Displaying items by tag: Contemporary Art

Frieze London, the most highly anticipated contemporary art event of the year, opened on October 17 in a custom-built structure in Regent’s Park. This year’s show features 152 preeminent galleries from around the world offering works by well-known artists as well as promising newcomers.

The art world’s elite flock to Frieze to browse works being offered by established dealers including Gagosian Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, Lisson Gallery, Pace, White Cube and David Zwirner. This year’s offerings include five works by American pop artist Jeff Koons (Gagosian Gallery), sculptures by Swiss artist Urs Fischer (Sadie Coles HQ) and a monumental white odalisque sculpture by New York-based artist Jennifer Rubell (Stephen Friedman Gallery).  

Now in its second year, Frieze Masters, which presents works created before the year 2000, ranging from ancient era and old masters to late 20^th century works, is taking place at the same time as its contemporary counterpart. Exhibitors include Acquavella Galleries, Hauser & Wirth and Landau Fine Art.

During Frieze’s preview on October 16, the Tate Collection acquired five works by emerging and leading international artists thanks to a £150,000 gift from The Outset/Frieze Art Fair Fund.

Frieze London and Frieze Masters will take place through October 20.

On November 12, 2013, Christie’s New York will offer a monumental abstract painting by Mark Rothko during its Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening sale. The last time a Rothko of this magnitude was offered at auction was May 2012 when Orange, Red, Yellow sold for a record $86.6 million at Christie’s.

Untitled (No. 11) has resided in the same collection for two decades. Prior to its acquisition in 1992, the work was featured in a number of retrospectives including exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the Neue National-Galerie in Dusseldorf, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Untitled (No. 11) is expected to garner between $25 million and $35 million.

Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christie’s, said, “After the auction record set in May 2012 for Orange, Red, Yellow, from the Pincus Collection, we are delighted to present Untitled (No. 11) as one of the highlights of Christie’s November evening sale. The demand for masterworks by Rothko is probably the most international amongst all the artists we sell, with strong bidding consistently from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Russia and the Middle-East. Untitled (No. 11) is remarkable for its incredible beauty, intensity of color and inner light - the very hallmarks of Rothko’s prime period. The monumental scale allows viewers to be completely enveloped by the colors and its sensations.”

Untitled (No. 11) will go on view in London before traveling to New York in November.

The contemporary art institution MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts has embarked on a monumental collaboration with the Hall Art Foundation. The cornerstone of the partnership will be a comprehensive, long-term exhibition of sculpture and paintings by the German artist, Anselm Kiefer. The works will be housed in a 10,000-square-foot building, which was re-purposed by the Hall Art Foundation specifically for the Kiefer exhibition.

The show will include an 82-foot long, undulating wave-like sculpture made of cast concrete, exposed rebar, and lead; an installation containing over 20 beds made of lead with accompanying wall text and photographs; and a large-format commission created specifically for installation at MASS MoCA.

The Hall Art Foundation makes works of postwar and contemporary art from its collection and that of Andrew and Christine Hall available for the enjoyment and education of the public. Besides the new exhibition space at MASS MoCA, the Hall Art Foundation operates a contemporary art space in Reading, Vermont.

A triptych of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon could sell for over $95 million at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale on November 12, 2013. Three Studies of Lucian Freud from 1969 carries an estimate of $85 million at hammer price but fees would be added to that amount.

The painting of Bacon’s painter friend is being offered by an unidentified European seller and has never appeared on the auction market before. The work was included in the seminal Bacon retrospective organized by Paris’ Grand Palais in 1971-72.

Three Studies of Lucian Freud will be on view at Christie’s King Street during Frieze Art Week from October 13-18, 2013 before heading to the auction in New York in November. Francis Outred, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe, said, “We are honored to announce the sale of an undeniable icon of twentieth century art. A conversation between two masters of 20^th century figurative painting, Francis Bacon’s triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, executed in 1969 is a true masterpiece that marks Bacon and Freud’s relationship, paying tribute to the creative and emotional kinship between the two artists.”

A painting by Willem de Kooning from a rare and celebrated series will head to Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale on November 13, 2013 in New York. Executed in 1975, Untitled V is the prime example from the critical phase when de Kooning returned to painting after a period of sculpture-driven work. The painting has not been seen in public since 1980 and will go on view in London on October 12, 2013 before appearing in New York on October 31, 2013. Untitled V is expected to fetch anywhere from $25 million to $35 million.

