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Henri Matisse, Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV), conceived c. 1930 and cast 1978 (est. $25-35 million, realized $48.8 million), via Christies.com

Wednesday evening’s Impressionist & Modern auction at Christie’s in New York featured 84 lots (not including lot 27, which was withdrawn) that were expected to fetch between $198-286.6 million. The sale realized a total of $231.4 million and had a sell through rate of 80% by lot and 88% by value. Like the Sotheby’s sale  on Tuesday night, a handful of the top lots found buyers after enthusiastic bidding while the majority of lots were sold within or below presale estimates, or were bought in.

Still, the aggressive bidding that set two artists’ records was largely unexpected. Perhaps garnering the most post auction attention,  the sale of Matisse’s Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV), an impressively sized bronze sculpture of a woman’s back, went to Larry Gagosian–on behalf of an anonymous client–for $48.8 million. Similarly, Violon et guitare, a 1913 painting by Juan Gris, generously outperformed its $18-25 million estimate, fetching $28.6 million from a European collector. Though the top buyers identities remain unknown, sources such as the New York Times have speculated the involvement of hedge fund billionaire and collector Steven A. Cohen, who was present at the event and has bought through Larry Gagosian in the past.

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The room fills at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Evening Sale in New York, via Art Observed

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Amedeo Modigliani, Nu Assis Sur un Divan (La Belle Romaine), 1917 (est. $40 million, realized $68.9 million), via Sothebys.com

The fall auction season in New York kicked off on Tuesday evening with Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale. The 61-lot auction carried a presale estimate of $195-266 million and realized $227,561,000. Just four lots accounted for more than half of the evening’s earnings, while 15 lots were bought in. Amedeo Modigliani‘s Nu Assis Sur un Divan (La Belle Romaine) was the top lot, bringing in a staggering $68.9 million and setting the record for a work by the artist at auction.

Aristide Maillol, Torse de L’Action Enchainée, 1861-1944, at auction (est. $500-$700 thousand, realized 2.9 million), via Art Observed

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Tina Barney, Players, 2010. Image Courtesy of Janet Borden.

Tina Barney’s latest show, Players, at Janet Borden features the elegant, highly detailed, large-format photographs for which the artist is best known.  The exhibition also marks the release of a book by the same name in which Barney closely examines instances of performance and theatricality.

The show addresses Barney’s long-standing engagement with the portrayal of upper-class American and European families and their dwellings, questioning the role of environment and visual signifiers associated with wealth.  Players depicts an expanded visual vocabulary emphasizing subject matter ranging from fashion, popular actors, circus performers, and the artist’s family and personal friends.  The work examines an intersection between public and private domains, resulting in a more casual-yet-editorializing style that is simultaneously revealing and perpetually curious.

Tina Barney, Players, 2010. Image Courtesy of Janet Borden.

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Francesca DiMattio, Marie Antoinette

The New Art Dealers Alliance held its inaugural NADA Artist Ball this past Sunday, October 31st at Eventi Hotel in Chelsea. The event naturally followed a Halloween theme, with inventive costume ideas abounding among the crowd of creative guests. According to NADA’s website, the gala was put on to “celebrate the artists that make our industry possible.” Proceeds from the event, which also featured a selection of live music and performances, benefit the organization’s growing public and educational programs. Patrick Meagher attended the festivities and captured some highlights on film for Art Observed; a full on-site photo collection follows the jump.

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Neckface, “Into darkness”, Crowd oustide on Halloween night at OHWOW Gallery, 2010. Via Michael C. Hsiung

With “Into Darkness,” Neck Face imparts many layers of his wonderful psyche upon the OHWOW audience, including takes on violence, music, optimism and addiction. His acerbic, Pettibon-esque drawings remain engaging, as always, and are the highlight of the show. An intelligent coupling of this series with a selection of collage and large, text-based paintings with his imagery provided a balanced presentation of his work at the Los Angeles venue’s installation. OHWOW’s sophisticated and discerning curatorial decisions transcend the chaos-over-saturation possible in the undertaking of this Halloween debut.

