Dan Graham, Girls Make-up room, 1998-2000. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

Dan Graham’s first U.S. retrospective is currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The artist’s work has been highly influential since the 1960’s.  He has close personal and professional ties with Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin and Mel Bochner and as of yet his work has been seldom collected or recognized in the U.S. The show features a comprehensive sampling of his body of work in media including installation, text pieces, performance and site specific sculpture. At the core of his work, Graham is investigating public and private cultural systems and the extent to which his playful, often comic, interference can alter the way individuals relate to their surroundings, themselves and others.

Dan Graham: Beyond [Whitney Museum of American Art]
Dan Graham: Be My Mirror [Art in America]
Retrospective of Pioneering Artist Dan Graham Opens at Whitney Museum [ArtDaily]
Dan Graham: Artist’s Talk 2007 [Tate Modern]
Interview with Dan Graham [Museo Magazine]
Dan Graham: A Round Peg [NY Times]
Dan Graham – Whitney Museum of American Art [ArtForum]

Dan Graham, Figurative,1965; published March 1968 in Harper’s Bazaar. Via Whitney Museum of American Art

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Claes Oldenburg, “Ice Bag – Scale C” (1971) via NY Times

Currently on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is a retrospective of the work of artist Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929), whose highly productive career spans from the early 1960s to today. The exhibition is organized chronologically and consists of two parts:  the first, entitled “Claes Oldenburg: Early Drawings, Sculptures and Happening Films” traces the early developments of Oldenburg’s career in the 1960s and early ’70s, while the second, “Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen: The Music Room” focuses on Oldenburg’s thirty-three year collaboration with his wife Coosje van Bruggen, the art-critic and -historian who died of breast cancer in January.

Related links:
Exhibition page [Whitney Museum of American Art]
Exhibition page – Happenings Films [Whitney Museum of American Art]
A Low-Cost Show Reinflates a Big Bag [New York Times]
Going Softly into a Parallel Universe [New York Times]
Claes Oldenburg Artist Page [Art Observed]

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On 11 March 2009, Jenny Holzer’s traveling exhibition ‘PROTECT PROTECT’ opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. ‘PROTECT PROTECT’, previously at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, includes a number of Holzer’s characteristic LED sign works, but also features painting and installation from the last fifteen years.  The majority of the works in the exhibition draws from declassified U.S. government documents and unveils the human presence in the policy making of war, violence and torture. In Red Yellow Looming (2004), LED bars present the viewer with the language of previous U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, while Holzer’s Redaction Paintings series (2005-09) expose the experiences of the perpetrators and victims of the policies set out under these under presidencies.

The Whitney Museum of American Art
Jenny Holzer PROTECT PROTECT
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
March 12 – May 31, 2009

RELATED LINKS

Exhibition Page [Whitney Museum of American Art]
New York Times Review [New York Times]
Art in America Review [Art in America]
Art in America Review of Opening [Art in America]
New York Press interview with Jenny Holzer [New York Press]
Biography, Interviews and Multimedia on Jenny Holzer [PBS art:21]
Sign-Meister Genius Holzer Flashes Ideas on Love, War: Review [Bloomberg]

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Richard Serra’s Equal Parallel: Guernica-Bengasi, 1986, returned to El Museo Nacional Centro de Art Reina Sofia, Madrid via Art Daily

Missing Sculptures by Richard Serra are replaced at El Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia [ArtDaily]
How Art Capital Group is providing liquidity backed by significant fine art [The New York Times]
A new book on the world’s largest unsolved art theft, the Gardner Museum Heist [Wall Street Journal]
A new Julian Schnabel-designed steak house back room? [NYMag]
The Moscow Art Fair has been postponed [Bloomberg]

A still from the Marcel Dzama video via Pitchfork

Animated Marcel Dzama for NASA’s video [TheWorldsBestEver]
The Prado’s conclusion that Colossus is not a Goya is brought into question [Wall Street Journal]
How the Brooklyn Museum’s Shelly Bernstein expands the institutions presence via internet outreach [New York Observer]
Francis Bacon, and a new exhbition in the unlikely city of his death [New York Times]
An agreement reached with further clarifies the collection boundaries between the UK’s National Gallery and the Tate [Guardian UK]

Assume Vivid Astro focus via the TheMoment

Assume Vivid Astro focus collaborates with the New York Times [TheMoment]
The last days of Soho’s Guild and Greyshkul gallery [New York Times]
A detailed new report on the growing impact of China, Russia, India and the Middle East in the global art market [ArtDaily]
How the fall of the art boom is useful to trim the movement of blockbuster art to the only fleetingly interested masses [Newsweek]
Mega dealer David Nahmad on the market’s rise and fall: “It’s almost a fraud. I would never advise my clients to buy contemporary art.” [IndependentUK]

