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The Top 9 Global Shows of the Week, From Rodin's Racy Drawings to Theaster Gates's Civil Rights Sculptures

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The Top 9 Global Shows of the Week, From Rodin's Racy Drawings to Theaster Gates's Civil Rights Sculptures

From Damien Hirst’s "Spot Challenge" to Theaster Gates’s highly political work about civil rights and Birmingham, ARTINFO has selected 9 outstanding shows going on all over the world that you’ll want to keep up with.

LOS ANGELES

Glenn Kaino’s “Bring Me the Hands of Piri Reis” at Honor Fraser, 2622 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, Through February 18

“Conceptual kitbashing” is what Kaino calls his process, harnassing an eclectic background that includes training in computer science, comic books, and animation, knowledge of the music industry and studies of magic towards the body of work showcased in his first solo show at Honor Fraser. The appropriated odd bits used for materials and combinations of disciplines make every work a collage of culture. [Link]

Jan Van Imschoot’s “The First Worldwide Presentation of Anarcho-Baroque” at ltd los angeles, 7561 W. Sunset Blvd., #103, Los Angeles, Through February 4

Belgian painter Van Imschoot’s first solo exhibition with the gallery is a nod to masters Caravaggio, Tintoretto, El Greco, Van Eyck, and Beuckelaer. His large-scale oils on canvas put a contemporary spin on baroque technique, as his compositions are not just infused with modern subject matter but also reveal Imschoot’s personal spin on the art historical period. [Link]

Theaster Gates’s “An Epitaph for Civil Rights” at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, Through February 13

The Chicago-based artist and urban planner reflects on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s campaign in Birmingham in 1963 through a series of “non-aesthetic” sculptural installations that are intensely political. [Link]

PARIS

“Capturing the Model: Rodin 300 Drawings 1890-1917” at Musée Rodin, 79 rue de Varenne, Paris, Through April 1

While the world celebrates Rodin as the influential sculptor, this exhibition sheds new light on his skills as a draftsman. The later part of the artist’s career was spent refining his line-work and completing a massive arsenal of masterful drawings of live models that resulted in almost 7,000 pages, many of which have made it to the museum for this show. [Link]

LONDON

“Radical Drawing” at Purdy Hicks, 65 Hopton St., Bankside, London, Through January 28

This group show features the work of artists redefining the medium that has been at the heart of formal art-making for centuries. The work of Gavin Turk, Andrzej Jackowski, Raymond Pettibon, and others exemplifies the changes occurring in the application of drawing worldwide. [Link]

LIVERPOOL

John Kirby’s “The Living and the Dead” at the Walker Art Gallery, William Brown St., Liverpool, Opening January 13

In Kirby’s first major retrospective, featuring over 50 paintings and 10 sculptures made over three decades, his sexualized and solitary portraits in disturbingly surreal settings take center stage at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery. [Link]

LUCERNE

Matthew Day Jackson’s “In Search of…” at Museum of Art Lucerne, Europaplatz (KKL Level K), Lucerne, Through January 15

Matthew Day Jackson makes his European mark with a first solo show across the pond, via a media-diverse group of work bound by his prolific research on the subjects of anthropology, technology, and astronautics. [Link]

DALLAS

Diana Al-Hadid at Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora St., Dallas, Through January 15

Nasher Sculpture Center continues its “Sightings” series with Syrian-born, American artist Al-Hadid’s architectural sculptures that reference and recreate fragments of cathedrals, towers, labyrinths, and cities to form amalgamated and ambiguous homages to man-made structures. [Link]

EVERYWHERE

Damien Hirst’s “The Complete Spot”, All 11 Worldwide Gagosian Locations, Opening January 12

The spots go global today in all 11 Gagosian Gallery locations around the world, showing the artist’s most ambitious project in its complete form — a body of work so large no one institution could hold it all. Stay tuned for the results of Gagosian’s “Complete Spot Challenge.” After successfully completing a world tour of all the shows the winner will be given a Hirst-signed spot print to call their own. [Link]

Click the link at the top left to view a slide show of featured artworks. 

 


Should We Let More Artists Starve So Some Can Succeed?

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Should We Let More Artists Starve So Some Can Succeed?

Why are artists poor? It’s a good question. Just don’t ask Hans Abbing, the Dutch economist and author of “Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts.”

Abbing was the speaker at a well-attended Monday night event at Artists Space in SoHo, at the invitation of Working Artists in the Greater Economy (or W.A.G.E.), an advocacy group that presses for nonprofits and museums to pay symbolic fees to artists for showing their work, a model that seems to work in Canada. Abbing’s book, “Why Are Artists Poor?”, was published all the way back in 2002, and it hasn’t exactly made a huge splash. However, it has gained a certain degree of notoriety in New York thanks to W.A.G.E.’s stamp of approval, and it has occasionally been taken up to make prescriptions for arts policy. So it may be important to nip Abbing's percolating influence in the bud, and say clearly and for the record that his argument is balderdash. 

