Portrait of Bindo Altoviti, by Girolamo da Carpi, via Sotheby’s; Sold for £3.065 million.

Bucking the months-long trend of disappointing auction results, this week’s Old Masters auctions in London (Christie’s on December 2nd and
Sotheby’s on Dec. 3) managed to sell close to the higher end of their expected price range–at least for one auction house.

Sotheby’s Old Masters painting sale raised  £13.3 million against a pre-sale estimate range of  £9.5 to £13.5 million.  Seven new artist records were set, as 61.5% of the offerings were sold by lot, and 71.7% sold by value. A portrait of Bindo Altoviti, a Florentine banker, fetched  just over £3 million compared to top end estimates of  £300,000. The portrait was painted on marble during the Italian renaissance, depicting one of its major business and arts figures, and has been passed down since the late 18th century within a Swiss collector family.  The top lot was easily A Young Woman in a Red Jacket Feeding a Parrot by Frans van Mieris the Elder, which was sold for £3.6 million versus top end estimates of £700,000. Another high-priced lot that beat its estimate was a rare coastal landscape piece by Jan Brueghel the Elder, which went for £1.07 million pounds against top end estimates of £700,000.

Observers attribute the success of the Old Masters auctions to the fact that the genre did not see the astronomical price appreciation that became common in more contemporary art markets. Additionally, Sotheby’s priced the lots less aggressively than Christie’s, its counterpart, which saw less dazzling results–detailed after the jump.  Aggressive estimates have been blamed for the dismal Russian art auctions last week in London, as covered previously in ArtObserved.

Catalogue: Sotheby’s Old Masters Evening Sale
Can Old Masters Weather the Economic Storm? [Wall Street Journal]
Banker Portrait Fetches 15 Times Forecast at London Art Auction [Bloomberg]
Painting Found in Attic Fetches $4.2 Million in Old-Master Test [Bloomberg]
Old Master Paintings Realise GBP13,334,000 at Sotheby’s [ArtDaily]
Tiepolo Masterpiece – Previously Hidden in the Attic of a Chateau in France – Sells for $4,227,780 [ArtDaily]
Old Masters Show the Market Up [ArtMarketMonitor]
Old master sales show resilience amid art weakness [Reuters]

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Jonathan Meese outside Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac with one of his sculptures, via Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

Now on display at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, Austria is German artist Jonathan Meese’s most recent sculptural works. Meese has been known in particular as a performance and installation artist but has recently renewed his artistic focus on the classic forms of painting, drawing, and sculpture. Though varied are his mediums Meese’s works are known to employ a constant theme of symbols, signs, and badges that serve as figurative allusions to characters in history, fictional literature, and current pop culture that are as varied as Stalin and Scarlet Johannson.  The artist’s work also serves as a reflection and reconstruction of German history and mythology.  This exploration has lent the artist to be compared to fellow German artist Anselm Kiefer whose work, especially that of the 1970’s, drew substantial inspiration from the history of Nazi Germany.
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Press Release [Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac]
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Jonathan Meese at Thaddaeus Ropac [Contemporary Art Daily]
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Ich bin ein artist [TheMoment]

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Mark Leckey receiving the Turner Prize, via the Guardian

The only male among the four artists selected as nominees for this year’s Turner Prize emerged as the winner of what is widely considered Britain’s most important contemporary arts competition, held at the Tate Britain museum for the last 24 years. Mark Leckey’s Cinema in the Round clinched the Turner Prize, joining the ranks of Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry, Rachel Whiteread,  the Chapman Brothers, Tomma Abts, Steve McQueen, among many other now prominent artists.  The Turner Prize is awarded to the best artist under 50 by a jury which changes every year.  Leckey’s works included films that examined the role of movies and other media in the daily lives of viewers, and how they see themselves.  Cinema in the Round examined this theme in depth, referencing external cultural imagery drawn from such as sources as Felix the Cat, Homer Simpson, Titanic the movie and Philip Guston.  Leckey beat out fellow artists Runa Islam, Cathy Wilkes, and Goshka Macuga for the £25,000 prize, which was presented by musician Nick Cave.  The other competitors took home £5,000 as consolation prize.

