“Horumon” Sekine celebrating love at the Coexist-Tokyo Gallery

Published on 18 May 2012.

Tokyo, 10 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Kanji Sekine, better known as Horumon (hormone in Japanese), will be displaying his work at the Coexist-Tokyo Gallery from 2 to 24 June 2012.

Since the early 1980s, Horumon Sekine has been producing works dealing with the subjects of love and serenity, his exhibitions conveying a message of optimistic peace, especially with the help of his extra-terrestrial character Aohito (blue man in Japanese) that he created in 2000.

The artist fed on the western classical thought and particularly on Greek philosophy, studying in Athens and then Perugia in Italy. He developed a pacifist philosophy that he set out to reproduce through his works. He mainly produced colour gouache on paper portraits, and also drew considerable inspiration from the aesthetics and symbolic aspect of Sino-Japanese ideograms for his works.

Like most Japanese artists, Horumon Sekine was of course influenced by the disasters that struck Japan in March 2011. The topic of nuclear energy, which he believes to be inextricably linked to war, heavily featured in his exhibition at the Yoshio Nakajima Art Museum in Helsingborg, in Sweden at the end of 2011.

The exhibition’s closing will be marked by a performance featuring Aohito, with the participation of Shamisen (Japanese string instrument) player Saotome Wakan. Although he has featured in numerous exhibitions in Japan since 1983, Horumon Sekine is indeed better known as a performer in Europe. He appeared as a performer at the Japan Expo in Paris in 2010, and also at the Istanbul Art Fair that same year before appearing at the Mural for peace project in Bucharest in 2011.

Tags: , , , , , , .

Artnet launches new price index

Published on 18 May 2012.

Berlin, 14 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Artnet, the international transaction platform providing information services dedicated to the art market, announced the launch of its “Artnet Indices” in a recent press release. This new product aims to increase the transparency of the art market and to facilitate the evaluation of the price of works exchanged.

For Hans Neuendorf, CEO of Artnet, “art is an ever growing set of assets. As for any asset, transparency of information is a necessary condition for investment, especially in a market that is as volatile as the art market”.  With Artnet Indices, Neuendorf hopes to make “the art market more transparent by providing tools of analysis that precisely estimate the profitability of investments in art. Much as one can follow a Fortune 500 company, the Artnet Indices enable the quantitative analysis of highly specialised markets to follow the performance of artists such as Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, and Yves Klein.

Artnet will offer four reports: reports on a single artist, on comparable works, on a group of artists and predefined reports focussing on particular areas and tendencies of the market.

Artnet Indices will evaluate the performance of artists and compare them to other financial indexes (for example, the S&P 500, FTSE 100, Dow Jones, DAX etc.) or even gold prices. Without revealing its techniques, Artnet has announced that, in order to produce these indices, they have created a statistically robust method of aggregation of sales results that takes into account the characteristics of artworks and their specificities (genre, period, content, media, support and visual similarities) to bring together groups of comparable works.

The proposed system is by no means revolutionary, since other companies have offered a similar service for a number of years. What is important to note, however, is the way in which the proliferation of such services represents something of an industrialisation of the art market.

Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Winners of World Press Photo at the Azzedine Alaia gallery

Published on 18 May 2012.

Paris, 18 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Azzedine Alaia gallery is hosting the Paris leg of the tour of the World Press Photo 2012 competition winners from 1 to 21 June 2012. This award, which recognises the best photographs of 2011, was created in the Netherlands in 1955.

Among the 101,254 photographs submitted in 2011, the World Press Photo jury have allocated 3 prizes in each of the 18 different categories, as well as some honorary mentions, including a special mention for an image captured over the past year by a non-professional photographer. For 2011, this was a screenshot of a video showing former Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi hoisted up onto a truck belonging to the Libyan National Transitional Council that has been selected.

The grand award was awarded to Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda for his photograph showing a Yemeni lady consoling her son, who was injured during a protest in Sanaa. Among the other award winning works were other snapshots documenting the Arab revolutions, as well as others showing the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami. Others look at subjects such as prostitutions, the distribution of wealth and the protection of endangered animal species. In total, 57 photographs were awarded prizes.

The exhibition is set to cover 105 sites in 45 countries. Visitors are able to access the World Press Photo Kiosk, which retraces the 54 year history of the event, and an album (which is available in seven languages) has been published. The foundation hopes to contact millions of people between now and the end of 2012. An application for iPhone and Android is also planned (priced at $1.29 and $0.79 respectively) containing commentaries and interviews with winners.

