Urs Fischer - Tables, Heads, and Arms

Source: Gagosian Gallery

Continuously searching for new sculptural solutions, Fischer has built houses out of bread; enlivened empty space with mechanistic jokes; deconstructed objects and then replicated them; and transferred others from three dimensions to two and back again via photographic processes. He combines daring formal adventures in space, scale, and material with a mordant sense of humor. Reinvesting traditional art historical genres (still life, portraits, nudes, landscapes, and interiors) with an abundance of rich and surprising forms—such as cast sculptures and assemblages, paintings, digital montages, spatial installations, kinetic objects, and texts—he ceaselessly explores the intersection of art and everyday life.

The exhibition title, a collision of furniture and body parts, gives le corps exquis another turn of the screw. The works to which the title alludes are tables that combine large resin-coated photomontages with multicolored steel geometric bases. The jokey surrealist montages juxtapose images both found and manipulated—a pair of sausages, a cartoon snail, a graffiti-covered wall, an open mouth, a Hong Kong supermarket. Blurring the distinctions between photography, collage, sculpture, and furniture, the tables are objects both aesthetic and useful, filling the gallery with a presence that is at once visually arresting and socially convivial.

Urs Fischer was born in 1973 in Zurich, and studied at the Schule für Gestaltung, Zurich. His work is included in many important public and private collections worldwide. Recent major exhibitions include “Kir Royal,” Kunsthaus Zurich (2004); “Not My House Not My Fire,” Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004); “Mary Poppins,” Blaffer Gallery, Art Museum of the University of Houston,Texas (2006); “Marguerite de Ponty,” New Museum, New York (2009–10); “Oscar the Grouch,” The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, Connecticut (2010–11); “Skinny Sunrise,” Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2012); and “Madame Fisscher,” Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2012), as well as the Biennale di Venezia in 2003, 2007, and 2011.

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Henry Moore: Late Large Forms - Gagosian Gallery (exhibition, 2012)

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Art market review - year 2012

by G. Fernández - theartwolf.com

Edvard Munch: The Scream
Painted in 1895
Sold for $119,922,500 / £73,921,284 / €91,033,826 at Sotheby's New York, May 2012
The sale of "The Scream" marked a new world record for any work of art ever sold at auction. A group of at least eight bidders jumped into the competition, and after more than 12 minutes, the lot was sold to Charles Moffett, bidding on behalf of an anonymous buyer (later revealed to be American businessman Leon Black). Simon Shaw, Senior Vice President of Sotheby's, described the work as “the defining image of modernity".

Mark Rothko: Orange, Red, Yellow
Painted in 1961
Sold for $86,882,500 / £53,884,526 / €66.899.525 at Christie's New York, May 2012
The monumental painting was described by Christie's as "the most important work by the artist on the market since "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" sold for $72.8m in 2007". Although "Orange, Red, Yellow" has all you want from a Rothko, the "White Center" is a much better work.

Mark Rothko: No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)
Painted in 1954
Sold for $75,122,500 / £46,590,975 / €56.819.200 at Sotheby's New York, November 2012
Rothko again. According to Sotheby's, "(this) majestic canvas was one of eight works handselected by Rothko for his landmark solo show of the same year at the Art Institute of Chicago"

Ruyao Washer
Northern Song Dynasty
Sold for 207,860,000 HKD / $26,500,000 at Sotheby's Hong Kong, April 2012
This beautiful work -described by Sotheby's as "arguably the most desirable piece of Ru official ware remaining in private hands"- smashed the auction record for a Song ceramic bowl.

Henry Moore: Reclining Figure: Festival
Conceived in 1951
Pre-sale estimate of £3,500,000 - £5,500,000
Sold for £19,081,250 / $30,148,375 at Christie's London, February 2012
This bronze piece is now the most expensive British sculpture ever sold, surpassing Damien Hirst’s "The Golden Calf", sold 4 years ago for £10.3 million.

Figure of Isis
Egyptian, Dynasty XXVI, circa 664-525 B.C.
Pre-sale estimate of £400,000 - £600,000
Sold for £3,681,250 / $5,930,494 / €4,553,706 at Christie's London, October 2012
A new world auction record for an Egyptian work of art. The buyer was London dealer Daniel Katz.

