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Slideshow: See highlights from the NoHo Design District at the Standard Hotel East Village
18/05/2012
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Slideshow: Images from "Bellini, Titian, and Lotto" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
18/05/2012
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Clip Art: Inventive Videos From Nicki Minaj, Death Grips, Mykki Blanco, and More
18/05/2012
Clip Art: Inventive Videos From Nicki Minaj, Death Grips, Mykki Blanco, and More Language English Email Print Save Tweet Pin It Photo Gallery: Clip Art: Inventive Videos From Nicki Minaj, Death Grips, Mykki Blanco, and Moreby Nick CatucciPublished: May 18, 2012In Clip Art, ARTINFO video editor Tom Chen, photo editor Micah Schmidt, and performing arts editor Nick Catucci choose five of the most visually engaging music videos from the previous week or so, and present highlights from each in a video supercut, plus a slideshow of stills. Today ... Nicki Minaj dramatizes a love triangle with Nas and Chris Brown in the hyperreal “Right By My Side.” “Join My Militia” finds Mykki Blanco writhing and rhyming like no one is looking. For “Hustle Bones,” Death Grips threw all their contraband in the drier. “Sinful Nature” by Bear in Heaven makes a slow-moving ‘80s tornado. Kindness find common ground in “House.” Previously: Canyons, London, SpaceGhostPurrp, Grimes, and Danny Brown   Like what you see? Sign up for our DAILY NEWSLETTER and get our best stories delivered to your inbox. Go to top ↑ Performing Arts, Music, Clip Art, Nicki Minaj, Nas, Chris Brown, Mykki Blanco, Death Grips, Bear in Heaven, Kindness, Music Video, vidéo Share: Tweet Email to a Friend Read full article here

"Art Isn’t Something That’s External": Jeff Koons on His Whitney Retrospective, the High Line Train, and Emptiness
18/05/2012
"Art Isn’t Something That’s External": Jeff Koons on His Whitney Retrospective, the High Line Train, and Emptiness Language English Email Print Save Tweet Pin It by Ann BinlotPublished: May 18, 2012Whether it’s the mission to bring his $25 million dollar “Train” to the High Line or calling his own artwork “empty,” artist Jeff Koons never ceases to be an art-world enigma. His appropriated sculptures, from “Michael Jackson and Bubbles” porcelain pieces to the enormous “Balloon Flower (Magenta),” incite both staunch criticism and astronomical auction records. The artist also experienced heartbreaking tragedy when his ex-wife and former muse Ilona Staller kidnapped their son Ludwig in 1994. This year, Koons has four solo exhibitions planned around the world: one in Basel, two in Frankfurt, and one in St. Petersburg, Fla. ARTINFO caught up with Koons at the Whitney Museum of Art during the Wall Street Journal’s Donor of the Day Celebration to ask him what to expect for the last show at the Whitney’s Breuer building, how the High Line “Train” efforts are going, and why he calls his art “empty.” What did you mean when you called the art at your Fondation Beyeler retrospective “empty”? What I was speaking about is that artwork, objects, they’re transpondent. You try to pack them with information, that when somebody looks at them, they’re able to have an internal discourse, and when I say that these objects are kind of empty, what I meant is the art’s not there. The art happens inside the viewer, and these objects direct, and communicate to people, and try to manipulate how they feel about a situation, or the type of sensations that they can have. Art happens inside them. Art isn’t something that’s external. It’s always inside the person. How does it feel to be the last artist to show at the Whitney’s Madison Avenue space, and the only artist to take over the majority of the museum? I’m really thrilled because I enjoy the place that the Whitney has had in my own life as an artist – of being an open door kind of place to young artists coming to New York. They always have the opportunity at the Biennials for artists. You always felt as though there was a sense of inclusion, but the exhibitions that they’ve had over the years have been really informative to a young generation of what’s possible in the dialogue of art, and so I’m really thrilled to have my New York exhibition here. Can we expect any new works from you? Absolutely. I’ll be showing the newest things up to that moment that I’m working on. I’ll be showing the antiquity series that I’m working on now. I’m just going to try to give an overview of