Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild at Galerie Sho Booth, Pier 92

On the third and final day of the Armory Show 2012 both spirits and sales were high amongst the 228 exhibitors. Besides the notable success of David Zwirner’s solo booth by Michael Riedel, which sold out entirely in the first 30 minutes of the fair, many of the other galleries also benefited from the sales of their high-ticket items throughout the three-day exhibition. Art Observed spoke with representatives from various exhibitors including the Susan Sheehan Gallery, Spanierman Modern, Meredith Ward Fine Art, Art in General, Sprüth Magers, and the Gary Snyder Gallery. (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly, Orange Relief with Blue (2011). All Images via Matthew Marks.

American abstract painter and sculptor Ellsworth Kelly has unveiled a so-called ‘shop sign’ for the inaugural exhibition of the latest Matthew Marks Gallery in West Hollywood, California, while the gallery continues to maintain four spaces in New York City. The sign is a wide strip of painted black aluminum set across the top of the white stucco building (a converted garage, now 3,500 square feet). This is Kelly’s first major exhibition in Los Angeles after over a decade, and the showcase of Kelly’s paintings inside the gallery runs concurrently to his print retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), which opened Sunday.

An outside view of the ‘shop sign’ (more…)

–>
Ben Vautier, Jeter Dieu à la mer (1962), featured at Exhibition: Le Temps de L’action/Acte 1 at Villa Arson Nice

Saturday, June 25th welcomed thousands of viewers to the French Riviera, where the work of local artists was unveiled for the long-awaited opening of L’Art Contemporain et la Côte d’Azur: Un territoire pour l’expérimentation, 1951-2011.  Artists “whose work was built or continues to flourish significantly” on the French Riviera are featured in the region’s major summer event, which features 1,000 works by over 200 painters, sculptors and media artists who have flocked to work in the French Riviera since 1951, including notables such as Yves Klein, Hans Hartung and Ellsworth Kelly.

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

Andy Warhol, Liz #5, 1963 (est. unpublished, realized $26.9 million). All images via Phillipsdepury.com.

The week’s Contemporary art sales ended Thursday night with a fifty lot auction at Phillips de Pury & Co. The sale just missed its low presale estimate of $84.5 million before fees were added. Thirty-eight lots sold for a total of $82.7 million, or $94.8 million with fees. For the third time this week a Warhol canvas was the top lot. Liz #5, rumored to be sold by hedge-fund manager Steven Cohen, sold for $26.9 million against an unpublished presale estimate of $20-30 million. Unlike Warhol’s photo-booth self portrait on offer Wednesday night at Christie’s, Liz #5‘s trip to the auction block was brief. Bidding opened at $18 million and rose to $24 million before contenders called it quits.

Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat, Third Eye, 1985 (est. $2-3 million, realized $7 million)

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Ellsworth Kelly, Black Curve Diagonal (2010). Via Two Coats of Paint

In this series of thirteen new paintings, a new sculpture, and twenty small drawings from the 1950s, all at the Matthew Marks Gallery, Ellsworth Kelly demonstrates his dedication to the concept to which he has adhered for his time as an artist.  Simple in form and color, the new paintings and the sculpture in the ‘Reliefs’ show emphasize the bold shapes and hard edges characteristic of Kelly’s work. The twenty drawings of ‘Black and White Drawings’ from early in his career show a continuity of vision in their similarity to Kelly’s newest works.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Image featured on gallery website, via Vera Munro

Currently showing at the Vera Munro Gallery in Hamburg, Germany through September 30^th, 2010, is an exhibition of works by various artists and chosen by Gerwald Rockenschaub.The full list of artists can be found on the gallery’s website, and includes established artists such as Ellsworth Kelly and Gerhard Richter, and younger artists like Tomma Abts and Katja Strunz.

Show assembled by Gerwald Rockenschaub, via My Contemporary

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

Red Curve in Relief (2009) by Ellsworth Kelly, via Villa Medici.

Currently on view at the French Academy in Rome the Villa Medici is an exhibition featuring the work of two great artists: Twentieth-century American artist Ellsworth Kelly (b.1923) and French Neoclassical master Jean-August-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) who was once the director of the Villa Medici. The show will explore the relationship between the two artists despite the many centuries which separate them.

More text and related links after the jump….

(more…)

Tall Figure II and Tall Figure III both 1960 Alberto Giacometti. All images via MoCA

To celebrate their 30th Anniversary, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MoCA) are exhibiting ‘Collection: MoCA’s First Thirty Years‘ – an exhibition comprising of more than 500 artworks by more than 200 artists, it is the largest ever installation of works from MoCA’s permanent collection. This comprehensive survey of the past 70 years of contemporary art history fills both of MoCA’s downtown L.A. locations – MoCA Grand Avenue and The Greffen Contemporary.

Big Wheel, Chris Burden (1979) via MoCA

More text, images and related links after the jump….
(more…)

Dash Snow and his daughter Secret via TinyVices

Following Dash Snow’s untimely death early last Tuesday morning, articles such as this one from The Guardian labeled Snow as an “art icon.”   The Independent cited the artist as “a mythical hero of an artistic underworld.”   There was a cynical editorial on Dash Snow from Canada [Toronto Star via Art Market Monitor]   And within 48 hours of Dash Snow’s death, New York Magazine speculated on the market for his work, and later that that his work might be pulled from an charity auction in Watermill next weekend. Terence Koh dedicated a performance in the UK [The Moment] and Brazilian street art duo OS Gemeos dedicated their Houston and Bowery mural to the artist [NYMag] There was an extensive image collection of the artist and his work from Tiny Vices. and finally a eulogy from the artist’s friend Glenn O’Brien [Purple-Diary]

