Thanks to dealer Larry Gagosian, artist Jeff Koons now has a new auction record. His “Diamond (Blue)” had a hammer price of $11.8 million (including buyer’s premium) at Christie’s postwar/contemporary sale. But the record still didn’t surpass the estimates Christie’s had stuck on the bling – both of them. (more…)
Islington, London gives Banksy street work official protection [Supertouch]
Records set at Christie’s contemporary/postwar sale part one [Bloomberg]
LES neighbors upset by gallerist David Zwirner’s home expansion [AFC]
Richard Feigen lists overvalued artists on Bloomberg [CultureGrrl]
Changing Beijing’s arms factories to galleries [FT]
Abstract: Profiling dealer Jeffrey Deitch [New Yorker]
Lever House installation on view through February 16 [NYT]
Rosenbaum recaps Sotheby’s Pres & CEO investor conference call [CultureGrrl]
Cannes-winning Schnabel film cannot compete for Oscar [Reuters]
Performa ’07 sparking “fresh interest” in art community [NYT]
Art Fag City briefly reviews Asian Contemporary Art Fair [AFC]
Bloch-Bauer heirs donate returned looted sculptures to Neue Galerie [NYT]
Gallerists creating a new art district in LES [NYSun]
Artists crossing commercial border with fashion collaborations [NYT]
Sotheby’s stock plummeted today after last night’s sale was well under the low estimate of $355.6 million at $269.7 million. As of 4pm today, shares are down to $35.84, a change of 28.42%. Yesterday’s closing price was $50.07 and opened at $36.01. (more…)
Matthew Barney’s Drawing Restraint is on view at Serpentine Gallery, London until Sunday, November 11th. This exhibit has traveled from Japan to Korea, the US to the UK, and will be shown in Austria next year. (more…)
Christie’s so-so impressionist/modern sale results [CultureGrrl]
New Matisse record of $33.6m for L’Odalisque, Harmonie Bleue [Bloomberg]
SVA – the first school to exhibit (or exploit?) at Miami fairs [AFC]
Sotheby’s London promotes Nov. 26-27 Russian sale [Bloomberg]
M.I.T. sues Frank Gehry for negligence in Stata Center design [Boston.com]
Gehry responds to negligence suit [NYT]
Museums moving their investments to hedge funds [Artnet via Portfolio]
Trailer for Schnabel’s “Diving Bell and the Butterfly” [Official Site]
Aby Rosen’s Damien Hirst installation at Lever House revealed [NYM]
New book on Lucian Freud is “most comprehensive to date” [NYSun]
C. to C. (Close to Chuck), a new piece added the repertoire by the American Ballet Theatre this season, is a “musical portrait” celebrating the 40-year friendship between iconic American artist Chuck Close and composer Phillip Glass. Choreographed by Jorma Elo, the piece involved only six dancers and had week-long run, beginning October 27th and ending November 4th. (more…)
Paul McCarthy’s “Peter Paul Chocolates” opens at Maccarone Gallery next Thursday, November 15th. The gallery and/or artist was on the hunt for qualified individuals with steady hands to work in the boutique for the next six weeks, starting this Saturday, November 10th according to the Craigslist job post we found. (more…)
Urs Fischer’s opening at Gavin Brown Enterprises on Greenwich Street was a quiet, exuberant affair. On a quiet, damp corner in the West Village, a murmur could be heard from the gallery. As we walked into the space, it was your typical opening, well-dressed people in black holding cups of warming beer in a vacant white room. However, this room gave way to a little doorway, a portal, literally, into the artwork that we had come to partake of. Here on the wall, a small rectangular hole frames the artist’s world, and as he beckons us inside, he simultaneously forces us to bow and lower our eyes as we enter into a new domain. (more…)
Larry Gagosian: “He considers his business sacred” [Guardian]
Sotheby’s stock slipping almost 10% since October 26th [Bloomberg]
Murakami LAMoCA Gala items up for auction on eBay [LATimes]
Larry Salander and wife file for bankruptcy [Bloomberg]
Financial markets creating turmoil in art markets? [FT]
Back in September, we learned from BBC News, Bloomberg and the New York Times that Jeff Koons’ “Diamond (Blue)” was being auctioned at Christie’s for $12 million. A recent report from the Guardian UK stated that the piece was going to be estimated for $20 million, up $8 million from just a few months ago. What’s correct? (more…)
Last night’s Neck Face opening at Dactyl Foundation began at 7pm, and those who were fashionably late may have had a difficult time getting a good look at the work. Most of the attendees were decked out in costumes and/or makeup, looking as if they had stepped out of the paintings. I took as many pictures as possible before the crowds swarmed, dodging skateboards and the growing beer line. (more…)
Banksy caught in the act? [Londonist]
Inside the Murakami opening gala [Supertouch]
Salander in default of $40m to First Republic/Merrill [Bloomberg]
Perfectly timed for Halloween, the ever-rising street artist Neck Face’s solo show at Dactyl Foundation, “Closed Casket” opens tomorrow. Curated by Neil Grayson with Jason Dill, the array of framed works along with sculpture should be a deliciously evil exhibition for the spooky holiday. (more…)
Madeleine Grynsztejn leaves SFMOMA for MCA Chicago [Modern Art Notes]
ARTNews’ list of future famous artists missing Hirst, Koons [Bloomberg]
Tracey Emin’s first LA show at Gagosian Beverly Hills [ArtDaily]
How Anselem Reyle became an art-market star [Bloomberg]
Lawrence Weiner sculpts with words [NYT]
London racing to find the next hot street artist [Telegraph]
No, not the notorious “art bubble”. Gagosian Gallery on Brittania Street is currently showing an exhibit called Pop Art is... to honor the fiftieth anniversary of pop art’s definition by Richard Hamilton. According to the press release, “[t]his exhibition allows us to consider the ways in which artists, past and present, respond to constantly changing ideas about what Pop art is.”
Last Thursday’s annual RxArt Ball at Phillips de Pury raised over $400,000 for the charity. Collectors were calling their dealers to see if the bids they were about to put in for pieces in the silent auction were within reason. A Neck Face went to a Sotheby’s employee for $3,700, Barnaby Furnas for $3,000 and Juergen Teller for $6,000, while Richard Prince fetched $50,000, Dan Colen for $15,000 and Rob Pruitt for $7,800. The crowd was an interesting mixture of artists, fashion designers and socialites, pictures follow.
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The annual RxArt Ball will be held tomorrow, Thursday, October 25th at Phillips de Pury from 7:30pm to 9pm. Ms. Diane Brown and Ms. Camille Obering were generous enough to allow AO a sneak peek at the works that will be vied for tomorrow. Judging from the vast array of works, it seems like the event will be a huge success. (more…)
The 2007 Whitney Gala and Studio Party took place last night, sponsored by Akris, an up-and-coming Swiss fashion label. Akris’ Madison Avenue boutique held events during fashion week to kick off the partnership. (more…)
Chuck Close claims he’s still “poor white trash” [Vulture]
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Art market “due for a correction” [Economist]
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Stolen painting found in trash going for $1M at Sotheby’s [NYT]
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Banksy up for auction at Bonham’s [Bloomberg]
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Supertouch meets up with Murakami [Supertouch]
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Sotheby’s doubling price guarantees for NY auctions [Bloomberg]
