Jeff Koons, “Pam” (2001) via Gagosian Gallery

An assortment of works, all centered on depictions of the human figure, is currently on display at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue gallery until July 31, 2009.  Gagosian has selected pieces from an all-male cast of seminal artists, each tackling the issue of bodily representation in a variety of media.  This relatively small exhibit constitutes an appealing means of considering how male artists have approached the portrayal of both men and women over the course of the twentieth century.

Related links:
Exhibition Page [Gagosian Gallery]
Artists’ Info [Gagosian Gallery]

Gerhard Richter, “Deck Chair II” (1965) via Gagosian Gallery

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Portrait of Ivan Klioune (1913) by Kazimir Malevich, via The Guardian

Currently on view at Tate Modern is a ground-breaking exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Futurist Movement.  Launched in 1909 by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with the publication of the Manifesto of Futurism on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro, the Futurist Movement borrowed elements from Cubism and Divisionism in order to create a new style that broke free from tradition and expressed the energy and dynamism of modern life.

The exhibition highlights the work of key Futurists such a Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini as well as works by other major artists such as Braque, Malevich and Duchamp.

New Worlds: Futurism at Tate Modern [The Guardian]
Review: Futurism Falls Flat at Tate Modern [The Guardian]
Closet Thinker: Fashion goes back to the Futurists [The Telegraph]
Celebrating Futurism at the Tate Modern [Fadwebsite]
Futurism at the Tate Modern: A Glimpse into Tomorrow’s Whirl [The Telegraph]
Tate Modern: Futurism [The Art Newspaper]
Tate Modern Marks Futurism Centenary with new show [Reuters]
Tate Modern Show brings pivotal Futurist art works together for first time [This is London]
Tate Modern Presents Today First Large-Scale Showing of Futurism in Britain in Thirty Years [Artdaily]
The Futurists’ Futile Chase After Motion [NY Times]
‘Futurism’ at Tate Modern [FT]
Secret Bansky Show Opens Tomorrow [Artinfo]
Bansky back in Bristol for biggest British Exhibition [The Telegraph]

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Tony Cragg’s Big Head (2009), courtesy of the Marian Goodman Gallery, photo by Art Observed.

The 40th installment of Art Basel runs this year from June 10 to the 14th.  The annual event, dubbed the “Olympics of the Art World” by the New York Times, includes this year over 2,500 artists, and works exhibited in almost 300 galleries around the world.  Works range in medium, from painting and drawing to sculpture, installation art, photography, and video.  Featured are both old masters of modern art and contemporary artists: among this year’s roster are the works of Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Jackson Pollock, Marcel Duchamp and more, alongside that of today’s artists, including John Baldessari, Vanessa Beecroft, and Rebecca Horn.

Related links:
Art_Base [Official Website]
Art Basel Catalog
Art Basel 40 Celebrates the First Art Basel Weekend with Special Presentations [ArtDaily]
Art Basel Shows Works of Art by 2,500 Artists at World’s Premier International Art Fair [ArtDaily]
Editor’s Picks: Art Basel Preview [ArtInfo]
Il Tempo del Postino – “The World’s First Visual Arts Opera” [ArtKey]
The art market: The biggest fairs around the world [the Financial Times]
Trading Places [the Financial Times]
Meanwhile, in Basel, Contemporary Works You Can Buy [Wall Street Journal]
Brad Pitt Buys Big at Basel, with a Little Push from Eli Broad [Wall Street Journal]
Preview sales defy all expectations [The Art Newspaper]
For Art Lovers, Basel Doesn’t End at the Fair [New York Times]
Warhol Price Slashed as Art Basel Fights Slump With Bargains [Bloomberg]
Pitt Buys in Basel as Broad Browses, $2 Million Sculpture Sells [Bloomberg]
Liste: Quality Uneven but Spirits High [ArtInfo]
To Bling or Not to Bling? [ArtInfo]
Locals Rule: Alternative Art Spaces Gear Up for Art Basel [ArtInfo]
BASELMANIA 2009 [ArtNet]
Preview sales defy all expectations [ArtNewspaper]
Forty Years of Art Basel [The Art Newspaper]

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Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir (1922) by Piet Mondrian, part of the Yves Saint Laurent – Pierre Berge collection; sold for â‚¬21.6 million, beating its estimate range of â‚¬7 million to â‚¬10 million and setting an at-auction record for the artist. Image via Christie’s.

