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Sunday, May 13, 2012 |
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Fondation Beyeler presents first Jeff Koons exhibition ever held in a Swiss museum
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US artist Jeff Koons' poses next to "Balloon Dog (Red)" on May 11, 2012 during an exhibition preview at the Fondation Beyeler museum in Riehen. The Fondation Beyeler is presenting the first exhibition ever devoted by a Swiss museum to the US artist. Koons, likely the best-known living artist, has for decades been causing a furore with the combination of popular and high culture that informs his art. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI.
RIEHEN.- Jeff Koons (b. 1955) is one of the best known contemporary artists, whose work has repeatedly caused a furore since the 1980s. He has been especially renowned for works that call the conventional distinction between art and kitsch into question. The Fondation Beyeler is presenting the first Koons exhibition ever held in a Swiss museum. From the start Koons worked in terms of chronological series of pieces, each with its own title. Taken together, these series titles provide an overview of his artistic conception. The extensive show comprises about 50 works from three central groupings that represent crucial steps in Koons's development and pursue the unusual path, combining popular and high culture, which ... More |
| British artist Antony Gormley's 'suicide' statues atop central Sao Paulo roofs give fright |
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Pace/MacGill Gallery exhibition celebrates the life and work of Robert Delpire |
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Sotheby's to sell the most important portraits of the Dora Maar period to be offered at auction in France since 1998 |
A sculpture by British artist Antony Gormley is displayed on the edge of a building in downtown Sao Paulo. AP Photo/Andre Penner.
By: Bradley Brooks, Associated Press
SAO PAULO (AP).- They stand like nude sentinels, hundreds of feet above the stone pedestrian streets of central Sao Paulo. The life-size human silhouettes appear tense, perched on the edges of high-rises, prepared to dive to their deaths below. Passers-by point toward the sky, with perplexed expressions and mouths agape. "What is that ... a man? No. What ... ?" Jessica Santana, a 20-year-old municipal worker, uttered to a friend Friday as they walked through Patriarca plaza, eyes fixed high above. The 31 iron and fiberglass statues bolted atop several buildings are part of the first South American exhibit for British artist Antony Gormley, who has won many awards, among them the prestigious Turner Prize. The sculptures, based on Gormley's own body, are burnt auburn in color, ... More |
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Lee Friedlander, Nashville, 1963 © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
NEW YORK, NY.- Pace/MacGill Gallery is presenting A Tribute to Robert Delpire, an exhibition celebrating the life and work of the prolific French publisher, art director, film producer, and curator. A pivotal figure in the history of photography, Delpire has played an essential role in the promotion and distribution of the medium for more than 60 years. The featured photographs by Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Josef Koudelka, Duane Michals, and Paolo Roversi showcase just a small selection of the iconic image-makers Delpire has championed throughout his career. The exhibition is on view May 10 through June 16, 2012 and is presented in collaboration with Delpire & Co. at Aperture Foundation, The Gallery at Hermès, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, La Maison Française, New York University, and Sarah Moon at Howard Greenberg Gallery. For over half a century, Delpire has been profoundly instrumental in the careers of ... More |
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Picasso’s Femme Assise, the other star work at the Sotheby’s May 30 sale in Paris. Estimated at €2-4M ($2.6-5.2 M), this was painted in Royan on 13 October 1939, just three days before Tête de Femme.