Tags: , , , , , , .

Latin America at Phillips de Pury

Published on 18 May 2012.

New York, 18 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The auction house Phillips de Pury is organising a sale dedicated to Latin American art for 21 and 22 May 2012. This sale of 116 lots, split into two sessions, is estimated to be worth between $4,524,500-6,325,500 in total. Pieces featured include:

  • Lot 10 – Reclining Woman with Drapery (2004) by Fernando Botero (Columbian), unique piece in Carrara marble, 46 x 120 x 46cm, estimated between $600,000-800,000;
  • Lot 4 – Açougue Song (The Butcher’s Song, 2000) by Adriana Varejão (Brazil), mixed media on canvas, 150 x 195 x 18cm, estimated between $500,000-700,000;
  • Lot 16 – Mataesquema 169 (1958) by César Ortica also known as Hélio Oiticica (Brazil), gouache on cardboard, 150 x 195 x 18 cm, estimated between $180,000-220,000;
  • Untitled (1965) by Mira Schendel (Brazil), tempera and mixed media on wood, 50 x 46 cm, estimated between $120,000-180,000.
Tags: , , , , , .

20th Century British and Irish Art

Published on 18 May 2012.

London, 18 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Christie’s is presently organising a sale dedicated to 20th century British and Irish artists. This auction, comprising 203 lots in total, will take place over two sessions: the first on the evening of 23 May 2012 and the second on the afternoon of 24 May. As usual, the evening sale will feature the finest of the works; the estimates for the evenings are dominated by three canvases by the English painter Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976):

  • Lot 40 – Industrial Landscape; Stockport Viaduct (1958), oil on canvas, 50.8 x 61cm, estimated between £1.2-1.8 million;
  • Lot 41 – The Old Horse Ambulance (1941), oil on panel laid on board, 40 x 59.4cm, estimated between £500,000-800,000;
  • Lot 43, Going to the Match (1956), oil on canvas, 28 x 49.5cm, estimated between £500,000-800,000.

Just after these three works, other pieces and artists that have caused a stir include:

  • Lot 5 – The Gorbals (1930-31) by Edward Burra (1905-1976), oil on canvas, 75.6 x 55.3cm, estimated between £500,000-800,000;
  • Lot 31 – Ranunculus (c.1921) by Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935), oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6cm, estimated between £400,000-600,000;
  • Lot 27 – The Bridle Path, Cookham (1938) by Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), oil on canvas, 71.7 x 94cm, estimated between £400,000-600,000.

The sale the day after will sell less prestigious pieces, among which Contrasts in Red, Black and White (2002-2003), an installation by Terry Frost (1915-2003) estimated between £150,000-250,000, stands out.

Tags: , , , , , , .

Erik Parker returns to the Paul Kasmin Gallery

Published on 18 May 2012.

New York, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency  (AMA).

New York’s Paul Kasmin gallery will be presenting an exhibition of works by artist Erik Parker in September 2012 at its premises at 293 Tenth Avenue.

Erik Parker (born in Stuttgart in 1968) specialises in producing figurative paintings and psychedelic drawings. Today he lives and works in New York, but it was in Austin, Texas where he studied before attending Purchase College in New York State. Since then he has exhibited at the P.S.1 “Greater New York” in 2000, at The Cornerhouse Gallery in Manchester, at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, at Colette in Paris, at the Honor Fraser gallery in Los Angeles, and at the Galleri Faurschou in Copenhagen.

In 2011, he organised an exhibition in collaboration with the artist Kaws entitled “Pretty on the inside”, which took place at the Paul Kasmin. This exhibition showcased the works of 5 American artists as well as that of Kaws and Parker: Todd James, Tony Matelli, Joyce Pensato, Peter Saul, and Karl Wirsum.

The Paul Kasmin gallery was founded in 1989 in New York. It represents various different generations of painters, sculptors, photographers, and video artists, including contemporary, modern, and internationally famous artists such as Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana, Les Lalannes, Walton Ford, Kenny Scharf, Barry Flanagan, and Frank Stella. The gallery also presents young artists in the middle of their careers. Spanning two separate spaces in New York, the Paul Kasmin Gallery publishes numerous artists’ catalogues and books, participates regularly in international art events, and is known for organising public projects and works of art. Notably, for Art HK 12 the gallery has chosen to present works by Bernar Venet and I Nyoman Masriadi.

