Untitled by Richard Diebenkorn, 1950. All images via Artnet unless otherwise noted.

Currently on view at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, is an exhibition titled “Richard Diebenkorn: Paintings and Works on Paper 1949-1955″. Organized in cooperation with the Estate of Richard Diebenkorn, this exhibition features thirty-six works on paper  of this well-known American artist, whose early work is associated with Abstract Expressionism.

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Justify My Love, Cecily Brown, 2004, oil on linen. Image via CFA, Berlin.

Cecily Brown‘s exhibition at the Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, features large-scale oil paintings on canvas and linen.  Brown camouflages her subjects, often females in torrid positions, within alternately muted and frenzied colors and animated brush strokes.  Her use of blurred lines and monochromatic colors forces the observer to look carefully to discern the action of the painting.  Brown employs figuration and expressionism in this exhibition, which combines lush landscape paintings with motifs of sexuality and attraction.

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Kiki Smith, Pilgrim, 2007-2010, leaded stained glass in steel frames, installation dimensions variable. All installation images courtesy G.R. Christmas courtesy The Pace Gallery.

Currently on view at The Pace Gallery‘s location on 545 W 22nd Street is Kiki Smith: “Lodestar.” A parallel narrative to this exhibition can be found in “Sojourn,” Smith’s concurrent solo show now on view at the Brooklyn Museum (through Sept 12). “Sojourn” marks the artist’s first major museum show in New York since a mid-career survey at the Whitney Museum in 2006. “You have to hit the ground running,” Smith recently told the New York Times, in reference to her process. Ever busy, the artist has also recently been commissioned to design a 16-foot-high window for the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York’s Lower East Side. The historic landmark is scheduled for completion later this year.

The west coast also welcomes the artist’s presence this year: through August 15, 2010, Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery is showing “Kiki Smith: I Myself Have Seen It,” which explores the role of photography in the development of Smith’s aesthetic. The exhibition will travel to the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in the fall and to the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University in the spring of 2011.

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Chef On Dung Mountain, Nigel Cooke (2010). All Images via Modern Art Gallery

On view at Modern Art Gallery in London through May 29th is “Night Crossing,” a solo exhibition of new work by British artist Nigel Cooke. Renowned for his large scale melancholic works, his newest effort centers around the triptych Departure, which was inspired by Max Beckmann’s triptych of the same title (1933-1935). Also on view are a series of full length portraits, along with several sculptures. This is Cooke’s fourth solo exhibition at Modern Art Gallery.

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Arena #7 (Bears), Mike Kelley, image via the Skarstedt Gallery

Mike Kelley‘s  current exhibition at the Skarstedt Gallery features seven works from his Arena sculpture series.  Using found objects, both handmade and machine fabricated, and stuffed animals, Kelley creates “arenas,” scenes crafted to evoke curiosity from his observers.  Kelley works on the floor, as a playing child might, with afghans and blankets of varying styles and motifs.  Kelley explores the commodification of toys and their relevant emotions, removing them from a typical, nostalgic setting to create arenas that highlight both consumeristic natures and artistic projections.

Arena #10 (Dogs), Mike Kelley, image via the Skarstedt Gallery

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Christian Boltanski’s “No Man’s Land” at Park Avenue Armory. Image by Art Observed.

AO was on site at the Park Avenue Armory’s second annual commission, which is showing until June 13.  This year’s installment features Christian Boltanski, in an ambitious new work that fills the 55,000 square-foot Drill Hall.  It’s called “No Man’s Land,” and it involves clothing, metal cranes, and the amplified sounds of its visitors’ beating hearts.

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Walk-through of Christian Boltanski’s “No Man’s Land” at Park Avenue Armory. Image by Art Observed.

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On May 6, a multidisciplinary art festival dedicated to Marchel Duchamp and the creation of his latest and most mysterious masterpiece Etant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’éclairage opened in Chexbres, Switzerland.  The festival is presented by the Association Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and ECAL/University of Art and Design, Lausanne.  The floor will be given to the internationally most renowned Duchamp experts who will speak about the Forestay, the Lavaux-Region, Etant donnés and the reception of Marcel Duchamp by contemporary artists.

