New York dealer Phillip A. Bruno has donated a trove of works to the Hunterian Art Gallery, Scotland’s oldest public museum in Glasgow. “I am so looking forward to seeing my gifts on a Scottish wall,” Bruno says. (more…)
Yoshitomo Nara’s Knife Behind Back (2000) has smashed the artist’s auction record in Hong Kong this week, selling for 195.7 million HKD, or about $24.9 million, and placing the artist among the highest priced living artists. (more…)
Dan Graham, via Art Observed
After a whirlwind few hours in London, the Frieze Art Fair is underway, and the doors are open for the public. Opening its doors this week for its 17th edition in Regent’s Park, Frieze London has once again turned the art world’s collective eye towards the British capital for the next week, as sales and installations across its spacious halls make for a fitting center to one of the city’s busiest art events. (more…)
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Four Big (1982), final price: £8,605,250 via Christie’s
Capping off a week of auctions amid the hustle and bustle of London’s Frieze Week, Christie’s capped off a procedural auction in the British capital tonight, selling 41 of 46 lots to reach a final total of £64,507,125, a mark that seemed notably underwhelming after a string of works sold under estimate or near its low bound. A last note before the auctions in New York next month, the sale seemed to hint at more instability further down in the market, especially as the Britain’s exit from the E.U. grows increasingly confused, and increasingly perilous.
Sigmar Polke, Alpenveilchen/Flowers (1967), final price: £5,654,250, via Christie’s
Louvre head Jean-Luc Martinez sits down with Art Newspaper this week, discussing the ambitious reshuffling of the museum collection as the institution completes a vast new storage and conservation space in Liévin, 200km north of the city of Paris. “We must completely revise our conception of the collections,” he says. (more…)
Jacolby Satterwhite has an interview in Art News this week, as the artist prepares to open an ambitious new show at Pioneer Works, and a release of a full-length album. “I was raised on listening to deep house records that my mother liked,” the artist says. “What I love about making music is that it feels very similar to painting or 3-D animation where you have a bunch of tracks and a palette and you have to find a way to consolidate them to build a harmonious vision. It’s the same thing I do when I make a painting or an animation.” (more…)
Eike Schmidt, the director of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, has caused an uproar after ducking out of a new job post at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna just weeks before he was expected to start. “Florence is too close to my heart,” he said. (more…)
Banksy, Devolved Parliament (2009), final price £9,879,500, via Sotheby’s
Taking over from Phillips steady sale last night in London, Sotheby’s launched its own take on the Contemporary Art Market, albeit one with a little more unpredictability. The sale, one of the first since Sotheby’s formally became a privately traded company, saw 5 of works go unsold, and one massive record, as Banksy demolished his previous auction high, ultimately landing the auction house at a final tally of £54,386,250. (more…)
Another work attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci is drawing controversy as it heads to the auction block, and commands strong condemnations from scholars. “Sometimes a work is so ridiculous and impossible that a scholar like me feels authorized to speak,” says Francesco Caglioti, an art history professor at the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore. “This thing has nothing, nothing, nothing to do with Leonardo. I can’t imagine it was done before the late 19th century. It looks like a revivalistic work by the hand of somebody who tried to imagine a Renaissance horse and rider.” (more…)
A piece in the NYT this week looks at the challenges to museum boards mounted by protests and activists in recent months, and how these actions are shaking up the world of the wealthy. “We need to define trusteeship beyond people of financial wealth,” says Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, which supports and advises nonprofits. “Expand the number of board members and bring in people with other assets besides money that the museum needs. What’s interesting to me is the lack of energy, focus and creativity to figure this out.” (more…)
The Rubin Museum is restructuring, cutting its staff by 25% and increasing the number of days the museum is closed during the week. “These new initiatives will allow the Rubin to better serve our audiences in New York City and around the globe and will ensure our financial health as we continue to share the richness of Himalayan art and ideas,” says board president Robert Baylis. “While hard choices accompanied these changes, the board is confident in the direction of the Rubin.” (more…)
Artist KAWS has come under fire in China after a 2002 work depicting Chairman Mao in his trademark style was put up for sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. “I would never create an artwork that tries to offend any individual person, group, or country,” the artist wrote on Instagram. “I have always worked with popular imagery, just as I did in 2001 when the artwork was created. The [Mao] artwork was not politically motivated then, and should not be used politically now.” (more…)
Artist Walid Raad will receive the Aachen Art Prize, despite initial reports that the city would not recognize him due to his support of the BDS Movement. Initial statements attempted to paint the artist as an anti-Semite for his opposition to the Israeli state’s treatment of Palestine, but the Ludwig Forum for International Art in the city ultimately rejected these claims, and awarded the artist regardless. (more…)
Superstar curator Germano Celant will curate an exhibition of work by KAWS at the Garage Gallery in Doha, Qatar, Art News reports. “If there are art world gatekeepers intent on excluding [KAWS], it should be clear by now that they are fighting a losing battle,” says Art in America’s September William S. Smith. (more…)
Longtime Getty Foundation director Deborah Marrow has died, Art News reports. “No one has contributed more to the life and mission of the Getty than Deborah, and we will miss her deeply,” says James Cuno, the president and CEO of the Getty Trust. “She brought clarity, vision, and selfless dedication to her work, and made loyal professional friends around the world.” (more…)
Alex Katz, Blue Umbrella I (1972), final price: £3,375,000 via Phillips
Marking the first of a trio of sales this weekend in London, Phillips Auction House made a strong opening note on a bustling week of sales last night, pulling interested buyers to its Berkeley Square location for a 43-lot offering that saw strong results and a £25,877,250 final on the night, with only 3 works on offer going unsold.