my work from when I first moved to New York, which was around the very beginning of ’77 up to the present day, so by the time of the exhibition, it will be close to four decades. Any updates on the High Line “Train”? I’m really thrilled at the possibility, because it’s only a possibility that the train could come to the High Line, but if it would become a reality, I think it would be wonderful. It’s a piece I designed to function as a rallying point for a community that people would gather around it and be able to experience something which is moving and demonstrates the power and intensity of life experience and at the same time inform us of the warmth of our community. Are there any fundraising efforts going on? I’m sure the High Line would be involved with that. I’m sure that they would love to find donors to be involved with it, but if it can be a possibility here in New York in my hometown, that would be great. With your current Fondation Beyeler retrospective and the announcement of your traveling 2014 retrospective, it feels like the year of the Jeff Koons retrospective. Where do you feel like you’re at in your career? Being able to have the opportunities to have my work be engaged in different communities — right now this year, the work is going to be shown in Switzerland in Basel, in two exhibitions in Frankfurt, and later this year in St. Petersburg, Florida. It’s always exciting to be able to have a dialogue with the community. Also, as an artist, you always are able to view your work and see it in a different light. Last year’s Costume Institute exhibition, “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” surpassed your 2008 sculpture show to become the eighth most-visited exhibition in the history of the Met. Do you feel threatened that this year’s show, “Schiaparelli & Prada: Imaginary Conversations,” might do the same? I really have no idea, but I know that I enjoy so much having an exhibition at the Metropolitan, because it’s such an incredible museum, and to be able to have contemporary art and the audience for contemporary and also pull people in to look at the classical works, or to look at Baroque paintings or the Old Masters, it’s fantastic. And the same with people who go to see an Old Masters painting, to end up wandering to see another exhibition. I think Miuccia’s exhibition with Schiaparelli is fantastic. It’s an incredible installation, it’s really interesting and engaging, and it has the energy of the avant-garde of the 20th century. It has that whole feeling of “We can change reality.” And Alexander McQueen’s show was great too, but I’m very happy to be a part of the history of the Met too. You’ve been very active with the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children since your son’s abduction. Have you met parents who have gone through similar ordeals who have been able to get their children back? Through the National Center and International Center, I’ve met a lot of different parents, and some parents have had success. These stories touch everyone, and they touch a lot of families where we’ve all known somebody and maybe there was a parental abduction or we know from just reading the papers, abduction of children in our communities, so this always touches everyone. We were hearing the numbers today … the return of 167,000 children is an amazing accomplishment. Like what you see? Sign up for our DAILY NEWSLETTER and get our best stories delivered to your inbox. Go to top ↑ Contemporary Arts, AI Interview, Ann Binlot Share: Tweet Email to a Friend Read full article here

Shimabuku at NoguerasBlanchard
18/05/2012
Artist: Shimabuku Venue: NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona Exhibition Title: Leaves Swim Date: March 28 – May 15, 2012 Click here to view slideshow Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump. Images: Images courtesy of NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona. Photos by Roberto Ruiz Press Release: NoguerasBlanchard is very pleased to announce its third solo exhibition with Japanese artist Shimabuku. [...] Read full article here

Clip Art: Inventive Videos From Nicki Minaj, Death Grips, Mykki Blanco, and More
18/05/2012
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The American Art Market Gets Its Spark Back at New York's Spring Auctions, Led by Cassatt and Hopper
18/05/2012