Following three days of viewing by the public in the majestic setting of the Grand Palais in Paris, Christie’s kicked off its marathon three day, six session auction of the vast Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berger collection–700 pieces collected over five decades.  A moribund art market and legal manoeuvrings by the Chinese government were not enough to put a dent on the first day of auctions, as Christie’s realized $264 million including commissions, setting a record for the sale of a personal collection, beating out a 1997 auction of Victor and Sally Ganz’ extensive private collection which sold for $206.5 million. This first auction focused on Impressionist and modern art, with 61 lots on sale.

While Picasso’s Instruments de musique sur un gueridon, a synthetic cubist piece from 1912 estimated at €25 million to â‚¬30 million, failed to sell, records were broken for Matisse, Brancusi and Mondrian. Other high priced lots by blue chip names sold very well to a field of over 1,200 participants, with another 100 partaking in the sale via phone. The Grand Palais served as a giant showroom, conceived as a recreation of sorts of St Laurent’s and Berge’s apartment in Paris’ 7th arrondissement. Over 30,000 thousand people are expected to visit the Palais during the course of the public exhibition and the auction.

“This is a very important auction,” said Souren Melikian, the longtime art editor of The International Herald Tribune. “There are a large number of high-quality objects, not necessarily as stunning as billed, but high quality bought over a large number of years. And they come to auction at a time when the market is winding down, when there is less available than 20 years ago.” [Via the New York Times]

Auction page: Christie’s
Fondation Yves Saint Laurent – Pierre Berger
Art World’s Stimulus Package: Matisse, Mondrian, Not Picasso [WSJ]
Christie’s Laurent Sale Fetches Record $262 Million [Bloomberg]
Yves Saint Laurent sale proves art is in fashion [Times UK]
Yves Saint Laurent Art Sale’s 1st Night Brings In $264 Million [NYT]
Saint Laurent and His Art Still Make a Sensation [NYT]
Treasures, after a fashion [FT]
YSL art auction sets new record [Guardian UK]
Record for Matisse and Others at Christie’s Sale of Yves Saint Laurent Collection [ArtDaily]
Saint Laurent art sale raises $264 million in first night [ArtForum]
Record bids for YSL private art [BBC]
Obituary: Yves Saint Laurent [BBC]
China tries to stop Paris auction [BBC]

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Untitled (mattress) (1991) by Rachel Whiteread, via The Museum of Modern Art

Brazilian Photographer Vik Muniz has curated an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art featuring approximately 80 works from the museum’s collection, including those by Eugène Atget, John Baldessari, Marcel Duchamp, Nan Goldin, Gordon Matta-Clark, Pablo Picasso, Dieter Rams, and Rachel Whiteread. The exhibit is part of Artist’s Choice, a series of exhibitions where an artist becomes a curator using selected works from the Museum of Modern Art’s Collection.

Muniz often questions the traditions and symbolism of visual representation by contrasting unlikely materials to depict subjects in his photographs. In this exhibition he has similarly brought works together out of their normal museological classification, thus allowing the viewer to create their own visual interpretation of artworks based on various linkages and connections. For the show’s theme, he employs a rebus, a puzzle that uses carefully connected images and symbols to create a phrase or a sentence. Instead of forming a sentence, he organizes the artworks by linking them through similarities in material, subject matter, technique, and form.

Artist’s Choice: Rebus, Vik Muniz
Museum of Modern Art
New York, New York
through February 23, 2009
Exhibition Page: Artist’s Choice: Rebus, Vik Muniz
Press: ‘Art’s Choice + Muniz = Rebus’- Connecting the Dots at the Museum of Modern Art New York [New York Times]
Vik Muniz on Guest-Curating his MoMA Show, ‘Rebus’ [New York Mag]
Vik Muniz Creates Rebus, an Inventive Narrative of Works from MoMA’s Collection [ArtDaily]

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Red, Andy Warhol, (1978) via Gagosian

Gagosian’s spacious Chelsea gallery presents 13 contemporary artists in ‘Retrospective’: Chris Burden, Marcel Duchamp, Tom Friedman, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Richard Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Takashi Murakami, Piotr UklaÅ„ski, Andy Warhol, Martin Kippenberger, and Ed Ruscha. Keeping in company with several thematic group shows this summer, this one has been assembled by Andisheh Avini, Gagosian curator, and artist.

Press Release [Gagosian]
‘Retrospective’: Been There, Sold That [NYSun]
Some Shows For Escape, Some For Introspection [NYTimes]
View video of the Retrospective group show here [Gagosian]

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