Alexander Calder, Josephine Baker IV (1928) via Artnet

Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933 at the Whitney Museum showcases Calder’s works of portraiture, video, and figuration that are seldomly giving such widespread recognition.  Molding from industrial steel wire, Calder’s figures range from toast-of-the-town 1920s dancer Josephine Baker to tennis champion Helen Wills to John D. Rockefeller playing golf.  One of the highlights of the show comes by way of Jean Painlevé’s 1955 film “Le Grand Cirque Calder 1927,” in which Calder introduces his figures one by one while manipulating them through low-tech mechanics to animate their activities. This performance drew savvy audiences including many vanguard types like Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian and can be viewer here. The Whitney has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder in any museum and is the exclusive venue for this landmark exhibition, co-organized with the Centre Pompidou.

Calder At Play: Finding Whimsy in Simple Wire [NYTimes]
Video of Calder performing the “Circus” from a 1955 film by Jean Painleve [Youtube]
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, Exhibition at the Whitney Museum [DesignBoom]
Animalism by Charlie Finch [Artnet]
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1927-1933 [Whitney Museum of American Art] (more…)

Musician and artist Pharrell Williams sitting on work from Perspectives, via The Clones.

Pharrell Williams, music producer and member of N.E.R.D, is currently exhibiting his latest design ambition entitled Perspective at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris. The exhibition consists of a single chair its seat supported with the legs of both a man and a woman and was created with the help of furniture designer Domeau & Pérès. The chair which is on display in four colors comes with a seat that can either be wrapped in leather, velour, or veal skin. Williams, no stranger to design, has previously worked on two separate jewelry lines, one in collaboration with Louis Vuitton’s in-house jewelry designer Camille Miceli the other with street artist KAWS. Earlier this year Williams curated the show Saturated by KAWS at Miami’s Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, as covered by Art Observed here.

Pharrell Williams: Perspectives [Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin]
Pharrell Williams Debuts His “Perspectives” Chair at Gallerie Emmanuel Perrotin [supertouch]
Pharrell’s Perspective Chairs at Gallerie Emmanuel Perrotin [hypebeast]
Pharrell Williams at Galerie Emmanuel Parrotin, Paris [Digital Ape]
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A View of Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion, at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield, designed by Zaha Hadid, via the New York Times

After stops in Hong Kong and Tokyo (as covered by AO here), the Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion has arrived in New York. The itinerant art exhibit was commissioned by Karl Lagerfeld, the ubiquitous link between the art and fashion worlds, and was designed by Zaha Hadid, a Pritzker Prize winner and one of today’s foremost architects. The pavilion, whose design has most often been compared to a spacecraft’s, is set in Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield, offering a stark contrast to the park’s landscape through Hadid’s compelling use of smooth, white contours that resemble canvas–but are actually made of steel.  Inside the installation, 20 artists display works inspired by Chanel’s coveted, iconic quilted handbag on a chain, also known as the 2.55. Admission to the exhibit is free by making a reservation on-site.

Chanel: Mobile Art
Zaha Hadid: Architect’s Website
A 7,500-Square-Foot Ad for Chanel, With an Artistic Mission [New York Times]
Art and Commerce Canoodling in Central Park [New York Times]
Chanel’s Purse Show Lands in New York With Curves by Zaha Hadid [Bloomberg]
Video: Inside the Chanel Mobile Art Exhibit! [New York Magazine]
FALL GLAMOUR IN NEW YORK [Artnet Magazine]
Karl Called [Park Avenue Peerage]
Chanel Mobile Art Container Lands in Central Park [Unbeige]

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Self Portrait / Cutting (1993) by Catherine Opie

The Guggenheim Museum on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is currently featuring a comprehensive midcareer survey of Catherine Opie’s work, which blends high formalism with unconventional subjects, often from society’s margins. The exhibition encompasses most of the photographer’s output, which ranges from portraiture to urban landscape photography, and includes more than 200 works. Opie first came to prominence after ‘Being and Having’ (1991) and ‘Portraits’ (1993-1997), shows that focused on queer communities and culture in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with many of the heavily pierced and tattooed sitters coming from the queer artist and sadomasochist subcultures.  The artist also gave her subjects exaggerated facial hair to make their gender even more opaque and transmutable, exposing the subjectivity of sexual and gender ideology.