W.A.G.E., which used to describe itself as a “pro-artist, pro-capitalist” group (by which they meant they were for artists getting paid, not that they were for wealthy artists ruling over the proletariat), seems to have been attracted to the book because, as an economist, Abbing is all about debunking the notion that spiritual gratification trumps material rewards when it comes to art. You can see how this type of perspective would be appealing if you’re an artist and feel like you're getting ripped off, discovering that, as you become more successful, you are going deeper in debt because institutions expect you to work for love of art alone.

But this, unfortunately, is not where Abbing stops. Instead, “Why Are Artists Poor?” turns out to be a crusade against subsidies for artists. In fact, it is a spin on the libertarian dogma that everything wrong with society is produced by government meddling in the free market, only applied to the visual arts.

At this juncture, it might be worth noting that Abbing’s worldview doesn’t really seem to be based on familiarity with the realities of the contemporary art world. Thus, he argues that the distortions of government intervention explain the existence of “contemporary” or "avant garde" art, which he thinks wouldn’t have any economic influence without subsidy from the state. But astoundingly, the only example Abbing gives by name of a “contemporary artist” who might represent this sickly anti-economic style of contemporary art is — wait for it — Damien Hirst (pg. 68), i.e. Mr. Art Market himself. Huh?

Maybe that’s just Abbing’s personal bias creeping in (an artist himself with a passion for life drawing, he’s got a dog in the race). The “traditional” versus “contemporary” thing is really just a sidenote to Abbing’s main claim that the reason artists are poor is because of “oversupply” — there is more art then there is demand. The conclusion he comes to is that any attempt to provide economic support to artists outside the market — through grants or tax breaks or even private patronage — simply sustains people who couldn’t make it on their own merits, thereby drawing more people to art than the field can sustain. "In theory, then, extra funding will never increase income levels but merely increase the number of practicing artists," he writes (pg. 130).

Thomas Malthus made the same argument about the poor, to the acclaim of the 19th-century British ruling class: any attempt at social welfare just slowed the process of thinning the herd, leading to more poor mouths to feed and worsening their conditions through overcrowding. Abbing is a cultural Malthusian.

To be fair, at Monday’s W.A.G.E. event he claimed to have backed off this extremist argument a bit in the years since "Why Are Artists Poor?" was published. Now, he says, he focuses less on the actual role of subsidies in sustaining unproductive artists and more on the importance of government subsidies as a symbolic “signal” that falsely tells artists that art is a viable career. (Granted, Abbing is speaking from the Dutch perspective, where subsidies have been historically generous, but he is not shy about generalizing.)

A telling moment came during the Q&A section, when someone from the audience asked if he had an opinion about the astronomical prices fetched by art on the secondary market. “I don’t have very much to say about it,” Abbing answered mildly. “I suppose it would arouse anger from some artists.” Got that? State support for arts is a distorting “signal.” But endless hype about torrents of cash pouring into the art market? It's not even worth considering that that might be a significant factor in convincing young people that art might be a viable career.

In the United States, the decade has definitely seen a spike in the ranks of what are classified as "independent artists, writers, and performers” (from 509,000 to 676,000 between 2000 and 2008), despite the fact that overall subsidies for the arts — corporate, federal, state, and private — have generally risen only slightly, or, more often, decreased. (Americans for the Arts gathers the data for its National Arts Index.) U.S. artists would have to be pretty frickin’ dumb to think that the National Endowment for the Arts, cut to the bone and relentlessly demonized as a swindle to honest taxpayers, is sending them a “signal” that art is a career with a booming future. On the other hand, there has been a huge boom in the art market in the same period. Abbing is living in an upside-down world if he thinks the "oversupply” of artists is best explained by government distorting market signals.

Nevertheless, I agree with Abbing at least that you cannot explain the very real and probably unsustainable growth of the cultural economy simply as a function of raw economic calculation — though I wouldn’t see it as being based solely on a romantic “myth” to be debunked either. Rather, it seems an effect of what art has historically represented for society, combined with the realities of contemporary economic life.

“I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy,” John Adams, the second U.S. president, famously wrote in a letter to his wife. “Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.” Part of the social contract has been that the struggles of each generation of parents are justified if they can make it possible that their sons and daughters be a little less alienated. And the arts, in theory, are a place where you get to dream a little. Thus, as societies become more affluent, more people tend to move towards arts careers (this is a cross-cultural phenomenon, even in places that have traditionally revered science and technology, like Japan). Studies of the artistic workforce, spotty as they are, show that each year a considerable number of people become artists after quitting other jobs, knowing full well that they will make less money, but simply looking to do something that is a little more personally fulfilling ("Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture," pg. 821). 

