| | Christie's Major Two-Week Spring Sales Series Yields $557 Million and New World Records
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Women view Pablo Picasso's 'Buste de Francoise,17 1946'. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton.
NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's reports its two-week sales series devoted to important Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art totaled $556,944,875 (£338,398,139/€384,154,653) and yielded average sell-through rates of 87% by lot and 90% by value. These stellar results underscore Christie's position as market leader for the major spring sales series in the Americas. The next round of auctions in these categories will take place next month in London, featuring important private collections from the estate of Swiss collector and dealer Ernst Beyeler and from the pioneering curator and collector Kay Saatchi. Of the most recent sales series in New York, Marc Porter, Chairman and President of Christie's Americas, noted, “These sales were marked by strong, sensible bidding on the part of collectors, with moments of rational exuberance. Collectors and dealers alike were committed to acquiring the very best examples ... More |
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Property from the Collection of Edward P. Evans to Lead Sotheby's Auction in New York
Childe Hassam, The Quai St. Michel (detail). Est. $2.5/3.5 million. Photo: Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- The 19 May auction of American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture at Sotheby’s New York will be led by important works from the Collection of Edward P. Evans. A well-known member of the equine community, Mr. Evans’s collection features a range of 19th- and 20th-century paintings, with a particular emphasis on American Impressionism and the Ashcan School, and is highlighted by paintings from artists including Childe Hassam, George Bellows, William Glackens and William Merritt Chase as well as sculpture by Frederic Remington and Herbert Haseltine. Works from the Collection will be on exhibition along with the full sale at Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries beginning 14 May. Edward Evans’s racing and breeding program at Spring Hill Farm in Casanova, Virginia produced more than 100 stake winners in just over 30 years, earning him the title of “Breeder of the Year” by the Thoroughbred Owners ... More | | Meadows Museum Hosts Work by Pioneering Abstract Expressionist Esteban Vicente
Esteban Vicente, Number 7, 1950. Collage on paper and newsprint, mounted on Masonite, 26 x 19 1/2 in. Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York. Promised Gift of The Harriet and Esteban Vicente Foundation.
DALLAS, TX.- Some 80 lyrical collages and polychrome sculptures are on display at the Meadows Museum at SMU as part of the exhibition Concrete Improvisations: Collages and Sculpture by Esteban Vicente. The exhibition, on view from May 15 through July 31, marks the first time Vicente’s collages and sculptures have been paired together in a major exhibition. Vicente, a Spanish-born American painter, was a member of the first generation of New York Abstract Expressionists and a significant 20th century artist and teacher. Vicente participated in Meyer Schapiro and Clement Greenberg’s landmark exhibition Talent 1950 and also helped to organize the seminal 9th Street show. Vicente’s collages, which he first began producing in 1949, provide an insightful connection when ... More | | Photographs by Thomas Hoepker and Daniel Biskup at the German Historical Museum
Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel stands in front of a photograph of a Trabant (akaTrabi) by German photographer Thomas Hoepker. EPA/MICHAEL KAPPELER.
BERLIN.- For the first time the German Historical Museum presents a selection of largely unknown photographs from the work of the two photojournalists that has never before been shown in this form. The exhibition is on view from May 11 through October 3, 2011. This year the German Historical Museum is recalling the division of Europe, whose visible sign was the Berlin Wall, which was erected 50 years ago, in 1961. This embodiment of the “Iron Curtain” and reminder of the Cold War divided not only Berlin, but also separated East from West Germany and symbolised the East-West conflict. When the Wall fell on 9 November 1989, it meant not only the end of the division of Germany, but also heralded in the end of the Soviet Union and its domination of Communist East Europe. In 1991 – 30 years after the Wall was built – the ... More |
Power Incarnate: Allan Stone's Collection of Sculpture from the Congo at the Bruce Museum
Male Power Figure (Nkishi) with Mele (Metal Bell), Master of the Bulbous Copper Eyes, Songye (Kalebwe subgroup) artist, late 19th-early 20th century, Tshofa region, East Kasai Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wood, copper, metal, guinea hen and other feathers, beads, horn, fiber, snake skin, organic materials, 36 1/2 x 16 x 9 inches (92.7 x 40.6 x 22.9 cm) The Allan Stone Collection.
