A rare Modigliani nude hit the auction block at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale last night, and the painting didn’t disappoint. Bidding opened at $38 million and skyrocketed from there: five telephone bidders pushed the price up to a record-breaking $68,962,500, Artinfo reports.
Posted inArt
Anselm Kiefer Talks Religion, Politics, Ruins at 92Y
When Anselm Kiefer took the stage at 92nd Street Y last night, it wasn’t as the artistic-political bad boy the artist became famous as in the 60s and 70s, nor was it the epic mythologist of the 80s and 90s. Now, Kiefer cuts a figure of mischievous respect, a patrician of the contemporary art world whose work, unlike most of his peers, has actually retained its vitality and provocative nature over the years.
Kiefer’s conversation covered everything from the influence of religion on his work to the inspiration of ruins, the artist’s birth in a cave during World War II, and his opinion that all art produced during the Third Reich is “shit.”
Posted inOpinion
Artist Pads We’d Like To Hang Out In
With the news of Jeff Koons new mansion rising on the Upper East Side comes the tantalizing thought of what it would be like to hang out in some other superstar artists’ homes. Studios are cool and all, but the real fun would come with the art-installation living rooms and the nursery that looks more like a biomorphic amusement park. The possibilities are endless, though we wouldn’t want to be stuck at a Richard Serra tea party.
Posted inArt
Cutting the 2011 Venice Biennale Jargon
Curated by Bice Curiger, best known as the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the respected art magazine Parkett, the 2011 Venice Biennale will be titled ILLUMInations, in a play on words and typography that now comes standard for big deal exhibitions. The name is a combo of “illuminate” and “nations,” terms that Curiger uses to refer to the “dissemination” of the “current developments in international art.”
In other words, the Biennale will take as its theme the spread of ideas and artistic currents beyond the limitations of national boundaries and identities, taking on culture at the international level rather than on a country-to-country basis. Yet the Biennale is known for its use of national pavilions to stage exhibitions as something akin to national artistic showcases. How do you go post-national with a nationally and politically charged event?
Posted inSponsored
[Sponsor] The Association of Professional Art Advisors
On Friday, November 5, 2010, at 10 am, join the Association of Professional Art Advisors in New York City for a talk with security expert Robert Wittman, author of Priceless – a memoir about his work as the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. For more information or to RSVP, please email info@artadvisors.org or call 718-788-1425.
Posted inArt
New Museum’s “Free” Isn’t Just About the Money
To see the New Museum’s Free exhibition, you’ll have to fork over at least enough dough to make the $12 admission fee. For an exhibition that’s all about the limitless dispersion of culture quickly, easily and cheaply through the internet, the title presents an unmissable irony.
Despite the joke, Free represents a rare chance of looking at the visual and information cultures of the internet in a controlled context rather than in the anarchy of their native habitat. The New Museum is presenting a chance for removal, a step back from the computer screen and onto the wall. Not so much an escape from commodity or currency culture, Free pushes the boundaries of how we look at the flow of cultural artifacts themselves.
Posted inOpinion
Palazzo Koons Rises on the Upper East Side
It seems as though all those hanging hearts, flower puppies and porn paintings are finally paying off for Jeff Koons, as the superstar artist has begun to plan the renovation of two enormous Upper East Side townhouses into one giant SUPERMANSION! The artist purchased 11 East 67th Street in 2009 for a cool $12 million while its neighboring 13 East 67th Street came in at $20 million. Now, architecture firm Ennead Architects is requesting permits for a $5 million renovation that will make the two buildings one, Curbed reports.
Posted inSponsored
Thank You To Our October Sponsors!
We want to take a break from our regularly scheduled posting and keyboard tapping to thank our sponsors!
This month’s sponsors are Christie’s, Pernod Absinthe, Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory museum and The Association of Professional Art Advisors. Click through to learn more.
Posted inOpinion
No Comment: US Arts Funding vs CA Gov Race
Some things leave us speechless and this bite of Twitter wisdom is one of them. There are no words for this ridiculousness though it really does put things into perspective.
For information on the history of US arts funding, visit a post I wrote last year for the Art21 blog.
Posted inOpinion
The Underbelly Project Wants to Create an “Underground”
Unbeknown to the vast majority of New Yorkers, a street art project has quietly been taking place under the streets of our fair city, artist by artist and flashlight by flashlight. The Underbelly Project is a reaction against the overwhelming commercialization of street art. Project organizers Workhorse and PAC called the fad for ripping off street objects “commercialism at its worst.” To rectify this supposed “commercial” situation being faced by street artists, Underbelly “safeguards” street art’s “integrity” by placing it where only the select few can get at it: in an abandoned, unused subway stations somewhere underneath the teeming pavement.
Posted inOpinion
Best Comments of the Week, Oct 29
Every week, we’ll recap the best comments we’ve received on Hyperallergic’s posts, whether that’s on the blogazine itself, on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook. Be sure to check in every Friday for new comments. This week, readers respond to the UK arts funding cuts, Hans Ulrich Obrist’s book reading extravaganzas and apartment exhibition vogue.
Posted inNews
Get Ready for #TheSocialGraph
In two weeks, #TheSocialGraph will open at Outpost in Bushwick, Brooklyn and we’re incredibly excited. What is #TheSocialGraph? It is an evolving exploration of the burgeoning field of social media art and the relation of contemporary art with this populist tool as a medium, facilitator, and subject for art.
I am the curator of the project and I’ve pulled together a number of interesting artists, writers, social media mavens, and others to share ideas and explore possibilities presented by the intersection of visual art and social media. Some of the art in #TheSocialGraph will be about social media, some will use social media as an integral component of the finished project, and some will be more of an experiment so we’re not exactly sure what to call it.
