‘Rabbit’ by Jeff Koons, as displayed at Versailles via Art Daily

Jeff Koons, an art world celebrity since the 1980’s for his stainless steel pop-art renderings of everyday, vernacular objects–and notorious for his marriage to porn star/legislator La Cicciolina–is currently on exhibit in the royal apartments and gardens of Versailles palace, west of Paris. The show, which was organized by French billionaire collector (and owner of Christie’s) Francois Pinault, will feature 17 pieces from the corpus of the man who is arguably the biggest-selling living artist, including well known works such as Rabbit, Lobster, Large Vase of Flowers and Split Rocker

Chateau de Versailles: Jeff Koons exhibition [Official Website]
Jeff Koons Takes His Contemporary Culture to Versailles [Artdaily]
Conflict of Interest Around Koons? [ArtForum]
Koons @ Versaille [Aarting]
Jeff Koons brings pop art revolution to Versailles [AFP]
French Protest Koons Show at Versailles [Artinfo]
Jeff Koons Shows His Contemporary Culture in The Château de Versailles [Raw art Weblog]
Koons’s Bunnies, Beheaded Queen Parade in Paris Fall Season and Jeff Koons’s Flashy Toys Invade Versailles, Stir French Revolt [Bloomberg]
Jeff Koons sets up at the Palace of Versailles, France in September [ArtObserved]

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Echo (2008) Louise Bourgeois via Cheim & Read

Louise Bourgeois revisits familiar themes in her exhibition Echos, on display now at Cheim & Read. Like Bourgeois’s recent retrospective held at the Guggenheim this past June Echos concentrates on the themes of home, family, motherhood, and sexuality. Echos examines the constructs of the female identity, especially those in conflict such as female/male, organic/geometric, and particular to this exhibit mother/father. Comprised of discarded clothing and aged painted wood the featured sculptures are reminiscent of Bourgeois’s earlier work of the 1940’s and 50’s and serve to represent the familial hierarchies. The gouaches on display depict the relations between mother and child and are influenced in part by Bourgeois’s own role as mother as well as the death of her own mother when the artist was twenty. The paintings which are comprised of blood red paint further the organic aesthetic of the exhibit and mirror the artist’s continual emphasis on nature as seen in her mixed-media exhibit held at the Zurich’s Hauser & Wirth this past June covered here.

Louise Bourgeois at Guggenheim [Art Observed]
Louise Bourgeois Echo at Cheim & Read [Cheim & Read]
Louise Bourgeois: Echo at Cheim & Read [Chelsea Art Galleries]

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High, ‘Winston, Camel, Salem, Marlboro’ by Tony Oursler, via Lisson Gallery

Acclaimed video and installation artist Tony Oursler’s works will be on display at the Lisson Gallery through October 3rd, 2008. Oursler, who is based in the US, typically incorporates video, sculpture, sound and spoken text in his installations and pieces, and has garnered a reputation for producing pieces that often engage, disturb and fascinate the viewer. Most of the works on display at the Gallery are very recent, and include installations as well as wall-mounted pieces that also tend to incorporate video or sound.

HIGH – TONY OURSLER
Lisson Gallery, London, UK
September 3 – October 3, 2008

Lisson Gallery
Tony Oursler official website
Tony Oursler profile [ArtInfo]

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Convergence, Jackson Pollock (1952) via NYTimes

Up now at the Jewish Museum in New York City is “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976”. The exhibition includes over 50 key works by 32 artists involved in the Abstract Expressionist movement, including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and Mark Rothko. A unique aspect of the show is how the work is shown through the perspectives of the two leading art critics of the time, Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg. The Abstract Expressionist artwork that fills the walls of the museum until September 21st is accompanied by texts and opinions, photographs, and film clips of the two prominent critics.

Action Figures: The fifties in paintings and words [The New Yorker]
Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976 [The Jewish Museum]
“Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976” [Timeout]
How famed critics Greenberg, Rosenberg impacted markets of De Kooning and Pollack [AO Newslinks 5.15.08]

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Untitled (Greenhouse), Peter Coffin at the UBS Gallery via Murmurmostfoul

Located in midtown Manhattan, UBS Gallery presents “Implant”, with around 100 works by 45 artists, including Pipilotti Rist, Peter Coffin, Roman Signer, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ellsworth Kelly.  The show was organized by The Horticultural Society of New York, and holds a diverse range of sculptures, paintings, and conceptual works, ranging from the botanically accurate to more abstract interpretations of plant life. Each piece is said to be fueled by the artist’s personal connection (or lack thereof) to the natural kingdom.