Tags: , , , , , , .

Master Drawings London

Published on 18 May 2012.

London, 18 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The annual festival, Master Drawings London, will take place between 27 June and 5 July 2012. The festival seeks to bring together international experts and dealers to celebrate 700 years of drawing and watercolour from the renaissance period to the present day, whilst also offering exhibitors, experts, dealers and viewers an international platform and the opportunity to gain a comprehensive view of this particular market.

Dealers and experts from as far afield as Zurich, Düsseldorf, Madrid and New York will be displaying pieces in a series of exhibitions in galleries in the London districts of Mayfair and St James’. Works on show range from Trinity Fine Art Ltd’s Supper at Erasmus (c.1810) by Richard Cosway to Stephen Ongpin Fine Art’s Femme nue se coiffant (Nude Combing her Hair¸1906) by Pablo Picasso. Modern and Contemporary work will also be on display; Day & Faber exhibiting the work of Dave Winthrop, formerly a saxophonist for Supertramp.

A key aim of Master Drawings London is to inform and educate on their specialist field, and this year will see the first ever lecture given at the festival. Entitled “First of all respect your paper: 500 years of artists and their papers”, this talk will be given by the renowned paper analyst and forensic specialist Peter Bower and will take place at  the Society of Antiquaries of London on 28 June.

With its own dedicated auctions, the event has been organised to coincide with the sales of 20th century works taking place across the city at the end of June. It will also run alongside Master Paintings Week; an event running from 29 June to 6 July that celebrates London as the centre of expertise on the Old Masters.

Tags: , , , , , , , .

Templon unveils summer plans with Ulrich Lamsfuss

Published on 18 May 2012.

Paris, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

From 9 June to 21 July 2012 the Galerie Daniel Templon will be offering works by Berliner Ulrich Lamsfuss entitled “Afternoons in Utopia”. The title, loaned from the song of the same name by German band Alphaville, evokes the promises and illusions of an age, and infers a new erosion between reality and its representations.

The exhibition will mark five years since the last time Lamsfuss exhibited in France. For those not familiar with his work, Ulrich Lamsfuss was born in 1971, and presently lives and works in Berlin. He trained under George Baselitz at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Art during the 1990s. As of now, he has been exhibited all over the world at well known galleries such as the Daniel Templon in Paris, the Max Hetzler in Berlin, the Lombard-Freid projects in new York, and the Daniel Hug Gallery in Los Angeles. In 2001 his work was exhibited at the Espace Paul Ricard in Paris, then in 2003 he featured at the Prague Biennial, and went on display at the Hamburg Kunsthalle in 2005 and the Marta Herford museum in Germany in 2008.

Ulrich Lamsfuss’s works also figure in several international collections, notable the Peter Stuyvesant collection. This collection was sold at Sotheby’s Amersterdam in 2011, where one of Lamsfuss’s canvases dated to 1999 and measuring 130 cm x 200 cm was sold for its high end estimate of €3,000.

“Afternoons in Utopia” sees the artist staying faithful to his “post picture” style, wherein he lends images from various sources, meticulously reproducing them in oil on canvas. This process of copying radically changes the subject matter through changes in apparent scale, sensuality, medium, and the artist’s interpretation.

Tags: , , , , , , .

Master Paintings Week in London

Published on 18 May 2012.

London, 18 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Master Paintings Week  is set to take place in London between 29 June and 6 July 2012. The fourth edition of the yearly festival, which is dedicated to a celebration of the European Old Masters’ works, will take place in twenty-three different galleries in the heart of London’s Mayfair and St James, alongside a series of auctions at London’s three major auction houses.

The galleries will each put on a series of special exhibitions and events, celebrating and publicising London’s unique legacy and expertise in the field of the Old Masters. For three of the galleries participating, this will be their first contribution to the festival: Haldane Fine Art will be showing Noah Entering the Ark by Hans Jordaens III (c.1595-1643); Noortman Master Paintings will exhibit Flowers in a Terracotta Vase by Jan van Huysum (1682-1749); and Theo Johns Fine Art will be showing a depiction of Jesus and Mary Magdelane entitled Noli me tangere by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini (1657-1736).

