On the evening of March 3, two days before the opening of the Art Show, the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual art fair, 300 people—mostly ADAA members—gathered in the Waldorf-Astoria’s Empire Room to celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary. The gala cocktail party was meant to take place last November, but Hurricane Sandy got in the way. Read More
Stony Brook University recently held a contest to answer the question, “What is time?” It could have done worse than to go to the Frick Collection.
The Frick’s current headliner is a show of seven masterpieces by Piero della Francesca, whose paintings are often described as “timeless.” In fact, it was during the same 15th century, when Piero was taking inspiration from Alberti’s scientific theories, that the architect Brunelleschi and others were coming up with spring-driven devices to measure time more accurately, as the Frick reminds us in a concurrent jewel of an exhibition devoted to clocks and watches from 1500 to 1830. (Most are from the Frick’s extensive collection, and there are five significant loans from collector Horace Wood Brock.) What better place for such a show than the light-drenched portico gallery, where you can best experience the passing of a day? Read More
This year’s Armory Focus, the section of the Armory Show that brings together galleries from a specific region of the world, will feature 17 galleries from this year’s theme region, the United States. And while most of those are feisty upstarts, in the Focus tradition, there will be one heavyweight participant: Gagosian Gallery. Read More
Frieze New York, the British import art fair that set up a sprawling tent on Randall’s Island last year and packed it with galleries for its inaugural edition, will be back on the island for a second go, May 10 through 13. Today the fair released the list of the more than 180 galleries in the 2013 edition, which can be found below. Read More
Two Fridays ago, just before the art world split for the holiday break, news broke that has had even market insiders, in vacation spots from St. Moritz to St. Barts to Aspen, scratching their heads: Simon de Pury, who has been very much the public face of the Phillips de Pury & Co. auction house for the past 12 years as chairman and head auctioneer, was parting ways with the company, effective immediately. Mercury, the Russian luxury goods firm that bought a majority stake in the company in late 2008, had acquired Mr. de Pury’s remaining shares, a press release announced. In January, the 200-plus-year-old company’s name will go back to Phillips. An e-mail sent to art world colleagues by Mr. de Pury’s wife, Michaela Neumeister, a specialist at Phillips for 12 years, indicated that she, too, was departing. Read More
Amidst talk of artists leaving the Gagosian Gallery, news of any artists who show with Gagosian doing exhibitions elsewhere is likely to be closely scrutinized, and potentially misunderstood. Gallerist can reveal that, while Richard Serra, a longtime Gagosian artist, will have an exhibition of historical work at David Zwirner gallery in the spring, the artist’s relationship with Gagosian remains unchanged, and, in fact, he is planning a major exhibition of new sculpture for next fall at Gagosian’s two Chelsea locations.
The exhibition of historical sculptures will take place in Zwirner’s new West 20th Street gallery. According to John Silberman, Mr. Serra’s longtime attorney, Mr. Zwirner approached Mr. Serra about the exhibition, and the artist was enthusiastic about it. Read More
Days after I returned from Art Basel Miami Beach, a question continued to nag at me: could I have somehow known that the innocent-looking glass out of which I drank a lukewarm Diet Coke at the Bobby Vans Steakhouse in Terminal 8 of JFK last Monday night was the equivalent of Chekhov’s gun, the one that, by dint of hanging on the wall in Act One, is bound to go off in Act Three? Read More
Hauser & Wirth gallery has become difficult to navigate. Chunks of concrete, scraps of burlap and shards of fiberboard all but block passage through the space. An upturned house is wedged in the first room, like a ship in a bottle.
The gallery is on the Upper East Side—this is not the work of Sandy, but rather of British sculptor Phyllida Barlow, who makes hulking, vaguely sinister-looking objects from humble materials, and whose artistic practice of many years—she is in her 60s—is eerily resonant with the recent hurricane. Her abstract sculptures—which are evocative of everything from store awnings to sea anemones to tree trunks—are made from the kinds of urban materials we are more likely, this week, to see in piles on street corners, the remains of homes and businesses. Her work has been said to capture the transience of life. Read More
A year ago, on the eve of his retrospective at the Guggenheim, artist Maurizio Cattelan announced his retirement. Recently, another esteemed figure, the cultural critic, curator, professor and one-time art dealer Dave Hickey, called to let The Observer know that he, too, is taking a step back. Mr. Hickey, winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and author of numerous catalogue essays, became well known for his 1993 book The Invisible Dragon (in which he, controversially at the time, championed beauty) and 1997′s Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, a collection of his writings on a wide range of topics published in the form of his “Simple Hearts” column in the now-defunct magazine Art Issues. In 2001, he curated the biennial exhibition Site Santa Fe. Most recently a professor of criticism in the department of art and art history at the University of New Mexico, he left teaching last year. In the following interview, conducted by phone from Santa Fe, and via e-mail, he explains his reasons for (partly) retiring, why he’s against group shows, contracts and other forms of art-world bureaucracy, why art critics have no power, why art dealing is “the last really honest thing [he's] ever done… the last thing…where you were punished for your mistakes,” why artists should join gangs, and what he’ll be up to next. Read More
The Upper East Side continues to sprout new galleries. This spring, Dominique Lévy, formerly a partner in the gallery L&M Arts on East 78th Street, will open a new, three-floor gallery, called Dominique Lévy, at 909 Madison Avenue, on the southeast corner of East 73rd Street. Joining her in the 9,000-square-foot former bank building will be the Paris-based dealer Emmanuel Perrotin, who is opening a New York branch. Read More