The UBS Art Gallery: Implant [UBS]
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Yes, the Music Is Lovely, but Will the Plants Like It? [NYTimes]
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Horticultural Society of New York: Implant [HSNY]

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Work Comes Out of Work, Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz via ArtDaily

Kunsthaus Bregenz will be showing more than 60 large-format drawings by the major American artist, Richard Serra. It is the first such showing of the artist’s graphic ouevre in Europe since 1992. The exhibition will include six work-series, spanning two decades of Serra’s career. Arranged on four levels, the included pieces are the large-format “Diptychs,” 1989, the series “Weight and Measure,” 1994, “Rounds,” 1996/97, “Out-of-rounds,” 1999, and the most recent works “Solids,” 2007/08, and “Forged Drawing,” 2008. Works on display have been selected with the artist from important private collections and museums in Europe and the US, as well as new pieces produced by Richard Serra especially for the exhibition in Bregenz.

Drawings: Work Comes Out Of Work [Kunsthaus Bregenz]
Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz [Art21]
PhotoGallery / Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz [ArtDaily]
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Le Grande Julie, Fernand Léger (1945) via Foundation Beyeler

Fondation Beyeler Presents Fernand Léger Retrospective, Paris to New York, at their space in Switzerland through September 7, 2008. On view at the exhibition are over 80 paintings, several works on paper, an original Léger film from 1924 called Ballet mécanique, in addition to approximately 20 pieces by American artists that exemplify some sort of influence from Léger and his work. Exhibition is more than just a retrospective of work completed by Léger; it also focuses on how the artist influenced the American Pop movement by exhibiting work from other well-known artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, Robert Rauschenberg, Al Held, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, and Frank Stella, all of which reference Léger’s work in one way or another. Philippe Büttner of Fondation Beyeler is responsible for curating the Retrospective.

Fondation Beyeler Presents Today in Basel Fernand Léger: Paris – New York [ArtDaily]
Fondation Beyeler, Fernand Léger Retrospective, Paris to New York [Beyeler]
Art Exhibitions: Fondation Beyeler [Yucolo]

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From My Giant Colouring Book, Jake and Dinos Chapman via Metro

Campbell Works in London is showing the touring exhibition, My Giant Colouring Book, by artists Jake and Dinos Chapman. The exhibition was developed by the Hayward Gallery and the Arts Council England, and will be at Campbell Works until September 14th. The 19 out of 21 of the work included in the exhibition are loosely based on images and dot formations from children’s connect-the-dots coloring books. The Chapman brothers, who were nominated for the Turner Prize a few years back, have also reworked the gallery space and made the ceiling just under 6 feet off the ground for added effect to the exhibition.

Campbell Works, Jake and Dinos Chapman, My Giant Colouring Book [CampbellWorks]
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Jake and Dinos Chapman, My Giant Colouring Book [ArtRabbit]
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The big art show: Jake and Dinos Chapman [TheLondonPaper]

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Terence Koh at his Chinatown studio via BlackBook

Terence Koh’s “personal” fashion style [Blackbookmag]
15 years of Contemporary public art: Jeff Koons to Rachel Whiteread [New York Times]
Damien Hirst opening retail store next to Sotheby’s, London [Bloomberg]
More on Myra Hindly minor scandal [Guardian], previously covered here [AO]
Sotheby’s Australia fine art auction sold only 49% of its inventory [Art Market Monitor]
Hirst’s $100M Skull begins its world tour in…Amsterdam [NYSun]
Lucian Freud portrait model destroys £17M + painting [Dailymail]

Pool Party by Dana Goldstein via Viceland

The 6th annual Vice Photo Show has uprooted from L.A. and is now in New York until August 31st. In culmination with Vice Magazine’s 2008 photo issue, they have put together a gallery space below their New York office in Brooklyn, to exhibit some of the photos featured in the issue. Photographers whose work will be featured in their temporary gallery include Jonathan Black, Naomi Fischer, Ryan McGinley, Roe Ethridge, Rennie Ellis, Jerry Hsu, Richard Kern, David Markey & Jordan Schwartz, Aaron Rose, Luck Stephenson, Nick Zinner & Aliya Naumoff, Chris Shonting, Maggie Lee, Jens Mollenvanger Patrick O’Dell, and a section curated by Tim Barber. The work is also available for purchase.

