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LONDON — Words of praise continue to roll in as Frieze Masters draws serious visitors, resembling London’s very own miniature version of TEFAF Maastricht, the gold standard of Old Masters fairs which takes place in the Netherlands every March. “If there was ever a fair I was meant for,” said London dealer Stephen Ongpin, “with Old Masters and modern, this is it. It’s precisely what I do.”

Ongpin has so far sold Lucian Freud’s smallish (10¾-by-7-inch) pen-and-black-ink-and-black-wax “The Sleeping Cat” (1944), which had an asking price of £280,000, as well as the darkly luminous Frank Auerbach charcoal, “Study of a Seated Female Nude” (1955), which was offerd for £90,000.

Better yet, the dealer continued, “I’m meeting a lot of new people who regularly come to the Frieze Art Fair but don’t come to Maastricht.”

The mood was also buoyant at New York’s Cheim & Read, where the gallery sold a smallish Joan Mitchell painting, “Untitled” (1961), for around a million dollars to an English collector, as well as a large Louise Bourgeois bronze, “Avenza Revisited,” in silver nitrate and polished patina from 1968-69, for around $1.5 million.

“The Bourgeois sold to a Swiss collector we’ve never done business with before,” said director Adam Sheffer. “This is a pretty grand start to the fair — we’ve only sold the top-end things.”

There were also some big ticket transactions, including Pablo Picasso’s “Homme et Femme au Bouquet” (1970), which sold in the region of $9 million at Wan de Weghe Fine Art. The New York dealer also sold Salvador Dalí’s pencil-on-paper “Andromeda” (1931), which was listed at $250,000. A veteran of art fairs around the world, Wan de Weghe said that he had made contact with “a lot of international people” at Frieze Masters.

New York’s Sperone Westwater also scored among the single-artist curated solo shows, selling Bruce Nauman’s installation, “Parallax Shell” (1971), along with the drawing for it, to a European collector in the $2-3 million range. “People are pleased with the concept, and the crossover effect of seeing the past through a more contemporary lens,” said David Leiber, a Sperone Westwater partner. “The set-up is perfect.”

A veteran of numerous TEFAF fairs, Leiber added, “The atmosphere is a little more relaxed than Maastricht but it has that feeling. Frieze Masters is not segregated like TEFAF,” referring to the latter fair’s strict boundaries between sections, ranging from Dutch Old Masters to contemporary fare.

Gallery co-founder Gianenzo Sperone also raved about the riches of older material at Frieze Masters, admitting he himself bought a 4th-century Greek bronze vase from Rupert Wace, a nearby dealer.

“I did a little shopping,” admitted Sperone, who said he spent £30,000 on the vase. “I couldn’t believe how cheap it was!”

For all of ARTINFO's Frieze Week coverage, click here.

Michelle Williams, reports Variety, is likely to be cast as the Parisian pianist Lucile Angellier in the long-gestating film of the first and second instalments of Irène Némirovsky’s planned series of five novellas about life in Nazi-occupied France.

The movie, which will be called “Suite Française,” the name of the series, will be made by Saul Dibb, the British director of “The Duchess.” Production is expected to start in the spring.

A Ukrainian who lived in Paris and had attended the Sorbonne, Némirovsky had completed the first two novellas when she was arrested as a “stateless person of Jewish descent” by French police in July 1942 and transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She died there of typhus after a month at the age of 39. Her banker husband Michael Epstein, along with his two brothers, and their sister were gassed at Auschwitz, but his and Némirovsky’s daughters Denise (born 1929) and Élisabeth (born 1937) survived the war in safe houses, Denise carrying with her her mother’s leatherbound notebooks containing her last writings.

The manuscript of the two novellas was kept by Denise Epstein, for 12 years before she opened it in 1954; she didn’t read it until the seventies and it wasn’t fully scrutinized until 1998. The first novella was typed, the second written in a minute hand because of the scarcity of paper. They were published jointly in France in 2004 and the book became an instant bestseller. It has since sold 2.5 copies worldwide. A work of major literary merit, it is praised for the reflectiveness Némirovsky brought to it at a time of fear and upheaval. She recorded in her notes that the rest of the series was “in limbo, and what limbo! It’s really in the lap of the gods since it depends what happens.”