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John Baldessari, The Overlap Series: Jogger (with Cosmic Event), 2000- 2001 Image © John BaldessariLos Angeles comes to New York with “Pure Beauty,” a survey of work by conceptual Californian artist John Baldessari. With a career spanning over five decades and a body of work composed of nearly every media, Baldessari pioneered many of the tropes associated with conceptual art today.  In “Pure Beauty,” established themes of language and seriality intersect with Baldessari’s interest in cinema, pedagogy and the culture of LA.

John Baldessari, God Nose, 1965 Image © John Baldessari (more…)

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Exit Art Founders Papo Colo and Jeanette Ingberman at Exit Art, 578 Broadway, Manhattan, 1986. Courtesy of Exit Art

Exit Art’s Alternative Histories attempts to assess the inception and development of “alternative” art spaces in New York since the 1960s. The show presents various forms of documentary and archival material drawn from more than 130 organizations and collective experiences which have, from this establishment’s perspective, shaped  the cultural topography of the city over the past 50 years, informing and inspiring generations of artists and practitioners.

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All installation views courtesy Exit Art

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Takashi Murakami, Oval Buddha 2010, Chateau de Versailles, via Luxuo–>

Controversy over the Takashi Murakami exhibition at Versailles continued this past week as Prince Sixte Henri de Bourbon-Parm, descendant of King Louis XIV, filed a court order to suspend showing of the manga inspired contemporary pieces in the royal apartments. According the the Independent, the French aristocrat has taken the action out of “respect of the château and of his ancestors” and opposes the display because it has degraded “supreme good French taste.”  He joins the voices of the over 12,000 opponents who have signed petitions to remove Murakami’s playful works since the show was announced at the beginning of this past summer.

Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme, via tvhl.info.com–>

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Amedeo Modigliani, Nu Assis Sur un Divan (La Belle Romaine), 1917 (est. $40 million), via Sothebys.com

Sotheby’s and Christie’s will both hold Impressionist and Modern sales in New York during the first week of November. Sotheby’s will offer 61 lots during the Evening Sale on November 2nd, with Christie’s Evening Sale following on the 3rd. The latter is comprised of 85 lots, and is expected to bring at least $200 million.

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Nate Lowman, Stay in School, 2010, photo by Art Observed

AO was onsite at Nate Lowman’s installation “Stay in School” at 80WSE Windows. Located on the east side of Washington Square park, “Stay in School” features three windows each with paired images either mounted on or exposed from within sheetrock walls that Lowman contructed. As the title indicates, the exhibition addresses issues of youth and education, appropriate for an area that receives among the highest student foot traffic in New York City.

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Grand Palais FIAC 2010, all photos by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed

Events at the Grand Palais and Cour Caree du Louvre concluded Sunday afternoon as FIAC 2010 came to a close in Paris. Looking back on what happened in the city’s biggest week for contemporary art, the fair seems to capture many of the same trends that marked the hesitant atmosphere of the Frieze art fair in London. The fair unofficially opened last Tuesday, October 19th, to an ever growing VIP preview audience that this year numbered over 20,000.

Robust early sales at well established galleries suggested that dealers would enjoy even greater success than was seen in London in the same week, several high price tagged items, including Anish Kapoor’s $2.4 million Slug and Takashi Murakami’s $1.6 million Kiki, remained unclaimed well into this weekend. Even the French government toned down its own purchasing, as the cultural ministry spent $280,000 on eight works this year, down from 24 works for roughly twice as much last year. The market certainly isn’t dead but lavish spending akin to the 2007 boom hasn’t made an aggressive comeback.

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At Gagosian, photo by Tiphaine Popesco

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Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (08), 2009. © Gregory Crewdson. All images of courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.

Sanctuary, the Gregory Crewdson exhibition currently on view at Gagosian Gallery’s Madison Avenue branch, further develops the artist’s on-going investigation into the realm of staged photography. With this new body of work, Crewdson addresses questions of format and color, presenting a series of black and white images that offer an intimate entry point into his visual journey through Italy.

Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (06), 2009. © Gregory Crewdson.

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Matthew Day Jackson, The Way We Were, 2010. All photos by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

While pension strikes increasingly paralyze all other aspects of life in Paris, the activities at FIAC have seemingly managed to go on unbothered. Two days into the fair, visitors have already lauded this year’s success. According to ArtInfo, a new physical layout of the venue  has dramatically improved the experience. Surly other changes, namely the headlining debuts of Gagosian and the Rosenblum Collection, as well as healthy sales at such galleries as Hauser & Wirth, Thaddeus Ropac, Blum and Poe, and David Zwirner have fueled this sentiment. Details on sales and the first in a series of two comprehensive photo sets follow the jump.

