Brooke Nicholas, via Art Observed
As the Armory Week begins to heat up, and turns towards the centerpiece of the week’s proceedings at Piers 92 and 94 tomorrow, the first night of SPRING/BREAK was underway at 4 Times Square.  Holding its seventh edition this year, the fair has grown into one of the more enigmatic and exciting events of the week, with this year being no exception.  Read More »
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Jean-Michel Basquiat, Multiflavors (1982), via Christie’s
The art world’s market focus has split between London and New York this week, as Armory Week kicks off in New York, and a trio of major contemporary auctions hit the British capital.  The week’s sales got its first indicator of health for the Contemporary and Post-War Market as Christie’s capped the first night of sales, closing a 65-lot offering with moderately strong results, ultimately achieving a final tally of £137,989,750 with only five lots going unsold. Read More »
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Hannah Van Bart, The Waiting (2017), via Marianne Boesky
As the winter months draw slowly to a close, and the weather shifts into more temperate conditions, New York City will once again step into its role as a central hub of the contemporary art market, and the global art fair circuit, as a string of fairs and exhibitions open up across the city. Centering around the annual Armory Show Art Fair on the West Side, the scale of the proceedings seem to only get larger each year (so much so that this year mainstay the ADAA Art Show branched out into its own week), yet attention continues to center around a selection of fairs spread across Manhattan.
Nam June Paik, Lion (2005), via Gagosian
Bruce High Quality Foundation, Ways to Die (House of Turds) (2018) via Pippy Houldsworth
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Tomas Saraceno at Tanya Bonakdar, via Art Observed
The early weeks of March in New York are notoriously packed with art. There’s the usual string of exhibitions and openings, coupled with the ever-growing number of art fairs taking up space across the city during Armory Art Week. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that the ADAA might look outside this marathon week in hopes of reaching a broader fair-going public. That gambit seems to have paid off this year, as the ADAA Art Show opened its doors at the end of February, setting itself apart from the mass of exhibitors opening their doors in the coming days.  Read More »
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Sophie Kitching, Ausblick (2018), Rasmus Søndergaard Johannsen, LL 31012018 (2018), installation view -46,08°, fffriedrich, photo by Robert Schittko
The night sky, with the reflecting light of the full moon or the gloom of the new moon, offers a polarity of attraction and rejection that not only affects natural phenomena like high and low tide but also works as a mirror for the contemplation of basic human dispositions. Gazing into the stars, the astronomical objects or their formal representation, comes from the curiosity to see what lies beneath the surface of things. This ability to go beyond the boundaries of time, space and fiction, and the fascination for the infinity of the outer space has been a constant source of inspiration for artists.
-46,08°, fffriedrich, installation view
Frankfurt-based project space fffriedrich presents such parallel visual worlds in the exhibition ‘-46,08°’ featuring works by Rasmus Søndergaard Johannsen, Sophie Kitching and Anselm Schenkluhn. For all three artists, the moon and the stars function as symbols, become subjects of iconographical experiments or are actively implicated in their creative process. The works on view move between personally and scientifically oriented approaches and explore various craft techniques in their artistic development. Presence and absence, shadow, illusion and dissolution are recurring concepts in their work.
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Pablo Picasso, Femme au beÌret et aÌ€ la robe quadrilleÌe (Marie-TheÌreÌ€se Walter) (1937), via Sotheby’s
The first tests of the Impressionist and Modern market for 2018 are now in the books, as Sotheby’s capped a brief but action-packed sale this evening in London, ultimately achieving a final of £118,932,000 despite a handful of unsold works.  There was little room for error in the 21-lot sale, which seemed primarily organized around several marquee works and a selection of works that garnered very little interest. Read More »
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Pablo Picasso, Mousquetaire et nu assis (1967), via Christies
With a few brief wobbles, the first evening of two weeks of auctions in the British capital has concluded, bringing solid results and a final of £114,103,000 for Christie’s auction house this evening. The sale saw most of its premiere works moving quickly over the course of the evening, with 11 works going unsold, including one of the sale’s lead lots, a Kees van Dongen portrait.
Edgar Degas, Dans les coulisses (1882-1885), via Christies
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Pablo Picasso, Femme au beÌret et aÌ€ la robe quadrilleÌe (Marie-TheÌreÌ€se Walter) (1937), via Sotheby’s
Marking the first major test of the secondary market for this 2018, the major auction houses are preparing to open their doors for a series of marquee evening sales in London this coming month.  Trying both the Impressionist/Modern and Post-War categories with top selections of works, the sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips will offer a look at just how strong the market is rebounding since a long stretch of inactivity and stagnancy. Read More »
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Pierre Klossowski at Gladstone Gallery, Brussels (Installation View) all images Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels Photography by David Regen
Unlike his younger brother Balthus, Pierre Klossowski rarely enjoyed critical and popular acclaim in Europe as an artist during his lifetime, receiving even less attention from scholars and curators in the United States. However, his expansive oeuvre in drawing, in addition to his work in literature and translation offers an uncharted window to the cultural progressions of 20th century Western culture, complemented by his impressive painted oeuvre. Gladstone Gallery’s Brussels location is currently presenting a selection of works on paper by the artist, dated to the ‘80s, when the artist had finally focused his attention solely around art making. Before his late venture into art, Klossowski wore many different hats in his early years, translating works by Wittgenstein, Kafka, Nietzsche, and most importantly de Sade, whose notorious novel The 120 Days of Sodom was reprinted in the ‘60s under his helm, and led to the creation of one of Pasolini’s most notorious filmic adaptations. Read More »
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Fabio Mauri, Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) (1985), via Art Observed
Over the course of five decades, artist Fabio Mauri, worked across a broad range of media and formats, always focused around the visual languages and vocabulary of 20th Century political spheres, specifically in Europe. Exploring the mechanics and visual exponents of varied ideological states and their attendant political movements, Mauri’s work was an often brutal condemnation of World War II, the rise of Fascism and the Holocaust, while simultaneously examining these events’ lingering echoes in the post-war landscape. Mauri’s work gets a fascinating second look at his current Hauser & Wirth retrospective in New York, spreading his pieces across the spacious 22nd Street flagship location in an attempt to understand both his own meandering aesthetics, and the political situations they address.  Read More »
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