Vawdavitch, Franz Kline (1955) via Artinfo

Next Friday, September 12, the new Haunch of Venison gallery in New York City will open its doors for the first time with an exhibit called “Abstract Expressionism – A World Elsewhere”. The exhibition will feature over 60 works from Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Aaron Siskind, David Smith and Clyfford Still. The Christie’s owned gallery represents notable artists such as Bill Viola, Keith Tyson, and Wim Wenders and has additional locations in London and Zurich. When the gallery was purchased last year by François Pinault, the owner of Christie’s auction house, there was a substantial amount of controversy surrounding the transaction. The purchase of the gallery presented a new take on the relationship between auction houses and galleries, and how the line might blur between the primary and secondary markets of the art world.

Christie’s auction house buys London’s Haunch of Venison contemporary art gallery [IHT]
Haunch of Venison’s New York Moment [The Imagist]
American Perspective [Artinfo]
Auction Houses Vs. Dealers [NYSun]
Haunch of Venison – “Abstract Expressionism—A World Elsewhere” [Haunch of Venison]

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Sam Taylor-Wood via TelegraphUK

Sam Taylor-Wood, YBA artist turned filmaker (and wife of White Cube Gallery owner Jay Jopling), to direct John Lennon film [FirstPost]
Selling dealer weighs in on the Leonardo Da Vinci portrait authenticity debate [NYTimes]
More on the contemporary art market’s surge in China [Financial Times]
Louvre to lend 17th-century art to Japan [ArtInfo]
Charlene Weisler documents NY Street art [New York Sun]
A critique of Jeff Koons-in-Chicago as “overexposure” [WallStreetJournal]

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White Gloves, KAWS, 2001via Phillips

Phillips de Pury & Company is holding an auction of street art pieces on September 6th, as part of their Saturday@Phillips series. On sale will be a large collection of pieces ranging from paintings, photographs, jewelry, toys, and other various pieces from well-known artists like Kaws, Invader, Judith Supine, Beejoir, and Bast. The auction represents the growing popularity of the street art movement, the influence of which can be seen on fashion shows, advertising, and galleries and museums in the contemporary art world.

The Word on the Street, by Alex Smith [PhillipsArtExpert]
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Urban Art Auction At Phillips de Pury September 6 [Highsnobiety]
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The Word on the Street [Phillips]

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Francois Pinault via the TheLuxeChronicles

In February 2009, works from Francois Pinault’s collection coming to Moscow’s Contemporary Culture Centre “Moscow Garage” [RussiaIC]
Hirst’s $100 million diamond encrusted skull to begin its world tour in … Amsterdam [NYSun]
MoMa selects a Chief Curator of Painting from in-house [NY Times] and, the Guggenheim may soon appoint a new Director from Carnegie Museum [NY Times]
The Jeff Koons-in-Versailles debate continues on [TimesOnline]
Matthew Barney is on Ovation TV, airing Wednesday [OvationTV via C-Monster]
New on the global art scene Roman Abramovich’s girlfriend, Dasha Zhukova, basically summarized [Wall Street Journal]

Charlotte Rampling will star in ‘Boogie Woogie’ via carmenhaid.com

In November of this year ‘Boogie Woogie’ a comedy lampooning the fine art world is set to be released. Boogie Woogie has a strong cast and is directed by the documentary film maker Duncan Ward, who is the husband of art curator Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst. The film is based on a novel published in 2000 and written by Danny Moynihan, who was once curator and is a friend of the artist Damien Hirst. Hirst created a limited-edition cover for the book which featured works by Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn and Jeff Koons. Additionally, Charles Saatchi was quoted in the jacket comments for the book.