Guggenheim Museum: Catherine Opie: American Photographer
Regen Projects: Catherine Opie
A Retrospective of Many Artists, All of Them One Woman [New York Times]
Shock and awe of another age [Financial Times]
Doug McClemont on Catherine Opie at the Guggenheim [Saatchi Online]
The AI Interview: Catherine Opie [ArtInfo]
Dykes! Tutus! Off-ramps! The Guggenheim Mounts a Catherine Opie Retrospective [Village Voice]

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Rirkrit Tiravanija, “Untitled (demonstration no. 138), 2006. via the Drawing Center

The Drawing Center will present over 200 works on paper in Rirkrit Tiravanija: Demonstration Drawings. The series is the artist’s first U.S. museum exhibition displaying drawings he commissioned derived from demonstrations published in the International Herald Tribune. Composed by Thai artists, many of whom were students of Tiravanija, his visions convey a photorealistic portrayal of immediacy responding to power, oppression, and global capital. Curated by João Ribas, Demonstration Drawings fashions a perspective centered on popular sovereignty movements worldwide and ongoing forms of social strife.  In part know for his cooking-sessions-as-art in gallery exhibitions, Rirkrit’s work usually deals with “relational aesthetics,” a theoretical departure from private space while creating inclusion of the whole of human relations and their social context.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Demonstration Drawings [Drawing Center]
The Conceptual Provocateur: Rirkrit Tiravanija [NewYorkSun]
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Demonstration Drawings at Drawing Center [ArtFagCity]
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Demonstration Drawings [ArtCal]
RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA Demonstration Drawings at the Drawing Center
by David Cohen [ArtCritical]

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Hitch Hiker, a 1989-90 painting by Peter Doig on display now at the Schirn Kunsthalle via Tate Modern.

A Peter Doig retrospective is currently on display at at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The exhibition spans the past two decades of the Scottish artist’s work and follows two major retrospectives held earlier this year, one at the Tate Modern, London (as reported by Art Observed in February here) and the other at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. On display are 50 paintings, 130 painted posters, and a group of works on paper. The showcased works include some of Doig’s most famed landscapes and primarily reflect his childhood spent in Trinidad and Canada, and the cityscapes of London where he spent the greater part of his adult life. Although Doig often uses photographs as a reference his paintings are not of specific places and are equally influenced by past memories creating a signature style that has both photo-realist and abstract qualities. In addition to the exhibition Doig has also set up a special series of film screenings of his selection entitled STUDIOFILMCLUB in Frankfurt.

Peter Doig Retrospective at Schirn Kunsthalle / Frankfurt a. Main [VernissageTV]
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt: Peter Doig [E-flux]
Peter Doig Retrospective [Schirn Kunsthalle]
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Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s installation TH.2058 at Tate Modern in London via The Independent.

The Tate Modern, London is currently displaying its ninth Turbine Hall installation by French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. The installation is inspired by the artist’s vision of an apocalyptic London 50 years into the future. The work aptly named TH.2058 imagines the city under siege by flooding, bombing, and invasion, its residents forced to take shelter in the Tate’s Turbine Hall in order to escape the never-ending rain. Gonzalez-Foerester has filled the hall with rows of of bunk beds scattered with science-fiction novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A literal homage to the writings that helped inspire the work. The beds are pinned beneath giant replicas of sculptures previously housed in the Tate, including a gigantic duplicate of a spider by Louise Bourgeois and a colossal copy of Alexander Calder’s pink flamingo. A screen hangs over the end of the space and displays what Gonzalez-Foerester calls The Last Film; a montage of science fiction clips from Planet of the Apes, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Solaris among others. All of this coupled with the constant sound of rain. The piece was inspired not only by science-fiction works but also by the 2005 London subway bombings that killed 52 and the 1940-41 bombings of Britain by the Nazi’s.