More artists exist than can possibly make it without a change in the way society consumes visual art, that’s for sure. But the reason for this phenomenon likely has at least as much to do with how goddamn alienating non-artistic labor is as with how naïve artists are — that is, with the ruthless realities of the market that Abbing looks to for salvation.

Interventions is a weekly column by ARTINFO deputy editor Ben Davis. He can be reached at bdavis[at]artinfo.com.  

by Ben Davis,Interventions

Velvet Underground Stone-Cold Sues Warhol Foundation, Can Patti Smith Bring Peace to the Chelsea Hotel?, and More

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Velvet Underground Stone-Cold Sues Warhol Foundation, Can Patti Smith Bring Peace to the Chelsea Hotel?, and More

– Peel Slowly and I'll See You in Court: The Velvet Underground filed a complaint against the Andy Warhol Foundation for allegedly infringing the trademark for the Pop artist's banana design, which adorned the cover of the rock group's first album in 1967. The band's founders, Lou Reed and John Cale, said the foundation infringed on the design by licensing it to third parties when it should be in the public domain. [Bloomberg]

– No Good Deed: Punk songstress Patti Smith's plans to perform a private concert at the Chelsea Hotel have been greeted by grousing from current tenants. Smith, a former inhabitant of the hotel herself, said she wanted to "communicate directly" with the current tenants, who have clashed with the hotel's new owner over renovations and eviction attempts. Some have wondered whether the new owner is using Smith as an attempt to make peace, and plan to boycott the show. [NYT]

– Yoko Ono Collaborates With Occupy Wall Street: The Fluxus performance artist (and famed Beatles consort) will create a project based on her earlier work “Wish Tree” in support of the protest movement. Ono has made an edition of 10,000 postcards printed with written instructions “to be distributed nationally by Occupy Wall Street groups.” [Hyperallergic]

– Met Gets Record Attendance: The Metropolitan Museum saw a record 5.6 million visitors last season (meaning the year ending in June 2011). The news will come as no surprise to anyone who saw the lines for "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty." MoMA, on the other hand, saw attendance drop 11 percent, to 2.8 million. [Bloomberg]

– Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum Readies for Grand Reopening: The Boston museum's $118 million Renzo Piano-designed expansion and renovation have been in the works for more than a decade, and staff is scrambling to make everything perfect before the public opening on January 19. The museum shop manager has been pulling 12-hour days every day since Christmas, weekends included. [Boston Globe

– Luhring Augustine Plans Bushwick Debut: The Chelsea gallery’s hotly anticipated Bushwick space has announced a date for its first exhibition: Charles Atlas’s “The Illusion of Democracy” will open at 25 Knickerbocker Avenue on February 17, and remain on view through May 20. The new outpost includes dedicated exhibition galleries alongside office and storage space. [L Magazine]

– British Museums Up Photography Acquisitions: The U.K.’s major art institutions are vastly increasing expenditures on photography. While the Tate didn’t even record the word “photography” on its accounting sheet in 2006, the museum spent almost £1.5 million ($2.3 million) expanding its collection between 2007 and 2010. [British Journal of Photography]

– Meet MoMA's New Architecture Curator: Pedro Gadanho, a 43-year-old architect, fashioned a "gadfly-like career" as curator, writer, blogger, and teacher (sometimes finding the time to design a building or two). Before beginning his post at MoMA this week, he spoke with the New York Times about his role at the museum and the challenges facing architects today. [NYT]

– Emily Brontë Goes to Auction: A painting of Emily Brontë is set to be auctioned off by the Northamptonshire firm JP Humber. Estimated to sell for between £3,000 and £4,000, it is the second portrait of the famed 19th-century author to be unearthed in the past two months. [Guardian]

– Get Your Craft On: As DIY becomes more popular with younger generations and Chinese purchasing power increases, the arts and crafts industry is experiencing a big boost, according to a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. The industry could be worth $40 billion by 2015. [Press Release]

– Wei Wang Wins Future Map Prize: The London College of Fashion grad won the £3,000 award, given by the Zabludowicz Collection to one graduating student included in the college's Future Map exhibition, for her line of luxury ceramic evening bags. [Press Release]  

ALSO ON ARTINFO:

What Iran's Death Sentence for an American Marine Has to Do With Video Games

Preview the Crazy Damien Hirst Spot Paintings Show Everyone's Talking About

Four Suggestions for How the Met Could Become a Contemporary Art Powerhouse

Tod's Promises They Won't Plaster the Colosseum With Ads

Is This the Year of the German Museum Blockbuster? A Look Ahead at 2012 Shows

Raiders of the Lost Art? George Clooney to Make Movie About Nazi-Loot Hunters

 

