A new world record set for Sam Francis tonight, via Art Observed

Another night of sales has come and gone at Sotheby’s, with an unexpectedly robust outing from the auction house that moved quickly through the 44-lot sale to a final total of $242,194,000.  The sale was a short but impressive affair, as the auction house’s early lots consistently beat out estimates in the early lots, and ultimately saw only a small handful of lots go unsold.  The sale makes for an impressive response to market alarmists and critics of the auction house, showing there seems to still be strong enthusiasm in the contemporary market. (more…)

Following in the footsteps of its larger neighbors uptown, the New Museum is embarking on an ambitious expansion, having already raised $43 million towards its $80 million capital campaign goal.  “We’ve known for a long time that we wanted an expansion, but we’ve been thinking about what an expansion means for a museum like this,” says Director Lisa Phillips. “We own the building next door, and it just makes sense to use it. But it was also about thinking about ways to create a parallel structure there, to make something that’s different and a counterpoint to this building.” (more…)

Online retailer Yusaku Maezawa has been identified as the buyer of the record-setting Basquiat last night at Christie’s, Bloomberg reports.  “The moment I first saw the painting at the auction preview, the piece overflowing with his passion and technique, I felt shivers all over my body,” Maezawa says. “Regardless of its condition or sales value, I was driven by the responsibility to acknowledge great art and the need to pass on not only the artwork itself, but also the knowledge of the artist’s culture and his way of life to future generations.” (more…)

An unemployed French mechanic has purchased a painting that may well be a lost early Renoir composition.  Ahmed Ziani bought the work for about $700, when research helped him identify the piece as Soir d’Eté, which the artist created when he was 23. (more…)

The Art Newspaper takes a second look at La Bella Principessa, the work attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci that forger Shaun Greenhalgh claims to have executed, and which continues to confound experts to this day.  “The silly season for Leonardo never closes,” argues Martin Kemp, the Oxford professor who has attributed the work to the Renaissance master.  “The story satisfies the public taste for ‘experts’ and the ‘art world elite’ being made to look ridiculous, but it is low on credibility. We are asked to believe that a self-taught 17-year-old was capable of such refined pen work and chalk drawing. His drawing has some lightweight decorative charm, but nowhere suggests that he could achieve this tautly descriptive line and subtly blended modeling.” (more…)

Thaddaeus Ropac is preparing to open his first gallery in London, the Evening Standard reports, soon to take over the home of the Mallett antiques dealership in Dover Square.  The site will be Ropac’s first in Britain. (more…)

The Tate’s attempts to keep the figures behind its BP sponsorship concealed suffered a setback today after Peter Lockley, counsel for the information commissioner, stated that the museum had not used its confidentiality clause properly, but instead was using it to avoid scrutiny.  “If this is not contracting out [responsibility] to [the Freedom of Information Act], it is only a hair’s breadth away from it,” Locksley said. (more…)

Jussi Pylkkanen and Brett Gorvy in front of the Record-setting Basquait, via Art Observed

Christie’s has wrapped its Post-War and Contemporary auction last night in New York, continuing a strong performance that contrasted sharply with the lackluster sales last night at Sotheby’s, including an impressive new record for Jean-Michel Basquiat.  All told, the sale saw 9 unsold lots out of a total 61 (counting a single withdrawn lot), and a final total of $318,388,000. (more…)

The New York Post has some fun speculating on the buyer for the Maurizio Cattelan Hitler sculpture that sold Sunday at Christie’s, listing François Pinault, Qatari Sheik Khalifa Al-Thani and Peter Brant as the most likely buyers.  “There are clues [as to who the winning bidder is] that aren’t obvious,” an unnamed consultant tells the reporter. “All three of the bidders who were taking instructions over the phone have connections to Christie’s.” (more…)

The Met has placed its $600 million expansion project on hold, following reports of a $10 million deficit in the museum budget, and its restructuring program.  The current cutbacks are in part attributed to the expenditures over the Met Breuer expansion, and its new branding campaign. (more…)

Martine Syms is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist opens her exhibition at ICA London.  “I have said it before and I will continue to say that I don’t think art is the most effective form of protest,” she says.  “I don’t think it changes policy, I think it changes discourse, and discourse can change ideas, and for me that’s what it’s about: having that space for conversation.” (more…)

Paul Signac, Maisons du Port, Saint-Tropez (1892), via Sotheby’s

Having just announced a loss of over $25 million for the first quarter of 2016, Sotheby’s needed a strong performance this evening to alleviate concerns over its recent shakeups and acquisitions, but there were few reassurances in sight for the house’s New York Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale tonight, as it concluded a 62 lot outing with almost a third of the works going unsold, bringing a final sales tally of $144,434,000. (more…)

Sotheby’s has posted a $25.9 million loss for the first quarter of 2016, a figure attributed to its expenditure to buy out Amy Cappelazzo’s art advisory business, and the staff buyouts that it launched simultaneously.  “The days of the two major auction houses making big losing bets on guarantees just to gain market share may be behind us, but many other challenges face both houses in a choppy market,” says lawyer Thomas C. Danziger. “The next two weeks may well be a watershed moment for Sotheby’s.” (more…)

Mike kelley, The Thirteen Seasons (Heavy on the Winter) #13: Art (1994), via Art Observed