Hurvin Anderson, Beaver Lake (1998) final price: £2,175,000, via Phillips
The sale opened with a string of underpriced lots that surged beyond initial estimates, often doubling or tripling their price, among them pieces by Simone Leigh (£175,000), Nathaniel Mary Quinn (£212,500) and Tschabalala Self (£275,000). A George Condo work also performed well at £471,000, before the first pass of the evening on a Mark Grotjahn Butterfly. The sale regained its composure quickly, however, as the sale’s prized Mark Bradford finished at £1,935,000, followed close behind by a Hurvin Anderson piece that sold for the final price of £2,175,000.
Mark Bradford, Value 35 (2010), final price: £1,935,000 via Phillips
The sale continued at a brisk pace over the next lots, bringing up the evening’s cover lot, an Alex Katz painting that sold quickly over estimate to the tune of £3,375,000, while a Rudolf Stingel held its ground in the next lot at £1,035,000. Momentum carried the works through the meat of the auction, with a KAWS sculpture finishing above estimate for a final price of £1,455,000, and a Thomas Schütte work, Maschine, settling at the final of £1,215,000, squarely within estimated range. A Gerhard Richter Abstraktes Bild also performed well in the following lot, closing above estimate at £1,695,000. The sale was systematic from this point on, works selling quickly to bring the sale cruising to a strong conclusion.
The next auction is this evening at Sotheby’s.
KAWS, At This Time (2013), final price: £1,455,000, via Phillips
— D. Creahan
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Phillips 20th Century and Contemporary Evening Sale [Auction Page]
Christie’s will lead its November 13th Sale in New York with Ed Ruscha’s Hurting the Word Radio #2, which carries a presale estimate of $30 to $40 million, and which could shift the artist towards market leadership. (more…)
A Delhi judge has ordered Facebook and Google to remove posts related to allegations of sexual harassment against artist Subodh Gupta, Art News reports. Judge Rajiv Sahai Endlaw called the posts “defamatory,” and ruled they “cannot be permitted to be made in public domain.” (more…)
The Art Newspaper has a piece this week on the most exhibited artists in the history of London this millennium, with Lucian Freud topping the list with ten shows, followed by David Hockney with eight. While Freud is “considered one of the greatest figurative painters of the 20th century,” according to curator Andrea Tarsia, “his first institutional solo exhibition only happened when he was in his 50s.” (more…)
A piece in the NYT this week charts the opening of Frieze London, and its place among the changing face of a Britain that may soon crash out of the E.U. “No one really knows anything about the implications,” says Frieze director Victoria Siddall, “but London is very strong. It would take a lot to change that.” (more…)
New Museum’s newly founded Union and the institution have agreed on a contract, following months of actions. “This is really going to change things for the better,” says Dana Kopel, a senior editor and publications coordinator. (more…)
Pace Gallery is reportedly considering opening a space in Paris, Art News reports, as many gallerists consider how Brexit may affect business in the UK and access to the EU market. (more…)
Cindy Sherman, Untitled #603 (2019), via Metro Pictures
As the summer weather fades slowly into the dim light and changing leaves of autumn in London, the art world once again gears up for the annual return of Frieze to Regent’s Park this week, bringing with it its reputation for presenting the best of international contemporary art by emerging and established artists, and its signature program of dynamic commissions, talks and films, all unified under the fair’s bespoke tent design at the heart of the British capital. Opening Wednesday with its VIP previews, the fair will offer a unique look at the state of the British art market, and that of the EU more broadly, while providing a platform for artists in Europe and abroad to explore and express new concepts and ideas in art practice. (more…)
Alex Katz, Blue Umbrella I (1972), via Phillips
Opening alongside the bustling aisles of Frieze London this week, the Contemporary Art Market will give a test of its secondary branch in the British capital this week. Kicking off a trio of auctions at the major auction houses, this week should provide ample chance for bidders to show just how confident they are on the current state of Britain, its place in the European art market, and how Brexit might have changed those forecasts. With a hard deadline of October 31st looming, this week should provide ample evidence of just how buyers are feeling with major changes just over the horizon. (more…)