Descriptions of the film indicate that it will probably be based primarily on the second novella, “Dolce” (the Italian musical term for “sweet”), which presents the Occupation as a weirdly serene time while exploring the gulfs and affinities between the local populace and the occupiers.

Lucile, whose unfaithful husband is a prisoner of war, is an evacuee living in the best house in the rural town of Bussy with her dominating mother-in-law (presumably based on Némirovsky’s mother, with whom she had a tempestuous relationship). When the German commander Bruno von Falk, a former composer, is billeted there, he and Lucile bond over their love of music and she falls in love with him.

Their relationship becomes strained when Lucile gives refuge to an escaped POW who has shot the German interpreter billeted on his fiancée. The novella ends in July 1941 with Bruno’s imminent departure for the Eastern Front.

“For me, the greatest joy is knowing that the book is being read,” Denise Epstein said in a BBC interview in 2006. “It is an extraordinary feeling to have brought my mother back to life. It shows that the Nazis did not truly succeed in killing her. It is not vengeance, but it is a victory.”

Two of Némirovsky’s early stories were filmed. Julien Duvivier directed her 1929 “David Golder,” about a banker who can’t please his daughter, in 1930. Wilhelm Thiele’s 1931 musical comedy drama “Le Bal,” starring 13-year-old Danielle Darrieux as a daughter who takes revenge on her mother for not letting her go to a ball, was adapted from a 1930 novella. Thiele’s German-language version starred Dolly Haas and Lucie Mannheim, who would go on to play the doomed spy Miss Smith in Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” (1935).

Our most-talked-about stories in Art, Design & Architecture, Fashion & Style, and Performing Arts, October 8 - 12, 2012:

ART

— Frieze Week dominated the news: Judd Tully filed multiple reports measuring the success of the inaugural Frieze Masters, while Coline Milliard reported on the opening day of the main fair, Frieze London, as well as on the scrappy satellite fair SUNDAY. Nicolai Hartvig offered his take on the action at PAD London.

— At the same time, the London postwar and contemporary sales were taking place. Sotheby's closed the week with a major triumph, led by Eric Clapton's rockin' Richter. However, Christie’s managed only a limp $36.8 million, while Phillips de Pury & Co. also had a fairly anemic night.

— Julia Halperin answered all your questions about Rothko vandal Vladimir Umanets and his bizarre beliefs (un)known as Yellowism.

— Rachel Corbett explained the perfect storm of factors behind the success of inkjet artist Wade Guyton.

— Reid Singer reported on the David Alfaro Siqueiros mural brought to light in L.A. after being hidden behind whitewash for almost 80 years — and asked if its new promience might spur a mural renaissance in the City of Angels.

DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

— Janelle Zara spoke with designer Murray Moss about his recently opened Phillips de Pury exhibition and adventurous sale, pairing design and art.  

— Damien Hirst teamed up with trash can manufacturer Vipp to create a spotted, $595 garbage can. Yep.

— SHoP Architects, the designers behind Brooklyn’s new Barclay’s Center is working on designs for a Major League Soccer stadium in Queens.

— Kelly Chan covered the controversy that immediately arose from a suggestion to paint a mural on Philadelphia’s PSFS skyscraper.  

— And, finally, we offered you hours of procrastination with this amazing Tumblr.

FASHION & STYLE

— Fashion month's fabric favorite — brocade — was featured in all its baroque glory in a slideshow of styles from both high-end and commercial designers, such as Topshop, Stella McCartney, and Rag & Bone.

— Chanel released details on its seductive commercial for Chanel No. 5 starring Brad Pitt, which will be unveiled October 15.

— “Impressionism and Fashion” was announced as the next fashion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute.

— Retailer H&M rolled out its ad campaign for its upcoming collaboration with Belgian avant-garde label Maison Martin Margiela, set to hit stores on November 15.

— Fashion label Rodarte is collaborating with Starbucks on a line of limited-edition items, slated to arrive at the coffee chain on November 13.

PERFORMING ARTS

— Internet ire was greeted the news that “Girls” creator and star Lena Dunham’s would get over $3 million for her book deal with Random House.

— Craig Hubert broke down fall television’s success and failures, from Fox guarding their Tuesday comedy night to NBC holding off on premieres of “Community” and “Whitney.”

— Bryan Hood said the teaser for Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader’s low budget film “The Canyons” starring Lindsay Lohan was a “must watch.”

— Stephen Colbert interviewed English music legend Morrissey on the Colbert Report, with humorously awkward results.

— The trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s film “Django Unchained” starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson premiered this week. The film opens on Christmas Day.

VIDEO

— Artist collaborative team Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe discussed their ideas behind their “Stray Light Grey” sculptural experience at Marlborough Chelsea.

— Design maven Murray Moss talked with ARTINFO during the preview for his latest project, the “Dialogues Between Art & Design” exhibition at Phillips de Pury & Co.

— ARTINFO's Judd Tully walked through Frieze London 2012 on its first day and visited some of the participating galleries to find out what’s showing and selling

— Nicolai Hartvig of ARTINFO France gave a tour of PAD (Pavilion of Art + Design) 2012 London on its opening day

— ARTINFO interviewed Matthew Drutt, curator of “Chris Marker: Selected Works 1957-2011" at the Louise Blouin Foundation in London at the exhibition’s opening

Frieze Week in London is always crowded — with art, with parties, with gossip, and so on — but this year, the big fair doubled down, launching a new initiative, Frieze Masters, alongside the main Frieze London in Regent's Park.

Throughout the week, we've had our team on the ground, capturing a few of the most interesting moments from the big bazaars. To see a gallery of some the the best art from Frieze and the new Frieze Masters, click on the slideshow.

And finally, in case you missed them, here's still more coverage from the various Frieze Week fairs and parties:

— "ARTINFO's Top 10 Booths from PAD London"

— "SUNDAY Report: The Scrappy Satellite Matures, Proving a Beacon for Tastemakers"

— "Simon de Pury and Michael Stipe Toasted Cecile B. Evans at Frieze's Emdash Party"

— "See Photos From Last Night’s Marlborough Contemporary Launch Party in London"

— "See Photos from Lisson Gallery’s Frieze London Launch Party and Anish Kapoor Preview"

— "Frieze Style: 10 Classy or Outrageous Outfits Glimpsed at the London Fair"

For all of ARTINFO's Frieze Week coverage, click here.

LONDON — Powered by a record-shattering Gerhard Richter abstract painting owned by rock legend Eric Clapton, Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale rocked to the tune of £44,146,350 ($70,793,087).

The tally hurdled pre-sale expectations of £28.5-39.4 million ($44.6-61.8 million) and erased memories of the tentative performances of Phillips de Pury and Christie’s earlier in this fair- and exhibition-packed week.

Only six of the 53 lots offered failed to sell for a taut buy-in rate of 11 percent by lot and five percent by value. Five works sold for over one million pounds and nine exceeded the million-dollar mark. Three artist records were set — but none anywhere near the stratospheric heights of the magisterial 1994 Richter.

The evening results also represented the highest tally ever for a Sotheby’s October sale. It certainly destroyed last October’s mark of £17.8 million ($28 million), delivered at a sale that was 23 percent unsold by lot.

Auctioneer and contemporary specialist Oliver Barker seemed to be in a great hurry to get going with the sale, owing to the unusual Friday evening setting and overall aura of fatigue left by the long week’s marathon of art events. The packed salesroom was mostly appreciative of the brisk pace — though at times the audience veered into distraction, with neighborly chatting escalating to the point of muffling the auctioneer’s syncopated patter.

But early on, Isa Genzken’s “MLR,” a large-scale, lacquer-on-canvas abstraction from 1992, hit a record £265,350 ($425,355) (est. £100-150,000), and Beatriz Milhazes’s color-charged and patterned “Danca do Reis” (1998) raced to £847,650 ($1,359,292) (est. £400-600,000).

Sotheby’s was also lucky being last in a week of lackluster auctions since it had that window to pressure consignors to lower their reserves on weaker lots or ones that were too toppy for this particular moment of careful market scrutiny for non-trophy works.

