The Wall Street Journal embarks on a tour of the MTA’s public arts projects, profiling some of the New York Subway’s most iconic murals, installations and pieces, including Roy Lichtenstein’s classic Times Square piece, and Sol LeWitt’s mural at 59th and Columbus. (more…)
Takashi Murakami is featured in Nowness’s ongoing artist profile series this week, discussing his recent show at Gagosian Gallery in New York, and the inspiration behind his new works. “For me, (the works) look like 25 years ago,” Murakami says, “with the crazy economy and then the crash.”
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The Wall Street Journal takes a look at fashion designer Helmut Lang’s venture into the world of fine art. The highly recognized designer gave up his practice in 2005 to make a move to fine art, and opens a new show of work at Sperone Westwater this month. “The definition means nothing,” Lang says, indicating his change in careers. “There are many writers, but only a few are good. There are many architects, but a few are good. Just because someone is a doctor doesn’t mean he’s a good doctor.” (more…)
Bill Powers interviews painter Jonas Wood this week on Art News, discussing the artist’s move to L.A. a decade ago, his inspiration, and his marriage to fellow artist Shio Kusaka. “When we first moved to California, we lived on the second floor of a pretty big house in Echo Park,” he says. “It was a disaster. In retrospect, I think we both needed to figure out who we were as artists on our own before we could handle it.” (more…)
Jean Dubuffet, Snack for Two, (1945) via Museum of Modern Art
Currently on view at New York’s Museum of Modern Art is a retrospective focused on the work of French artist and sculptor Jean Dubuffet. Bringing together the museum’s unmatched collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and illustrated books from Dubuffet’s prolific output, the exhibition focuses predominantly on the key years of his career: from the 1940’s to mid-1960’s.
Marina Picasso, the granddaughter of Pablo Picasso, is selling off over $290 million in works from her personal collection of her grandfather’s works, including Portrait de femme (Olga), valued at about $60 million, and Maternité, which is valued at around $54 million. (more…)
Marcel Duchamp, 3-Mending Standard (1913-1914 / 1964), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
Few artists have left such a mark on the history and direction of 2oth and 21st Century art in the same manner as Marcel Duchamp, the French artist who was at the forefront of revolutions both on and off the canvas in the first half of the century. Taking this impact as a starting point, the Centre Pompidou is currently presenting Marcel Duchamp: La Peinture, Même, an exhibition exploring the artist’s early roots in painting and drawing, and how these stylistic leanings contributed to his later work in the development of the readymade, installation based work, and other conceptual pursuits. (more…)
With two art fairs this January, Los Angeles is making a play as one a global city for fine art, preparing to open Art LA in two weeks, and Art Los Angeles Contemporary later this month. “In the short span of six years, Art Los Angeles Contemporary has managed to turn an otherwise anti-art-fair town into a place where both emerging and established galleries from around the world can connect with an important West Coast audience,” says art attorney Joshua Roth. (more…)
Google is rolling out a new tech platform designed to make museum exhibitions around the world easily available to users, using a combination of technologies including Street View and YouTube. “Users can use the app to experience virtual tours at home, or they can use it to enhance at the museum,” says Product Manager Robert Tansley. (more…)
Marcel Duchamp, Comb (1916), via Andrea Rosen
Taking its title from Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Andrea Rosen Gallery is currently presenting a small exhibition of works incorporating readymade materials, minimalist techniques and surrealist tropes to explore notions of form and execution as only a medium for the transmission of deeper understandings of the work at hand. (more…)
Juan Muñoz, Thirteen Laughing at Each Other (2001), all photos via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
Marian Goodman Gallery is currently presenting a selection of Juan Muñoz’s expansive body of work, with a particular focus on the late artist’s works between 1984 and 2001. Curated by Russell Ferguson, the exhibition encapsulates the influential sculptor’s visceral, vibrant sculptural technique in which a peculiar buoyancy is transferred through narratively mute representations. (more…)
Since opening in 2012, Shanghai’s Power Station of Art has become a central player in the rapidly expanding Chinese contemporary arts scene, as evidenced by the success of its recently opened 10th Shanghai Biennale. “We want the Shanghai Biennale to be more international,” says Li Xu, deputy director of the Power Station. “This is a new kind of cultural confidence.” (more…)