Top-notch cast lined up for art world spoof [Guardian UK]
Boogie Woogie movie detail [IMDB]
Boogie Woogie the novel [Amazon]
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Gold Kate Moss sculpture (left), Kate Moss (Right) via Telegraph

British sculptor Marc Quinn is about to unveil the golden sculpture of celebrity, Kate Moss, 34, as part of the  Statuephilia exhibit at the British Museum.  Entitled Siren, it is reportedly the largest golden sculpture created since ancient Egypt.  However, the ‘solid’ gold sculpture is actually hollow, weighing exactly110 pounds (50kgs). Moss’s modern ideal beauty is immortalized and will be on display among statue of ancient goddesses like naked Aphrodite and Venus.  Quinn remarked, “I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who’s the ideal beauty of the moment, but even Kate Moss doesn’t live up to the image.” At the moment, the British Museum has revealed only a teaser image, therefore only a glimpse of the statue’s face is publicized.  Following the similar theme of his previous Kate Moss-series Sphinx show, held in New York last year, covered by Art Observed, Moss will be captured in a seemingly uncomfortable yogic pose.

Kate Moss gets the golden touch as she’s immortalised in gold [Daily Mail]
Statuephilia – Contemporary Sculptors at the British Museum [Art Daily]
Solid gold statue of Kate Moss unveiled at British Museum [Telegraph]
Kate Moss Joins Gild: Mega-Statue Museum-Bound [E Online]
A model who’s worth her weight in gold (50kg, to be precise) [The Independent]
Marc Quinn’s 18 Carat Gold Kate Moss [The World’s Best Ever]
Marc Quinn to Unveil Gold Kate Moss “Sphinx” Sculpture [Supertouch]
The British Museum
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Damien Hirst, Auction: Beautiful Inside My Head Forever / “ANATOMY OF AN ANGEL” – Carrara marble

Last week Jay Jopling, Damien Hirst’s long time dealer in London out of the White Cube gallery, in an email statement, denied that the gallery has a “mountain” of unsold works before a Sotheby’s sale as reported by much of the media, including by Art Observed, over a week ago. Jopling did not directly dispute the number of works held it White Cube’s stock but said: “”The appetite for Damien’s art is such that we never have enough and I’m always keen to have as much work on consignment as possible.” The dialog relates to Damien Hirst’s controversial direct sale of 223 works through Sotheby’s of London on September 15–16.

Hirst’s Dealer Denies `Mountain’ of Unsold Works Before Auction [Bloomberg]
White Cube Says Number of Hirst Works in Stock Is Normal [ArtInfo]
Hirst in the Hamptons [NYSun] Aug 28
Hirst Alert! [ArtInfo] Aug 27
Galleries hit as Damien Hirst tees off [TimesOnlineUK]
D-day for Damien: Is Hirst about to turn the art market on its head or finally come a cropper? [The Independent]
A disclosure of White Cube’s unsold Damien Hirst inventory before the artist’s controversial September 15th direct sale by Sotheby’s [ArtObserved]

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Diana and Actaeon by Titian via the BBC

The National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London have initiated a joint campaign to buy two paintings by Titian.  The seventh Duke of Sutherland, who is 68, is offering the works to the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London for £50m each.  If Diana and Actaeon is sold to the National Galleries of Scotland, Diana and Callisto will be offered for a similar sum to the National Gallery in London in 2013.  The two paintings are part of the Bridgewater collection which since 1945 has been on loan to the National Galleries of Scotland. The Bridgewater collection also includes three paintings by Raphael, a Rembrandt, a Van Dyck, a Tintoretto and two more Titians. Though the Duke is definitively seeking to sell the two works, Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon , he has offered the works to the national galleries for a lower price than the works would fetch in an open market sale, though there are significant tax implications for selling to a national collection. The BBC quotes the National Gallery of Scotland’s director, John Leighton.”The Bridgewater Loan … is the most important Old Master paintings loan to any public museum in the world,” “Losing Diana and Actaeon would be like the Mona Lisa being taking out of the Louvre”.

