On Thursday night Ari Marcopoulos, curator of the most recent show at the Family Business gallery in Chelsea, was making a Molotov cocktail in a Snapple bottle. Outside, about 50 people were gathered around a trashcan overflowing with Xeroxed photographs, drawings, receipts, business cards, pornography and other paper ephemera that were on the gallery walls less than an hour before. You can probably guess where this is going. Read More
Barbara Kruger and Catherine Opie followed John Baldessari in resigning from the board of MOCA L.A. Here’s their letter. [L.A. Times]
An early fresco by the artist Gustav Klimt, thought to be lost for good, was allegedly found by a man in his garage in Northern Austria, just as Austria is celebrating the painter’s 150th birthday. Experts say the fresco is most likely by Klimt’s brother Ernst. [The Guardian] Read More
Visionaire, the magazine of fashion and art that is produced in exclusive limited editions as unique, artful objects, has announced that its new issue, Visionaire 62 Rio, will feature a series of 3-D works reinterpreting Rio de Janero, including contributions by artists Pierpaolo Ferrari, Marilyn Minter, Richard Phillips, Vik Muniz, Eli Sudbrack (of Assume Vivid Astro Focus) and Marco Brambilla, as well as retired artist Maurizio Cattelan. Read More
Which art-world bigwig owns “a lot of drawings” by John Currin? Which Christie’s director would own Rothkos if she could afford them? And which reporter reveals, “at dinner tonight, I’m sitting next to Richard Serra”?
We won’t divulge all of the details from this Architectural Digest piece, assembled from interviews at a variety of recent art events, but suffice it to say that Ellsworth Kelly, Barbara Walters, Chuck Close, Martha Stewart, January Jones and David Rockefeller, Jr., among others, gave some interesting answers when asked by the magazine to name their fantasy art wish lists. Read More
“This is interesting,” said a man to his friends. He wore leather pants with a harness over his bare chest. He was looking around at all the people at the Toilet Paper magazine issue launch party on the roof deck of the Eagle Bar, a leather daddy hot spot, last night. A waiter walked by with a small plate of hors d’oeuvres.
“Why?” we asked.
“It’s so refined,” he told Gallerist. “They were serving caramelized bacon before. Why would they want to have this party here? If they weren’t here, you would see a man in a horse mask being led around on a leash. But I guess it is being thrown by Paper magazine.” Read More
Friday, Toilet Paper, the magazine by artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari known for its cheeky, disturbing and ambiguous narratives and its high-production values, will unveil a billboard on the High Line to coincide with the launch of the magazine’s next issue. Read More
Artforum released a new app for iPhones on March 13, a sleek and somewhat flashy portal to its renowned Artguide, the interactive heart of the Artforum website. This app is sleek and nifty, costs $2.99, and like its magazine, is geared to art world professionals and industry insiders who regularly travel the globe following the ever-expanding circuit of art fairs, openings and auctions. Read More
At 8:20 p.m. last night, artist Maurizio Cattelan was standing in line for a rum drink by the make-shift bar at Anna Kustera Gallery in Chelsea to which his own tiny storefront gallery, Family Business, is annexed. There was a pile of magazines next to him with bright blue covers, as it was the Vice magazine issue release party for the Holy Trinity Issue and Mr. Cattelan had designed the front cover, which features a picture of three objects—a stapler, a red plunger and a dildo, the last of which was covered with a black sticker that had the word “dildo” printed on it. We made to say hello to the skinny Italian artist as he left the bar, but the artist, who was wearing a dark sport jacket, black skinny jeans and modish white leather sneakers, was intercepted by a tall blonde woman. Around him in the small bright space, was a group exhibition mostly of photographic work. The crowd was dressed casually and seemed barely out of college. Read More
Contemporary artists cannot stop opening art galleries. To wit, Maurizio Cattelan is venturing into the art-dealing business again, according to Artnet’s Rachel Corbett, and Sam Pulitzer and Matthew Malouf are launching a gallery in a garbage can on the fifth floor of 179 Canal, Art in America‘s Brian Boucher reports. Read More
Years in the making, the Guggenheim’s retrospective of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has finally arrived.
About 130 of his works are now hanging, immaculately and elegantly, from a circular metal rack at the top of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s rotunda, like sausages, laundry or, to quote the Guggenheim’s rather bravely worded press materials, “a mass execution.” (We counted two of the artist’s sculptures of young boys hanging by their necks.)
Mr. Cattelan, as many have pointed out, is a master of the one liner. His works are designed to fill a room, to be photographed. They are short jokes we can tell each other. “I asked Maurizio to make a portrait of my grandmother,” one can hear a collector telling his house guest. “And shoved a sculpture of her in a refrigerator!” Then they laugh. Read More
