‪‬Top collector Eli Broad publishes new book, “The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking,” a 165-page text on business and art

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‪‬Vladimir Putin’s return to power in Russia reportedly has turned many art patrons away from their native market for fear of judgment, but many experts argue that money in art could shape a freshly positive national image; while radical street counter-art from Voina among others worries diplomats.

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‪Anish Kapoor reflects on his relationships with family, food, and art from his studio of 25 years in London, telling FT: “Art is good at intimacy: it can say, ‘Come here, be part of this’, beckoning.”

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Gavin Brown and Mark Ruffalo cooking sausages. All photographs by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

The always fresh but now venerable Frieze Art Fair of Regent’s Park, London, has successfully completed its maiden voyage to this side of the Atlantic. The pavilion, designed by Brooklyn-based SO-IL Architects, places Frieze New York on Randall’s Island Park from May 4-7, 2012. The fair is being held in a distinctly snakelike structure that houses 180 leading contemporary galleries presenting works by more than 1,000 artists. There are a number of culinary options as well: Roberta’s, The Fat Radish Café, Frankie’s Spuntino Restaurant, Sant Abroeus Café and the Standard Biergarten.

Entrance to the Frieze Art Fair

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‪‬Auctioneer Tobias Meyer details the Sotheby’s sale of Edvard Munch‘s ‘The Scream’ and his typical auction day routine, “When the atmosphere gets very tense, so to speak, I strangely have the reverse mechanism that I become very calm”

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‪‬Amalia Dayan of Luxembourg & Dayan and wife of collector Adam Lindemann profiled in her Manhattan town house decorated with works by Basquiat, Chamberlain, and Calder

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‪‬Keith Haring-style Google Doodle today, May 4, honors the artist on what would have been his 54th birthday

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‪‬Michael Riedel profiled by New York Times, discussing his Freitagsküche (Friday Kitchen) in Frankfurt and the art of copying others

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‪‬Turner Prize winning artist Mark Leckey to release audio from video piece ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ (1999) on vinyl May 21, with audio from GreenScreenRefridgerator on the B side

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‪‬Ai Weiwei life and work profiled in The Economist, discussing his relations with the Chinese government, “Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay.”

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‪‬Portland art scene explored in Wall Street Journal, featuring alternative spaces and ideas including a crabbing ship turned exhibition space

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Simon Shaw holds a press conference after the Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale. All photos by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed unless noted.

Last night, in a packed salesroom filled with press, chairs, spectators, and security Sotheby’s launched the second major sale of the May auction season. This Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale was a tour de force – the blue chip art market broke several records with staggeringly high sales. Foremost, the world record for the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction was set at $119,922,500 for Edvard Munch’s The Scream. The bidding for The Scream started eagerly and anxiously all over the salesroom, but ended with 7 buyers competing until an undisclosed buyer won. Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman executed the winning bid. In a post-auction press conference, Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s Head of the Department, said of the sale “it was the single greatest draw in his career.” Sotheby’s Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, David C. Norman stated it was “the most exciting sale” of his tenure. Additionally, this was the highest earning Impressionist and Modern Art Sale ever held at Sotheby’s bringing in a total of $330,568,500. It is their second highest sale ever, after a Contemporary Art sale held previously in New York.

Edvard Munch, The Scream (1895)

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‪‬Helsinki city board rejects Guggenheim Museum proposal, which was supported by Mayor Jussi Pajunen, at eight votes to seven, with no reason yet provided

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‪‬Metropolitan Museum of Art to add to wall text of “The Steins Collect” exhibition, explaining Gertrude Stein’s affiliation with Bernard Fäy the “Vichy collaborator and Nazi agent” which may have “contributed to the protection of Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas in France during the war.”

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‪‬Red Dot Art Fair officially cancelled by the venue 82Mercer three days prior to opening due to “labor union disputes”

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‪‬David Hockney technically tops Britain’s annual Giving List (in terms of ratio of worth) by donating £78.1m in paintings and £730,000 in cash to his David Hockney Foundation, 2.3 times his net worth of £34m, while Richard Branson gave the highest numerical amount of £358m

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Paul Cezanne, Jouer de cartes (1892–96). Image courtesy of Christie’s.

Last night’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie’s began this season’s auctions in New York. Christie’s overall sales totaled $117 million—well over their low estimate of $90.5 million. According to Christie’s, they achieved a sell-through rate of 96% by value and 90% by lot. In a post-auction press conference, Christie’s Head of the Department, Brooke Lampley, said that the results were exactly what they had expected, given that they had tailored their sale to match what the market was looking for.

View of the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie’s. Photo by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

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‪‬Picasso’s ‘Femme assise dans un fauteuil’ to be auctioned at Sotheby’s tomorrow night for $20–30m involved in lawsuit for more than $7.5m: after paying late owner Theodore J. Forstmann $7.5m in 2009, American International Insurance Co. is suing Acquavella Gallery for physical damage to the painting

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Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1895). Photo by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.

Today marks the beginning of a two week flurry of art sales in the New York auction houses. This week is focused entirely on Impressionist and Modern Art, with next week centered on Post War and Contemporary Art. Chances are that you have already been bombarded with the numerous and impressive highlights that both houses have to offer, as the many of the lots from both houses are iconic, impressive, and will quite possibly break world records left and right.

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‪‬The 2012 Turner Prize nominees have been announced: Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble, and Elizabeth Price. The £25,000 prize is awarded annually to a British artist under age 50, with the four artists showing at Tate Britain each fall.

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‪‬Kehinde Wiley interviewed on his experiences growing up in LA, finding his father in Nigeria and creating art for more than art’s sake in which “symbols matter”

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‪‬Berlin Gallery Weekend coordinated openings at 51 galleries throughout the German capitol, featuring work by Diane Arbus, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Holzer, Robert Longo, and Rikrit Tiravanija, among others

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‪‬As MAXXI museum in Rome waits 20 day period for government’s final decision on closure of the museum, the Economist features director of Casoria Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in Naples burning works in protest of government cuts in arts funding

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‪‬Centre Pompidou plans new international approach, especially targeting Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the BRIC countries) “with temporary projects in existing venues like museums [and] universities, but why not historical monuments, former industrial facilities or shopping malls?” says museum president Alain Seban

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