U.K. National Galleries Seek 50 Million Pounds for Titian Work [Bloomberg]
Race to save £300 million Titians for UK [The Art Newspaper]
£100m appeal to keep Titian works [BBC]
Don’t let these dramatic Titians leave Britain [TelegraphUK]
The battle of the Titians [GuardianUK]
Art auction: National galleries scramble to keep Titians as duke cashes in [GuardianUK]
Who might buy the Titians? Meet the new collectors of the art world [GuardianUK]
Is it worth spending £50m on a Titian? [GuardianUK]

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Work Comes Out of Work, Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz via ArtDaily

Kunsthaus Bregenz will be showing more than 60 large-format drawings by the major American artist, Richard Serra. It is the first such showing of the artist’s graphic ouevre in Europe since 1992. The exhibition will include six work-series, spanning two decades of Serra’s career. Arranged on four levels, the included pieces are the large-format “Diptychs,” 1989, the series “Weight and Measure,” 1994, “Rounds,” 1996/97, “Out-of-rounds,” 1999, and the most recent works “Solids,” 2007/08, and “Forged Drawing,” 2008. Works on display have been selected with the artist from important private collections and museums in Europe and the US, as well as new pieces produced by Richard Serra especially for the exhibition in Bregenz.

Drawings: Work Comes Out Of Work [Kunsthaus Bregenz]
Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz [Art21]
PhotoGallery / Richard Serra at Kunsthaus Bregenz [ArtDaily]
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A new Banksy mural that recently popped up in New Orleans via Supertouch

Banksy has chosen New Orleans for the location of his most recent work. Throughout the city, Banksy has created more than 12 murals that depict Abraham Lincoln as a homeless man, a marching band wearing gas masks, and a boy flying a refrigerator kite. The New York Times reports that in a statement released by Banksy, the murals were created in response to Fred Radtke, an antigraffiti campaigner also known as the Gray Ghost, who uses gray paint to cover up graffiti. The statement released by Banksy also said, “Three years after Katrina I wanted to make a statement about the state of the clean up operation.”

Banksy Tags the Big Easy [ArtInfo]
Banksy Hits New Orleans [NYTimes]
Banksy Does New Orleans [Gawker]
Banksy Paints New Orleans as Katrina Memorial [Supertouch]
Stencil artist Banksy visits New Orleans [TheAustralian]

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Kanye West and his new music video “Good Morning” via Chicago Sun Times

The hip-hop artist Kanye West ‘s video for Good Morning directed by Takashi Murakami is now released and available to be purchased on Itunes. Depicting Kanye as an animated bear, the video follows a narrative of Kanye’s eventful trip to his graduation ceremony.  Japanese contemporary pop artist Murakami created the video in his signature style of animated graphics: characters portrayed as cute cartoons in a surreal environment.  Murakami has collaborated with Kanye West in the past and is the cover artist for the Kanye West album, Graduation.   Murakami is aggressive in his collaboration with fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, but the relationship of Kanye and Murakami is an interesting fusion of two streams of pop culture that may perhaps be even more pervasive globally in the end.

Kanye West’s new video, “Good Morning” [SunTimes]
Video Premiere: Kanye West’s ‘Good Morning’ [Aceshowbiz]
Kanye West Gets All Cute and Cuddly [Eonline]
Kanye West Meets Takashi Murakami [New York Magazine]
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Painting of Myra Handley by artist Marcus Harvey via Time

At a promotional event in Beijing for the London 2012 Olympics, a video montage produced by Visit London has sparked controversy when a photo of a painting by British artist Marcus Harvey came across the screen. The painting depicts the British child murderer, Myra Hindley; as an unintentional representation of British Heritage. The video was intended to promote London and the coming 2012 Olympics, but the quick glimpse one of London’s most prominent murderers was likely done in accidentally rather than in “poor taste”. The painting is very recognizable as a major fixture in Charles Saatchi’s famous 1997 Sensation shown in London and the Brooklyn Museum.

