Rich collectors from China switch spending power to western art
Wealthy Chinese collectors are increasingly buying up western art as their tastes move beyond the traditional confines of Chinese ceramics and paintings.
Monthly Archives: November 2013
Jacob Kassay: ‘IJK’
Jacob Kassay turns 30 next year, which means he has time to develop some originality to match his surfeit of intelligence and attitude.
Jake and Dinos Chapman: Come and See, Serpentine Sackler Gallery
The Chapmans not only are what they are, but they embody what they are to perfection. And just when you think you may have outgrown them yourself – like you might a lover whose jokes have grown wearisome, but really, it’s you, it’s you – they hijack your affections once more by being both brilliant and […]
Being Kazimir Malevich, in Amsterdam
All eyes were on the Rijksmuseum when it re-opened in April after a 10-year refurbishment, but across the Museumplein, Amsterdam’s gallery of contemporary and modern art, the Stedelijk, was already settling into its new look, unveiled six months before. With its world-beating collection and extended galleries, it is already an attractive destination, but a remarkable […]
Lunch with the FT: Jake and Dinos Chapman
The not-so-young British artists on provocation, prostitution and spicy soup Jake picks up a paper napkin. “The second that Martin Creed does that” – he crumples up the napkin – “then it’s worth £50,000 or whatever. The point is there has to be some sort of syndicative agreement that if he or she does it” […]
Billion-Dollar Question: Can Contemporary Art Keep Climbing?
Words like “surreal” and “dizzying” were used a lot over the last couple of weeks to describe the atmosphere at major fall auctions of Impressionist, modern and especially contemporary art at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, as prices for individual works shattered records, hitting new nine-figure highs, and overall sales of contemporary art surged to a new […]
Did Someone Say Schnabel? The “Me Generation” Retakes the Art World
“A bunch of rubbish” was the verdict, offered only half in jest by the predictably dyspeptic English journalist. He was surrounded by huge paintings covered with shards of broken crockery and slathered with crudely painted images. Yes, rubbish, but is that not the quest of the avant-garde, to magically spin art from dross like some […]
Oops. I left my millions …
A View Inside the Art World: Author Henry Alford attended the record-breaking auctions of modern art at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, but to watch, not buy. Henry’s hilarious commentary in the NYT on his experiences at the Christie’s including at the preview auction brunch: “Are you having fun?” he asked me. “I am,” I said. “But […]
How to Love a Fake – a response
We sometimes think of paintings as like autographs. It’s only Mick Jagger’s autograph if he signed it, with his very hand. And it’s only a Vermeer, say, or a Rothko, if Vermeer or Rothko themselves actually made the pictures. This makes good sense when it comes to autographs. A signature is a person’s mark. By […]
Art is Hard to $ee
Art is Hard to See Through the Clutter of the Dollar$. Roberta Smith for the New York Times
An Idiot’s Guide to Fancis Bacon
The man behind the World’s Most Expensive Painting
As Auction Houses Win, Art Lovers Lose
Instead of catering to carefully selected museums and collectors, auction houses sell to the highest bidder. They find two people who want the same work and get them to bid as high as possible; often those who buy work will only sell it again in two years.
5 Big-Time Collectors On the One That Got Away
“I collect in sort of the old fashioned way, a little bit at a time. If I miss something this time, there is always something else to come along, and it’s usually a blessing in the end. My best hope is that the Italians go to sleep on their own material. You also have to be […]
Martha Rosler Tackles the Social Roles of Artists in “Culture Class”
The influential but oft-maligned project of pop urbanist Richard Florida first took off in 2002 with the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class, in which he defined a new economic sector composed of creative laborers: a group extending beyond artists to include designers, journalists, and tech people, a “highly educated and well-paid segment of the […]
In Praise of Art Forgeries
Our first instinct is to marvel at the forgers’ skill and lament their misdeeds. But while forgery is very clearly an economic crime, it may not always be an artistic or aesthetic one. Forgers can even be an art lover’s friend. Blake Gopnik in New York Times
Basel (Miami) Bound
Kathleen and Laing Brown are interviewed in Fashion Magazine.