Writer Alain de Botton has contributed an essay to the Wall Street Journal, challenging the age-old questions of why art should matter to the average person.  Illustrating the art work as a moment of reflection and repose, de Botton reviews works by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Pieter de Hooch, Diego Velazquez and more, examining the benefits and impressions a single work of art can make in the viewer’s perception of the world. (more…)

Mike Bouchet, Nothing is Everything 3 Times (Positive) (2013), via the Marlborough Chelsea

Mike Bouchet explores the adage, “You are what you eat,” if what is ingested contains zero-calories, in his new exhibition Flood at the newly renovated Marlborough Chelsea Gallery. The exhibition casts a mirror on to how our society digests all that it can from the media, regardless of nutritional content or health benefits.  Through Bouchet’s critical stance, everything ingested is about as substantial as Bouchet’s own blend of diet soda.

Bodybuilders in a pool of Diet Cola, by Mike Bouchet at Hotel Americano, via Ben Richards for Art Observed

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Ahead of an upcoming show at Tate Britain, featuring a group of five British painters under fifty, Chris Ofili and Simon Ling sat down with the Financial Times to discuss their personal styles, the act of painting, and their inspirations from the streets of London.  “Well, this is about the city’s lack of aspiration.”  Says Ling during the interview, considering a fragmented canvas. “The lack of planning and failure, where the city is almost like a tectonic construction, a weird jumble.” (more…)

The Smithsonian Institution has tallied a total cost of $2.8 million caused by the government shut down this past month, including all gift shop and cafeteria revenues the museum normally takes in.  The museum was also forced to conclude a number of loans prematurely, including the rarely exhibited codexes of Leonardo Da Vinci.   (more…)

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Hustlers (Installation View), courtesy Philip-Lorca diCorcia and David Zwirner Gallery

One of the most influential photographers working today, Philip-Lorca diCorcia is known for creating images which blur the line between documentary photography and theatrically-staged scenes. Hustlers, on display now through November 2 at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York, presents photographs diCorcia made between 1990 and 1992, during the beginning of his engagement with street photography. For a fee roughly equivalent to what they would receive for sexual services, DiCorcia’s photographs feature the male prostitutes he approached in Los Angeles.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Champagne, 19 Years Old, from California, $20 (1990-1992), courtesy Philip-Lorca diCorcia and David Zwirner Gallery

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Paul Thek. All images courtesy the Pace Gallery.

The work of American artist Paul Thek will be exhibited at the Pace Gallery in London through November 9. Thek was a conceptual artist and hugely underappreciated at the time of his death in 1988. Trained as a painter at the Pratt Institute and Cooper Union School of Art, Thek is considered one of the most significant figures of the 1960s art scene in New York. He transitioned to working with sculpture after his formal training, and is most well known for his Technological Reliquaries installations that feature wax-made meat and human body parts. Though he died at age 55 under celebrated, the work of Paul Thek has been growing in significance and continues to influence a range of artist as diverse as Mike Kelley and Damian Hirst.

Exhibition View.

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A recent investigation into the collection of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has uncovered 139 works looted during World War II.  The results of a 4-year study, the works have been placed on a website, inviting prior owners to make claims on the return of the work, including pieces by Matisse and Isaac Israels.  “We know that there were doubtful transactions concerning works acquired before 1940, after Kristallnacht,” said Siebe Weide of the Dutch Museum Association. (more…)

The Skarstedt Gallery is expanding in New York, opening a new gallery space in the former headquarters of Christie’s Haunch of Venison Gallery at 550 West 21^st Street.  Haunch of Venison had closed its doors in March of 2013. (more…)

Mayfair restaurant Sketch has invited artist David Shrigley to redesign its exhibition space and menu, following in the footsteps of Martin Creed, who redesigned the space in 2012.  Working on the aesthetic appearance of the space, Shrigley will also collaborate with the restaurant’s kitchen, creating a series of menu items heavily inspired by his art.  The restaurant will close at the end of the year for the renovations, opening again in February of 2014. (more…)

The upcoming show on the work of Vincent Van Gogh, held next year at London’s National Gallery, will reunite two of the surviving versions of the artist’s iconic Sunflowers.  Painted in 1888, one of the canvases is on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, while the other was purchased by the National Gallery in 1924.  “It will deepen every visitor’s appreciation of the artist,” said  Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery. (more…)

The family of sculptor Alexander Calder have filed a complaint that Klaus G. Perls, the artist’s longtime dealer and friend, held onto tens of millions of dollars of the artist’s art after his death, and sold forgeries of the artist’s work.  The Perls family has asked that the claims be dismissed.  “It gives me no pleasure to talk about this,” said Calder’s grandson, Alexander S. C. Rower, but “there is just example after example after example after example of misdeeds.”   (more…)

The New York State Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the controversial case over the museum’s “Pay What You Want” pricing scheme, dismissing a substantial part of the case.  Judge Shirley Werner Kornreich ruled on the decision, stating that the museum’s income is used to help fund education programs and other efforts.  “For those without means, or those who do not wish to express their gratitude financially, a de minimis contribution of a penny is accepted,” the judge wrote. “Admission to the Met is de facto free for all.”  Even with that ruling, the court will review the portion of the case stating that the museum misrepresents itself, leading visitors to believe that they must pay the full $25 price on museum signage. (more…)

Marina Abramović’s opera, The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, is set to open this December 12th in The Park Armory’s spacious Drill Hall.  Staged by Robert Wilson, the show includes performances by Abramović, playing herself and her mother, and also features performances by Willem Dafoe and Antony.  The show has already garnered an overwhelmingly positive critical response at each of its previous performances, and marks the first time the work will be performed int he US. (more…)

