Ai Wei Wei’s Animal/Zodiac Heads, unveiled today outside the Plaza Hotel. All images Ian Hassett for Art Observed.

In conjunction with an exhibition on the third floor of the Arsenal Building, the Pulitzer fountain outside the Plaza Hotel by Central Park is currently the site of Ai Wei Wei’s Animal/Zodiac Heads, as part of a multi-year touring exhibition that will cross the United States.  The exhibition takes place in the wake of international uproar and protests over the disappearance of artist and activist Ai Wei Wei, who was taken into custody by the Chinese government on  April 3rd, 2011 and has since been missing. The unveiling had been moved up to Wednesday from Monday due to the Mayor Bloomberg’s wish to postpone it to attend a news conference responding to the death of Osama bin Laden, which had been announced the night before.

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Founded by the New Museum, the Festival of Ideas for the New City is a collaborative program which embodies the Lower East Side’s re-invention as a cultural hub and alternative to chic Chelsea. During the four-day long effort, innovative ideas, fresh talent and some familiar faces will be showcased with a mix of street festivities, panel discussions and gallery projects.

The changing Lower East Side freflected in an 1984 issue of New York Magazine.

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Alexej von Jawlensky, Frau mit Grunem Facher, 1912 (est. $8-12 million, realized $11.3 million). All images via Sothebys.com.

Tuesday night’s auction of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s New York, which carried presale estimates of $158.9-229.7 million, realized $170.5 million for forty-four of fifty-nine lots sold. The sale had a sell through rate of 74.6% by lot and 84.8% by volume. In reflecting on the evening at the press conference, Simon Shaw, head of the Impressionist and Modern department at Sotheby’s New York, noted that while bidding was “not euphoric,” there was still solid bidding both in the room and on the telephone. The sale’s top lot – Picasso‘s 1934 portrait of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter – did not reach its low estimate when it sold for $21.4 million (allegedly to an Asian buyer), and several other top lots were bought in. Still, the evening saw spirited bidding for a few works, and several artist records were set.

Paul Gauguin, Jeune Tahitienne, c. 1893 (est. $10-15 million, realized $11.3 million)

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Pablo Picasso, Femmes Lisant (Deux Personnages), 1934 (est. $25-35 million), via Sothebys.com

The New York spring sales begin this week as Sotheby’s and Christie’s hold their Impressionist & Modern evening auctions on May 3rd and 4th, respectively. Sotheby’s 59-lot sale is estimated to fetch $158.9-227.9 million, while Christie’s 55-lot sale is expected to bring in at least $160 million. Five works to hit the auction block (one at Sotheby’s and four at Christie’s) carry estimates of $20 million or more. The headlining work at Sotheby’s is a 1932 portrait by Picasso of his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter. The painting is similar to the portrait of Walter that led the February Impressionist and Modern sale at Sotheby’s London and sold for £25.4 million (about $42.4 million) against a high estimate of £18 million ($30 million). Femmes Lisant (Deux Personnages) last changed hands in 1981 and is expected to fetch between $25-35 million.

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Berlin will host its ersatz spring art fair, Gallery Weekend Berlin (GWB), this weekend, Apr. 29 – May 1, with over 44 galleries participating. Now in its seventh installment, GWB has an air of excitement about it – perhaps due to the number of buyers, dealers, and other visitors flying in, which also coincides with the yoke of the winter season being thrown off.  In any event, GWB promises some interesting viewing experiences, and brings a concentrated selection of strong art and events to a city is a prime destination for the creatives of the world.

Albert Oehlen, Stars (2005), via Galerie Max Hetzler

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Diane Arbus, A Castle in Disneyland (1962), via Gagosian

The Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles presents “People and Other Singularities,” an exhibition of the photographs of Diane Arbus between the years of 1956 to 1971. The gallery showcases  the most extensive collection of Arbus photographs within Los Angeles since “Diane Arbus: Revelations” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2004. “People and Other Singularities” contains several photographs that have never before been exhibited publicly, along with some older favorites that have become part of photography’s canon.

Diane Arbus, Identical Twins(1962) via Diane Arbus Photography

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Richard Serra, Calvino (2009) via Artnet.com

Currently showing at Gagosian Geneva, is Richard Serra‘s “Greenpoint Rounds,” featuring large-scale drawings using a paint stick and showcasing a medium Serra is not often associated with. Primarily know for his sculptural work, Richard Serra plays on minimalism through methods that encompass both shape and texture. The gallery’s rounded, sparse walls emphasize the shape and movement in the new drawings, which will be on display through May 15th.