For example, Mark Bradford’s mural-scaled, paper-collage-on-synthetic-mesh “Double-Stretch” (2004) hammered at £170,000 — well shy of the £200-300,000 estimate, though it  cleared the mark after the chunky buyer’s premium was added, making the final price £205,250 ($329,139).

The same applied for the double-exposure Andy Warhol “Self-Portrait” (1978), which sold for £481,250 ($771,732) (est. £500-700,000). Another Warhol, from an edgier series featuring transvestites, “Ladies and Gentlemen” (1975), barely drew notice as it sold to Paris dealer John Sayegh-Belchatowski for £397,250 ($637,030) (est. £400-600,000).

Just before the jumbo Richter came up, Alexander Calder’s blue chip hanging mobile, “Untitled” (1962), nimbly executed in painted metal, sold to the telephone for £1,553,250 ($2,490,792) (est. £700,000-1 million). The same Calder last sold at Christie’s London in June 1996 for £139,000.

The “Clapton Richter” was the top draw of the sale and indeed the entire week, with brawny pre-sale expectations of £9-12 million. Almost square and trophy-sized (measuring 88½ by 78¾ inches), the deftly squeegeed and firey hued painting has a volcanic aura. It captivated the two telephone bidders, who slugged it out for long minutes, driving the price to £19 million pounds, a total that at last bulged to £21,321,250 ($34,190,756), with the premium.

Thunderous applause greeted the hammer price, which set a record for a work by a living artist.

Sotheby’s private client services specialist Natasha Mendelsohn took the winning bid on the back cover lot and though it couldn’t quite be confirmed that she was putting her Russian language skills to use from where this reporter stood on the opposite side of the room, it is fairly certain that her anonymous client is fluent in that language. (Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer, worldwide head of contemporary art, handled the telephone bids of the Richter underbidder.)

For Clapton the sale was better than any number of gold records since he acquired the painting at Sotheby’s New York in November 2001 — just two months after 9/11 — for $3,415,750. Perhaps more remarkable than that appreciation is the fact that the previous record it shattered, set just last May at Christie’s New York for “Abstraktes Bild (798-3)” (1993), was $21,810,500 (est. $14-18 million). Basic math tells you that’s a 40 percent appreciation in five months. (Ironically, and perhaps outrageously, the original Richter was made and sold as a triptych, this being one of the panels. Apparently Clapton has kept the two remaining panels. What would Mr. Richter think?)

“That’s a massive jump,” said San Francisco dealer Anthony Meier, a Richter specialist, moments after the sale, “but two people thought it was worth the chase.”  

Another less heralded Richter, smaller and missing the celebrity provenance, “Abstraktes Bild (840-2)” (1997), also drew competing telephone bids, ultimately selling for £1,945,250 ($3,119,403) (est. £1-1.5 million). It last sold at Sotheby’s London in July 2008 for £959,650.

If there was any surprise during the evening, apart from the rocketing Richter, it most likely came in the form of the buy-in of Lucian Freud’s formidable pastel-and-conte-crayon-on-paper “Chicken on a Bamboo Table” (1944), owned by the same Welsh family since it was purchased at Sotheby’s London in 1965 for £75,000. It flopped at an imaginary bid of £350,000 (est. £400-600,000) despite its recent inclusion in the Freud drawing retrospective mounted by Blain/Southern and Acquavella Galleries earlier this year.

Though trailing the top lot by millions, Yves Klein’s striking cover lot, “RE 9-1” (1961), won the abstract beauty contest, selling to Greek collector and frequent auction buyer Dimitri Mavromatis for £3,737,250 ($5,993,054) (est. £2-3 million).

Finally, though he couldn't be identified apart from his American accent, a middle-aged gentleman in a dark suit seated in the third row of the salesroom coolly bought Louise Bourgeois’s bronze “Nature Study” (1984), number one from an edition of six (plus one artist’s proof), for £529,250 ($848,705) (est. £350-450,000). Hustling out of the salesroom, the buyer said he had flown in that morning and characterized the evening as a “strong sale.”

Sotheby’s performance put an exclamation mark at the end of a long week of non-stop art commerce.

***

Like its arch-rival Christie's last night, Sotheby’s also staged a stand-alone 20th-century “Italian Art” auction on the same evening, reeling in £15,5699,650 ($24,967,491), on pre-sale expectations of £14.6-19.5 million ($23.4-31.9 million).