Jean Michel Othoniel and Emmanuel Perrotin

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Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, Bright White Underground, 2010. Installation view. All images via Country Club Projects.

Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe’s Bright White Underground weaves myth, history and experience into a compelling and memorable site-specific installation at an iconic Los Angeles residence.  The Buck House itself, an achievement of American Modernism, participates in the installation’s nod to sixties psychedelia in what might be more appropriately labeled an experiential and temporal collage.  Traveling through Bright White Underground, the “real” history of the house and the fabricated history of a fictitious Dr. Arthur Cook and his psychedelic vision become obscured and intertwined, questioning social norms, truth, and the erosive process of memory.

Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, Bright White Underground, 2010. Installation view.

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Less than a week after the Frieze Art Fair ended in London, the Foire d’art contemporain, or FIAC, prepares to open to the public later this week in Paris. In its 37th year, the fair will feature nearly 200 dealers with work from over 3,500 artists, and expects to see an estimated 80,000 visitors to its two locations, the Cour Carrée and the Grand Palais–opening Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

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Grand Palais during FIAC 2007, photo via Grand Palais

Running through Sunday the 24th, FIAC annually provides an arena for a wide variety of contemporary art, from blue chip galleries–the likes of Barbara Gladstone, Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Blum and Poe, Cheim and Reid, Contemporary Fine Arts, Yvonne Lambert, Emmanuel Perrotin, Thaddaeus Ropac, Sprüth Magers, and Hauser and Wirth to name a few — peddling million dollar pieces to the lesser known emerging talents in the field. In a tandem move with the week’s events, industry powerhouse Larry Gagosian opened the latest installment in his global network of galleries off of Champs Elysees, noting the resurgence of modern art in France.

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An early picture from the FIAC preview: Victor Man, Untitled, 2008, photo via Art Observed

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NYAA’s “Take Home a Nude” benefit, hosted by Sotheby’s, October 18, 2010. All photos by Deborah Heuberger for Art Observed.

For the 19th installment of the New York Academy of Art‘s annual Take Home a Nude benefit, the organization honored Eric Fischl for his outstanding contribution to contemporary art, scholarship, and the mission of the Academy. The representational style and enduring interest in the human form which characterize Fischl’s body of work are consistent with the Academy’s reputation as “The first and most significant graduate school in the United States to focus on the human body.”

What began in 1991 as a modest fundraiser held at the Academy’s Tribeca headquarters has evolved into one the most prestigious arts events of the season. This year’s venue was generously provided by Sotheby’s, where works were installed throughout five gallery spaces, hosting cocktail hour, silent and live auctions, and a post-auction dinner.

Andres Serrano, Taylor Mead, 2010.

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Damien Hirst, I am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds, 2006 (est. 2.5-3.5 million GBP, realized 2.2 million GBP), via Christies.com

Thursday’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening auction brought in a total of 19,585,400 GBP, within the presale estimate of 15.9-22.7 million GBP. The auction had a sell through rate of 86% by lot and 92% by value, with 7 of the 51 lots bought in. While 40% of the lots exceeded their high presale estimates, the featured lot did not reach its low presale estimate. Damien Hirst‘s I am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds carried a presale estimate of 2.5-3.5 million GBP and sold for 2.2 million GBP.  All sale totals stated in this article include buyer’s premiums and come directly from Christie’s official website or courtesy of The Baer Faxt.

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Damien Hirst, I am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds, 2006 (est. 2.5-3.5 million GBP), via Christies.com

The Frieze Art Fair begins this week in London and is accompanied by Contemporary Art sales at the three major auction houses. This year, Phillips de Pury will kick things off with a 56 lot evening sale on October 13th, followed by a 51 lot sale at Christie’s on the 14th and a 40 lot sale at Sotheby’s on the 15th. After the dismal results of last year’s equivalent sales and the lackluster results of the summer sales, the art world is hoping that these auctions will give a stronger indication that the market for contemporary Western art is in fact recovering.