GREENWICH, CT.- Power Incarnate: Allan Stone’s Collection of Sculpture from the Congo features works drawn from the Estate of Allan Stone, the noted art dealer, gallery owner, and collector who died in 2006 at the age of 74. Perhaps best known for his expertise in Abstract Expressionism, Mr. Stone’s collection of African art is an extraordinary assemblage in its own right, a decidedly personal collection and a monument to a particular artistic vision. The exhibition is on view form May 14th through September 4th, 2011 at the Bruce Museum. The prevailing region represented in the exhibition is the Congo, and a particular type, the power figure, are the largest group among ... More | | The Art Institute of Chicago Presents Work by Los Angeles-Based Artist Uta Barth
Uta Barth. German, born 1958. ... and to draw a bright white line with light (Untitled 11.4), 2011. Inkjet prints, triptych; each panel 37 x 56 in. Courtesy of the Artist; 1301 PE, Los Angeles; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. © Uta Barth, Courtesy Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, and 1301PE, Los Angeles.
CHICAGO, IL- The Art Institute of Chicago (ARTIC) presents Uta Barth, on view from May 14 through August 14, 2011. Since the early 1990s, Los Angeles-–based artist Uta Barth has examined photographic and visual perception— how the human eye sees differently from the camera lens and how the incidental and atmospheric can become subject matter in and of themselves. That is to say, she is perhaps less interested in where the camera is pointing than the act of looking through the lens in the first place. The works that brought her to international attention, the series Ground and Field, presented photographic blurs caused by focusing the camera on an unoccupied foreground; these lushly colored images tested connections between the descriptive clarity of ... More | | Ancestors of Congo Square: Exhibition of African Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art
The title of the exhibition and its accompanying book is a nod to the historic Congo Square adjacent to the French Quarter in New Orleans.
NEW ORLEANS, LA.- The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) presents Ancestors of Congo Square: African Art in the New Orleans Museum of Art on May 13 to July 17. In keeping with the spirit of NOMA’s centennial year, the Museum highlights one of the most impressive areas of its permanent collection: its extensive holdings in African art. Additionally, the exhibition looks at the strong artistic and cultural connections between New Orleans and Africa. The title of the exhibition and its accompanying book is a nod to the historic Congo Square adjacent to the French Quarter in New Orleans, where African American slaves would gather to socialize, make music and dance in the 18th and 19th centuries. Like Congo Square itself, the exhibition is a metaphor for the process of people coming together from different areas of Africa to create a common spirit and culture. Both the book and the exhib ... More |
Major Solo Exhibition of Swiss Artist Mai-Thu Perret at Aargauer Kunsthaus
Swiss artist Mai-Thu Perret looks on during a press preview of her exhibition, entitled Mai-Thu Perret. The Adding Machine, at the Aargauer Kunsthaus. EPA/SIGI TISCHLER.
AARAU, SWITZERLAND .- The Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau presents a major solo exhibition of Swiss artist Mai-Thu Perret, on view from 14 May through 31 July 2011. The exhibition, which incorporates sculpture, installation, painting, video and performance as well as text-based work, is the most comprehensive presentation to date of this internationally renowned artist. In recent years Mai-Thu Perret (b. 1976) has drawn considerable attention in Europe and the U.S. for her ambitious, multidisciplinary artistic work, which comprises sculpture, installation, painting, video, performance, and text-based pieces with a wide underlying frame of cultural and art historical references. The Geneva-based artist is particularly interested in 20th century avant-garde movements and Utopian concepts of life. The solo exhibition at the Aargauer Kunsthaus titled The Adding Machine highlights the multifaceted approach of Mai-Thu ... More | | Naked Crowds in Public Spaces Photographer Spencer Tunick Hits Dead Sea Cash Drought
File photo of New York photographer Spencer Tunick. EPA/HERBERT PFARRHOFER.
