Contemporary Art – Mondo Fine Art

Posts Tagged ‘Contemporary Art’

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Monday, August 23rd, 2010

van Gogh's "Poppy Flowers"

• A Vincent van Gogh still life, "Poppy Flowers and Vase with Flowers,” was stolen on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo, Egypt. It has been reported that only seven of the museum’s 43 security cameras were working at the time, and five people have been arrested for “negligence” concerning the theft. The painting is valued at $50 million, and is still at large. Click here to learn more. • Philanthropist and art collector Eli Broad has chosen the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design his museum, to be built on LA’s Grand Avenue next to Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall. It will house the majority of his vast collection of contemporary art. The decision would seem to end years of public debate over where and how Broad's art should ultimately be exhibited. From ArtInfo. • UK choreographer Michael Clark and his Company are publicly developing a large scale performance piece for the Tate Modern’s gigantic turbine hall, to be premiered in July of 2011. Part I of the commission has been progressing for the past seven weeks, as Clark has been instructing both trained and untrained dancers during regular museum hours. Part II will commence at the end of the company’s residency next summer with a “site-specific dance event” incorporating film, light, and sound. Part of the Tate Live series. Check out e-flux for more information.

Michael Clark Company in the Tate turbine hall

Tags: Contemporary Art, Eli Broad, Michael Clark Company, Tate Modern, Vincent van Gogh
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Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Damien Hirst "Mother and Child Divided"

• The Living Coasts zoo and aquarium in Torquay, England, is home to an educational exhibition called “Tamed," which includes work by Damien Hirst. The artist’s Mother and Child Divided – a formaldehyde-preserved, bisected cow and calf – is on display until August 30. From The Art Newspaper. • It has been reported that the security offices at Shanghai’s World Expo have employed the services of “art spies” to seek out and report controversial artwork and exhibits. There have already been minor conflicts at over-crowded pavilions, and the Chinese government maintains that censorship aids in the successful presentation of the Expo. Read more about this story here.

Part of the Sydney Biennale, Paul Pfeiffer's "Vitruvian Figure"

• Sydney’s 17th Biennale closed on Sunday, and attendance figures showed that over half a million people attended the two and a half month art fair and exposition. Chief Executive Officer Marah Braye called the Biennale “the most successful exhibition ever presented by the organization and has received an overwhelmingly positive critical response – both nationally and internationally.” Check out the full article at Art Knowledge News. • New York art dealer Lawrence Salander was sentenced yesterday to 6-18 years in federal prison for grand larceny and fraud. Salander-O’Reilly Galleries on the Upper East Side filed for bankruptcy three years ago, and Salander pleaded guilty earlier this year to stealing $120 million from clients and investors. From ArtForum. • British artist Jess Flood-Paddock has created a “sculptural scenario” for her first solo exhibition at a major institution (London’s Southbank Centre). The show, entitled Gangsta’s Paradise, is said to explore “historical and cultural specificity of moral behavior, populist self-help texts, the links between anthropology and infotainment, and the comedy and tragedy of scale - specifically gigantism.” More about the show can be found at e-flux.

Tags: Contemporary Art, Damien Hirst, Jess Flood-Paddock, Lawrence Salander, Shanghai World Expo, Sydney Biennale
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Monday, July 26th, 2010

Schiele's "Portrait of Wally"

• A collection of works by Henri Matisse, originally created for the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence on the French Riviera, will be shown at the Vatican in Rome later this year. Large-scale sketches, silk garments, and a belltower bronze cross will enhance the modern and contemporary religious art collection of the Vatican. For the full story, head to The Art Newspaper. • An agreement was reached last Tuesday between the US government, the Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray and the Leopold Museum of Vienna to conclude one of the longest running stolen art cases in history. Egon Schiele’s painting Portrait of Wally, stolen by a Nazi agent in 1930, will stay in its home at the Leopold in return for a $19 million cash settlement paid to the Bondi heirs, its rightful owners. Click here to read a description of the case.