PARIS.- Pablo Picasso’s Tête de Femme (1939-41) will be the highlight of the next sale of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s Paris on 30 May 2012. This portrait of Dora Maar, consigned from a private European collection, is appearing at auction for the first time (est. €3-5 M / $4-6.6 M). In the words of Thomas Bompard, Head of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department at Sotheby’s France: “Dora Maar’s importance in Picasso’s life and work is legendary and hugely significant. His Dora Maar Period – lasting from their meeting in 1937 to their break-up at the end of World War II – accounts for six volumes of his catalogue raisonné! Yet no Picasso picture of Dora Maar has been seen at auction in Paris since the memorable sale of the Dora Maar Collection in October 1998. Sotheby’s is therefore honoured to ... More |
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| Getty Research Institute launches free online search gateway to the world's art libraries |
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Ensemble of historic documents, books, letters and poems featured at Sotheby's sale Books & Manuscripts |
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Sotheby's London sales of Modern & Post War British art realise a combined total of £7,719,650 |
Tango s korovami (Tango with Cows)(Moscow, 1914), n.p., Vasilii Kamenskii, Vladimir Davidovich Burliuk, and David Burliuk. The Getty Research Institute
LOS ANGELES, CA.- On Thursday, May 31, 2012 the Getty Research Institute will launch the Getty Research Portal, an unprecedented resource that will provide universal access to digitized texts in the field of art and architectural history. The Getty Research Portal is a free online search gateway that aggregates descriptive metadata of digitized art history texts, with links to fully digitized copies that are free to download. Art historians, curators, students, or anyone who is culturally curious can unearth these valuable sources of research without traveling from place to place to browse the stacks of the world’s art libraries. There will be no restrictions to use the Getty Research Portal; all anyone needs is access to the internet. “It is fitting that the Getty Research Institute, an international leader in the study of art as well as new research technologies, would spearhead a revolutionary resource such as the ... More |
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Two autograph letters including 8 original drawings by Salvador and Gala Dali about the project of a ballet with the dancer Léonid Massine, c. 1941-1942. Est. €30,000-40,000 / $40,000-52,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
PARIS.- The 184-lot sale of Books & Manuscripts to be held at Sotheby’s Paris on 15 May 2012 includes an ensemble of historic documents, books, letters and poems concerning two great names of French poetry: Paul Verlaine and Guillaume Apollinaire. Other giants of French literature present in the auction include Montesquieu, Voltaire, Balzac, Baudelaire, Flaubert and Victor Hugo, alongside drawings (by Victor Hugo), photographs (a unicum of Verlaine by Carjat), or one the masters of world cinema (91 coloured drawings by Orson Welles). 46 signed letters to André Level, his parrain de guerre and a celebrated collector and patron, help chart the course of Apollinaire’s military career, and his changes of rank, prior to the moment when he was famously wounded in March 1916 (est. €150,000-250,000 / $195,000-325,000). Another ... More |
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William Roberts, The Chess Players, 1929-30, oil on canvas £1,161,250 (est. £300,000-500,000). Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- Sotheby’s Modern & Post-War British Art Evening and Day Auctions concluded today with a combined total of £7,719,650. The top lot of the Evening Sale was William Roberts’ oil on canvas The Chess Players, which sold, after an intense four-way bidding battle, for £1,161,250 - more than twice the pre-sale estimate and a record for the artist at auction. John Craxton’s Sleeping Fisherman sold for £277,250 (est. £100,000-150,000), another auction record. The Jerwood Collection of monumental sculptures made £654,200. Frances Christie, Head of Department, Sotheby’s Modern and Post-War British Art commented: “These strong results reflect collectors’ determination to acquire rare and high quality works. The top lots in last night’s Evening Sale were fiercely contested and new records set for John Craxton, William Roberts and Frederick Etchells. In all, 42% of the works sold were for above es ... More |
| In Egypt turmoil, thieves hunt pharaonic treasures; authorities scramble to prevent smuggling |
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Major exhibition of recent works by Chakaia Booker opens at Marlborough Gallery |
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Personal sculptures and drawings by Jane McAdam Freud on view at Gazelli Art House |
Army special forces stand next to the funeral mask of King Tutankhamun in its glass case in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill.
By: Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press
CAIRO (AP).- Taking advantage of Egypt's political upheaval, thieves have gone on a treasure hunt with a spree of illegal digging, preying on the country's ancient pharaonic heritage. Illegal digs near ancient temples and in isolated desert sites have swelled a staggering 100-fold over the past 16 months since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak's 29-year regime and security fell apart in many areas as police simply stopped doing their jobs. The pillaging comes on top of a wave of break-ins last year at archaeological storehouses — and even at Cairo's famed Egyptian Museum, the country's biggest repository of pharaonic artifacts. Horrified archaeologists and antiquities authorities are scrambling to prevent smuggling, keeping a watch on European and American auction houses in case stolen artifacts show up there. "Criminals became so bold they are ... More |
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Chakaia Booker, chance, 2012, rubber, wood and steel, 33 x 19 x 24. © Chakaia Booker, courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York.