Longmen head of a Bohisattva
Early Tang Dynasty, 7th century B.C.
Pre-sale estimate of $40,000 - $60,000
Sold for $992,500 at Sotheby's New York, September 2012
Several Asian works of art sold for spectacular prices in 2012, and this beautiful head of a Bohisattva -sold for 20 times its pre-sale estimate- is a good example.

Lega Mask
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Pre-sale estimate of $5,000 - $7,000
Sold for $362,500 at Sotheby's New York, May 2012
The work was once in the collection of Henri Matisse, and the "with possible alterations by Henri Matisse" statement in the catalogue surely helped to boost its final price.

Joan Miró: Peinture
Painted in 1933
Pre-sale estimate of £7,000,000 - £10,000,000
Unsold at Sotheby's London, February 2012
This classic work by Miró was unsold the day after "Painting-Poem" set a new auction record for the artist. Four months later, Sotheby's sold "Peinture (Étoile Bleue)" for a record £23.56 million ($36.9 million).

Jean-Honoré Fragonard: The Good Mother
Pre-sale estimate of $5,000,000 - $7,000,000
Unsold at Christie's New York, January 2012
This oval-shaped painting was the star of Christie's "The Art of France" auction. "The Good Mother" is one of Fragonard's most famous compositions (a slightly larger version hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston), but the lot failed to sell.

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Renaissance masterpieces at Christie's

December 21, 2012, source: Christie’s

Leading the sale is premier Florentine portraitist Agnolo Bronzino’s "Portrait of a Young Man with a Book", one of the most important Renaissance portraits remaining in private hands (estimate: $12,000,000 - 18,000,000). Recently rediscovered, the Portrait of a Young Man with a Book is among Bronzino’s earliest known portraits, datable to the time he was most closely associated with his teacher, Jacopo Pontormo, whose stylistic influence is clearly visible here. While the sitter’s identity cannot be confirmed, his social status and profession are alluded to. Elegantly attired and shown writing in a manuscript with a quill pen, he is clearly a cultivated man of letters. The seeming spontaneity of the sitter’s pose and direct gaze toward the viewer suggest that he may have been a close friend of the artist.

Fra Bartolommeo’s beautifully preserved "The Madonna and Child", still set in its original frame, is an important recent addition to the artist’s oeuvre (estimate: $10,000,000 - 15,000,000). Likely executed in the mid-1490s, early in Fra Bartolommeo’s career, this tondo-shaped panel depicts a tender moment as the Christ child eagerly grasps his mother’s veil, pulling himself up to receive a kiss.

Sandro Botticelli’s "Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist" is also among the highlights of the sale (estimate: $5,000,000 - 7,000,000). Intended for private devotional use, the work depicts a popular subject in Florence, as Saint John the Baptist was the patron saint of the city; his presence was likely intended to signal that the patron was a Florentine patriot. The tender sentiment between mother and child is here combined with an allusion to the Resurrection in the tomb-like structure carved with a classical relief just behind the figures. The diaphanous veil which falls over the Madonna’s head and shoulders signifies her purity, as this was the traditional head covering of unmarried Florentine women. The painting comes to market with a highly distinguished provenance, having been acquired in the early 1930’s from Lord Duveen by John D. Rockefeller. It remained in the Rockefeller family for some 50 years, and has more recently passed into a private New York collection, though it is still widely referred to as “the Rockefeller Madonna.”

Other highlights of the sale include Raphael’s remarkable drawing of "Saint Benedict receiving Maurus and Placidus" (estimate: $1,000,000 - 1,500,000); a "Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni", executed in 1574 by Scipione Pulzone, previously exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (estimate: $1,500,000-2,500,000); and "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch (estimate: $400,000 - 600,000).