The 2008 Vice Photo Show [TWBE]
2008 Vice Photo Show [VillageVoice]
2008 Vice photo issue and photo show [Hauteconcept]
New York – The Second 2008 Vice Photo Show [ViceMag]

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Dakis Jaonnou’s Yacht “Guilty” Designed by Jeff Koons

More on Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou’s Jeff Koons-designed yacht [GQ]
Interview with Takashi Murakami: “maximalist” [Esquire]
More on Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World [Portfolio]
A telling selection of 30 years of quotes from Tracey Emin [GuardianUK]
Portrait auctioned for $21,850 in 1998 by Christie’s is now attributed by some to Leonardo Da Vinci and may sell for over $50M [NewYorkTimes]

Famed street artist Swoon and crew float junkyard utopia downstate to Deitch Studios in LIC [NYTimes]
Anthony Haden-Guest on the effect’s of global financial turmoil on corporate art sponsorship [Portfolio]
Assume Vivid Astro Focus installs colorful window display at the Modern restaurant at the MoMa [NYSun]
A critique of Sarah Thornton’s book, ‘Seven Days in the Art World’ (with Video) [Art Market Monitor]
Sotheby’s holds a preview for $120.8M of Damien Hirst’s direct auction works in New Delhi, India and the Hamptons [Bloomberg]

Critical Mass II, “Between Me and You”, Antony Gormley (1995) via Artdaily

Kunsthal Rotterdam presents a touring solo exhibition for the work of Antony Gormley. The exhibition, called ‘Between Me and You’, is shown in accordance with a citywide installation, ‘Event Horizon’, which consists of 21 molds of the artist’s body distributed across 15 Rotterdam rooftops throughout the city. ‘Between Me and You’ stays with the theme of the human being, and also marks the purchase of a permanent installation Another Time II, to be put in on the park side of the Kunstal Rotterdam. The touring show, ‘Between Me and You’ will stay at Kunsthal Rotterdam until September 14, and will stop at the Musee d’Art Moderne St Etienne in France from October 11 to January 25, and will then be at the Artium Museum in Spain from March 18 to September 13, 2009.

Antony Gormley at Rotterdam Kunsthal [Kunsthal]
Antony Gormley at Kunsthal Rotterdam [White Box]
Kunsthal Presents Exhibition Devoted to Antony Gormley [Artdaily]

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Brice Marden via the The New York Observer

Artist Brice Marden is redeveloping a hotel in the Caribean island of Nevis [NYObserver]
S&M self-portraiture coming to the Guggenheim with Catherine Opie retrospective [NYTimes TMagazine]
After 30 years, lawyer on trial for attempting to profit off stolen art, including a $29.3M Cezanne [Artinfo]
Fake American Apparel ads in Brooklyn reference Jeff Koons and perhaps Damien Hirst [AnimalNY]
Ed Ruscha’s open-air studio in Venice Beach, CA may become a city parking lot [NYTimes]
The 100% self made custom wardrobe of artist Mike Latham, of Art’s Corporation, features his signature barcode [NYSun]

Tracey Emin at her Retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art via Guardian

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh is presenting a retrospective of the notorious British artist Tracey Emin. The exhibition is called ‘20 Years’, and will run through November 9.  Emin’s range of work has been described as highly emotional, in the way that it deals with personal events of her life, such as abortion, rape, pregnancy, and death. The retrospective shows her life’s work, which includes installations, videos, photographs, drawings, sculptures, and ready-mades. The exhibition is void of one of her most famous works, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, which was destroyed in the Momart fire in 2004.  Charles Saatchi, the wealthy collector and owner of the piece, offered to pay her $2 million for her to make another, but Emin declined.

