A teenager in Iraq is working to create replicas of a series of Assyrian sculptures destroyed by ISIS, creating meticulous replicas in his father’s workshop.  “In Iraq, there are people who are killed because they are sculptors, because they are artists. Continuing to sculpt is a message that we will not be intimidated by those devils,” seventeen year-old Nenous Thabit says.  “My dream is to become a prominent artist in Iraq to make my country proud and show the world that we in Iraq love life and cherish our heritage.” (more…)

Gerhard Richter, A.B. Still (1986), final price: $33,987,500, via Sotheby’s

Concluding the last major week of auction sales before the end of a rollercoaster calendar year, Sotheby’s capped an impressively consistent sale of Post-War and Contemporary artworks last night in New York City, a 64-lot outing that saw the auction house continue to upend expectations in a week that has been defined by unexpected records and several marquee auction records.  The sale reached a final tally of $276,560,750, with 4 of 64 works unsold. (more…)

Fernando Botero is profiled in W Magazine this week, as the artist prepares to release a new book, looking back on his early work and development as an artist.  “When I was very young, like 13 or 14 years old, I was fascinated by the [Alberto] Vargas girls I saw in an Esquire magazine,” he says.  “I did some copies in watercolor. Perhaps they were the first things that I did. Then I discovered real art and forgot about Vargas.” (more…)

Claude Monet, Meule (1891), final price: $81,447,500, via Christie’s

Doubling down on Wednesday night, Phillips and Christie’s went back to back on a marathon pair of auctions, Phillips with its 20th Century Sale and Christie’s with its Impressionist and Modern sale, that pushed the fall auction week to near completion with surprisingly potent results, including a new auction record for both Claude Monet and Wassily Kandinsky.   (more…)

The Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale next year will feature works by Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Roberto Cuoghi, and Adelita Husni-Bey, curated by Cecelia Alemani.  “These three artists were born in Italy between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s, and came onto the domestic and international scene at the brink of the new century, each at their own level of fame: from Husni-Bey’s promising young talent, to Cuoghi’s more mature oeuvre,” Alemani says.  “While their art and their languages are global, their work is still closely tied to Italian culture.” (more…)

MoMA has revealed itself as the buyer of the seminal László Moholy-Nagy work EM 1 (Telephone Picture), which sold Monday at Sotheby’s.  “We have long aspired to add the third of Moholy’s Telephone Pictures to the two we have owned for many years,” says director Glenn Lowry. This acquisition allows us to present Moholy’s radical experiment in its full glory, and to tell the complete story of this remarkable moment in the history of the avant-garde.” (more…)

A Van Gogh expert is claiming that she has found a collection of 65 previously unseen drawings by Vincent Van Gogh, sparking a fierce dispute over its authenticity.  “The Van Gogh Museum has been aware for some time of the album of drawings that is now being presented as a lost Arles sketchbook by Vincent van Gogh,” the The Van Gogh Museum said in a statement.  “Our researchers and curators are happy about every new work that can correctly be attributed to Van Gogh, but on the basis of high-quality photographs sent to them of 56 drawings – out of 65 in total – they were of the opinion that these could not be attributed to Vincent van Gogh.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper reports on the ongoing plans for the LACMA expansion, as Peter Zumthor plans the $600 million project.  Construction is set to begin in 2018, and will feature a series of low, snaking buildings that will contrast with the landscape of Wilshire Boulevard around it. (more…)

Artist Gavin Turk sits down with psychoanalyst Darren Leader for an interview in the Guardian. The shape-shifting artist discusses his early work and the subject of his practice.  “I wanted to be able to sustain a critical distance from my art,” Turk says of his early practice.  “I would look at other artists and see that here was the work and here was the artist and there was sometimes not an obvious correlation. I realized that there was a separation between the person who’s making the art and the art itself. But I was interested in putting the artist’s name or signature or brand into the actual place of the artwork.” (more…)

Gerhard Richter is featured in an interview with Huffington Post this week. The artist discusses his view on the state of art, and how the art world will continue to change over the next decades.  “Art will shed all of its gravity and transform into something merry and democratic,” he says, referencing Thomas Mann. “It’s now more than merry. There has never been so much art … We don’t need it. We need entertainment. Sensations.” (more…)

Anne Barlow, the current head of New York’s Art in General, will head up the Tate St. Ives when the institution re-opens in 2017.  Barlow previously served as curator of education and media programs at the New Museum. (more…)

Tetsumi Kudo (Installation View), All images are by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed.

Following three group exhibitions, contextualizing artist Tetsumi Kudo’s oeuvre in conversation with peers such as Paul Thek, Hannah Wilke, and Alina Szapocznikow, Andrea Rosen Gallery is currently presenting the third solo exhibition dedicated to the late Japanese artist.  Bridging his hometown and Europe through the course of his career, Kudo demonstrated a rare artistic vision and intellectual perspective that led his work to be regarded alongside that of Joseph Beuys, Yayoi Kusama, and Mike Kelley, one of the artist’s foremost admirers and an avid supporter of his work in the West.

