Displaying items by tag: Contemporary Art

On April 8, 2015, Doris and Donald Fisher’s inimitable collection of twentieth-century art will go on view at the Grand Palais in Paris. The exhibition marks the beginning of a small international tour that will include another stop at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence, France. When the exhibition concludes, the Fisher Collection will return to its new permanent home -- the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

In 2010, SFMOMA announced an unprecedented partnership to house and display the art collection of Donald Fisher, the founder of the Gap, and his wife, Doris. Comprising over 1,100 works by 185 American and European artists, the Fishers’ collection is one of the greatest private collections of modern and contemporary art in the world.

Madrid's Museo Reina Sofía bought 26 artworks reaching a combined worth of €348,884 at ARCO art fair last week. The total budget spent marks an increase of €144, 259 compared to last year's, when, according to "El Imparcial," the acquisition committee of the museum acquired works for only €204,625 at the fair.

The increase in the museum's budget crowns a successful edition of Spain's top contemporary art fair.

The city of Sacramento and the Kings have agreed to commission world-renowned artist Jeff Koons to create a sculpture for outside the new downtown arena.

In what is the largest budget for a public art installation in the region’s history, the Kings, the city and three team owners will pay $8 million for the art. Another $1.5 million from the Kings and local philanthropist and artist Marcy Friedman will commission work from local artists to be displayed at the arena.

Koons’ sculpture will be the fifth in his “Coloring Book” collection, a series of towering stainless steel sculptures that have been displayed in some of the most prominent art museums in the world.

The veteran American artist Alex Katz was inspecting the hang of his new paintings while I looked at them, but I could not ask him any questions. I was dumbstruck. The only thing I could have said to him at that moment would have been a stuttered, “How come you paint so well?”

How can simple pictures of faces be so unexpected, exciting and fascinating? Katz has been painting portraits for a long time now – he’s 87 and began his career in the age of Jackson Pollock – and his latest works do not shatter his established style. Their main novelty is that all the figures are set against black. Many of the pictures have a wide CinemaScope format so the people in them stand out as colourful shapes against a nightscape of glossy darkness.

East London’s public sculpture walk -- The Line -- will open on May 23, 2015. Drawing comparisons to New York’s High Line, an elevated linear park dotted with public art projects, The Line will follow the Prime Meridian, linking two iconic East London sites -- Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the O2 Arena. Co-founded by art dealer Megan Piper and urban generation expert Clive Dutton, The Line launched a crowdfunding campaign in February 2014, which raised over £140,000 in less than eight weeks.

The Line aims to present existing works in a new context by placing thirty sculptures along a three-mile path that runs between the two sites of major urban transformation.

The granddaughter of one of the world’s leading dealers of Modern and Impressionist art, whose collection was looted by the Nazis, is launching her own gallery on New York’s Upper East Side.

Marianne Rosenberg, a long time international finance lawyer, has signed a lease on a space measuring around 1,500 sq. ft in the ground floor of a townhouse on East 66th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenue, in what was formerly the home of the Dickinson Gallery. The gallery, Rosenberg & Co, is scheduled to open on March 7 and will focus on the secondary Modern market, and also work with contemporary artists.

Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist As Collector, which opened at the Barbican Art Gallery in London earlier this month, is the first exhibition in the UK to present the personal collections of post-war and contemporary artists. Ranging from mass-produced memorabilia and popular collectibles to unique curiosities, rare artifacts, and natural history objects, each collection allows an unprecedented glimpse into the oftentimes eccentric predilections of some of today’s most collected artists.

Organized by Barbican curator Lydia Yee, Magnificent Obsessions features the personal collections of well-known artists such as Sol Lewitt, Damien Hirst, Peter Blake, Martin Parr, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Andy Warhol, and Martin Wong/Danh Vo, alongside at least one example of their work. The exhibition aims to use these collections as a means to provide insight into these artists’ inspirations, influences, motives, and fascinations. According to a press release from the Barbican, Jane Alison, Head of Visual Arts at the gallery, said, “What a joy to have brought together the treasured private collections of the fourteen artists in Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector. The thrill of collecting is something we can all relate to, and I am sure visitors will enjoy this deeply personal and endlessly fascinating show.”

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver has raised $8.5 million in a fundraising effort to eliminate the debt it incurred during construction.

The Prosperity Campaign was launched it 2012. This recent fundraising reduces the museum's total bank liability from $11.8 million when the building was completed in 2007 to a current level of $2.7 million.

James Turrell, a contemporary artist best known for his groundbreaking exploration of light, color, and space, has announced that he will allow a select group of people to visit the Roden Crater -- his unfinished land art masterpiece. Turrell conceived the project in 1974, and in 1977, he acquired the 400,000-year-old extinct volcanic crater located near northern Arizona’s Painted Desert. Turrell has spent decades transforming the inner cone of the Roden Crater into a monumental work of art and naked eye observatory that will, according to Turrell’s website, “link visitors with the celestial movements of planets, stars, and distant galaxies.”

The Roden Crater will be open to a limited number of people from May 14, 2015, to May 17, 2015, as part of a fundraising event. Intended for “serious patrons of the arts,” attendees are required to donate $5,000 to Turrell’s nonprofit, the Skystone Foundation, which is responsible for the fundraising, administration, and realization of the Crater project.

Iwan Wirth, President and co-founder of the internationally acclaimed modern and contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth, announced that the company will build a permanent home in New York City’s west Chelsea arts district. One of the most sought-after locations in New York, Chelsea is brimming with top-notch galleries, including David Zwirner Gallery, Paul Kasmin Gallery, Andrea Rosen Gallery, Marianne Boesky Gallery, and Lehmann Maupin. This new venue will replace Hauser & Wirth’s current temporary downtown gallery, which will continue to host exhibitions and various programs until its lease expires in 2017. The 7,400-square-foot, multi-level space will complement Hauser & Wirth’s townhouse on East 69th Street.

The new Hauser & Wirth  gallery will be designed by Annabelle Selldorf of Selldorf Architects, who has worked with the gallery since the 1990s on its various locations in Zurich, London, and New York.