Eisenhower Family Says Frank Gehry's D.C. Memorial Doesn't Honor Ike as a "Serious Man"

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Eisenhower Family Says Frank Gehry's D.C. Memorial Doesn't Honor Ike as a "Serious Man"

As one of the preeminent architects of our time, it's no surprise Frank Gehry would be tapped to design Dwight D. Eisenhower's memorial. However, Gehry's collaborative design with Robert Wilson for a decidedly unconventional commemorative space in Washington, D.C., to honor the American president has provoked some ire from the late war hero’s family.

In December, Eisenhower's granddaughter Susan Eisenhower politely voiced her disapproval with the logistics, scale, and overall look of Gehry's proposals.  “I don’t think my grandfather would be comfortable with the scale and scope of this design,” she said, as reported by the Washington Post. Keeping ever cordial, she made sure to state her respect for the architect's work. On Monday, however, the gloves came off and the keyboard came out. In a letter representing the entire Eisenhower family, Susan's sister Anne Eisenhower officially called for a stop to the project all together. In the spirit of our forefathers, the presidential family outlined their grievances to the National Capital Planning Commission, which in turn published the letter yesterday:

We are calling for an indefinite delay in the approval process and an indefinite postponement for the ground breaking for the memorial until there is a thorough review of the design [… ] We believe it is inappropriate given the controversy that surrounds the design and its concept.  It is far more important to adopt a memorial design that has the support of the Eisenhower family, Congress and the American people than it is to rush forward with a design and concept that are flawed.

One of the main flaws of  the proposed plans — located just off the National Mall between the Air and Space Museum and Department of Education — Anne goes on to describe, is Gehry’s emphasis on President Eisenhower’s childhood as a “barefoot boy from Kansas.” His designs, which to many resemble a theater stage, consist of 80-foot translucent woven steel tapestries and large steel columns, 11 feet in diameter, lining the perimeter of a four-acre park and depicting rural Kansas in winter. The main bone of contention is his statuary representation of Eisenhower as a young boy, rather than the nation's 34th president.

“The current design does very little to depict the reasons, as stated by Congress, that Eisenhower is being honored: for Supreme Command of Allied Forces during WWII and subsequently as 34th President of the United States,” Anne writes. Other grievances: the “delicately woven tapestries are not likely to be sustainable over the centuries," and it "has its back to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education.”

In addition to the Eisenhowers, Gehry’s design is also facing some flack from the National Civic Art Society, which alleges that “the Memorial competition, planning, and design were and are irredeemably flawed… secretive, exclusive, elitist, and undemocratic,” as Curbed reported. “An unknown, unconnected designer could not have won, let alone even entered, the competition."

The Eisenhower family insists they’re not against modern design, but they are calling for a more simple design as their grandfather was a “simple man” not interested in the avant-garde. Eisenhower's son, John Eisenhower, called for a simple memorial in stone. 

Perhaps then, they should have voiced their concerns when Gehry was selected to design the memorial in 2008. He is, after all, known for building radically flamboyant structures. The Eisenhower Memorial Commission, which hired Gehry, plans to seek final approval of the design in March with hopes of breaking ground this year. Personally, we think the Eisenhowers should consider themselves lucky they weren't presented with a hideous "stone of hope," which sculptor Lei Yixin created as a memorial for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Array

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200 Chinese Workers Erect a 30 Story Prefabricated Hotel in Just 15 Days

Best Way to Spend a Sick Day: Curled Up With Design Books


VIDEO: Mariko Mori on Her Utopian Earthwork for the Adobe Virtual Museum

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VIDEO: Mariko Mori on Her Utopian Earthwork for the Adobe Virtual Museum

When ARTINFO stepped through the threshold of Japanese artist Mariko Mori’s midtown Manhattan studio for this AI Interview shoot, we were momentarily blinded. Every single surface in the space was gleaming white, from the spotless tabletops to Mori’s personal desk, leather armchairs, and Mac computers. Even Mori herself was covered head to toe in a monastically colorless costume — a strict aesthetic that points to the kind of austere utopianism also present in Mori’s most recent project, “Journey to Seven Light Bay,” currently on view at the online-only Adobe Virtual Museum.  

“Journey to Seven Light Bay” is a digital version of Mori’s “Primal Rhythm,” a physical sculpture installed in a cove in Okinawa, Japan that responds to the tides, seasons, and solstices in real time. The installation’s “Moon Stone” element, which floats in the water, gradually changes color as the tide ebbs and flows. Perched on a rock, the “Sun Pillar” will cast a shadow directly onto the Moon Stone during the Winter Solstice.

