An Alexander Calder sculpture previous installed at Gramercy Park in New York has been installed in Maastricht for this year’s edition of TEFAF Maastricht. The installation was organized by dealer Christophe van der Weghe, and is for sale for about $20 million. (more…)
The international art market had a near-record year last year, with just under $66 billion in sales worldwide, Bloomberg reports, an 8% increase from last year. This includes an 11% increase in contemporary art, bolstered by monumental sales for works by Warhol, Koons and Bacon at the end of last year. (more…)
Photographer Collier Schorr is profiled in the New York Times this week, following the opening of her newest show at 303 earlier this month. “I don’t know what to do until I meet them,” Schorr says of engaging with the models she shoots. “Who are you? I’m going to take that picture.” (more…)
Hannah Höch, Staatshäupter (Heads of State) (1930), all images courtesy Whitechapel Gallery
Over 100 works from major international collections by Dada artist Hannah Höch have been compiled for the first major exhibition of her work in Britain, on view at Whitechapel Gallery through March 23, 2014. Best known for helping originate 20th century photomontage, Höch first gained attention during the Berlin Dada movement of the 1920s in Weimar Germany, cutting out images from fashion magazines and placing them together to create comical social commentaries. Athough many of her colleagues have been given more attention in traditional written art history, Höch was recognized – albeit reluctantly – by better known artists such as George Grosz, Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, and Kurt Schwitters.
The Wall Street Journal spotlights Jane McSweeney as its “Donor of the Day” in a recent article, tracing her positions on the MoMA film board, the Board of Directors for MoMA Ps1, and her work with the Art Production Fund. “I literally breathe deeper when I’m around art,” said Ms. McSweeney. “It makes me feel that there are great possibilities on the earth.” (more…)
The newest commission for the Sculpture Committee of the Fund for Park Avenue are now on view for the 2014 season, a series of swirling, ambitious sculptures by Alice Aycock. “The notion is that there is this big wind that moves up and down the avenue, and that it makes the forms or blows the forms and leaves it in its wake,” said the artist. (more…)
The New York Times traces the prominent presence of transgender narratives in the Whitney Biennial this year, using the thread to examine a broader presence of trans people in the pop culture landscape. The article comes on the heels of the Biennial’s opening, and the presentation of Relationships, a piece by artists and romantic partners Rhys Ernst and Zackary Drucker that traces their respective gender transitions. (more…)
A long rumored merger between MOCA North Miami and the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach is moving forward, the Miami Herald reports. MOCANoMi officials are apparently in the final stages of talks over moving the museum collection to Miami Beach. “At this time, we feel confident that a collaboration with the Bass could make a lot of sense,” says MOCANoMi curator and interim director Alex Gartenfeld. (more…)
The Prada Foundation has announced its planned exhibition for the 2015 Venice Biennale, focusing on sound art and the relationship between art objects and musical instruments. The Art or Sound will take place at the Serenissima at the Ca’ Corner della Regina palazzo, from June 7 to November 3, 2014, and will include works by John Cage, Richard Artschwager and Laurie Anderson. (more…)
Rock Climbing Wall at DISown, via Art Observed
Dis has always had one foot in the world of fashion. Its close ties to Hood by Air and Telfar Clemens notwithstanding, the New York-based collective has a long history of covering contemporary fashion and arts with a similarly detached eye, always seeking to underline the commodity culture lurking behind the guise of both “high arts.” Now, the group is taking its longtime skirting of the line between art and commerce to a new level, opening its “retail diffusion” shop DisOwn at Red Bull Studios this week during Armory Week.