Lucian Freud has painted a wine label for Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2006 [Forbes]
Sotheby’s reports $2.8 billion in sales in 2008 [ArtDaily]
UK Government cuts VAT taxes after court rules that video and light art is sculpture in a case involving Dan Flavin and Bill Viola works imported by Haunch of Venison [The Art Newspaper]
How the Whitney recently benefited from the weakness of the corporate system [NYTimes]
The Times UK and Saatchi Gallery begin a top 200 artist survey with results to be announced in May [TimesUK]

Alexander Calder, Josephine Baker IV (1928) via Artnet

Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933 at the Whitney Museum showcases Calder’s works of portraiture, video, and figuration that are seldomly giving such widespread recognition.  Molding from industrial steel wire, Calder’s figures range from toast-of-the-town 1920s dancer Josephine Baker to tennis champion Helen Wills to John D. Rockefeller playing golf.  One of the highlights of the show comes by way of Jean Painlevé’s 1955 film “Le Grand Cirque Calder 1927,” in which Calder introduces his figures one by one while manipulating them through low-tech mechanics to animate their activities. This performance drew savvy audiences including many vanguard types like Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian and can be viewer here. The Whitney has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder in any museum and is the exclusive venue for this landmark exhibition, co-organized with the Centre Pompidou.

Calder At Play: Finding Whimsy in Simple Wire [NYTimes]
Video of Calder performing the “Circus” from a 1955 film by Jean Painleve [Youtube]
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, Exhibition at the Whitney Museum [DesignBoom]
Animalism by Charlie Finch [Artnet]
Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1927-1933 [Whitney Museum of American Art] (more…)

The Peaceable Kingdom, by Edward Hicks, the subject of a dispute between Halsey Minor and Sotheby’s, via Wikimedia

The founder of CNET sues Sotheby’s, citing non-disclosure of its economic interest in a painting sold to him, which he has withheld payment for [Bloomberg] more on this here [LATimes] and here [Wall Street Journal] and here [New York Times]
A prediction that the new leadership of the MoMA and Guggenheim will broaden and focus each institution respectively [NewYorkMag]
A profile of the emerging Zoo Fair artists at the National Academy in London [Guardian]
In a recent interview, Tracey Emin addresses her being raped at age 13 in Margate as well as her being a victim of child abuse [ThisisKent]
Artist builds a custom environment to work for 3 months at the Whitney for an upcoming exhibit of photographs of the happenings [ArtInfo] more on this here [New York Times]

Whitney Expansion plans via Culturegrrl

Whitney hits milestone for expansion approval, but will it be funded? [The New York Sun]
Video of a Jeff Koons-guided tour through his Versailles installation [VernissageTV]
Art and wine, a solid investment in financial turmoil? [The Wealth Report/WSJ]
Large and quiet, a new contemporary art space in Bologna [Times UK]
A monochromatic art book for babies features Hirst and Murakami [Guardian]
$730,000 Renoir, stolen from a Milanese family, is recovered [New York Times]
In related news: Lawyer sentenced who hid $30 million in stolen art, including a Cezanne, for 30 years [The Art Newspaper]

Arcangelo Sassolino via Men’s Vogue

Arcangelo Sassolino’s mechanical sculptures: art with highly destructive potential [Men’s Vogue]
Bond no9’s perfume tribute to Andy Warhol’s would-be 80th birthday [Art News Blog]
Will a statue of the Queen Mary replace art commissions on Fourth plinth? [Guardian]
The Met lends 28 significant modern sculptures to University of Texas [NYtimes]
Whitney Museum selling five nearby townhouses [CrainsNYBusiness]
The Sovereign, a new European art prize, controversially combines award and auction [Financial Times]

Paul McCarthy’s “Spinning Room” (2008) at the Whitney Museum of American Art via NYTimes

An exhibition of new and barely seen works from one of America’s most important artists, Paul McCarthy, is open at the Whitney Museum of American Art. McCarthy, who increased his notoriety when he transformed the Maccarone Gallery into a chocolate factory last November, now has “Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement Three Installations, Two Films” at the Whitney through October 12. The show was curated by Chrissie Iles and is designed by McCarthy, in part to address the viewer’s sense of perception.

Whitney to Present Paul McCarthy: Central Symmetrical Rotation Movement [Artdaily]
A Trip Through the Revolving Doors of Perception [NYTimes]
On View Now: Paul McCarthy [The Whitney]
Maccarone now officially home of Peter Paul Chocolates [ArtObserved]
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Image via NY Mag

The Whitney Museum wil exhibit Robert Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids until September 7.  Curated by Sylvia Wolf, “Polaroids: Robert Mapplethorpe” presents a selection of photographs not usually associated with this artist. This more spontaneous body of work is a combination of portraits, still lifes and erotica and shows links to his later, more recognizable stylized images.  These instant photographs work as a view into the photographic growth of the artist between the years of 1970 and 1975, as well as a testament to the full dynamic of this soon-to-be unavailable medium.

