Mickalene Thomas is on Nowness this week, talking about her recent film profiling the life of her late moth, Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman. “It allowed me to look at her not only as a subject—as my muse—but as a person. I really tried to understand her world, her own sexuality and femininity and beauty,” Thomas says. (more…)
Andy Warhol, Triple Elvis [Ferus Type] (1963), via Christie’s
The market has a new world auction record after Christie’s monumental sale last night in New York, an $852.9 million benchmark that saw 92% of the works find buyers, and 69 of the 75 works on sale exceed $1 million in its final sales total. Capitalizing on a remarkably strong selection of works and an eager buying pool, the auction saw a number of impressive figures reached, as well as several artist records fall. (more…)
Mark Rothko, No. 21 (Red, Brown, Black and Orange) (1951), via Sotheby’s
Following a strong sale of works from the Mellon Collection last night, many were expecting Sotheby’s to continue with an exceptional start to the auction week, and given the strong offering the auction house had on view this past week at its York Avenue exhibition space, it was conceivable that it would bring forth a competitive sale. However, a number of major passes and underwhelming bids during the sale left the auction house with what could best be classified as a moderate success with $343 million tally, as a number of records were set, while other works failed to live up to initial estimates. (more…)
Center548, the current home of Zach Feuer Gallery and the Independent Art Fair, as well as the former location for the Dia Foundation, has been purchased by Property Markets Group, a real-estate development group. The galleries are seeking new exhibition space outside the building. (more…)
Andy Warhol, Triple Elvis [Ferus Type] (1963), via Christie’s
The second week of fall auctions in New York is set to kick off this week, as a series of three sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips that will look to test the ongoing strength of the Contemporary and Post-War Markets. With major works on sale at all three auction houses, the initial estimates are impressive.
Mark Rothko, No. 21 (Red, Brown, Black and Orange) (1951), via Sotheby’s (more…)
Cao Fei, HIP HOP NY (2006) via Art Observed
There’s few places in New York that one could find a small-scale show pushing the envelope the way that Brooklyn Rail’s Phong Bui is currently pushing it at Red Bull Studios. Combining historically rich pieces with a number of young artists and many frequently outside the spotlight of New York’s blockbuster arts calendar, the exhibition is a dizzying combination of forms, spaces and images, from surrealist painting to bizarre installations and architecture and back. (more…)
Egon Schiele, Portrait of Gertie Schiele (1909), all photos by Sophie Kitching for Art Observed
The energy on view in the paintings of Egon Schiele often feels as if the surface itself cannot contain it, as if the visceral poses and lucid, flowing lines of the artist’s hand posses an ethereal force beyond that of his practice. The Austrian painter, who died at the young age of 28 during the Spanish Flu epidemic, poured himself into his works with an enthusiasm few have ever matched, constantly pushing the gestural formats and emotional charges of his materials and subjects.
Egon Schiele: Portraits (Installation View)
Duane Hanson at Karma, all photos via Art Observed
Spanning two separate weekends this November, the Independent Projects fair is an interesting take on the the art fair as an exhibition opportunity. Rather than rely on an initial rush of collectors, the fair is spread out over two separate weekends, allowing collectors an initial crack at the works offered before they go on public view the next week. Combining this with a small selection of forty galleries and exhibitors, the Projects fair offers a considerable opportunity to expand the concept and execution of the fair environment.
Independent Projects (Installation View) (more…)
The New York Times covers the impact philanthropist and MoMA Board President Emeritus Agnes Gund has had on the cultural landscape of New York City, and her ongoing commitment to arts patronage, including selling works in her collection to cover her charitable giving. “I get income, but I don’t have a big swath of money to invest in things,” she says” “I’ve had to sell a lot of art, which I’ve hated to do because I really love the art I have.” (more…)
The New York Times profiles the British-born, Los Angeles-based Thomas Houseago, whose work is notoriously unpredictable and has on occasion fallen apart in the midst of its construction. “I believe in these broken sculptures,” he says. “I love that. Sculpture is a constant dance with gravity. In my case, anyway.” (more…)
Edouard Manet, Le Printemps (1881), via Art Observed
Christie’s concluded its sale of Impressionist and Modernist works last evening, capping a short but successful 39 lot sale that only saw four works fail to find a buyer, and which achieved a final tally $165,635,000. (more…)
Artist E.V. Day’s Brooklyn home is the subject of a recent profile in New York Magazine this week, an open design which she shares with her husband, food writer Ted Lee. “Everything we put in was very clean—new and crisply detailed, to contrast with the industrial materials,” says architect Elizabeth Roberts. “The best features of the existing space were the unpainted wood ceiling and columns.” (more…)
Alberto Giacometti, Chariot (1951-52), via Art Observed
Sotheby’s Evening Sale for Impressionist and Modern Art concluded last night, capping a successful if occasionally unpredictable auction that achieved $422.1 million in sales, the highest record of sale for the auction house in its history. (more…)
Ragnar Kjartansson, A Lot of Sorrow (2014), via Art Observed
Last year, Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson was invited to perform at MoMA PS1 for the museum’s ongoing Sunday performance series. He answered with a six hour long performance piece in which Brooklyn rock act The National repeatedly played the same song, Sorrow, over and over again. Fighting off exhaustion, boredom, and the occasional flubbed note, the piece ran throughout the day, with the band never pausing to take a break. The result is a single-channel video work by the artist, currently on view at Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick location.