Official Site: Turner Prize 2008
Video: ‘I want a TV show,’ Interview with Mark Leckey [Guardian]
Photos: Turner prize 2008: Happy go Leckey [Guardian]
Modest art: out goes the controversy as magpie of the artworld steals the show [Guardian]
‘Felix the Cat’ Artist Mark Leckey Wins Turner Prize [Bloomberg]
Mark Leckey Wins Prestigious 2008 Turner Prize – World’s Top Contemporary Art Award [ArtDaily]

more pictures after the jump…

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A beach towel by Ed Ruscha via the Art Production Fund

Just in time for Art Basel Miami Beach, new beach towels by Ed Ruscha, Karen Kilimnik, Raymond Pettibon and Julian Schnabel are ready, catch them at the Raleigh Hotel [Art Production Fund]
A Page Six roundup of some of the Art Basel Miami Beach parties, as usual, the Raleigh hotel is front and center [NYPost]

“Paysage, le mur rose” (Landscape, the Pink Wall) by Henri Matisse via Artsjournal

France gives back Henri Matisse painting, once seized by Nazi SS officer, proceeds from sale to go to British charity for medical rescue in Israel [Artsjournal] more here [AP]

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar via The New York Times

Qatar opens the 41,000 square foot, IM Pei designed Museum of Islamic Art in Doha; Robert de Niro, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and London dealer Jay Jopling attend festivities [NewYork Times]

Portrait of a lady as Flora , by Italian master Giambattista Tiepolo

A lost painting by Giambattista Tiepolo, discovered in a chateau attic, may sell for £1m at Christie’s sale in London next week [FinancialTimes]
City of San Francisco not accepting $1 billion gift to build space to show Gap Inc. founder Don Fisher’s 1,000 work strong collection due to aesthetics of architecture [Bloomberg]
A review of Calvin Tomkins’s ‘Lives of the Artists’ which profiles headliners such as Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Schnabel, Serra, Koons, Currin and others [NYObserver)

Portrait Ria Munk III – by Gustav Klimt via Linz Presse

Lentos Museum in Austria may have to give a $10 million Gustav Klimt painting to heirs of Holocaust victim [Bloomberg]

The artist Steve McQueen via GuardianUK

Turner prize winning video artist Steve McQueen interviewed, and more, on his new film, ‘Hunger’ [GuardianUK]

The rag market in Moscow, by Vladimir Makovsky. Sold for £1.33 million. Picture via the Guardian.

Russian art collectors, who have been keen participants in the art market for the better part of this decade, have largely kept their distance from this year’s series of Russian art auctions in London.  For the past nine years, the Russian art auctions typically attracted highly competitive bidding from Russian oligarchs and their representatives.  Activity is now dwindling markedly, correlating roughly but unmistakably with the net worth of Russia’s billionaires, who have lost tens of billions due to massive equity and commodity market declines of roughly 2/3 off their highs.

MacDougall Arts’ auction, a Russian art specialist, sold just under 40% of the works on offer, raising £7 million less than its presale low estimate of £12 million.  Sotheby’s, the market leader for Russian art, fared somewhat better, selling £25 million worth of art (albiet against an estimate of £30m to £43m) and setting nine artist records, which was the third highest total for a series of Russian Art sales at Sotheby’s.  Christie’s sold £3 million worth of art, while Bonham’s sold a third of its offerings, collecting £1.7 million.  Many of the pieces on sale were from the collection of Monika, Princess of Hanover, Countess zu Solms-Laubach, a German aristocrat and distant relative of the British royal family.  Her collection fetched £1.95 million, almost twice its estimate of £1.1 million, providing some solace to Sotheby’s, who sold most of her works.  Egyptian Girl, by Vasili Polenov (shown below), also provided a bright spot when it sold for £1.05 million pounds, more than triple its top estimate and setting an artist record. The Joker by Mikhail Klodt (shown below), was sold for £313,000, well over its top estimate of £180,000, while The Clearing by Ivan Shishkin (shown below) topped its £200,000 estimate when it sold for £289,000.

Sotheby’s Russian sales signal duller art market [Financial Times]
Sotheby’s 2008 November Series of Russian Art Sales Total $37.9 Million [Art Daily]
Russians Shun 60% of London Art Sale, Wait for Prices to Drop [Bloomberg]
Princess Collection Shines at London Russia-Art Sale [Bloomberg]
Bargain Buy: Christiet’s Sells Russian Painting for 10 Pounds [Bloomberg]
Russian Art Week at Christie’s in London [Art Daily]

more pictures after the jump…

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Still from Kaikai Kiki Animation Episode 1, Planting the Seeds 2007 via LA Times.

