‪‬Miami condo developer Martin Margulies collateralizes $80 million loan for 24-story tower from U.S. Trust with 59 pieces of modern art including works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, and Jasper Johns [AO Newslink]
Terence Koh is now represented by Sean Kelly Gallery in New York [AO Newslink]
Serkan Özkaya, David (Inspired by Michelangelo) (2005). All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.
Istanbul-born artist Serkan Özkaya’s 30-foot golden foam sculpture, David (Inspired by Michelangelo) is parked outside Storefront for Art and Architecture in SoHo today at Kenmare and Centre Street. The sculpture will tour New York tomorrow, passing by the Armory Show, before its final destination of 21c Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. The work was shipped from Turkey, acquired by the American museum in 2011. Özkaya originally created it for the 9th International Istanbul Biennial in 2005, though it collapsed six days before the event began. After restoring the original, two additional copies were cast. The artist grew up producing small replicas of sculptures he was unable to actually see in person; the double-sized David also has no current plans to visit its original in Florence. At the Storefront for Art and Architecture tonight from 6:30 to 9:30 pm is a Manifesto Series presentation and discussion “on the topic of Double,”—doubling, replicating, copying—paneled by artists, architects, critics, historians and theorists, including MoMA PS1 and Art International Radio founder Alanna Heiss, among others.
Adrian Villar Rojas, A Person Loved Me (2012)
The New Museum debuts its second Triennial exhibition ‘The Ungovernables,’ a show dedicated to representing international artists, many of which are under 40 and have never been represented in the United States before. There are over 50 participants in the exhibition including 34 individual artists, multiple-artist groups, and a few temporary collectives. The exhibition begins in the back of the lobby, the rest distributed between four full floors, a stairwell, and the basement. Nearly every type of artistic media is represented, from sculpture, to painting, to video, to installations. The range of styles and philosophies is vast as well, including figuration, abstraction, and conceptual art.
‪‬Tate Modern purchases 8 million hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds by Ai Weiwei, the ten tons are nearly one-tenth of the total 100 million seeds from original Tate Turbine Hall Unilever installation, price undisclosed [AO Newslink]
‪‬Charles Long to install ‘Pet Sounds,’ colorful railing-sculptures in Madison Square Park this summer, “As one pets the blobs, a wide range of sounds are triggered and are coming from within the bodies of the forms.” [AO Newslink]
‪‬The Wall Street Journal discusses techniques to manage art investments and options to bequeath with minimal tax and inheritance issues [AO Newslink]
‪ ‪The upcoming Christie’s Old Masters Sale in London in July has an overall value of $30 million, with A Bust of a Man in a Gorget and Cap (1626-27) at an estimate of $19 million alone. In a bid to attract new collectors, Christie’s will send the Old Masters on a promotional tour through Doha, Moscow, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and New York. [AO Newslink]
Moto (1963). All photos on site for Art Observed by Elene Damenia.
John Chamberlain: Choices opened at the Guggenheim on February 24th, and will remain on view through May 13th, after which it will travel to Bilbao, Spain. Chamberlain was preparing for the current Guggenheim retrospective from his studio in Shelter Island when he passed away this December, aged 84. Although the exhibition officially began to coordinate in 2010, Senior Curator Susan Davidson told the press conference that the idea had been brewing for over a decade. The museum currently showcases almost 100 works from a lifetime of aesthetic development, garnered from private collections in America and Europe, as well as more recent works by the artist before his death.
‪ ‪T magazine features the art collective Still House, a Red Hook, Brooklyn based art collective that is home to eight artists, a residency program, and a gallery. The group, mostly under 25, is on a gradual rise in profile as seen in the success of the show “Riffraff” at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach. [AO Newslink]
‪‬The New York Times surveys the behind-the-scenes legal policies of the art authentication and insurance world, using the Knoedler Gallery’s forgery of Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Willem de Koonig, the deterioration of Matisse’s colors, an elbow accident with a private Picasso, and the re-appropriation lawsuit against Richard Prince to examine how to best protect a collection from fraud or damage.
[AO Newslink]
‪‬In his first interview in 10 years, White Cube founder and renowned art mogul Jay Jopling addresses his ability to walk the line of ‘privilege and populism.’ He explains to the Financial Times: “I always liked to collide the establishment with the avant-garde.”
