An oil painting on a wooden board is suspected to be an early work by Rembrandt, after it sold for $870,000 in a New Jersey auction, estimated originally at $500-$800. The painting is suspected to be part of the artist’s early Five Senses series, his first painted works, possibly executed while studying under Pieter Lastman. (more…)
Dan Flavin, untitled (to Sonja) (1969), via Art Observed
An idea that began with a single light was the generative force for New York minimalist Dan Flavin‘s ongoing interests in light and space. Starting in 1963 with the creation of diagonal of May 25th, 1963, a fluorescent lamp installed diagonally on a wall, Flavin quickly adopted light as his central aesthetic focus, and his journey through the environmental capacities of light can now be seen in Corners, Barriers and Corridors at David Zwirner.
Gilbert & George, To Be With Art is All We Ask (1970), all photos via Art Observed
The artist duo Gilbert Prousch and George Passmore, better-known by just Gilbert & George, the self-proclaimed “Two People but One Artist,” first met in 1967 studying sculpture in London. As the story goes, the two were taking photographs of one another holding their sculptural works, when it struck them that their own corporeal presence in the images was far more interesting than the sculptures. As a result the pair deemed themselves “living sculptures,” and following the line of this ideology, have since considered their partnership, their artistic work (in all mediums), and even the mundane operations undertaken in their everyday lives, to be “Sculpture.” For this reason, Gilbert & George made their mantra “Art for All,” endeavoring to make sculpture and sculptural practice accessible and liberated from the discriminatory elitism of the art world at large, instead focusing on the idea that accessible art derives from life itself. (more…)
Luxembourg’s Le Freeport is the subject of a profile in the Wall Street Journal this week, noting the site’s susceptibility to illicit activity and renewed attention on its activities following the arrest of Yves Bouvier. “I can’t see any better way for people to launder money than to go through a freeport,” says James Palmer, founder of Mondex Corp., which aids in recovering looted art. (more…)
The Tate Modern has set June of 2016 as the opening date for its massive expansion project, and will embark on a massive rehang of the museum collection. “There will be old friends and new friends – Pablo Picasso, Joseph Beuys and Mark Rothko will be joined by artists introduced to the public by Tate Modern in recent years,” says Nicholas Serota, “including Saloua Raouda Choucair, Meschac Gaba, DaidÅ Moriyama and Cildo Meireles.” (more…)
The Dutch government has pledged €80 million in order to purchase a prime pair of Rembrandt paintings, sold from the collection of Éric de Rothschild. “Rembrandts like these, I mean they just don’t happen,” says Taco Dibbits, director of collections at the Rijksmuseum.” (more…)
Tom Finkelpearl, NYC’s Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, is taking a leave of absence to treat a health issue, the New York Times reports. “As some of you know,” Finkelpearl wrote later in the day, “I have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma. Serious, indeed, but I am expecting to recover and be back at my job after several courses of Chemo over a number of months.” (more…)
Concerns over shipping and insurance have delayed the opening of a Titian exhibition in Prague, the Art Newspaper reports, following concerns that the exhibition space at Prague Castle’s Imperial Stables were unsafe for the works. “We decided to postpone the opening as we were not sure the Castle would be ready,” says organizer Monika Burian Jourdan, the president of Art for the Public. “From our side, we had everything set, including all export and shipping permits, and the paperwork from the Italian Minister of Culture.” (more…)
Over £7 million in funding has been earmarked by the UK as part of a drive to exhibit British art in China, including a series of exhibitions and programs in Beijing presented by a coalition including the British Library, the Southbank Centre and Shakespeare’s Globe. “I think the British people are fascinated by China; they have a combination of curiosity about this great force in the world and frankly a bit of anxiety,” says Chancellor George Osborne. “And one of the best ways people’s cultures express themselves is through their theatre and their paintings and their art… and what better way to explain to many, many Chinese people about Britain than letting them hear a Shakespeare play in Mandarin or see a David Hockney picture…there in China?”
