The week of November 15-22, 2008 will mark the launch of FotoWeek DC, the first annual gathering of a diverse and wide-ranging photography community in the nation’s capital, including photographers, museums, universities and all those involved in the profession across the metro D.C. area, including Virginia and Maryland. Unique among American cities, Washington, D.C. is a nexus of artistic, business, political and public sector energy, in which photography plays an integral role. FotoWeek DC seeks to bring together all photographers and imaging professionals from every discipline to join with the public in celebration of the medium.Details here. They were really keeping that event a "secret"! This is first heard for me and they've already got a whole series of events planned and an ass-kicking website and seems like almost every key art gallery in the Greater DC and DMV region is in the mix.
A former Carnegie Museum of Art guard charged with vandalizing a $1.2 million painting simply "snapped" due to life's normal pressures, including impending fatherhood, his defense attorney said.Read the story here.
Art Basel, the largest international fair of contemporary art, wound up Sunday after registering some major sales but with a suggestion that the overall market may be slowing in reaction to the world's financial turmoil.You can read the whole AP report here.
The show management's final report said the results were "outstanding" and that all participants "considered it a very good year," but it gave no overall sales figures.
Headlines were chiefly made by Roman Abramovich, the Russian multibillionaire and owner of Chelsea soccer club, who topped the list of collectors present.
Abramovich appeared to have stayed below his spending spree last month in New York, where he paid US$120 million (€77 million) at Sotheby's record-breaking auction, including US$86 million (€55 million) for the top lot, a Francis Bacon triptych.
In Basel, he bought one of Alberto Giacometti's elongated woman sculptures for a seemingly modest US$14 million (€9 million), according to The Art Newspaper's special Basel edition.
The sale of a Lucian Freud, "Girl in Attic Doorway," for US$12 million (€7.7 million) to an undisclosed buyer was also confirmed.
The organizers said their surveys showed that "all the exhibiting galleries were able to find buyers for their works."
The 300 participating galleries offered works by more than 2,000 artists, priced between a few thousand and millions of dollars.
It was left to the individual galleries to disclose sales, and many did not.
Despite the positive report of the organizers, the weekend edition of The Art Newspaper headlined, "Market keeps moving, but the brakes start to go on."