By: Douglas Hamilton
TEL AVIV (REUTERS).- Naked crowds in public places have made American photographer Spencer Tunick world famous, but his plan for an installation featuring hundreds of nude Israelis floating in the Dead Sea has hit money problems. His photographs of hundreds of naked men and women of "all religions, shapes and sizes" in locations such as the Sydney Opera House and Switzerland's Aletsch Glacier have won critical acclaim and attracted fans worldwide. "It's very insignificant money," the artist told a Tel Aviv news conference. "But it's the naked body in a public space," he said, hinting at disapproval of his art in the Jewish state. Tunick and his eight assistants need $60,000 to pay the logistics costs of an installation and photo shoot in September or October at the lowest point on Earth, where the Dead Sea is drying up at the rate of one meter (three feet) a year. The artist, who is Jewish, has not yet decided what his Dead Sea installation will feature. He would like to show hi ... More | | Marta Minujin Builds a Spiraling Tower Made from Thousands of Books in Buenos Aires
General view of a 'Babel Tower' made with books by Argentinian artist Marta Minujin. EPA/CEZARO DE LUCA.
By: Luis Andres Henao
BUENOS AIRES (REUTERS).- A spiraling tower made from thousands of books in dozens of languages is the latest landmark to dot the skyline of Buenos Aires, named the World Book Capital this year. Called the Tower of Babel, the 82-foot (25-meter) high installation by Argentine artist Marta Minujin is made from 30,000 bricks, donated by readers, libraries and more than 50 embassies. Climbing up its seven floors of metal scaffolding, visitors to the tower hear music composed by Minujin and the voice of the artist repeating the word 'book' in scores of languages. On the walls, Japanese children's books are packed next to adventure tales from Patagonia or a Basque translation of Argentina's epic cowboy poem Martin Fierro. "Building this tower has been a miraculous experience," Minujin told Reuters Television, standing before the structure as curious passersby gazed on in a downtown city square. "A hundred years from now, people will say 'there was a Tower of Babel in ... More |
The New York Public Library Spotlights Its Vast Collections as It Celebrates 100 Years
Dime novel from the popular series Ten Cent Claude Duval Novels (ca. 1870s).
NEW YORK, NY.- The New York Public Library featurs over 250 artifacts from its incredible research collections in the new exhibition Celebrating 100 Years, which opened on May 14th at the Library’s landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The exhibition – a cornerstone of the Library’s celebration of the Schwarzman Building’s 100th birthday – is organized by independent curator Thomas Mellins and shines a spotlight on items spanning thousands of years and representing the worlds of literature, dance, social activism, invention, exploration, religion, history and innumerable other intellectual disciplines and creative pursuits. Artifacts belonging to literary giants such as William Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte and Jorge Luis Borges complements historically important items related to a wide variety of issues and events, from the Age of Discovery, to the creation of the Sovie ... More | | London Mayor Boris Johnson Announces Floating Path on London's Thames Gets Nod
Suspended a few feet above the water on the north bank, the walk will be interspersed with five glass-encased pavilions.
By: Stefano Ambrogi
LONDON (REUTERS).- Plans to erect a floating walkway on London's River Thames, affording spectacular views of forgotten parts of the city, got a major boost on Friday by securing up to 60 million pounds ($97.5 million) in funding. London Mayor Boris Johnson said the kilometre-long pontoon design, known as "the London River Park," won financing from Singapore-based asset managers, Venus Group. The structure, that will rise and fall with the tidal river, will link Blackfriars Bridge, on the western edge of the old city, and run almost to the Tower of London in the east. The design, by architects Gensler, is subject to planning permission and approval by the City of London Corporation and other agencies. "We will proceed sensitively ... More | | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Announces Opening of New Renzo Piano-Designed Wing
Victoria Morton, Title TBD, 2011. Oil on canvas and paper, 30 x 40 cm.