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is set to open an animation studio in Los Angeles next summer, 2009.  The studio, which should accommodate roughly 30 employees, will take up approximately 9,000 square foot (6,220 square feet on the first floor and 2,760 square feet on the second level) in a building on North Highland Avenue and will be operated by Kaikai Kiki, Murakami’s production and management company.

Murakami said in a statement: “This studio represents a great step in the evolution of Kaikai Kiki and gives me a closer proximity to the community of artists with whom I hope to collaborate as I continue my explorations of animated and live-action film.”

The new studio’s first major project will be an animated feature-length film based on the series of  shorts, “Planting the Seeds,” that premiered last winter at Murakami’s MoCA exhibition.  Kaikai Kiki has already produced the music video for Kanye West’s Good Morning (as covered by Art Observed here.)

Murakami, who, like Andy Warhol, is known for blurring the boundaries between high and low art, created the superflat monogram for Louis Vuitton and his animated characters are also featured in Louis Vuitton advertisements.

Murakami animation studio coming to LA [LA Times]

Videos and images after the jump… (more…)

Amy Winehouse by unknown artist, on RCA Secret postcard, via BBC

2,700 postcards composed by a combination of famous and emerging artists were sold at the Royal College of the Arts’ Secret postcard event this past Saturday, November 22nd, in London.  Every year, students from the college contribute original pieces of art on postcards, along with many of the worlds top artists and assorted other notables, to raise funds for the school. The RCA has managed to raise close to £1 million from the sale of the postcards since 1994, when a student came up with the idea.

Cards sell for £40 each, and are unmarked and unsigned; the viewer or buyer does not know who created it, leading to the possibility of acquiring works by the likes of Damien Hirst, Peter Doig, or Manolo Blahnik very inexpensively.  Postcards have been resold for princely sums at major auction houses. A card by Hirst was sold for £15,600 in 2004, while a Doig original sold for £42,000 in 2000.  “Keeping the works anonymous is a very clever idea because potential buyers have to use their own powers of discrimination,” noted artist and regular contributor Grayson Perry said. “They must look at art works closely rather than read labels, a habit they might find rewarding at any exhibition.”

While readers have missed out on this year’s sale, which was held on November 13th, they can always look forward to 2009.

Exhibition page: RCA Secret
Secret art postcards go on sale [BBC]
Lucky dip in secret postcard sale [GuardianUK]
In London, Purchase a Postcard Worth 42,000 British Pounds [IHT]

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Emmanuel Perrotin, Gallerist and Founder, Artists’ Dreams, via ParisArt

Emmanuel Perrotin, owner of the Paris and Miami based Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, has announced the formation of Artists’ Dreams, a vehicle which will allow investors to finance expensive pieces by leading artists. Perrotin has syndicated investments in several artistic pieces, reaching out to his wide network in the collecting community to fund works such as Piotr Uklanski’s Untitled (Floor Dance) piece, which was exhibited at the Guggenheim in 2007.

As competition intensifies among artists, this new venture tries to fill a gap by allowing emerging artists to compete more effectively with brand name artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, who often use very expensive materials and processes in their productions. Works financed through Artists’ Dreams will be sold exclusively through Perrotin’s two galleries, and investors will see returns on their investments out of the dealer’s cut once the work is sold. Perrotin has raised €2 million, and is also planning similar vehicles in conjunction with museums and other dealers, under similar terms. Perrotin has been building on his success recently, having regained the right to represent Damien Hirst as his client, and presenting two shows curated by Pharrell Williams (of N.E.R.D and The Neptunes) at his Miami and Paris galleries, as covered by ArtObserved (see below).

Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin
Dealer sets up company to fund artists’ production [The Art Newspaper]
Damien Hirst to reinstate representation with Parisian gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin [ArtObserved]
Go See: Pharrell Williams, ‘Perspective,’ Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris thourgh January 10th, 2009 [ArtObserved]

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Eli Broad, Billionaire Philanthropist and Art Collector, via LA Times

In an apparent reversal from his statements earlier this year, billionaire philanthropist and patron of the arts Eli Broad is now opening a 25,000 square foot museum in the new headquarters for his eponymous foundation, the Broad Art Foundation.  This news comes just nine months after the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened the 60,000 square foot Broad Contemporary Art Museum, built through $56 million dollars provided by Mr. Broad, proprietor of a 2,000 piece collection of post-war art.  Jean Michel Basquiat, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Damien Hirst figure among the many seminal artists whose works are owned by the foundation.  Eli Broad had been outspokenly calling the art market bubble for some time now and recent auction performance in the past month or two has proved him to be somewhat prescient.   Broad has felt that the market is returning to normal levels perhaps as he has recently been reinvigorating purchasing activity.  Mr. Broad’s most recent acquisitions include: Bantam by Robert Rauschenberg ($2.6 million), Wishing Well by Jeff Koons ($2.2 million), and Desire by Ed Ruscha ($2.4 million), all acquired at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale on November 11th (as covered by AO here).

