Matisse Radical Invention: 1913-1917 | The Art Institute of Chicago | NOW

Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913–1917 examines what is without question the most innovative, momentous, and yet little-studied time in the artist’s long career. Nearly 120 of his most ambitious and experimental paintings, sculptures, drawings, and prints from the period are on view. Matisse himself acknowledged the significance of these years when he identified two paintings, Bathers by a River and The Moroccans, as among his most pivotal. These monumental canvases from the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, inspired the collaborative work of this exhibition and serve as major touchstones within it. This is the first exhibition to offer an in-depth investigation of Matisse’s art from this time, revealing information uncovered through extensive new art-historical, archival, and technical research.

To purchase tickets, click HERE.

Art Institute of Chicago
111 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60603
www.artinstituteofchicago.org

Dealer Larry Salander Pleads Guilty to Stealing $120M| The Slammer

On March 18, 2010, a red-faced, stooped Larry Salander sat in a Manhattan criminal courthouse, the walls bare of any art, finally admitting he had masterminded schemes to defraud his clients, consignors, investors and banks. Salander was accompanied by two of his seven children. His wife Julie did not appear.

Salander’s lawyer said the dealer had had a stroke about ten days earlier. The DA said Salander was abusing alcohol. The hearing was one of the most depressing events I have witnessed in nearly a decade on the arts beat. Was greed the only reason Salander had begun stealing from his friends, clients and colleagues? How does someone fall so far, so fast?

With his guilty plea, Salander waived rights to a trial or appeal. He will be sentenced to 6 to 18 years in prison and $120 million in restitution. Bloomberg News’ Philip Boroff, who has doggedly covered the story from the start, covered yesterday’s proceedings here.

Representatives from artist’s estates — Earl Davis, son of Stuart Davis, John Crawford, son of Ralston Crawford, and Kinney Frelinghuysen, nephew of Suzy Frelinghuysen — looked on.

Salander read from a prepared statement, a litany of admissions including he had “sold greater than 100% of works,” and “failed to inform investors when artworks were sold,” and “defrauded consignors of artwork in a variety of ways.” He admitted he had “sold artworks to dealers at prices the dealer knew were below consignor prices.” This made me wonder about the validity of sales Salander had conducted with a small group of dealers from 2004-2009, selling works at prices obviously below market value.

Here is an incomplete list of victims and amounts stolen:

$45 million from Renaissance Art Partners (investor)

$15 million -$25 million from Earl Davis (estate of Stuart Davis)

$6.45 million Morton Bender (investor)

$6 million Hester Diamond (collector)

$2.8 million Roy Lennox (hedge fund investor)

$2 million Saundra Lane (collector)

$2 million Bank of America

$1.8 million Carol Cone

$2.23 million Estate of Alex Pearlman

$1 million Stanely Moss

$311,312 Gerald Peters (dealer)

$2.1 million Estates Frelinghuysen and Morris (artist estate)

$526,000 Estate Giorgio Cavallon (artist estate)

$200,000 Elaine Rosenberg (landlord)

$126,000 Neelon Crawford (artist estate)

$154,000 Helen McNeil

$1.3 million Estate of Elie Nadelman (artist estate)

$6.6 million Lachaise Foundation (artist estate)

$1.25 Estate of Robert de Niro, Jr. (artist estate)

SOURCE: Lindsay Pollock

Keith Haring | Tseng Kwong Chi: Remembered

Best of friends during their lifetimes, artist Keith Haring and photographer Tseng Kwong Chi are currently being commemorated in two New York exhibitions. Keith Haring 20th Anniversary, which runs through April 10 at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, offers a wide array of Haring’s energetic paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, while the exhibition Tseng Kwong Chi at Paul Kasmin Gallery, on view through March 27, presents the photographer’s 1983 collaboration with Haring and choreographer Bill T. Jones. Haring painted Jones’ naked body with his signature motifs and Tseng photographed Jones in a variety of lively poses.