The American Art Market Gets Its Spark Back at New York's Spring Auctions, Led by Cassatt and Hopper Language English Email Print Save Tweet Pin It Photo Gallery: Slideshow: Highlights from the American Paintings Sales at Christie's and Sotheby'sby Sarah P. Hanson, Art+AuctionPublished: May 18, 2012NEW YORK — At this week's auctions, sales of American paintings in New York reached their highest totals since the bottom fell out of the market in 2008. Christie’s turned in a respectable $27,198,600 on Wednesday, while Sotheby’s netted $34,787,625 on Thursday. More encouraging still, the buy-in rates — 23 percent at Christie’s and 12 percent at Sotheby’s — have not been seen in the category for several years. “We’re seeing a pronounced uptick in the marketplace,” says Eric Widing, deputy chair of the American paintings department at Christie's. “We’ve been waiting for it for some years now, and it’s finally happened.” Both houses fielded new department heads, Elizabeth Sterling at Christie’s and Elizabeth Goldberg at Sotheby’s, who presented slimmed-down sales and reaped the rewards of careful editing and, for the most part, judicious pricing. “I think it’s more about quality than anything else,” says Goldberg. At Christie’s, the somewhat sparsely attended proceedings nevertheless got off to a crackling start with the $60,000 realized for Harriet Whitney Frishmuth’s cast-bronze Martha Lorber (1927) (est. $10–15,000), followed by a strong tranch of modernist works, including Milton Avery’s gangly yet charming Adolescent (1947) (est. $400–600,000), which at least five bidders chased to $1,022,500. Mary Cassatt’s Sara Holding a Cat (ca. 1907–08) (est. $800–1,200,000), an intimate oil on canvas in which the artist’s exploration of her signature single-child theme reaches stylistic maturity, fetched a sale-high $2,546,500 from a gentleman on his cell phone seated at the back of the salesroom. The same man also claimed Boston School painter’s Frank Weston Benson’s tender Portrait of Gertrude Russell (1915) (est. $1–1.5 million) for a comparative bargain of $962,500.  Although surpassed in price by a classic Saturday Evening Post cover image by Norman Rockwell, Dreams of Long Ago (1927) (est. $2–3 million), which sold for $2,322,500, a sunlit Giverny picture by Frederick Carl Frieseke, Foxgloves (ca. 1912–13), generated heat, sending the work well above its $1.5-million high estimate to $2,210,500. The same occured with Robert Frederick Blum’s oil on canvas Venetian Gondoliers (ca. 1880–89) ($500–700,000), which was bagged by a collector for $1,142,500. “We had a solid interest in the Cassatt going into the sale, but the hammer price of $2.2 million went beyond our expectations,” says Sterling. “That’s a great sign for the American Impressionist market, particularly when you couple it with the results we had for the Frieseke.” The top 10 was rounded out by a Maxfield Parrish, a John Singer Sargent, and a pair of Georgia O’Keeffes: the pastel Lake George in Woods (1922) (est. $300–500,000), which soared to $902,500, and one of her first “bones” paintings from New Mexico, Deer Horns (1938) (est. $1.2–1.8 million), which New York private dealer Baird W. Ryan wrangled for $1,930,500. Some of the highest-estimated lots, however, failed to gather enough steam for takeoff. In contrast to last November’s record-setting $5,346,500 sale of Oscar Bluemner’s Illusion of a Prairie, New Jersey (Red Farm at Pochuck) (1915), the artist’s similarly-hued Perth Amboy West (Tottenville) (1911) (est. $2–3 million) went nowhere. A luminous Fitz Henry Lane, Gloucester, Stage For Beach (1849) (est. $2–3 million), also sank. (Rumor has it the cows in the foreground may have turned buyers off.) The Sotheby’s sale was buzzier, thanks in part to the sale’s headliner, the Edward Hopper oil Bridle Path (1939) (est. $5–7 million), put up by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to benefit its acquisitions fund. Depicting a trio of horseback riders galloping into one of Central Park’s distinctive tunnels, the sizable canvas attracted plenty of bidders, and ultimately sold to a private collector for $10,386,500, double its low estimate and the top-earning painting in the category since December 2007. "The subject matter, while at first glance somewhat unusual for the artist, the longer you stood in front of that picture, the more Hopperesque it became," says Goldberg. "It was such a visually and psychologically rich painting." It was hardly the only bright spot. A splendid George Bellows sporting picture, Tennis at Newport (1920) (est. $5–7 million) — one of only four tennis scenes the artist produced, in verdant greens and