DISown at Red Bull Studios (Installation View), via Dis (more…)
Glenn Ligon is interviewed in The Independent this week, as the artist prepares to open a new show at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, and recounts an experience meeting President Barack Obama, in which the president told the artist he owned several of Ligon’s works. “I thought to myself, ‘the President of the United States knows what’s in his house,'” he says. “It’s not just decoration. He looks at it and knows when it’s not there. It was touching to realize that visual art is an integral part of his and his family’s life. It’s not just window dressing, not something you have to talk about because people expect you to. It was a really great way to meet him.” (more…)
The Venice Biennale will reportedly move its opening date up a month, The Art Newspaper reports. Scheduled to open on May 9th next year, the new dates are forcing art fairs to readjust their scheduling plans for that summer. “We haven’t finalized the 2015 dates yet, but we’re aware of the potential crunch points in the calendar next year and are looking to make a decision in the forthcoming weeks,” says a spokeswoman for Frieze. (more…)
New York Magazine has published a detailed summary of the current situation at Sotheby’s, including the departure of longtime auctioneer Tobias Meyer, the friction between Daniel Loeb and Sotheby’s head Bill Ruprecht, and most notably, Loeb’s often incisive perspective on dealing with companies he wants to turn around. “Sometimes a town hanging is useful,” Loeb once told Bloomberg Markets, “to establish my reputation for future dealings with unscrupulous CEOs.” (more…)
The much trumpeted auction of early works by Jean-Michel Basquiat has been put on hold by Christie’s, following a lawsuit by the artist’s surviving sisters over the authenticity of some of the works. “Our goal is to allow time for all parties involved to reach an equivalent level of confidence in the validity of these items, so that the sale may resume at a later date,” the auction house said in a statement. (more…)
Emmanuel Perrotin is profiled in W Magazine this month, underlining the gallerist’s penchant for risk-taking, and his adventurous spirit in regards to his relationship with his artists. “There are a lot of dealers in Europe who just want to complain,” Perrotin says. “I’m rather positive and energetic. But it’s true that the bigger you get, the more you start to worry and to ask yourself how well you’re really doing.” (more…)
Los Angeles Collectors Jane and Marc Nathanson have announced that they will auction three works from their collection at Sotheby’s May 14th auction in New York, among them Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #20, estimated between $9 million and $12 million. “We’re trying to fine-tune our collection as we’re getting older,” Mr. Nathanson said, continuing on to say that the works for sale “don’t really fit in” with their interests in pop art. (more…)
A recent New York Times article traces the rising rents of the Industry City business incubator and studios, and the resulting exodus of artists a recent rent hike at the Red Hook building has caused. Red Hook is the most recent in a string of rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, where artists are continually being driven out. “All I can see is going further out, then having to move again,” said 73-year old painter Richard Castellana. “I just can’t take it anymore.” (more…)
This past week, artist Richard Prince had his Instagram account deactivated for posting an image of his work Spiritual America (a nude photo of ten year-old Brooke Shields) on his account, then reinstated. The artist recounts the experience on New York Magazine’s website: “The thing goes black on your phone, and they have a little graphic username login. I could not, through my phone, reenter the world of Disney. It’s like Walt is behind me.” (more…)
Kazuo Shiraga, via Art Observed
As dealers wrap their final sales today, and begin wrapping up their works for the trip home, the bustle of Armory Week is drawing to a close in NewYork City. Strong sales seemed to be the theme of the week, with galleries across the board reporting impressive figures and percentages for their fair offerings, with some galleries selling out of their full selection of pieces before the fair closed the doors on its VIP preview on March 5th.
Xu Qu, via Art Observed (more…)
Damien Hirst is reportedly planning to write his autobiography, despite the artist’s claim that he can’t remember most of his twenties. The artist announced his intent to pen the story of his hard partying and decadence as part of the YBA’s early this week, but has admitted on several occasions that about ten years of his life are a complete blank, due in part to the same hard living he plans to document. (more…)
Ten years of research into the identity of a purported Lucio Fontana painting has resulted in the work’s authentication, ArtNews reports. Le Jour, painted in 1962, had sat in a European collection for many years, with the identity of the artist in question, until the piece was shown to Michele Casamonti of Tornabuoni Art Paris. “It’s very interesting because it shows the physical position of Fontana in front of the canvas,” Casamonti notes. “It also shows how Fontana studies his gestures before realizing them. Preparation is almost more important than the execution, which is instinctive, total, and immediate.” (more…)
Giacomo Balla, Mercury Passing Before the Sun (1914), via Art Observed
From the opening lines of the The Futurist Manifesto, on view near the ground floor of the Guggenheim’s current historical survey of the early 20th century Italian avant-garde, one can detect a certain mechanistic determinism, a powerful, single-minded focus on the power of industry, science and machines. F.T. Marinetti’s famous lines summon the roar of the engine, and the hum of electricity in equal measure, damning an Italy obsessed with its own past, and embracing a new future as a world power.
Umberto Boccioni, Elasticity (Elasticità ), (1912), Courtesy Guggenheim Museum (more…)
Outside the Park Ave Armory, via Art Observed
Tucked away at the Park Avenue Armory uptown, the ADAA’s annual Art Show offers a more subdued fair experience versus the immense proceedings of the Armory Show across town. With less than half the number of participating galleries, and a more focused exhibition policy leaning towards solo artists and thematic presentations, the fair is a strong counterpart to the Armory, one that invites a lingering, open browsing experience below the Armory’s softly lit drill hall.
Pablo Picasso, Tête de Jeune Fille, via Art Observed (more…)