In addition to the exhibitions, the auction houses Bonham’s, Christie’s and Sotheby’s will be holding a series of sales of Old Master’s Art. Bonham’s will hold their auction on 4 July, Christie’s King’s Street on 3 and 4 July, Christie’s South Kensington on 6 July, and Sotheby’s on 4 and 5 July. The various successes of Old Maters’ paintings in the winter sales, particularly those fine examples in good condition, suggest that these auctions will see good results.

Master Paintings Week will run alongside the twelfth edition of Master Drawings London. This event will run from 27 June to 5 July and focuses on bringing together international expertise on seven centuries of European drawing and watercolour, with a series of exhibitions and lectures also taking place in London’s Mayfair.

Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Banksy ‘celebrates’ Queen’s Jubilee in his own way

Published on 18 May 2012.

Londres, le 16 mai 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Banksy, the anonymous street artist, has struck once again. His latest creation, recently left on a wall in London, is a seeming denunciation of the upcoming London Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

As Hannah Furness states in an article published on The Telegraph‘s website, it is not certain whether this work is by Banksy himself, although it does feature the monochrome aesthetic, but above all the social nature and black humour, that characterises Banksy’s work.

The mural shows a child, apparently of Asian origins, kneeling before a sewing machine. Attached to the wall are two small Union Jacks attached by a chord, which the child is apparently sewing together. The work apparently seems to symbolise the situation of working children in poor countries who make the the products used in festivities such as those that are to take place in London this summer.

Furthermore, this painting was created on the wall of a branch of Poundland, a chain of discount stores. As Furness states, this work may also be a nod towards a 2010 controversy, when an enquiry discovered that some of the company’s Indian suppliers employed children aged seven, having them work for up to one hundred hours a week.

Tim McDonnell, director of sales at Poundland, has stated that the chain was both a fan of Banksy’s work, and supported the Jubilee celebrations. He also mentioned his employer’s previous ethical issue, and the code of good conduct that the company later introduced for its suppliers.

Tags: , , , , , .

Prize for up-and-coming artists in Geneva

Published on 18 May 2012.

Geneva, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

On 14 May 2012 the BNP Paribas Suisse foundation and the Haute École d’art et de Design (HEAD) of Geneva announced the setting up of the New Heads Prize, awarding the school’s most promising artists.

For this first edition, Giovanni Carmine, director of the Kunsthalle of Saint-Gall, was tasked with selecting twelve artists working towards the HEAD’s Master in visual arts, whose works will be displayed during an exhibition at LiveInYourHead, the school’s curatorial institute in September and October 2012.

Four prizes will be awarded: two by a jury consisting of five art professionals, one by BNP Paribas’s employees and one by those attending the exhibition. Each prize will reach 12,000 Swiss francs (€ 10,000), in addition to financial backing for the production of works and their integration into the BNP Paribas Foundation’s collection.

The agreement signed between the foundation and the HEAD plans to present this prize during the next three years.

Tags: , , , , , .

Alex Katz at the Tate St Ives

Published on 16 May 2012.

St Ives, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Up until the 23 September this year, the Tate St Ives will be featuring an exhibition of works by figurative American artist Alex Katz. Entitled “Alex kats: Give Me Tomorrow”, the event brings together some 30 canvases, cuttings, and collages by the artist covering his career from 1950s to the present day.

Katz is now 85 years old. He is often associated with the Pop Art movement, and is known for his portraits and landscapes. His career really took off in the 1950s when he had his first solo exhibition at the Roko Gallery in New York. Various American public institutions have invited him to display his work since 1980, a time when Pop Art was very fashionable. Consequently, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of American Art did not hesitate in promoting his works. A little time later, Katz became known in Europe and has featured at museums such as the Centre Julio Gonzalez in Barcelona, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, and the Musée de Grenoble, as well as, of course, the Tate St Ives.

In order to add a little something extra to the exhibition, Katz has personally selected works by other artists in the Tate St ives collections to accompany his works. He is also set to feature at the Turner Contemporary in Margate in the United Kingdom, in an exhibition running from 6 October 2012 to 13 January 2013.

Tags: , , , , , , , .

114.5 meters tall for Anish Kapoor’s latest monumental sculpture

Published on 16 May 2012.

London, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The British-Asian artist that transformed the Grand Palais in 2011 with his Léviathan is making his contribution to the London 2012 Olympic Games. On 11 May 2012, Anish Kapoor designed a 114.5 metre tall twisting tower of red metal overhanging the Olympic Park in London.

Funded by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal to the tune of up to £ 19.6 M, this tower has been compared to the Eiffel Tower and will not be dismantled after the Olympic Games. The British artist did not hesitate to qualify it as “awkward” and “unsettling”. However, he thinks these two qualifiers are part of its beauty.

As withthe Eiffel Tower, a restaurant has been planned and an elevator enables visitors to ascend the monument designed with the help of architect Cecil Balmond. The building’s construction cost reaches £ 22.7 m and the entrance price is £ 15, something Kapoor strongly criticized as he considers it to be a lot of money and that a “more democratic” price should be introduced.

Tags: , , , , , .

Elizabeth II in exhibition

Published on 16 May 2012.

London, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The National Portrait Gallery in London is hosting an exhibition entitled “The Queen: Art & Image” from 17 May to 21 October 2012. After Edinburgh, Belfast, and Cardiff, this final stage for the exhibition is part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, marking sixty years of the reign of Elizabeth II of England.

New works have been added to the collection for the occasion. The Fishnmonger’s Company has loaned Queen Elizabeth, Queen Regent, a portrait dating from 1954-1955 created by Italian painter Pietro Annigoni. This oil and tempera on paper work presents the Queen at the age of 28, life size, wearing the regalia of the Order of the Garter infront of a rural landscape. The painting is representative of the Italian painter’s fascination for Renaissance works, especially his treatment of light. It is the first time since 1986 that this portrait has been presented to the public. It joins another work by Annigoni, dating to 1969 under commission from NPG, depicting Elizabeth as monarch, alone in a in red ceremonial robes against a dark background.

Another remarkable loan for this London stage of the show was from the Museum of Wiesbaden in Germany. The portrait was created in 1967 by Gerhard Richter, and is simply titled Elizabeth II. It will be joining  two lithographs by the same artist, dating from 1966, and humorously titled Elizabeth I.

The third loan exclusively to the London gallery is a work commissioned by the Isle of Jersey and offered to the National Portrait Gallery. This work is a holographic image by Chris Levine and Rob Munday, titled Equanimity. The piece is related to another work by Levine entitled Lightness of Being (2004), famous for showing the Queen with her eyes closed. In a more traditional vein, the  photograph Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Windsor Castle 2011 by Thomas Struth was specially commissioned by the museum for the Diamond Jubilee.

All of these new arrivals will be joining other works and documents in the exhibition: portraits by Lucian Freud and Justin Mortimer (including one where, controversially, the Queen is depicted with her head separated from her body), photographs by Annie Leibowitz, Dorothy Wilding, and even some photos taken by Cecil Beaton during the 1952 coronation ceremony at Westminster abbey. Programme extracts, press documents, and even stamps featuring the Queen’s image will also feature. According to the curator of the 20th century at the National Portrait Gallery and curator of the exhibition, Paul Moorhouse, “the Queen is one of the most represented personality in history, yet remains an enigma, of which we only have images. With this exhibition we are exploring her public image, and what these images show us about the evolution of our ideas and values”.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Decorative and art and design to make a splash at Christie’s

Published on 16 May 2012.

Paris, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The department of Decorative Art and 20th century design at Christie’s is presenting a sale bringing together 77 lots, with an estimated total value of €3 million, on 31 May this year. The most anticipated lots include:

  • Lion de Nubie, bronze, Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916), 48cm in height, 66cm in length, 22 cm in width, cast by A.A. Hébrard, estimated value between €700,000 and €1 million. There are only three known examples of this animal cast from the collections of the heirs of businessman, aviation pioneer, and war war hero Alber Neuvy (1897-1983). Two other statues by Bugatti are also on sale: Éléphant d’Asie en marche (1909-10) a small model, the larger version of which is being exhibited in the “Beauté animale” exhibition, and Deux antilopes goudou (1911), estimated between €60,000 and €80,000 each.
  • Roi soleil (circa. 1960), coloured mirror encrusted with shells and fragments of multicoloured mirrors, Lise Vautrin (1913-1997), 93 cm in diametre, estimated between €60,000 and €80,000.
  • Fontane (circa 1925), a chiffonnier bureau, Madagascar ebony facing, shaped façade, two doors, lock plates and feet in ivory, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann (1879-1933), 147 cm in heigh, 100 cm in length, 39.5 cm in depth, estimated between €200,000 and €300,000.
  • A dining table (single piece, circa 1960), ceramic board with black enamel, base in black lacquered metal, double Y struts, Georges Jouve (1910-1964), created by architect André Lefèvre, height 70 cm, length 194.5 cm, width 114 cm, estimated value of between €200,000 and €300,000.
  • Lamp (1931), bronze with green patina, made in form of a plant with stylised fronds, hemispheric bowl, Armand Albert Rateau (1882-1964), 171 cm. This lamp is the original and was kept by the artist himself.
  • Mouton de laine (1994), wool and bronze with a brown patina, bronze casters beneath feet, François-Xavier Lalanne (1927-2008), 89 cm in height, 92 cm in length, 46 cm in length, estimated value of between €100,000 and €150,000.
  • A rug in wool (circa 1925), geometric red and black design, black and red grid on a pink beige background, Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, 595 x 380 cm, estimated value of between €100,000 and €150,000.

A table lamp (circa 1925), spherical base copper and hammered silver, conical lampshade in copper with a brown/orange patina, silver decoration, Jean Dunand (1877-1942), 40 cm, estimated between €80,000 and €120,000.

Tags: , , , , , .

More than 600 lots for Chinese art auction at Christie’s

Published on 16 May 2012.

Hong Kong, 15 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

On 28 and 29 May 2012, an auction dedicated to Chinese art, ancient, modern and contemporary alike, will take place in Hong Kong. This auction’s lots, gathering paintings and calligraphy, come from Chinese, Japanese, American, and European collectors. This auction, which gathers more than 600 lots with a combined value of €40 m, is displaying some of the works that recently featured pre-eminently in Chinese auction rooms:

  • Mist Clearing Over Pine Covered Peaks (1969), ink and colour on paper roll, Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), valued between € 1.2 M and € 1.5 M;
  • Waterfalls in Dinghu, kakemono ink on paper, Qi Baishi, valued between € 600,000 and € 800,000;
  • Poems in Running Script Calligraphy, ink on paper roll, Dong Qichang (1555-1636), poem by Li Bai valued between € 500,000 and € 700,000. This roll written in a decorative hand, which featured among several imperial collections, is typical of the Dong school the artist set up and which freed itself from the writing of this era’s masters;
  • Running Streams from the Verdant Mountains, kakemono ink on paper, Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), valued between € 480,000 and € 580,000;
  • Tibetan Dancer (1945), ink and colour, Zhang Daqiang, valued between € 300,000 and € 400,000. This painting uses a mineral red colour used for Buddhist rock paintings. One can find the double line for outlines and multiple colour layers highlighting the density of fabric, typical of Zhang’s painting from the 40s;
  • Calligraphy in Cursive Script, ink on paper roll, Wang Duo (1592-1652), valued between € 200,000 and € 300,000. A contemporary of Dong Qichang, Wang Duo represented the Southern school among the government’s artists, while Dong represented the Northern school;
  • Pigeons and Apples, ink and colour on paper roll, Qi Baishi (1863-1957), valued between € 200,000 and € 300,000. This is one of the best examples of animal painting by Qi Baishi;
  • Fishing by River Wei, kakemono ink and colour on silk, Chen Hongshou (1598-1652), valued between € 200,000 and € 300,000;
  • Standing Horse, ink and colour on paper roll, Xu Beihong (1895-1953), valued between € 200,000 and € 300.000. This painting is a good example of traditional Chinese influence combined with western animal anatomical study, typical of Xu Beihong;
  • Plum Blossoms (1941), ink and colour on paper roll, Xu Beihong, valued between € 200,000 and € 300,000. This is one of the few examples of floral painting by the artist;
  • Blue Lady, ink and colour on paper roll, Lin Fengmian (1900-1991), valued between € 180,000 and € 280,000;
  • Landscapes in Ancient Style, six kakemonos ink and colour on paper roll, Hunag Ding (1660-1730), valued between € 100,000 M and € 150,000;
  • Parrot and Abricot Blossoms, kakemono ink on paper, Shen Zhou (1427-1509), valued between € 80,000 and € 100,000;
  • Landscape after Old Masters, a ten-pages album, ink and colour on silk, Shao Mi (1594-1642), valued between € 80,000 and € 100,000.
Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Sotheby’s joining fair in Rio

Published on 16 May 2012.

