Archive for May, 2009
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
TAC on Twitter
TAC is up and running on Twitter, where we aim to provide additional content and images not seen here. Please join us. We can be found at: TheArtCollector
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Preview :: Herakut @ Red Flagg
“Most things in life are just as bad as we dress them”, 2009
Courtesy of Campbarbossa, a preview of Herakut’s offerings for their upcoming show. Opening May 21 at Red Flagg, interest for the work is high. Details for the image are:
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Perspective :: Five Years of NY Contemporary Sales
We thought this graph was worth a glance.
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
Must See :: Artprice Documentary
Image still from Artprice documentary
Artprice, a global leader in art market information, database collecting, and sales, has just released an intimate 23 minute documentary chronicling the history and inner-workings of the company. We were particularly blown away by the passion exuded from Artprice’s eclectic founder, and his mind boggling corporate lair outside Lyon, France, which operates from inside the Abode of Chaos, a 17th century home transformed into a replicated war zone…pretty wild for someone who is also the founder and chairman of Groupe Serveur, Artprice’s parent company, whose annual revenue tops off around 70 million Euro.
Watch the video here
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Francis Bacon Retrospective at MET
Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective opens tomorrow at the Metropolitan Musuem in New York and will be on view till August 16. The exhibition marks a century past since the artist’s birth in Dublin in 1909, bringing together some of the most significant works from each period of his career.
On Thursday, May 22, the MET will hold a free full day symposium, featuring several lectures and a panel discussion focusing on the career and legacy of the artist. More information and a schedule of the day’s events can be viewed here.
Images: met.org, © 2009 The Estate of Francis Bacon / ARS, New York / DACS, London
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Country Club Expands to LA
Image still from Jen Liu’s video art piece, The Brethren of the Stone: Iron Man, 2008, on view as part of NEWAGERIOT, at Country Club Gallery, Los Angeles.
County Club has expanded from its original location in Cincinnati, opening up a second gallery in Los Angeles. The new space opened two inaugural group exhibits last week, and is housed in the same location as the temporary Iconoclast pop-up shop that was open from February through April 11. As you may know, the gallery was started by Christian Strike, founding member of Iconoclast Editions, which lent a hand in organizing the original Beautiful Losers exhibition and catalog.
From the press releases:
In NEWAGERIOT participating artists seek spaces that are both internal and transcendent, revisiting the past and projecting the future to escape/analyze the present and/or intentionally create temporal, spatial, emotional and spiritual dislocation. The artists included in NEWAGERIOT, Kamrooz Aram (NY), Beth Campbell (NY), Bob Flanagan (LA), Jack Goldstein (LA/NY), Jen Liu (NY), Larry Mantello (NY), Shana Moulton (NY), Manuel Ocampo (Manila), Lisi Raskin (NY), Sleep (NY).
The Joy of Blues, presente collection of works by three artists Barkley Hendricks (CT), Lee Ranaldo [of Sonic Youth] (NY), João Paulo Feliciano (Lisbon), exploring sonic histories and the visual manifestations of sound.
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Jenny Saville Album Art Censored
While Journal For Plague Lovers, the newest release by Welsh band, Manic Street Preachers, may still be hitting the shelves of British supermarkets, the album’s artwork won’t. Large chains including Sainsburys and Tesco will sell the CD in a plain white slipcase, due to “inappropriate” cover art painted by notable British painter, Jenny Saville (who also contributed art to the band’s 1994 album,The Holy Bible, and has exhibited with Gagosian and Saatchi). Apparently Stare, which was painted by Saville in 2005, and depicts a bruised boy, has been deemed too offensive and violent to be placed alongside tabloids and candybars. It’s Just another tale of the power large corporate retailers have over the recording industry, as it was ultimately the decision of Columbia Records to placate them and deliver the album with a Smell the Glove treatment.
Easily the most humorous anecdote to surface from this already absurd situation comes to us from Peter Black, the Liberal Democrats’ health spokesman in Wales, who said “I would be disturbed if supermarkets were deliberately acting in that way with regard to pictures of children with disfigurement. The one thing we need to do is allow people who are disfigured to live as normal a life as possible.” (via Telegraph) Bold words indeed…File this one under ridiculous.
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
Must See :: Hernan Bas in New York
Mystery Bouf (or the kingdom after the flood)
The young, Miami-based artist, Hernan Bas, is currently exhibiting at two notable New York venues, with a solo gallery show at Lehmann Maupin (on view through July 10) and a more substantial survey spanning the last decade, at The Brooklyn Museum (closes May 24). Together, the two exhibits reflect a stylistic and referential shift for Bas, from his earlier focus on figures and literary references that hark back to the decadent lifestyle embodied by the dandies of the 18th century, to his most recent and grander scale landscapes, still rich in historical symbolism, yet more overtly political.
Read through for the rest of our photo recap of Bas’ Lehmann Maupin show and click images for larger views.
Detail – Ubu Roi (the war march)
Hernan Bas – The Dance of The Machine Gun + Other Forms of Unpopular Expression
On view till July 10
Lehmann Maupin
201 Chrystie Street
New York, NY 10002
Hernan Bas – Works from the Rubell Family Collection
On view till May 24
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238
A conversation with Hernan Bas and Brooklyn Museum Deputy Director for Art, Charles Desmarais, at the Brooklyn Museum, February 26, 2009. Via: Brooklyn Museum
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
FAILE Strikes Again
FAILE are at it again. The duo have installed yet another public totem on the streets of Brooklyn, despite the quick theft of the first piece last month. Chances are this one won’t last much longer…and is that a newspaper box knocked over to make room?
Thanks to The World’s Best Ever for the tip and Luna Park for the first images.
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Shawn Mortensen Tribute
Image: Undefeated
Undftd’s Billboard Project pays tribute to the late photographer, Shawn Mortensen, whose prolific contribution to the visual identity of fashion, advertising, and music industries will live on beyond his years. Mortensen passed away early last month at the age of 45. The billboard can be seen above Undftd’s Los Angeles store at 112.5 S. Labrea, Los Angeles, CA. We applaud them for this fitting tribute.