Art-world power couple Tim Noble and Sue Webster have ended their marriage after four years. The couple wed in 2008, having been together as a couple for 20 years, but decided to separate this year after coming to the realization that they both valued their art over their marriage. “It’s almost like we shouldn’t have got married,” said Noble. (more…)
In the last several months, the heirs of Pablo Picasso have taken steps to consolidate the process for authenticating the late artist’s works, creating a family board responsible for authenticating all Picasso works moving forward. “People have been asking why they have to go to two places just to have a work authenticated. That is why we took the decision of sending that letter to the art world. The family board is the only authority—it’s quite clear” says Picasso’s son Bernard. (more…)
Contemporary artists are once again exploring the medium of wallpaper, hearkening back to the wall-based works of Andy Warhol and Sol LeWitt in the 1960’s. Using new developments in digital printing and , many artists are using the classic decorative material to move beyond the canvas and explore new modes of exhibition and presentation in their works. “Artists are becoming more interested in that line between what’s art and what’s part of your everyday life, and wallpaper becomes this weird fuzzy space—is it art, or is it decoration?” Says 29-year-old Brooklyn artist Gregg Louis. (more…)
With prices for copper more than quadrupling in the last decade, sculptors are thinking twice before using bronze in their works, instead looking to cheaper materials and more economically sound production techniques in an effort to cut costs. Foundries are also feeling an impact on their bottom line as their customers explore other options in the U.S. and abroad.
Having just opened its doors in October, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai is already making big moves as China’s first state-run contemporary art museum. The 19th century industrial site was converted by the state into a premier public art center, and is currently hosting a massive exhibition in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou in Paris to show 119 of the Centre’s works. “It is a prestige object for the city, to have a museum that, at least in scale, can compete with Tate Modern in London or MoMA in New York,” says Jens Hoffmann, co-curator of the Shanghai Biennale. (more…)
New York art dealers R. Scott Cook and his wife Sousanna A.E. Cook have been ordered to pay $17.96 million in damages to collector George Ball after allegedly fleeing the country with 11 of his works, including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Henri Matisse. Ball claims that the couple had agreed to sell his pieces at Christie’s on his behalf, but instead left the country for France without ever listing the works.
The daughter of photographer Laurie Simmons and painter Carroll Dunham, writer and actress Lena Dunham has worked her art-world experiences into her work long before her hit television show Girls. In 2009, Dunham wrote, directed and produced “Delusional Downtown Divas,” a short online miniseries parodying New York City’s arts scene. Released in conjunction with Index Magazine, the show also featured a guest performance by artist Nate Lowman.
Barnaby Furnas, Jonah in the belly of the Whale (2012) courtesy Marianne Boesky
Visceral and dynamic, the canvases of American graffiti artist and painter Barnaby Furnas ripple with a kinetic energy. Filling his paintings with evocative imagery, explosive movement and the near-omnipresent splatters of blood that has become one of his calling cards, Furnas has culled a reputation for his unique take on culture and history.
Barnaby Furnas, The Gutter #2 (2012) courtesy Marianne Boesky
Installation view of Ann Hamilton, “the event of a thread”, all photos by James Ewing and courtesy of The Park Avenue Armory
American artist Ann Hamilton is widely recognized for her large-scale immersive multimedia installations, touching upon themes of collective consciousness, space and labor. Her current installation, “the event of a thread” commissioned by and on view at The Park Avenue Armory in New York, does not fall short. (more…)
Two exhibitions will celebrate the seminal Armory Show of 1913 this year, “The New Spirit: American Art in the Armory Show, 1913”, which opens at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey on the exact day of the centennial anniversary; and “The Armory Show at 100”, at the New York Historical Society in the fall. The original show, organized by Walt Kuhn and Arthur B. Davies, was so shocking to American audiences that “…in Chicago, art students felt so threatened that they burned Brancusi and Matisse in effigy, a scene that a German expressionist might have done justice to – except that there was no German expressionism in the show.” (more…)
Gillian Wearing, Self Portrait at 17 Years Old (2003). All images courtesy Maureen Paley.
On view through January 6th at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf is a survey of Gillian Wearing’s film and photographs. The 1997 Turner Prize recipient’s work explores the relationship between one’s public and private personas, and the difference between reality and fiction.
William Kentridge, Installation View (2012), courtesy The Tate Modern
I Am Not Me, the Horse Is Not Mine by William Kentridge, consists of six individual projections juxtaposed against various walls of the Tanks in the Tate Modern. The projections cumulatively comprise a narrative that depicts the story of The Nose (1837), by Nikolai Gogol, whereby a spiteful nose departs itself from its owner’s face, tries to leave the city and is consequently arrested. However despite this, one morning when the owner wakes up, he finds his nose has returned.
