A deceased Metropolitan Museum trustee, Stephen Clark, had donated Cézanne’s “Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory”, which he purchased in 1933. Title was contested by Pierre Konowaloff, who was the sole heir of a collector whose assets were confiscated by the state during the Russian Revolution. Konowaloff argued that there was no legal process in the seizure and that the painting was unduly exported as a result. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that legal doctrine precludes U.S. courts from inquiring into the validity of decisions by recognized foreign sovereign governments within their own territory. (more…)

Sotheby’s total sales for art and antiques appear to be down by 10% this year, according to the figures on Sotheby’s website, says the Telegraph. The auction house realized $4.4 billion in auction sales this year; however that figure does not include private sales, which increased significantly this year. Last year the auction house realized $5.8 billion in total sales, with around $800 million of that from private sales. (more…)

Installation view, Cellblock I, Andrea Rosen Gallery. All photos on site by Erica Simone for Art Observed

The Andrea Rosen Gallery opened Cellblock I at its main space on December 1st, 2012, and simultaneously inaugurated its new, second location–just down the street at 544 West 24th Street–with Cellblock II. Both shows, held together under the theme (and anti-theme) of imprisonment, were curated by the prominent scholar and curator Robert Hobbs.

Robert Motherwell’s Dover Beach III at Cellblock II, Andrea Rosen Gallery

Hobbs is well-known for his work as an art historian and writer. He has been the Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University since 1991, and a visiting professor at Yale University for eight years. He is known as the definitive Robert Smithson scholar, and has contributed seminal writings on many of the artists he selected to show, including Alice Aycock, Beverly Pepper, and Kelley Walker. (more…)

After twelve successful years as director of the Louvre, Henri Loyrette has announced that he will be leaving his post in April. Under his leadership the museum broadened its cultural outreach.  Loyrette engaged in planning for the Louvre Abu Dhabi and opening the Islamic Galleries and raising tens of millions of euros in funds from several middle eastern countries. He established a contemporary art program with major installations and expects to nearly double the number of visitors to the museum since 2001. (more…)

Tony Cragg,  Installation View (2012), courtesy Lisson Gallery

Tony Cragg is a prominent British visual artist known for his smooth, blobular, almost alien formations. Cragg commonly uses a range of materials to produce smooth, curved surfaces that explore his observations of the surrounding world by challenging form, volume, scale and function through the medium of sculpture. His latest exhibition at the Lisson Gallery features a variety of new works in a continuance of form, yet extending his practice beyond the previous limits with ever more intricate surfaces areas and new formations.

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Beginning in 1945, Château Mouton Rothschild has commissioned various artists, from Pablo Picasso to Francis Bacon, to create a graphic for its labels. Now it has asked Jeff Koons to design the label for 2010 label of its Pauillac first growth. Koons is one of the world’s most expensive living artists, and has designed an image of The Birth of Venus and a sailing ship under sunny skies. (more…)

The images of Chairman Mao in the largest travelling exhibition of Andy Warhol’s work will be banned from going on public display in China. The show, a two-year tour across Asia that commemorates the 25th anniversary of the artist’s death, is comprised of around 300 works across a variety of media. Among them are the iconic Soup cans, Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe images, alongside 10 Mao paintings. (more…)

The Tate announced a £5m national arts award, given by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for artists under 25 years of age (Note: the award is not singularly given to one artist). It will involve all four Tate Galleries and kick off in April 2013 with a festival in the Tanks at Tate Modern. The Foundation has granted a total of £200 million since its inception 25 years ago. This grant aims to reach 80,000 young people aged 15–25 over the course of four years. Nicolas Serota, Tate’s director said that “Circuit will spark a long-term transformation in the way young people engage with art.”
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Gabriel Orozco, Astroturf Constellation (2012), courtesy The Guggenheim Museum

Having just ended its opening run at the Guggenheim Deutsche in Berlin earlier this year, Gabriel Orozco‘s two-part set of taxonomic installations, collectively titled “Asterisms,” is now on view at The Guggenheim in New York City.  The eighteenth and final project in the Guggenheim’s commission series, the piece continues Orozco’s ongoing exploration into the nature of environments, and the interactions of humans with these spaces, as well as with each other. (more…)

Hauser & Wirth has unveiled plans to renovate old barns in Somerset, England as gallery space to open in 2014. “This is a beautiful part of the world and also a very creative part of the world,” said Alice Workman, the director of Hauser & Wirth Somerset. “It will serve the local community and town but also act on a national and international level.” It expects around 40,000 visitors per year. (more…)

In 2007, Peter Doig saw his prices skyrocket, due to an auction in which his “White Canoe” sold for $11.3 million, several times over the presale estimate of $1.5 million. Overnight he became the most expensive living European artist. The following year, Tate Britian mounted a midcareer retrospective. Doig discusses how he has had to block out thoughts of the sudden spike in prices to stay focused and successful creatively. Recently, Michael Werner Gallery inaugurated its new Mayfair gallery with a solo show by the artist. Prices range from $250,000 to $3 million.
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L.A. Times’ Christopher Knight reflects on the market as 2012 draws to an end, with a certain inconsistency in the art market as a whole: demand for high-quality modern and contemporary work, with soaring prices for young artists is coupled with the failing economic health of many nonprofits, (LACMA certainly among the most well-known examples). “Obscene private wealth and gross income inequality are global phenomena; the economic system is rigged and surplus cash must go somewhere”.  (more…)

Artist Nate Lowman at the DJ Booth - All photos by C. Dalaeli for ArtObserved

On Tuesday December 11th, The Whitney Museum of American Art hosted its annual Gala and Studio Party, sponsored by Microsoft and Pamella Roland. Originally scheduled to take place at Hudson River Park’s Pier 57 on October 30th, the annual events were postponed due to Hurricane Sandy. With more than $2.7 Million raised Tuesday evening, a portion of which will be donated to the New York Foundation for the Arts Emergency Relief Fund.