Etant donnés: 1° la chute d’eau, 2° le gaz d’éclairage by Marcel Duchamp via Artdaily

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I Musici, 1595. All images via Scuderie del Quirinale

The Scuderie del Quirinale’s Caravaggio exhibition is one of several special events marking the 400th anniversary of this famous Italian artist’s death. Showcasing many of Caravaggio’s most representative paintings, the exhibition features works from prominent collections worldwide including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Staatliche Museum in Berlin, and Italian institutions such as the Uffizi and Borghese Galleries.

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Free Tiger Returns to the Mountains No.66 (2010) by Zhang Huan, via Pace Gallery

Currently on view at the Pace Gallery in Beijing is an exhibition of recent works by Zhang Huan. Most renowned for his performance artwork, in recent years he has returned to working in a variety of mediums including painting, sculpture, and large-scale installations. “Free Tiger Returns to the Mountains” includes ash paintings (works made of a mixture of ashes collected from temples and adhesive) and cowhide sculptures. The paintings were created from his imagination instead using a photographic image. They are an expressive recreation of the artist’s idea of wildlife.

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Woman on the Horse, 2006 by Fernando Botero.  All images via Marlborough Gallery unless otherwise noted.
[This work is one of the most imposing sculptures in show, with a total weight of 1,600 pounds.]

Currently on view at Marlborough Gallery, Chelsea, New York is an exhibition of the works by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero.  On display in the gallery are works representing classical subjects such as Leda and the Swan, 2007 and Rape of Europe, 2007. The exhibition is on view until May 29th.

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View of the Exhibition by Franz West, via Almine Rech Gallery

Currently on view at the Almine Rech Gallery in Brussels is Franz West’s “Double Squint” including works by Tamuna Sirbiladze and Rudolf Polanszky. The exhibition features new works by West including painting, papiers mâchés, outdoors pieces as well as joint work with artists Polanszky and Sirbiladze.

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Installation view. All images via Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery

On April 24, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, hosted the opening of the exhibition of the new works by Georg Bazelitz. The show includes a series of Bazelitz’ new monumental sculptures, several paintings, and a number of works on paper that are on display in the gallery’s Drawing Space.

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Installation view: Richard Tuttle’s “Village V”. All images courtesy of Tom Powel Imaging for Sperone Westwater Gallery.

Currently on view at Sperone Westwater Gallery through May 22, 2010, is Richard Tuttle‘s “Village V”. The exhibition is composed of 26 drawings and one sculpture against stenciled walls. It seeks to expand the concept of drawing, investigate color and line, question ideas of composition and frame, and merge the mystical with the tangible. The work was one of Tuttle’s six “Villages” shown in “Richard Tuttle: It’s a Room for 3 People” at the Drawing Center in 2005.

Richard Tuttle, “Village V, No. II, 9”, 2004, balsa wood, sawdust, acrylic and graphite on paper, 14 x 16 7/8 inches (35,6 x 42,9 cm)

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Roy Lichtenstein, Still Life with Palette, 1972, oil and magna on canvas, 60 x 96 inches. All images courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Recently opened at Gagosian Gallery‘s location on 555 West 24th Street is Roy Lichtenstein: Still Lifes. This exhibition is the first devoted solely to the artist’s still lifes spanning from 1972 to the early 1980s. The show, which brings together 50 works from prominent private collections and museums worldwide, includes still lifes in three media: paintings, sculptures and drawings.

Installation view, Roy Lichtenstein: Still Lifes

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Dirty Brian, Nigel Cooke (2010) Retail value: $2,500 – 3,500+ Opening bid: $2,000

This Saturday, May 15, New York’s oldest alternative and non-profit art space, White Columns, will host a special reception featuring a live auction.  Silent bidding has already begun on many of the works that are currently on view at the gallery on West 13th Street, New York – and a select group of works are to be sold at the live auction, conducted by White Columns director Matthew Higgs. White Columns wanted the works in the auction to be viewed as a curated exhibition, and indeed, the works have been on view for the past two weeks.  Last Saturday White Columns hosted a preview breakfast as part of New York Gallery Week.  Director Matthew Higgs explains, “we think it is important that the donated works have a chance to be seen by a wide public, and seen within the context of an exhibition…as opposed to the works being sold at a one-night only, ticketed event.”