lemon yellow — also attracted a pack of bidders. New York dealer Debra Force fought for the Bellows, but it ultimately went to an American collector for $7,026,500. Two different sources said after the sale that the Bellows buyer was James McGlothlin, collector and Virgina Museum of Fine Arts benefactor Comparatively late in the tight, 59-lot sale, a Frederic Remington oil on canvas, A Halt in the Wilderness (1905) (est. $800–1.2 million), which had been held by the same New Jersey family since its acquisition from Solomon R. Guggenheim in 1919, shot up to $2,770,500, offered by a bidder in the room. The chilling yet compelling Jacklight (1980) (est. $600–900,000) by Andrew Wyeth — a tempera on panel depicting a deer the artist used to observe eating apples, then slaughtered and strung up in a tree — fetched an unambiguously strong sum of $1,538,500 from an American museum bidding by telephone.  Finally, one artist record was set at the Sotheby's sale: for David Johnson, whose View from New Windsor, Hudson River (1869) (est. $300–500,000), came in at $722,500. Western art got a boost from New York’s J.N. Bartfield Galleries, which snapped up five lots, including Charles Marion Russell’s watercolor The Tenderfoot (1900) (est. $600–900,000), for $932,500, bound for a private collection. “We saw some people who we haven’t seen in a while, and for areas like Western, we saw new people. We also had a handful of people outside the U.S., which is very exciting,” notes Goldberg. As at Christie’s, the high prices at Sotheby’s were often the result of multiple bidders, rather than the two-way trophy tussle seen in recent seasons. But setting aside the choicest pieces, an estimate north of $2 million — especially if it’s not attached to a name-brand artist — seems to be the breaking point in this category. That said, Ryan points out, “Half a million goes a long way in American art. You can get a really great thing for $600,000 instead of a mediocre Cindy Sherman.” To see highlights of the Spring auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's, click on the slide show. Like what you see? Sign up for our DAILY NEWSLETTER and get our best stories delivered to your inbox. Go to top ↑ Auctions, Sotheby's, Christie's, American Art, Mary Cassatt, Georgia O'Keeffe Share: Tweet Email to a Friend Read full article here

“Dormitorio Pubblico 1954″ at Campoli Presti
18/05/2012
Artists: Carla Accardi, Luciano Fabro, Lara Favaretto, Marisa Merz, Ugo Mulas, Alessandro Piangiamore, Carol Rama, Santo Tolone, Giuseppe Uncini, Vedovamazzei Venue: Campoli Presti, Paris, and Campoli Presti, London Exhibition Title: Dormitorio Pubblico 1954 Curated by: Marianna Vecellio Date: March 17 – May 19, 2012 Click here to view slideshow Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump. Images: Images courtesy of Campoli [...] Read full article here

Casting Around Cannes: The Weinsteins' Spending Spree, Marion Cotillard's Legless Sensation, Kanye West's Seven-Screen Wotsit
18/05/2012
Casting Around Cannes: The Weinsteins' Spending Spree, Marion Cotillard's Legless Sensation, Kanye West's Seven-Screen Wotsit Language English Email Print Save Tweet Pin It by Graham FullerPublished: May 18, 2012Three days into the Cannes film festival, Marion Cotillard is already being tipped for the Best Actress award for her performance in Jacques Audiard’s acclaimed “Rust & Bone,” which is based on characters in Craig Davidson’s eponymous short story collection. Cotillard plays a trainer of Orca whales at the Marineland Park who has both of her legs amputated after one of them attacks her. In her despair, she turns to a Belgian bouncer and bare-knuckle fighter (Matthias Schoenaerts) who earlier rescued her from a drunken brawl in a club. They become lovers, but she finds that he still wants sex outside their tentative relationship. “It’s a passionate and moving love story which surges out of the screen like a flood tide,” raves The Guardian’s film critic Peter Bradshaw. The lunatics will take over the asylum again: actress Lily Rabe (“Mona Lisa Smile, “All Good Thing”) has been cast as “America’s sweetheart” Mary Pickford in a biopic that will incorporate her co-founding of United Artists in 1919 with Douglas Fairbanks (shortly to become her husband), Charlie Chaplin, and D.W.Griffith. Co-producers Julie Pacino and Jennifer DeLia, who announced the film in Cannes, are currently casting the other main parts, reports Variety. Maybe “The Artists”’s Jean Dujardin could play Fairbanks? Quoth Eminem: “Where’s Kanye when you need him?” Actually, says Vulture, Kanye West is in Cannes preparing to premiere his short film-cum-installation on Wednesday. Titled “Cruel Summer,” it’s “an immersive seven-screen experience” that was inspired by the G.O.O.D. compilation album produced by Mannie Fresh. If you’re planning to be on the Croisette, you can get tickets here. Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, Melissa Leo, and James Earl Jones have been lined up for “The Angriest Man In Brooklyn,” which is being presold at the festival. According to Screen International, it’s about “a stand-in doctor who tells an obnoxious patient he has 90 minutes to live.” Phil Alden Robinson (“Field of Dreams”) will direct the comedy, which begins production in September. “The idea of being that nasty and funny is a gift,” Williams said. The Weinstein Company has been on a spree at Cannes. Before the festival started, writes Anne Thompson, it bought John Hillcoat’s “Lawless,” a Depression-era crime drama about Virginian bootleggers; Andrew Dominik’s gangster film “Killing Me Softly,” starring Brad Pitt; and “Quartet,” first-time director Dustin Hoffman’s film about ageing opera stars (Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, and Billy Connolly) living in a retirement home. On the eve of the festival, the Weinsteins picked up the Australian film “The Sapphires,” directed by Wayne Blair, which tells the factual story of four Aboriginal girls whose pop group entertained American troops in Vietnam in 1968. It was written by Keith Thompson and the dramatist Tony Briggs, whose mother and other family members performed with the band. TWC has also bought “The Oath of Tobruk,” Bernard Henri-Levy’s documentary about the last eight months of Muammar Gafaddi’s dictatorship in Libya, Anne Thompson reports. Another acquisition is Christian Vincent’s culinary comedy “Haute Cusine,” based on the true story of Danièle Delpeuch (Catherine Frot), who became the personal chef of the late French president François Mitterand (played by novelist Jean D’Ormesson). Her cooking made her one of his favorites, which did not endear her to other members of his household. According to Thompson, the company is also “expected to nab James Gray’s unfinished New York immigrant drama ‘Low Life.’” It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Cotillard, and Jeremy Renner. In an unexpected bit of casting news, it was announced that Terence Davies has chosen the Lancashire fashion model and actress Agyness Deyn to play Chris Guthrie in the Scottish coming-of-age drama “Sunset Song,” based on Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s 1932 novel about life and love on a rural farming community on the eve of World War I. Peter Mullan will play her widowed father, who casts incestuous eyes on Chris. The multi-national production, sales, and distribution company Fortissimo Films has acquired the international rights to the $8m movie,writes the Liverpool Echo. Read more ARTINFO news on "Sunset Song" here and on Deyn here.   Like what you see? Sign up for our DAILY NEWSLETTER and get our best stories delivered to your inbox. Go to top ↑ Performing Arts, Film, Graham Fuller, Mary Pickford, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Mila Kunis, Harvey Weinstein, Kanye West, Marion Cotillard, Jacques Audiard, Joaquin Phoenix, Terence Davies Share: Tweet Email to a Friend Read full article here

Bon Soir! The 6 Most Exciting Experiences You Can Have During This Weekend's "Night of Museums" in Paris
18/05/2012
Bon Soir! The 6 Most Exciting Experiences You Can Have During This Weekend's "Night of Museums" in Paris Language English Email Print Save Tweet Pin It by Grégory Picard, ARTINFO FrancePublished: May 18, 2012PARIS — This Saturday is the eighth annual European Night of Museums, and as night falls 3,000 European museums will be outdoing themselves to show off their collections in the most inventive ways possible. With the support of UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, and the International Council of Museums, the event turns European cultural institutions into vast experimental terrains by bringing cinema, video, music, performance, and contemporary art out to play. Best of all, the evening's events are entirely free. ARTINFO France selected some of the most unusual and inspiring Night of Museums happenings in the Paris area. See Rodin by Torchlight and Flashlight For the first time, the Rodin Museum in Meudon in the southwestern