[AO Newslink]
‪‬Suspected financial turmoil related to illegal endowment raiding begets turnover at MOCA, with the chief operating officer, fundraising director and a trustee chairman leaving the museum within the last three months, each remaining in the posts less than a year. Jeffrey Deitch, MOCA’s director since 2010, is reportedly struggling to fix the endowment issues that ended in 2008. The current fiscal year has a projected deficit until its closing on June 30th. [AO Newslink]
‪‬Sotheby’s had its most second-most profitable year ever in 2011 at $5.8-billion, nearing its own record of $6.2 billion in 2007. They out-profited Christie’s by one tenth of a billion dollars this year, and increased from $4.8 billion in 2010. However, due to European turmoil, the most recent quarter suffered an 11.0% drop in auction-related revenue. [AO Newslink]
The work of Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) is showcased on MoMA‘s second floor through May 14th. The exhibition’s opening on November 13th coincided with Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park, allowing the originally leftist murals to resonate with a contemporary, politicized audience. The murals, which have not been shown since their first presentation 80 years ago, are accompanied by drawings and related archival paraphernalia. A concurrent catalogue with essays by curator Leah Dickerman is also associated.
Diego Rivera, Frozen Assets (1931-1932). All Images Courtesy of MoMA Interactive.
‪‬Simon de Pury is subject of Sucklord doll, as part of Lot 158 at Phillips de Pury’s contemporary auction next week [AO Newslink]
‪‬Santigold painted by Kehinde Wiley for her The Master of My Make-Believe album cover, wearing Alexander Wang. This is Kehinde Wiley’s first female subject, based on Portrait of Sir Banastre Tarleton (1782) by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The album is out May 1st. [AO Newslink]
David Shrigley, I’m Dead (2010). All images courtesy of the Hayward Gallery.
Brain Activity, David Shrigley‘s first survey show in London, brings together choice examples of his photography, sculpture, and drawings to highlight the artist’s humor and wit. While he was classically trained at the Glasgow School of Art, Shrigley’s characteristic style today is stripped down, sketchy and, to use his own word, “misshapen.” The exhibition is organized into four basic themes: death, misery, characters, and misshapen things.”The big themes are the ones that interest me, and the ones that have the potential to be the most comic,” Shrigley says of his work. “Making artwork is kind of one of the most fun things that one can do. It’s fun, I like it.”
All photos by Art Observed by Aubrey Roemer
The “Third and a half” Brucennial opened last night in New York City, the 2012 edition titled, “Harderer. Betterer. Fasterer. Strongerer.” At 159 Bleecker Street, the high-ceilinged art-filled space reached its capacity of 15,000—with a line around the block—shortly after opening its doors at 6 PM. Organized by the anonymous Bruce High Quality Foundation and Vito Schnabel, a large main room, balcony, and basement, were covered with paintings, sculptures, video-works, and other installations by artists both established and less so. Running the gamut from friends of the Bruces to a Damien Hirst spot painting, exhibiting artists of note include Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, Sigmar Polke, Julian Schnabel, Anselm Reyle, Francesco Clemente, Aurel Schmidt, Dan Colen, David Salle, George Condo, Rashid Johnson, Dash Snow, Terence Koh, Richard Prince, Joseph Beuys, Scott Campbell, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tom Sachs, Andy Warhol (collaboration), and Dustin Yellin.
‪‬Artist Michael Heizer’s 340-ton boulder is the centerpiece for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Levitated Mass” exhibition. It traveled through Ontario California on Thursday in a special truck for the second stop of its 105-mile journey from Riverside to LACMA. Street signs and obstacles were moved for its journey. [AO Newslink]
Next Thursday, Phillips de Pury will auction the Maybach 57 featured in Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Otis video, which was directed by Spike Jonze. The proceeds of the car’s sale (which has been on a genuinely rough ride as depicted in the music video) will go to Save the Children. A charitable donation has been planned since the video’s completion, with the closing caption: “The vehicle used in this video will be offered up for auction. Proceeds will be donated towards the East African drought disaster.” At the time of the video’s release, East Africa was deep in famine, as a result of the worst drought to hit the region in 60 years.
‪‬Britain’s White Cube gallery opened its first branch outside Britain today with a Gilbert and George exhibition in a 557 square-meter space in Hong Kong’s central business district. Hong Kong is the world’s third biggest auction center after New York and London, with China overall accounting for 41.4% ($4.8 billion) of global art sales internationally in 2011. [AO Newslink]
‪‬ Qatar continues to build its international art collection, with Qatari purchases accounting for an estimated 25% of the Middle East’s $11 billion art market. [AO Newslink]
Titian, Diana and Callisto (1556-1559), via BBC
Diana and Callisto by Titian went on display today in Room 1 of The National Gallery in London, completing the paired purchased with Diana and Actaeon after a long-awaited fundraising effort. Noted art patron the Duke of Sutherland attempted to sell the two works to the United Kingdom in 2008 for £100 million, which was reportedly half their total market or potential auction value. British art authorities and museum-goers alike are delighted to have met the price-point, and to maintain the masterpiece for the nation of England.
Titian, Diana and Actaeon (1556-1559), via NPR