Catastrophe at the Tate: new installation sees future world as a disaster shelter [Guardian UK]
Art Refuge [Financial Times]
Apocalyptic vision of London comes to Tate Modern [The Associated Press]
Tate’s vision of a London under fire [The Independent]
Bunk beds fill Tate Turbine Hall [BBC News]
Bed and bored in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s chamber of horrors [TimesOnlineUK]
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Portrait of Poitr Uklanski (1996), Elizabeth Peyton via NYTimes

Elizabeth Peyton’s midcareer survey presents over 100 works in “Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton” currently at the New Museum.  Peyton emerged in the early 1990s along with painters such as John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage and at that time helped define their collective painterly, outsiderish, illustrational, art-smart figurative styles.  Her portraits generally portray two types of subjects: one being the people she has personal rapport with and the other being those in her imagination.  Portraits of Kurt Cobain, Liam Gallagher from the band Oasis, and Matthew Barney are included, manifested in a suitably thin and somewhat androgynous lens. The survey encapsulates fifteen years of Peyton’s career while the catalogue includes essays from curator Laura Hoptman, Iwona Blazwick, and poet and Warhol icon John Giorno.

The Personal and the Painterly [NYTimes]
Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton [New Museum]
Roberta Smith on Elizabeth Peyton’s Show at The New Museum [Badatsports]
New Museum Organizes First Elizabeth Peyton Survey and International Tour of Over 100 Works [ArtDaily]
Elizabeth Peyton’s Opening [WWD Lifestyle]
Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton at the New Museum, NY [Art2bank]

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Self-Portrait via The Hayward Gallery, London

Nearly twenty years after The Hayward Gallery in London put on Andy Warhol: A Retrospective (1989), Hayward is now hosting Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms, another retrospective of Warhol’s work. Other Voices, Other Rooms, which has been on tour since last October at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and then at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, uses Warhol’s film and video work as a starting point to explore the artist’s core subjects, “voyeurism, celebrity, the mundane, blurring distinctions between high and low culture.”

Highlights from Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms [Art Daily]
Andy Warhol at The Hayward Gallery [TimesUK]
Review of Other Voices, Other Rooms [Independent]
Overexposed and over here [Guardian UK]
Giant who changed the world [Financial TImes]
Works in Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms [The London Paper]
The Hayward Gallery, London

More images and information after the jump (more…)

A silica gel sculpture “Communication” by Cang Xn in the new Saatchi Gallery via Reuters

One of the most influential art collectors, Charles Saatchi, who years ago jump started the careers of the Young British Artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, has opened his new gallery in Chelsea in Central, London. The neoclassical former military barracks from 1801 known as the Duke of York Headquarters building is the now home to Saatchi’s gallery and his opening exhibit called “The Revolution Continues: New Art From China.” Within the space, a standard “white cube” internal architecture, the inaugural group show features works of art from the most of the top contemporary Chinese artists. Duke of York Headquarters buildings provides an impressive 70,000 square feet of space of gallery space, and in its past life was the military headquarters and barracks for the Duke’s soldiers.

Also notable is that the new Saatchi Gallery, a huge space that compares with City or National arts spaces in its scope and quality of offerings, is entirely free, due to a corporate sponsorship by Phillips de Pury & Company, which only this week was purchased by the Mercury Group of Russia, as reported by Art Observed yesterday here.

