International Art Market News Highlights

Sunday, 1st February 2009

His Nonlinear Reality, and Welcome to It (New York, NY Times)
In stunningly short order, even for an art world then still moving at breakneck speed, his work was everywhere: the 2006 Whitney Biennial, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Saatchi Gallery in London, the collection of the Guggenheim Museum. And his most ambitious work to date, the movie-length "I-Be Area," which made its debut in 2007 at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery in Chelsea, was greeted with a kind of joyous critical consensus rarely seen in the art world.

Popsicles, Momsicles and kidsicles (Chicago, Chicago Daily Herald, IL, USA)
Among the few people who could browse the vast Bank of America art collection you might find Warren Buffett and Bill Gates - guys who spend more time in banks than you or I. Up until now, that is, when Chicago's National Museum of Mexican Art exhibits Miradas: Mexican Art from the Bank of America Collection. The exceptional exhibition encompasses one of the most extensive corporate collections in the nation and offers paintings, prints and photographs created over the past 80 years from both sides of the US-Mexico border.

Rising Tide: Film and Video Works from the MCA Open ... (San Diego, CA, US, ArtDaily)
On February 22, 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego will open Rising Tide: Film and Video Works from the MCA Collection, Sydney at its downtown Jacobs Building location. The exhibition--drawn from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney--will feature film and video installations by 13 internationally recognized contemporary Australian video artists and collectives.

Saturday, 31^st January 2009

Hard Times Hit Houses Where Art Meets Cash (New York, NY Times)
But there were no auctions or contemporary art to see that day. Employees began whispering that Mr. Pinault was there to discuss an impending sale of Christie's to a private-equity firm. "It's not true," said Edward Dolman, its chief executive, sitting in his New York office one afternoon last week. "Pinault has no intention of selling Christie's." The fervid speculation reflects wide curiosity about how Christie's and its archrival, Sotheby's, are coping now that the years of stratospheric prices and high living are over.

The lure of impressionism for the newly rich (Trends, Global)
The other thing that the story of "La Loge" tells us very clearly is that impressionist paintings are investment vehicles too. Extraordinary accelerations have since been punctuated by one exceptional dip in the 1990s but the underlying tendency of prices is an upward one. It must be, given the finite quantity of impressionist paintings available to the market and their long-established desirability. If there is an art market equivalent of a blue-chip stock, it is a major impressionist painting. History suggests that there will be a reliable return on it over the years. It is a lesson not lost on today's buyers.

The art market: Middle East in the frame (London, Financial Times UK)
Contemporary art from the Middle East is all over London at the moment. Last week Tate held a two-day symposium on the subject, bringing together curators, artists, academics and dealers in the field. The Saatchi Gallery opened its new show on Friday, featuring artists from Lebanon, Iran, Palestine, Iraq and Tunisia, among others [see Jackie Wullschlager's review ]. In parallel, Phillips de Pury, which funds free public entry to the Saatchi Gallery and has a space on the top floor, is showing 21 modern Arab and Iranian paintings.

A Wunderkammer of an Art Fair (Brussels, Belgium, ArtInfo, NY, USA)
Smack in the center of Western Europe and a capital of the EU, Brussels has recently grabbed the art-world spotlight as a burgeoning hub for contemporary work, with heavy-hitting dealers like New York's Barbara Gladstone and Paris's Almine Rech opening branches there last fall. Yet the city has long been a center for historical art and antiques -- in particular tribal objects -- and its 54-year-old Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair, which opened January 23 and runs through February 1, and now goes by the snappy acronymic nickname Brafa, is now striving for international appeal.

Saatchi and Middle East contemporary art (London, Financial Times UK)
Even if every show in the next decade at Charles Saatchi's opulent Chelsea gallery bombs, his place in art history will still be assured. As the impresario of the Young British Art movement, Saatchi catapulted young names such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin to stardom. Saatchi's love affair with youth is this maverick collector's most endearing, optimistic characteristic. It is also his fatal flaw, for ever since his YBA triumph in the 1990s, he has sought to repeat the phenomenon internationally, failing more or less spectacularly each time.

MOCA trimming staff by 20% (LA, LA Times, CA, USA)
The cash-strapped Museum of Contemporary Art is trimming its staff by 20% and cutting operating costs in an effort to reduce its annual expenses by approximately $4.4 million, the museum announced Friday. The cuts mean the elimination of 32 jobs -- 16 full-time, 16 part-time -- across all departments, out of a staff of about 160. Staffers who have been laid off were notified Friday.

The Artist's Largest Work? (New York, NY Times)
By spring, Mr. Koons, known for his appreciation of American kitsch, from giant puppies made of flowers to stainless-steel rabbits, may be immersed in a new vocabulary, talking mansard roofs, rusticated balustrades and other details of neo-Classical-style French architecture. For two years now and counting, Mr. Koons has been in contract to buy a six-story limestone town house at 11 East 67th Street, owned for about 65 years by an internist who moved to New York from Paris during World War II.