Atmosphere

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Richard Prince, Anyone Can Find Me (1990), courtesy Skarstedt Gallery

Skarstedt Gallery’s uptown exhibition space in Manhattan recently exhibited a series of multi-media works by American painter and photographer Richard Prince.  Blending hand-drawn landscape and mass media imagery, his “White Paintings” create an complex interplay between image and language. (more…)

Xavier Veilhan, The Bear(2010), courtesy The Phillips Collection.

Celebrated French artist Xavier Veilhan generally works with site-specific installations, reflecting art historical styles and concepts that are executed by employing technological innovation with a distinctly stylized futuristic aesthetic. Veilhan’s first major U.S. museum exhibition is currently on view at The Philips Collection as a part of its “Intersections” series. (more…)

Dorsey Waxter accepted a post as the president of The Art Dealers’ Association of America (ADAA). Her predecessor, Lucy Mitchell-Innes, has been president since 2009. Waxter founded her eponymous consulting company and has been on ADAA’s board for three years. “I am honored to have been appointed president of this prestigious organization and to build upon the work of my predecessors, Lucy Mitchell-Innes and Roland Augustine, to emphasize the prominence of art dealers. My prior experience will be useful in leading the ADAA as it continues its mission to promote the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship, and ethical practice within the profession”, said Waxter.
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Sterling Ruby will now be represented by Hauser & Wirth in New York. He was previously represented by Pace Gallery, but parted ways with the gallery earlier this year. Prior to that Ruby was with Foxy Production and Metro Pictures. He is currently represented by Sprüth Magers and Xavier Hufkens in Europe.
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Jack Goldstein – Where Is Jack Goldstein? (Installation View), courtesy Venus Over Manhattan

A member of the first graduating class of CalArts in 1972, Jack Goldstein made enormous and immediate contributions to the fine arts landscape in the 1970s and 1980s before vanishing from the public eye and tragically ending his own life in 2003.  Now, almost ten years after Goldstein’s death, collector Adam Lindemann is hosting an ambitious retrospective of Goldstein’s early work at his Venus Over Manhattan Gallery, pulling from Goldstein’s practice in painting, photography, poetry and film, including a recreation of Goldstein’s influential performance piece, Two Fencers. (more…)

Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Grayson Perry have created works to give to the Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. David Hockney used a drawing of her initials made on an iPad and Emin created a portrait of her on paper. In total 97 works were acquired for the Royal Collection and will be exhibited at Buckingham Palace in 2013.
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Yayoi Kusama is reportedly leaving Gagosian Gallery, reports the ArtNewspaper. Damien Hirst also reportedly broke off his representation of 17 years as well this week. David Zwirner recently announced plans to host a Jeff Koons exhibition a long standing artist of Gagosian. Koons and Kusama currently have shows up at Gagosian locations (Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, respectively). Kusama is represented in London by Victoria Miro.  Hirst is represented in London by White Cube.
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William Ruprecht has been appointed the Chairman of Sotheby’s Board of Directors. He will keep his post as President and Chief Executive Officer as well. The previous Chair for the past 13 years, Michael I. Sovern, will continue to serve on the board as well. Ruprecht started as an administrator in the Rugs department 32 years ago, and has since developed a strong client base in emerging international markets, grown the business’s art-related financing, private sales and online presence. (more…)

Wlodzimierz Umaniec, also known as Vladimir Umanets, who earlier this year vandalized a Mark Rothko painting at the Tate, has been convicted of the crime and sentenced to two years in prison. He wrote the phrase, “A potential piece of Yellowism”, on the famous Black on Maroon this past October. The charges were for criminal damages of over £5,000 but the prosecution estimates that restoring the painting will cost around £200,000 and take around 20 months. The painting is part of the Four Seasons series that Rothko gifted to the Tate. The painting has been valued between £5 million and £9 million. (more…)

Antony Gormley, Shore II (2012). All images courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery.

To inaugurate Sean Kelly Gallery’s new location, designed by Toshiko Mori, is an exhibition of new works by Antony Gormley. Bodyspace continues Gormley’s decades-long exploration of the body, and specifically addresses the body in relation to the newly re-designed interior.

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UK visas are increasingly difficult for foreign artists to obtain, unless the artist is virtually internationally known, according to new rules set last year in the country. In order to be granted a “tier-one” visa, an artist must be of “exceptional promise” and “an established, world-class artist. London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, insists that London is a global hub for international artists. However, in addition to high costs, the new regulations have contributed to an 85% decrease in artist visas in the UK this year. (more…)