‪‬Sotheby’s annual shareholder meeting today expecting possible confrontation by the company’s art handlers regarding their treatment, i.e. lock out and consequent strike

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‪‬Mirabelle Marden, former co-owner of Rivington Arms gallery in the Lower East Side, and daughter of Brice Marden, buys from a German architect a two-story carriage house in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the highest per square price spent thus far for the neighborhood.

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‪‬Anish Kapoor’s 115m Orbit structure in London’s Olympic park to open July 28, construction process shown in time lapse video

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Samuel Sveen.

Karen Kilimnick is showing at the Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut. The opening event occurred this Sunday with a preview by founder Peter Brant and a list of other art world notables such as Jeffrey Deitch, Gavin Brown, Julian Schnabel and May Anderson, John McEnroe, Dan Colen, Nate Lowman, Hanna Liden, Elias Hanson, Rikrit Tiravanija, and Elizabeth Peyton amongst other collectors and members of the press. Backing up to the expansive Greenwich Polo Grounds, the event mostly took place outdoors, under and around a tented table area where visitors snacked on steak frites and lamb roasted within view.

Cell phone video of the festivities

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‪‬Marina Abramovic to renovate 1929, 20,000 sq ft building in Hudson, NY for the Marina Abramovic Institute for the Preservation of Performance Art, with a six hour time commitment expected from visitors and “long durational” wheelchair/massage chair hybrids (with attendants), Abramovic must first raise $15m

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‪‬Several drawings by Richard Diebenkorn sold by Knoedler & Company are in an authenticity dispute by the artist’s family, “They didn’t look quite right, and we said, ‘The provenance is wacky and the story behind the provenance makes no sense,'” said Richard Grant of the Diebenkorn Foundation

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Jim Drain and Ara Peterson, Pinwheels (2004-2005, 2009, 2011). All images on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

Curated by Mike Diamond, best known as one of the Beastie Boys, Transmission LA: AV Club is an exhibition/coffee bar/event series which has brought together visual art, design, technology, performance, music, and food to give viewers a complete sensory experience. The spectacular 17-day festival has been host to a busy line-up of DJs and musicians, transforming MOCA into a hip nighttime hangout—into the club atmosphere that Mike D. ambitiously envisioned.

Tom Sachs, Toyon’s (2002)

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Cy Twombly, The Last Paintings installation view. All photos on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

The Last Paintings and Photographs of legendary 20^th century artist Cy Twombly, currently on view now at Gagosian Gallery, include some of the final paintings by the artist, as well as a large collection of photographs amassed over nearly 60 years.

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‪‬Top collector Eli Broad publishes new book, “The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking,” a 165-page text on business and art

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‪‬Vladimir Putin’s return to power in Russia reportedly has turned many art patrons away from their native market for fear of judgment, but many experts argue that money in art could shape a freshly positive national image; while radical street counter-art from Voina among others worries diplomats.

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‪Anish Kapoor reflects on his relationships with family, food, and art from his studio of 25 years in London, telling FT: “Art is good at intimacy: it can say, ‘Come here, be part of this’, beckoning.”

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Gavin Brown and Mark Ruffalo cooking sausages. All photographs by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

The always fresh but now venerable Frieze Art Fair of Regent’s Park, London, has successfully completed its maiden voyage to this side of the Atlantic. The pavilion, designed by Brooklyn-based SO-IL Architects, places Frieze New York on Randall’s Island Park from May 4-7, 2012. The fair is being held in a distinctly snakelike structure that houses 180 leading contemporary galleries presenting works by more than 1,000 artists. There are a number of culinary options as well: Roberta’s, The Fat Radish Café, Frankie’s Spuntino Restaurant, Sant Abroeus Café and the Standard Biergarten.

Entrance to the Frieze Art Fair

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‪‬Auctioneer Tobias Meyer details the Sotheby’s sale of Edvard Munch‘s ‘The Scream’ and his typical auction day routine, “When the atmosphere gets very tense, so to speak, I strangely have the reverse mechanism that I become very calm”

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‪‬Amalia Dayan of Luxembourg & Dayan and wife of collector Adam Lindemann profiled in her Manhattan town house decorated with works by Basquiat, Chamberlain, and Calder

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‪‬Keith Haring-style Google Doodle today, May 4, honors the artist on what would have been his 54th birthday

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‪‬Michael Riedel profiled by New York Times, discussing his Freitagsküche (Friday Kitchen) in Frankfurt and the art of copying others

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‪‬Turner Prize winning artist Mark Leckey to release audio from video piece ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ (1999) on vinyl May 21, with audio from GreenScreenRefridgerator on the B side

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‪‬Ai Weiwei life and work profiled in The Economist, discussing his relations with the Chinese government, “Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.”

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‪‬Portland art scene explored in Wall Street Journal, featuring alternative spaces and ideas including a crabbing ship turned exhibition space

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Simon Shaw holds a press conference after the Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale. All photos by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed unless noted.

Last night, in a packed salesroom filled with press, chairs, spectators, and security Sotheby’s launched the second major sale of the May auction season. This Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale was a tour de force – the blue chip art market broke several records with staggeringly high sales. Foremost, the world record for the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction was set at $119,922,500 for Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The bidding for The Scream started eagerly and anxiously all over the salesroom, but ended with 7 buyers competing until an undisclosed buyer won. Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman executed the winning bid. In a post-auction press conference, Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s Head of the Department, said of the sale “it was the single greatest draw in his career.” Sotheby’s Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, David C. Norman stated it was “the most exciting sale” of his tenure. Additionally, this was the highest earning Impressionist and Modern Art Sale ever held at Sotheby’s bringing in a total of $330,568,500. It is their second highest sale ever, after a Contemporary Art sale held previously in New York.

Edvard Munch, The Scream (1895)

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Aurel Schmidt

Downtown for Democracy and OHWOW have teamed up for a new book, The Pocket Guide to Politics. Providing an approachable entry point to politics for the average citizen, last night’s launch party took place in the Standard Hotel’s Boom Boom Room in New York. Aaron Bondaroff of OHWOW welcomed art world figures like Aurel Schmidt, André Saraiva, Terry Richardson, Bill Powers, Dustin Yellin, and Peter Coffin, while Donald Cummings of the Virgins played a piano tune, Kilo Kish rapped on the bar, and Nate Lowman DJed throughout the night.

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‪‬Helsinki city board rejects Guggenheim Museum proposal, which was supported by Mayor Jussi Pajunen, at eight votes to seven, with no reason yet provided

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‪‬Metropolitan Museum of Art to add to wall text of “The Steins Collect” exhibition, explaining Gertrude Stein’s affiliation with Bernard Fäy the “Vichy collaborator and Nazi agent” which may have “contributed to the protection of Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas in France during the war.”

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‪‬Red Dot Art Fair officially cancelled by the venue 82Mercer three days prior to opening due to “labor union disputes”

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