (estimate £12-18 million, realized £29,721,250), via Sothebys.com

Master Paintings Week continues in London after a boost from the Christie’s and Sotheby’s Old Master auctions that took place on July 6th and 7th. The Sotheby’s auction earned £53,484,350 against a high estimate of £50.8 million, while the Christie’s sale realized £42.3 million against a pre-sale estimate of £36.9–55.3 million (totals realized include buyer’s premium, estimates do not). More than half of the Sotheby’s earnings came from the sale of a single canvas by J. M. W. Turner, which sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for a staggering £29,721,250. The painting, showing a view of the Italian capital from the Capitoline Hill, has a sterling provenance and equally impressive exhibition history. The sale established a new record for the artist at auction.

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Hymn (1999) by Damien Hirst, via Oceano.org

Ragnar Kjartansson, The End – Venice, June 2009, Performance shot, Commissioned by the Center for Icelandic Art. Image by Dave Yoder for The New York Times/Redux, courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Galleri, Reykjavik.

Currently on view at Luhring Augustine through August 13, 2010 is the gallery’s first solo show of Icelandic-born artist Ragnar Kjartansson. The exhibition offers a video and a room full to the brim with canvases Kjartansson painted during the Venice Biennale 2009. Born in 1976, the artist is the youngest to ever show at the Biennale. Multidisciplinary in his approach, Kjartansson creates with drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and theater. His work taps into not only his own cultural history and the Nordic notions of tragedy, but also the nostalgic history of bygone eras of theater, television, music, and art.

Installation shot. Image by Art Observed.

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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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Paul McCarthy, Dreaming, 2005, Painted silicone, t-shirt, artificial hair, plastic, styrofoam, garden chair, 180 x 62 x 71 cm. All images via Fondazione Nicola Trussardi.

Fondazione Nicola Trussardi has invited artist Paul McCarthy to exhibit in Palazzo Citterio, an extraordinary space that has been closed to the public for over 25 years. The building was originally conceived to house the extension of the Pinacoteca di Brera, and is the property of the Italian government. This show presents viewers with an opportunity to view McCarthy’s work in a unique architectural setting, and also marks the premier of Pig Island, a piece which McCarthy has been working on since 2003. Over a long and distinguished career, McCarthy has created his own satirical language of fairy tales and nightmares that challenge social conventions, and test the emotional limits of the viewer. As the press release tactfully explains, “McCarthy’s videos, performances, installations and sculptures transport visitors to a universe that combines Hollywood glamour with the dark side of the American dream.”

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Cover of the catalog for last night’s Contemporary Art auction at Phillips de Pury & Co showing Thomas Schutte’s Doppelkopf (1994), via Phillipsdepury.com

Last night’s Contemporary Art auction at Phillips de Pury & Co reinforced uncertainties regarding the present state of the Contemporary Art market, as the sale earned just £3,963,450 against the pre-sale estimate of £6,075,000-8,575,000 (totals realized include buyer’s premium, estimates do not). Of 45 lots offered only 24 found buyers, leaving 47% of the lots unsold. For comparison, last year’s Contemporary Art Auction at Phillips earned £5.1 million.

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Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ (or, The Kiss of Judas) 1573-1602, which was stolen two years ago and was recovered recently by German and Ukranian authorities.

German police announced Monday that a painting by Italian Renaissance master Caravaggio, rumored to be worth $100 million, was recovered after being nabbed from a Ukranian museum two years ago. According to the Associated Press, four suspects (three Ukranian nationals and one Russian) were arrested in Berlin as they attempted to sell the painting. Twenty additional suspects were arrested in the Ukraine in connection with the theft.

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Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987) Oxidation Painting (in 12 parts), 1978. Acrylic and urine in linen, 48 x 49 in. (121.9 x 124.5 cm) All images courtesy of: © 2010 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum is ‘Andy Warhol: The Last Decade’, a survey of the artist’s works from the late 1970s until his death in 1987. The exhibition was organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and its tour schedule includes the Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Although Warhol is best known for his works from the 60s – soup cans, Marilyn Monroe portraits, and other iconic images that have become symbols of pop culture as a whole – but Warhol’s final decade was his most prolific. The 50 some works included in this show give a broad overview of the variety and scope of these late years. By the end of his career  the art community perceived Warhol as an overly eccentric washed-up artist. Over 20 years later, and with the benefit of hindsight, ‘The Last Decade’ proves that these final years gave rise to works worthy of both appreciation and admiration.

Andy Warhol Self-Portrait (Strangulation), 1978. Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, ten parts, 16 x 13 in. (40.6 x 33 cm) each.

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Sotheby’s Evening Contemporary Art Auction in Progress, via Sothebys.com

With the audience being described as “dazed” and “fatigued,” excitement was sparse at yesterday evening’s Contemporary Art auction at Sotheby’s in London. The sale realized a total of £41,091,800, well within the £32-52 million estimate (total realized includes buyer’s premium, estimates do not).  The sale had a sell-through rate of 83% by lot and 87.3% by value, while 45.4% of lots sold above their high estimates.