Top lot honors went to Piero Manzoni's ethereal abstraction, “Achrome” (1959), which sold to Gagosian Gallery's Stefan Ratibor for £4,017,250 ($6,442,062) (est. £2.2-2.6 million). It had last sold at auction at Sotheby's London in October 2007 for £2,260,500.

Prime works from the Arte Povera era animated the 33-lot sale, led by Luciano Fabro's "Nazione Italica" (1969), a sculpture in the shape of Italy that fetched a record £668,450 ($1,071,926) (est. £320-400,000).

To see highlights from Sotheby's contemporary art sale, click on the slideshow.

Alāan Artspace—alāan means “now” in Arabic—has opened in Riyadh. The Saudi capital’s first curated space for contemporary art and design is the project of director Neama A. Alsudairy, an artist and collector, and her brother, Mohammed, who oversees the center’s entrepreneurial side. Citing the region’s paucity of cultural institutions that support contemporary creativity, Alsudairy envisions a gathering place “for Saudi nationals, locally based expatriates, and art lovers across the region and internationally.” Alāan Artspace offers a gallery, reference library, bookshop, restaurant, café, and facilities for an ambitious education program, with space for workshops, panels, and seminars—all aimed at forging an enlightened art community. The shop will sell pieces commissioned from the region’s designers.

The inaugural exhibition, “SoftPower” (through December 10), organized by Sara Raza, a curator and critic based in London, features emerging artists Sarah Mohanna Al-Abdali and Sarah Abu Abdallah and the widely exhibited Manal Al Dowayan. Though the three participants are women, Alsudairy deflects a feminist reading of the show, saying that the intent is “to showcase Saudi artists and to explore interactions between daily life and identity.” Subsequent exhibitions at the center will examine art from the rest of the Middle East and North Africa.

A version of this article appeared in the October 2012 issue of Art + Auction.

NEW YORK — The word “luminaries” might be one of the most used and abused cliches in society reportage, but it is apropos when describing the guest list at last night’s National Arts Awards event hosted by Americans for the Arts at Cipriani 42nd Street. Bebe Neuwirth, Herbie Hancock, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Renee Fleming, Richard Serra, Marty Margulies, Julie Mehretu, Jeffrey Deitch, Larry Gagosian, and John Baldessari turned out to honor this year’s awardees. Baryshnikov presented the Arts Education award to philanthropist Lin Arison. Art patron and MoMA PS1 chairwoman Agnes Gund bestowed a lifetime achievement award on pop artist James Rosenquist. Serra presented the Eli and Edythe Broad Awards for Philanthropy in the Arts to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Actress and singer Neuwirth honored baritone Brian Stokes Mitchell with an award for outstanding contributions to the arts.

The Bell Family Foundation Young Artist Award — and the unofficial ladies choice award — went to adult contemporary crooner, actor, and late-night funnyman Josh Gorban, who recently launched the Find Your Light Foundation, a charity that raises funds for quality arts education. Groban — who attended the free Los Angeles Country High School for the Arts — spoke passionately about the importance of affordable arts education for young people. “Between my parents and the teachers that I had at LACHSA, I was one of the lucky ones. I got the chance to be exposed to it at a young age. So many kids that I’ve run into don’t get that chance,” Groban said. “So building my own foundation… has really been about raising awareness, because not everybody can go to a school like LACHSA, and with the arts programs being cut at such a drastic rate, especially across California, I felt that it was important to give back to those kids.”

Groban is also an art collector. “I’ve got a Basquiat… print! I’m going to work my way up to an original at some point. I’ve got a couple of pieces by David Mach. I’ve got a piece by Jerome Witkin, who’s one of my favorite painters,” he said. Emerging artists take heed – Josh Groban wants to buy your art. “Living in New York, it’s always wonderful to be introduced to new and up-and-coming artists. I’ve got a lot of empty wall space, and mostly I’d love to fill it with up-and-coming artists. So I’m always on the lookout.”