The original series that Untitled V was a part of was created in six months exhibited at the Fourcade, Droll gallery in New York. The paintings stunned audiences with their explosive color palettes and wide variety of masterful brushstrokes. Tobias Meyer, Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s, said, “The unveiling of Untitled V and the other Fourcade gallery exhibition paintings in the autumn of 1975 marked the renaissance of Willem de Kooning. Today, the force of the work is as powerful and affecting as it was forty years ago.”

The auction record for any de Kooning works was set at Christie’s New York in 2006 when Untitled XXV (1977) sold for $27.1 million. The painting also set the record for the highest price paid for a Post-War work at the time.

During its annual gala on Saturday, October 5, 2013, Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum announced that all exhibitions will be free to the public beginning in February 2014. The Hammer Museum is a contemporary institution affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles and attracted approximately 215,000 visitors last year. General admission to the museum has historically been $10.

The change in policy was made possible by two patrons’ gift of $1 million each, which will cover the loss of income from admission fees. Hammer Museum officials hope that by getting rid of admission fees, the institution will be more accessible to the public.  

The American Folk Art Museum in New York presents the exhibition alt_quilts: Sabrina Gschwandtner, Luke Haynes, Stephen Sollins, which will feature works by three contemporary artists who are inspired by the history, meanings, and structures of American quilts. alt_quilts includes 23 contemporary works alongside 10 masterpiece quilts from the Folk Art Museum’s illustrious holdings.

Quilts were prominent large-scale artworks through the 19^th century and remained a popular form of artistic expression for women until the 20^th century. Dr. Anne Radice, Director of the Folk Art Museum, said, “Since its inception the American Folk Art Museum has celebrated a distinctly American phenomenon – the pieced quilt…the boundaries between artistic disciplines are even more blurred, and the contemporary works of art on view in this exhibition are especially illuminating.”

 alt_quilts: Sabrina Gschwandtner, Luke Haynes, Stephen Sollins will be on view at the American Folk Art Museum through January 5, 2014.

Madison Square Park Conservancy’s free contemporary art program, Mad. Sq. Art, unveiled a new sculptural installation by renowned Italian artist Giuseppe Penone. The three 30-foot tall bronze trees titled Ideas of Triplice (Triple), Idee di pietra – 1303 Kg di luce (Ideas of stone – 1303 Kg of light), and Idee di pietra – Olmo (Ideas of stone -- Elm) complement Madison Square Park’s lush landscape and highlight the relationships between man, sculpture and nature.

Penone is known for his use of natural materials and forms in his artworks. A former member of the Italian Arte Povera group, which aimed to dissolve the divisions between art and life by using commonplace subjects and materials in their art, Penone often incorporates fingerprints, nails, wires and carvings into his sculptures. President of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, Debbie Landau, said, “With this, the Park’s twenty-sixth exhibition of outdoor sculpture, we are honored to present Giuseppe Penone, an esteemed artist of international stature. Penone’s work may be best known to European audiences, and the opportunity to display his towering bronze trees in New York is a tribute to his unique vision which complements the natural environment of the Park’s foliage as the seasons transition from fall to winter.”

Penone’s sculptures will remain on view daily through February 9, 2014.

The Broad, Los Angeles’ newest contemporary art museum, will offer free general admission when it opens in late 2014. The museum’s founders, Eli and Edythe Broad, made the announcement during a hardhat tour and preview of the institution. Eli Broad said, “It has long been our goal to ensure that the contemporary artworks in the Broad collections are seen by the broadest possible public. We believe that free general admission to the The Broad will help draw visitors to all of the cultural institutions along Grand Avenue.”

Designed by the New York City-based studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the new museum will present approximately 2,000 works from the Broads’ collections in a gallery space spanning over 50,000 square feet. In addition to the public galleries, The Broad will be the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation, a lending library of contemporary art created by the Broads in 1984. Since establishing the foundation, the Broads have loaned over 8,000 works of art to nearly 500 museums and galleries across the globe.

The $140 million museum has created over 1,000 new jobs and is being built entirely with union labor.

Jeff Koons’ coveted sculpture Balloon Dog (Orange) will be part of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale on November 12, 2013 in New York. The avid art collector and paper magnate, Peter Brant, is selling the 10-foot-high sculpture, which is one of the most recognizable pieces of 20th century art. The funds from the sale will be used to create an endowment for the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, which is located in Greenwich, CT and presents two annual exhibitions drawn from Brant’s illustrious collection of contemporary art.

Balloon Dog carries a pre-sale estimate of $35 million to $55 million and is one in a series of five sculptures created in the early 1990s. The other sculptures reside in the collections of renowned collectors Steven A. Cohen, Eli Broad, Francois Pinault and Dakis Joannou.

Brant will hang on to his other works by Koons including a 43-foot-tall terrier made from over 70,000 flowering plants titled Puppy.