The New York Times profiles Larry Gagosian’s soon to open exhibition space in San Francisco, and timing for the gallery’s move. “The emerging collector base in Silicon Valley and the reopening of SFMOMA made it a perfect time to open in San Francisco,” Gagosian says. (more…)
Francis Bacon, Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (1970), via Sotheby’s
Just as Frieze closes its doors on a week of contemporary sales, the New York auction houses are opening theirs for a second week of major U.S. market activity. Spreading the offerings across a marathon series of sales in the coming days, the New York spring/summer auctions will mark the last test of buyer interest before the summer recess. (more…)
Alex Da Corte outside Frieze, via Art Observed
Frieze New York opened its doors to a misty Wednesday morning on Randall’s Island yesterday, yet the damp weather did little to dull the early rush of VIP’s attendees to the annual art fair, as strong attendance was evident throughout the lanes. (more…)
Aby Rosen must pay $7 million in settlement to cover taxes he failed to pay on over $80 million worth of art he purchased in recent years. “Law-abiding New Yorkers should not be stuck footing the bill for those who fail to pay their fair share,” state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said of the case. (more…)
The Whitney’s chief curator, Scott Rothkopf is profiled in the New York Times this week, and noted for his embrace of emerging artists and focus on dynamic programming. “He has really reinvigorated the contemporary program,” says director Adam D. Weinberg. “What he’s doing is recognizing young talent and people who work hard and moving them up. It’s important for a museum devoted to contemporary art not to just have curators who are over 60.” (more…)
A fire at artist Rosemarie Trockel’s Cologne home has destroyed around $34 million in art from her personal collection, Artforum reports. Police suspect an electrical fire, but have not yet ruled on the cause of the blaze.
Amsterdam’s Vincent Van Gogh Museum is spearheading a new program in which it will rent out professional and consulting services to collectors, corporations, and other groups. “Museums are used to a different type of outreach that is more about sharing their knowledge and collection, but not in the commercial, contractual manner,” said France Desmarais of the International Council of Museums in Paris. “What’s unique is that they are using their expertise to commercialize, in a sense, but museums have been doing revenue-generating activities for a long time.” (more…)
Lisa Yuskavage, Stoned (2016), via David Zwirner
Celebrating its 5th Anniversary in New York City, Frieze New York will touch down once again on Randall’s Island this week, bringing a strong selection of 202 galleries to the event, alongside a full calendar of events, performances, and talks that has turned early May into a another centerpiece of New York’s already bustling calendar, joined by both satellite art fairs and a series of high-profile gallery openings. (more…)
Olafur Eliasson is planning a giant water fountain for his Versailles commission this summer, playing on one originally designed for the palace grounds during its construction, which was abandoned due to the logistics concerned with pumping water for its operation. “Of course I could tell you how many meters it is, but I am not going to because we need to leave it to the audience to make up their minds how high is high,” he said. (more…)
The Museum of Modern Art is offering a contract buyout for employees aged 55 or older with at least nine years of service as of July 31, as the museum prepares for curtailed activity during its ambitious renovation. “The museum is in a transitional stage in terms of the scope of its operations, which are at a reduced level during the renovation period,” the museum said in a statement. “The program is entirely voluntary and is intended to benefit staff who are considering retirement this year.” (more…)
The WSJ profiles Dan Colen’s upstate farm project, where the artist’s full crop output is donated to the New York City Food Bank. “Art turned out to be way more of a business than I ever intended,” Colen says of his venture. “The last thing I need is more business.” (more…)
Maurizio Cattelan is interviewed in the Financial Times this weekend, as he prepares to re-stage his 1994 work Enter at Your Own Risk — Do Not Touch, Do Not Feed, No Smoking, No Photographs, No Dogs, Thank you at Frieze New York, an installation the features a live donkey in a small room at the fair. “Based on my experience it’s considerably difficult to force a donkey into doing something it perceives to be dangerous for whatever reason,” Cattelan says of concerns for the animal’s safety. (more…)
Yayoi Kusama has executed another iteration of her Narcissus Garden work at the Glass House in Connecticut, floating 1,300 mirrored steel spheres drifting around the property’s newly restored pond. “We are honored to be working with Yayoi Kusama, an artist Philip Johnson both admired and collected,” said curator Irene Shum. (more…)