Tetsumi Kudo, Portrait D’Artiste dans la Crise (1977)

Kudo, heavily influenced by the political turmoil and commercialist phenomena during the post-war era in both the East and the West, began his bird cage sculptures during the mid 1960’s, shortly after moving to Paris, and continued the series until the beginning of the ‘80’s.  Store-bought bird cages, in various sizes and colors, house an ample span of mundane and extraordinary objects and artifacts, each twisted through Kudoo’s uniquely enigmatic perspective and consumed by the intersection of narratives that take place within its barred confines.

Tetsumi Kudo (Installation View)

While Japan’s “anti-art” movement in the 1950’s ushered the artist to rebuff dominant art practicism and to experiment with banal and everyday materials, his tenure in Paris immersed his work in a conversation with the avant-garde experimentalism of the neo-Dada circles, in which he organized and performed happenings that blurred the separation between art and reality.

Tetsumi Kudo, Portrait of Artist in the Crisis (1978)

This same sense of attenuated reality persists here, as his sculptures, meticulously installed on pedestals throughout the exhibition space, pushes an engagement with consumer-grade objects en route to portrayal of socio-political and ideological milestones that shaped our understanding of the 20th century.  Western consumerism collides with perceptions of the body, while the historical introduction of such commercial goods to Japanese society remains a dominant narrative point on the surface in these multi-faceted sculptures.

Nevertheless, the scrutiny of European humanism and its impact on colonialism, war, and social alienation also present themselves, woven through the installation by inclusions of phalluses, bodily decay, and images of degradation, references to the cultural impact of the Vietnam War and a future governed by technological mastery.  These sculptures interpret the past and narrate the future through Kudo’s nuanced scope, encapsulating the dichotomies embedded in the human condition.

Tetsumi Kudo (Installation View)

Tetsumi Kudo is on view at Andrea Rosen Gallery through November 16, 2016.

— O.C. Yerebakan

Related Link:
Andrea Rosen Gallery [Exhibition Page]

Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXV (1977), which sets a new world record at $66,327,500  via Art Observed

New York City’s week of marquee auctions, and its seemingly unpredictable results, continued tonight, as Christie’s concluded its offering in the Post-War and Contemporary markets, an impressively strong and consistent sale that saw 7 of 61 lots going unsold to reach a final tally of $276,972,500. (more…)

Albanian president and artist Edi Rama is profiled in The Guardian this week, as he prepares to open an exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery.  “If art cannot make politics more sane,” he says, “politics, with its insanity, can sometimes make art even better.” (more…)

Collector and co-chair of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Elaine Wynn is interviewed in Forbes this week, discussing her motivations behind collecting art, and her decision to purchase Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud for $142 million.  “First I was worried I’d want to buy it,” she says. “Then I was worried I might not get it.” (more…)

The MFA Boston is planning a $24 million renovation project, including a 22,000-square-foot conservation center that will expand the institution’s capabilities.  “It’s a very positive moment for us,” says MFA director Matthew Teitelbaum. “I think people will see it as a real affirmation of our core responsibilities, and I feel very good about that.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper profiles the ongoing struggles of digital art startups to effectively capture large portions of target markets, particularly given resistance from the tech-savvy under-35 demographic.  “True disruption doesn’t come from entrepreneurs. In the art world, it has always come from the artists. Anyone waiting for the internet to disrupt can keep waiting,” says Pace head Marc Glimcher. (more…)

Edvard Munch, Girls on the Bridge (1902), via Art Observed

The packed week of New York auctions began uptown tonight, as Sotheby’s capped its Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale this evening to unexpectedly energetic results, reaching a final tally of $157,714,75o, with 9 of the night’s 42 lots offered going unsold.  Auctioneer Helena Newman led a brisk sale over the course of the evening, coordinating quick back and forth bids that kept prices rising and works moving quickly, a performance that earned a number of strong sales in the early lots, and kept momentum high until the last lots of the sale, when enthusiasm seemed to peter out. (more…)

Artist Richard Prince was commissioned to design the cover for the final A Tribe Called Quest record, out this month.  The artist’s design incorporates his own rugged hand into the group’s signature red, black and green color scheme.   (more…)

The Art Market Monitor analyzes the current market for Gerhard Richter, noting the artist’s recent decline in market prices, and the inclination for both buyers and sellers to avoid recent Richter pieces on offer.   (more…)

The Financial Times profiles dealer John Kasmin this week, as the British dealer reflects back on the course of his career, and the impact he made on the Post-War art world.  “I said all artists do is produce the work, the dealer has to create its allure,” he says.  “Rather a silly remark, but it’s not completely untrue.” (more…)

The New York Times previews the week of auctions in the wake of the U.S. elections, and questions how the art market may be affected.  “There has been a lot of insecurity and it’s hard to say exactly what will happen,” says Jay Gorney, a collector and curator. (more…)

The WSJ offers its perspective on the week’s auctions, exploring the offerings across each auction house through a selection of top paintings, including works by Gerhard Richter and Willem de Kooning in its forecast. (more…)

David Hockney is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist offers his perspectives on the U.S. election, and his take on politics in general.  “I’ve only lived in England, France and the United States, and in each of these countries you’re very free,” he says.  “So I just let the politics do what it’s doing. I’m not interested enough. I’m interested in other things.” (more…)