Archive for December, 2008
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
TAC::Forum – New Memberships Open One Week Only
To celebrate its one year anniversary, The Art Collectors is offering up membership submissions to TAC::Forum, our private collector’s forum. Email submissions will take place for one week only, ending Tuesday, Dec. 30. If you are interested in joining TAC::Forum, please send us an email message (info@theartcollectors.com) including the following: a brief summary about your collection, the last piece of original art purchased, one artist you would love to have but don’t, and most importantly, at least one image including an original work of art from your collection. All emails will be personally read and new members emailed with guidelines for activating their new forum account with us.
On a side note, we’ve had several requests from our blog readers asking about joining our forum. To date, all our members have come to us via invite or referral. Our reasoning behind keeping TAC::Forum private has been to enable a small and committed community who provide insightful commentary and conversation to flourish, while reducing our need to moderate. Over the next week we hope to see many new members come aboard.
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Wooster Collective’s 10 Blogs You Should Know
21 December, 2008 – Wooster Collective published the 10 Blogs You Should Know. We are very honored and greateful to be on the list. Our sincere thanks to Wooster Collective for their meaningful nod. Since the start of this ‘experiment’ in June this year, we have enjoyed making a contribution to our community. Happy holidays!!
Friday, December 19th, 2008
Sotheby’s Claims Contemporary Market Remains Strong
In an effort to instill confidence, Sotheby‘s has posted a video concerning the state of the contemporary art market during bleak financial, times. Speaking candidy about the current economic climate. Tobias Meyer (Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art), Alexander Rotter (New York Head of Contemporary Art), and Leslie Prouty (Senior Vice of Contemporary Art) still manage to express overall optimism in the market. A few main messages are conveyed:
•This is a buyers market with many oportunities
•Good works will always have a strong market
•The current economic climate has led to a shift in auction strategy – During the boom of the past several years, works were estimated aggressively, with the goal of finding collectors to meet those expectations. To continue matching buyer’s with seller’s, new strategy finds the auctioneer focusing on buyer’s expectations and bringing works to auction with more moderate pricing.
•The contemporary market has a firm foundation, backed by the support of a committed collector base
Watch the video here
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
KRUNK::Futura Signing
Photographed by STASH, the venerable Futura signs the first silkscreen prints to ever be released in his multi-decade career. KRUNK is shipping out the pre-orders this week and the editions are now officially available online. More great images after the jump.
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
The Big Takeover
Image: © Original Artist / cartoonstock.com
Seasoned art and culture critic, Lee Rosenbaum, has written some interesting commentary over the last several days regarding Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s proposed “merger” with the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. As previously reported, MOCA is at the brink of financial collapse and is in dire need of rapid injection of funds.
In a press release issued Dec. 16, LACMA stated the “goal of this plan would be to preserve the independence and integrity of both institutions while combining their operations and infrastructure,” including a “merger of Board leadership,” and the ability for MOCA’s permanent collection to be housed and exhibited in LACMA’s several museum spaces.
Rosenbaum calls the plan an attempted takeover, and a move by LACMA and its Director/CEO, Michael Govan, to take advantage of a struggling MOCA in its time of need, arguing that “instead of being a perpetrator of pernicious takeover mischief, Michael Govan should have been a collaborative colleague, offering to provide space and support for MOCA’s insufficiently exhibited, superb permanent collection, without insisting on assuming control over it (as would happen under a single-board, single-director merger).”
Since LACMA’s announcement this past Tuesday, several voices have spoken out against the deal, or offered alternative plans. Grassroots organization MOCA Mobilization has delivered a petition of 3,200 signatures to MOCA’s board, stating “we support an independent and autonomous MOCA. We condemn any plan now or in the future to merge MOCA with any other institution.” Furthermore, in an effort to stall the merger, a motion was filed by the Los Angeles County City Council, petitioning the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to give MOCA $2.8 million in rent money. In return, the museum would agree to accept $30 million in financial assistance offered by philanthropist Eli Broad.
Read more at: CultureGrrl
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
LA::Yoshitomo Nara @ Blum + Poe
Japanese pop art star Yoshitomo Nara opens his latest solo gallery exhibit this Saturday, Dec. 20, at Blum and Poe, Los Angeles. Show runs till Jan. 31.