Tracey Emin, 20 Years at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh [TimesOnline]
Highs and lows of bra, bed, and blankets: but is it all a bit too much? [Guardian]
Tracey Emin achieves eminence at last as enfant terrible grows up [Telegraph]
Tracy Emin’s work crude and self-centred? That’s missing the point [Independent]
Tracey Emin: 20 Years at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art [24 Hour Museum]
Take me or leave me, Tracey Emin retrospective full of self-confession [Financial Times]
Tracey was here [Guardian]
View Video of Tracey Emin and her work here [FactualTV]

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Henry VIII, Hiroshi Sugimoto (1999) via Artknowledgenews

Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie presents a retrospective on the work of Japanese artist, Hiroshi Sugimoto. The exhibition consists of 70 black and white photographs, and one sculpture. Sugimoto has worked almost exclusively with the medium of black and white photography for over 30 years, and has worked with a wide variety of subjects. After staying at the Neue Nationalgalerie through October 5, the retrospective will travel to Düsseldorf, Salzburg and Lucerne.

View an interview with Hiroshi Sugimoto here [PBS Art21]
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Vampires, Spooks, Beasts Hang Out in Surreal New Berlin Home [Bloomberg]
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Hiroshi Sugimoto Retrospective, Berlin [Artshub]
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Hiroshi Sugimoto Retrospective in Berlin [Art21]
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Sugimoto Retrospective Exhibition [Designboom]

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Under Scan, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Relational Architecture 11, Lincoln London via Lozano-Hemmer

Electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s interactive installation ‘Underscan’ will be exhibited at Trafalgar Square, London from November 14th to 23rd. Well known for his large scale installations across the continents, ‘Under Scan’ claims to be the world’s largest interactive installation. The artist has been awarded £35,000 by Arts Council England’s Grants for the arts program. This year, more Lozano-Hemmer’s public art projects will be available on view in Madison Square Park, New York and Tlatelolco, Mexico City. He is also commissioned to participate in Channel 4’s The Big Art project.

There is a light that never goes out [Guardian]
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer [Haunch of Venison]
Under Scan in Trafalgar Square: Arts Council England announce support for a large scale public art installation [Art Council England]
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Official Website

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Self-Portrait With Horn, Max Beckmann (1938) via NYTimes

The Upper East Side gallery, Neue Galerie of modern German and Austrian art has put together an exhibition focused around Self-Portrait With Horn (1938), by German Expressionist Max Beckmann. The exhibition also includes two other works by Beckmann, as well as other portraits and self-portraits from various artists of that era, such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Christian Schad. The famous Beckmann portrait was painted in 1938, right after the artist relocated in Amsterdam after fleeing Nazi Germany. Art historian, Jill Lloyd, has prepared a complete catalogue for the exhibition that will be available for purchase. The exhibition at Neue Galerie will be on view until September 1.

The Mythic Imagination of Beckmann in Exile [NYTimes]
Max Beckmann, ‘Self Portrait with Horn’ [Neue Galerie]
The Ring of Truth: ‘Max Beckmann: Self-Portrait With Horn’ and A Persecuted Artist’s Call for Help [NYSun]
Max Beckmann: Self-Portrait with Horn [Artinfo]
Max Beckmann: Self-Portrait with Horn [Flavorpill]

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San Loretto, Anselm Kiefer (2007) via Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

Anselm Kiefer’s solo show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, Austria called “Maria Walks Amid the Thorn”, will be open through August 27.  The exhibition is made up of over 30 new works, and although some of them were started in the 1970s, almost all of them were completed during the past two years. The work all deal with the biblical figure of the Virgin Mary, and the title of his show, “Maria walks amid the Thorn,” references a popular German Christmas carol.  Kiefer, who is known for his prolific usage of organic material, such as dirt, lead, wood, and straw, continues to develop his trademark process of sedimentation.

Anselm Kiefer [Art News]
Anselm Kiefer: Maria Walks Amid the Thorn [Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac]
View video of Anselm Kiefer’s solo show here [Vernissage]

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“Beautiful Losers” via Ctrlshift

The documentary film “Beautiful Losers” directed by filmmaker and curator, Aaron Rose and co-directed by Joshua Leonard, had it’s theatrical premier on August 8 at the IFC Center in New York City. The film documents the artistic careers of the young American, Do-It-Yourself artists of the 1990s. This particular group of artists, that includes Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, and Ed Templeton, made their mark in the art world solely because it was something they loved to do. These underground artists were brought together under the roof of Alleged Gallery in the Lower East Side, and grew out of the 1990s street subcultures of New York City.

