Indian artist Subodh Gupta – Art Observed sat down with the Financial Times recently to discuss his new show at Hauser and Wirth , his youth in India, and his utilization of everyday materials. “I am always good in an unconventional space. The material tells a story. If it is broken, it comes from the reality of life.”
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Andy Warhol (Installation View), via Alexandra Bregman for Art Observed
On May 12th, The Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut opened its first show of the year with a selection of works by Andy Warhol. Paper mogul and avid collector Peter Brant has been personally buying Warhol’s work since 1968, and has amassed a reported 200 paintings, prints, polaroid portraits and magazine covers, from which he has pulled for this impressive show. Mr. Brant co-curated the exhibition with Heiner Bastian, the latter of whom worked on the traveling Warhol retrospective of 2001-2002, which traveled from Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, London’s Tate Modern, and MOCA LA in Los Angeles. (more…)
Artist Gavin Turk spoke with The Guardian this week in advance of his upcoming show this summer at Ben Brown Fine Arts, covering his practice, failing his MA Thesis show, and his views on the tag “conceptual art.” “People often don’t want to do any work with art – they just want to see something and enjoy it. I can’t see art in those terms. To me, art is always about ideas. Really, it’s all conceptual.” He says. (more…)
New York Magazine has published an in-depth interview with Jeff Koons, in advance of the artist’s two shows opening this week at galleries Gagosian and David Zwirner. Examining Koons’s successful career, the interview charts his creative history, and his often complex relation with the upper echelons of the art world, noting that he has never had a retrospective in New York City. “I really think that the journey that art takes you on as an artist is that you first learn self-acceptance.” He says. (more…)
Donald Judd’s five-story residence in downtown New York is nearing its scheduled opening date this June, restored through the efforts of the Judd Foundation. With the opening date approaching, the Financial Times has published a spotlight on the artist and his practice, noting his challenging take on the art market. Says his daughter, Rainer Judd: “He was in utter disbelief that you could make money from art. When he began his art practice, he had no concept of it being a moneymaking endeavor. He would try to make as much money as possible to buy Swedish furniture and buy Scotch and make great meals.” (more…)
Damien Hirst, Forbidden Fruit (2012-3), via White Cube Hong Kong
White Cube Hong Kong is currently presenting Entomology Cabinets and Paintings, Scalpel Blade Paintings and Colour Charts, a broad exhibition of new work by British artist Damien Hirst. Through the three series on view, Hirst explores life’s dualities through the beauty and horror of both the Natural world and modernity.
Damien Hirst, The Judged (2012), via White Cube Hong Kong
Local Planning Committee the Thorney Island Society has raised objections over the proposed installation of artist Katharina Fritsch’s bright blue cockerel sculpture on London’s Fourth Plinth. Taking umbrage with the work’s apparent “innappropriate” placement in Trafalgar Square, the group is taking action to prevent its installation. “We cannot see any logical reason for the proposed sculpture to be placed on the fourth plinth. It is unrelated to the context of Trafalgar Square and adds nothing to it but a feeble distraction.” The group said in a statement. (more…)
Gutai: Splendid Playground (Installation View), Courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The main hall of the Guggenheim Museum’s signature, spiraling exhibition space is currently dominated by an enormous hanging sculpture. Long plastic envelopes swim over the atrium, filled with brightly-dyed water that casts faint, glimmering shadows on the floor below. This is Work (Water), by Motonaga Sadamasa, a foundational member of the Gutai art collective. Hailing from the Japanese town of Osaka, the Gutai helped to define the vibrant Japanese contemporary and conceptual art scene of post-war Japan. Blending an open exploration of the raw materials of creation with a playfully subversive worldview, the Gutai made enormous contributions to the contemporary art practice worldwide.
Shiraga Kazuo, Work II (1958), Oil on paper, mounted on canvas 183 x 243 cm HyÅgo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe
Artist Ryan Trecartin’s installation and video work B: Settings has been purchased by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, marking the artist’s first entry into a museum collection in the Southern California city. “At the risk of oversimplification, his art could be said to combine the retinal extravagance of much 1980s art with the political awareness of the ’90s and the inclusiveness and technological savvy of the post millennium.” Says Holland Cotter of the NY Times. (more…)
Jon Kessler, The Web (Installation View), via Swiss Institute
Overwhelming in its degree of sensory immersion, Jon Kessler’s hypnotic new installation, The Web is currently on view at Swiss Institute in New York. Welcoming new perspectives into the participatory nature of the Internet, and the endless variations of image and sight that result from an information-centered society, the artist creates a powerfully immersive work that commands the viewer’s full attention. (more…)
This December, collectors Mera and Don Rubell will present Year of the Artist, a showcase of contemporary Chinese art at the 2013 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. Featuring 20 artists, including Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huang, the show will look to bring a major focus to the Chinese nation’s vibrant arts scene. “There’s a new generation of Chinese artists that is interesting to us,” said Mera Rubell in a telephone interview. “They have the world view and they are also dealing with the transformation of China itself.” (more…)
This Sunday, Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson will present A Lot of Sorrow, a performative sound piece that will present the band The National, playing its song “Sorrow” for six consecutive hours at MoMA PS1. Embracing duration and endurance as fundamental to the piece, the work explores the line between pop music and sonic sculpture. As stated in the press release: “the idea behind A Lot of Sorrow is devoid of irony, yet full of humor and emotion. It constitutes another quest to find the comic in the tragic and vice versa.” (more…)
The new airport currently under construction in Doha, Qatar is commissioning major art pieces by some of the world’s most prominent artists, says an undisclosed source. While contractors, staff and dealers are bound by a non-disclosure agreement, a Qatar Museums Authority official confirmed 14 new commission projects from highly recognized international artists recently on a local blog. (more…)
The Tate Modern in London has announced its plans for a show of the final works completed by Henri Matisse. Slated for Spring of 2014, the show will feature 120 pieces by the artist, primarily using his large-scale, cut-out technique, including his famous Blue Nudes. “They are more like installations or environments than paintings; and they seem very contemporary now. Part of the point of the show is to reconsider them in this light,” said Tate curator Nicholas Cullinan. “They were a way of collapsing line and colour; at the same time they were a kind of sculpture – carving into pure colour.” (more…)
Jake and Dinos Chapman, The Sum of all Evil, (2012-2013), Courtesy of the artists and White Cube via Pinchuk Art Centre
Jake and Dino Chapman are currently presenting Chicken, their first solo show in the Ukraine, at the Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev. The exhibition is centered around a new installation, titled The Sum of all Evil (2013), that confronts violence, death and the Holocaust through a series of comically perverse tableaus. Additional works from the Chapman brother’s oevre are also on display, providing an artistic context to the brothers subversive black humor and embrace of taboo subject matter.