Yoshitomo Nara
Dec. 20 – Jan. 31
Blum and Poe
2754 La Cienega
Los Angeles, CA 90034
info@blumandpoe.com
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Sol LeWitt’s 25 Year Installation @ Mass. MoCA
Image: John Mcalister/Mass MoCA
Sol Lewitt’s final conceptual undertaking before his death last April is now on view at Mass MoCA. Spanning the artist’s career from 1969-2007, Sol LeWitt: A Wall Drawing Retropspective, compiles 105 large-scale wall drawings, housed in a newly restored three-story mill on the Massachussetts MoCA grounds. Here, it becomes abundantly clear why LeWitt is regarded as one of the most significant conceptual and minimalist artists of the twentieth century. Staying true to his form, none of these hugely influential wall drawings were created by LeWitt himself. Rather, the artist conceptualized a series of simple step-by-step instructions which could be executed by virtually any marginally trained artist – anywhere at any time.
It is almost poetic that LeWitt did not live to see this massive undertaking come to light. The very fact that these works were created after his passing and will remain on view for the next 25 years, serve as the ultimate testament to an artist whose mission was to span time, space and tangible forms. In his own words, “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art” (“Paragraphs on Conceptual Art”, Artforum, June 1967). Arguably, in death LeWitt’s artistic vision has truly been realized, perhaps more so than it ever could have been during the course of his wildly accomplished lifetime.
Can’t make it within the next 25 years? – Read on for a selection of our favorites, or visit the museum’s online gallery, including time-lapsed photography of the creation of several pieces.
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
The Rubell + Margulies Collections, Miami
Jean Michel Basquiat, Rubell Family Collection
It’s easy to get exhausted walking the aisles of numerous Miami art fairs, where an artist’s output primarily functions as commodity. More often than not, Art Basel and its offshoot fairs have more in common with a trade-show than art exhibition. With this in mind, the few prominent private collections open to the public during Basel week offer a rare escape from the massive commercial enterprise that consumes Miami each year.
This year, the Rubell Family Collection unveiled 30 Americans, a massive exhibition joining several new African American voices with their influences from the past. The show’s title intentionally disregards racial connotations, in an effort to comment on personal issues of racial identity each artist explores in their work. 30 Americans depicts a hugely influential group including Jean Michel Basquiat, Kerry James Marshall, Rashid Johnson, and Lorna Simpson, jusxtapozed alongside the newer voices they have influence, such as Kehinde Wiley, Noah Davis, and Jeff Sonhouse.
The Margulies Collection continues to display one of the most significant single collections of installation, sculpture, photography, and video art in the world, including seminal works by Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, George Segal, Donald Judd, and Andy Warhol. Recent additions include a new visual and auditory installation by Brazilian twins Os Gemeos (acquired from their show with Deitch Projects this past summer) and a video piece by Isaac Julien.
Read on for more images – click pics for larger views.
All Images: Jeff Newman / The Art Collectors
Monday, December 15th, 2008
New Evan Hecox Arkitip Prints
Arkitip has just released a variety of new affordable prints by Evan Hecox, featuring several images from his recent exhibitions in the Netherlands. The latest edition, The Crumbling Empire (pictured above) is a 3 color silkscreen measuring 16 x 20 in., and is set to ship Dec. 21 -Have one brought to your doorstep for $125.
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Opening Wed::Piece Process @ Anonymous Gallery
One of of the newest editions to New York’s growing Lower East Side gallery community, Anonymous Gallery, opens its new show this Wednesday, Dec. 17. The Piece Process joins a selection of artists past and present who have influenced or been influenced by pop culture and contemporary design. The exhibit features works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton, Robert Indiana, Dennis Oppenheim, Ray Johnson, Todd James, Eric Haze, Bast, Elbow Toe, AIKO, Kenji Hirata, Greg Lamarche, Erik Foss, Logan Hicks, Judith Supine, Dan Witz, Maya Hayuk, The Clayton Brothers, and others.
The Piece Process
Dec. 17 – Jan. 24
Opening Reception Dec. 17, 7-10pm
Anonymous Gallery
329 Broome St.
NY, NY 10002