Fallen Angels – Julie London, David Byrne (2010) Retail value: $1,000+ Opening bid: $500

Now entering their fifth decade of operation, White Columns has supported and launched the careers of literally thousands of artists.  Founded in 1970 by Jeffrey Lew and Gordon Matta-Clark, the space is one of the first artist-run organizations  intended to promote artistic communal solidarity. Many of the 75 artists who have contributed works have a historic, or more recent, connection to the organization – emphasizing an inter-generational ‘peer’ philanthropy so inherent to not-for-profit gallery culture. Among the artists who donated works are Peter Doig, Maurizio Cattelan, David Byrne and many others.  Bidders should have the opportunity to acquire choice works at a variety of price ranges. The top lot of the live auction is Mary Heilmann’s For Malcolm – a tribute to the recently deceased London-born impresario Malcolm McLaren, the work is one of a number of music-inspired works that feature in both the silent and live auctions.

As a special feature of the 2010 benfit, Higgs invited more than 30 artists to create a new work that incorporates an existing record sleeve, or to create a work that uses a record sleeve as its point of departure.  in this section include: Nigel Cooke, Brendan Fowler, Wade Guyton, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Jutta Koether, Josephine Meckseper, Dave Muller, David Noonan, Raymond Pettibon, Jack Pierson, Richard Phillips, Cheyney Thompson, Kelley Walker, among others.

Musicians of the British Empire, Peter Doig (2010) Retail value: $25,000+ Opening bid: $12,500

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Moon (2007) by Richard Prince, via Gagosian Gallery

Currently on view at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue Gallery in New York is “Tiffany Paintings” by Richard Prince. The exhibition includes recent large-scale paintings and newsprint collages which reflect the artist’s continual interest in the recurring patterns of advertising. These large monochrome abstract paintings recall the Tiffany’s advertisement which was run daily for many years in the upper right hand corner of the same page of the New York Times.

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Ohne Titel (Gefangen) / Without a Title (Caught), Paul Klee, 1940.  Musée de l’Orangerie, The Ernst Beyeler Collection, Paris, via The Beyeler Foundation

The Ernst Beyeler Collection at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, coheres twenty-six of Expressionist painter Paul Klee‘s masterpieces, primarily from his later work.  The Musée d’Orsay, Musée de l’Orangerie, and Beyeler Foundation collaborated to organize this presentation of paintings and drawings, as a tribute to the late Ernst Beyeler, who passed away in February.  As a gallery owner from Switzerland and a patron of modern art, Beyeler was central to the development of Klee’s career.  Seventeen of the works displayed come from his and wife Hildy’s collection.

Klee, born in Switzerland in 1897, influenced modernist painting throughout the 1900s.  He collaborated with artists such as Vassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc in Italy.  Post World War II, Klee worked as a professor in Germany at Bauhaus and the Dusseldorf Academy.  The Nazi Party deemed Klee a “degenerate” for the modern and provocative nature of his work, forcing him to return to Switzerland.  This trajectory led him to experiment with new techniques and varying styles.

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Tokamak Asdex Upgrade Interior 2 Max Planck IPP, Garching (2009) by Thomas Struth, via Marian Goodman

Currently on view at Marion Goodman Gallery are new works by German photographer Thomas Struth. The new body of works explores the rarely investigated subjects of mechanical engines, industrial and scientific research institutes, and pharmaceutical plants. The works were taken throughout Asia, the Americas, and Europe and reveal an almost beauty in architectural machinery.

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Leslie Hewitt Riffs on Real Time (7 of 10), 2008 via Leslie Hewitt

In On Beauty, Objects, and Dissonance currently exhibited at The Kitchen, Rashida Bumbray presents selections from three diverse bodies of Leslie Hewitt’s photographs: A Series of Projections from 2010, Midday from 2009, and Riffs on Real Time from 2008, in addition to a new film installation created in collaboration with experimental cinematographer Bradford Young. Pieces from multiple bodies of work may seem inharmonious at first, but spend more time and the conversations of perception, narrative, and undertones of politics running through the room become more apparent.

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Masters of the Universe, Tim Noble & Sue Webster (1998-2000). All photographs by Oskar Proctor for ArtObserved.