The New York Times notes the rush of interest by art buyers towards Cuba since President Obama lifted the economic embargo on the country earlier this month, with collectors fighting for first access to the country’s long-praised arts culture. “They’re saying, ‘I want to go before everyone else does,’ ” says dealer Alberto Magnan, who specializes in Cuban art. (more…)
The Ace Hotel, in collaboration with the opening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest film Inherent Vice, is presenting a trio of exhibitions in Los Angeles, London and New York, including an immersive installation by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe in NYC. The exhibitions run from January 5th – 11th. (more…)
The LA Times sits down with Broad Museum Curator Joanne Heyeler to discuss the completion of city’s new art museum, set to open in late 2015. “I have to say, living and breathing with these renderings and plans for almost five years now,” Heyeler says, “I am absolutely thrilled to see it finally revealed as a whole exterior.” (more…)
Painter Peter Doig is highlighted in the Wall Street Journal this week, as he opens a broad exhibition of works at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. “I think you only have so many ideas that you think are good ideas,” Doig says. (more…)
The 2015 Edition of the Armory Show has announced its list of exhibitors for its March opening, with 197 galleries attending. The fair will run from March 5th through the 8th. The selection process for the upcoming edition was particularly rigorous and I am thrilled to see a number of notable galleries returning to the fair,” says Executive Director Noah Horowitz, “as well as a strong presence of young, geographically diverse galleries who have chosen to show with us for the first time.” (more…)
Anish Kapoor will be the next artist given a solo show at the Palace of Versailles, the organization announced this week. Kapoor’s show will run from June to October of 2015, and was chosen “because he has something particular to say in this setting,” says Chief Administrator Catherine Pégard. (more…)
Louise Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria (1993), all photos via Emily Heinz for Art Observed
The first sight of the Louise Bourgeois Suspension exhibition at Cheim & Read must be the closest simulation available of watching artworks ascending to heaven. There is a sense that each of the pieces are being called upwards, as their weight hangs below them, pulling them back towards the ground. However, the works don’t fight this strange, heavenly magnetism, and in fact, seem to accept to their celestial trajectory.
“Hanging is an ambivalent gesture,” says Jerry Gorovoy, her assistant and close friend of thirty years, who was kind enough to expand upon her works on the opening night of the show. “It’s as though they’ve given up.” It’s this sense of the works’ submission that makes the tension of their bold physical presence so palpable.
R. H. Quaytman, O Tópico, Chapter 27 (Installation View)
Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery’s 21st street location is O Tópico, Chapter 27, R. H. Quaytman’s latest chapter in her ambitious, ongoing project of cohesive, site-specific installations. Quaytman started her serial painting project in 2001 with eighty paintings she made to be exhibited at the Queens Museum, and has now reached the 27th installment of the project, this one inspired by Inhotim, a botanical garden and art park located in the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais. (more…)
Frieze New York has announced the details for the 2015 edition of the fair, with over 190 galleries from around the world set to return to Randall’s Island from from May 14 to 17, 2015. (more…)
The Museum of Modern Art has announced plans for an exhibition focusing on the African-American migration north during the early 20th Century, including a reunited Migration Series, Jacob Lawrence’s 60-panel drawing featuring scenes of the Great Migration. “Lawrence was rectifying what it meant to be a young man in a segregated North with being part of a people that have just moved from slavery to freedom,” says radio host Terrance McKnight. (more…)
Sigmar Polke, Untitled (circa 2000), All images are by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
Fergus McCaffrey is currently presenting Sigmar Polke: Photocopierarbeiten, the gallery’s third exhibition focusing on the late artist following 2006’s Sigmar Polke/Andy Warhol: Drawings and 2011’s Sigmar Polke. This year has been an exceptional one in terms of the presentation of Polke’s legacy in New York, considering his recent exhibition Alibis: Sigmar Polke 1963-2010, a major retrospective at the MoMa that later traveled to the UK and Germany, as well as a coinciding exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery focusing on the German pioneer’s early works on paper. (more…)
Ahmed Alsoudani, Untitled (2014), all images are by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed
In his first exhibition at Gladstone Gallery, Iraqi artist Ahmed Alsoudani is delivering an eminently profound set of paintings, managing to remain current and relevant while at the same time tying strong references to pioneers of 20th century painting, a body of work that suggests a limitless array of interpretations. (more…)