Taken together, these shows, which honor these artists 20 years after their untimely deaths, capture the vitality of the ‘80s NYC art scene through the work of two of its most talented contributors.

To access slideshow, click HERE.

SOURCE

WALRUS TV | Brian Barneclo | "Spare Paint"

Nathan Sawaya | Agora Gallery | "Brick by Brick"

Internationally known Lego brick artist Nathan Sawaya is part of a special exhibition occurring at the Agora Gallery. This is the first time that an exhibition will be solely devoted to Lego and its creation.

Agora Gallery
530 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

This exhibition runs from March 23-April 13, 2010.

Edwin Ushiro | "at night,lights fell and loved ones returned home"

This show runs from March 24th-April 17th, 2010

Sloan Fine Art
128 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
www.sloanfineart.com

'AFRICA NOW' | Bonhams| Auction

NEW YORK, NY.- Bonhams’ March 10th ‘Africa Now’ sale was met with great enthusiasm by both American and International buyers. Taking place at the auctioneers’ Madison Avenue galleries this was the first sale of modern & contemporary African art ever to be held in New York. Consisting of 140 lots the auction featured work by both new and established artists from fourteen African Nations. As part of the celebrations surrounding the sale the ‘Keep a Child Alive’ charity and Afren partnered with Bonhams to host a reception which took place the evening before the sale. To continue reading, click HERE.

FRIDAY's FOLIO | Tracey Moberly | Haiti Ghetto Biennale

To read Tracey's article on attending the first ever Ghetto Biennale in Haiti, click HERE.

REAL TALK | 02.26.10

"If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up."
-Richard Avedon

Last Look Friday | Empty Museum Party | MINT MUSEUM OF CRAFT + DESIGN

Friday, March 5, 2010
6 - 10 p.m.
Mint Museum of Craft + Design
220 North Tryon Street
$10 Members & $20 Non-members

To make reservations, contact April Young by phone 704/337-2034
or e-mail, or use the convenient Google checkout option below.

Reservations encouraged by Friday, February 26.

Art Slacker? Not TRUE

Andrew Kuo makes the New York City slacker lifestyle seem, well, effortless -- except that he's actually one of the busiest guys around, an artist with more side gigs than Jack White. The multi-talented, bespectacled man about (down) town is always doing something different (depending on what time of day you catch him). In the morning, he might be "Earl Boykins," his blogger alter ego (earlboykins.blogspot.com) who posts graphic charts of his deadpan reactions ("Hm" is a measurement) to bands and live shows -- the blog's tagline "emo+beer=busted career" says it all. Later, Kuo turns into a serious columnist for the New York Times, creating pie charts for the music section. Afterwards, he could be working on a portrait of Chris Farley as the Chicago Bears guy from SNL. The nocturnal Kuo can be found either at Max Fish drinking a Bud Light and hanging out with his "bros" (aka other music nerds) or at Lit drinking a Bud Light and DJing with Harley and Cassie. On other nights, Kuo the guitar god emerges, as he jams out with a grab bag of Lower East Side rockers (from Mike Bones to Matt and Brain from A.R.E. Weapons). He's currently in two bands -- Sacred Elevators and Hex Message.
"When I decided to just have fun with my work was when things started to get really busy," says the self-professed anti-ironist. The 31-year-old New York-native studied printmaking and graphic design at RISD and had his first New York show of paintings and prints at Visionaire Gallery eight years ago. Known in the past for his intricate lace-like silkscreen work, Kuo has abandoned the medium for now and has embraced bolder, more irreverant moves on canvas. "I used to be afraid of holding a brush," he says. Kuo is currently prepping for a three-person show at the Swiss Institute. "I'm going to put all-new stuff in the show, but not sure what, though." Stay tuned.

