Window Shoppers. Seasoned collectors spend carefully at Art Basel, the leading contemporary fair

Window Shoppers
Seasoned collectors spend carefully at Art Basel, the leading contemporary fair
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124475192106507443.html

(Source Wall Street Journal)
BASEL -- This week art lovers from the around the world have descended on this small industrial city in northwestern Switzerland for Art Basel, the world's preeminent fair for contemporary art. The turnout has been as strong as ever, but seasoned collectors are spending carefully and brand-new buyers are scarce, dealers say. The fair ends Sunday.

Signs of the economic downturn were still evident: Several smaller satellite fairs like Red Dot and Bridge canceled plans to join this round because of recession fears. Zurich dealer Bruno Bischofberger is still seeking a big spender for his lone offering, Andy Warhol's "Big Retrospective Painting." The 11-meter-wide work is a highlight reel of Marilyn Monroes, Chairman Maos and soup cans and is priced at €53 million. "It's a lot for a painting," Mr. Bischofberger concedes, "but it's a lot of painting."
Other highlights include new Old Master-style portraits by Kerry James Marshall, better known for his idyllic scenes of African-American suburbia, at the booth of New York dealer Jack Shainman. Mr. Marshall's untitled depiction of a woman holding a palette sold for $350,000, the gallery confirmed.

Zurich gallery Hauser & Wirth, meanwhile, placed Subodh Gupta's €650,000 creamy table laden with unmovable stone cutlery, "Marble utensils on table," next to Louise Bourgeois' untitled 2006 quilt-like wall hanging, which sold for an undisclosed price. The pairing feels equally haunting and homey.

Standouts among the satellite fairs like Liste include Israeli artist Elad Lassry's untitled high-concept film, in which actor Eric Stoltz assumes the persona of a Jerome Robbins-style choreographer directing a blonde in a red unitard. (The blonde evokes Mary Martin, star of Robbins's 1955 hit, "Peter Pan.") The work at David Kordansky Gallery is priced at $30,000.

Basel's organizers imported an extra dose of pageantry this year by paying to reproduce an updated version of "Il Tempo del Postino," an avant-garde theater hit curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno at the Manchester International Festival two summers ago. In this so-called "visual arts opera," a group of artists including Doug Aitken and Anri Sala are each given up to 15 minutes on a theater stage to present a performance piece. (Mr. Aitken's segment involves speed-talking American auctioneers; Mr. Sala's segment features opera singers in geisha costumes who pass an aria between them, lip-synching whenever it's not their turn.) Read Article... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124475192106507443.html

Art 40 Basel takes place June 10 – 14, 2009.

The work 'Big Retrospective Painting' (1979), by Andy Warhol, is on view at Art Basel. Works of art by more than 2,500 artists are presented in what is the most important art fair in the world. Photo EFE/ Georgios Kefalas.

Art 40 Basel takes place June 10 – 14, 2009.

The world's premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 2,500 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars, are represented in the show's multiple sections. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.
More: http://www.artbasel.com/go/id/ss/lang/eng/

BASEL.- The 40th edition of Art Basel takes place in the culturally rich city of Basel, Switzerland, from June 10 through June 14, 2009. As the world’s premier art show, Art Basel marks the annual reunion of the international artworld. This year, more than 300 exhibiting galleries from all over the globe were selected from a record number of more than 1,100 applications, and will be showing works by over 2,500 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Art Unlimited hall, with its 60 large-scale projects, and the Public Art Projects on the exhibition square offer further highlights....More: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=31352

Art Market Insight [May 2009]

Art Market Insight [May 2009]

(Source ArtPrice)Press Release Copyright@Artprice.com
Mixed results in New York [May 09]

At the end of the first quarter of 2009, the global art market price index showed a 10% contraction. But in New York City, host to some of the world’s most prestigious art sales, the crisis is being felt particularly hard: the same index shows a 35% local contraction over the same period. The May sales in Manhattan were therefore awaited with a great deal of apprehension. Over roughly ten days, the top end of the market was seriously tested with the Impressionist and Modern Sales (5 May at Sotheby’s, 6 May at Christie’s) and then the Post-war and Contemporary Art sales (between 12 and 16 May).

