Street-artist JR spoke with Nowness Magazine this week, elaborating on his ongoing, collaborative street art project. The artist has been printing large-scale photographs for contributors around the world, and empowering them to paste these images in their communities. “It’s true art. That’s why people want to participate.” says photographer Matt Black. (more…)
Lost in LA (Installation View) All photos by Art Observed unless otherwise noted
Los Angeles’ Municipal Art Gallery recently exhibited Lost in LA, a group show featuring artists of both American and French origin working in a collaborative dialogue. The immensely popular television show “LOST,” which throughout the last decade acted as both a source of inspiration and speculation for these artists, serves as the backdrop to the themes presented in the exhibition. (more…)
Maxwell Snow, Shroud V (2012), via Colette
Paris’s iconic Colette concept store is currently exhibiting new photographic works from artist Maxwell Snow, brother of the late Dash Snow. Monochromatic images feature French actress Rebecca Dayan and model Arizona Muse in a homage to 19th century Romanticism, fittingly titled after Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott”. (more…)
A painting by French Master Charles Le Brun has been discovered at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris. The work, titled Le Sacrifice de Polyxène, had hung for years in plain sight in the suite where Coco Chanel had lived for 30 years, but only drew attention recently, when the Hotel closed for renovations. “It is a magical discovery,” said Cécile Bernard, a Christie’s expert. “The painting must have been there for at least 50 years.” (more…)
Performance artist Terence Koh has announced that he is currently working on an opera to premiere at the new Thaddeus Ropac complex on the outskirts of Paris. The work will be done in collaboration with composers from the Philharmonie de Paris, and follows in the footsteps of Marina Abramovic, who debuted her own opera last year in Madrid. (more…)
Kehinde Wiley, The Three Graces, all images courtesy Galerie Daniel Templon
Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris is presenting Kehinde Wiley’s first solo show in France, entitled The World Stage: France, 1880-1960. Wiley’s portraits feature mostly black and brown men on elaborate, baroque backgrounds, their natural stances modified by Wiley to echo the Napoleonic, kingly gestures of traditional portraits like those of Anthony van Dyck.
Kehinde Wiley, Bonaparte in the Great Mosque of Cairo
Austrian art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac is interviewed in the Financial Times, and speaks of his new 4,700 sq meter space in Pantin, Northeast Paris. “You have to create the market for monumental works but that gives me a kick. Today you are defined by your square-footage”. Anselm Kiefer, ‘Die Ungeborenen’ (The Unborn) will open at the space on October 14th. (more…)
The Louvre Museum will open the “most radical architectural intervention since the [I.M. Pei] pyramid in 1989″. After 10 years and $125 million, the new Islamic art galleries are set to open this Saturday. The gold undulating “flying carpet” or “luminous veil” roof is a 150-ton structure that was fabricated by using almost 9,000 steel tubes and designed by Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti. Donors to the project include private corporations, the government of France, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, and other Arab donors and nations. The new galleries will house Islamic art from the 7th to the 19th centuries.
Marian Goodman Gallery, “Ellsworth Kelly,” installation view. All photography courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery unless otherwise noted.
Ellsworth Kelly‘s installation of four 2-panel paintings executed this year is on view at Galerie Marian Goodman in Paris until July 13, 2012. The show, as the gallery’s press release relates, is his first in Paris in 20 years, when his formative paintings made in his youthful residence in the city were exhibited at the Galeries Nationales du Jeu de Paume. This new work comprises four paintings, each consisting of a curved geometrical relief on a white panel, progressing on the ordered spectrum from red, yellow, blue, to green. Laconically hung a single panel to each of the four walls in the gallery, the paintings seem a further distillation of Kelly’s painterly system, a continuation of the experiments he first executed in Paris in his early years.
