ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Bob Dylan's "Asia Series" in his New York Gallery Debut

New York Times / September 12th, 2011

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan gets his first ever New York gallery exhibition, entitled "The Asia Series," at the Gagosian Gallery on Madison Ave., from Sept. 20 through Oct. 22. Created on trips to...

Tate ranks second most popular arts organization in world

ArtfixDaily / September 8th, 2011

Tate, Britain's family of four art galleries, attracted a record number of visitors in 2010-11 with 7.4 million people visiting its various locations, and 19 million unique users hitting its website during the same period. The Tate says the increased attendance makes it the most popular arts ...

Second-generation art dealer keeps Pace

Wall Street Journal Magazine / August 30th, 2011

New York's Pace Gallery represents the estates and careers of 54 of the world's leading artists whose clout helps push the gallery's annual sales above $400 million. Owner Arne Glimcher has big plans for expansion and succession....

Ai Weiwei returns to Twitter

ArtfixDaily / August 10th, 2011

Artist Ai Weiwei denounced prison abuses via social media after being held for two months by Chinese authorities. He took to Twitter to protest the treatment of his friends dragged into his case and the detainment of activists.

Sotheby's tallies record $3.4 billion first half sales

ArtfixDaily / August 3rd, 2011

Competitive bidding for high value works combined with commissions from booming private transactions pushed Sotheby's consolidated sales to a record $3.4 billion in the first half of 2011. Sotheby's private sales were up 114% in the first half.

States' arts funding slashed further

New York Times / August 1st, 2011

Small arts groups nationwide are feeling the pinch of recession-time cuts as state grants have dwindled. In Kansas, the state arts budget went to zero in May. Thirty-one states cut their arts budgets for the 2012 fiscal year, which began on July 1, continuing a downturn that has seen such ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to unveil new contemporary art wing

ArtfixDaily / August 1st, 2011

This September, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will unveil the 80,000-sq.ft. Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art. Located in the building I.M. Pei designed for the MFA in 1981, the wing will include seven new galleries. The Henry and Lois Foster Gallery for rotating exhibitions will ...

Phaidon Interview: Artist Carl Andre describes ripping up his plans for '5 x 20 Altstadt Rectangle'

Phaidon / July 20th, 2011

The American minimalist artist Carl Andre is perhaps best known for his sculptures made from square metal plates placed in grid-like formations lying flat on the surface of the ground. Yet over the course of five decades, Andre has created an immense body of work. Andre’s vision lies in his ...

Museum launches public appeal to buy Dale Chihuly piece

Boston Globe / July 26th, 2011

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has begun a campaign to raise more than $1 million to acquire the 42-foot-tall “Lime Green Icicle Tower,’’ a signature work by glass artist Dale Chihuly...

Figurative painter Lucien Freud dies at 88

The economist / July 22nd, 2011

"He wasn't cruel--he painted what he saw," remarked a robust model for one of Lucien Freud's nude portraits. Freud, who died in London on July 20, at age 88, painted raw and unsettling images of people he knew, often naked with skin of a pasty hue. The German-born artist, a grandson of ...

Auction market bullish in 2011, so far

ArtfixDaily / July 21st, 2011

The market for fine and decorative arts roared through the start of 2011 at the world's two biggest auction houses. Christie’s reported worldwide sales for the first half of 2011 of $3.2 billion, up 15% over last year's figures. Sotheby's just breezed through a summer of blockbuster sales in ...

Tillou Gallery presents the art of Winfred Rembert

Huffington Post / July 17th, 2011

Winfred Rembert (b. 1945), whose work is currently exhibited at the Tillou Gallery in Litchfield, Connecticut, learned the craft of leather tooling while serving on a chain gang in a Georgia prison.

Art dealers accused of selling fake Motherwells

New York Post / July 11th, 2011

Two Manhattan art dealers---formerly with Knoedler Gallery---have been accused of selling fake paintings by abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell, according to the Dedalus Foundation, a group in charge of authenticating the artist's work.

Qatar named world's biggest contemporary art buyer

The Art Newspaper / July 7th, 2011

The oil-rich nation of Qatar has emerged as the world's biggest buyer of modern and contemporary art, according to a report in The Art Newspaper. Among the recent major art deals...

The legacy of folk artist Stephen Huneck

Valley Advocate / July 7th, 2011

His work is described as accesssible and recognizably bright. It is most often a witty rendition of a dog. A former antiques "picker," the late Vermont artist Stephen Huneck (1948-2010) left behind a charming and internationally-popular body of work. When the economic downturn began in 2008, ...

Picasso drawing swiped from San Francisco gallery

/ July 6th, 2011

A San Francisco restaurant says it has surveillance video of a man who ripped a Picasso drawing off the wall of a nearby gallery. The thief snatched the 1965 pencil-on-paper drawing on Tuesday morning then got into a waiting taxicab...

Media mogul Tommy Mottola becomes art dealer

Wall Street Journal / July 6th, 2011

Tommy Mottola, the former head of Sony Music Entertainment, has debuted his newest venture, an art gallery. His Gallery Valentine in East Hampton, New York, showed a mix of contemporary and blue-chip artists at its weekend opening...

Artist Cy Twombly remembered

Los Angeles Times / July 6th, 2011

The internationally renowned American artist Cy Twombly died on July 5 in Rome, where he spent much of his time since the 1950s. He was 83. Along with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Twombly was...

Interview: Photographer Stephen Shore

Phaidon / July 5th, 2011

'In the mid-1970s I was once invited for dinner at a friend's loft in SoHo,' recounts Shore. 'At dinner was Ansel Adams. During the meal I saw Ansel drink six tall glasses of straight vodka and...

Artnet forges ahead with online auctions

New York Times / July 4th, 2011

Although its online auction business has not yet turned a profit, Artnet has now sold more than 6,500 objects or artworks, generating $2.5 million in commissions on $12 million in sales in 2010. The average price...