Concluding his October residency on the streets of New York, street artist Banksy has unveiled his last work, the donation of a painted canvas to the Housing Works thrift store in Gramercy Park.  Titled The Banality of the Banality of Evil, the canvas features a man in a Nazi uniform viewing a classically rendered mountain vista, and is being auctioned off to benefit the Housing Works organization.  So far, bids have already reached over $200,000.  “Most New Yorkers have been watching pretty closely what he’s been doing for the past 30 days,” said Housing Works director of PR Rebecca Edmondson. “There has been controversy. But it’s great to end on such a high note by giving back to the New York community.” (more…)

Sotheby’s director Philip Hook has unveiled a new guide, welcoming the uninitiated into the often “meaningless” terminology embraced by the institutional art world.  Exploring the meaning of overused words like “important” (“historically significant but hard to sell”), Breakfast at Sotheby’s: An A-Z of the Art World offers a look into the language of the commercial art world.  “They are words the meaning of which has become twisted by the desire to energize banality, to elevate mediocrity, or simply to make a sale.” (more…)

Balthus, Thérése (1938), Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Currently on view through January 12, 2014 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the controversially titled show, Balthus: Cats and Girls – Paintings and Provocations.  Amassing 35 paintings and 40 never before displayed ink drawings, this thematic exhibition, curated by Sabine Rewald, flirts with the notorious ambiguity surrounding Balthus’ treatment of young girls, offering neither an overt accusation of erotic context, nor securing his innocence. (more…)

Artist Damien Hirst has contributed the new cover image for GQ Magazine, photographing pop star Rihanna in classic likeness of Medusa.  The collaboration was done for the magazine’s 25th anniversary issue. (more…)

A broad selection of works from the late collector Jan Krugier’s enormous art collection is set to go to the auction block on Nov. 4th and 5th at Christie’s in New York.  Consisting of 156 works, the selection of works includes an incredible 29 Picassos, as well as works from Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Georgia O’Keeffe and Robert Rauschenberg, with a total estimated value of $170 million.  “Krugier saw himself as but a temporary possessor of these works. I think he’d rather like it.”  Said Christie’s deputy chair Conor Jordan. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the state of the auction market in mainland China, where rampant forgeries and a rapidly expanding marketplace have made the bidding experience a fraught procedure.  With a market that has grown to annual revenues of $8.9 billion over the past years, regulators are struggling to keep up.  “The market is in a very dubious stage,” said Alexander Zacke, an expert in Asian art who and head of online house Auctionata. “No one will take results in mainland China very seriously.” (more…)

Robert Indiana, The American Gas Works (1962), Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art

Robert Indiana‘s lasting fame in the canon of American post-war modernism will forever belong to his iconic LOVE sculpture—that immediately recognizable logo of stacked letters animated by it’s slanting O, which graces merchandise as ubiquitous as the US postage stamp. This beautifully simple graphic, originally conceived as a design for a Christmas Card for MoMA, has in fact so eclipsed Indiana’s expansive career that his name has become synonymous with its text. And yet this fall’s large retrospective at the Whitney, Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE, plumbs the depths of his oeuvre to present an artist far more complex than those four well-worn letters. Curated by Barbara Haskell, the exhibit presents paintings and sculptures by the pop artist that highlight Indiana’s sociopolitical conscience as boldly as their hard-edged execution, and traces his developing formal vocabulary of language and abstraction, from biting political commentary, to personal biography, to literary allusion, Indian’s broad selection of works on view dispel any notion of the artist as one-hit-wonder.  This exhibit demonstrates the thematic expanse Indiana pursues “beyond Love”, including American identity, the American Dream, and the politics of race and sexuality. Rife with literary references to American authors and indebted to artistic predecessors such as Charles Demuth, the textual program is often as radical as his post-painterly abstraction.

Robert Indiana, LOVE (1961), Courtesy of The Whitney Museum of American Art (more…)

Eva et Adèle – All Photos by Caroline Claisse exclusively for Art Observed

The doors of the Paris-based FIAC fair closed today, concluding what was called a “smooth” edition of the fair by several observers, notching considerable sales, and an increase in the overall attendance of the fair, reaching a total count of 73,550 visitors over the course of the four day event. “This is a great success. Fiac has spent 40 years in style,” Jennifer Flay, fair artistic director, told Le Point. “Paris has regained strength in terms of the art market,” she said.

Hiroshi Sugimoto, Pace Gallery (more…)

Raymond Pettibon, “To Wit,” (Installation View), via David Zwirner

Exploring the spectrum of American “high” and “low” culture, David Zwirner Gallery is currently exhibiting a display of works from Raymond Pettibon entitled To Wit, which will continue through today, October 26th.

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Bjarne Melgaard, Ignorant Transparencies (Installation View), via Gavin Brown

The experience of Bjarne Melgaard’s current show at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise is a dizzying affair, gradually moving through various states of frenetic excess and slurred assemblage to create an often horrifying depiction of modern life in New York City.  Addressing sexual ambiguity, drug abuse and the contemporary art world, all often at the same moment, the show is a challenging, bizarre mirror into the multi-layered worlds of art and fashion, and perhaps more importantly, their points of collision.

Bjarne Melgaard, Ignorant Transparencies (Installation View), via Gavin Brown (more…)

Fashion site Just One Eye has teamed up with artist Nate Lowman to produce several one-of-a-kind pairs of Converse Chuck Taylors, emphasizing the artist’s ongoing love of the classic sneaker.  21 pairs of shoes will be created, as well as a limited edition run of 500 pairs reproduced from one of the designs.  The collaboration also features several video pieces by director and cinematographer Joe Pytka, inspired by the shoes. (more…)