Marian Goodman Gallery, “Ellsworth Kelly,” installation view
Louvre Museum hosts its first ever catwalk show, a collection by Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo. “The clothes’ light colored palette is on purpose and in tune with the Louvre’s light colored stone,” said Creative director Massimiliano Giornetti.
‬Larry Gagosian plans his 12th gallery worldwide and second in the Paris area, to be designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. “All the artists I talked to are very enthusiastic about it. It’s only about 20 minutes from the heart of the city,” says Mr. Gagosian.
Storied art dealer Michael Werner has donated a collection of 130 works to the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. “[His] gift represents the most significant enrichment…since the bequest made by Dr Maurice Girardin in 1953, which led to the creation of the Institution,” says Fabrice Hergott, gallery director.
‪‬Daniel Buren discusses his interactive installation at the Grand Palais in Paris, with large raised colored discs and mirrors on the floor, “There isn’t one [angle] better than the other, for me at least”
All images courtesy the artist and Galerie Lelong, Paris
Following a year in the public eye for Jaume Plensa, the artist’s current show at Galerie Lelong in Paris is comprised of steel and rock creations as well as accompanying drawings. These “modern hermits” follow in the wake attention Plensa garnered last year via large scale sculptural installations in Madison Square Park, M.I.T. and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The mid-sized works and drawings are approachable, “silent observers of the hustle and bustle,” according to the press release.
‪‬Art historian recognizes possible El Greco work in private collection of Camilla Blaffer: a canvas bought at a Paris auction 20 years ago depicts St. Francis, a common subject of the artist, and was signed with the artist’s proper name (though the signature was lost in the restoration)
‪‬Palais de Tokyo opened its doors on Thursday after a €20m, 10-month renovation, offering an intentionally dusty 237,000 sq feet spread over four floors, the center’s president de Loisy saying, “Nothing is perfectly clean, nothing is perfectly painted on purpose. It is so important in art not to control everything. It’s all in favor of creativity.”
‪‬Rirkrit Tiravanija to host 12 hour soup banquet, ‘Soup/No Soup’ within Grand Palais in Paris as prelude to La Triennale 2012, noon to midnight tomorrow, April 7 [AO Newslink]
‪‬Olafur Eliasson exhibition to inaugurate the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation museum designed by Frank Gehry in Paris late 2013 [AO Newslink]
Galerie Perrotin is currently radiating with Dan Flavin’s fluorescent light sculptures. An Installation features eight sculptural works from the years 1963–89 and three schematic drawings. 1963 was a seminal year for Flavin, as he removed all other elements from his practice to work solely with commercially available fluorescent lights. With clarity and simplicity, his constructed arrangements explore the painterly possibilities of color and light while engaging with the architectural space.
On January 24th, duo Francesco Vezzoli and designer Miuccia Prada team up with AMO, the research division of Rem Koolhaas’s architectural firm OMA, to transform Paris’ Palais d’Iéna into The 24 Hour Museum. The palace, which ordinarily houses France’s economical, social, and environmental councils, will instead be populated with high-end fantasy fashion and explorations of celebrity and sex. Known as a prankster of sorts, Vezzoli’s work often involves a certain kitchiness while perhaps masking a deeper political significance. In this exhibition, Vezzoli pays homage to the female figure in particular, featuring renditions of neo-classical sculptures outfitted with heads of “contemporary divas.” The museum is divided into three sections—historic, contemporary, and forgotten—with three segments of the 24 hour period as well: first a private dinner at 8:30 Tuesday evening, followed by an exclusive dance party, then opening to the public at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, before closing at 8:30 p.m.
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JR, The Wrinkles of the City, Los Angeles 2010 (2011). All images courtesy of Galerie Perrotin.
Urban artist and 2011 TED prize recipient JR, who eschews the title “street artist,” comes to Galerie Perrotin in Paris with Encrages, his first major solo exhibition. In addition to new works, the show includes several previously seen plastered on city walls worldwide—those of Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, Shanghai, and Los Angeles, among others. “After displaying his work in the biggest museum of the world, the walls of the cities, JR faces the walls of the gallery,” states the exhibition’s press release. The artist also transformed the gallery itself, covering the entrance with a two-story strained and staring eyeball, framed by wiry eyebrows and leathery skin.