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Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925 - MoMA, New York

Source: MoMA, New York

Commemorating the centennial of the moment at which a series of artists invented abstraction, the exhibition is a sweeping survey of more than 350 artworks in a broad range of mediums—including paintings, drawings, prints, books, sculptures, films, photographs, recordings, and dance pieces—that represent a radical moment when the rules of art making were fundamentally transformed. Half of the works in the exhibition, many of which have rarely been seen in the United States, come from major international public and private collectors. The exhibition is organized by Leah Dickerman, Curator, with Masha Chlenova, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art.

Roughly one hundred years ago, a series of rapid shifts took place in the cultural sphere that in the end amounted to the greatest rewriting of the rules of artistic production since the Renaissance. Invented not just once, but by different artists in different locales with different philosophical foundations, abstraction was quickly embraced by a post-Cubist generation of artists as the language of the modern.

The exhibition takes an international perspective, and includes work by artists from across Eastern and Western Europe and the United States, such as Hans Arp (German/French, 1886–1966), Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955), El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890–1941), Kazimir Malevich (Russian, 1879–1935), Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872–1944), and many others.

Highlights of the exhibition include Pablo Picasso's "Woman with a Mandolin" (1910), Vasily Kandinsky's "Komposition V (Composition V)" (1911), Piet Mondrian's "Tableau No. 2 / Composition No. VII" (1913), Giacomo Balla's "Velocità astratta + rumore (Abstract speed + sound)" (1913-14), Kazimir Malevich's "Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying" (1915), and Fernand Léger's "Les Disques (The disks)" (1918).

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Michelangelo's 'David-Apollo' travels to Washington

December 18, 2012, source: National Gallery of Art, Washington

The David-Apollo first visited the National Gallery of Art more than 60 years ago, as a token of gratitude for postwar aid and to reaffirm the friendship and cultural ties that link the peoples of Italy and the United States. The masterpiece's installation here in 1949 coincided with Harry Truman's inaugural reception. During the next six months the sculpture was seen by more than 791,000 visitors. In 2013, a new generation of visitors to the National Mall around the time of another inauguration—Barack Obama's second—will also have the chance to view the David-Apollo.

The ideal of the multitalented Renaissance man came to life in Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), whose achievements in sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry are legendary. The subject of this statue, like its form, is unresolved. In 1550 Michelangelo's biographer Giorgio Vasari described the figure as "an Apollo who draws an arrow from his quiver," referring to the classical god of music and enlightenment, whose arrows could assail both terrible monsters and disrespectful mortals. A 1553 inventory of the collection of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, however, calls the work "an incomplete David by Buonarroti." By then it had entered the Palazzo Vecchio (the seat of government in Florence), joining several earlier sculptures of the biblical giant-killer David, a favorite Florentine symbol of resistance to tyranny.

In the David-Apollo, the undefined form below the right foot plays a key role in the composition. It raises the foot, so that the knee bends and the hips and shoulders shift into a twisting movement, with the left arm reaching across the chest and the face turning in the opposite direction. This spiraling pose, called serpentinata (serpentine), invites viewers to move around the figure and admire it from every angle. Michelangelo's conceptions of figures in this complex, twisting pose exerted a strong influence on contemporary and later artists. Although he brought the David-Apollo almost to completion, he left the flesh areas unfinished, as though veiled by a fine network of chisel marks that would have been filed off when the sculpture was completed. Least finished are the supporting tree trunk and the elements that would establish the subject: the rectangle on the figure's back that could become a quiver or sling, and the form under his right foot that could be a stone or the head of the vanquished Goliath.

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NGA acquires works by Moran, Whistler and others (news, August 2012)

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Art Basel Miami Beach 2012 - December 6-9, 2012

Source: Art Basel Miami Beach

Art Galleries, the main sector of Art Basel's Miami Beach edition, will feature 201 exhibitors. This year’s selection brings a strong showing of Modern material, further underlining the historical dimension of Art Basel Miami Beach. Joining a notable number of returning galleries, the sector includes many participants exhibiting at the show after a brief hiatus - Art: Concept, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Galeria Graça Brandão, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, Kewenig Galerie, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, Esther Schipper and Galerie Daniel Templon – joined by several first-time exhibitors Henrique Faria Fine Art, Galerie Michael Haas, Hammer Galleries, Hirschl & Adler Modern, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Craig F. Starr Gallery and Tornabuoni Art.