Hangar Ons (Los Angeles, Artforum - New York, USA)
THE ART-FAIR "SNEAK-PEEK" undoubtedly carries a certain attraction--attempts at backstage access are the subject of a whole body of fair lore. But when I was invited to an early view of Art LA's installation last Wednesday--twenty-eight hours prior to the third edition of the fair's opening gala (benefiting MoCA)--my instinct was to delay gratification. If you're not shopping, what's the point?

Friday, 30^th January 2009

LA's Museum Of Contemporary Art Lays Off Staff (Los Angeles, US, LA Times Blogs)
The cash-strapped institution announced today that it is reducing its staff by 20% as well as cutting operating expenses. The plan is to reduce expenses by approximately $4.4 million a year.

What The Obama Government Might Mean To The Arts (The Art Newspaper)
The opportunity to rethink government's role comes at a time when it is readily acknowledged among arts professionals that cultural support in America is outdated in its assumptions, sclerotic in its methods, biased in its outcomes, and inefficient in its use of philanthropic and taxpayer dollars. It's time to move on. But where?

Moscow Fine Art Fair Canceled (The Art Newspaper)
We believe that the financial and political climate in Russia is such that many potential buyers could have cold feet next May, and hence it is unfair... to hold an event when all indicators tend to say that there will not be much business going on.

Thursday, 29^th January 2009

Ex-MoCA Director Strick To Lead Nasher Museum (Los Angeles, US, New York Times)
Just a month after Jeremy Strick resigned under pressure as director of the beleaguered MOCA in Los Angeles, he has landed a new job. Starting March 2 he will be director of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, the institution confirmed. The appointment was in the works well before November, when it first came to light that the Museum of Contemporary Art was on the brink of financial collapse.

New Met Museum Director Thomas Campbell (New York, The Guardian UK)
On any scale, the task of Thomas Campbell as director of New York's Metropolitan Museum is daunting. The Briton is stepping into one of the world's most prestigious curating posts, in charge of a huge encyclopaedic collection, at a time of enormous challenges for modern museums.The numbers are jaw dropping. The Met owns more than 2m objects; some are 5,000 years old, including the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt, and the biggest of Asian art outside Asia.

The Goya/Not-Goya Colossos: Does It Matter Who Painted It? (Bloomberg)
Does it really matter who painted a picture? Once, so the story goes, a collector showed the artist Walter Sickert his private gallery, which consisted, or so the proud owner thought, entirely of Sickerts. Unfortunately, they were fakes, a fact that Sickert broke as gently as he could. "None of these is my work," he remarked, "but none the worse for that." In a sense, he was right. The arrangement of pigments on canvas remained exactly the same, whoever had put them there. The fact that it didn't happen to have been Sickert changed nothing.

Koolhaas Firm To Design Arts Center In Taipei (ArtInfo)
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture design encompasses three theaters - two that seat 800 and one that holds 1,500 - all of which feed into a central cube clad in corrugated glass that unites their stage accommodations so that the theaters can be used separately or in combination."

How Badly Were Foundations Hurt By Bernie Madoff? (New York Times)
Many non-profit organizations invested with Mr. Madoff and will suffer a double-whammy, losing not only their own savings but also the support of foundations that previously donated regularly but are now broke. And they will also lose some of their individual donors who were invested with Mr. Madoff as well. This is the first time this information has been compiled and made public.

Brandeis Might Not Sell Art, But Museum Will Close (Boston, US, Boston Globe)

Jehuda Reinharz, Brandeis University president, yesterday opened the possibility that the university would not sell its $350 million art collection but said he would not change his mind about closing Rose Art Museum and turning it into a study and research center." Brandeis's provost "said university officials believed they could not operate a museum, which is expected to abide by a code of ethics limiting the reasons it can sell off art, and then sell art to pay for needs other than the museum.

Wednesday, 28^th January 2009

Just How Bad Brandeis' Financial Situation Is (Boston, US, The Daily Beast)
Even the museum's director went on attack, saying the Rose, which according to the university's own website "houses what is widely recognized as the finest collection of modern and contemporary art in New England," not only pays its own way but contributes to the university's funds. The collection, largely donated over the years, includes seminal works by Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Morris Louis, Matthew Barney, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Serra, among others.

Rose Supporters Seek To Block Brandeis, Save Museum (Boston, US, Boston Globe)
Donors and long-time supporters of the Rose Art Museum are exploring whether they can block Brandeis University's stunning decision to close the museum and sell an art collection that had been valued at $350 million. Jonathan Lee, chairman of the museum's board of overseers, said yesterday that he intends to meet with officials in the state attorney general's Public Charity Division to see if there is anything he can do to stop the university from shutting down the 48-year-old museum at the end of the summer.

