Richard Prince, Anyone Can Find Me (1990), courtesy Skarstedt Gallery
Skarstedt Gallery’s uptown exhibition space in Manhattan recently exhibited a series of multi-media works by American painter and photographer Richard Prince. Blending hand-drawn landscape and mass media imagery, his “White Paintings” create an complex interplay between image and language. (more…)
Xavier Veilhan, The Bear(2010), courtesy The Phillips Collection.
Celebrated French artist Xavier Veilhan generally works with site-specific installations, reflecting art historical styles and concepts that are executed by employing technological innovation with a distinctly stylized futuristic aesthetic. Veilhan’s first major U.S. museum exhibition is currently on view at The Philips Collection as a part of its “Intersections” series. (more…)
Dorsey Waxter accepted a post as the president of The Art Dealers’ Association of America (ADAA). Her predecessor, Lucy Mitchell-Innes, has been president since 2009. Waxter founded her eponymous consulting company and has been on ADAA’s board for three years. “I am honored to have been appointed president of this prestigious organization and to build upon the work of my predecessors, Lucy Mitchell-Innes and Roland Augustine, to emphasize the prominence of art dealers. My prior experience will be useful in leading the ADAA as it continues its mission to promote the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship, and ethical practice within the profession”, said Waxter.
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Sterling Ruby will now be represented by Hauser & Wirth in New York. He was previously represented by Pace Gallery, but parted ways with the gallery earlier this year. Prior to that Ruby was with Foxy Production and Metro Pictures. He is currently represented by Sprüth Magers and Xavier Hufkens in Europe.
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Jack Goldstein – Where Is Jack Goldstein? (Installation View), courtesy Venus Over Manhattan
A member of the first graduating class of CalArts in 1972, Jack Goldstein made enormous and immediate contributions to the fine arts landscape in the 1970s and 1980s before vanishing from the public eye and tragically ending his own life in 2003. Now, almost ten years after Goldstein’s death, collector Adam Lindemann is hosting an ambitious retrospective of Goldstein’s early work at his Venus Over Manhattan Gallery, pulling from Goldstein’s practice in painting, photography, poetry and film, including a recreation of Goldstein’s influential performance piece, Two Fencers. (more…)
Anish Kapoor, Tracey Emin, David Hockney and Grayson Perry have created works to give to the Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. David Hockney used a drawing of her initials made on an iPad and Emin created a portrait of her on paper. In total 97 works were acquired for the Royal Collection and will be exhibited at Buckingham Palace in 2013.
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Yayoi Kusama is reportedly leaving Gagosian Gallery, reports the ArtNewspaper. Damien Hirst also reportedly broke off his representation of 17 years as well this week. David Zwirner recently announced plans to host a Jeff Koons exhibition a long standing artist of Gagosian. Koons and Kusama currently have shows up at Gagosian locations (Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, respectively). Kusama is represented in London by Victoria Miro. Hirst is represented in London by White Cube.
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William Ruprecht has been appointed the Chairman of Sotheby’s Board of Directors. He will keep his post as President and Chief Executive Officer as well. The previous Chair for the past 13 years, Michael I. Sovern, will continue to serve on the board as well. Ruprecht started as an administrator in the Rugs department 32 years ago, and has since developed a strong client base in emerging international markets, grown the business’s art-related financing, private sales and online presence. (more…)
Wlodzimierz Umaniec, also known as Vladimir Umanets, who earlier this year vandalized a Mark Rothko painting at the Tate, has been convicted of the crime and sentenced to two years in prison. He wrote the phrase, “A potential piece of Yellowism”, on the famous Black on Maroon this past October. The charges were for criminal damages of over £5,000 but the prosecution estimates that restoring the painting will cost around £200,000 and take around 20 months. The painting is part of the Four Seasons series that Rothko gifted to the Tate. The painting has been valued between £5 million and £9 million. (more…)
Antony Gormley, Shore II (2012). All images courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery.
To inaugurate Sean Kelly Gallery’s new location, designed by Toshiko Mori, is an exhibition of new works by Antony Gormley. Bodyspace continues Gormley’s decades-long exploration of the body, and specifically addresses the body in relation to the newly re-designed interior.
UK visas are increasingly difficult for foreign artists to obtain, unless the artist is virtually internationally known, according to new rules set last year in the country. In order to be granted a “tier-one” visa, an artist must be of “exceptional promise” and “an established, world-class artist. London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, insists that London is a global hub for international artists. However, in addition to high costs, the new regulations have contributed to an 85% decrease in artist visas in the UK this year. (more…)
English artist Damien Hirst has split with New York-based Gagosian Gallery after 17 years of representation. “Larry Gagosian and Damien have reached an amicable decision to part company,” said Damien Hirst’s company Science Ltd. With a net worth of more than $346 million according to The Sunday Times rich list, Hirst has been called the richest artist in the world. Likewise, Gagosian Gallery is the richest gallery in the world, valued at $925 million according to Forbes magazine. White Cube gallery in London will continue to represent Hirst.
Simon de Pury and collector Robert Tomei discuss their obsession with design as a harbinger of the contemporary market: “Collecting design is quite a new phenomenon,” he says. “In the past, collectors rarely attempted to buy great design as well as great art. Robert, though, is passionate about both, but he doesn’t take himself seriously. His collecting is all done in a spirit of fun, with a genuine interest and curiosity”, says de Pury. Tomei began by collecting video installations form the 90s and owns work by Maarten Baas, Piet Hein Eek, Sebastian Brajkovic, Rolf Sachs, Olafur Eliasson and Elmgreen & Dragset, among others. (more…)
Olafur Eliasson, The Volcano Series (2012). All images courtesy Tanya Bonakdar.