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Installation view, “Secondary Evidence of Things Unseen,” via VeneKlasen Werner

Currently on view at VeneKlasen Werner (VW) in Berlin is “Secondary Evidence of Things Unseen,” featuring four artists of varying notoriety- Neil Campbell, Paul Sharits, Ryan Sullivan and Jeffrey Wells.  The show was curated by Clarissa Dalrymple and brings together work in various mediums including drawing, sculpture, painting and video installation.

Paul Sharits, Hand and Cube (1982), via VeneKlasen Werner

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Installation view of Elemental at Paula Cooper Gallery. All images via Paula Cooper Gallery.

On view now through April 16th at the Paula Cooper Gallery is a group exhibition titled Elemental. What binds the selected works of Carl Andre, Jennifer Bartlett, Donald Judd, Sherrie Levine, Sol LeWitt and Robert Wilson is the use of “repeated elements arranged in a sequential structure.” The gallery notes that this strategy is often associated with minimal art, and the show pairs pieces by three pioneers of Minimalism with works by what the exhibition is defining as representatives of the second (and possibly third) generation of Minimalists.

Donald Judd, Untitled (1982)

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John McCracken, who died at the age of 76 on Friday in New York, bridged an empirical study of Minimalist matter with subtle mysticism, thereby extending realities beyond the concrete and the visible. Irreducible to its object-ness, his work is imbued with almost invisible traces of the hand and proposes what contemporary transcendentalism might look like. Unafraid of taboo topics and non-anthropocentric ecology, McCracken held a fervent belief in the intelligence of other multiple forms of life that gave new dimensions to his work.

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Bourj (2010) by Mona Hatoum, via Alexander and Bonin Gallery

Currently on view at Alexander and Bonin Gallery is “Bourj,” an exhibition of recent works by Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum. The artist’s fifth exhibit with the gallery, the show features a wide range of the her  political and poetic oeuvre in a range of media including installations, sculpture, works on paper, and photography.”Bourj,” the title of the exhibit, means “tower” in Arabic and refers to a specific work the artist originally made for a solo exhibition at the Beirut Art Center in 2010. The piece is made of stacked steel rectangular tube sections which have been cut and burnt, giving the impression of a building fallen prey to the scars of war.

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Zhang Xiaogang, Forever Lasting Love, 1988 (est. $3.2-3.9 million, realized $10.1 million), via Sothebys.com

The auction record for a work by a living Chinese artist was set on Sunday at Sotheby’s Hong Kong during a 105-lot sale of works from the Ullens collection of contemporary Chinese art. The white glove sale realized $54.8 million – more than triple its high presale estimate of $16.7 million.

Zhang Xiaogang in his studio with Forever Lasting Love, via Sothebys.com

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Urs Fischer, Untitled (Lamp/Bear), 2005/2006, via Wall Street Journal

Untitled (Lamp/Bear), a 23-foot, 16-ton sculpture of bright yellow teddy bear slumped beneath a Bakelite lamp, will be on display at the Seagram Building (375 Park Avenue, at 53rd St) through September 2011. The piece, by Swiss sculptor Urs Fischer, is a highlight of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art auction, and began its life as a 1-foot teddy bear, which was then scanned three-dimensionally with lasers in Switzerland and cast in bronze in Shanghai. Christie’s will be auctioning the installation on May 11th.

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via Associated Press

Yesterday, Chinese artist and political dissident, Ai Weiwei, was prevented from catching a flight from Beijing to Hong Kong. The assistant who was with Ai at the time, Jennifer Ng, was told by officials that “he had other business” to attend to as the artist was taken into custody. The location and condition of the artist are to date unknown. The detention of the prominent artist, well-known for his open criticism of the Chinese government, may relate to an accelerated suppression of Chinese intellectuals, possibly related to fear on part of the incumbent authorities of a Chinese version of the so-called “jasmine movement” that has been shaking, and in some cases dismantling, some of the Middle East’s dictatorship regimes. Under these still-unclear premises, at least twenty-three Chinese political dissidents have been detained, three have been formally arrested, and at least a dozen are missing. These events, embodying the most severe crackdown in China during the last decade, reflect the rigid and, considering the lack of public anti-government protests, delusive security measures of the system.

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A portrait of Ai Weiwei via Shanghaiist.com

Artist and activist Ai Weiwei recently announced plans to move operations to a new European location – Germany’s capitol and global art destination Berlin.  Increasingly tense conditions in China and the recent destruction of his Shanghai studio by the communist government have more or less forced Mr. Ai to seek greener pastures.   According the to Associated Free Press Ai Weiwei has chosen Berlin as his European base for it’s “good atmosphere” and relatively lost cost of living .