Myra Hindley casts Olympic shadow [Telegraph]
2012 Hindley image use condemned, view footage of the event here [BBC]
Olympics: London tourism body attacked over murderer portrait in promo [AFP]
Monster Movie [Times]
Censoring provocative art is the worst advert for 2012 [GuardianUK]

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Damien Hirst – “The Kingdom” 2008 via The Wall Street Journal

The Art Newspaper has this weekend disclosed the extent of unsold inventory, over 200 works, that are held at Damien Hirst’s gallery in London, White Cube, run by Jay Jopling. The article illuminates a situation for the artist, one of the most successful in the world, but also one of the most prolific, in which his traditional market may be less able to absorb the works at the pace at which he is aiming to produce them. This evolving landscape has presumably led Hirst to explore, through the landmark and controversial upcoming September 15th Sotheby’s London sale, new sales portals and new pools of buyers. The Art Newspaper disclosure however, could perhaps have some ramifications for the Sotheby’s sale itself, as sophisticated buyers may take into account this newly exposed trove of similar work to that being auctioned, and simple supply and demand economics might as a result negatively affect pricing.

Revealed: the art Damien Hirst failed to sell [The Art Newspaper]
200 unsold Damien Hirst works looking for an owner at Sotheby’s [TimesOnlineUK]
Hirst’s Marketing End Run [Wall Street Journal]
Auction, Damien Hirst ‘New Inside My Head Forever’ [Sotheby’s]
Several Lucrative Art Series To End, Says Damien Hirst [ArtObserved]
Update: Damien Hirst goes to Auction at Sotheby’s, September 15-16, 2008 [ArtObserved]
Hirst’s ‘Golden Calf’ could sell for $16-$24 million at Sotheby’s London [ArtObserved]

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Triptych, 1976 via Sotheby’s.

Beginning September 11th, Tate Britain will be hosting an exhibition of the work of Francis Bacon (1909-1992) in anticipation of the artist’s upcoming centenary in 2009.  World-renowned for his figure paintings and studies of the human body, the exhibition will contain works of this nature as well as Bacon’s signature landscapes and animal representations. The Tate display will contain about 60 works which will reflect the development and output of Bacon’s career, which began in 1928 after a brief stint as an interior decorator. Although little of his work survived his proclivity to destroy it prior to his notable achievement of the Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion in 1945, he was fittingly recognized as one of the most significant artists of his generation. Today, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent artists of 20th-century art, with works such as his Triptych, 1976 selling for $86 million at auction, which is a record-breaking figure for a post-war work of art.

Tate: Press Release [Tate]
Francis Bacon: behind the myth [Telegraph]
Francis Bacon at Tate Britain: a hidden interest in women [Telegraph]
The power and the passion [Guardian]
Francis Bacon comes to Tate Britain [DigitalArts]

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Blakeley White-McGuire, in front of Jeff Koons’s Red Flower sculpture via LMCC

This week in lower Manhattan, two sculptures in the Financial District were integrated into a series of performances entitled “Hostile Takeover”, by Richard Move’s Moveopolis! dance company. On Tuesday, “Mariko Mori Drawings”, a piece based on Japanese anime, was held at William Tarr’s Rejected Skin sculpture on Water Street. Then on Wednesday, Blakeley White-McGuire, a former Martha Graham dancer performed “Red Cicciolina” in front of the 7 World Trade Center site of Jeff Koons’ sculpture. White-McGuire portrays La Cicciolina, former Italian cabinet member and porn star, as well as ex-wife of artist Koons.

Move In and Around Manhattan [NYSun]
Lady Talk [TimeOut]
Richard Move’s MoveOpolis! [LMCC]

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Richard Serra via Art Inf

A documentary, Thinking on Your Feet, directed by Maria Anna Tappeiner on the contemporary sculpting giant Richard Serra is on screen at Film Forum in New York until September 2nd.  Screening of the movie created hype among the Serra enthusiasts well before its premiere yesterday, drawing attention from media. The documentary enables spectators to follow the production process of the artist’s major grand scale sculpture ‘The Matter of Time,’ which was commissioned by Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain for $20 million. In the film, a breathtaking scene where 40 ton solid steel plates are put together manually was included to highlight the on going dynamic tension between human labor, mathematics, and gravity that Serra persistently communicates through his sculptural works. It is the tale of a contemporary sculptural legend condensed into 94 minutes that Serra fans should not miss.