One of the sculptures from Antony Gormley’s Land installation at Clavell Tower, Kimmeridge Bay in the UK has been toppled by a storm, the BBC reports. “We are aware that the “Land” sculpture has come down in the storm at Kimmeridge Bay and we are taking steps to deal with it asap,” says the UK building conservation charity Landmark Trust. (more…)
Brian Sewell, the London Evening Standard’s art critic, has passed away at the age of 84. “Simply, Brian was the nation’s best art critic, best columnist and the most brilliant and sharpest writer in recent times,” the newspaper said in a statement. (more…)
The Guardian notes the convoluted history of a John Constable painting in the collection of the Tate, as a recent export license raises questions as to whether or not the work should be classified as Nazi loot. “The Spoliation Advisory Panel have reviewed the new information which came to light in 2014 regarding John Constable’s Beaching a Boat, Brighton, 1824,” the Tate said in a statement. “They have made a recommendation, which will be taken to Tate’s Board of Trustees at their next meeting.” (more…)
Anish Kapoor has been ordered by a French court to repair the damage to his Dirty Corner sculpture at Versailles, after the work was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. “From my perspective, this is a triumph for the racists. The right thing is to carry on,” Kapoor says. “We will start working on Monday; this will be an act of transformation which turns the nastiness into something else. I want something active, not reactive.” (more…)
An exhibition at La Monnaie de Paris, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Christian Boltanski, will allow users to take away the works. “Just like currency, the works are destined to be dispersed. This is what is suggested by the title of Christian Boltanski’s piece Dispersion, which encourages the public to leave the exhibition with a bag filled with clothes,” says Chiara Parisi, the director of cultural programmes at La Monnaie de Paris. (more…)
Matthew Barney is interviewed in the New York Times this week, as the artist prepares to open an exhibition of River of Fundament and its surrounding works at MOCA. “In many ways, the real leads the artificial in ‘River of Fundament,’ ” he says. “I’ve always had an interest in colliding the natural and artificial, but I think what makes this work different from what I’ve done before is that the natural is foregrounded.” (more…)
CNN notes the growing popularity of African contemporary art on the market today, noting major increases in prices for African artists in the past several years. “I’ve studied the movement of the prices of artwork sold in auctions in Nigeria since 1999,” says Prince Yemisi Shyllon, one of Nigeria’s largest art collectors. “And I can tell you how much the artworks have grown over time, of different artists — if we draw a correlation analysis we come up with a positive graph about the growth, and therefore it can form a solid basis for investment.” (more…)
The Artes Mundi Prize, offering the largest purse award for UK Contemporary Art, has announced its shortlist, including Neïl Beloufa, Hito Steyerl, Lamia Joreige, Nástio Mosquito, and Amy Franceschini. “This group of artists…demonstrates the importance and usefulness of art and culture in our everyday lives as it challenges our preconceptions and gives us new ways of engaging with the world around us,” says Karen MacKinnon, Artes Mundi’s director and curator. (more…)
Mike Kelley, Kandor 10B (2011), via Art Observed
Mike Kelley’s Kandor series ranks among the artist’s more enigmatic projects: a series of sculptures, videos and installation work that works the origin mythologies of the Superman comics into the fabric of the artist’s own life and work. The works are equally desolate and comical, peculiar and commanding in their execution, often rendered in glowing hues of purple, red and yellow, or countered by immense chunks of sculpted detritus, recreating the titular hero’s Fortress of Solitude. (more…)
Collector Audrey Irmas is selling an iconic Cy Twombly blackboard painting this fall at Sotheby’s, with $30 million from the sale proceeds going to fund a new Rem Koolhaas designed building for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. “I hope this building will provide a gathering place for cultural life and social events in a very diverse neighborhood,” says Ms. Irmas. (more…)
Phillips is expanding its focus to include Modern Art, the Art Newspaper reports, specifically focusing on early 20th century work with ties to the contemporary. “For a long time now, collectors have been buying across the 20th century. I want to flesh out Phillip’s presence in that market without losing our traditional focus on cutting-edge contemporary,” says Phillips head Edward Dolman. (more…)
Bosnia’s National Museum has reopened after a three-year closure due to a lack of funding. “The National Museum is the national treasury of all citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Bosnia’s Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic said. (more…)
Eli Broad is profiled in Bloomberg this week, as the collector opens his new museum, and makes the case for L.A.’s new status as an art-world capital. “We’re really the contemporary-art capital of the world,” he says. “New York still is the commercial-art capital of the world — but a month doesn’t go by when one of their galleries doesn’t move to Los Angeles.” (more…)
