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Disturbing Dumas Divides Critics
 Disturbing Dumas 
 Divides Critics 
ART REVIEW
Dec 12, 2008 8:26 AM CST

Disturbing Dumas Divides Critics

South African painter's first American retrospective opens at MoMA

(Newser) - The South African painter Marlene Dumas has established herself as one of the most challenging artists of recent times, and her austere, anonymous portraits are loved and loathed in equal measures. Sure enough, her first American retrospective—entitled Measuring Your Own Grave, opening this week at MoMA in New York—...

Economy Shadows Miami Art Fair

Collectors descend on Art Basel, but sales are slow

(Newser) - The art world descends on Miami this week for Art Basel Miami Beach, America's biggest art fair. But last night's VIP opening had none of the crazed buying of recent years, when collectors ran through the aisles in the first minutes like frenzied Wal-Mart shoppers. "It's obvious the economy...

'Risqué' Attic Painting Sells for $4.1M

Hidden away because it showed a breast

(Newser) - A provocative 18th Century painting, hidden in the attic of a French chateau for decades because it featured a woman with a breast exposed, has fetched $4.1 million from an anonymous buyer at a Christie's auction in London, reports the Daily Telegraph. The price was three times its estimated...

Auction Houses Counting on Russians

Buyers prop up industry staggering from economic crunch

(Newser) - With dwindling sales and empty showrooms, art auction houses are increasingly relying on what they have dubbed RR: rich Russians. Houses are hoping the record price drawn by a Kasimir Malevich painting earlier this month is proof that the Russian market will escape the downturn that's affecting other sectors. Of...

As Museums Struggle, LA's MOCA Seeks Merger

MoCA holds talks with other institutions as endowment dries up

(Newser) - The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, one of the nation's leading modern art galleries, is holding talks with other LA institutions about a possible merger. MoCA has already announced a 10% cut in staff and the temporary closure of 50% of its exhibition space. For the New York ...

Huge LeWitt Exhibition Is Beautiful Lunacy
 Huge LeWitt Exhibition 
 Is Beautiful Lunacy 
ART REVIEW
Nov 17, 2008 12:16 PM CST

Huge LeWitt Exhibition Is Beautiful Lunacy

Mass. retrospective traces artist's work in Minimalism and Conceptualism

(Newser) - Sol LeWitt died last year, but his artwork is still being created—executed by handlers according to written instructions. This weekend marked the opening of a massive exhibition of LeWitt’s wall drawings at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, an exhibition Sebastian Smee, in the Boston Globe, calls “...

Hirst: Art Is Overpriced
 Hirst: Art Is Overpriced 
Nov 17, 2008 10:39 AM CST

Hirst: Art Is Overpriced

Multimillionaire artist says economic woes will likely bring (his) prices down

(Newser) - With the economic slowdown finally slamming into the art market, one of the world’s priciest living artists says art has become too costly anyway, the Independent reports. British multimillionaire Damien Hirst failed to sell a painting valued at some $3 million last week; in retrospect, he said, it “...

Cellist Runs Church of Beethoven

Albuquerque arts devotees start secular Church of Beethoven in old gas station

(Newser) - Congregants gather on Sundays at an old gas station in Albuquerque to greet friends, ponder the divine, and listen to classical music, NPR reports. Espresso-sipping members of the Church of Beethoven also listen to poetry readings and engage in group song, but don't need to have religious beliefs. Cellist Felix...

Major Works Fail to Sell at Christie's

Dismal auction season continues as Bacon fails to find buyer

(Newser) - The art world bust continued last night at the Christie's contemporary auction in New York, where almost a third of the 75 works on the block went unsold. Not a single collector bid for the highlight of the sale, a self-portrait by Francis Bacon estimated to sell for around $40...

Contemporary Art Goes Bust at Dismal Auction

Lot after lot goes unsold at New York auction

(Newser) - Collectors from Steve Martin to Valentino packed the Sotheby's saleroom in New York last night, but its contemporary art auction barely pulled in $125 million—far below the low estimate of $202 million. For those who could afford it, works were going at bargain-basement prices. "It was a half-price...