Saatchi Gallery Website
Saatchi Gallery Opens at Duke of York’s HQ Building, Chelsea [Artdaily]
Saatchi leads Chinese revolution with video here, and more video here [BBC]
Classical frame for Saatchi’s brand-new look [Financial Times]
Art guru Saatchi back with new gallery, China show [Reuters]
Saatchi’s New London Gallery Hails Britart, Chinese Revolution [Bloomberg]
Charles Saatchi’s old favourites – made in China [TimesUK]
Stuck with Saatchi [ArtReview]
The Revolution continues at the new Saatchi Gallery [TimesUK]
The verdict on Saatchi’s new gallery and Dog chews and Mao [Independent]
Saatchi Gallery: great space, shame about the art and Saatchi gallery: a study in blandness [GuardianUK]
Last scene by Saatchi and Charles Saatchi: Did I say that? and Is it third time lucky for Saatchi gallery? [GuardianUK]
Saatchi Gallery Opening – London [Jean Pigozzi for Colette]
Update: Opening of the Week: Saatchi rolls out the red carpet [Independent]

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not yet titled (smashed screen with refrigeration) (2008), Banks Violette via ArtRabbit

Banks Violette’s second solo show at Maureen Paley offers black-metal fervor in a minimalist shell. While Violette’s previous installments have focused more upon audible aesthetics like his collaboration with the drone-metal musician Sun O)))), this will be Violette’s first exhibit featuring video. An appropriated and manipulated clip of the signature TriStar Pictures horse is projected upon an invisible screen of water vapor to appear as if the image is hovering (which can be seen here). Upstairs includes influences from his previous works that take on the formal language of billboards and projection screens but mangled, broken, and extruded. Violette was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and the Black Album in 2005 and since then has garnered international exhibitions. His work primarily deals with ritualistic presentations of death-metal in American culture derived from his tattoo-artist and crystal-meth induced upbringings in Hawaii. His nihilistic approach also deals with real-life narratives like teen suicides in New Jersey or church burnings in Norway.

Maureen Paley Official Site
Banks Violette at Maureen Paley [ArtRabbit]
Artist of the week no 10: Banks Violette [GuardianUK]
Steve Pulimood on Banks Violette at Maureen Paley [Saatchi Gallery]
Video Footage of Banks Violette TriStar horse animation [Youtube]

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Life by Gilbert and George, part of Death Hope Life Fear series, via the Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum is the final stop in the global tour of the Gilbert and George retrospective, offering a comprehensive overview of the art the British duo has been making since 1970. Many of the 90 pieces on display will only be shown in Brooklyn. The pair’s work encompasses performance art and charcoal sketches as well as large, monument-scale digital picture installations which address politics, sexuality, race, identity faith, and other aspects of modern life in a very idiosyncratic, provocative way. Gilbert and George met at Central St. Martin’s College in 1967 and have been working exclusively with each other ever since, winning the Turner Prize in 1986 and representing Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2005.

Brooklyn Museum Exhibits: Gilbert & George
Gilbert and George Retro at Brooklyn Museum Begins [Gothamist]
Provocative Duo, Naked and Natty [New York Times]
Gilbert & George Retrospective At The Brooklyn Museum [rawArt]
Gilbert and George Retrospective [The Art Newspapers]

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Artist Richard Serra poses for photographers beside one of his works entitled ‘Fernando Pessoa’ during the unveiling of his new exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in London October 3, 2008 via Reuters

Richard Serra, widely regarded as the ‘greatest living sculpture’ has a two concurrent exhibitions at the Gagosian Galleries on Britannia Street and Davies Street in London. Simply titled, ‘Sculpture’, the Brittania Street exhibit displays three new large-scale steel installations and four smaller wall hanging pieces, while the Davies Street gallery houses new works on paper. This is the first time that Richard Serra has exhibited in London since Weight and Measure at Tate Gallery in 1992. The 70 year-old artist has not slowed down in the recent years with a critically acclaimed installation at the Grand Palais in Paris this summer, a “40 Years” retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2007, and the widely recognized “Matter of Time” installation at the Guggenheim Bilboa in 2005. The sculptures at the current Gagosian show weigh over 300 tons and will occupy the gallery space until December 20, 2008.

