Tulips, Jeff Koons, 1995-2004 on loan to the embassy for the next decade, via artinthepicture

The second largest U.S. Embassy building has opened in Beijing at 600,000 square feet, with a reported $550M in building expenses by the San Francisco firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. On its grounds are works by notable American and Chinese contemporary artists including Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Rauschenberg, Betty Woodman, Martin Puryear, Maya Lin, Yun-Fei Ji, and Hai Bo.

New Embassy Is a Firm U.S. Flag in China [NYSun]
Beijing US Embassy Opened August 7th [CNReviews]
U.S. Embassy in Beijing [Art 21]
U.S. Shortchanges Artists [Portfolio]
‘The Pyrotechnic Imagination’, watch Cai-Guo-Qiang create the gunpowder work inside the U.S. Embassy [NYTimes]
The US Embassy in Beijing Highlights Jeff Koons’s Art [Art Market Monitor]

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Moses Contra Freud, RB Kitaj (2005) via Royal Academy of Arts

Recently appointed Royal Academician, artist Tracey Emin has curated a gallery at the current Royal Academy Summer Exhibition which is the institution’s 240th event of this kind. The exhibition, whose theme this year is ‘Man Made’, is a well-recognized annual event in the contemporary art world and includes works from approximately 1,200 artists, both established and emerging.

Emin brings sex, death to UK Royal Academy show [Reuters]
Tracey Emin at the Royal Academy summer show [TimesOnline]
Row erupts over Tracey Emin’s ‘offensive’ selections for Royal Academy exhibition [DailyMail]
Tracey Emin at Royal Academy [ViewLondon]
Tracey Emin RA on curating Gallery 8 of the Summer Exhibition [RA Magazine]
The Summer Exhibition: A Culture Show Special [RoyalAcademy]
Newslinks: Tracey Emin’s controversial selections for Royal Academy [Art Observed]

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“Pretty Ugly” at Gavin Brown Enterprise via Art Observed

Art Observed was on site at the opening of “Pretty Ugly” on Thursday, July 10th. The show took place at two neighboring galleries on Greenwich St. in New York: Gavin Brown’s Enterpise and Maccarone.
The show was curated by Alison Gingeras, of the Pinault collection, and featured work from more than 75 artists, including John Currin, Louise Bourgeois, the Chapman Brothers, Paul McCarthy, Takashi Murakami, Alice Neel, Hermann Nitsch, Andy Warhol, Francis Picabia, and Rob Pruitt, just to name a few.

Pretty Ugly: Press Release [Gavin Brown’s Enterprise]
Pretty Ugly, Maccarone [Maccarone Gallery]
A Pretty Ugly New York Art Eclipse [Flash Art]
This Week in Art Openings: Totally Rad, Pretty Ugly, and The Shallow Curator [Papermag]
Pretty Ugly [Artlog]

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Louise Bourgeois via Artatien
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The iconic artist, Louise Bourgeois, is honored by the culmination two major events. Her exhibit at the Guggenheim in New York recently opened on June 27th. June 25th was the theatrical premier of “Louise Bourgeois:The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine”, a documentary about her life and work at the Film Forum.

New Louise Bourgeois Documentary Film to Premiere at New York’s Film Forum [Artdaily]
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Louise Bourgeois at the Guggenheim [The Art Newspaper]
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Portrait of a Haunted Artist Who Befriended Giant Spiders [NY Times]
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‘Louise Bourgeois’: An Intimate Look at a Provocateur [NYSun]
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The Guggenheim Museum: Louise Bourgeois [Guggenheim]
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Raw Materials of a Life, Revealed by Sculpture [NYTimes]
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Louise Bourgeios at the Guggenheim [NYTimes]
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`Cumuls,’ Dolls Recall Daddy Dearest in Louise Bourgeois Show [Bloomberg]
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For Your Distorted Pleasure: Louise Bourgeois [NYTimes]
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Bourgeois Looms Large at the Guggenheim [NY artbeat]

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Le bassin aux nympheas by Monet via BBC News

Rarely seen Monet is up for auction at Christie’s [BBC]
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Berlin as a new artistic and cultural capital of Europe? [NYTimes]
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Jeff Koons joins Gucci jury for Venice film festival in September [Variety]
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The ‘Artek Pavilion,’ sold as an art piece by Sotheby’s, can be used as display space for collectors[NYSun]
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“Louise Bourgeois: the Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine” showing at New York’s Film Forum [Film Forum]
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16 Young British Artists reunite in London for “Freeze 20”[ArtInfo]

La Rivière Gentille, 2007 via Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, is currently displaying a new series of works on paper, La Rivière Gentille (2007), by Louise Bourgeois. The exhibit, featuring 42 mixed-media works by the contemporary master mostly known for sculpture, evokes the dual nature of water and memory through imagery and text. The installation wraps around the gallery, reinforcing Bourgeois’ long-held emphasis on architectural and psychological spaces. This show coincides with the traveling, full-career Bourgeois retrospective that visits New York this summer.

Bourgeois Retrospective at Centre Pompidou [moreintelligentlife.com]
La Rivière Gentille in Zurich [Hauser & Wirth]
Louise Bourgeois at Guggenheim [Guggenheim Museum]
Bourgeois Spider Sells for Record $4.5 Million [Bloomberg]
Louise Bourgeois: A Retrospective [Art:21 Blog]

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Dasha Zhukova via daylife

26-year old “Dasha” Zhukova building Moscow contemporary space backed by billionaire Roman Abramovich (recent global record buyer of Freud and Bacon) [artinfo]
More on David Byrne ‘playing the building’ in New York [NY mag]
Turner Prize-winner Mark Wallinger may build 164 ft horse in Kent, UK for ‘Angel of the South’ project [Guardian.co.uk]
Christie’s Paris sells Louise Bourgeois spider for record $4.5M [Bloomberg]
A revisit of the Young British Artist Freeze show after 20 years [Guardian.co.uk]

Spider via Guggenheim Museum

Louise Bourgeois and anonymous benefactor donated Louise Bourgeois’ spider sculpture, entitled Maman, to the Tate Modern Museum. This is the largest of Bourgeois’ spiders at 9 meters. This is a significant addition to Tate’s collection of works by living sculptors.

Spider Sculpture Donated to Tate [BBC News]
Giant steel-and-marble spider makes return to Tate Modern [The Independent]