Will Ryman’s Roses being installed on Miami Beach. Image via The Art Newspaper.

Art Observed is on site for this year’s 10th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach which officially runs December 1–4, with previews and parties throughout the entire week beginning on Tuesday, November 29th. More than 260 galleries from around the world will be representing over 2,000 artists, not including the several satellite shows taking place simultaneously across Miami, including NADA, SCOPE, Pulse, and the original Art Miami—twelve years Basel’s senior. Attracting 46,000 visitors in 2010, the fair is expanding every year, with various collaborations and special additions celebrating its 10th. The Swiss-based Basel art fair installment in Miami has evolved into something that may have lost some of its innocence from its earlier days but in the end has become the definitive closing party for the art market’s year. There have been many previews and summaries of the fair, the following is our view of the week to come.

Hennessy Youngman, still from ART THOUGHTZ: Relational Aesthetics. Via Youtube.
Youngman will be speaking at NADA Deauville Beach Resort on Thursday at 5 pm.

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Zachary Concepcion.

Maurizio Cattelan: All at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is the artist’s first and last retrospective—and should not be missed—according to Cattelan. Long thought of as both prankster and genius, Cattelan is known for his subversion of authority, and fittingly his retrospective challenges the traditional museum exhibition. His hyperrealistic statues and taxidermied animals question the norm with heavy and often humorous irony, while also carrying darker, more serious undertones, hanging like a gallows from the ceiling of the Guggenheim.

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‪‬Mideastern IkonoTV to expand to Europe, broadcasting its ‘Vision On’ channel showing only images of art, enabling viewers to fully “read” and enjoy important works albeit neither political nor profane [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Richard Prince shares his “unrivaled” contemporary American book collection; stating, “I like the gnarlier stuff” [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Gordon Matta-Clark 1976 film ‘City Slivers’ to screen on 22nd street building via High Line Channel [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Guggenheim Foundation announces six finalists for $100,000 2012 Hugo Boss Prize [AO Newslink]

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The Pace Gallery‘s current exhibition, Surface of the Third Order presents a collection of cerebral sculptures and objects by Hiroshi Sugimoto. The exhibition features two groups of work: small crystal pagodas and larger aluminum sculptures. Surface of the Third Order is on view through December 23, 2011, displayed concurrently with an exhibition of twenty-four of the crystal pagodas at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.

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‪‬120 early Sol Lewitt photos displayed permanently on exterior walls of Mondrian SoHo hotel [AO Newslink]

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‪‬David Brooks creates ‘Desert Rooftops’ installation in Times Square in collaboration with Art Production Fund as part of ‘The Last Lot’ project [AO Newslink]

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Raymond Pettibon, Desire in Pursuyt of the Whole, 2011. Image via Re-Title.

In his current solo exhibition at Regen Projects, Desire in Pursuyt of the Whole, Los Angeles-based artist Raymond Pettibon shows a range of his works, from the more recent densely-woven collages to his well-known heroic surfers. Pettibon is one of the few artists whose work moves fluidly between the pages of Juxtapoz magazine and the walls of the Whitney Biennial, sustaining both the criticality of a conceptually-oriented practice and the cool ease of a graphic novelist.

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‪‬MoMA PS1 announces ‘Young Architects 2012’ shortlist for courtyard installation, one NYC finalist [AO Newslink]

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Franco, Ryan McNamara, and Nakadate, Three Performances in Search of Tennessee (2011)

In a one-time only, Performa 11 new commission, James Franco and Laurel Nakadate presented Three Performances in Search of Tennessee at the Abrons Arts Center on November 13, 2011. A loose interpretation of Williams’ famed work, The Glass Menagerie, Franco and Nakadate acted as directors and judges for the series of performers that participated in the work. Both an experiment in performance and a tribute to the renowned playwright, the work was divided into three distinct sections.

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An interview with stalwart gallerist Marian Goodman: “I promised myself I would not be swayed by an artist’s popularity or their money-making abilities” [AO Newslink]

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Installation view. All photos via Pace Gallery Site and the New York Times.

1941 marked both a beginning and ending for Alexander Calder. The artist was forced to give up aluminum as one of his key materials in support of the war effort—but not before having one of the most productive years of his life. That year, Calder dug into a number of approaches and techniques he had explored over the past ten years to create some of his best work. Now, the Pace Gallery in Manhattan is hosting a large-scale retrospective on Calder’s work from 1941, featuring some of his most well-known pieces as well as some rarely shown.

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‪‬Frieze New York announces its list of nearly 170 exhibitors for the fair in May 2012 on Randall’s Island [AO Newslink]

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Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, image from “Shadow Pool: A Natural History of the San San International” slide lecture. Courtesy of the artists.

Last Wednesday evening the Masonic Temple at the well-known Hollywood Forever Cemetery was filled with major Los Angeles art world players, including Jeffrey Deitch, MOCA trustee Jeffrey Soros, MOCA donor Karyn Kohl, curator Shamim Momin, Hammer curator Ali Subotnick, and gallerist Maggie Kayne, as well as artists Mark Hagen, Nate Lowman and Hanna Liden. All had gathered under the night’s full moon for the most recent project by New York-based artist duo Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, Shadow Pool: A Natural History of the San San International, an event organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Freeman and Lowe are known for their immersive environments, such as Hello Meth Lab in the Sun, Black Acid Co-op, and Bright White Underground—and Shadow Pool proved to push their engagement tactics to the next level.

MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch with the Towel People from Shadow Pool fashion show. Image courtesy of Daniel DiScala.

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‪‬Raymond Pettibon lends imagery to Red Hot Chili Peppers music video [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Ai Weiwei speaks on video about paying government tax, feels as though “being robbed” [AO Newslink]

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Frank Stella, Red Scramble (1977). All images courtesy of Haunch of Venison.

Frank Stella: Connections is a mini-retrospective of Stella’s extensive career currently on display at the Haunch of Venison in London. Covering over 50 years of work characterized by dramatically changing styles, the exhibition could easily be mistaken for one of multiple artists on display.

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‪‬King’s Cross, London opens nine year art program called ‘Relay,’ beginning with two year installation of Jacques Rival’s 9-foot rainbow cage ‘IFU’ [AO Newslink]

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Wolfgang Tillmans, TGV, inkjet print on paper (2010). All images courtesy Gallery Chantal Crousel.

Wolfgang Tillmans returns for his second solo show at Gallery Chantal Crousel, presenting new works from the past few years. Images of both public and private nature are displayed in typical Tillmans style; unframed works hanging either directly on the wall or by the use of his infamous binder clips.

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‪‬Marina Abramović continues to develop her direction of the LA MoCA 2011 Gala, including controversial human centerpieces [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Modigliani Portrait of Marevna in Pushkin Museum disputed as fake based on tests by Swiss Institute for Art Research [AO Newslink]

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Clyfford Still, 1949-A-No. 1, 1949 (est. $25-35 million, realized $61.6 million), via Sothebys.com

The evening sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s this week left little doubt about the appetite for, and willingness to spend on, Contemporary art, regardless of how the financial markets may be performing. Tuesday’s sale at Christie’s brought in $248 million for 82 of 91 lots sold, and Sotheby’s auction the following evening realized $316 million against a high estimate of $270 million. Several artists records were set over the two nights, including those for the painters of each sale’s top lot – Clyfford Still and Roy Lichtenstein.

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