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Installation View of “Al Qaeda is the CIA” at 303 Gallery, 2010. Image courtesy of 303 Gallery.

Currently on view at 303 Gallery is a retrospective of work by Sue Williams, spanning the last twenty years of the artist’s career, curated by Nate Lowman. Lowman’s curatorial objective was not to chronologically organize the objects on view, but to contextualize her experimentation with different mediums and socio-political themes within the trajectory of her stylistic development. Together, the two artists revisited Williams’ work and selected a small representative body of pieces produced between 1989 and the present, which comment and reflect upon her current practice and conceptual goals.

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Jeff Koons, Violet Ice (Kama Sutra), 1991. Photo by Patrick Meagher.

The most recent museum-grade show at Luxembourg & Dayan gathers 9 pieces of Jeff Koons‘ seminal sex-infused series “Made in Heaven” in a multi-story love and sexuality tour-de-force of human(istic) nature. Eight life-sized silkscreen and early-inkjet paintings, based on photographs, and a cast-glass sculptural tableau were conceived and produced in a life-meets-art process spanning approximately ten years from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties.

It is worth mentioning that it has now been nearly twenty years since these hardcore and soft-core-looking works were first presented by the late, great Ileana Sonnabend, and yet they still manage to really irritate, shock or bother some people for one reason or another. The re-presentation of this formerly scandalous, yet newly exciting and loaded work comes at an interesting time, with regard to the unabashed state of popular reality-media today, as well as the neo-sex-drugs-and-rock n’ rollish art of late in lower Manhattan.

La Ciccolina, Taschen Poster Book, 1992.

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Angela de la Cruz, Super Clutter XXL, 2008. All images via Tate Britain.

On October 5, Tate Britain unveiled its Finalist Exhibition for the 2010 Turner Prize. Painter Dexter Dalwood, installation artist and painter Angela de la Cruz, sound artist Susan Philipsz, and film collaborative Otolith (comprised of Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun) represent the shortlist for the coveted annual award. The winner selected from among this group will be announced at the museum on December 6, 2010.

Dexter Dalwood, Death of David Kelly, 2008.

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Zhang Xiaogang, Chapter of a New Century – Birth of the People’s Republic of China II, 1992 (est. 21—23 million HKD, realized 52,180,000 HKD), via Sothebys.com

This week’s auctions at Sotheby’s Hong Kong indicated that the Chinese art market continues to show signs of growth, as both Contemporary Art sales easily passed the earnings of the equivalent sales in 2008 and 2009. Monday featured back to back auctions. First, the 20th Century Chinese Art sale realized 137,313,750HKD (est. 130 million HKD) with 29 of 38 lots sold. The afternoon Contemporary Asian sale realized 205,896,250  HKD, well above the presale estimate of 150 million HKD.

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Roy Lichtenstein, Ivan Karp, 1961. Image copyright Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.

As Roberta Smith recently described in the New York Times, “Autumn in New York is the perfect time for an accidental festival of the work of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.” Leo Castelli Gallery‘s contribution to this apparently serendipitous trilogy of current exhibitions is “Mostly Men;” an exploration of the artist’s representations of both males and maleness. Paintings, drawings, and sculpture spanning Lichtenstein’s entire working career are brought together in a show which both underscores and confronts the iconic status of women and girls in his body of work.

Roy Lichtenstein, Alan Kaprow, 1961. Image copyright Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.

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Joan Miró, Dutch Interior I, 1928. Image via The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

Currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is “Miró: The Dutch Interiors,” an exhibition featuring three surrealist works and the two seventeenth-century Dutch genre paintings that inspired them. Joan Miró first encountered the domestic scenes of Jan Steen and Hendrick Sorgh when he visited the Rijksmuseum during a 1928 trip to Amsterdam. The impact of these works on the Catalan artist resulted in The Dutch Interiors: a series of three paintings in which Miró re-envisions the Old Master works as abstract compositions, nearly four-hundred years after their original production. The exhibition, which debuted at the Rijksmuseum earlier this year, is the first occasion on which Miró’s reinterpretations of these scenes have been displayed with the works upon which they are based.

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Hendrick Sorgh, The Lute Player, 1660. Image via the Rijksmuseum.

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