The new facility would include the proposed museum, administrative headquarters for his organization, and storage for the pieces of his collection that aren’t on loan to museums. “We want a new headquarters, a space to have works that are not on loan to others at any given moment available for study by curators and scholars,” the foundation’s spokeswoman said in an article published in Bloomberg.  Broad has expressed that he would like the new headquarters to open within 3 years.

Gensler has been designated as the architect and consultant on the project, with a site in Beverly Hills and two other undisclosed locations under review. The Beverly Hills location would be at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards, a few miles away from the LACMA museum that bears his name. Some observers question whether the new museum would introduce too much competition to existing contemporary arts venues, especially the Broad Museum at LACMA and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), where Broad was a founding trustee. MoCA especially is in a very fragile position: the museum is in a severe fiscal crisis after suffering huge losses to its endowment in the recent market downturn.  Broad has announced a plan to provide $30 million to MoCA over several years to help keep the museum from closing.

The Broad Art Foundation
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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Eli Broad Plans Another Art Space [New York Times]
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Broad Decides to Build His Own Museum [New York Times]
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Billionaire Broad Proposes Beverly Hills Art Museum [Bloomberg]
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Eli Broad’s Museum to Keep Art Out of `Basement’ [Bloomberg]
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Eli Broad’s art collection needs a home, so he’ll build it [LA Times]
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MOCA faces serious financial problems [LA Times]
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Saving MOCA: Eli Broad offers $30 million to MOCA in Op-Ed [LA Times]
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Eli Broad to Build Museum in Los Angeles [ArtForum]

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Kanye West uses Kaws for his cover art (Takashi Murakami has also had the privilege) [theartcollectors]
Art collector Aby Rosen’s Core Club, featuring works by such artists as Jean-Michel Basquiat and De Kooning, owes its founding members funds [NYPost]
A closer look into the ramifications of the art “crash” [WallStreetJournal]

“Tobacco vs Red Chief” (1981-2) by Jean-Michel Basquiat via UBS Art Collectio

A new collection at the Tate Modern in London titled “UBS Openings: Paintings from the 1980s”, which opened last week, centers on Neo-Expressionist paintings, a departure from the minimalist and conceptual artwork that preceded this period. Artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Salle, Alex Katz, Julian Schnabel, and Christopher Le Brun sought to return to historical narratives executed in a vibrant, energetic fashion contributing to powerful results in large-scale, figurative paintings.

The collection draws on works from the reserves of the Tate Collection as well as the UBS Art Collection and includes works such as Basquiat’s “Tobacco vs Red Chief” (1981-2), David Salle’s “My Subjectivity” (1981), Julian Schnabel’s “Humanity Asleep” (1982) painted over a surface of broken plates, Christopher Le Brun’s “Dream, Think, Speak (1981-2) and Clemente’s Self Portrait (1984).  The exhibition has been curated by Matthew Gale, Head of Displays of the Tate Modern.

UBS Openings: Paintings from the 1980s – Tate Modern
Through April 13, 2009

Paintings from the 1980s [Financial Times]
UBS Openings: Paintings from the 1980’s [Tate Modern Website]
UBS Openings: Paintings from the 1980s at Tate Modern [Art Daily]

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Still from ‘Sigh,’ an installation by Sam Taylor-Wood, on display at “Yes I No,” via White Cube Gallery

“Yes I No,” a show by Sam Taylor-Wood, is currently on display at White Cube Gallery, in Mason’s Yard, London. The show contains three sets of photographs, and a large-scale film installation. ‘Sigh,’ the installation, features the BBC Concert Orchestra playing a classical piece, without their instruments. The orchestra members, who are filmed in plain clothes and in multiple takes and at various angles, are miming the performance, highlighting the relationship between the viewer’s aural perception of the music and the visuals of the musicians’ and conductor’s performing the music.

Taylor-Wood, who rose to prominence in the 1990s along with Damien Hirst, Tracy Emin, and other members of the Young British Artists movement, is known for pieces exploring themes of absence and mortality.