“Skin Fruit,” the much-anticipated, Jeff Koons­-curated exhibition featuring million-dollar works by the biggest names in contemporary art continues at the New Museum through June 6, 2010. The New Museum’s questionable decision to exhibit works from the collection of one of its trustees, Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou, resulted in an art world controversy that threatened to upstage the show itself from the very beginning. When a large mix of celebrities and art-world-insiders flooded the Museum for the opening reception – attendees included Cyndi Lauper, U2’s the Edge, and collectors Don and Mera Rubell – the irony of placing the ritzy collection in a museum that was once championed for its promotion of the underdog was only exaggerated. And the critics responded accordingly. Christian Viveros-Fauné lambasted that the show is totally wrong for our times “in just about every possible way.” According to the exhibition press release, the featured works by Franz West, Charles Ray, Matthew Barney, Richard Prince, Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Kiki Smith, Kara Walker, Maurizio Cattelan, Tauba Auerbach, Chris Ofili, Dan Colen and Terence Koh, amongst others, aim to “evoke the tensions between exterior and interior, between what we see and what we consume” – a curatorial spin critics say was invented in an effort to disguise a “rudderless display of art as trophy hunting” as an art exhibition. While this may be true, Skin Fruit essentially offers the common man an opportunity to view important works from one of the finest and most original collections of contemporary art in the world that have rarely, or never been seen in New York.

Revolution Counter-Revolution, Charles Ray (1990/2010)

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Portrait of Robert and Ethel Scull (1967) by George Segal, via Acquavella Galleries

Currently on view at Acquavella Galleries is an exhibition which brings together many works from the collection of Robert and Ethen Scull. Pioneers of Pop Art (known as the Mom and Pop of Pop), the Sculls dominated the art world during the 1960s and and early 1970s.  The exhibition is comprised of forty-four works of art made by twenty-three artists. Works by Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, and Any Warhol are reunited again and emphasize the extraordinary collecting personality of Robert and Ethen Scull.

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Installation view, Brucennial 2010: Miseducation (image courtesy of The New York Times)

Thought you missed your chance to see what the artist group known as the Bruce High Quality Foundation claims to be “the most important survey of contemporary art in the world. Ever.”? Fear not – the Brucennial 2010: Miseducation has been extended until May 22.

The exhibition’s opening in February was greeted with snow, but visitors were not deterred by the weather, and the entry line extended far beyond the block. Boasting to exhibit 420 artists from 911 countries working in 666 disciplines, the Brucennial 2010 is not to be missed. The BHQF, as they are called, were a highlight in this year’s Whitney Biennial. Their video installation piece entitled “We Like America and America Likes Us” featured a 22-minute video projected onto the hood of a white hearse.

We Like America and America Likes Us by Bruce High Quality Foundation

Along with celebrated artists the likes of David Salle, Francesco Clemente, Ron Gorchov, George Condo, Donald Baechler, James Nares, Rita Ackermann, and Julian Schnabel, hang works by younger artists without privileged connections. To make sense of the chaos, use, as your map, Hyperallergic’s piece-by-piece guide to the works in the exhibition.

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L: Barbara Kruger, Untitled (He entered shop after shop…), 2008 R: Eric Fischl, Rebirth I: (The Last View of Camiliano Cien Fuegos), 1986. All images courtesy of Haunch of Venison, New York.

On view at Haunch of Venison New York, until May 1, 2010, is “Your History Is Not Our History.” Organized by artists David Salle and Richard Phillips, this group show presents works produced in 1980s New York City.

Including works by Donald Baechler, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ross Bleckner, Francesco Clemente, Carroll Dunham, Eric Fischl, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger,Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Malcolm Morley, Richard Prince, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Jenny Holzer, Phillip Taaffe, Terry Winters and Christopher Wool, this exhibition seeks to convey “a more accurate portrayal of the energy and experimentation that was permeating the city during that time,” says Phillips.

L: Christopher Wool, Untitled, 1988   C: Jeff Koons, Buster Keaton, 1988 R: Eric Fischl, The Old Man’s Boat & The Old Man’s Dog, 1981.

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Reflection with Two Children (Self-Portait) (1965) by Lucian Freud, via FT

“I want to paint to work as flesh. As far as I am concerned the paint is the person.” -Lucian Freud

Currently on view at the Centre Pompidou in Paris is a major retrospective of work by Lucian Freud. Now 88 years old, Freud is among one of the world’s greatest living artists. His work was last shown at the Pompidou Centre in 1987 during his last retrospective at the museum. The exhibition presents a great selection of Freud’s work including around fifty large format paintings mostly from private collections together with various prints and drawings as well as photographs from the artist’s studio. The theme of the exhibit is the artist’s studio, the place which is most important to Freud and the creation of his art.

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