Interview with Richard Serra, Man of steel [GuardianUK]
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Serra Recalls 9/11, Shipyard as Steel Labyrinth Opens in London [Bloomberg]
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Richard Serra shows off his rings of steel [Economist]
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Serra brings giant steel sculptures to London [Reuters]
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Super slabs and steely nerves and Heavy metal: Richard Serra exhibition for London [GuardianUK]
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Richard Serra: Sculpture [Gagosian Gallery]

Previously:
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Go See: Richard Serra – Thinking on Your Feet [ArtObserved]

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Marc Quinn, Siren, 2008, Gold – via Telegraph

Today, The British Museum opened Statuephilia – a show of five major contemporary sculptures by five leading British artists – Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Ron Mueck, Antony Gormley, and Noble and Webster. The works are placed separately throughout the museum’s permanent collection in their respective relevant historical contexts. The exhibition includes Siren, Marc Quinn’s life size solid 18 carat gold statue of Kate Moss in a Yoga position which is set in the museum’s Nereid Room among ancient statues of Greek goddesses which was previously covered by AO here.

Images from Statuephilia [Telegraph]
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Statuephilia Opens [Art Daily]
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Kate Moss: The Muse [Independent]
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Marc Quinn Immortalizes Kate Moss [TimesUK]
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Solid gold Moss statue revealed [BBC]
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Statuephilia at The British Museum Website

More images and links after the jump.
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‘The Night Cafe’ (1888) by Vincent Van Gogh, via New York Times

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night features nocturnal themes in the artist’s body of work, product of many sleepless nights contemplating the people, cityscapes and countrysides of France and Holland. ‘The Starry Night,’ one of his best known pieces, and the aesthetically- and thematically- related ‘Starry Night over the Rhone’ are among the 23 paintings and 10 works of paper on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Van Gogh‘s fascination with the colors, forms and inhabitants of the night is palpable in the paintings, which all feature his signature bold colors and lines.

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night: Through January 5, 2009
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night: MoMA site [MoMA]
MoMA Presents First Exhibition to Examine Van Gogh’s Nocturnal Landscapes and Interiors [Artdaily]
Did Van Gogh Need More Sleep? Starlit Obsessions at MoMA Show [Bloomberg]
Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night, NY [Financial Times]
Nocturnal Van Gogh, Illuminating the Darkness [New York Times]

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“Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio” by Lucio Fontana via Christie’s

Highest-valued sale Christie’s has yet to auction during Frieze Art week will be a Lucio Fontana egg-shaped canvas estimated at $21.8 million [Bloomberg]
LACMA announces $55 million gift directed toward new pavilion amongst other endeavors from POM Wonderful and Fiji water owners [ArtDaily]
Street artist Kaws, now at Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami (as covered by AO here), collaborates on shoes with Marc Jacobs [TheWorldsBestEver]
An interview with Catherine Opie, whose work can now be seen at the Guggenheim [Artforum]
Ukrainian (not Russian, as cited in linked article) steel oligarch Victor Pinchuk announces Director for his new Kiev museum and that he was in fact a major buyer at Hirst’s Sotheby’s auction [ArtInfo]

No Title (They’ve shot the) (1982), Raymond Pettibon via Regen Projects

A little-known fact about Raymond Pettibon is that he raised “sporting” pitbulls and mastiffs in the backyard of his home in Hermosa Beach, California.  For someone so inextricably linked to the punk and hardcore music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980’s, this may not come as such a surprise to some.  Pettibon won wide-spread appeal for his ambiguous and irreverent monochromatic comic-like posters and album covers for the band Black Flag and SST records, both founded by his older brother Greg Ginn. One can digest Pettibon’s work as a type of stark and detached reenactment of a depraved silent-film with wry, tongue-in-cheek undertones. Even Pettibon’s use of “sporting” rather than “fighting” with reference to his dogs exemplifies his seemingly caustic dryness.  Part one of a two part Pettibon solo exhibition at Regen Projects in Los Angeles runs from September 13th to October 18th and features seminal works showcased in some of his early ‘zines. His second exhibit runs from December 13, 2008 to January 24, 2009 also at Regen Projects.

