ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Self-taught artist Winfred Rembert featured at Adelson Galleries

Art Knowledge News / April 8th, 2010

After a youth spent in the cotton fields of Georgia, an arrest after a 1960s civil rights march, and a near-lynching, Wilfred Rembert became an artist whose work is now being shown in Manhattan. Adelson Galleries and Peter Tillou Works of Art have collaborated to present the first major solo ...

Boston artist John Wilson's work is strong on character

Boston Globe / April 8th, 2010

John Wilson was a master in figure drawing at an early age. Throughout his nearly seven-decade-long career, he has successfully married bold figuration with a sophisticated take on abstraction. But what stands out about the 88-year-old artist’s work is the humanity. “John Wilson: Prints & ...

Artist in her element on O'Keeffe's land

New York Times / April 8th, 2010

Ex-New Yorker Susan Rothenberg is an artist painting in New Mexico, amidst the same striking scenery that inspired Georgia O'Keeffe to produce some of her best work. Many parallels exist between the lives of the two artists. Each exited the city for the desert, a quiet place "with no grid," ...

Sign of the times: Robins v. Zwirner et al.

New York Observer / April 7th, 2010

A powerhouse Chelsea art dealer got slammed with a $8 million lawsuit in a New York court from a prominent American collector. The claim states that the dealer renegged on a confidentiality agreement and a promise to supply the collector with first dibs on new works by South African artist ...

Blue-chip Chinese contemporary art returns to red-hot

New York Times / April 6th, 2010

Asian art sales surged in Hong Kong early this week. Sotheby's sale of contemporary Asian art brought $18.7 million with Liu Ye's (b. 1964) "Bright Road" fetching $2.45 million, an artist record and nearly three times the estimate. With rising real estate prices in Hong Kong and mainland China, ...

Balinese painting soars to record $3.3 million

Bloomberg / April 5th, 2010

A 1960s oil painting of Balinese villagers by Indonesia’s Lee Man Fong fetched a record HK$25.3 million ($3.3 million) at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. The 2-meter-long “Bali Life,” depicting a rustic scene of the islanders at rest, became the most expensive Southeast Asian artwork at auction. Prices ...

Hottest museum shows of 2009

The Art Newspaper / April 3rd, 2010

The Art Newspaper has listed the 30 most visited museum exhibitions worldwide for the 2008- 2009 season. Topping the list are four blockbusters at Japanese museums. Shows on twentieth-century masters ranked high including Kandinsky at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Joan Miró at MoMA in New ...

Museum show is big on Botero

New York Times / April 3rd, 2010

The Colombian artist Fernando Botero is showcased at Long Island's Nassau County Museum of Art, where a small but significant collection of figure paintings, drawings and monumental sculptures is gathered, including a huge, plump female nude at the entrance. In painting or sculpture, Botero, ...

Crichton art collection may exceed $75 million at Christie's

Washington Post / April 3rd, 2010

Popular thriller writer Michael Crichton, of "ER" and "Jurassic Park" fame, died in 2008. He left behind a top-notch art collection which his family is selling 80% of at Christie's in New York on May 11-12. Among the works to watch for record-setting status is Jasper Johns' "Flag," which ...

PAFA acquires a trio of diverse works

Art knowledge News / April 3rd, 2010

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia recently acquired three works for its American art collection, including Mark Bradford's "Untitled (Dementia)," 2009; Philip Evergood's "Mine Disaster", 1933/37; and Lilly Martin Spencer's "Mother and Child by the Hearth," ...

Shepard Fairey looking to paint a mural-worthy wall

Mediabistro blog / March 29th, 2010

Before Jeffrey Deitch officially takes over as director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in June, his New York gallery Deitch Projects will exhibit "May Day" with new works by Shepard Fairey. Expect "images supporting free speech and bemoaning the U.S. two-party political system, ...

Japanese firm wins prestigious Priztker prize

Curbed / March 29th, 2010

The Japanese duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in SANAA, were honored Sunday with architecture's highest award. Their much-talked-about New Museum on the Bowery in New York is one recent, notable project. LA Times critic Christopher Hawthorne described their best buildings as ...

Cy Twombly redecorates Louvre

Associated Press / March 23rd, 2010

Even after pop artist Jeff Koons ruffled French feathers with his inflatable 'Lobster' and giant balloon dogs---installed at Versailles in 2008---another American was invited to create a more permanent fixture at the Louvre. Cy Twombly, the first artist given the honor of decorating a Louvre ...

Korean art magnate steps in to revive auction house

Joongang Daily / March 18th, 2010

Lee Ho-jae, 59, is a superstar in the Korean art world. He is chairman of Gana Art Gallery and recently was named co-chief executive officer of Seoul Auction, a company he founded in 1998. Lee hopped aboard to steer the auction house with a new strategy to halt a steady downhill trend in the ...

The new generation of curators

New York Times / March 18th, 2010

A set of curators born in the digital age, now in their 30s and early 40s, is making strides at major American museums, bringing new and exciting ideas to their sometimes staid institutions. Harvard-educated Jen Mergel, for example, is the newly-appointed senior curator for contemporary art the ...

Broad museum underway in Michigan

/ March 16th, 2010

A groundbreaking ceremony took place yesterday for the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. Billionaire Eli Broad ponied up $28 million for the new building, designed by London-based architect Zaha Hadid, as a centerpiece for contemporary art at his alma mater. Of his ...

Bank goes after art dealer Edelman

Reuters / March 11th, 2010

Former corporate raider turned art dealer, Asher Edelman, has been sued by Emigrant Bank for more than $3.1 million after allegedly defaulting on some loans, including one to buy "Torse de Femme" by Alberto Giacometti. Edelman, who runs a modern art gallery on the Upper East Side, said in an ...

Abstract expressionists get splashed on stamps

NJ.com / March 11th, 2010

The U.S. Postal Service is printing 3 million sheets of stamps featuring bold works by 10 American artists of the mid-20th century. The 44-cent commemoratives showcase Hans Hoffman, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Clyford Still, ...

Christie's picked to auction $150 million Calif. art collection

New York Times / March 10th, 2010

Valued in excess of $150 million, the modern art collection of Los Angeles philanthropist Frances Lasker Brody will be sold at Christie’s in New York in May. Mrs. Brody died at age 93 in November. Christie's was able to secure the collection, after a battle with Sotheby's, by offering the ...

2010: A scaled-back Whitney Biennial

California Literary Review / March 9th, 2010

The simple title "2010" for this year's Whitney Biennial seems appropriate for a recession-era show with a pared-down selection of works. From art described as "mere decorative" to "humanistic," this 75th iteration of the influential American art venue, on view at the Whitney Museum through May ...