Mircea Cantor’s work in FIAC 2011, image by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed, all photos by Art Observed unless otherwise noted.
By the close of FIAC on Sunday evening, some 68,000+ visitors had come through the fair. These attendance figures represent a 6% increase from the previous year, reports the New York Times. Housed this year in the exuberant Grand Palais, the fair showed strong sales from the get go. Despite the global economic downtown of recent years, the atmosphere was effervescent. French, American, and German galleries dominated the space (55, 26, and 21, respectively), but participants from Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa showed a strong presence at the fair for the first time. New York newcomers Matthew Marks, Eleven Rivington, Andrew Kreps, Michele Maccarone and Friedrich Petzel did well, and Pace Gallery made a comeback after a long absence. Compared to Frieze the week before in London, many fair-goers felt that the Parisian fair was riskier in content, creating a more exciting and eclectic display of artworks.
More text and images after the jump… (more…)
Crowds outside the Grand Palais on the public opening of FIAC, October 21, 2011. All photographs for Art Observed on site by Caroline Claisse.
After two days of previews, FIAC opened its doors to the Paris public on Friday, October 21st. Jill Silverman, Director of Paris/Salzburg-based gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, tells Art Observed that the fair presents “a very good cross section of European collectors.” FIAC is one of the most nationally-focused art fairs, boasting a solid 32% of French exhibitors, whereas last week’s Frieze in London had only 25% British galleries. American presence increased this year with several New York galleries making their debut at the fair: Matthew Marks, Eleven Rivington, Andrew Kreps, Michele Maccarone and Friedrich Petzel. After a 30+year absence, Pace Gallery made a comeback to the fair. Works by seasoned veteran Damien Hirst are exhibited at both White Cube and Gagosian. Anish Kapoor also has work spread across the fair, whose gargantuan installation Leviathan filled the entire interior of the Grand Palais earlier this year. Lisson is showing one of his signature colored concave mirrors in fire-engine red; Kamel Mennour has wine-red, Galeria Continua has green, and Kukje/Tina Kim has purple; all have different price tags. Sales have been strong thusfar; Pace Gallery’s Arne Glimcher told Artinfo, “We had sales right off the bat, it was really fascinating. I hadn’t anticipated this kind of rush, especially in this economy, where Europe is not in as good of shape as America. But I think we have the right artists.” He added, “FIAC is certainly an enormous cut above Frieze.”
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Two Less One (2011) at Galleria Continua
More on site coverage and images after the jump… (more…)
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FIAC 2011 at the Grand Palais in Paris. All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
FIAC 2011 (The Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain) opens this weekend in Paris for its 38th year. The international art fair, which boasts an impressive array of 168 galleries from 21 countries, will show the work of some 2,800+ artists. Running October 20–23rd, the exposition comes at the tail end of Frieze Art Fair, drawing artists, collectors, gallerists, and enthusiasts eastward from London. While the focus of Frieze leans toward contemporary, FIAC includes both contemporary and modern, including works from Picasso, Calder, and Matisse. The fair has been building momentum since 2006; Jennifer Flay, appointed general director in 2010, credits this boost to the fair’s move to the Grand Palais, one of the city’s most cherished architectural gems. The fair also expands this year to the Jardin des Tuileries, the Jardin des Plantes, the Museum of Natural History, and other venues around the city. Another innovation, a mobile application (in French) is available through Windows Phone which enables visitors to book tickets directly from their phone, as well as receive realtime news updates from the fair, find exhibitors and artists, and access videos and photos of the show.
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Jay Jopling of White Cube, which is exhibiting Damien Hirst’s Where Will It End.
More on site coverage and images after the jump… (more…)
