In the midst of a recent “boom” in art funds, The Art Newspaper looks back at André Level’s La Peau de l’Ours, a fund founded in 1904 that purchased works like Picasso’s Les Bateleurs and successfully sold them at markedly higher prices.  The fund was inspired by the 1903 Salon D’Automne, which greatly inspired Level.  “I had seen there the canvases that seemed to me, without the slightest doubt, the authentic art of our time and the near future,” he wrote.  “I believed in it; I had faith.” (more…)

Christie’s will auction Manet’s iconic Le Printemps (1881) this fall at its Impressionist and Modern sale in New York, the New York Times announced today.  The 1881 portrait has remained in the same family for over a century, and is estimated at $25 to $35 million.  “We’ve given museums advance notice,” says Impressionist and Modern Director Adrien Meyer. (more…)

An article in the Wall Street Journal takes a closer look at how auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s vigorously recruit new collectors. Seeking fortunes large enough to sustain multi-million dollar sales, these auction houses keep a close eye on a new crop of billionaires that has been springing up over the past few years in areas like the Balkans and Central Asia. The courting ritual employed by the houses includes children’s parties, personalized tours, VIP passes, and, in one case, a hand-crafted needle-point pillow. (more…)

A Bloomberg article investigates the lack of transparency in online auctions. The impetus for the report is a recent Paddle8 online auction, which featured 20 works of money-themed art, including a piece by Andy Warhol. After the auction was over and  65 percent of the lots were left unsold, Paddle8 pulled the estimates and bids from the website, opening up the possibility to put the artworks into another auction with no record of their failure to sell. This opacity has become common as more websites and auction houses engage in online auctions, a possible indication that these progressive methods are less than successful. (more…)

Former Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have announced that they will be suing the Russian government on the grounds that their prosecution violated international standards for civil rights.  The lawsuit will look for €120,000 each in compensation, as well as €10,000 to cover court fees. (more…)

“Born in the Bronx”, Installation View. All photos Anna Corrigan for Art Observed.

Now through August 1, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise is presenting a trio of diverse works by Oliver Payne & Nick Relph, a video piece by the gallerist himself, and an exhibit of Afrika Bambaataa’s record collection surveying of the roots of hip-hop in the Bronx.  The exhibits speak to the process of emptying shelves and opening closets, placing the material details that one collects over a lifetime on view. In equal measure, the works illustrate a history, at once intimately personal and indicative of the larger movement of time and material legacy.

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Kazimir Malevich, Self Portrait (1908-1910), State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

In 1915, Kazimir Malevich first exhibited his Black Square, a simple, powerful statement on the possibilities for painting in the face of contemporaries still bound up in the exploration of figurative painting and impressionist tropes.  The piece marked a bounding leap forward for modernist practice, or rather, a point of entry in its own right to the early concepts of abstraction.

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Painting (with Black Trapezium and Red Square) (1915), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (more…)

The North Devon District Council has approved Damien Hirst‘s plan to build an entire town in the area. Known as the South Extension, the development will include shops, offices, a school, and over 750 residential homes. While the plan’s supporters point to the construction opportunities the development will bring to the area, critics are more focused on the longterm repercussions, expressing concern over the future town’s effect of the environment and calling it “an unemployment black spot”. (more…)

Filmmaker Harun Farocki has died at 70. Born in German-annexed Czechoslovakia, Farocki attended the German Academy of Film and Television in Berlin before getting kicked out in 1968 and pursuing an artistic career creating  politically-charged experimental films. Called the “best-known unknown filmmaker in Germany”, Farocki operated outside the New German Cinema movement that featured contemporaries such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog.  Represented by Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Farocki exhibited an installation of his work “Images of War (At a Distance)” at the MoMA in 2011.  (more…)

Princeton University has announced that Samuel Hunter, professor of art and archaeology, emeritus, at the university, has died at 91. Before Hunter came to Princeton in 1969, he had already spent over 20 years as a curator, museum director, and professor of modern and contemporary art. As associate curator of painting and sculpture at MoMA, Hunter organized the first major exhibitions of work by Jackson Pollock and David Smith at the museum. The author of over 50 books on modern and contemporary art, Hunter has been called “one of the pioneers of the study of modern art as an academic field”. (more…)

After years of financial troubles, the Corcoran Gallery of Art has been seeking legal permission to dissolve and merge with the National Gallery of Art only to meet with pushback from opponents of the plan, including employees and students of the museum’s art college. In a testimony on Wednesday, the opposition cited “broken fund-raising” as the cause of the museum’s downward spiral and argued that the proposed integration goes against the Corcoran’s deed, drafted in 1869. If the plan goes forward, the National Gallery of Art will take over the Corcoran’s collection, which includes work by Cy Twombly, Ellsworth Kelly, and Andy Warhol, while George Washington University will manage the art college.   (more…)

L.A.’s Arts District, a 52-block neighborhood in downtown L.A., was once derelict and cheap, the perfect home for struggling artists who began moving to the area in the 1970s. The past 10 years have changed the once “bohemian” neighborhood, attracting a new wave of residents and developers that have driven rents up and forced artists and longtime residents to consider a future elsewhere. (more…)