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Artist Rob Pruitt admires his latest work, The Andy Monument (2011). All images Nicolas Linnert for Art Observed.

Today at the northwest corner of Union Square, Rob Pruitt unveiled his latest work, The Andy Monument, in partnership with New York’s Public Art Fund. The nearly 10-foot tall sculpture is a chrome tribute to the seminal figure of Pop Art and major cultural influence in 20^th century New York City history. Situated at the pedestrian intersection at 17^th Street and Broadway, it is just steps from the site of Warhol’s former studio space, the “Factory.”

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Video of Rob Pruitt unveiling The Andy Monument

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An outside view of the Basilica Hudson via Basilica Hudson Website

The New Art Dealers Association, or “NADA” for short, will be organizing a new version of it’s Miami Basel art fair this summer in Hudson, New York. Gearing up to launch the fair on July 30-31, the collective is currently still seeking exhibitors to fill the massive 8,000 square foot space in Hudson just two hours outside of New York City.  Lindsay Pollock posted details of the project on her website “Art Market Views” just today, describing the city as being “stocked with antiques stores and cheap, charming real estate”.

via Basilica Hudson Website

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Rachel Whiteread, Daylight, 2010. Via Luhring Augustine

Rachel Whiteread’s latest exhibition opened on March 25th at Luhring Augustine, displaying works that the British artist made between 2007 and 2011. In this show, the artist presents a new series of sculptures and work on paper. The sculptures have been made with resin, a medium that Whiteread has been using along with plaster, for the casting of objects or architectural structures, and sometimes, a subsequent recasting of the obtained mold. With this technique, Whiteread creates a material reproduction of the space that was contained by, or that surrounded the cast object. This resulting sculptural object then embodies an ascetic elegy for the relationships that existed between the object and the space, or the object and the users.

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Grayson Perry, via Esquire

British artist Grayson Perry has been named a Royal Academician for Printmaking at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, joining artists such as Tracy Emin and David Hockney as recipient of the prestigious title. Perry identifies as a transvestite and is known primarily for his ceramic work.

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Death and Maiden (Man and Girl) (1915) by Egon Schiele, via The Belvedere

Currently on view at The Belvedere in Vienna is an exhibition dedicated entirely to the portraits and self-portraits of Egon Schiele (1890- 1918), one of Austria’s most important twentieth-century artists. Schiele’s work departs from traditional portraiture in order to render his subjects’ mental and emotional states with exaggerated expression. Elongated and skeletal limbs are accentuated through the use of somber colors, and often his models seem to be at the height of anguish. Such dark and exaggerated portrayals echo the stylistic tendencies of early Austrian Expressionism as well as the tension present pre-wartime Austria.

Der Verleger Eduard Kosmack (1910) by Egon Schiele, via The Belvedere

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Jeff Koons Must Die!!! The Video Game by Hunter Jonakin

“What if you were locked in an art museum overnight, with a rocket launcher, during a Jeff Koons retrospective.”  So begins the video preview for the videogame Jeff Koons Must Die!!!  MFA candidate Hunter Jonakin‘s 2011 sculpture, is a stand-up arcade cabinet where the viewer can play a video game in which the protagonist walk around an art museum during a Jeff Koons retrospective and is given the choice to destroy the work with a rocket launcher.  In choosing the virtuous path by not doing so, they merely wander the museum, see the work, and then the game ends. However, if they do destroy more than one work (and there’s the choice of puppies, basketballs, La Cicciolina paintings, etc.), Koons will appear and the game takes on the more familiar violent nature of popular first-person shooters, with enemy combatants being replaced with museum guards, curators, lawyers and studio assistants. The important action of the game is not the destruction itself, but which decision the player makes regarding whether to destroy Koons’ work. “Jeff Koons Must Die” clearly pays homage to one of the art world’s entrenched stars while also allowing its player to enact a virtual catharsis if they so choose.

Hunter Jonakin, Jeff Koons Must Die (2011), via Hunter Jonakin.com

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Robert Longo, Untitled (Mecca) (2011)

Art Observed was on-site for the opening of a solo-show by American Robert Longo entitled “God Machines.” A long-time collaborator of the gallery, this is Longo’s first major exhibition at the gallery in many years. The exhibit features three monumental works in the form of large-scale charcoal drawings which almost completely cover the walls of the main gallery space. The works are dedicated to three monotheistic religions and depict major places of religious worship. The event also celebrates the twentieth year anniversary of Galerie Thaddeus Ropac in Paris.

Gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac, Robert Longo and his wife at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.
All pictures by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed.

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