This week, Skarstedt Gallery opened a show of Mike Kelley’s shaped paintings at its Chelsea exhibition space, the first time that the artist’s work in this series of egg-shaped, abstracted canvases has been compiled at one time.  Taking the artist’s interests in psychoanalytic techniques, trauma, and their intersections with the structures of mainstream American culture, the exhibition offers a close look at Kelley’s interests, juxtaposed through a series of pictorial relationships, or contrasted from work to work in a single room. (more…)

Omer Fast, 5,000 Feet is the Best (film still) (2011)

Offering a cinematic experience comprised of particularly constructed viewing rooms, Omer Fast’s inaugural exhibition at James Cohan saw the premier of the artist’s three most recent films for a New York audience. On view through this past weekend, the exhibition, which challenged the typical context of the theater, complicates notions of script and reality as well as of documentary and fiction.   (more…)

Marseilles is set to host the Manifesta art exhibition in 2020, the Art Newspaper reports, following this year’s edition in Zurich later this summer, and the 2018 edition in Palermo.  It will be the first Manifesta held in France.   (more…)

The Guardian speaks with Wolfgang Tillmans this week, as the artist continues his advocacy for the UK to stay in the European Union.  “It feels like maybe we are sleepwalking into a big, wrong decision. I don’t want to wake up on 24 June and feel I have not done enough to prevent that happening. It’s so important. I want to put all my energy behind it.” (more…)

William Kentridge, Mantegna 2016, via Art Observed

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair opened its second edition at Pioneer Works in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook this weekend, presenting over 60 artists from 27 countries to cement its reputation as the premier platform for the representation of the multiplicity and diversity of contemporary African art.  Referencing the  fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, 1:54 is a vital addition to the selection of fairs across the city during Frieze Week, presenting myriad perspectives on the contemporary African art context through a ambitious, yet focused lens. (more…)

Brice Marden, Star (for Patti Smith) (1972-74), via Phillips Auction

Following in the footsteps of an early evening auction at Christie’s just an hour prior, Phillips has logged a staid but consistent auction into the books for its sole evening sale of the spring auction week.  The auction house’s 20th Century Sale achieved moderate success with a final tally of $46,576,000, with only 3 of the 38 lots going unsold.

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Maurizio Cattelan, Him (2001), via Christie’s

This week’s marathon series of art auctions is underway in New York City, as Christie’s launched a rare, specially-curated Sunday sale, ending its 39 lot Bound to Fail auction with a final tally of $78,123,250, with only a single lot going unsold.  The fair, which followed hot on the heels of the last hours of Frieze, saw modest bidding and consistently dependable sales, although several works sold for final prices below estimate. (more…)

   
Revolution in the Making (Installation View), all photographs courtesy Thisbe Gensler, via Art Observed

This past month has seen the much-anticipated opening of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel’s new gallery space in Los Angeles’ Arts District. The scale of the former flourmill—totaling over 100,000 square feet of exhibition spaces, book store, Printed Matter Lab, courtyard and garden, forthcoming restaurant, as well as offices—rivals the real estate of many museums, as do its curatorial aspirations.  Swiss couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth have partnered with former MOCA curator Paul Schimmel, a definitive fixture of Los Angeles art history and pioneering figure in its contemporary art scene. In his opening remarks during the press opening, Schimmel described his vision of the gallery as a community-driven, public-oriented space that would proffer a seamless urban experience for the creative downtown demographic, not only focused on changing the traditional relationship of the gallery to its public, but also between art and life.  In partnering with Hauser & Wirth, lauded for its museum-caliber exhibitions and dedication to scholarship and publications, Schimmel announced this new institution’s role in serving and revitalizing the arts of Los Angeles. (more…)

Sarah Peters and Marsha Cottrell, via Art Observed

NADA has returned to its now familiar haunt at the Basketball City sports complex at Pier 36, continuing its more relaxed counterpoint to the proceedings at Frieze just a short ferry ride up the East River. The fair, which is now in its fifth year, has continued to pioneer its own take on early May’s bustling selection of shows and exhibitions, and continued its strong performance this year with a roster of 105 Galleries and a diverse selection of works on display. (more…)

Fausto Melotti, Scultura n. 11 (Sculpture No. 11) (1934), all photos via Quincy Childs for Art Observed

A central figure in the history of twentieth-century art, Fausto Melotti’s body of work is revered throughout Europe, with critical successes, major exhibitions, and awards all conferred on his ambitious and stylistically diverse oeuvre.  Yet the artist’s catalog has long eluded American viewers, a point that Hauser and Wirth is seeking to change as it takes over representation of his work worldwide.  First presented at the gallery’s ADAA Art Show booth, Melotti’s work is on view at the gallery’s 69th Street exhibition space, exploring a practice that spanned sculpture, painting, ceramic, low reliefs, and works on paper, evoking the artist’s craftsmanship and inclinations towards “weightlessness,” and exploring his desire for geometric balances beyond mere figuration.

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Artist George Condo is featured on CNN this week, as he prepares to open an exhibition of new work at Sprüth Magers in LA, his first show in Los Angeles in 20 years. “I think the legacy of my painting will be the fact that they maintain a life beyond the artist,” he says. “That they are alive, that there’s really somebody real inside of these kind of abstract figures, that you can feel the soul of somebody.” (more…)