Bob Odenkirk pens ‘A Portrait of the Artist’ for the New Yorker: “He’s been praised as ‘unfathomable at best’ and ‘bafflingly circumlocutory at worst’ by ArtFinger.” “He has adopted a man older than himself whom he has affectionately dubbed Grandbrother and with whom he trades birthday cards three times a year.”
The late John Chamberlain‘s sculptures, presented by Gagosian Gallery, are to be displayed at the Seagram Plaza in New York, beginning this Friday.
Detroit voters have approved an unusual and specific 10-year tax to secure funds for the Detroit Institute of the Arts. Expected to raise $23 million a year, Detroit Institute officials hope to raise up to $300 million for their endowment over the next 10 years. In return for supporting the tax, the DIA will offer free general admission for residents of approving counties.
Sotheby’s reported second quarter revenue which fell 18% to $303.9 million despite its successful first quarter, which the company called its “most profitable quarter in history.” Chief Executive Officer William Ruprecht stated “Our results reflect the global economy, which we’re all experiencing, income is down because sales are down. The overall health of the business is intact.”
British citizens have raised £8 million to save Edouard Manet‘s “Portrait of Fanny Claus” from leaving the country. The painting was originally sold last year to a foreign buyer, but the government placed and export bar on the work and therein made its sale available to British public institutions. Donations were made by over 1,000 members of the public , and were combined with £5.9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £850,000 from The Art Fund to reach the £7.83 million needed to purchase the work for the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Following Paul Schimmel‘s June resignation from Los Angeles MOCA, the museum announced it will hire a new Chief Curator, a post it had decided to leave vacant after his departure. The reversal arises from the criticism of the direction the museum has taken since Jeffrey Deitch has come on board as Executive Director.
Having spent the last 60 years hanging in a Scottish farmhouse, a possible work of Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered. Facing financial difficulties, Fiona McLaren unknowingly brought her painting to Sotheby’s Scotland for appraisal, where it was discovered to be possibly worth over £100 million (about $156 million). The painting will be sent to London next year to be inspected by experts at the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge and dated conclusively.
Tracey Emin – She Lay down Deep Beneath The Sea (2012) – Turner Contemporary
A few hours drive from London, on the Southeastern tip of the British mainland is the small seaside town of Margate. It was here where Tracey Emin was born and where she spent her difficult early years, so often documented in the works that first made her a major force of the British art world of the mid to late 90’s. Now, Emin has returned to her hometown, for an exhibition of new works at the newly opened Turner Contemporary. “She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea” showcases a diverse range of sculpture, drawing neons, and painting.
Marina Abramovic is featured in Antony And The Johnson’s “Cut the World” video. The previously unreleased song was originally composed for the artist’s biographical play “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic.” Willem Dafoe appropriately co-stars in the beautiful, but violent and gory video, as he performed in Abramovic’s play as well.
Robert Hughes, fabled critic, artist, and documentarian dies at the age of 74 in New York. The Australian writer was described as an “eloquent, combative art critic and historian who lived with an operatic flair and wrote with a sense of authority that owed more to Zola or Ruskin than to his own century”.
Through the band Sigur Rós’s recent Mystery Film Experiment, artists have been able to use songs from their album and make their own music videos. The most recent was created for “Varúö” by Ryan McGinley, featuring the streets of New York City through McGinley’s vision. McGinley says of the video, “This piece is my poem to New York City. I wanted to bring a childhood innocence to the streets, through a character whose own light and wonder effects the world around her. I’m always interested in an atmosphere where dreams and reality mingle on equal terms.”
M+, the Museum of Visual Culture, set to open in Hong Kong in 2017, will aim to serve as Asia’s counterpoint to institutions such as the Centre Pompidou or the Guggenheim Bilbao. Tapping Lars Nittve, formerly of the Tate Modern, as executive director, M+ will be the cornerstone of a $2.8 billion government-backed undertaking that hopes to “raise the bar for Asian museums” and cement Hong Kong’s position on the international art map.