Raymon Pettibon Part I: Seminal Early Works 1978-88 [Regen Projects]
Raymon Pettibon Seminal Early Works 1978-88 [LA Times]
Raymon Pettibon Exhibit at Regen Projects [LAist]
Interview with Raymond Pettibon [Believermag]

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Jenny Holzer’s light projection For the Guggenheim via Art Daily.

Jenny Holzer’s site-specific design for the facade of the Soloman R. Guggenheim museum is now on display. The Guggenheim commissioned the piece to mark the completion of the museum’s three-year restoration project.  The piece is a light projection of political statements about terrorism and the Iraq war along with poems by Nobel Prize recipient and Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska.  The work was inaugurated September 22 when Mayor Bloomberg switched on the installation causing the epigrams of white capital letters to cascade down the building.  The work entitled “For the Guggenheim” will be on display from sunset to 11 PM every Friday through December with a special showing on New Year’s Eve.
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Jenny Holzer to Light Up Facade of Guggenheim Museum [Art Info]
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Guggenheim Marks Completion of Restoration With First Public Viewing of Work by Artist Jenny Holzer [Art Daily]
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Guggenheim Museum to display text art to celebrate renovation [USA Today]
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Guggenheim Museum Marks Completion Of Building Restoration With First Public Viewing Of Commissioned Work By Artist Jenny Holzer [Guggenheim Press Release]

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Beauty, John McCracken (2006) via David Zwirner

David Zwirner opened a show of new work by artist John McCracken on September 11th. The exhibition houses nearly 100 pieces made by McCracken, many of which are components of multi-part sculptures. This is McCracken’s fourth solo exhibition at David Zwirner; he has also shown at S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium in 2004 as well as a variety of group shows.  Born in Berkeley in 1934, John McCracken has been showing his conceptual, abstract, and minimalist sculptures since the 1960s. In concurrence with this David Zwirner show, Radius Books is publishing and making available for the first time, John McCracken: Sketchbook. This publication is filled with the artists working sketches from the 1960s. The author of the publication, Neville Wakefield, is an independent curator and has most recently put together a group show at MoMA P.S.1.

John McCracken at David Zwirner [David Zwirner]
John McCracken: Sketchbook [Radius Books]
John McCracken talk & book signing at David Zwirner [Art Slant]
David Zwirner: Press Release [Artinfo]

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Gerhard Richter’s 4900 Colours: Version II via Serpentine Gallery

London’s Serpentine Gallery is set to display celebrated German artist Gerhard Richter’s 4900 Colours: Version II today, September 23. The piece is comprised of 4900 brightly colored squares arranged randomly by a concept Richter has coined “controlled chance.” The squares have been painted on 100 aluminum panels. The panels can be viewed altogether as a single work of art that measures 69 square meters or the work can be displayed as 49 separate pieces. Serpentine will display the 4900 Colours: Version II as separate original works. The new piece strongly resembles both the artist’s previous color abstractions dating back to the 70’s as well as a recent stained glass piece the artist created for the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

Richter Says Nouveau Riche Have Sent Art Market `to the Dogs’ [Bloomberg]
Gerhard Richter Brings 4900 Colors to Serpentine [Digital Art]
Richter’s all square at the Serpentine [Guardian UK]
Gerhard Richter: 4900 Colours: Version II [Serpentine Gallery]
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Crucifixion (1933) by Francis Bacon, via the Tate Britain

In celebration of the centenary of the artist’s birth, the Tate Britain has put together a Francis Bacon retrospective encompassing 71 paintings covering the most important creative periods of the noted 20th century artist. The retrospective is the first in Britain since 1985, before the artist passed away in 1992. Bacon’s work forces the viewer to confront very disturbing, hyperfigurative images of mortality, lust, fear and violence, often incorporated gory, mangled or otherwise distorted depictions of human and animal anatomy. Bacon’s ‘Triptych’ (1976) recently set a record this May when Roman Abramovich (Russian billionaire and owner of Chelsea FC) bought it for $86.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York, earning him the distinction of being the most expensive postwar artist.