YES I NO by Sam Taylor-Wood – through November 29th, 2008
White Cube
Mason’s Yard, London

Taylor-Wood’s Mimed Music, Serra’s Metal Maze: London Galleries [Bloomberg]
Visual art review: Sam Taylor-Wood, No 1 the Piazza, Covent Garden/White Cube, London [Guardian]
Q&A – Sam Taylor-Wood, artist [GuardianUK]
Sam Taylor-Wood, YBA artist turned filmaker (and wife of White Cube Gallery owner Jay Jopling), to direct John Lennon film [AO Newslinks]
Exhibition Page: Yes I No
Press Release: Yes I No
Artist Page: Sam Taylor-Wood

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Photos by ArtObserved

Last night RxArt hosted its annual “Party 2008″ (formerly the RxArt Ball) in honor of Jeff Koons at Milk Gallery in Chelsea, New York. RxArt promotes optimal healing through exposure to original fine art in patient, procedure, and examination rooms of healthcare facilities. By curating artistic installations in hospital settings, they provide a surrounding which helps to relieve stress and anxiety in patients, families, and staff. A festive silent auction, hosted by Larry Gagosian, Antonio Homen, and Lazaro Hernandez & Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler, the event was well attended by art enthusiasts, fashion darlings and RxArt supporters all in good spirits. Works were set up along the walls from well-known artists such as Will Cotton, Inka Essenhigh, Hilary Harkness, Terence Koh, Nate Lowman, Delia Brown, Terry Richardson, Rob Pruitt, Ed Ruscha, Kehinde Wiley and Tom Sachs.

Guests at the launch of Timo’s neckwear collection, which took place prior to the auction, in the Phillips de Pury space upstairs, were also in attendance. Seen in the crowd at the RxArt benefit were designers Cynthia Rowley, Kai Kuhn and Sue Stemp, Opening Ceremony founders Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, social fixtures Genevieve Jones, Derek Blasberg, Emma Snowdon-Jones, and Victoria and Vanessa Traina, gallerists Gavin Brown, Barbara Wilhelm Dwek, Amy Greenspon and Melissa Bent and artists Rita Ackermann, Dan Colen and Terry Richardson (with girlfriend Jen Brill).

Each corner of the gallery was closed as the auction, both online and live, closed in sections, as the lights literally went out and the art was swiftly removed by art handlers over the course of the evening. The timed element lent a thrill to the cocktail party and auction.

RxArt Official Website
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RXArt Parties at Milk Gallery [WWD]
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Lazaro Hernandez Gets Outbid [VanityFair]
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When Terry met Barry [men.Style.com]
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Prescription Strength [Style.com]

more photos after the jump…

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Diane Brown, President of RxArt and artist Terry Richardson at last year’s RxArt Ball via Style.com

RxArt is hosting “The Party 2008” (formerly the RxArt Ball) in honor of Jeff Koons tonight from 7pm to 10pm at the A Milk Gallery Project located at 450 West 15th Street in New York City. The event is part cocktail party, part silent auction and is expected to be a festive evening attracting artists, designers, and socialites alike. The gracious co-chairs for this year are Larry Gagosian of Gagosian Gallery, Antonio Homen of Sonnabend Gallery, and Lazaro Hernandez & Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler. All guests will receive a copy of the the limited edition puzzle by Dan Colen. Tickets are available online here.

RxArt Official Website

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‘Hamm Bergswerk OST’ (2008) by Andreas Gursky, via Matthew Marks Gallery

Andreas Gursky’s sixth exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery is currently on display. The exhibit features five photographs, all taken within the last two years including two pictures of Cocoon, a massive nightclub in Frankfurt designed by Gursky’s friend Sven Vath, a well known electronic musician and DJ. The club’s name inspires its architecture, as it mimics a hive or the imagined insides of a cocoon, and the photographs depict swarms of people dancing, extending the metaphor. The Cocoon pieces follow Gursky’s interest in electronic music, and previous photographs of large raves and electronic music concerts. ‘Hamm Bergswerk OST’ was shot in a coal mine close to Dusseldorf, Gursky’s home town, depicting the ceiling of one of the mine’s locker rooms, where the miners store their clothes in an unconventional way. While the exhibition is small, the scale of the photographs is very large, typically towering over the viewer, with broad panoramas full of absorbing detail that immerses the spectator.