Richard Serra, Man of Steel [The Sun]
Watching as Richard Serra Thinks Big and Does Big [NYT]
Richard Serra at Film Forum [Art 21]
Man of Steel [Art Info]
Richard Serra: Thinking On Your Feet [Film Forum]
Listen to a podcast by Lynne Cook [Film Forum]

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Skaters on the mini ramp at the opening reception of Cannibal Carnival via SuperTouch

Neckface opened his show “Cannibal Carnival” (previous coverage of this show on AO here) with an eventful ceremony. The wall space New Image Art was covered in spray paint graffiti, otherwise painted in black and white and red. Though relatively new the art scene, Neckface maintains very strong press and web coverage and extremely high attendance for his events. His reputation as very prolific tagger in many cities cements his position within street art, which is growing in acceptance as an artistic medium worthy of investment as exemplified by the street artist Banksy selling works in the six figures, auction houses setting aside entire auctions for street art and the Tate Modern mounting very significant street art exhibitions. On the opening night of Saturday August 16th, the venue accommodated over 1,000 mixed crowd of art lovers, skaters, and alike. During the reception, pro skaters rode boards on the mini ramp/cage specially built for this occasion.

Hollywood: Nasty Neck Face’s “Cannibal Carnival” bloodbath at New Image Art [Super Touch]
Neck Face’s Opening Reception [GrindTV]
Neckface “Cannibal Carnival” Art Show Slideshow [Transworld Skateboarding]
The skate ramp at the Neckface show at New Image Gallery in L.A. [C-Monster]
Video Clip of the opening here, and here [Youtube]

more pictures after the jump…

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Blood Moon Ausar performing at Matthew Barney’s party via Super Touch

Last Saturday, infamous artist Matthew Barney held an out of the ordinary party at his studio in Queens, NY. His party featured free performances by death metal bands such as Inquisition, Dagon, Krallice, Copremeis, and S.M.E.S, expressing the artist’s passion for black metal. To add to the provoking ambiance, several Hawaiian style pigs on skewers, hand roasted and carved by Barney himself, served the hungry guests.

NYC: Matthew Barney’s Black Metal Pig Roast [Super Touch]
Matthew Barney Hosts Black Metal Pig Roast [Cremaster Fanatic]
View more pictures from the event by Jae Saam Trio on Flickr

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Larry Gagosian at the opening of Center of Contemporary Culture Moscow (CCCM) via Style.com

Moscow is anticipating a worthy contemporary art scene brought by Larry Gagosian. Building upon the strong review from last year’s first show, Gagosian Gallery is making its presence in Russia. “For what you are about to receive” is Gagosian’s a second exhibition will be held at Red October Chocolate Factory, opening on September 18th until Ocober 25th. Artist Aaron Young will be presenting a motorcycle performance Arc Light for the opening of the show (AO has exclusive video from Aaron Young’s motorcycle show in New York here). This show will exhibit works by well-known contemporary artists such as Jeff Koons, Willen de Kooning, Richard Serra and Takashi Murakami. Curated to explore the conceptual relationship between commercial production and artistic abstraction, the show is intended to engage the viewers with modern materialism.

Gagosian Gallery in Moscow [Artnet News]
Gagosian Gallery
Read more about the exhibition at the Russian art blog IZO here and here.

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Tulips, Jeff Koons, 1995-2004 on loan to the embassy for the next decade, via artinthepicture

The second largest U.S. Embassy building has opened in Beijing at 600,000 square feet, with a reported $550M in building expenses by the San Francisco firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. On its grounds are works by notable American and Chinese contemporary artists including Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Rauschenberg, Betty Woodman, Martin Puryear, Maya Lin, Yun-Fei Ji, and Hai Bo.