NEW YORK, NY.- Marlborough Gallery announced that a major exhibition of recent works by Chakaia Booker opened at Marlborough Chelsea, 545 West 25th Street, continuing through June 16, 2012. The exhibition will feature sculptures in the artist’s signature medium of sliced, cut and reconstructed rubber and rubber tires, and will showcase the complete range of Booker’s formats, including pedestal pieces, wall-mounted reliefs, and large-scale freestanding works as well as two dimensional digital prints. Chakaia Booker has gained significant acclaim for her highly expressive, socially evocative sculptures made principally from rubber tires. With good grace Booker has accepted the moniker “Queen of Rubber Soul.” Her use of rubber as a trademark sculptural material began in the mid-1990s and she has since recycled countless Goodyears, Firestones and Michelins into highly expressive sculptures, creati ... More |
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File photo of British artist Jane McAdam Freud face to face with a large-scale terracotta sculpture called EarthStone. AP Photo/Joel Ryan.
LONDON.- Fine artist Jane McAdam Freud is presenting her latest body of work entitled Family Matters in a solo exhibition at Gazelli Art House. From 24 April – 25 May 2012, McAdam Freud is displaying an array of personal sculptures and drawings that focus on her familial relationships and the broader concept of family at the new Dover Street gallery. Family Matters shows defining works in the artist’s career including new, previously unseen sculptures and installations. The daughter of famed portrait artist Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of groundbreaking psychologist Sigmund Freud, Jane McAdam Freud is highly influenced by her family history. Channelling her artistic heritage, McAdam Freud decided at an early age to pursue a career in art although it would not be until later in her life that father and daughter would work side by side when McAdam Freud taught Lucian Freud some sculpture techniques duri ... More |
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| After four days of lively sales, seventh edition of Pulse New York 2012 art fair closes |
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Kunsthalle Mainz presents a major solo exhibition of the artist Michael Kalmbach |
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New York City spring art auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's abound in records |
Anne Lindberg, parallel 25 yellow, 2011 (detail). Graphite and colored pencil on cotton mat board, 58 x 51 in.
NEW YORK, NY.- The seventh edition of PULSE New York 2012, the leading art fair dedicated to international contemporary art, closed on Sunday, May 6th, after four days of lively sales at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. Held on May 3-6, 2012, the nearly seventy national and international galleries and exhibitors presented works that spanned across all media, from works on paper, painting, and sculpture, to performance, installation, and video art. “PULSE is a consistent favorite amongst art fair goers, and we are fortunate that our exhibitors bring such rich and diverse content that caters to our audience,” comments Cornell DeWitt, Director. “With our strong sales, widespread support, and attendance, PULSE appeals to collectors of all levels and demonstrates a thriving mid-range market sector. As a longstanding New York fair, PULSE experienced sales across all categories and provided a compelling c ... More |
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Prinz Charming II, 2007. Paper maché and wire. Diameter 185 cm. Courtesy: Thomas Rehbein Galerie, Cologne. Photo: Simon Vogel.
MAINZ.- On the occasion of the “Kultursommer Rheinland-Pfalz” taking place under the motto “God and the World,” the Kunsthalle Mainz is presenting a major solo exhibition of the artist Michael Kalmbach (born in 1962 in Landau, lives in Berlin). In addition to an extensive selection of his large- and small-scale watercolors, his sculptural work is also comprehensively featured. The artist’s picture story “Der große und der kleine Paul” (Big Paul and Little Paul) consisting of fifty watercolors accompanied by texts will serve as the point of departure for the show in Mainz. In Old-Testament style, the fairy-tale-like plot recounts a kind of story of creation in which conditions of violence and oppression are overcome by an unusual act of liberation on the part of “Little Paul.” Michael Kalmbach’s figurative, narrative oeuvre revolves around recurring double ... More |
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“The Scream by” Edvard Munch sold for a record $119,922,500. Photo: Sotheby's.