The New York Times describes how, as the price of art continues to increase, more art collectors seek to have the courts rule on cases of authenticity, as witnessed through the three recent cases involving Knoedler & Company; though often the arbiters decide based on their experience in contract law versus any knowledge of the arts.
Forbes Magazine names the top corporate art collections, exploring the intentions and purposes behind these corporate acquisitions. With the criteria that “the best collections use art to improve lives and to educate,” UBS, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase are among the top corporations of Forbes’ list.
Jeffrey Deitch defends the art-historical significance of the exhibitions he’s staged as director of Los Angeles MOCA amid recent criticism that he caters too strongly to a commercial audience. “What we’re doing here now, it’s on the most serious level,” says Deitch, “It’s as good as any museum in the country.”
NPR takes a trip to a humble Pennsylvania cemetery to visit the grave of Andy Warhol on what would have been his 84th birthday.
An image of Gerhard Richter‘s “Ema”, part of an exhibition currently at the Pompidou Center, was censored by Facebook, sparking a debate on art and internet filters. The image has since been re-posted.
Turner Monet Twombly – Gallery View
The lives of Joseph Mallord Turner (1775-1851), Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Cy Twombly (1928-2011) almost perfectly overlap each other, pulling a thread through 200 years of art history. Drawing on the lineage of these three artists, the Tate Gallery of Liverpool and the Moderna Museet of Stockholm have partnered to exhibit Turner Monet Twombly: Later Paintings, an exhibition that explores the stylistic conversation between the three great artists, removed from the linear timeline in which their work has traditionally been viewed.
Along with other British notables interviewed in The Guardian, Grayson Perry discusses what the various names for the ‘evening meal’ indicate about an individual’s social class. The artist, who often centerpieces the discussion of social class divides in his art, claims that “the word supper implies a subtle rebuke to the aspirational classes who are gauche enough to hold dinner parties at home.”
Yayoi Kusama to cover condo construction site in the Meatpacking District with ‘Yellow Trees,’ a familiar black and yellow design that was prominently featured in an advertising campaign for her current exhibition at the Whitney. Part of the Urban Canvas project, the costly installation opens this week and will remain on the West 14th Street building facade until September 30th of this year.
Frank Stella, New Work (Gallery View)
Open since May, Freedman Art is in New York is currently showing a collection of new work by acclaimed painter, sculptor and printmaker Frank Stella that explores the artist’s long-standing interest in the work of composer Dominico Scarlatti and his approach to musical composition.
110 Front Street, The Basilica Hudson. All on-sight photos by Anna Corrigan.
The New Art Dealers Alliance non-art fair art fair took place this past weekend in Hudson, New York. 48 galleries were represented by a single piece chosen to feature in the show.
Benjamin Degen’s structure holding his paintings Moon Watch and Rock Made Luminous
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Desi Santiago’s mass 2 (2012), image: Aniko Berman for Art Observed
On Saturday, July 28th, the Watermill Center hosted The Big Bang, its 19th Annual Summer Benefit. Held on the performance art center’s expansive Southampton grounds, the event commenced with cocktails for over 1,200 guests, all of whom were invited to explore over twenty site-specific performances and installations scattered throughout the center’s indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as to bid in a silent auction featuring works by Marina Abramovic, Sandro Chia, Shirin Neshat, Dennis Oppenheim, Terry Richardson, Will Ryman, Spencer Tunick, and Aaron Young, among others. A tented dinner for over 650 guests followed, including a live auction led by Simon de Pury, where works by artists such Michelangelo Pistoletto, Anselm Reyle, and Willem de Kooning were offered. Inclement weather threatened the evening, with unwelcome downpours impeding the guests’ ability to view the outdoor works. Nonetheless, the event raised more than $1.5 million for the center, which has actively promoted the creation and dissemination of performance art since its founding by leading “theater artist” Robert Wilson in 1992.
Guests in front of Paul McCarthy‘s Butt Plug (2012)
