Displaying items by tag: Contemporary Art

The owners of Art Miami, a leading contemporary and modern art fair, have acquired New York’s Downtown Fair for an undisclosed price. The inaugural Downtown Fair will be held from May 8 through May 11 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City at the same time as Frieze New York. So far, around 50 contemporary art dealers have signed on to participate in the show.

Art Miami Partner and Director, Nick Korniloff, will direct the first edition of the Downtown Fair along with a management staff comprised of experienced marketing and exhibitor services professionals. Korniloff released a statement saying, “"We will deliver a well-vetted show that features a quality roster of artists that are represented by important international galleries. The advisory committee of dealers will insure that galleries are making every effort to show quality works that are fresh to the market."

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, ME announced that it has received 320 works from the collection of Dorothy and Herb Vogel. The gift, which includes works by Julian Schnabel and Richard Tuttle, will greatly enhance the museum’s modern and contemporary art holdings and is among the most significant donations the institution has received in its more than 200-year history.

The late Herb Vogel and his wife, Dorothy, began collecting art in the early 1960s and went on to build one of the most notable collections of minimal, conceptual, and post-minimal art. Following the gift to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Dorothy said, “This donation represents a true highlight in the giving of our collection. I take pleasure knowing that artworks included here, by leading American artists, have the capacity to inspire many generations of audiences, from students to locals, to a broad range of international visitors.”

The gift is one of the largest contributions of works from the Vogels’ collection since the couple made a major donation to Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art in 1992.

Keith L. Sachs, the former chief executive of Saxco International, a packaging distribution company, and his wife, Katherine, have been longtime supporters of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The institution announced this week that it will receive 97 works from the couple’s collection of contemporary paintings, sculptures and drawings. The gift, which is estimated to be worth nearly $70 million, includes works by Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly and Gerhard Richter.

In honor of the Sachs’ generous donation, the museum will name its modern and contemporary art galleries the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Galleries. An exhibition of the collection is slated for the summer of 2016. 

Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), which has been plagued by financial troubles for years, has quadrupled its endowment to over $100 million in the past nine months. Just last year the Los Angeles County Museum of Art offered MOCA $100 million to merge its two facilities with its own larger facilities. MOCA turned down the offer, opting to remain independent and launch a fundraising campaign for its endowment.

The campaign garnered the support of nearly 30 donors including financier and philanthropist Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, who bailed the museum out nearly six years ago with a $30 million donation, and Jeffrey Deitch, MOCA’s former director. The museum is still searching for a permanent director following Deitch’s tumultuous departure.

MOCA is currently the only museum in Los Angeles dedicated solely to  collecting and exhibiting contemporary art. Its collection includes works by Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Mark Rothko and Robert Rauschenberg.

2013 has been a record year for Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, which hopes to greet its one millionth visitor in the New Year. The institution welcomed 700,000 patrons in 2013 -- the highest attendance rate since the Stedelijk opened in 1895.

The Stedelijk recently underwent a complete renovation to its historic building and reopened to the public on September 23, 2013. The overhaul included an expansion so that the museum could exhibit more of its remarkable modern and contemporary art collection.

The Stedelijk will kick off 2014 with the first large-scale design exhibition since the museum’s reopening. ‘Marcel Wanders: Pinned Up at the Stedelijk’ will debut on February 1. Other exhibitions in the New Year will include a show featuring the work of jewelry designers Gijs Bakker and Emmy van Leersum (opening on February 22), a selection of works by Canadian photographer Jeff Wall (beginning on March 1st), new work by Paulien Oltheten & Anouk Kruithof (opening on March 14), a selection from the collection Martijn and Jeannette Sanders (opening on July 19), and a survey of the work of painter Marlene Dumas (starting on September 5).

On June 27, 2014, the Whitney Museum of American Art will launch the most comprehensive retrospective ever devoted to the work of contemporary artist, Jeff Koons. The exhibition will span over three decades and will include 120 works across a variety of mediums. The exhibition will be the final show held in the Whitney’s uptown location before the museum opens its new, highly-anticipated facility in downtown Manhattan in spring 2015. After it concludes on October 19, 2014 ‘Jeff Koons: A Retrospective’ will travel to the Centre Pompidou in Paris and then to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain.

Koons, one of the most popular living artists, draws inspiration from popular culture and everyday objects, transforming the banal into something monumental, often through dramatic shifts in scale. Koons works with anywhere from 90 to 120 assistants to bring his works to fruition. His work often raises questions about taste, the role of the artist, and the meaning of art in modern culture.

Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney’s Alice Pratt Brown Director, said, “Jeff Koons is one of the most significant artists of our era, and this retrospective will allow us for the first time to take the full measure of his art. Never before have so many of his works been on view together, nor has the Whitney ever devoted so much space to a single artist. We felt it was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the closing of our uptown building with an exhibition of great scholarly rigor that also promises to be a major international cultural event.”

Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art has acquired 50 works from the Carnegie International, North America's oldest exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe.

The purchases were approved by the museum on Thursday, December 12 and they are the first of two rounds of acquisitions from the International, which opened on October 5. Additional purchases will be announced in the New Year. So far, the Carnegie Museum has added a number of films to its collection as well as a large-scale sculpture by British artist Phyllida Barlow, photographs by Zoe Strauss, and drawings by Iranian artist Rokni Haerizadeh.

The International was launched in 1896 by industrialist Andrew Carnegie to help grow the museum’s collection as well as educate and inspire the public.

Two signed works by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst were stolen from the Exhibitionist Gallery in London. The works, which are from Hirst’s colorful spot paintings series, are worth around $54,000.

Officials believe that one person carried out the robbery and gained entry into the gallery by forcing open the front doors. It appears that the suspect had specifically targeted the two paintings.

Hirst, who rose to fame in the 1990s, is believed to be the richest living artist.  

It is being rumored that Alice Walton, the Walmart heiress and founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AK, purchased Andy Warhol’s Coca-Cola (3) from Christie’s in November. The painting sold for $57.2 million during the auction house’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale. The price is more than Walton has been known to have ever spent at an auction.

The work is one of only four paintings of a single Coca-Cola bottle made by the Pop artist between 1961 and 1962. Coca-Cola (3) was being offered by New York art dealer Jose Mugrabi and was expected to garner between $40 million and $60 million.

A representative for Walton would neither confirm nor deny the purchase.  

Art Basel Miami, one of the most highly-anticipated art events in the world, is currently underway. This year, the show, which draws over 50,000 visitors annually, is hosting more than 250 of the world’s leading galleries. Art events extend beyond the Miami Beach Convention Center where the fair is held to museums and galleries across the city.

Exhibitors from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa will be present at Art Basel Miami offering everything from modern and contemporary art masterpieces to works by emerging artists. Exhibitors include Acquavella Galleries, Gagosian Gallery, Gladstone Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Hirschl & Adler Modern, Paul Kasmin Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, Pace, White Cube, and David Zwirner. Offerings range from paintings, sculptures drawings and photographs to films and installations.

Art Basel Miami Beach will take place through December 8.