Over Prosecco and mini polentas with a bacalao topping, I asked a more established collector, Marty Margulies, about the cooperate citizenship award, which he presented to Christiane Fischer, president and chief officer of AXA Art Insurance Cooperation. “They reach out to young people and young artists,” he said, “and you need that. Because sooner or later, the older generation no longer is there.” Margulies expressed his admiration for the night’s lifetime achievement honoree, James Rosenquist (“I’m a fan, of both his work and him.”) and chatted about some recent art purchases. “I recently acquired an Anselm Kiefer and I have a good number of young photographers that I collect.”

The wellspring of boyish charisma that is Josh Groban aside, the event drew a mature, distinguished crowd. Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, was described to me as a gentleman with grey hair. “In this crowd, you’re going to have to be more specific,” I said. Americans for the Arts, Lynch explained, focuses on both public sector and private sector advocacy for the arts, “which means educating decision makers at foundations and corporations about the transformative value of the arts. What we are trying to do is get more people to think about the arts as something to invest in.”

I asked Lynch about the future of arts spending given the possibility of a Romney presidency. “Mitt Romney has stated that he wants to eliminate the NEA. But positions change,” he said. “He was a fairly good governor for the arts, and we feel that with additional and better information than he has, if he were elected or not elected, we would change his opinion. One of the things he says is we can’t afford to support the NEA. We have to balance the budget. Well, in fact, the data that we produce independently with the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that the tiny bit of federal money invested — $145 million— is part of what generates $22 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. It’s actually a fairly conservative model. We want the time to help educate him.”

Click on the slideshow to see images from the Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards. 

British artists Mariana Fantich and Dominic Young are taking the phrase “put your foot in your mouth” quite literally. The duo, who go by the name Fantich and Young, have grotesquely reimagined a classic pair of black brogues by replacing the soles with 1,050 teeth.

No human teeth were sacrificed for the squeamish makeover; all of the pearly whites come from plastic dentures with a few gold caps sprinkled in to add a touch of flash. Fantich and Young used a pair of size 15 black leather brogues from English footwear line Savile Row by Barker to make the bizarre shoes, called the Apex Predator.

“The idea for the shoes are based on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection and juxtaposing them with the supernatural elements of pagan rites and rituals,” the pair wrote on their Facebook page.

Don’t expect to roam the streets in Apex Predators. They aren’t meant to be worn, according to the duo, who posted on their Facebook page, “These are one off Fine Art shoes, we see them as sculpture or totems but hey you can wear them if you want too [sic]!”

Fantich and Young also created a suit called the Apex Predator made with human hair, glass eyeballs — and fake teeth. We wish we could see somebody wearing the complete Apex Predator ensemble for Halloween.

Visit Artinfo.com/fashion for more fashion and style news.

BLOUIN Fashion is now on Twitter. Follow us @BLOUINFashion. 

He’s been compared to artist Francis Picabia, poet Francis Ponge, writer Georges Pérec, and filmmaker Jacques Tati. He’s unquestionably a direct descendant of Marcel Duchamp. With humor, the 47-year-old French artist Franck Scurti doodles, sculpts, films, and recycles objects from daily life, as well as icons, myths, and news stories. Along with Valérie Favre, Bertrand Lamarche, and Dewar & Gicquel, he’s been nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp, which will be awarded October 20 at FIAC. ARTINFO France recently sat down with Scurti to talk about his new projects, art historical references in his work, and how he uses language "like infinitely recyclable trash."

What work are you going to show for the Prix Duchamp? A new piece or something you’ve produced already?

I haven’t done a project for the Prix Duchamp. I work every day and I’ve chosen three works that seem to me to make sense together. I selected them from a group of works that I created over the last three months. In fact, I just decided. There are ten days left, but that’s OK.

If you win, you’ll receive €30,000 ($39,000) to produce a piece, which will then be shown at the Pompidou Center. Will this change the economics of your production, which are voluntarily rather modest?

No. I work with different economies. When I prepare an exhibition I never think about money. I create and then I decide. The term “production” has gradually replaced “creation,” and facing what I consider to be a crisis of representation, my desire is to reflect, in the wider sense of the word, on the creative process. I work with “poor” means and oppose them to “big productions” and to what I consider to be spectacle.

Visitors to your website have the choice of three different entrances: “Home,” “Street,” or “Museum.” These categories can also be found in your monograph. What is the significance of these categories to your work?