"Untitled (Long Gray Construction)" by Jane South

• Work by internationally acclaimed British artist Jane South will be featured at the Knoxville Museum of Art in the exhibition Jane South: Shifting Structures (Aug. 7 - Nov. 7). Many pieces seem to blur the line between sculpture, installation and architecture, using little more than hand painted balsa wood and folded paper. Head to Art Knowledge News for more. • The Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans in October will open Living with Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond, an exhibition meant to serve as a documentary showcase and memorial to the storm’s devastation. Eyewitness accounts, photographs and video, as well as scientific explorations will educate while they powerfully evoke the suffering of a major US city. A centerpiece of the exhibit is a ruined baby grand piano recoverd from the home of jazz legend Fat Domino. Check out the full story here.

Tags: Contemporary Art, Egon Shiele, Jane South, Matisse, Vatican
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Monday, July 19th, 2010

David Walsh in front of Fernando Botero's "Leda and the Swan"

• Tasmanian art collector David Walsh plans to open a museum in 2011 on his estate to showcase his uniquely macabre collection of art. Dubbed The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), the 6000 square meter space is entirely underground, situated in an excavated cliff. The works represent three different areas – Antiquities (Egyptian mummies and Roman mosaics), Australian modernists (Sidney Nolan, Charles Blackman, John Brack), and international contemporary art from the likes of Christian Boltanski and Damien Hirst. Check out The Art Newspaper for a full article and interview with Walsh. • Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art will move to a new building and location near the entrance of the Uptown project, an urban zone being revitalized through government spending on recreation and shopping. The new building will give the institution 11,000 square feet of increased space, and has been described as a “four-story faceted gem clad in tinted and transparent glass and shiny black stainless steel.” Read more here.

Warhol's "Portrait of Dennis Hopper"

• Pieces from the renowned contemporary art collection of late actor Dennis Hopper will hit the auction block at Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary sales in New York on November 10-11. Included will be important works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Claes Oldenburg, and Andy Warhol (Portrait of Dennis Hopper, 1971). Click here to read more about the sale.

Tags: Basquiat, Cleveland, Contemporary Art, David Walsh, Dennis Hopper, Warhol
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Henningsvær's caviar factory-turned-art gallery

• The Norwegian village of Henningsvær is now home to an art space occupying an old caviar factory in the Lofoten archipelago. Venke Hoff, the owner of the building, has amassed one of the largest contemporary art collections in the Nordic countries alongside her husband, but they claim their “aim is not establishing a venue for showing parts of our own collection, but inviting international artists for shows.” Read more at The Art Newspaper. • Eli Broad, the 76 year-old Los Angeles financier, philanthropist and art collector, has offered to lease a piece of city-owned land in order to build a space for his large collection of contemporary artwork. Although the funding for the lease, museum building and its endowment would come out of Broad’s own pocket, the idea has been criticized by some L.A. county officials. Head to the LA Times website for more.

Dennis Hopper "Bomb Drop"

• Dennis Hopper Double Standard is the name of the new retrospective at the Los Angeles MOCA of the late actor’s prolific 60-year career as an art maker. More than 200 photographs, paintings, assemblages, sculptures, and film pieces will trace Hopper’s obsessions with popular culture and the American relationship to art. Read a review of the exhibition at Art Knowledge News.

Tags: Contemporary Art, Dennis Hopper, Eli Broad, Los Angeles, MOCA
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Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

A section of Gilbert & George's "The Paintings (With Us in the Nature)"

• An early work by the English artistic duo Gilbert & George will be borrowed by the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands, for a temporary display, but the museum hopes to raise funds in the meantime to purchase it. The Paintings (With Us in the Nature) is a gigantic triptych featuring younger versions of the artists in a green landscape, and after its completion in 1971 Gilbert & George abandoned painting for other mediums. Check out The Art Newspaper for further information. • There has been a few interesting discoveries of previously unknown and un-attributed artworks in the past week. The Staedel Museum in Germany has found a painting in its cellar that it believes is the work of Expressionist artist Ludwig Kirchner. A portrait by Italian Mannerist Pontormo has re-emerged thanks to Carlo Orsi, and is now on display at his gallery in Milan. Finally, an altarpiece in storage at the Yale University Art Gallery has been attributed to Spanish master Velázquez, in a recently published article by John Marciari. • A landscape by J.M.W. Turner, Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino, sold at Sotheby’s Old Masters auction for $44.9 million today. It was bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum. Sotheby’s sale set eight new artist records. From ArtInfo.