Artist Gabriel Orozco will be honored this week with the Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award, a prize that acknowledges the artist’s ongoing commitment to the development and perpetuation of a global language for Latin American contemporary art. “As we prepare to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our organizations in 2015, the creation of the first Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award reaffirms our commitment to highlight and support culture in the hemisphere,” says Americas Society and Council of the Americas President and CEO Susan Segal. “Gabriel Orozco is a truly worthy recipient of this very important recognition.” (more…)
Artist Ryan McNamara will bring his 2013 Performa Commission to Miami Beach this year for Art Basel’s U.S. fair. The piece, MEÆŽM 4 Miami: A Story Ballet About the Internet, explores notions of information conveyance and data clutter. “I saw Ryan’s stunning performance at the Performa Biennale in New York last November and was astounded by the way in which MEÆŽM redefines the audience experience,” says Director Marc Spiegler, “making physical the virtual experience of link-clicking, and simultaneously incorporating many decades and styles of dance.” (more…)
Alberto Giacometti, Chariot (1951-52), via Sotheby’s
As temperatures begin to drop and the art world looks to begin winding down the Fall 2014 Season, the major auction houses are opening their doors for two consecutive weeks of major sales, beginning on Tuesday with Sotheby’s Evening Auction of Modern and Impressionist Masterpieces, and followed close behind with Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modernist works the next night. Initial estimates for the week’s sales are already promising major dividends for both auction houses, with several important works expected to break major auction sales records. (more…)
Duane Hanson, Baton Twirler (1971), all images courtesy Sotheby’s
On view at S|2, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Gallery in London, is a selection of sculptures from American artist Duane Hanson’s most important series of works, the artist’s fiercely evocative and startlingly realistic images of “Middle Americans.” The show marks Hanson’s first exhibition in London in fifteen years, and will remain on view through November 7th.
Karel Appel, Big Bird Flying Over the City (1951), all images courtesy Blum & Poe
Dutch painter Karel Appel was born in Amsterdam in 1921, and worked in Europe for much of his life, passing away less than a decade ago at the age of 85. During the time of the German occupation, Appel studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and eventually left home due to his parents’ disapproval of his decision to be a painter. Perhaps as a result, Appel’s career can’t be defined by any singular characteristic other than discontinuity, and an interest in opposing expectations of normality.
Marina Abramovic is the subject of another profile this week, this time in Wall Street Journal, where the performance artist discusses her life’s work, her thoughts on retirement, and her piece Generator. “It’s quite radical,” she says. “It could totally fail, but the real failure would be if I stop believing in myself, that I can do it.” (more…)
Artist Marina Abramovic is interviewed in the New York Observer this week, offering additional insight into her new exhibition Generator at Sean Kelly. “If you deprive two senses, you achieve this kind of experience of the world,” she says. “If you don’t see and don’t hear but you can feel and touch, you achieve this consciousness. We have to develop this—I know that every human being has the potential to develop it. If you change the consciousness, you can change the world.” (more…)
The New York Post reports on a recent suit filed against former Andy Warhol bodyguard Agusto Bugarin, accusing him of stealing of painting from the artist, and hiding it away for 30 years before trying to sell it in the past year. “There is no indication that Warhol did or would have given his bodyguard a painting valued at the time in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — several multiples of Bugarin’s annual salary,” the Manhattan Supreme Court filing by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts says. (more…)
E.V. Day, CatFight (2011-2014) via E.V. Day Studio
On view now at Mary Boone’s uptown gallery is the haunting sculpture series Semi-Feral by artist E.V. Day. The show centers around a large, site-specific sculptural piece comprised of multiple casts of saber-tooth tiger skeletons floating above the floor of the gallery space. Day’s work, often concerning sexuality and femininity, takes its point of departure here from the slang term “cat fight.” A phrase that typically robs a fight from any viciousness, Day returns the notion to its original, ferociously natural element.
Jenny Holzer, Presently in the United States (2014) via Emily Heinz for Art Observed
On view now at Cheim & Read through October 25th, 2014, Dust Paintings is a series of recent paintings by Jenny Holzer, an artist known primarily for her use of language and political investigation. Culled from the ongoing use of political documents from 2004, months after the United States and United Kingdom instigated the invasion of Iraq, Holzer makes a comprehensive “map”, of sorts, from linguistics to action; from intention to execution, stressing importance and the power of language, while providing a kind of physical and aesthetic proof of this idea.