Source

RENTAL GALLERY| The Armory Show | 03.04-03.07

RENTAL at

The Armory Show


Pier 94
Booth 741
March 4-7, 2010

Featuring:

Matthew Chambers
Brendan Fowler
Henry Taylor
Phil Wagner


RENTAL
120 EAST BROADWAY 6TH FL NEW YORK NY 10002
T.212.608.6002
WWW.RENTAL-GALLERY.COM

Image credit: Matthew Chambers, A Reality of her own Particulars, 2009
Oil and Acrylic on Canvas, 96 x 48 inches

THE ART OF VOGUEING | Rashaad Newsome: Jasmine, Dawn and Aaliyah | Whitney Biennial 2010

ANDY WARHOL'S | The Last Decade | Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

FORT WORTH, TX- The first U.S. museum survey exhibition to explore the work that Andy Warhol produced during his final years continues its national tour at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through May 16, 2010. "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade" reveals a mature artist in full command of his complex repertoire, mixing forms and media with audacious fluency. Created amidst the bustle of Warhol's Pop celebrity, the works on view illustrate as never before the artist's vitality, energy, and renewed spirit of experimentation.

Warhol created more new series of paintings in the last decade of his life, in larger numbers and on a vastly larger scale, than during any other phase of his 40-year career. But far from a period of "Factory" production, it was a time of extraordinary artistic development for Warhol, during which a dramatic transformation of his style took place alongside the introduction of new techniques. The artist confidently utilized and combined hand painting, mechanical reproduction, representation, and abstraction. Collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente, and Keith Haring were central to his pursuit of new ideas, and stimulated the artist to return to painting by hand.

The exhibition includes nearly 50 works lent by private collectors and institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Baltimore Museum of Art; and Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Along with an introduction to Warhol's oeuvre, it is divided into thematic sections based on significant Warhol series: abstract works, collaborations (featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente), black-and-white ads, works surrounding death and religion, self-portraits, camouflage patterns, and a concluding section of the artist's Last Supper series—the largest series that he produced in his entire career. Several large-scale works 25 to 35 feet in width punctuate the exhibition.

In 1984, Warhol purchased a new studio building where he had the luxury of an expansive space in which to work. The paintings created there mushroomed in size to monumental proportions.

Visit the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth at : http://www.themodern.org/

SOURCE: AKN

The Naked Truth: the chair and the maiden gallery | BRIAN REED

Well look who got shut down by the NYPD. Forever ART lives!http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/nyregion/26naked.html

FLICK OF THE WEEK | Vhils

For more on this artist and his work, go to www.alexandrefarto.com

CANADA | Anke Weyer-Elena Pankova | MOTHER THE CAKE IS BURNING

Elena Pankova – Anke Weyer
Mother the Cake is Burning

February 12 – March 21, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, February 12th from 6 – 8:30 PM

"Now all you children stay at home,
And be good girls while I am gone...
Especially you, my daughter Sue,
Or else I'll beat you black and blue."
Rhyme for the game "Mother the Cake is Burning", 1883

"Mother the Cake is Burning" refers to a schoolyard game from the late 19th century. The point of the game was for girls act to out what trouble could arise when mothers and daughters are neglectful of their kitchens. Here in the gallery, these women underscore the importance of rebuked responsibility and mischievous desires gone astray in paint. It is this delinquency that has consistently propelled these divergent practices.

Over the course of the last decade Anke Weyer has presented paintings that seem to defend and then discard the obvious traditions of craft and subject matter in painting. We have seen paintings that go from blackened landscapes to emotive dreamy figuration to coarse and degenerate abstractions all hanging within the same show. This latest exhibition is no exception. Decimated landscapes are returned to their animals, under-painting is washed with high chroma where unnatural color glows from behind a sometimes sludgy, sometimes lacy surface. Riffing on the dashed Fauvist
landscapes of Maurice de Vlaminck, Weyer tempers her color and brushwork. This restraint is lost when it comes to rendering form. Here a Kirchnerian freedom to place expression over the visual order of the real is consistently upheld.