ANDREAS GURSKY
through December 23rd, 2008
Matthew Marks Gallery
523 W 24th Street
New York, NY

Exhibition page: Andreas Gursky
Press Release: Andreas Gursky at Mathew Marks Gallery
Artist Page: Andreas Gursky
No glow sticks required [GQ]

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T-shirt and pair of jeans featuring original artwork by Damien Hirst, via BlackBook

Damien Hirst has teamed up with Levi’s to produce ‘Damien Hirst x Levi’s x Warhol Factory Collection,’ a series of limited edition jeans, t-shirts and denim jackets. The collection features over 12 pieces featuring motifs and aesthetics found in Hirst’s art: tropical butterflies, skulls, and an array of spin-painted colors. Buyers can expect to find the collection at a select group of Levi’s stores in major global cities as well as fashion boutiques. T-shirts start at $83, while jeans will retail at $230. There is also a series of spin painted jeans in Levi’s signature 501 style, which will only be available via silent auction in key cities in Asia, Europe and North America–for price tags in the range of $23,000.

Art Star Damien Hirst Creates New Levi’s Jeans [Women’s Wear Daily]
Damien Hirst x Levi’s x Warhol Factory [Denimology]
Introducing $23,000 Denim, Courtesy of Damien Hirst [BlackBook]

J.M. Turner Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, exhibited 1842 via Tate Britain

This Wednesday The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and The Tate Britain in London agreed to hold the first major exhibition in Russia of works by J.M.W. Turner, the renowned 19th century British painter. The exhibition will be solely financed by the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, a close friend of Vladimir Putin, who was ranked the 142nd richest man in the world in the 2007 Forbes 400 and who is the largest shareholder (24%) of Arsenal Football Club.

Billionare Takes Tate Works to Moscow [Guardian]
Usmanov Explains Why he Backed Turner Show [Bloomberg]
Turner Exhibition Set to Open in Russia [ArtDaily]
Tate sends Turners to Pushkin [TimesOnlineUK]
Press release from Tate Britain

More info and images after the jump… (more…)

‘Revolving Hotel Room,’ by Carsten Holler, on display at ‘theanyspacewhatever’ at the Guggenheim, via New York Times

‘theanyspacewhatever,’ which opened at the Guggenheim on October 24th, aims to capture and evoke the zeitgeist of the early 1990s art world. The exhibition contains installations, pieces, and performances by Pierre Huyghe, Angela Bulloch, Liam Gillick, Maurizio Cattelan, Carsten Höller, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, and Rirkrit Tiravanija–artists who primarily come from the non-visual arts. The opening event, entitled ‘Opening,’ was a participatory piece by Pierre Huyghe where most of the museum’s lights were shut off, with the only illumination coming from headlights distributed to the attendees. The gaze of those in attendance defines the artwork both literally and figuratively–a self-consciously contrived conceit which reflects the spirit of the exhibition. ‘Opening’ will occur again on November 17th and December 8th. Another notable piece is the Revolving Hotel Room by Carsten Höller, a rotating bed and hotel room set that can be booked by visitors who wish to sleep there, offering a chance to live at the Guggenheim, if only for a night (unfortunately however, it’s sold out).

theanyspacewhatever
through January 7th, 2009
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 5th Avenue at 89th Street, New York, NY

Exhibition page: theanyspacewhatever
A Nighttime Spin at the Guggenheim [New York Times]
Museum as Romantic Comedy [New York Times]
Night at the Museum [ArtForum]
Night at the Museum [NewYorkMagazine]
theanyspacewhatever at the Guggenheim Museum [VernissageTV]

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A London studio visit interview with Anish Kapoor [GuardianUK]
Richard Prince, who opened at Gagosian Chelsea tonight, interviewed on VBS.TV [VBSTV]
Three public art projects from Jeff Koons, Daniel Arsham, and John Henry will be at Art Basel Miami Beach [Artdaily]
All about Maia Norman, Damien Hirst’s companion [TimesUK]
How the current times can offer art bargains [Bloomberg]
The Asian Contemporary Art Fair, on in New York from Thursday to this Monday the 10th at Pier 92, 52nd Street & 12th Avenue [Official Site]
Two portraits authenticated as Van Goghs from 1886 Paris [cbcnews]
Former MET Director Philippe de Montebello and Paula Zahn to host 13’s SundayArts [ArtDaily]
Murakami ‘Wraps’ Louis Vuitton corner on 5th and 57th in Manhattan [WWD via Kempt]