Marisol, the Venezuelan-American artist who carved sculptural portraits of politicians, historical figures, and other iconic figures of contemporary life, has passed away at the age of 85. The artist, who first saw success during the early 1960’s, often blurred the iconography of pop art through mediations on the body and her craft that complicated classifications of her work. Yet her appeal was undeniable, and her unique approach to sculptural figuration earned her recognition. “She was an incredibly significant sculptor who has been inappropriately written out of history,” Marina Pacini, chief curator at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, who organized a traveling survey of the artist’s work, says. “In the 1960s, she had more press and more visibility than Andy Warhol.” (more…)
The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts has announced its first round of commissions in Los Angeles, among them a miniature golf course running through the city’s Skid Row neighborhood, which examines and underlines how zoning policy directly affects and reshapes cities. “Zoning is something that is both totally fundamental to the way a city works and the way it feels and who gets supported and who gets booted from the city,” says artist Rosten Woo, one of the organizers of the piece. (more…)
Simon de Pury is the subject of a profile piece on NPR this week, offering some backstory on the auctioneer, and his strategy on building his former company, Phillips de Pury, into a force in the contemporary market. “I didn’t have the means, the financial means to take on the two houses frontally. So we thought, let’s develop areas in which we become the best,” he says. “So we thought we go to do contemporary art, emerging contemporary particularly, design and photography. And in these fields, we just become the best.” (more…)
Artists Space is leaving its Greene Street home, following its landlord’s decision to build a penthouse atop the building, a project that would cause considerable delays and interruptions to its exhibition schedule. The space is looking to move “into a neighborhood where artists currently live and work, which has not been the case for a long time in SoHo,” says Director Stefan Kalmar. (more…)
VigeÌe Le Brun, Baron de Thellusson (1814), via Art Observed
There are few prominent female artists that are as highly revered as Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun was in 18th Century France. Falling in love with painting through her father, Louis Vigée, Le Brun went on to work for the aristocracy in Paris during the French Revolution. After painting more than thirty portraits of Marie Antoinette and her family, Le Brun was forced to flee the country over her association with the queen, ultimately working in Italy, Austria, and Russia. Once she settled in Italy, she was elected into the artist group Accademia di San Luca, and moved on to painting portraits of Catherine the Great’s family as well as Stanislaw August Poniatowski, Poland’s last king. (more…)
Patrick Meagher, Natural Artificial Neural Networks (Bethany Hamilton) (2016), Photo by Kayode Ojo
Suggested For You, Patrick Meagher’s solo exhibition at Equity Gallery, takes its name from the “suggestion engines” of social media and e-commerce sites, utilizing personal activity as a generator for financial value. With a wildly colorful CMYK palette, Meagher presents a jumble of inkjet prints and sculpture that address the ways in which the internet mediates our perception of consciousness, and simultaneously reshapes them. (more…)
Wim Delvoye has purchased a series of desert mansions in the Iranian city of Kashan, which he will use as exhibition and studio space. “I’m not going to live for ever. Giving back means giving something to the art world, supporting the local art scene,” Delvoye says. (more…)
A number of collectors are moving works out of the Geneva Freeport, after scrutiny and reforms have led to increased security and monitoring of the site’s contents. The reforms were set off after an Amedeo Modigliani work was seized from the location’s vaults. “Today, the image is still deteriorating,” David Hiler, president of the Geneva Free Ports, says of the company. “I don’t expect that things will improve quickly: this will take time.” (more…)
MoMA is embarking on an ambitious rehang of its permanent collection galleries for contemporary art, examining dialogues across various generations and disciplines. “We’re all looking at new models and exploring what that can feel like and look like,” says Rajendra Roy, the museum’s chief film curator. (more…)
Glenn Lowry offers his opinion on the social and political agency of art in an interview with CNN this week, and examines how artists can shape perception of issues and crises, particularly the ongoing refuge crises. “Their projects not only make us conscious of the scale and impact of the refugee crisis on those who are displaced,” he writes. “They also remind us that this is not a new problem, and that migration is both a national and transnational issue.” (more…)