‘Beautiful Losers’ theatrical trailer [Beautiful Losers]
Now Screening | ‘Beautiful Losers’ [The Moment, NYTimes]
Beautiful Losers [Village Voice]
‘Beautiful Losers’ on the Lower East Side [NYSun]
Interview with Director Aaron Rose [indieWIRE]
Movie Review: Beautiful Losers [NYTimes]
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Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron via Financial Times

On Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Swiss architects of the Tate Modern [Financial Times]
Amy Cappellazzo of Christie’s entertains in her home to support Pratt Institute [NYSun]
French designer Agnes B.’s other hat: art dealer [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s reprises monumental sculpture exhibition and sale in Chatsworth, UK [Art Daily]
German artist Jonathan Meese remixes Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, underwear stapled to walls involved [NYTimes]

Joseph Beuys poster via Jack Hanley Gallery

Jack Hanley Gallery in New York is exhibiting, “Joseph Beuys: Plakate: Signed Posters 1969-87” through August 31. Joseph Beuys, the infamous postwar German artist (1921 – 1986) made his first visit to the United States in 1974 and was known for his performances, sculptures, prints, posters, and drawings. Jack Hanley Gallery is showing 33 signed posters from the height of Beauys’s career. This collection gives viewers a glimpse of the many faces of Beauys’s career.

Now Viewing | Joseph Beuys [NYTimes TMagazine: The Moment]
Joseph Beuys: Plakate: Signed Posters 1969-87 [Jack Hanley Gallery]

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Hume, Four Doors I, (1989-90) via ArtBistro

Almost two decades after Gary Hume emerged onto the British art scene with his famous “Door Paintings”, the Modern Art Oxford will present the first survey of his work. The exhibition will go through August 31 and was curated by Suzanne Cotter. The first of his “Door Paintings” was inspired by an ad for a British private health insurance company, which featured an image of waiting in a dismal hospital waiting area. Since then, the style of his doors have evolved and the series has provided Hume with great success. His works are large scale, monochrome, painted with household gloss paint.

Garry Hume: Door Paintings [Modern Art Oxford]
Gary Hume at Modern Art Oxford [Artbistro]
Gary Hume: the doors that unhinged the establishment [Telegraph]
Gary Hume: Door Paintings [Artrabbit] (more…)

Installation View via Matthew Marks Gallery

Painting: Now and Forever, Part II remains on view through August 15 as a joint exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery, 522 West 22nd Street and Greene Naftali Gallery, 508 West 26th Street. The show is a reprisal of one held ten years ago, but from a different angle. The artists in the current show are Kai Althoff, Cosima von Bonin, Merlin Carpenter, Mathew Cerletty, Wojciech Fangor, Katharina Fritsch, Gelitin, Isa Genzken, Poul Gernes, Daan van Golden, Jack Goldstein, Rodney Graham, Wade Guyton, Richard Hawkins, Mary Heilmann, Sophie von Hellermann, Charline von Heyl, Ull Hohn, Sergej Jensen, Mike Kelley, Ellsworth Kelly, Karen Kilimnik, Martin Kippenberger, Michael Krebber, William Leavitt, Michel Majerus, Bjarne Melgaard, Laura Owens, Blinky Palermo, Stephen Prina, R.H. Quaytman, Ugo Rondinone, Paul Sharits, Josh Smith, Reena Spaulings, Lily van der Stokker, Atsuko Tanaka, Paul Thek, Anne Truitt, Kelley Walker, Christopher Wool, and Katharina Wulff.

Painting: Now and Forever, Part II [Artcal]
Painting Now and Forever, Part II at Green Naftali [Flavorpill]
Painting: Now and Forever, Part II at Green Naftali and Matthew Marks [Design Boom]
Painting: Now and Forever, Part II, in collaboration with Green Naftali Gallery [Matthew Marks]
Painting: Now and Forever, Part II [Village Voice]

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