New Embassy Is a Firm U.S. Flag in China [NYSun]
Beijing US Embassy Opened August 7th [CNReviews]
U.S. Embassy in Beijing [Art 21]
U.S. Shortchanges Artists [Portfolio]
‘The Pyrotechnic Imagination’, watch Cai-Guo-Qiang create the gunpowder work inside the U.S. Embassy [NYTimes]
The US Embassy in Beijing Highlights Jeff Koons’s Art [Art Market Monitor]

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Tete de Diego, Giacometti sculpture found in apartment, via FBI

On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation posted 137 artworks on their homepage as part of a two year long effort to track down their rightful owners. In 2006, a Manhattan eccentric who went by the alias William Milliken Vanderbilt Kingsland passed away, leaving behind an extensive collection of art piled inside his one bedroom East 72nd Street apartment. Christie’s has valued the higher-end works at around $2.4M.

Looks for owners of Stolen Paintings [Artdaily]
NY Art World Shock: Stolen Paintings in Famous Collection [New York Post]
Two Years Later, the F.B.I. Still Seeks the Owners of a Trove of Artworks [NYtimes]
Stolen Art Uncovered: Is it yours? [FBI] and a gallery on the website of the recovered works here

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Neck Face “Cannibal Carnival” image via GQ

American graffiti artist Neckface is showing his third solo exhibition ‘Cannibal Carnival’ in LA at New Image art gallery from tomorrow, August 16th until September 20th. The show will exhibit the artist’s signature horrifyingly morbid images among likely other assorted installations. Neckface, an underground, anonymous artist, is often associated with taggers and skateboarding but has recently broken into commercial success at auction. Due what can be called a cult following, the show should be well attended and if nothing else interesting. From the press release:

“friends of the artist and professional skaters Sammy Baca and Lizard King will be skating in a caged off mini-ramp filled with objects they encounter every day: knives, spray paint, and booze of course. “They are both satanic,” Neckface says. “Sammy once carved Satan into Lizard King’s chest with a knife.” ”

Neck Face eats his own [GQ]
Neck Face in LA: Cannibal Carnival [The Worlds Best Ever]
Sneek Peek: Nasty Neck Face at New Image Art [Super Touch]
Neck Face “Cannibal Carnival [Hypebeast]
A Neck Face Halloween [Art Observed]
Neck Face opening at Dactyl Foundation Wednesday 10.31 [Art Observed]
Newimage Art Gallery

more pictures after the jump…

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Superstition, Damien Hirst, 2007 Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills via ABC News

In a video interview from July recently posted on Sotheby’s website, Damien Hirst casually revealed that several of his highest earning series would be coming to an end in 2008. These include his spin and butterfly paintings and conceptual medicine cabinets. Hirst also speculated that production of his dot paintings would significantly slow, and that his formaldehyde works of animals are growing numbered as well.

Damien Hirst: An Interview with Tim Marlow [Sotheby’s]
Damien Hirst Says He’ll End High-earning Series [Artinfo]
Hirst Will Stop Making Spin, Butterfly Paintings, Drug Cabinets [Bloomberg]

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“Beautiful Losers” via Ctrlshift

The documentary film “Beautiful Losers” directed by filmmaker and curator, Aaron Rose and co-directed by Joshua Leonard, had it’s theatrical premier on August 8 at the IFC Center in New York City. The film documents the artistic careers of the young American, Do-It-Yourself artists of the 1990s. This particular group of artists, that includes Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, and Ed Templeton, made their mark in the art world solely because it was something they loved to do. These underground artists were brought together under the roof of Alleged Gallery in the Lower East Side, and grew out of the 1990s street subcultures of New York City.

‘Beautiful Losers’ theatrical trailer [Beautiful Losers]
Now Screening | ‘Beautiful Losers’ [The Moment, NYTimes]
Beautiful Losers [Village Voice]
‘Beautiful Losers’ on the Lower East Side [NYSun]
Interview with Director Aaron Rose [indieWIRE]
Movie Review: Beautiful Losers [NYTimes]
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