Recession, Losing Bush as Muse Will Hurt US Artists

Economic woes will put creativity in the red

(Newser) - The end of the Bush era could mean tough times for the arts, the Morgan Falconer writes in the Times of London. Not only will artists, filmmakers, and writers lose the muse who has inspired critical works, but the economic crisis will drain financial support. John McCain already implied he...

Art Market Stalls at Grim Fall Sale

Malevich sets record, but Sotheby's has a slow night in New York

(Newser) - In New York last night Sotheby's held a lackluster auction that portended a grim year ahead for the once buoyant art market. Of 70 lots at the sale of impressionist and modern art, fully 25 found no buyers. There was one bit of good news for the market: a...

Big Easy Enlists Artists
 Big Easy Enlists Artists 
Oct 29, 2008 10:56 AM CDT

Big Easy Enlists Artists

Big Easy will host America's largest exhibition of contemporary art

(Newser) - A new biennial meant to restore New Orleans' cultural life—and expand it—opens this weekend in the city, the New York Times reports. With 81 artists participating in Prospect.1 and 50,000 out-of-town visitors expected, the exhibition could be a pick-me-up for a city still trying to come...

Sotheby's Pulls $30M Picasso on Market Jitters

Top lot in Nov. auction withdrawn as seller panics

(Newser) - A painting from Picasso's Cubist period that was one of the highlights of the fall auction season has been pulled "for private reasons," Sotheby's New York office said yesterday. The withdrawal of Arlequin, a 1909 work which was estimated at more than $30 million, had been rumored for...

Madonna Gets a 10-Year Facelift
Madonna Gets a 10-Year Facelift
Oct 26, 2008 5:53 PM CDT

Madonna Gets a 10-Year Facelift

Italian lab restores Raphael's landmark painting with cutting edge techniques

(Newser) - After a 10-year facelift, an Italian Renaissance landmark is finally ready for its unveiling. Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch underwent extensive renovations that included CAT scans and X-rays, Reuters reports. A Florentine lab removed coverings by early restorers who saved the work, which was smashed in a house collapse...

Painting Price Spells Gloom for Economy

Portrait of Bacon auctions for only $9.4M at Christie's

(Newser) - A Lucian Freud painting expected to sell for more than $12 million at Christie’s today went for only $9.4 million, a sign that even super-rich buyers of contemporary art are cutting back in the financial crisis, the Daily Telegraph reports. The art world anxiously awaited the sale of...

At London Fair, Art Market Finally Stalls

Frieze opens to lots of collectors, but few sales

(Newser) - As the financial crisis has deepened, the art world seemed strangely impervious to global declines. But at yesterday's opening of the Frieze Art Fair in London, one of the year's biggest events, the slowdown finally caught up to the heady art market. Where once visitors ran maniacally to buy artwork...

Jackie's Charm Sparked US Visit by Mona Lisa

First lady persuaded French to loan painting, boost our culture

(Newser) - Jackie Kennedy executed a diplomatic coup in 1962, when she convinced the smitten French culture minister to send the Mona Lisa on a perilous journey. The painting's visit to the US—"then regarded as a country with hardly any culture at all," in the words of one historian—...

Artist to Smoke Kurt Cobain's Ashes

Nirvana frontman's supposed remains, stolen from wife, will star in Berlin exhibition

(Newser) - An Australian performance artist who claims to have obtained late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s ashes will smoke them at a Berlin exhibition, NME reports. Artist Natascha Stellmach says the lighting up will symbolize Cobain’s ultimate freedom from the media. As to how she came by the remains, which...

Chicago Bar Hangs Nude Palin Portrait

Painting of armed Alaska gov. baring all a Windy City hit

(Newser) - Perhaps the most revealing depiction of Sarah Palin is the one hanging at a Chicago tavern: A naked, smiling, high-heeled Palin holds a shotgun in front of an Alaskan landscape in a portrait displayed at the North Side bar, the Tribune reports. The owner's husband, who is crushing on Alaska's...

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