The Tate has unveiled their 2015 lineup, which will include sculptor Alexander Calder‘s first retrospective at the Tate Modern, from November 2015 to the spring of 2016. The Tate Modern will also present an a large exhibition of works by the South-African artist Marlene Dumas in Spring 2015 in addition to the show “The World Goes Pop,” an exploration of Pop Art in the ’60s and ’70s. At the Tate Britain, Cornish sculptor Barbara Hepworth will be featured during Summer 2015, and the museum will also present exhibition of works by painter Frank Auerbach during the following autumn season. At the Tate Liverpool, the late work by Jackson Pollock will be exhibited in a summer show titled “Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots”. (more…)

In response to the efforts of Lucian Freud‘s son, Paul McAdam Freud, challenging the secrecy of the painter’s will, a High Court judge has ruled that the will’s contents are to remain undisclosed to the public and most of his 14-odd children. When he died in 2011, Freud left behind his estate equally to his solicitor and one of his daughters, with the understanding that they were to hold the estate in trusts for undisclosed recipients. The secrecy of the will has been a point of contention among his many children and beneficiaries. (more…)

A New York Times article argues against the Frick Museum‘s plan to construct a tower in its gated garden, citing recent, less-than-popular expansions at the Morgan Library and the MoMA as evidence why the Frick should hold off from this “self-inflicted wound”. The tower would be part of a larger renovation and expansion, which would result in 40,000 new square feet, of which only 3,600 sq. feet would be exhibition space.   (more…)

Ville Andersson, Reflection, All images courtesy RARE Gallery

Now through August 7, Rare Gallery is presenting Fin(n)ish: Fresh contemporary art from Finland. This group exhibition features work from six emerging Finnish artists—Ville Andersson, Hanna Kanto, Katri Mononen, Aleksi Tammi, Timo Vaittinen, and Ea Vasko. The work presented here is stylistically wide reaching and employs a variety of mediums and techniques, speaking to the vitality of the Finnish art world.

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Jeff Koons spoke with talk show host Charlie Rose for almost an hour about art, culture, and his pursuit of happiness. The conversation, which was broadcasted by PBS on July 28th, opened with a discussion of the large retrospective of his work currently on at the Whitney, an exhibition that Koons said has prompted him to feel “more ambitious”. Other topics included the artists who inspire Koons, including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Salvador Dali, his creative process, and his future plans. A recurring theme was Koons’ desire to continue to do what he loves and explore “the freedom that we have for gesture”. (more…)

Beginning August 1st, Alfredo Jaar’s “A Logo for America” will be displayed on the billboards above Times Square. Jaar first displayed “A Logo for America” in 1987, challenging the practice of referring to only the United States as “America”. The installation will be shown just before midnight each night in August as part of the Times Square Alliance’s “Midnight Moment” series. Come September, “A Logo for America” will be replaced with an installation by Daniel Canogar.  (more…)

The New York Times reports that the Brooklyn Museum will offer free admission to visitors under twenty, beginning on September 3rd. The museum also plans to raise the suggested general admission from $12 to $16, the first increase since 2011. The decision to admit children and teenagers for free is part of an effort by the museum to make the institution more available to a younger audience, whom director Arnold Lehman believes “represents the future of all museums”.  (more…)

The Cincinnati Art Museum has announced that Cameron Kitchin will become the museum’s new director on October 1st. A graduate of Harvard University and William & Mary, Kitchin has directed museums for the last twelve years, including six years at the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. As director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, Kitchin will oversee a collection that includes works by Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso, and Edward Hopper. (more…)

Phillips Auctioneers has appointed Edward Dolman as its new chairman and chief executive officer. Dolman comes to Phillips after three years as the executive director and acting chief executive of the Qatar Museums Authority in addition to 27 years working at Christie’s, during which time he rose to the rank of chairman and CEO. As chairman of Phillips, Dolman follows in the steps of Simon de Pury, who left the position in late 2012 after selling control of the auction house to the Mercury Group, a Russian luxury goods distributor. With the help of funding from the Mercury Group, Dolman plans to recruit talent that will help Phillips prosper as it relocates to new, large headquarters in London.  (more…)

As the Whitney prepares to relocate its collection to lower Manhattan, American artist Alex Katz will christen the neighborhood in September with a 17-by-29-foot print of his painting “Katherine and Elizabeth” (2014).  The mural, which will adorn the building directly across from the museum’s future home, is the product of a collaboration between the Whitney, High Line Art, and TF Cornerstone that plans to fill the space with public art installations over the next five years. (more…)

Francis Bacon, Study for a Pope III, (1961), Photograph: © The Estate of Francis Bacon.

In Homage, on view at Skarstedt London through August 8^th, takes as its focus six paintings that embody the elements of inheritance and inspiration that sits at the heart of all creative practice. Francis Bacon, George Condo, Martin Kippenberger, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, and Andy Warhol are the featured artists. Each work was chosen for the strong ties it reveals to a predecessor, reflecting the styles or borrowing as subjects the master painters Velázquez, Picasso, Baselitz, Ernst, Goya, Munch, and de Chirico. Relationship is explored both as a stylistic approach and an inevitability of the creative process. (more…)

August 4th will see New York City’s billboards, subways, newsstands, and more inundated with major works of art, including pieces by Edward Hopper, Andy Warhol, and Chuck Close, as part of Art Everywhere U.S.. This new campaign is the product of a collaboration between the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and five American museums which will result in 58 works of American art being displayed on over 50,000 sites across the country. The campaign hopes to recreate the success of Art Everywhere U.K., a similar movement that launched last year, and spread the importance of American art and artists to a greater number of viewers.

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