Major Celebration Heralding Francis Bacon’s Centenary Opens at Tate Gallery in London [ArtDaily]
Francis Bacon: ‘The man’s a bloody genius’ [Guardian]
Video Commentary from Chris Stephens, co-curator of the exhibition [Tate Britain]
Francis Bacon at the Tate Britain [Times Online]
Bacon’s Darkness in a New Light [Wall Street Journal]
Reviews roundup: Francis Bacon at Tate Britain [Guardian]
London set for Bacon centenary exhibition [AFP]
Bacon Show Has $6 Billion Art, Horror, Corpses [Bloomberg]
Francis Bacon claims his place at the top of the market [Art Newspaper]
Francis Bacon: touching the void, video review of the exhibit [Times Online]

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Baroque Egg with Bow (2006), Jeff Koons via Gagosian

New York art magnate Larry Gagosian brings an eclectic mix of avant-garde art to Moscow in his new show, For What You Are about to Receive. Entitled in spirit of the Bolshevik revolution, “Red October” is the name given to the former chocolate factory in which Gagosian Gallery will showcase over 100 works by approximately 50 post-war artists. Never-seen works by Jeff Koons, Anish Kapoor, Cy Twombly, Richard Serra, and Edward Ruscha will be included in addition to works by Roy Lichtenstein, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Takashi Murakami, Aaron Young, and Yayoi Kusama. A statement by the gallery maintains that the exhibition, “investigates the twin pillars of twentieth century art: the readymade and pure abstraction, reflecting on the sublime through a self-conscious engagement with material and process.” For What You Are about to Receive is Gagosian’s second showing in Moscow, following an auspicious exhibit at Barvikha Luxury Village one year earlier. The show also inaugurates “Red October” as a new contemporary arts center in Moscow, however, Gagosian denies inquiries about opening a permanent establishment in the city.

Gagosian Plans Moscow Show in Former Chocolate Factory [Artinfo]
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For What Your Are About to Receive [Gagosian]
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Gagosian To Host Second Moscow Exhibit [NYSun]
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Gagosian Gallery in Moscow [Artnet]

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Strings, ‘An der Isar (2006) by Wolfgang Tillmans via Chantal Crousel

In his first solo exhibition in Paris since 2002’s Vue d’en Haut, with Strings German artist Wolfgang Tillmans continues his intricately planned configurations of photographs capturing seemingly unrelated people, landscapes and objects juxtaposed with found media, news clippings, photocopied documents and various other objects. The photographs, together with the other elements of each arrangement, take on an almost sculptural quality once taken in as a whole, with each piece contributing to a dialogue embodied in the assembled work. Tillmans’ pieces will be on exhibition at Paris’ Chantal Crousel Gallery from September 13th through October 25th.

STRINGS
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September 13 – October 25, 2008
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For more information, visit www.crousel.com

Wolfgang Tillmans, Strings [Crousel]
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Wolfgang Tillmans – Artist Bio [ArtInfo]

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Contraband Room, United States Border and Customs Protection via Wired

Opening September 13th, Taryn Simon unearths the unseen images behind America’s closed doors. Images of a cryopreservation unit in Clinton Township, Michigan; a nuclear waste encapsulation and storage facility in Southeastern Washington State; a mentally retarded white tiger in Eureka Springs, Arkansas; and a Braille copy of Playboy Magazine in New York City are just some of several vibrant recordings included in Simon’s calculated cross-country venture.  Referred to as “occult glamour” in her publication’s foreword, Simon’s photography is procured by a large format 4×5″ camera to take a single negative which mimics the formalized aesthetic of traditional portraiture.  At age 33, Simon has celebrated national and international success with previous exhibitions at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Kunst-Werke Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin among others.

Lens Crafters by Kathleen Kingsbury [TIME]
No More Secrets [The London Telegraph]
Access All Areas [Frieze]
Taryn Simon Official Website

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