Lester Johnson, "Crowd" 1967
• American Expressionist painter Lester Johnson died on the 30 of May in Westhampton, N.Y., his son Anthony has confirmed. He was 91 years old. Johnson was known for his bold figurative style, which has been variously described as “the poetry of congestion” and as having “an attitude of interrogation and anxiety.” Go to the
New York Times website for more info on Johnson’s life and work.
• Sales figures for Sotheby’s early June auctions of impressionist, modern and contemporary art reached €31.3 million, surpassing rival Christie’s late May auctions of post-war and contemporary art, which made a mere €7.58 million. Picasso’s
Le Repos du Sculpteur, an ink-and-wash on paper work, was the highest selling lot, fetching €3.64m. For more information go to
The Art Newspaper.
• The Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland will host the exhibition “Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Specific Objects without Specific Form” until August 29. The show has a different take on the idea of “retrospective” – at each venue, the exhibition will be re-installed halfway through its duration by a different invited artist, a curatorial move that mirrors the themes of transience and fragility found in the work of Gonzalez-Torres. Head to
e-flux for further information.
Koons with his Art Car
• Jeff Koons is the artist behind the 17th BMW Art Car, a powerfully psychedelic M3 GT2 that was unveiled at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on June 1. Koons is the newest in a prestigious line of artists like Lichtenstein and Warhol who collaborated with BMW on the project in the past. The car will race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France on June 12-13. Click
here to learn more.