A work by John Baldessari via the Tate

The Tate Modern will launch a major John Baldessari retrospective, his first in the UK, on October 13th [Tate]
Bob and Roberta Smith and Wolfgang Tillmans will be Tate trustees [FAD]

Zevs bombing the Armani store with his dripping Chanel Trademark via SlamXHype

Graffitti artist Zevs arrested in Hong Kong before a major gallery show [SlamXHype]
In related, 3 are arrested for conducting a counterfeit Banksy printing operation [The Art Collectors]

A mockup of London’s Playing the Building installation via David Byrne.com

David Byrne reprises his downtown New York Playing The Building sound in architecture installation at London’s Roundhouse August 8th through the 31st [Roundhouse.org]

The video for Madonna’s ‘Candyshop,’ featuring video by Marilyn Minter via YouTube

Marilyn Minter’s Green Pink Caviar is used as a video backdrop for Madonna’s song “Candyshop” [Artnet]

A rendering of Herzog de Meuron’s expansion to the Tate Modern via World Architecture News

Much publicized plans to expand the British Museum and the Tate could be tabled as funds come into question [TimesUK]
A look at some of the recent graduates and potential YBA’s at Goldmith’s degree show in London [GuardianUK]

Olafur Eliasson speaks about using space and light via Ted

An engaging video of Olafur Eliason speaking about perception [Ted]
The Wall Street Journal has an excerpt from the book Provenance, which documents one of the greatest cons in the history of art forgery [Wall Street Journal]

Lawrence Salander via Bloomberg

Lawrence B. Salander was arrested for the 2nd time for what the Manhattan District Attorney called the biggest art fraud in New York history [Bloomberg]
A video interview with American painter Ellsworth Kelly [The Art Newspaper]

Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova via Fashion Week Daily

According to rumors, Moscow curator Dasha Zhukova and 2008 mega-collector Roman Abramovich have split [Fashion Week Daily]
Christie’s has an iPhone app, offering access to its calendar and catalogs, and soon a live-bidding component [Guardian]

Simon de Pury via Harpers Bazaar

Simon de Pury, chairman of the auction house Phillips de Pury revealed as Judge on the upcoming Bravo/Sara Jessica Parker art-world reality show [NY Times] and video of the around-the-block line in New York to apply to be on the show recently [NYArtBeat]

–>
Installation view of Ellsworth Kelly “Diagonal” at Matthew Marks Gallery

American color-field painter Ellsworth Kelly is showing new paintings (circa 2007-2008) at Matthew Marks in Chelsea.  Since he first exhibited his work publicly more than 60 years ago, Kelly has had over 150 one-person exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world.  The “Diagonal” series is a collection of eight two-panel paintings consisting of a black or white rectangle overlaid with a contrasting canvas on top, extending beyond the perimeter of the one below.

Matthew Marks Gallery
–>
Ellsworth Kelly Diagonal
–>
522 West 22nd Street
–>
February 6 – April 11, 2009

RELATED LINKS

Exhibition Page [Matthew Marks]
–>
Good Form [New Yorker]
–>
Will Corwin’s Top 10 Shows in New York [Saatchi Online]
–>
Paintings that Converse with Antiquity [Wall Street Journal]
–>
NYTCAP art tour [Flickr page: J-No]

(more…)

Installation view, Plant Lithographs by Ellsworth Kelly, at Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, via Ingleby Gallery

One of the greatest living artists, Ellsworth Kelly, 85, was a founding protagonist of the abstract expressionist movement that emerged in 1950s America.

Kelly was once a contemporary of Pollock and Rothko, developing his own minimalistic compositions where line, color, form and space are thoughtfully crafted into abstract visual compositions, bearing a very distinctive and identifiable sensibility that has become his trademark. The works on display at Edinburgh’s Ingleby Gallery span his career from the 1960s to as recently as 2004, and show a persistence and consistency that is surpassed only by the purity and deceptively simple beauty of the pieces. The lithographs have the effect of appearing more figurative than they actually are–upon closer inspection, the lines in the composition become less obviously configured to represent its subject, and more abstract.

Kelly began to explore the form of plants and other subjects culled from nature while living in Paris in the 1940s.  He moved back to the U.S. in 1954, and began making prints ten years later. The lithographs in the show are from the artist’s personal collection and several have never been exhibited before. They are available for sale and will be on display through January 31st.

PLANT LITHOGRAPHS FROM THE ARTIST’S COLLECTION
Ellsworth Kelly
on display at the Ingleby Gallery
through February 7th, 2009
15 Calton Road, Edinburgh, Scotland

Exhibition page: Ellsworth Kelly
Gallery page: Ingleby Gallery
Pick of the week: Plant Lithographs by Elsworth Kelly [Times UK]
Exhibition preview: Ellsworth Kelly, Edinburgh [Guardian]

(more…)

Le Grande Julie, Fernand Léger (1945) via Foundation Beyeler

Fondation Beyeler Presents Fernand Léger Retrospective, Paris to New York, at their space in Switzerland through September 7, 2008. On view at the exhibition are over 80 paintings, several works on paper, an original Léger film from 1924 called Ballet mécanique, in addition to approximately 20 pieces by American artists that exemplify some sort of influence from Léger and his work. Exhibition is more than just a retrospective of work completed by Léger; it also focuses on how the artist influenced the American Pop movement by exhibiting work from other well-known artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Kenneth Noland, Robert Rauschenberg, Al Held, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, and Frank Stella, all of which reference Léger’s work in one way or another. Philippe Büttner of Fondation Beyeler is responsible for curating the Retrospective.

Fondation Beyeler Presents Today in Basel Fernand L̩ger: Paris РNew York [ArtDaily]
Fondation Beyeler, Fernand Léger Retrospective, Paris to New York [Beyeler]
Art Exhibitions: Fondation Beyeler [Yucolo]

(more…)