ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Brands Clamor for the Touch of 'Carbon' Artist Judith Braun

ArtfixDaily / November 16th, 2015

Burton's Feelgood Snowboard 2015 for women is now available to the public at a sale price and it features a winning design, literally. Sporting edgy black artwork by Judith Braun, the snowboard debuted with Olympian Kelly Clark who won the Bronze ...

Sale of $70.5M Cy Twombly Wraps Sotheby's $1 Billion Series

LA Times / November 12th, 2015

One of Cy Twombly's scribbled "blackboard" works was sold in New York on Wednesday by the Los Angeles attorney Sydney Irmas and his wife, Audrey, and proceeds will help fund a new events center in the collectors' city. It led a solid sale totaling $295 million for 54 lots and ended Sotheby's fall ...

Records Set for Bourgeois, Fontana in $331.8 Million Christie's Sale

ArtfixDaily / November 10th, 2015

Christie's continued on its winning streak Tuesday night with a $331.8 million sale of post-war and contemporary art, just a day after it sold a Modigliani nude portrait for a record-shattering $170.4 million. While not every lot in the sale was a winner (some fell below guarantees/estimates and ...

New Monograph, Building Mark the Rising Seven-Decade Career of Artist Ellsworth Kelly

Guardian / November 8th, 2015

Artist Ellsworth Kelly tells the Observer of his signature works: “The abstract expressionists didn’t use colour so much, and I wanted to bring it back in some sense. What I also always say about them is that they found their picture as they made it – the process led to its shape – whereas I had ...

Taubman Collection Kicks Off November's $2.1-Billion Auction Series

Bloomberg / November 1st, 2015

About $2.1 billion of art is offered for sale at the major November auctions in New York. Nearly half of that staggering sum is guaranteed--basically already sold since the auction houses (or others) will buy it at a pre-determined price if a bidder does not--making $1 billion in art already ...

San Francisco Fall Antiques Show Highlights Something Old, Something New Aesthetic

ArtfixDaily / October 22nd, 2015

Rooted in Victorian times and infused with the energy of today's tech industry, San Francisco is a place where old and new, tradition and innovation, blend seamlessly. West Coast art collectors and designers just as easily mix styles and periods, and flock ...

Alibaba Billionaire Jack Ma Sells Debut Painting for $5.4M

CNN Money / October 5th, 2015

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, who is perhaps the wealthiest person in mainland China, sold his first painting on Sunday at a Hong Kong auction for millions. Ma painted "Paradise," an oil on canvas depicting Earth, in collaboration with his friend, renowned Chinese artist Zeng ...

$45M Paves Way for 'Totally Immersive' Arts Museum in Mississippi

Meridian Star / October 5th, 2015

Officials broke ground Saturday on a $45-million, 58,500 sq. foot facility devoted to Mississippi artists in film, literature, music, arts, dance, theater and visual arts to be named the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience. An opening date in November 2017, ...

Indian Artist F.N. Souza's 'Birth' Brings Record $4 Million at Auction

Christie's / September 20th, 2015

Considered to be one of his finest works, 'Birth' by famed Indian artist Francis Newton Souza sold for a record $4.08 million (with buyer's premium) at Christie's New York on Sept. 17. The price set the record both for the artist and for any Indian painting. The sale total came to $8.7 million ...

Brian Sewell, UK's Controverisal Art Critic, Remembered

Guardian / September 20th, 2015

Known for his disdain of modern art, critic Brian Sewell died at age 84 on Saturday. Writing for the London Evening Post since 1984, Sewell was well-known for his uncompromising snubs of the UK's top current artists, calling David Hockney “a vulgar prankster” and Tracey ...

Crystal Bridges Acquires Oprah's Gift of Faith Ringgold Quilt to Maya Angelou

Huffpo / September 16th, 2015

A quilt by Faith Ringgold, the first quilt by the African-American artist ever to hit the auction market, brought $461,000 at Swann Galleries in New York on Sept. 15. The quilt led an auction totalling $1.3 million for 50 artworks from famed writer and activist Maya Angelou's estate. ...

Phillips Auctioneers Ups the Ante With More Modern Art, eBay Deal

Fortune / September 10th, 2015

Phillips auction house might soon give larger rivals Sotheby's and Christie's a run for their money. Led by former Christie's CEO Edward Dolman, Phillips is arming itself with new hires (largely from Christie's, along with the former Brooklyn Museum head Arnold Lehman), rebranding its ...

Anish Kapoor Sculpture Vandalized at Versailles Again

BBC / September 7th, 2015

A large installation by Indian-British artist Anish Kapoor has been vandalized for a second time on the grounds of Versailles in France. Titled "Dirty Corner," the rock and sculptural piece was covered with anti-Semitic words. The vandals wrote on the piece that is "the second rape ...

Zoning Board Approves Private Museum in Miami Designed for Massive Artworks

Miami Herald / September 6th, 2015

Miami zoning officials have approved plans for a new private museum to be built by hedge fund manager Bruce Berkowitz. An imposing building on Biscayne Boulvard will house Berkowitz's collection of blue-chip art, including works by Basquiat and Richard Prince. One centerpiece will be a 220-foot ...

White House Announces National Medal of Arts Recipients

ArtfixDaily / September 4th, 2015

Recipients of the 2014 National Medal of Arts have been named by the White House. The highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government, it is awarded by the President of the United States to individuals or groups who “…are deserving of special recognition by ...

Director Shake-Up at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris Puts Bustamante In

Artforum / September 3rd, 2015

A new director of the École Nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris has been announced, and it has surprised some. Artist Jean-Marc Bustamante will replace the renowned art academy's fired former head, Nicolas Bourriaud  "This is an outcome we did not expect," reported Le ...

Computer Algorithm Can Copy Artists' Styles

Bulletin Leader / September 2nd, 2015

Researchers in Germany claim that a computer algorithm can copy the styles of artists to create new works in about an hour. Their paper "A Neural Algorithm of Artistic Style," submitted to the Nature Communications journal, outlines how a “convolutional neural network” (CNN) can take a ...

Forbes: Inside an $800 Million Family's For-Profit Art School

Forbes / September 1st, 2015

Forbes takes a hard look at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. The privately owned for-profit art school "will accept anyone who has a high school diploma and is willing to pay the $22,000 annual tuition (excluding room and board), no art portfolio required," reports Forbes. Just ...

Art Consultant BFFs Get New Reality TV Series

ArtfixDaily / September 1st, 2015

Ovation TV will launch a new original series on Oct. 4 that the network says "will take viewers inside the high-stakes, high-priced world of art collecting." Art Breaker$ follows two longtime friends and art advisors, Miller Gaffney and Carol Lee Brosseau, "on their ...

Giant Red Ball Rolls Away From Toledo Museum of Art Installation

Mlive / August 24th, 2015

A 15-foot-tall, 250-pound inflated ball, sponsored by the Toledo Museum of Art, broke free of its installation and rolled down a street in Toledo, Ohio, last Wednesday. Several cars were rolled over. Brooklyn artist Kurt Perschke's RedBall Project has been on view ...