Art Nova offers younger galleries a platform to present artworks made in the last three years by two or three artists. Since its inception, the Art Nova sector has become known as a space of discovery for works fresh from the studio. With 40 galleries on display, the sector will feature work by more than 100 artists from across the world including juxtapositions such as: Yael Bartana, Tal R. and Tom Burr (Sommer Contemporary Art); Tania Pérez Cordova and Nina Beier (Proyectos Monclova); Becky Beasley and Simon Dybbroe Möller (Francesca Minini); Theaster Gates and Angel Otero (Kavi Gupta Gallery); John Gerrard, Michelle Lopez and Hans Schabus (Simon Preston); Brigida Baltar, Lucia Koch and Melanie Smith (Galeria Nara Roesler); Julião Sarmento and Leigh Ledare (Pilar Corrias); Dove Allouche, Jonathan Binet and Jessica Warboys (Gaudel de Stampa); and Hao Liang, Yangjiang Group and Zheng Guogu (Vitamin Creative Space).

Art Positions features a tight selection of 16 galleries, 12 of which did not exhibit at Art Basel in Miami Beach last year. An exciting platform for collectors, museum directors, critics and art enthusiasts to gain further insight into the work of individual emerging artists, this year’s presentation will feature many exciting young artists working internationally today

As part of Art Kabinett, select galleries admitted to the Art Galleries sector will present curated exhibitions in separately delineated spaces within their booths. The curatorial concepts for Art Kabinett are diverse, including thematic group exhibitions, art-historical showcases and solo shows for rising artists. As part of Art Video galleries will present works by some of the most exciting artists working in the media today. Organized in association with London's Artprojx, screenings of Art Video will be presented in two different locations: in SoundScape Park on the 7,000-square-foot outdoor projection wall of the New World Centre, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, and within five viewing pods inside the Miami Beach Convention Center. Art Public will turn Collins Park into a public outdoor exhibition space with large-scale sculptures and performances.

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Henry Moore - Late Large Forms - Gagosian Gallery

Source: Gagosian Gallery NY

A pioneer of modern British sculpture, Moore engaged the abstract, the surreal, the primitive and the classical in vigorous corporeal forms that are as accessible and familiar as they are avantgarde. His monumental sculptures celebrated the power of organic forms at a time when traditional representation was largely eschewed by the vanguard art establishment. The overwhelming physicality of their scale and forceful presence promotes a charged relation between sculpture, site and viewer. "Reclining Figure: Hand" (1979) is immediately identifiable as a human form despite its modulated stylization. The rounded, cloud-like body, which contrasts with a “knife-edge” head derived from bird bone, attests to Moore’s more exploratory impulses when compared to "Reclining Connected Forms" (1969), where he alludes to body parts using the vocabulary of mechanical components. "Large Two Forms" (1966) takes its shape from flints, whereas "Large Spindle Piece" (1974) reveals an interest in both natural and man-made objects.

It was Moore’s intention that these large-scale works be interacted with, viewed close-up, and even touched. Given their heft and mass, they are most commonly sited outdoors, subject to the effects of changing light, weather, and landscape. But seen within the pristine white environment of the gallery, the contrasting shapes, patinas and sheer scale of the sculptures are more keenly felt. Brimming with latent energy, their richly textured surfaces and sensual, rippling arcs and concavities can be seen to new effect.

This exhibition also includes a number of maquettes and found objects from Moore’s studio in rural Hertfordshire, which he called his “library of natural forms.” Crafted from plaster and Plasticine, these small-scale models were a vital step in realizing great sculptural schema. Fragments of bone, flint, and shell provided Moore with aesthetic inspiration: the curve and texture of animal bone was cast as the neck and head of Maquette for Seated Woman: Thin Neck (1960), and a piece of flint from the local sheep fields was used to create the open and pointed forms of Maquette for Spindle Piece (1968).

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Richard Serra at the Gagosian Gallery (exhibition, 2008)

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