Turner's "Modern Rome"

• 21 young artists have been placed on the short list for the Future Generation Art Prize 2010, meant to help the next artistic generation find long-term support. Over 6,000 artists applied, and were chosen by a panel of art-professionals. Read about the prize and see the list here.

Tags: Contemporary Art, Gilbert & George, J.M.W. Turner, Pontormo, Velazquez
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Monday, July 5th, 2010

Roy Lichtenstein's "The Conversation"

• Over 100 works by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein are now on view at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany. Lichtenstein’s well-known halftone dot paintings, some of which are pop interpretations of works by Picasso and Matisse, hang near examples of his sculptural work and drawings until October 3. Read more about the exhibition at Art Knowledge News. • An installation of work by Jeff Koons has been set up in the CT Scanning room at Chicago’s Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital. Koons, who donated pieces including the red Balloon Dog, teamed up with the non-profit RxArt to brighten up the typically sterile hospital environment. For more information click here.

The CT Scanning room at Chicago's Advocate Hope Children's Hospital

• A new film by Tamra Davis entitled Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child opens on July 21, and follows the rise and tragic fall of the late Neo-expressionist painter. The film includes never before seen footage of Basquiat as well as interviews with his friends and some art-world heavyweights. Check out ArtDaily for more. • Thirty year old Polish painter Jakub Julian Ziolkowski is having his first American solo show at Hauser & Wirth in New York. 28 paintings and gouaches, all made in the last year, comprise the debut entitled “Timothy Galoty & the Dead Brains,” a reference to an imaginary rock band. Read a review of the show at the New York Times website.

Tags: Basquiat, Contemporary Art, Koons, Lichtenstein, Ziolkowski
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Friday, July 2nd, 2010

"Portrait of a Man" - Delacroix or Sickert?

• The London National Gallery presents a summer exhibition entitled Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries, which will detail the ways that technology and scholarship can help “reveal the misconceptions” in the history of art. Featured is a painting previously attributed to Eugène Delacroix, that might have actually been painted by the eccentric donor of the work, Walter Sickert. Go to the National Gallery website to read more about the show. • The Athens Institute for Contemporary Art will show the work of four artists – Casey McGuire, Jon Swindler, Patrick Triggs, and Melissa Dickenson - in the newly opened ATHICAEmerges IV: Uncertainty. As the title suggests, the exhibition explores the artists’ reaction to the “precarious interconnectedness” of our modern world, through their painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Read more at Art Knowledge News.

Zhang Huan "Three-legged Buddha"

• London-based advertising mogul and art collector Charles Saatchi will donate his renowned Saatchi Gallery and its collection – valued above $37 million – to his city to create a new museum, the MOCA London. In the 1990s Saatchi helped launch the careers of artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin, and his collection is one of the world’s most prominent holdings of contemporary art. From ArtInfo. • A 28-foot tall, three-legged sculptural Buddha, courtesy of Chinese artist Zhang Huan, is the newest attraction at New York’s Storm King Art Center. The steel and copper piece weighs 12 tons and has also been shown at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and La Monnaie in Belgium. Read more here.