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Yves Klein, MG 42, 1960 (estimate £200,000-300,000, realized £481,250), via Sothebys.com

The headlining work, Yves Klein’s RE 49, sold for just over £6 million (estimate £4.5-6.5 million) after three minutes of bidding from four interested buyers.  The other Klein canvas for sale yesterday evening, MG 42, realized a price of £481,250, above its pre-sale estimate of £200,000-300,000. Though the works performed reasonably well, there is still concern that the market might be tiring of them. “There are too many Kleins and Fontanas in these auctions,” Dusseldorf-based art adviser Jorg-Michael Bertz said, in conversation with Bloomberg reporter Scott Reyburn. “We need a rest from them.”

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Tanguy/ Calder: Between Surrealism and Abstraction, Installation view. Image via L & M Arts.

In 1942, Peggy Guggenheim wore one earring by Yves Tanguy and one by Alexander Calder to the opening of Art of This Century; a year later, Pierre Matisse presented the artists in adjacent rooms of his gallery.  In the 1940s, critics began to notice the aesthetic likeness of the artists’ work, including mutual biomorphic designs in paintings and sculptures.  The colloquy and stimulus inspired by the pair’s mutual Connecticut community is explored in this extensive, two-floor exhibition.  Tanguy/ Calder: Between Surrealism and Abstraction at L & M Arts celebrates the creative relationship between these two artists, presenting their works from the 1930s-1950s alongside photographs and previously unpublished documents that testify to the collaborative aspect of their rapport and seamlessly harmonizing abstraction and Surrealism.
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Being, George Condo (2008). All images via Galerie Andrea Caratsch.

On view through July 30th at Galerie Andrea Caratsch in Zurich is an exhibition of sculptures and silkscreen paintings by New York artist George Condo. ‘The Lost Civilization’ refers to the group of nine sculptures cast in bronze and finished with a white patina, giving the works the appearance of ancient sculptures recently recovered from the ground. Included in the show is series The Birth, The Triumph and The Death of Insanity, along with six busts and five paintings which further exemplify Condo’s unique vision.

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Kathy Grayson mid-smooch. Image courtesy Taylor Derwin for Art Observed.

Currently on view at the new art outfit, The Hole, on 104 Greene St. in Soho is “Not Quite Open for Business.” The show, which opened to much hype last night, runs until August 21st. The Hole is run by former directors at the legendary and now-closed Deitch Projects, Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman, in collaboration with former Executive Director at Deitch Projects, Suzanne Geiss. With the gallant goal of filling a hole in the downtown community, they are off to a running start.

The first exhibition is called “Not Quite Open for Business,” a conceptual group show of unfinished art, unfinished poems, and unfinished symphonies. The installation is designed by Taylor McKimens and the show includes over twenty artists from the community.

Left: Ben Jones, Unfinished Video, 2010, single channel DVD, edition of 5. Right: Kunle, Vomit, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in.

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Yves Klein, Re 49, 1961 via Sothebys.com

Expectations are high for this week’s Contemporary Art auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London.  The auctions, which will take place between June 28^th and July 1st, will feature sought after works by several important artists, including Yves Klein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Lucio Fontana, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.  The strength of the works being sold is the result of buoyed seller confidence following a recent series of record-breaking auction results, such as the sale of a Picasso for $106.5 million in May at Christie’s in New York and 43.2 million euros for a Modigliani sculpture this month at Christie’s in Paris.  Sotheby’s evening auction carries a low estimate of £38.3 million for 53 works, while the Christie’s Post War and Contemporary evening sale carries a low estimate of £40.9 million for 63 lots.  Last summer’s Contemporary Art sale at Sotheby’s, which was expected to bring between £19.8-27.4 million, brought in £25.5 million for 40 lots. The comparable Christie’s auction last year brought just over £19 million for 40 lots with a low estimate of £17.4 million.

At Sotheby’s, all eyes will be on an Yves Klein sponge painting from 1961 titled Re 49 and dedicated to the artist Charles Wilp.  This large-scale work comes from the collection of the Munich-based HypoVereinsbank and is estimated to bring £4.5-6.5 million.

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Alice Neel, photographed by Sam Brody courtesy of Victoria Miro Gallery

“In The Company of Alice” is currently on view at Victoria Miro Gallery. This is a group exhibition of paintings honoring the life and work of Alice Neel. Each of the painters participating in the show drew inspiration from their admiration for Neel’s work. Some of the artists in the show often create portraits–but for others this is a new endeavor, and their very first portraits are being shown in this exhibition. “In the Company of Alice” coincides with a retrospective of Neel’s work at Whitechapel Gallery, opening on July 8^th. Studying Alice Neel’s work as a point of departure for modern and contemporary portraiture, “In the Company of Alice” aims to broaden the viewer’s perspective of figuration and portraiture. The exhibition also brings forth the importance of  these modes of practice in relation to contemporary art.

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Alice Neel, Richard, 1973, courtesy of Victoria Miro Gallery

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