Mori gave ARTINFO a tour of her online installation and told us about the benefits of working in virtual space, how she draws inspiration from nature, and her plans to install large-scale sculptures like “Primal Rhythm” on all seven continents — starting this year with Brazil.

Watch ARTINFO’s AI Interview with Mariko Mori below

by Kyle Chayka, Tom Chen,The AI Interview, Contemporary Arts

Runway to Win Announces Swanky List of Fashion Folks Backing Obama

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Runway to Win Announces Swanky List of Fashion Folks Backing Obama

It's well known that Michelle Obama has brought fashion back to the White House, wearing young designers like Rodarte, Cushnie et Ochs, and Proenza Schouler, along with more established names like Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, and Diane von Furstenberg. And fashion is paying the first lady back, with a campaign to support her husband’s 2012 reelection bid. (Not that they wouldn't anyway: In a study conducted during the 2008 election, the nonpartisan group Center for Responsive Politics discovered that executives and employees from a cross-section of large apparel brands and retail companies contributed twice as much money to Barack Obama as to GOP nominee John McCain.)

Today the Obama campaign released the official list of Runway to Win designers, which includes Tory Burch, Von Furstenberg, Rodriguez, Jason Wu, Alexander Wang, Joseph Altuzarra, Rag & Bone, Rachel Roy, and Tracy Reese. Headed by Vogue editrix Anna Wintour (who has so far raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s 2012 reelection), Runway to Win aims to spread Obama reelection fever through Obama-inspired designs. While Runway to Win isn’t the only way for fashion designers to show support for the President, it certainly is the largest fashion group backing the President’s reelection.

Runway to Win follows 2008’s Runway to Change, where designers teamed up to create tote bags, t-shirts, and scarves in support of Barack Obama. ARTINFO breaks down the politics of Runway to Win, from the company that barred its labels from participating to the first timers.

FRESHMEN
Jason Wu, which makes perfect sense, considering he designed the gorgeous white gown Michelle Obama wore to the inaugural ball in 2009. Another first-timer is 2011 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award-winner Joseph Altuzarra. Other new editions are Richard Blanch, Eddie Borgo, Sean Combs, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig of Marchesa, Prabal Gurung, Laura Kofoid and Grace Tsao-Wu of Laudi Vidni, and Monique Péan.

OLD HANDS
Alexander Wang, Tory Burch, Beyoncé and Tina Knowles of House of Deréon, Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, David Neville and Marcus Wainwright of Rag & Bone, Rachel Roy, Russell Simmons, and Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler have all signed on to participate in Runway to Win after contributing designs to Runway to Change.

RUNWAY TO CHANGERS WHO DIDN'T SIGN ON
Maria Cornejo, Charles Nolan, Zac Posen, Nanette Lepore, Lutz & Patmos, Juicy Couture, Isaac Mizrahi, Brian Reyes, and Jeffery Costello and Robert Tagliapietra of Costello Tagliapietra participated in Runway to Change but are not involved Runway to Win.

RUNWAY TO WIN DESIGNERS WORN BY FLOTUS
Photographers have snapped Michelle Obama wearing designs by Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch, Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, Jason Wu, Alexander Wang, Rachel Roy, Vera Wang, Thakoon, Prabal Gurung, and Tracy Reese.

NEUTRAL PARTIES
Some brands didn’t want to endorse Obama and potentially offend Republican customers. WWD reports that LVMH barred its labels from participating, but that Marc Jacobs went ahead and designed a t-shirt anyway, reportedly due to pressure from Vogue.

CONSPICIOUSLY ABSENT
Donna Karan, another LVMH brand, will not participate in Runway to Win, even though the company designed a t-shirt for the Runway to Change campaign, and its namesake is a well-known supporter of the Obamas and the Democratic party. Some other designers worn regularly by Michelle Obama but not participating in Runway to Win are Reed Krakoff, Doo-Ri Chung, Chris Benz, Michael Kors, Isabel Toledo, and Peter Som.

 

by Ann Binlot,Style & Society, Fashion

Zhang Daqian Surpasses Picasso to Become the World's Best-Selling Artist

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Zhang Daqian Surpasses Picasso to Become the World's Best-Selling Artist

Pablo Picasso has held onto the number one spot on Artprice's annual ranking of artists sorted by their auction prices for 13 out of the past 14 years. But the 2011 numbers have been crunched and the great man has been unseated. He didn’t lose to last year’s Western auction room darling Andy Warhol, but to two of the best modern Chinese artists most westerners have never heard of.

As ARTINFO China has been predicting since the beginning of China’s fall season last year, China’s modern masters stormed the 2011 top auction rankings, with Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) coming in at number one while Qi Baishi (1864-1957) claimed second place in Artprice’s survey. Warhol took third, with Picasso shunted into fourth. Zhang’s top spot was won on the back of the artist’s grand total of $506.7 million in 2011 auction sales. Qi Baishi's work earned $445.1 million, while Picasso took just $311.6 million.

Zhang and Qi’s 2011 win has been three years in the making. From the moment the global auction market’s center of gravity shifted east in the wake of 2008’s global financial crisis, the stocks of China’s modern masters have been rising. These artists — Qi, Zhang, Fu Baoshi, Xu Beihong, and Wang Guangzhong included — were painters active in the modern period who continued to utilize the techniques of traditional Chinese painting, but innovated in their concept and execution.

In the auction rooms of Beijing and Hong Kong over the past two years, a series of auction records have been broken as Mainland Chinese collectors breathed new life into a sector of the art market that had hitherto been the preserve of a dedicated (but much less cashed up) group of connoisseurs in the Chinese diaspora. A hint of what was coming was first seen at China Guardian's 2010 summer auctions when a beautiful 1968 study of the Austrian alps by Zhang Daqian was knocked down for RMB 100.8 million ($14.77 million), setting a new record for Chinese modern and contemporary painting at auction. In 2011 it was Qi Baishi’s time to make history when his "A Long Life, a Peaceful World" (1946) sold for RMB 425.5 million ($65 million) at China Guardian in May, setting a new world record for Chinese painting at auction.

In the end it was only the sheer volume of Zhang Daqian’s works coming to auction last year that secured him first place over Qi. Zhang was famously prolific and almost preternaturally talented, able to imitate any style and period of Chinese painting. His pleasure in copying the styles of the ancient masters gave him a reputation as a peerless forger, while at the same time his own innovative “splashed ink” style transformed modern Chinese painting.

Although the Chinese market will likely continue to slow during 2012, it is a safe bet that traditional Chinese modern painting is one sector of the market that will prove resilient. If so, we in the West will need to get a lot more familiar with the names like Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi. 

 

by Madeleine O’Dea, ARTINFO China,Auctions

Russell Brand to Add Acidity, Grease to the Simple Joys of Late Night TV

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Russell Brand to Add Acidity, Grease to the Simple Joys of Late Night TV

Late-night talk shows are like entertainment’s horseshoe crab — a televised living fossil. The news and gossip referenced in the monologue you’ve already read online. That the interviews are canned is obvious to even the least savvy modern viewer. The bits never rate with the best humor found in podcasts, on YouTube, and wherever else it is that comedy nerds lurk. But like the local news, network TV’s other useless sop to old people, late night has its enjoyably familiar rhythms, with celebrity, culture, and politics engaged at arm’s length, the news cycle’s grip loosened, as you head off to bed.

(For those of you, by the way, wondering what pleasures affiliate news has to offer, just remember that it has hardly changed in substance since the golden era that “Anchor Man” lampoons. It’s absurd in the best way. And don’t forget this.)

There are gratifications particular to the current late night lineup: Craig Ferguson’s nutty monologues, Fallon’s music, Conan’s collegiate wit, Letterman’s nihilism, George Lopez’s cancellation. (Jon Stewart, by the way, is a shiny teacher’s apple to these oranges, so we’ll leave him out of this.) With this week’s announcement that manic, greasy actor-author Russell Brand will have his own nighttime talk show starting later this year on FX, you can expect that late night will become even less mild and predictable of a pleasure.

Brand’s had some fine turns in movies — he alone makes “Forgetting Sara Marshall” the decidedly watchable flick that it is (in contrast to that Eeyore-slash-eyesore Jason Segel) — but he always plays himself. Which makes him a perfect host. All he has to do is let that ludicrous self-regard, semi-obscene humor, British slang, and SAT vocab come tumbling out, and the show’s made.

Of course, Brand could well suck every last bit of oxygen from the room, leaving his guests floundering. Meanwhile, the apparent plan to involve the audience sounds like a sure way to trip up his flow. But it’s also possible he’ll do something remarkable. Do like Arsenio and introduce the next woof, woof, woof. Put his guests on edge, like Letterman. Or — and this would be the dream — search out interviews along the lines of ones we’ve seen with Joaquin Phoenix, Charlyne Yi, Abel Ferrara, and Harmony Korine. He’s got six episodes to start. We expect at least one brilliant disaster in that span.

by Nick Catucci,Performing Arts, Columnist

Slideshow: Best & Worst of Damien Hirst's Spot Paintings

See Renzo Piano's Green-Thumbed Expansion for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

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See Renzo Piano's Green-Thumbed Expansion for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Closed to the public since November, Boston’s freshly refurbished Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will reopen to the public next week. But rather than throwing wide its original Venetian-style palazzo doors, it will welcome visitors through a different entrance: the recently completed new $144 million, 70,000-square-foot wing designed by Renzo Piano

The architect's marvel of colorless glass and patinated copper now stands behind the historic 1902 building in an effort to alleviate some of the wear and tear that its 200,000 visitors a year have caused. Isabella Stewart Gardner, an ardent art collector, did not make it easy on the renovators: following her death in 1924, Gardner's last will and testament stipulated that the home of her precious collection remain unchanged. The museum had to seek approval from government boards and regulators to ensure that the expansion did not counter her will. 

"The palace is the constant reference," Piano told reporters at yesterday's press preview, Reuters reported. "You are constantly in dialogue with the palace."

Adding new spaces for exhibitions, concerts, and educational programs, the addition does little to interrupt the apperance original building — it stands no higher, and its transparency allows continuous views of the original building and the lush gardens of its courtyards. The new amenities are seemingly endless: working greenhouses, expanded outdoor garden spaces, two artist-in-residence apartments, a new gift shop, and Café G, a restaurant with indoor and, season permitting, outdoor seating.

At 6,000 square feet, the 296-seat Calderwood Hall is the expansion's largest feature: a cube-shaped performance space, providing three tiers of balconies from which guests can view concerts below. The new 2,000-square-foot exhibition gallery is three times the size of that in the museum. It features a retractable ceiling of adjustable height to accommodate exhibitions of varying size and light-sensitivity, as well as a picture window framing gallery-goers' view of the original building. Both seemingly float above the transparent, glazed first floor, where the Richard E. Floor Living Room features plush red furniture on which visitors can lounge — a striking contrast to the green of the surrounding patina. A 50-foot-long glass hall through a grove of trees serves as passageway for visitors from one building to the next, opening to Gardner's lush, light-filled gardner courtyard. The original museum, while carefully restored, remains largely unchanged.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum reopens to the public on January 19. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spot the Difference: A Helpful Key to Damien Hirst's Global Gagosian Show

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Spot the Difference: A Helpful Key to Damien Hirst's Global Gagosian Show

Vulgar status symbols. Visual barbiturates. Ridiculously expensive wallpaper. Say what you will about artstar Damien Hirst’s "Spot" paintings — tonight they descend on the world in a pandemic of 11 shows across Gagosian’s franchises in New York, Beverly Hills, London, Paris, Geneva, Athens, and Hong Kong.

Despite all appearances of monotony, Hirst’s spots come in a cornucopia of shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, and druggy pharmaceutical references. Compare, for instance, the monolithic “Erbium Oxide,” composed of four spots — each one five feet in diameter — to the postage-stamp-sized “5-Bromozytidine,” tiny enough to fit into the palm of Blue Ivy Carter's privileged little hand. Madison Avenue boasts the most cumulative spots, with its canvases covered in thousands of miniscule Ben-Day-esque dots. Across the pond, less is more at the Davies Street location in London, where the spot count comes to a modest 124 and a half. “Moxisylyte” — named after a treatment for erectile dysfunction — wins the coveted title of most virile painting, while the abruptly-truncated "Bromchlorophenol Blue" leaves the most to the imagination (though that's still not saying much). 

Of course, the Hirst-Gagosian dream team encourages us to soak in the infinite variety of the "Spots" in the flesh, and is offering anyone who manages to visit all 11 exhibitions a personalized "Spot" print. It's a tempting offer, but for the 99 percent who can't afford to take the "Spot" painting challenge, ARTINFO brings the highlights of the exhibition to your computer monitors. From the oldest to the newest, largest to smalles, most cheerfully insipid to most labotimizingly boring, we have abridged the 300-plus works on view to spotlight (heh) the biggest, baddest, and ugliest of the "Spots" in all their pied beauty, mercenary opportunism, and grandiose lunacy.  

Oldest: “Spot Painting” (1986), at New York's Madison Avenue gallery

Newest: “L-Isoleucinol” (2011), at New York's 21st Street gallery

Gallery With Most Spots: New York's Madison Avenue gallery 

Gallery With Fewest Spots: London's Davis Street gallery

Biggest Canvas: “Pivalic Acid” (2005), measuring 21 x 21 ft. at the Beverly Hills gallery 

Smallest Canvas: “5-Bromozytidine” (1996), measuring 1 x 0.5 in. at London's Davies Street gallery

Biggest Spots: “Erbium Oxide” (2009), measuring 15 x 15 ft. with 5 ft. spots, at New York's 24th Street gallery 

Smallest Spots: “L-Isoleucinol” (2010-2011), measuring 10 x 16 in. with 1 mm. spots, at New York's 21st Sreet gallery

Sweetest Title: “Untitled (Nick, Margot, Chris, India)” (1999), at the Beverly Hills gallery

Weirdest Title: “Dantrolene (Being God (For Dave)” (1994), at New York's Madison Avenue gallery

Biggest Mouthful of a Title: “N-T-Boc-L-Alanine N-Hydroxysuccinimide Ester” (1995), at London's Davies Street gallery

To see other notable "Spot" paintings, click the accompanying slide show. 