Tags: ATHICA, Contemporary Art, Delacroix, Hirst, London National Gallery, Saatchi, Zhang Huan
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Contemporary Masters – Review

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

by Patrick Maguire, Mondo Fine Art

The Salt Lake Art Center’s Contemporary Masters mini-golf course is an unusual and imaginative way of presenting art to the public, allowing visitors to play with artworks, instead of just looking at them. Everyone can try their hand at the course – young children with their parents, older couples with cameras slung about their necks, and curious art appreciators can all be seen wandering through the exhibition with their colorful putters and scorecards, playing the holes in no particular order. It certainly does not feel like an art gallery anymore, and instead takes on the informal characteristics of a relaxed summertime activity.

Laura Chukanov playing Contemporary Masters

The Salt Lake Art Center hosted a VIP opening event for Contemporary Masters on the 17th of June, a day before the course opened to the public. Laura Chukanov, a member of our Mondo Fine Art staff and former Miss Utah 2009, was part of the celebrity foursome among the first to try their hand at the 18 holes.

Every hole is designed and built by separate artists, so themes, materials, and playability widely vary. This is a welcome change from the standard putt-putt golf. Some holes are whimsical, like Davina Pallone’s par six Putting to the Center of the Earth, a multicolored wool and cotton representation of the earth’s geologic strata. Golfers must descend into the illuminated, cork-floored structure of Stephanie Leitch’s Untitled to retrieve their ball. The course concludes with Craig Cleveland’s mechanical Siphon & Reservoir, which shoots your ball into a series of netted funnels before depositing it near the hole. These are but examples of the fantastic diversity of this course.

John Bell "Pissing in the Wind"

The challenges of contemporary art are evident enough on the surface of a painting or sculpture, but they surface as well in the absurd difficulty of some holes - namely the two par infinities. Peter Everett’s Donkey Kong pays homage to the trickiness of the 1981 arcade classic, and John Bell, a Mondo Fine Art artist, explicitly deals with the issue in his near-impossible, minimalist sculpture Pissing in the Wind. Bell says he "was more interested in making a work of art that you could play miniature golf on, than a miniature golf hole that you called art. The title is a metaphor for so many of the futile pursuits we inflict upon ourselves in daily life. My hope is that instead of trying to dominate or win on this piece / hole, participants will let go of that notion and just enjoy it as a work of art and a point of conversation."

Contemporary Masters is at once a group art show and recreational activity, which says something about the mission of the Salt Lake Art Center. Art can involve everyone. Experiencing art in the context of mini-golf is a unique way to bring the viewer closer to the artist whose work they are putting upon.

Contemporary Masters runs through September 16th, 2010. For more information, please visit SALT LAKE ART CENTER's WEBSITE

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Tags: Contemporary Art, John Bell, mini-golf, review, Salt Lake Art Center
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Monday, June 21st, 2010

Russian artist group AES+F

• Two major exhibitions devoted to video art open in Moscow this month, that organizers hope will “stimulate greater interest in video as an art form among the younger generation.” The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture will show work by the Russian collective AES+F, while the GMG gallery mounts a survey of work by US artist Gary Hill, a pioneer in the video art medium. Check out The Art Newspaper for the full article. • Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, the New York couple who amassed a remarkable collection of minimal and conceptual art on modest income, are loaning art to institutions across the nation through the program The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States. The Delaware Art Museum is the most recent recipient of the Vogel’s art, which spans 1966 to 2003. Art Knowledge News has all the details.

The Vogels in their NYC apartment

• Joe Deal, the Kansas born post-war photographer, passed away last Friday in Providence, Rhode Island following an eight-year battle with cancer. Deal’s photographic series like “Wild and West: Reimagining the Great Plains,” and “Karst and Pseudokarst” has had a lasting influence upon today’s contemporary photographers. Visit ArtForum for more details on the life of Joe Deal. • The Philiadelphia Museum of Art has loaned 55 oil paintings and 5 bronze sculptures, by masters such as Picasso, Degas and Manet, to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. It is the first time America and Taiwan have worked together to organize an international art exhibition. More at ArtDaily.org.

Tags: AES+F, Contemporary Art, Joe Deal, Moscow, Philiadelphia Museum of Art, photography, Taipei, Vogel
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