The idea of a cursor moving along a line is the most open form that I’ve been able to find to organize my work thus far. “Home” represents the most biographical part as well as thoughts on my practice, “Street” widens the horizon of inspiration to the external world, and “Museum” is openly linked to the reception of the artworks.

The last pieces you’ve shown look more like “Home.”

Yes, that’s true, but the most recent one is more “Street.”

What makes you choose video, drawing, collage, or sculpture?

Often it’s the idea that leads me to choose a medium. But sometimes it’s the opposite. When I work with found objects, for example.

You’ve said that you are fascinated by the idea of value in art. Could you talk about this a bit?

I don’t see any difference between a stainless steel sculpture and a work that uses found objects. It’s the same act, and they’re the same thing. Judging a work only by its material aspects often means falling into the trap of facile spectacle.

Why are language, titles, and puns so important to you?

A portion of the titles that I’ve given to my works are slogans, phrases borrowed here and there, over time. I use language like infinitely recyclable trash.

You take your subject matter from daily life (images, objects, newspapers), but we can also find more or less explicit references to art history in your work: Manzoni, Robert Watts, and obviously Marcel Duchamp.

Yes. Although I’m not interested in art for art’s sake, I like working on the meaning of my pieces and placing them at a certain level in the discourse on art.

The title and composition of “The Scream” refer to Munch’s famous painting. Are you doing pastiche, parody, or caricature?

None of the above. It’s an adaptation to a truth, that of the time in which we’re living.

I used to go to the Mac/Val contemporary art museum a lot when your work “Reflets,” with its commercial neon signs and slightly deformed logos, was shown there, and I ended up looking at the pharmacy sign below my apartment and thinking, “Hey, a Franck Scurti.” Do you like playing with this confusion between reality and art, in a permanent back-and-forth movement?

Underneath its French Pop appearance, this series is definitely one of the most dialectical that I’ve ever done. A play on the meaning of art and reality. Since then, I’ve designed a dozen different models that I’ve given to a sign factory. The process is similar to that of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy in his three “Telephonebilder”: when I need a model, I order it by phone.

If you could save only one or two of the works in your oeuvre, which would you choose and why?

It’s hard to answer, because I work on the whole, on a total oeuvre. If you really examine what I do, you’ll notice that my works sometimes have different styles and appearances but speak to one another.

You’re preparing a solo show at Galerie Michel Rein in Paris. Can you tell us about your most recent work?

Between May and September, I also focused on the publication of two artist books and a monograph with a major part of my work notes. The exhibition will show these publications as well as a series of drawings influenced by the plates of the 18th-century Dutch zoologist and pharmacist Albertus Seba.

You have denied having a style. What bothers you about this idea?

I really think that things are happening elsewhere today. Don’t you kind of feel as if you’ve seen everything? The phrasing is more important than the style, I believe.

To see an archive of all of ARTINFO's interviews with the 2012 Prix Duchamp nominees, click here.

Watercolor has long been dubbed the most difficult medium among artists. British artist Alexander Creswell is a contemporary master of the medium, having traveled the world painting some of the largest works in watercolor to date. He has even invented custom systems, including a hydraulic table, to accommodate his practice. His so-called “Grand Scale” works depict historical architectural landmarks affected by events of the present, from the port of Venice during a fireworks celebration to the River Thames during the Queen’s recent Jubilee. He has also traveled with the British royal family as “official artist” on numerous occasions, capturing recent events like the nuptials of Prince Harry and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey.

During his recent show at New York's Hirschl & Adler, ARTINFO interviewed Creswell about painting in the stubborn medium and what it was like to have a paintbrush instead of a camera at the Royal Wedding. 

Larry Gagosian may be opening an eatery in one of the storefronts at 980 Madison, but he couldn’t bear the thought of parting ways with his regular Upper East Side spot Sant Ambroeus, where he has a table, so he asked the Italian café to manage his new venture at 980 Madison, reports the New York Post. The new Gagosian establishment will also house additional gallery space and a bookstore. One can only hope that the menu will be just as tasty as Sant Ambroeus’s — only with some blue-chip artwork hanging on the walls.