Currently on view through December 22 at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is Volcanoes and Shelters, an exhibition of new photographs and installations by Olafur Eliasson, who is best known for work that merges art, science, and natural phenomena to create multisensory experiences. The exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar, however, focuses on Eliasson’s straightforward collection of photographs of the Icelandic landscape.
Jessica Chastain has participated in work by four artists for W magazine: George Condo, Rineke Dijkstra, Chantal Joffe and Mickalene Thomas. Each made a work using Chastain as part of the piece, where she posed for a photograph or a painted portrait; in the case of George Condo, she inspired a work that is neither: “I wanted Jessica to become part of the painting and then appear to come off it, as if she were breaking free and leaving behind an empty space,” he said. (more…)
Thomas Hart Benton’s 10-panel mural, “America Today”, is being donated to the Met by AXA Equitable Insurance Company, which has owned it for the past 30 years. The mural is one of Benton’s best examples of a snapshot of American diversity, just prior to the Great Depression. It became the catalyst for the WPA program in the 1930s because it was so well-received. The work will go on view at the Breuer building in 2015, when the Met takes over the Whitney’s current space under and eight-year agreement. (more…)
After conducting its first physical inventory in roughly a century, the city realized that approximately 15% of its collection, or 5,176 artworks, were missing. This number includes 1,400 unique objects with unknown whereabouts from the collection, which is spread over 500 locations and is valued in total at €100 million. Among the works that are unaccounted for is a Le Corbusier painting which was purchased for 80,000 Swiss francs; however according to the city’s statement, the remainder of the missing objects had only been insured at a value of 1 million Swiss francs. (more…)
Paula Cooper, 74, discusses why she thinks the art world has become too homogeneous and ruminates that perhaps she’ll leave Chelsea. The first gallerist to open a space in Soho and one of the first to move to Chelsea in the 90s, she has seen major changes in her 40+ years in the business, but continues to draw crowds and run her gallery’s program with a youthful energy. (more…)
Guillermo Kuitca in front of his work at The Drawing Center, photo by H. Hannig for ArtObserved
Argentinian painter Guillermo Kuitca has, for the past several decades, continued to explore the visual aesthetic of organization, the varied architectural and illustrative lines at the heart of the maps, floor plans and aerial views, abstracting these images into his own personal artistic language. The record becomes a personal interpretation, and vice versa.
Guillermo Kuitca at The Drawing Center photo by Cathy Carver
With soaring prices for certain contemporary and modern artists, some say there are signs of a bubble that is about to burst, such as the fact that people are attracted to high prices and “trophy” art. Some say it is similar to “tulipomania” in 17th century Holland, whereby the insiders have already purchased, so the market expands to newer, international audiences to continue growth. One [anonymous] advisor put it like this: “The market has to come down—because it has to. They don’t call it a market because it only goes up. You call that ‘magic.’” Others such as Mary Boone and Sean Kelly, question whether the frenzy at the top of the market is truly an indicator of a bubble. Kelly says, “Every time you thought the world was ending, this market has confounded that prediction.” (more…)
The student occupiers at their press conference Monday, December 10th at noon. Photo by Phoebe Pundyk for Art Observed.
The eleven students who have been occupying the Cooper Union clock tower exited at noon yesterday from the Peter Cooper Suite. Sleeping bags in tow, the students (many of whom wore homemade t-shirts with “FREE” scrawled across them) were greeted with cheers. Although none of their original demands were met by the administration, the group felt it was time to end the lock-in: that they had made their point and that their work would be better carried on from the ground. They were accompanied by their dean, who handed each student a single red rose. This is just the beginning of a long road to resolution.
Signs accumulated at the gate in Cooper Square directly below the windows of the lock-in. Photo by Jennifer Lindblad for Art Observed.
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“The End of Fun”, an exhibition by Jake and Dinos Chapman at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, contains both Nazi and religious imagery, which may have violated Russia’s laws regarding extremism. (Earlier this year the members of the punk band Pussy Riot were jailed for such an offense). The Hermitage staff explained the conceptual ideas behind the work in the [aptly titled] exhibition to prosecutors, but no details yet on whether or not they will pursue the case.
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Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch have bequeathed their valuable collection of surrealist art to Berlin’s museums, provided that the work will forever be on display for the public to enjoy. However, the museums may have to reject the gift due to lack of space to install all of the works. The museums initially planned to move Old Master paintings elsewhere but public opposition was too strong. The city may now have to set a firm timetable for its planned Old Masters museum near Museum Island, a UNESCO world heritage site that houses the Pergamon Altar and Nefertiti’s bust.
Sean Kelly Gallery, Los Carpinteros, Kosmaj Toy (2012).
All images by A.M. Ekstrand for ArtObserved, on location at Art Basel Miami Beach Fair.
Art Basel returned once again in Miami Beach this past week for the 11th annual Art Basel Miami Beach Fair. Featuring over 300 galleries representing 36 countries around the world, the show has exhibited marked growth from last year’s event, with well over 2,000 artists flocking to exhibit at what has become the internationally-renowned closing party for the world art market each year. It is of course always an irony that tens of thousands will fly down for the events and parties, with many of them never visiting the vast aggregation of what it said to be roughly $1.5 billion worth of art in one (large) room, a collection that few museums in the world could compete with. Below is a selection of some of the works we thought to be notable from the fair.
Helly Nahmad Gallery, Mark Rothko No. 1 (1957) and Alexander Calder, installation view
