When Museum Guards Go Bad
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.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Fair State
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."
The reports that I have been getting directly from dealers have (as always) been mixed. Later this week I will be going to the Affordable Art Fair New York, the art fair that I consider to be at the front battle lines of the art fair world, since it limits prices of work to be sold to a max of $10,000 per piece.
I should be able to discuss what the state of "affordable" art is once I get a feeling how this fair is doing.
Florida Gallery Seeks Street Art
The 621 Gallery, a contemporary exhibition space in Tallahassee, FL, seeks entries for an exhibition dealing with contemporary street art scheduled for July 2009. They are interested in themes relating to contemporary street art including graffiti, murals, stenciling, and guerilla art. Send them a CD of images (at 300 dpi) of your work, your contact info (mailing address, phone, email), and a short statement (1 page maximum) on why you make what you make. Send materials to:
Street Art
c/o 621 Gallery
621 Industrial Drive
Tallahassee, FL 32310
Opportunity for Artists
Deadline: July 1, 2008.
The Art Gallery at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington is accepting submission for exhibitions for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 academic years. The gallery functions as a resource for students, educators, artists and the public-at-large. Submissions are limited to 2-D, 3-D and installation work. This is an open call, but preference will be given to proposals received by July 1, 2008. For more information, go to this website.
Art-In-Architecture Artist Registry
Deadline: July 31, 2009.
The GSA Art in Architecture Program commissions the nation's leading artists to create large-scale works of art for new federal buildings. These artworks enhance the civic meaning of federal architecture and showcase the vibrancy of American visual arts. Together, the art and architecture of federal buildings create a lasting cultural legacy for the people of the United States. For more information, go to this website.
Studio Visit
My studio visit with Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is here. Read it and prepare to be impressed by this dynamo of an artist.
“When I am not here/Estoy Alla” c. 1994 by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
Monday, June 09, 2008
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