suburbs of Paris — which is a bit more under-the-radar than Paris's Rodin Museum — will open its doors for European Museum Night. The Villa des Brillants, where the sculptor resided until his death, has been preserved as a studio and museum, and both it and the surrounding garden will be lit by torches so that his work can be discovered in a more intimate and eerie setting. You can pay respects at Rodin's tomb, which is in the garden, next to that of his wife, Rose Beuret, and in the shadow of "The Thinker." Shuttle service will be provided between Paris and Meudon. In Paris, the famous Rodin Museum in the Hôtel Biron is closed for renovations, but visitors can take guided tours of the garden by flashlight. Rodin's contemporary Etienne Dujardin-Beaumetz already came up with the idea in his "Conversations with Rodin": "You will do well to examine [the sculptures] at night by the light of a lamp or a candle slowly projected on all the surfaces; you will see muscles spring forth that you didn't see before, shapes that you didn't suspect... Sculpture is in movement, it changes with lighting." At the same time, Polish artist Katarzyna Kozyra will project her version of "The Rite of Spring" on seven screens under a tent — pagan, hysterical, and filled with unexpected muscles of its own. Shop at Rob Pruitt's Flea Market The Musée de la Monnaie is also undergoing renovations, but will open up its courtyard for Rob Pruitt's flea market from 6pm to midnight. In the midst of tools used for minting coins and medals (the museum is located in an active mint), Pruitt will evoke the relationship between art and money, in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp, who once said that "art is a product, just like green beans." Pruitt has invited 80 contemporary artists — close friends and celebrities, emerging talents and confirmed ones — to take part in a giant flea market, selling objects that are dear to them, whether created or purchased, or things that they simply want to get rid of. At Gavin Brown's New York gallery in 2000, Pruitt inaugurated this new type of artwork, an interactive fair that thumbs its nose at the art industry. He has since done other editions at Frieze and Tate Modern. On Saturday night, he'll welcome Pierre Ardouvin, Camille Henrot, Mohammed Bourouissa, and M/M, among others, for an earthy fair full of good deals that's also a who's-who of the French art scene. Sweet Sounds at the Grand Palais or the Musée d'Orsay Take your pick: electronic music among the animals, or orchestral sounds with an Impressionist backdrop. Notable Paris DJ Joakim, founder of the Tigersushi label and the creator of musical gems mixing acid house, metal, and late disco, will be at the "Animal Beauty" exhibition at the Grand Palais. Starting at 8pm, visitors can stroll through the artistic fauna to the tune of Joakim's specially concocted mix, and he'll perform live at 11pm. The atmosphere at the Musée d'Orsay will be quite different, as the museum celebrates its new décor and its expanded Impressionist collection with music in the galleries. The group La Lyre d'Orsay will perform works by composers including Charles Gounod, Amilcare Ponchielli, and Francis Popy. Explore Outer Space at Versailles For Parisians who aren't afraid to venture a bit beyond the capital, the Château of Versailles promises a luminous evening. "Passion for the Stars" will offer erudite pleasure-seekers a leap into the past, to the time when the grandiose and festive palace was in thrall to astronomical discoveries. In 1609, Galileo threw the doors to the universe wide open, making astronomy the reigning science of the time. Louis XIV — who was, after all, the Sun King — dedicated each of his palace apartments to the seven planets that were known at the time, and science infiltrated architecture, interior design, and all the arts. Saturday night, Versailles presents an ephemeral display of illuminations, installations, and video projections that mingle astrological and astronomical representations of the past with ultra-precise images from the latest astrophysics labs. This brilliant telescoping of the eras will fill the grands appartements and the famous mirrored hall, the Galerie des Glaces. A version of this article appears on ARTINFO France. Like what you see? Sign up for our DAILY NEWSLETTER and get our best stories delivered to your inbox. Go to top ↑ by Grégory Picard, ARTINFO France,Museums, Travel,Museums, Travel Share: Tweet Email to a Friend Read full article here