Rio de Janeiro, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The S2 gallery, launched by Sotheby’s at its premises on York Avenue in New York in September 2011, announced its participation in the Art Rio fair, scheduled from 12 to 16 September 2012 in the Brazilian metropolis.

According to the managing director of Sotheby’s North and South America, quoted in the press release, this operation is part of the expansion strategy of the auction house’s activities in Brazil. “It is a great way for us to serve the rapidly growing number of collectors in Brazil, with the opening of a new office in São Paulo last year and an increase in the amount of property we send to the country for client event. Since it opened last year, our Contemporary Art gallery space, Sotheby’s S2, has been positively received by both new and existing clients. With private sales an increasingly important part of our business and collectors looking for new ways to engage with Sotheby’s, now is the perfect time for us to show work at Art Rio.”

The selection of works displayed by the gallery includes blue-chip artists such as Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Richard Prince, and even Anish Kapoor, and also less known artists (at least for now) such as Muniz, Ugo Rondinone, and Rudolf Stingel.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Launching of Armory Show 2013

Published on 16 May 2012.

New York, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The organizing committee of the Armory Show, a modern and contemporary art fair, has announced that the event’s 2013 edition will run from 7 to 10 March at Piers 92 & 94 in New York. This event will celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Armory Show.

Judging from the press release, the fair will bank more than ever on the number and quality of its satellite events: the ADAA’s (Art Dealers Association of America) Art Show, the Volta NY’s fourth edition, the Independent, Moving Image, Scope, constituting what is commonly referred to as Armory Week. This course of action is part of a strategy to compete with the Frieze New York whose first edition was a success and which attracted around it events usually taking place in March.

The galleries now have until 30 June 2012 to register. The 2012 edition attracted 60,000 visitors and gathered more than two hundred galleries divided into two sections: modern art (71 exhibitors) and contemporary art (157 exhibitors).

Tags: , , , , , .

Lelong Galleries at Art HK

Published on 16 May 2012.

Hong Kong, 15 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Lelong galleries of New York and Paris have announced that they will participate in Art HK 2012, running from 17 to 20 May 2012 in Hong Kong.

For this fair, the gallery has chosen works by artists already recognized and valued in the Asia-Pacific area, such as Cattelan, Antoni Tàpies, displaying his Gran signe d’interrogaciò (2010), drawing inspiration from graffiti. Sean Scully will be represented by Return (2007). Jaume Plensa will be present with his Nuage (2011), one of his human sculptures made of stainless steel composed of letters from different alphabets. Yoko One will provide his Door & Dropping installation (2011), consisting of a handless door (the handle being on the ground) and of a large paint stain next to it, in tribute to the victims of the bomb on Hiroshima. Australian photographer Rosemary Lang will display a photograph from her Leak series, alluding to the urban encroachment on Australian countryside.

The gallery will feature several other artists: Angelo Filomeno, Günter Förg, Jane Hammond, Jannis Kounellis, Catherine Lee, Ana Mendieta, Joan Miró, David Nash, Emilio Perez, Kate Shepherd, Kiki Smith, and Lin Tianmiao.

Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Kaws running the show at Perrotin in Hong Kong

Published on 16 May 2012.

Hong Kong, 16 May 2012, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Having gained experience in Miami, Emmanuel Perrotin has just opened a new gallery in Hong Kong. This new gallery is displaying works by the artist Kaws, (real name Brian Donelly), for its inaugural exhibition. This event, entitled “The Nature of Need”, is running until 30 June 2012.

Interviewed by Roxana Azimi for the French newspaper le Quotidien de l’art, Perrotin explained that “Hong Kong is an expensive and complicated city where there are already five important dates for the previews, with the fair and auctions. All Asians use Hong Kong as a financial hub and have reasons to go there.” After more than a year of investigation, the gallery is finally ready to welcome new clients in its space located at the 17th floor of 50 Connaught Road Central.

The artist,  from the New York graffiti scene is to be the first to exhibit there. Often described as an “American Murakami”, Kaws mixes Street and Pop art. Born in 1974, Brian Donelly already displayed his works in Hong Kong at the Harbour City Museum of Art in 2010.

After Kaws, Emmanuel Perrotin told Roxana Azimi that he wanted to display Peter Zimmermann and Kaz Oshiro.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .