DIS has announced the release of a new book, celebrating the oft-maligned form of the #artselfie, and featuring a selection of viewers capturing themselves alongside iconic artworks using their smartphones. The book, available from boutique press Jean Boîte Editions, is available for €19. (more…)
Artist Urs Fischer has reportedly been wed to actress and designer Tara Subkoff this week, during a private dinner ceremony at Soho restaurant Navy. (more…)
Prince Albert of Monaco is inaugurating a new Francis Bacon Foundation in the small European country, combining over 2,000 artworks, photographs, works on paper, and working documents, as well as the artist’s furniture and rug designs. Bacon lived in Monaco for several years in the 1940’s, before moving several years later. “We’ve discovered that Bacon started painting on the unprimed side of the canvas after losing all of his money in the Monaco Casino,” said collector and foundation founder Majid Boustany, “and as you know, this became one of the trademarks of his style!” (more…)
After five years of renovations, delays and even the replacement of former head Anne Baldassari, the Pablo Picasso Museum in Paris’s Marais District has reopened to strong reviews and even stronger attendance. “There is a lot of fluidity,” says new director Laurent Le Bon. “One can move around much more easily than before, one has a freedom which goes well with the spirit and the works of Picasso.” (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…)
Hans Haacke, the conceptually elusive artist who has for years defied many of the commercial practices of the contemporary art world, is opening a new show at Paula Cooper this month, allowing viewers a look at the artist’s challenging work and personal politics, including a maquette design for the artist’s upcoming Fourth Plinth Commission next year in London. “I’ve always been interested in systems and how they work, and at a certain point you understand that political and social systems are part of that, too, that they can’t be escaped,” he says. (more…)
Jeff Koons is interviewed this week in The Independent, as the artist concludes his monumental retrospective at the Whitney Museum. In the interivew, Koons discusses his work with Lady Gaga, and his take on the nature of his work. “I like to smile, I think that my works have aspects to them which are very, very cheerful, that bring about a smile, but at the same time they have the aspect of tragedy,” he says. “So they are not just free of this other side. They want really to be balanced, to be full and rounded.” (more…)
The annual Art Review Power 100 Ranking has been published, with Tate Director Nicholas Serota topping the list. Serota is followed close behind by David Zwirner (who maintains his number two ranking from last year) and Iwan Wirth. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, last year’s number 1 entry, has been placed this year at 13th. (more…)
The New York Times takes an in-depth look at the ongoing court battle between Ronald Perelman and Larry Gagosian, noting the immense legal fees that the collector has racked up (over $3 million) in his ongoing battle over the sale of a Cy Twombly work he claims was fraudulently overpriced, and Gagosian’s subsequent lawsuits over his failure to pay. “Ron Perelman’s disingenuous claims that he is a crusader are nothing more than a cover for the fact that he is a notorious bully with a well-known history of filing meritless litigations who once again won’t pay what’s owed,” says Gagosian’s lawyer, Matthew S. Dontzin. (more…)
Alexandrea Da Cunha at Thomas Dane, all photos via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed unless otherwise noted
The last hours of Frieze London have come and gone, with a sizable portion of the $2.2 billion in works on sale changing hands over the course of the week, with a number of noteworthy sales, performances and events capping the fall art staple. (more…)
Phillips has opened its new exhibition and auction space at 30 Berkley Square in London, part of its increased efforts to compete at the highest end of the contemporary market. The space is currently exhibiting a curated show in the space, titled A Very Short History of Contemporary Sculpture, and curated by Francesco Bonami. “I thought about sculpture, as soon as I saw this space,” Mr. Bonami says. (more…)
The New York Times profiles the upcoming exhibition of Leonard Lauder’s Cubist collection (on view October 20th), a series of works collected over the years by the cosmetics tycoon who taught himself a great deal about the world of fine art as a child attending the Met. “I didn’t discover Cubism then,” he said. “But just by looking, you learn what’s good.” (more…)
The Louvre is reportedly loaning over 300 works to its new museum in Abu Dhabi, The Guardian reports, including works by Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh and Matisse. “This will be the first time many of these works will travel to Abu Dhabi or even the Middle East, and are a rare opportunity to see important art from French museums,” said Sultan bin Tahnoon al-Nahyan, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority. (more…)
Dealer Marian Goodman is profiled in The Guardian this week, as she prepares to open her new exhibition space in London. In the interview, Goodman discusses first discovering the work of Gerhard Richter, and her work in bringing him to international prominence. “He was a bit drowned out by all these loud, expressionist voices,” she says. “So I wrote him a letter just telling him how much I loved the work and maybe I could make a difference. Then I went to meet him in Düsseldorf in 1984 and everything started from there.”