Jake and Dinos Chapman, The Sum of all Evil, (2012-2013), Courtesy of the artists and White Cube via Pinchuk Art Centre
Nine massive stone sculptures by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone have been installed in Rockefeller center this week, a collaboration between the artist at New York’s Public Art Fund. Titled Human Nature, the primitivist sculptures each way 17 and 1/2 tons, and were installed by crane. “My first thought was how big,” said Keith Douglas, managing director for Rockefeller Center. “He was saying ‘huge colossal sculptures,’ and I’m thinking, ‘In comparison to what?’ and multiplying times nine.” (more…)
Artist Anthony McCall’s ambitious Column project, planned for public installation in the UK city of Merseyside, has been abandoned after being projected to finish late and over budget. The project has already received over a half a million pounds of public money. “Of course it is very important to us that we manage the risks associated with our investment of taxpayers’ money. We have monitored the development of Column closely, but in a very small number of cases the price we pay for exciting ideas is that the risk doesn’t pay off.” Said Arts Council executive Laura Dyer. (more…)
Mobile Homestead, one of the last works created by American artist Mike Kelley before his suicide last year, will open at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit on May 11th. The piece, a loyal recreation of Kelley’s childhood home in suburban Detroit, will be used as a community space of sorts, open for the people of Kelley’s home city to hold shows, art events or meetings. “He kept saying to me, ‘This is never going to happen — it’s a joke,’ because that’s the way he was,” said Marsha Miro, founder and director of the contemporary museum. “But he also said he thought it would be one of the most important things he ever did, partly because it would keep on being a living piece.” (more…)
The Frieze New York Art Fair has announced the artists exhibiting in this year’s edition of its annual Sculpture Park section. The 2013 edition of the Sculpture Park will see works by Paul McCarthy, Martha Friedman, and Nick Van Woert, among others. “Building upon the success of last year, our aim for this new edition is to increase the ambition of the Sculpture Park program both in scope and scale. Placed in an exceptional location, the program will continue expanding visitors’ experience by displaying large outdoor sculptures in dialogue with ephemeral pieces.” Says curator Tom Eccles. (more…)
Ugo Rondinone, Pure Moonlight (Installation View), via Almine Rech
Almine Rech Gallery Paris is currently hosting its 7th installation of work by the Swiss-born Ugo Rondinone, exploring the interplay of time and creative practice on the artist. Titled Pure Moonlight, the show consists of a series of Rondinone’s concentric “date paintings,” as well another set of small-scale candle sculptures.
The most recent issue of Billboard Magazine features a cover story on French rock band Phoenix, showing the band standing in front of a work by Dan Flavin from the artist’s recent show with Donald Judd at David Zwirner in New York. The picture was taken during the first exhibition at Zwirner’s new 19th Street location, as the band searched for inspiration for their upcoming tour. “These pieces have a very short lifetime,” frontman Thomas Mars said, “which makes them even more precious.” (more…)
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pistoletto Politico (Installation View), via Luxembourg and Dayan
The Years of Lead, between the late 1960’s and early 1980’s, were a divisive, violent time for the nation of Italy, reflecting the severe growing pains of a country recovering from the horrors of World War II while contending with rapidly shifting power flows and political ideologies that split much of Europe. With the economy at a standstill, and bloodshed in the streets, the country was forced to take a hard look at itself, evaluating its own identity and divided society.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pistoletto Politico (Installation View), via Luxembourg and Dayan
Members of the now-defunct hip-hop group Das Racist will perform at The Whitney Museum on Sunday, in conjunction with member Himanshu Suri’s Greedhead Music record label. The event, part of the programming for The Whitney’s current Blues for Smoke exhibition, will feature several musical performances, as well as several installations by Suri, including “hippie culture and spiritual tourism, the films and life of Guru Dutt, the skin lightening cosmetic industry in India, Air India, the Indian diaspora and immigration, South Asian visibility in Western pop culture, international working class labor politics, and much more.” (more…)