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Damien Hirst’s first exhibition with Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in 1991 via Perrotin Gallery

Damien Hirst has surprised the art world again by announcing that he will reignite his relationship with Parisian gallerist, Emmanuel Perrotin, who in 1991, was one of the first two dealers to exhibit the artist. Perrotin considers Hirst to be an old friend and claims to be the only dealer to never profit from Hirst’s stardom. It is too early to tell, but it is suggested that a solo exhibition will be scheduled for 2010, but neither Hirst nor Perrotin have indicated if this is the beginning of a longer lasting artist-dealer relationship. Perrotin and Hirst’s partnership comes after Hirst’s infamous Sotheby’s auction, “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever,” previously covered by AO here in which noted art critic Robert Hughes accused Hirst of cutting dealers out of the action. “Everyone has written that Hirst wanted to bite the hand that fed him,” says Perrotin. “But there’s a difference between asserting independence and turning your back on dealers.” Whether Hirst is playing a well-calculated ironic card out of his ever-evolving deck or simply scratching the back that once scratched his own is still to be seen.

Hirst adds Perrotin to his dealer roster [ArtNewspaper]
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Pandora: Hirst goes back to his roots with Paris show [IndependentUK]
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Gallerie Perrotin [Gallerie Perrotin]
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On Wednesday November 5th, Christie’s conducted its sale of the estates of two separate widows (the Alice Lawrence and Hillman family collections) bearing similar works of mostly late 19th and early to mid-20th century pieces, in an auction thus titled “The Modern Age.” These auctions included works by headliners such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Mark Rothko, Fernand Léger, Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio De Chirico and René Magritte. The event followed the latest Sotheby’s auction for Impressionist and Modern art on Monday (as covered by AO here) which disappointedly totaled $223.8 million against the $338 million low estimate. Additionally, the Modern Age sale corresponded to a particularly steep post-presidential race drop in the public equity markets in which the Dow plunged 486 points.

The auction results were no surprise considering the current tepid environment in the art market: The two collections listed 58 lots, of which 17 did not sell, for a total sale of $47 million, which was less than half of its $104 million low estimate. Christie’s said 51% of buyers were American and 29% European. Though Surrealist lots by Magritte (see image above) and De Chirico (see below) did well, of the lots that were brought in were the most expensive of the sale, notably, Manet’s “Fillette sur un banc/Girl on a Bench,” a 1880 portrait of a girl with a wide-brim hat estimated at $12-18 million (see image below), and Rothko’s “No. 43 (Mauve),” estimated at $20-30 million. Other works by Cézanne, Renoir, and de Kooning also failed to sell.

Bleak Night at Christie’s, in Both Sales and Prices [NY Times]
Art-Market Rout Persists: Rothko Snubbed at Auction [Bloomberg]
Buyers Cool to Private-Collection Art at Christies [Reuters]
Market Forces Bring Fire-Sale Prices for Christie’s “Modern Age” [Art Info]
The Modern Age: Property from the Hillman Family Collection [Art Daily]
Christie’s Wan and Woeful Night [CultureGrrl]
Christie’s Website

more auction results, quotes and images after the jump…

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Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent via Artnet

Rivington Arms, the young, trend setting gallery that opened in a retail space on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side in 2001, before moving to its current space off the Bowery, is closing in January.  The partners, Mirabelle Marden, 29, and Melissa Bent, 31, are fixtures not just in art but also in fashion (they have been featured in Uniqlo ads throughout the city, in Vogue and the New York Times Style section) and in the New York social scene.  The duo cited causes for the breakup that were unrelated to the economy: “It had to do with where each of us wanted to take the gallery.  We are not ending because we are getting crushed out.”

Rivington Arms to Close [ArtInfo]
Rivington Arms to Close [ArtForum]
Rivington Arms to Close as Partners Differ on Gallery’s Future [Bloomberg]
Rivington Arms

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Kazimir Malevich’s 1916 painting Suprematist Composition sold for $60 million via International Herald Tribune.

The results of the Sotheby’s New York Impressionist and Modern Art auction Monday night were overall dissapointing, despite some noteworthy lot results of works by Malevich, Degas and Munch. Fears of an art-market meltdown have been fueled by recent lukewarm results at London’s Frieze art fair and the abrupt pulling from the auction of the 1909 Picasso that was expected to sell for over $30 million. While the Sotheby’s evening total on Monday stood at 45 works sold for $223.8 million, it was well below its initial estimates of $337 million to $476 million, which were set over the summer before the financial crisis. The sale was the lowest for an Impressionist evening sale at Sotheby’s since May 2001. David Norman, an executive vice-president at Sotheby’s was quoted by the Guardian as saying “Anyone would expect people to be more circumspect in this environment. We’re selling in a very uncertain world.”