A fan clip of M.I.A. performing Paper Planes at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – click to watch
12/12/12 at 12:00 opened the first-ever Indian Biennial, held in the South Indian city of Kochi, Kerala, 30 kilometers from the historic Muziris islands. Twenty-three of the eighty-two showcased artists in the Biennale are native to the state, with more than forty from India. The remaining artists come from all over the world, including Ai Weiwei (China), Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Cyprien Gaillard (France), and Wangechi Mutu (Kenya) among others. Musician M.I.A., whose family is originally Sri Lankan, inaugurated the showcase with her own Indian performing debut, additionally contributing her own hologram-based artworks to be viewed throughout the exhibitions. Modeled after the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris runs for three months, through March 13th, 2013. (more…)
“Weiwei-isms”, a new book by Ai Weiwei that was published this month by Princeton University Press, provides a look into the Chinese dissident artist’s view on political affairs and human rights issues. “During my detention, they kept asking me: Ai Weiwei, what is the reason you have become like this today? My answer is: First, I refuse to forget. My parents, my family, their whole generation and my generation all paid a great deal in the struggle for freedom of speech. Many people died just because of one sentence or even one word. Somebody has to take responsibility for that.” (from Der Spiegel, Nov. 21, 2011)
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Tracey Emin was granted a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her outstanding contributions to the arts. “I think they pushed me in at the deep end. But I’m absolutely thrilled. It’s been insane trying to keep it a secret but I’m really looking forward to seeing the look on my mum’s face”, Emin said. (more…)
Art insurance claim totals from Hurricane Sandy are estimated to climb to $500 million, $300 million of which are claims by the artist Peter Max. The number is much higher than initially estimated — AXA, one of the largest insurers, had initially estimated that it would pay out $40 million in losses. The total number includes damage to artwork as well as to gallery structures. (more…)
Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos, all images courtesy New Museum
The New Museum, in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, presents the illuminating and expansive world of Rosemarie Trockel. Lynn Cooke, former deputy director and chief curator at Reina Sofia, worked with Trockel to imagine a world that is very much Trockel’s without being Trockel-centric: her lumpy sculptures and smooth, linear woolworks are shown with a massive preserved lobster and other natural artifacts; her videos and installations abide just a level above the orangutan Tilda’s three paintings; 18th century naturalist Maria Sybilla Merian‘s precise watercolors hang near the self-taught Judith Scott‘s frenetically wrapped yarn sculptures. (more…)
“The Clock”, Christian Marclay’s 24-hour long video montage, has been acquired by the MoMA and will be on view this month including a special New Year’s eve showing. The film won the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale and will be on view at MoMA during public hours. (more…)
The WSJ examines current exhibitions and works that blur the line between — and explore the intricate relationship of — painting and photography; among them is the Whitney’s popular Wade Guyton midcareer retrospective, where the artist prints images directly onto canvas using an inkjet printer; as well as Gerhard Richter’s strip pieces, “paintings” made with machines . (more…)
Isa Genzken, Installation View (2012), courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth is currently showing Isa Genzken’s mixed media readymade assemblages, a variety of figural sculptures. Isa Genzken was born in 1948 and currently resides and works in Berlin. She was previously married to Gerhard Richter, with whom she has collaborated over the years. Genzken is a mixed media sculptor whose work draws on aspects of constructivism and minimalism, also taking inspiration from architecture. Her work is often compromised of media associated with building materials, used in conjunction with readymades.
Glenn Ligon, “Untitled (If I Can’t Have Love, I’ll Take Sunshine),” 2006, Neon and paint, Courtesy of Luhring Augustine
Currently on display at Luhring Augustine in Chelsea is Glenn Ligon: Neon, his first solo exhibition at the gallery. Over the past seven years, Ligon has created these neons, which relate to his famous text paintings that he created back in the 1980s. The pieces address a variety of historical, social and political issues, all with the underpinning of the use and re-use of language.
Glenn Ligon, “Palindrome #1”, 2007, Neon, Courtesy of Luhring Augustine (more…)
Workers renovating the former residence of Otto Dix have uncovered six murals by the artist. The home is being turned into a museum, to be run by the Stuttgart Kuntmuseum. The Carneval-themed pieces, most likely from 1966, were behind a bookcase in the cellar library and are incredibly well-preserved. The museum will open in June 2013. (more…)
The Vatican Museum has announced that tourists who visit the Sistine Chapel must be suction-cleaned and chilled before entering. The five million tourists who visit the Sistine Chapel yearly are causing Michelangelo’s frescoes to degrade via the introduction of sweat, dust, skin flakes and hair, in addition to high temperatures from 20,000 tourists daily. “We will cover the 100 meters before the entrance with a carpet that cleans shoes; we will install suction vents on the sides to suck dust from clothes and we will lower temperatures to reduce the heat and humidity of bodies,” said the director of the Museums, “Dust, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide are the great enemies of the paintings.”
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Antony Gormley, Installation View (2012), Courtesy of the White Cube Gallery
With scatterings of futuristic beings juxtaposed against white walls walls and the faded grey floor of White Cube’s Bermondsey space is Antony Gormley’s new exhibition, Model. Darkened figures lurk in the shadows, emerging from the concrete; domineering inhabitants shun away the seemingly unwelcome spectators. Occupying the South Gallery is the massive work, itself entitled Model, which allows visitors to walk into its complete darkness and allow anything to happen.
Antony Gormley, Model (2012), Courtesy of the White Cube Gallery