BOSTON, MA.- The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum announced that it will open its new wing, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, on Thursday, January 19, 2012. The public opening celebration will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino officiating. The Museum will honor its legacy by opening the new wing in January, as Isabella Gardner originally unveiled the Museum on January 1, 1903. Among the inaugural season programming highlights announced today are exhibitions in the new Special Exhibition Gallery and historic building, as well as an expanded concert series showcasing three works commissioned in honor of the new Calderwood Performance Hall. The wing will house essential programming and visitor amenities in purpose-built spaces, enabling preservation and restoration work in ... More |
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 Christie's Names Brett Gorvy Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary ArtNEW YORK, NY.- Brett Gorvy has been named Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s. In an expanded role, Gorvy will be the sole leader of the Post-War and Contemporary Art business on a worldwide basis and at the highest level. He continues to report to Chief Executive Officer Steven Murphy and be based in Christie’s New York. Since transferring from Christie’s London in 2000 to lead the International Post-War and Contemporary Department in New York with Amy Cappellazzo, Gorvy has pushed the boundaries of the market to new heights. Under his direction, Christie’s has achieved continuous leadership in the field and market. He has consistently spearheaded the intelligent and creative curatorship of sales, insight into pricing and a harnessing of our global client base to achieve record results. He has also been responsible for augmenting private sale initiatives, as w ... More 106 Association of Art Museum Directors Member Museums to Celebrate Art Museum DayNEW YORK, NY.- Over 100 art museums across North America will offer free or reduced admission, special programs, or other initiatives as part of their celebrations of Art Museum Day on May 18, 2011. These museums-all members of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), and located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico-include smaller regional museums as well as leading international institutions. AAMD's Art Museum Day coincides with International Museum Day, organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums. Participation by AAMD member museums emphasizes the lasting impact art museums have on their communities, highlights the value of the visual arts in society, and provides a range of opportunities for audiences to engage with the diverse programs that art museums offer. “Art museums provide a unique and irreplaceable public service, offering some ... More Survey of the Work of Media Art Pioneer Stan VanDerBeek at the Contemporary Arts Museum HoustonHOUSTON, TX.- The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the MIT List Visual Arts Center present the first museum survey of the work of media art pioneer Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984), on view from May 14th through July 10, 2011. Surveying the artist's remarkable body of work in collage, experimental film, performance, participatory, and computer-generated art over several decades, Stan VanDerBeek: The Culture Intercom highlights the artist's pivotal contributions to today's media-based artistic practices. The exhibition features dozens of early paintings and collages, an exhaustive selection of his pioneering animations and films, re-creations of immersive projection and "expanded cinema" environments, documentation of site-specific and telecommunications projects, and material related to his performance and durational work. Describing himself as a "technological fruit picker, ... More Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to Be First Museum to Exhibit Collection in Palace MuseumRICHMOND, VA.- Governor Bob McDonnell today signed an historic cultural exchange agreement to bring “Treasures from the Forbidden City,” a showcase of approximately 200 objects from Beijing’s Palace Museum to Virginia in the summer of 2014. The Palace Museum signatory was its director, Zheng Xinmiao. Also attending were Alex Nyerges, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' director; Li Ji, Palace Museum executive deputy director; Robin Nicholson, VMFA deputy director for art and education; and Li Jian, VMFA curator for East Asian art. “This is an historic partnership for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace Museum in Beijing," Governor McDonnell said. "‘Treasures from the Forbidden City’ will be a boon for Virginia tourism and the exchange will allow the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to showcase part of its magnificent collection in the most attended museum in the world. I thank the represent ... More Paul Trevor Photo Exhibition of 1970s Liverpool Opens at the Walker Art GalleryLIVERPOOL.- An exhibition featuring 58 photographs of children playing on the streets of 1970s Liverpool opened at the Walker Art Gallery this Friday. Like you’ve never been away: photographs by Paul Trevor runs until 25 September 2011. Paul Trevor came to the city in 1975 initially as part of a project called “Survival Programmes” which documented inner city deprivation. The young photographer spent several months recording family life across Liverpool on the fringes of the city centre. Among the terraced streets and high rise flats, Paul captured vibrant images which portrayed a community defiant and in high spirits despite a backdrop of unemployment and poverty. Paul Trevor said: “The time I spent in Liverpool in 1975 was special for me. My street photography was a spontaneous approach to capturing life as it was lived. “Despite initially worrying whether I would be accepted into the ... More |
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