The New York Times profiles the reopening of the SculptureCenter in Long Island City, Queens, following its expansive renovation, and its take on the presentation of the work within its space. “There are plenty of white boxes in New York, and we don’t want to be another one,” says executive director and chief curator Mary Ceruti. “People come here ready to see art because they’ve made the effort, and that’s a good thing. Would I like more people to make that effort? Yes, and that’s part of why we did this.” (more…)
The Guggenheim Museum has announced plans to open a new location in New York City, which will house the institution’s archives and library, with possible new space for public engagement. (more…)
Russian entrepreneur, mathematician, engineer and collector, Inna Bazhenova has purchased the Art Newspaper, with the intent of helping in the development of the site’s online offering. “The quality of its journalism and scholarship are outstanding and its excellent coverage of international art news is vital in our global environment,” she said in a statement. “I want to reassure you that The Art Newspaper will retain complete editorial independence, now and for as long as I own it. My aim is to invest in it so that it may remain as good as it is today.” (more…)
Absolut Vodka has rolled out a new marketing campaign heavily indebted to Andy Warhol’s own designs for the brand in the 1980’s, inscribing a limited edition bottle with a design the artist created for an Absolut print ad in 1985/86. “Warhol is an icon and Absolut has a fantastic heritage of collaborating with him,” said Dan Brooks, creative director at the Sid Lee New York, the firm that created the campaign: “This is not about being back in the past, rummaging in the past. It’s about looking forward, reinventing.” (more…)
Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold Lehman has announced that he will step down from his position at the museum next year, closing out 17 years at the helm of the borough’s chief art museum. “This has been something I have been thinking about for a while,” Mr. Lehman told the New York Times. “I turned three score and 10 this summer. It’s time.” (more…)
The New York Times interviews Marcel Dzama this week, in the wake of the artist’s opening at David Zwirner, alongside his collaborators Kim Gordon and Tim Kingsbury (of Arcade Fire). The trio worked together on Dzama’s newest film Une danse des bouffons (A jester’s dance), a fantastic film incorporating numerous Dadaist and Surrealist references into a work inspired by the affair between Marcel Duchamp and sculptor Maria Martins. “It’s amazing how many things you can do when you’re just pretending,” says Gordon. (more…)
A new participatory work by Rikrit Tiravanija has been installed at the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul. The work, titled Demo Station No. 5, is an open stage installed inside the museum, allowing for performances, relaxation and iteration between guests, artists and members of the institution. “I want people to move around like they are in their daily life. Part of my interest is always to break down the distance between what we think of as art or high art and what we do in our daily life,” Tiravanija says. (more…)
The city of São Paulo is preparing for its 31st Bienal (Biennial) this month in Ibirapuera Park, and hopes for the event are high. The event boasts an international curator team, fronted by Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, and former curator for biennials in Gwangju (2002), Istanbul (2005), Riwaq, Palestine (2007 and 2009) and Ljubljana (2010), as well as an $11 million budget, marking a considerable step forward for the event. “I don’t think we need to once again announce that we’re going to reinvent the idea of the Bienal,” says Esche. “We need to make a really good Bienal. We need to make an event, an exhibition, an experience that touches people.” (more…)
German artist Michael Sailstorfer is preparing a “participatory” installation work for the arts festival at Outer Harbour beach in Folkestone, UK, claiming that £10,000 in gold bars have been hidden across the beach. The work, titled Folkestone Digs, opens today at 4PM, around low tide. (more…)