Spontaneity was the message [NY Times]
Shoot to thrill [New Yorker]
Polaroids: Mapplethorpe [Whitney Museum]
Whitney Museum of American Art to Present Polaroids: by Robert Mapplethorpe [ArtDaily]
Robert Mapplethorpe’s Polaroids [The Art Newspaper] (more…)

Leonard Lauder via The New York Times

Lauder Steps Down as Whitney Chair [NY Times, Art Forum]
“The primary market has only one event, and that is Art Basel” [Bloomberg]
A look at the work of the Guggenheim’s Chief Conservator [NySun]
An Interview with Nan Goldin in her Paris home [The GuardianUK]

Stephanie Seymour (wife of Art Collector and Art in America owner Peter Brant) in Jeff Koons
for Gap; via Nylon

The Gap, working in close partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Production Fund, recently released a collection of 13 t-shirts designed by contemporary artists who have all been past Whitney Biennial participants. Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Babara Kruger, Ashley Bickerton, Kiki Smith, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Marilyn Minter, Cai Guo-Qiang, Kenny Scharf, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, Hanna Liden, and Sarah Sze are all participating.

Gap Partners with the Whitney to Launch Artist Edition T’s [Gap]
Gap Artist Edition T Shirts [LA Times]
Turning Shirts Into an Artforum [USA Today] (more…)

The plan of the new whitney downtown via the NY Sun

The subject of some buzz for a while but officially announced a few days ago, a new Whitney museum will be built downtown in the Meatpacking district, opening in 20012. Thus far, the reaction of the community towards the Renzo Piano designed building has been very positive.

So Far, Community Backs Whitney’s Downtown Vision [NY Sun]
The Whitney Expands Downtown [The Gothamist]
Whitney Unveils Renzo Piano Design for Downtown Space [Artinfo]
Downtown Whitney gets support [The Real Deal]
Whitney’s Downtown Sanctuary [Ny Times]
Renzo Piano’s Plans for Downtown Whitney Outpost [ArtForum]

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Gagosian Gallery via the New York Times

On artists trading up galleries [NY Times]
Will the Whitney branch out overseas? [NY Mag]
The “masterpiece effect:” 40% of old master works at Christie’s NY fail to sell [Financial Times]
Multimillion dollar art fabricators to the likes of Jeff Koons [NY Times]
Gallerist, former Deitch Projects director James Fuentes’s gallery/home [Time Out NY]
What happens to ‘buy-ins:’ the standard 20-30% of lots that don’t sell at auction [WSJ]

‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory,’

J.M.W. Turner, 1806-8, via Tate

Tate sends 100 Turners to Moscow despite frigid diplomatic relations [ArtForum]
Update: French art market eclipsed by China [Financial Times]
Jasper Johns: Most successful artist ever? [New York Sun]
Russian artist Anna Mikhalchuk disapeared in Berlin [Artdaily]
View of Olafur Eliasson sculpture in Munich [contemporist via C-Monster]
Update: Interview of Whitney chief curator on Biennial’s process [Wall Street Journal]
Warhol’s Upper East Side townhouse for $5.99M  [New York Times]

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Gregory Crewdson via New York Magazine

Gregory Crewdson’s elaborate, freaky-suburban, cinema set works [NYMag]
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On the art pilgrimage to Judd’s Marfa, TX [Wall Street Journal]
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A Tom Otterness sculpture to Dumbo [New York Sun]
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Why Asian nations are bargain hunting Japanese Art [Herald Tribune]
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Banksy works headline U.K. regional auction [Bloomberg]
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Update: Overview of the Armory Show [Artinfo]
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Update: Warhol’s “Ten portraits of Jews of the 20th century” [NYTimes]
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Update: Armory sales hold despite economic slowdown [artnewspaper]
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An over-the-front-desk look at the “gallerinas” of Chelsea [NYTimes]
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C-Monster at the Whitney [Time Magazine]

Sonic Youth via Aquarium Drunkard

Richter’s “Kerze,” famously a Sonic Youth cover, for auction at Sotheby’s [Cinemablend]
Sonic Youth’s new touring art exhibit could be featured at the Whitney [NYMag]
New Saatchi Gallery in West London, will show only Contemporary [UK Times Online]
Video: Interview with Damien Hirst [Charlie Rose]
Review Contemporary Art on the Lower East Side [Bloomberg]

On Wednesday, June 6, the Whitney Museum of American Art played host to ART PARTY, a charitable event whose proceeds benefited the Whitney’s 40-year-old Independent Study Program, at Skylight Studios. The guestlist featured an array of celebrities who ran the gamut from Ivanka Trump and Kate Bosworth to Freddie Prinze Jr. and Moby. The music of DJ La Jauretsi powered the event while visual performances by Joshua Light Show and Bec Stupak dazzled guests with a spray of dreadlocks and fluid hula hoop movements. The affair’s dresscode, “Hippy Chic”, revealed refreshingly whimsical pieces by Hervé Léger worn by Arden Wohl, by ThreeAsFour worn by Genevieve Jones and, of course, a slew of damsels garbed in the host’s Max Azria summer frocks. (more…)