 

Rapper Rick Ross, “Rich Forever,” Turns the American Dream Inside Out

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Rapper Rick Ross, “Rich Forever,” Turns the American Dream Inside Out

Any rapper worth his or her salty language has trademark catchphrases or vocal tics that they drop into their music. (Yes, there’s a soundboard for that.) Notorious B.I.G. had “uh!,” which sounded like him letting off a bit the energy built up, like that in a car battery, as he revved his rhymes. Rick Ross, meanwhile, every so often emits a raspy “HUH,” a stoned-sounding syllable that evokes equal parts wonder and confusion. It says, How did I get here? with a hint of Who knows … I’m going to buy another mummy on eBay.

The story of where in fact Ross did come from is good one. The rapper, it was discovered after he’d already become famous for songs about dealing cocaine, worked as a corrections officer in the mid ‘90s. (Imagine, for comparison’s sake, if Ron Paul were forced to admit that he once worked as a cabana boy for Fidel Castro.) The funny thing was, Ross wasn’t run out of rapville. He stuck to his sonorous rhymes and well-sourced beats, and three and a half years later rates among hip hop’s leading figures, a fact driven home by his latest mix tape, the excellent “Rich Forever,” which features a bunch of rappers showing their support — and angling for a little extra shine — in a string of guest verses.

Jonah Weiner over at Slate has a simple explanation for what got Rick Ross here: great music. But Weiner also suggests that Ross’ dalliance with the prison-industrial complex — shit work, that is — makes him all the more attractive to rap fans:

There’s a pleasing consonance to the way Rick Ross’ persona-craft jells with the classic rap-narrative of up-by-the-bootstraps striving. Rick Ross likes to call himself “self-made,” but while he means this in the sense of Alger-style ascent, it also works in the sense of Gatsby-style self-invention. This relates, more broadly, to the way many listeners daydream their own self-inventions when they listen to hip-hop — as ripe a source of vicarious fantasy as pop music offers.

So maybe “Rich Forever” isn’t the most accurate title — try “Once Poor, Rich Now and Going Forward.” But that leaves plenty of fantasy left over: the idea that it won’t just fall away, the way prosperity has been falling away for all but the richest people in this country. Rick Ross may have gone Gatsby, but his persona rejects a key element of Gatsby’s story: the punishment meted out for sneaking across social and economic boundaries. Ross got rich, got caught, and got off. Fake it ‘til you make it — in a time when it’s increasingly hard to get ahead, that may be our best version of the American dream. But what a soundtrack it has got.

by Nick Catucci,Performing Arts, Music

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See Patrick Demarchelier's Stunning "Dior Couture" Photos

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See Patrick Demarchelier's Stunning "Dior Couture" Photos

Couture — the highly-specialized form of dressmaking, governed by France’s Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, in which garments are executed to order for extremely wealthy customers — is a slowly dying art form. A new book looks back at the glory days. “Dior Couture,” which features stunning photographs by Patrick Demarchelier, pays tribute to Christian Dior, one of the most legendary couturiers of time.

Dior revolutionized the world of haute couture with his 1947 collection, dubbed the “New Look” for its then-groundbreaking hour-glass silhouettes. Although he would die 10 years later at age 52, Dior had cemented his name, inspiring Yves Saint LaurentMarc BohanGianfranco Ferré, and John Galliano.  

“The delicate stitches of Christian Dior’s couture are reminiscent of a spider’s web, mirroring nature, and these photographs capture the silhouettes like flower buds about to bloom,” Jeff Koons writes in the book’s foreword.

Demarchelier — a veteran fashion photographer who has shot editorials for the likes of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, along with campaigns for DiorYves Saint Laurent, and Chanel — captured gowns from the entire span of Christian Dior haute couture, from Dior himself to Galliano. Beautiful locations — like a Beijing movie studio, New York’s Times Square, and Paris’s Opéra Garnier — serve as the backdrop for the billowing pieces, worn by models including Gemma WardKarlie Kloss, and Natalia Vodianova. Ingrid Sischy, international editor for Vanity Fair’s European editions and former Interview magazine editor, provides the text.

Click through the photo gallery to a preview of images from “Dior Couture,” published by Rizzoli.

Slideshow: A Global Scene Report on Damien Hirst's Gagosian Blowout

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