Manslaughter By Inflatable Art, Prosecutor Charges (Durham, UK, The Guardian)
Two people died when a walk-through inflatable artwork broke free from its moorings because of the creator's gross negligence, a court heard today. Maurice Agis, 77, designed the multi-coloured Dreamspace structure and was taking it on a UK tour when disaster struck in July 2006 in Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

Cashing In On Rose Collection Is Wrong (And Poorly Timed) (Boston, US, Boston Globe)
The decision to close the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University and sell off its extraordinary collection smacks of panic. Panic, as everyone knows, is sometimes an appropriate response to reality. But usually it's not, and, either way, it's rarely edifying to watch." Far from expendable, the museum "is the best place to go in the Boston area to see modern and contemporary art of the highest caliber.

Tuesday, 27^th January 2009

At Brandeis, A Nightmare Scenario For University Museums (Inside Higher Ed)
The decision to shut the museum runs directly counter to the ethics codes of art and museum associations, which permit the sale of art donated for a museum only for the purchase of additional art, not to be shifted to other purposes. "This puts all of our roles at our institutions in jeopardy," said David A. Robertson, president of the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries and director of Northwestern University's art museum.

Goya's Colossus Is Actually His Assistant's, Prado Says (The Guardian - UK)
The giant, fierce figure of The Colossus as he rises above a fleeing crowd of people, carts and animals is one of Spanish artist Francisco de Goya's most dramatic and famous pictures - at least it was until yesterday, when Madrid's Prado museum declared he had not painted it. ... Experts at the museum now believe The Colossus was painted by one of Goya's assistants, whose initials may appear in a corner of the canvass.

Vagabond Latin American Art Collection To Find A Home (Los Angeles Times)
The fate of the Cisneros collection of Latin American art, considered among the best ever assembled, is a question that has long preoccupied art lovers in Venezuela and throughout the world. For the last decade, the collection owned by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, wife of a Venezuelan media magnate, has been an itinerant one, lent out in tranches to dozens of museums in North and South America.

Ministry Of Silly Walks: Artists Get Animals' Legs Wrong (The New York Times)
The way four-legged animals walk has been well known since the 1880s, when Eadweard Muybridge's motion-capture photographs revealed the sequence of leg movements." Many artists, evidently, have not been taking note. "After analyzing more than 300 depictions of walking animals in museums, veterinary books and toy models, the researchers report that in almost half of them the leg positions are wrong.

Despite California Museums' Problems (California, The Architect's Newspaper)
California museums are reeling from drastically reduced endowments: The Getty Trust in December told The Art Newspaper that its endowment has lost 25 percent since last June. Meanwhile, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles was just delivered perhaps the most public blow of all: donor default. Exacerbated economic woes resulted in a massive drop in donations, forcing the museum to dip into its emergency savings.

Budget Cuts At Smithsonian As New Secretary Installed (Washington, Washington Post)
The newly installed secretary of the Smithsonian Institution announced yesterday that he has implemented a hiring freeze and eliminated salary increases and bonuses for one class of its highest-paid employees. G. Wayne Clough has also asked several departments to reduce their current-year budgets by 5 percent to 8 percent.

A Great Time For Museums? Yes, Says The Guy In Charge. (New York, Wall Street Journal)
Fresh from meeting with the architects for the Clark's expansion, he argued during a long conversation at New York's Harvard Club that this financially perilous period is "a great time for art museums." They are, he said, "bellwethers for people at moments like this. We saw this happen after 9/11. If we are doing our jobs well, we're the places that people can turn to in times of instability. The reality is that the Metropolitan Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Phoenix Art Museum are not going away.

Monday, 26 January 2009

A Strapped Brandeis To Close Art Museum, Sell Collection (Boston, US, Boston Globe)
Rocked by a budget crisis, Brandeis University will close its Rose Art Museum and sell off a 6,000-object collection that includes work by such contemporary masters as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Nam June Paik. The move shocked local arts leaders and drew harsh criticism from the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries. Rose Art Museum director Michael Rush declined comment this evening, saying he had just learned of the decision

Nigella's Better Half Seeks Next 'Sensation' On Small Screen (London, BBC)
A new X Factor style television talent show will attempt to discover the next British art sensation. The BBC Two show, presented by advertising boss and art collector Charles Saatchi, is open to all aspiring artists. Finalists will be tutored by leading contemporary artists before exhibiting their work in St Petersburg, Russia."

Guernica Tapestry, Long At UN, Will Visit Whitechapel  (London, Art Newspaper)

"A tapestry of Picasso's Guernica, which was at the centre of a row just before the invasion of Iraq, is to go on display at the Whitechapel Art Gallery on 5 April. It currently hangs at United Nations headquarters in New York, just outside the Security Council chamber.

Child's Play (That Sells) (Australia, The Guardian - UK)
The gallery owner had accepted the work as worth hanging, so there was nothing for it but to go ahead, and headline the paintings as by the youngest artist ever to show work in a commercial gallery. The strategy paid off. Seven of the 15 works, priced between $300 and 10 times that, were sold before the show opened. Newspapers ran pictures of the toddler at work, with paint in her hair, her eyebrows and all over her clothes.