In contrast to the unapologetic sprawl of Weyer’s works, Ms. Pankova offers us a series of stenciled face paintings on modest sized store bought canvases. The paintings are at once mysterious and plain. Ms. Pankova has often used a kind of installation to frame or modify a body of painting. Here they are re-contextualized through the bookends of domestic potted plants, referencing Marcel Broodthaer's home-built installation from 1968: ‚ Museum of Modern Art, Department of Eagles. This famous Duchampian "institutional critique" is re-interpreted here by Pankova. Broodthaers' ironic objects are both replaced and deflated with the charm of lowbrow sentimental painting. The less-coded contents of Pankova's museum employ pathos over wit. Here the critique can't even climb the institutions' front steps. Instead it loiters out front with the guy selling craft paintings on a blanket. The whole endeavor brings us down to the street where paintings are returned their humble ! and stupid root.

Both of these women stage a complex investment in how painting can fail. Both are insistent painters. Pankova is merciless in her deflation of painting but cant help to make a sincere picture when faced with the task. In doing so she insists on the freedom to make a painting as she sees fit even if she trips over pathetic on the way. Weyer's insistence is more to undermine than deflate. She will keep digging. Destined for avalanche, Ms Weyer holds a stubborn and illogical romance for light and shadow. There is a symbiotic relationship between these two practices that we are happy to finally have an opportunity to celebrate.

CANADA is located at 55 Chrystie Street between Hester and Canal Streets in New York City. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 6 p.m. For more information, please contact the gallery at 212-925-4631or at gallery@canadanewyork.com.

www.canadanewyork.com

RECAP: PUMA x Kehinde Wiley Paris Exhibition

Soccer has never been more exciting. To read more about this American in Paris, click HERE.

NICK CAVE | Meet Me at the Center of the Earth Exhibition | Fowler Museum

Chicago-based artist Nick Cave's exhibition " Meet Me at the Center of the Earth" opened at UCLA's Fowler Museum displaying thirty-five of his African and Caribbean influenced "arte couture" suits. The idea behind these works is to reveal mythic ism as well as identity in Cave as well as other people of African & Caribbean American descent. This exhibit is on display until May 30, 2010. The Fowler writes:

"Experience the largest presentation of work by Chicago-based artist Nick Cave, featuring thirty-five of his Soundsuits—multi-layered, mixed-media sculptures named for the sounds made when the “suits” are worn. Reminiscent of African, Caribbean and other ceremonial ensembles as well as of haute couture, Cave’s work explores issues of transformation, ritual, myth and identity. His virtuosic constructions incorporate yarn, sequins, bottle caps, vintage toys, rusted iron sticks, hair, and more. Mad, humorous, visionary, glamorous and unexpected, the Soundsuits are created from scavenged ordinary materials that Cave re-contextualizes into extraordinary works of art. The Fowler is the first LA-area museum to feature Cave's work and the only Southern California venue for this traveling exhibition."

Sotheby's | Giacometti's "Walking Man" | $104.3 MILLION USD

Sotheby’s sold Giacometti’s mottled bronze six-foot tall Walking Man I for 65 million pounds or $104.3 million tonight in London, setting a record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The buyer was an anonymous phone bidder, according to Sotheby’s.

The previous record was held by Picasso’s rose and blue Boy with a Pipe, which fetched $104 million in 2004 at Sotheby’s in New York.

Bidding on the striding man started at 12 million pounds, according to Sotheby’s, and lasted for a marathon eight minutes. Ten prospective buyers competed. The final duel came down to two bidders on the phone with Sotheby’s CEO William Ruprecht and Impressionist specialist Philip Hook. Hook’s bidder was the victor.

The Giacometti was formerly in the corporate collection of Dresdner Bank AG, and sold by Commerzbank which acquired Dresdner in 2009. The piece is from a 1961 life-time cast, created in an edition of six, with four artist’s proofs. Dealers say another version, cast after the artist’s death, is also on the market.

Another star lot was Gustav Klimt’s verdant Kirche in Cassone which sold for $43 million, a new auction record for the artist. The Klimt was also acquired by an anonymous phone bidder.

Source