In one week of New York sales, the three main auction houses sold 734 works of Contemporary Art generating a total sales revenue of $180m… i.e. $660m less than at the same May sales of 2008! At the time, the market was surfing on a mood of speculative euphoria. Today, in 2009, the deterioration of market conditions has inevitably produced some major counter-performances. For example, the number of sales above the $1m line in the Contemporary Art segment (40) was less than a third its previous year total of 132.

The end of a speculative era… exhausted demand leading to a restricted offer… substantially reduced estimates … the figures posted by the big three auctioneers (Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury & Company) were but a pale shadow of their former glory. The contraction was particularly hard at Sotheby’s. The auctioneer had announced a 58% fall in its first quarter revenue compared with the year-earlier period, and was hoping to make up for lost ground with the New York sales. But the $81.5 expected from the Impressionist & Modern sale of 5 May shrank to a final figure of $52.9m, i.e. $155m less than the previous year. A week later, the total revenue from its Part I Contemporary Art sale was down 87.4% on the year-earlier figure.

Remember that in May 2008 Sotheby’s generated its best ever performance for a Contemporary Art sale with a record figure of $320.6m, substantially higher than the most optimistic forecasts. This year, Sotheby’s will have to be content with a meagre $40m… Of course, the comparison with last year is particularly brutal after the Russian billionaire, Roman Abramovic, bought a Francis BACON Triptych for $77m. That figure was very close to the total revenue generated this year by Christie’s Contemporary Art sale ($80.8m from 49 lots).
Sotheby’s managed to sell 39 of the 40 lots it presented on 12 May 2009, compared with 73 lots sold in 2008. The results were mixed for the key pieces in the sale: the large-scale canvas by Martin KIPPENBERGER sold within its estimate range at $3.6m; Jeff KOONS’ baroque Easter egg fetched $1.2m (but was estimated $4.7m) and Andy WARHOL’s monumental Camouflage fetched $1.45m vs. an estimate of $1.8m. Among the other million-dollar sales at Sotheby’s, a dark and dramatic Mark ROTHKO painting, Black, Red-Brown on Violet fetched $1.4m vs. an estimate of $1.5m-$2m. The next day, Christie’s bought in a more colourful work by the same artist that was over-estimated at $3m- $4m. The Americain Richard PRINCE and the British artist Cecily BROWN received better support: Can You Imagine by Richard Prince sold for $1.15m vs. and estimate of $600,000 - $800,000, and Girls Eating Birds by Charles Saatchi’s protégée Cecily Brown fetched $1m vs. a high estimate of $900,000 (Sotheby’s).

At the end of the day, Sotheby’s had generated 14 sales above the $1m line in the Contemporary Art field compared with Christie’s score of 26. The best results at Christie’s were $5.3m for Roy LICHTENSTEIN’s Frolic, $5.15m for Jean-Michel BASQUIAT’s Mater, $7m for David HOCKNEY’s Beverly Hills Housewife, $4.1m for Peter DOIG’s Night Fishing, and $5,8m for Richard DIEBENKORN’s Ocean Park No 117. Jeff Koons generated a surprisingly good result with his Jim Beam - J.B. Turner Engine which sold for twice its estimate at $2m. Read Article...
http://web.artprice.com/AMI/AMI.aspx?id=NDk5NTYyMTAzNzgzNzk=

Pharmaka Gallery Exhibition MY CERTAIN FATE

Pharmaka Gallery Exhibition MY CERTAIN FATE
101 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
http://www.pharmaka-art.org/index_main.html