By: Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP).- The city's spring art auction season was red hot. The frenzy began with Edvard Munch's "The Scream" on May 2, when a phone bidder at Sotheby's plunked down nearly $120 million for the iconic image, earning it the title of most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Then, Mark Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" stole the record for any contemporary artwork at auction when it sold for nearly $87 million at Christie's on Tuesday. But it didn't stop there. Artist records also were shattered at the two auction houses for works by Yves Klein, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and others. The art market remains one of the few flourishing during a difficult economic period. Among the reasons: an expanding global market that includes ... More |
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 Historic battleship becoming naval museum in Southern California
RICHMOND, CA (AP).- Firing its 16-inch guns in the Arabian Sea, the U.S.S. Iowa shuddered. As the sky turned orange, a blast of heat from the massive guns washed over the battleship. This was the Iowa of the late 1980s, at the end of its active duty as it escorted reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war. Some 25 years later, following years of aging in the San Francisco Bay area's "mothball fleet," the 887-foot long ship that once carried President Franklin Roosevelt to a World War II summit to meet with Churchill, Stalin and Chiang Kai Shek is coming to life once again as it is being prepared for what is most likely its final voyage. Not far from where "Rosie the Riveters" built ships in the 1940s at the Port of Richmond, the 58,000-ton battlewagon is undergoing restoration for towing May 20 through the Golden Gate, then ... More Retrospective exhibition of contemporary art by Ilona Sochynsky opens at The Ukrainian Museum
NEW YORK, NY.- A Singular Vision: Ilona Sochynsky, Retrospective of Painting, a comprehensive exhibition of more than 50 paintings, including many large-scale works from all phases of the artist's development, will open to the public on Sunday, May 13, 2012. Curated by Jaroslaw Leshko, Professor Emeritus at Smith College, the exhibition will be on view through October 7. Ilona Sochynsky’s painting career, entering its fourth decade, presents an oeuvre of visual beauty, intelligence, intensity and complexity. At its core, it is a profoundly personal journey of discovery. Her earliest paintings explore the imagery of Pop Art (she was especially drawn to the works of James Rosenquist) and Photorealism, a movement prominent in the 1970s. She responded to the latter’s hyperrealism and its subject matter of cars, motorcycles and street scenes, which she reinterpreted in her ... More Biennial art festival transforms Cuban capital
HAVANA (AP).- Giant ants swarm the facade of an aging theater. White-clad, face-painted dancers and circus performers frolic on a central boulevard. Cuban and American chefs serve gourmet cross-cultural meals from a boxy shipping-container kitchen. Havana's always bustling streets are even more colorful than usual these days, with Friday's kickoff of the Cuban capital's Bienal art festival. Crews installed sculptures along city's famous seawall, galleries hung paintings and citywide performance pieces delighted art lovers, tourists and residents tickled to stumble onto the unexpected. One Cuban artist laid out a wax dummy of Osama bin Laden on a Persian rug and, shortly after the one-year anniversary of the al-Qaida leader's killing by U.S. forces, questioned whether there's more to the story. "Is he dead or is he alive? Where is he? Who knows?" Julio Lorent ... More Dior exhibit traces 60 years of cinema
GRANVILLE (AP).- Going back to where it all began, a new exhibit in the childhood home of legendary designer Christian Dior in Normandy sheds new light on the house's huge contribution to the silver screen. The setting also provides rare insight into how a young Dior, who liked to spend time in the garden, became inspired by the Granville landscape and decided to dedicate his life to fashion. The exhibit features a rare collection: three floors with 50 glittering gowns, worn by actresses including Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Rita Hayworth, both on and off the screen from 1942 to the present day. "It's not something that many people know. For Christian Dior, it was his first job: it all started with cinema costume and dressing up. By the time of his first fashion show in 1947, he'd already done eight films. Now over a 100," Christian Dior museum co-curator Barbara Jeauffroy-Mairet ... More Estonia to open maritime museum in seaplane hangar
TALLINN, ESTONIA (AP).- Estonia will open the Baltic states' largest maritime museum in a hangar once used by Charles Lindbergh. The main attractions at the €15 million ($20 million) Seaplane Harbor will be a British-built submarine dating from the 1930s and a life-size replica of the 184 seaplane, a British two-seater designed by Short Brothers. The unique concrete hangar housing the museum was built in 1916-17 when Estonia was part of czarist Russia. Its most famous guest was Lindbergh, the U.S. aviator, who flew there from Moscow in 1933 as part of his tour around Europe. The hangar was a closed military zone from 1940, when the Soviet Union annexed Estonia, until 1991 when the Baltic state regained its independence. ... More |
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