Auction Season Opens With Little Enthusiasm [NY Times]
Art Market `Corrects’ as Lots Go Unsold at Sotheby’s [Bloomberg]
Three Big Lots Pace Respectable Showing at Sotheby’s [ArtInfo]
New York sales hit record highs amid signs that the art market is dropping [Guardian UK]
Work by Kazimir Malevich sold for record $60 million [International Herald Tribune]
Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition Sets Record at Sotheby’s Sale [Art Daily]
Opening of Fall Art-Auction Season Marked by Crappy Sales, Great Deals [NYMag]
Flat result at NY season’s first art auction [Reuters]
Munch artwork fetches record $38m [BBC]

more results and pictures after the jump…

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Danseuse au Repos, the 1879 painting by Edgar Degas is a highlight of this evening’s Sotheby’s auction though it remains to be seen if it will sell for its estimated $40 million, via NY Times

After extremely high sales in May which tallied $1.56 billion, and then more recently lackluster sales in London which missed low estimates by up to $40 million, as covered by Art Observed here, the art world is up for a major test in the next two weeks as Sotheby’s and Christie’s begin tonight selling contemporary, impressionist, and modern works that add up to high estimates of $1.76 billion, including a work by the Russian Kazimir Malevich (“Suprematist Composition” 1916, a $60 million geometric work) and a $40 million self-portrait by Francis Bacon and other works from high profile financiers Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. co-founder Henry Kravis and Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Officer Fuld.

Despite Pablo Picasso’s 1909 painting ‘Arlequin’ (which was estimated at $30 million) being pulled before the Sotheby’s auction recently, this evening’s Sotheby’s impressionist and modern art sale is slated to tally about $320 million and includes 71 lots including “Danseuse au repos” by French Impressionist Edgard Degas which is expected to go for $40 million (pictured above).

This auction will be followed by Christie’s $153 million high estimate November 5th sale which includes works from the estates of the widows, Rita Hillman and Alice Lawrence, and then a November 6th sale, comprised of art from various owners, estimated to total up to $344 million. Sotheby’s November 11th sale of contemporary art could total up to $281.6 million and features works by John Currin, Richard Prince, and Yves Klein. Following that is Christie’s November 12th sale with a high estimate of $321.7 million, featuring Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich’s Jean-Michel Basquiat painting of a boxer at an estimate of $12 million.

On Auctions Overall:
Big Prices, Big Risks at Fall Art Auctions [NY Times]
NY art auctions under microscope amid financial crisis [AFP]
Art world dreading declines at upcoming key NY sales [Reuters]
Kravis, Fuld Brace for N.Y. Auctions as Collectors Lower Prices [Bloomberg]
Falling under the hammer [Financial Times]
It’s not a pretty picture Christie’s, Sotheby’s may be on the hook [New York Post]
Art sales face acid test in midst of credit crunch [Financial Times]
Exceptional Work by Francis Bacon Leads Christie’s New York Post-War & Contemporary Art Sale [ArtDaily]
Things Are Cold, Clammy at City Auction Houses [NYObserver]

From ArtObserved:
Metallica’s drummer to sell Basquiat painting at Christie’s New York, November 12th auction; ‘Boxer’ to be displayed during Frieze Art Fair in London [ArtObserved]
Sotheby’s hopes to smash Russian art at auction record with $60 million sale of Malevich painting in New York on November 3rd [ArtObserved]

On withdrawn Picasso:
Picasso work withdrawn from Sotheby’s sale [Reuters]
Picasso painting pulled from sale [BBC News]
Picasso Work Is Withdrawn From Sotheby’s Sale [NY Times]
Sotheby’s Withdraws Picasso’s Arlequin From Impressionist and Modern Art Sale [Art Daily]
Picasso Withdrawn From Sotheby’s Imp-Mod Sale [Artinfo]
Picasso painting withdrawn from Sotheby’s auction [Associated Press]

Auction Information:
Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale – Sotheby’s November 3 [Sotheby’s]
Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale November 5th [Christie’s]

more pictures from the Sotheby’s Sale and other auctions after the jump…

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