MY CERTAIN FATE MAY 14 – JUNE 6 AT PHARMAKA
On May 9, 2009 Pharmaka will exhibit the ten original portraits from Andy Warhol's Athlete Series, courtesy of Richard Weisman. Alongside the original Warhols will be artwork created by youth members of the Urban Compass program, available for purchase at the event. Please join us for wine and hors d'oeurves to celebrate this historic exhibition and support a great cause.
A special event benefitting Urban Compass and Pharmaka, two 501(c)3 non-profit organizations serving the Los Angeles urban community. Pharmaka will exhibit the ten original portraits from Andy Warhol's Athlete Series, courtesy of Richard Weisman alongside artwork created by youth members of the Urban Compass program. , available for purchase at the event.
Timothy Buckwalter. http://timothybuckwalter.typepad.com/my_certain_fate/

Press Release My Certain Fate Download PDF

Warhol's Wide World, comes to Paris

Warhol’s Wide World at Grand Palais
http://www.ivyparisnews.com/2009/03/warhols-wide-world-at-grand-palais.html
March 18 through July 13, 2009


Andy Warhol comes to Paris in a major exhibition of his trademark society portraits
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/showbiz/2009-03/18/content_7591090.htm

PARIS- Andy Warhol comes to Paris in a major exhibition of his trademark society portraits but a famous image of Yves Saint Laurent will be missing after a dispute over whether the late couturier was an artist or a mere designer.
"Warhol's Wide World," which opens this week, presents some 140 of the 1,000 or so portraits of actors, stars and assorted jet set personalities turned out by the "Pope of Pop" from the 1960s until his death in 1987.
Based on existing photographs or created with a specially designed Polaroid camera, Warhol's garishly tinted pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy or Saint Laurent became icons in the modern cult of celebrity.
Along with his Campbell's Soup can, they are some of the best-known images in modern art and the exhibition is expected to be one of the biggest of the year.
Warhol once remarked that he wanted all his portraits to fit together and make one big painting called "Portraits of Society" and exhibition curator Alain Cueff regretted that it had not been practical to do so.
"It would be wonderful to recreate the dream of Warhol, to have 1,000 portraits of people just like that but it was quite impossible, I'm afraid," he said.
Even so, the Grand Palais, a vast hall created for the Great Exhibition of 1900, has been lined with some of the most famous faces of the era, from stars like Monroe or Mick Jagger to artists like Man Ray or fashion designers like Giorgio Armani.


Présentation de l’expo Warhol
http://www.rmn.fr/Presentation-de-l-expo-Warhol

En 1962, Andy Warhol peint les portraits de Marilyn Monroe, de sa rivale Liz Taylor, réinterprète La Joconde et Elvis Presley. A partir de 1967 et jusqu’à sa mort en 1987, il réalise, sur commande, les portraits de dizaines de personnalités diverses, célèbres ou inconnues, offrant à un monde fasciné par les apparences un miroir flatteur et vertigineux. Il remettait ainsi à l’honneur un genre négligé, en y appliquant de nouveaux codes qui marqueront très profondément l’histoire du portrait.
Aux côtés de stars du cinéma et de la musique (Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Mick Jagger, Sylvester Stallone), on trouve aussi des portraits d’artistes (Man Ray, David Hockney, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring), de collectionneurs et de marchands (Dominique de Ménil, Bruno Bischofberger, Ileana Sonnabend, Leo Castelli), d’hommes politiques (Willy Brandt, Edward Kennedy), de couturiers (Yves Saint-Laurent, Sonia Rykiel, Hélène Rochas), de personnalités de la jet-set (Gianni Agnelli, Lee Radziwill, la princesse de Monaco, Gunther Sachs) connus ou moins connus, tous y gagnent un peu de cette aura que procure le génie de Warhol.

Warhol's "Wide World" hits Paris
(01:00) Report Video Reuters

Mar. 18 - The exhibition "Wide World" at Paris Grand Palais is already shaping up as one of the biggest art events this year. Cindy Martin reports