SOTHEBY'S TO SELL BASQUIAT MASTERPIECE AND GORMLEY'S ANGEL OF THE NORTH
forthcoming Contemporary Art Evening Sale will be highlighted by Jean-Michel Basquiat's early masterpiece, Untitled (Pecho/Oreja), 1982-83. The work will be offered on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 and comes from the joint collection of Irish rock band U2. It is estimated at £4-6 million. The painting was first spotted by U2's bassist Adam Clayton at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York. The band acquired Untitled in 1989, and it has since resided in their Dublin studio.
A smaller-scale maquette of Antony Gormley's Angel of the North will be a headline lot in Sotheby's London's Summer Contemporary Art sale July 1. The cast-iron model, at 6 feet, 5 inches tall and 7½ feet wide, is the only work relating to Gormley's iconic public sculpture in the north of England to be put up for auction, and it bears a pre-sale estimate of £600-800,000, a range that would double the artist's current auction record.
DAMIEN HIRST TO HOLD AUCTION
Damien Hirst has said he will offer a sculpture of a gold-trimmed bull that he expects to fetch up to 12 million pounds ($23.5 million) at a Sotheby's London auction of his works in September. According to Bloomberg, the 'Beautiful Inside My Head Forever' auction on Sept. 15 and 16 is Sotheby's second sale of works by the U.K.'s richest artist. New York-based Sotheby's will offer a range of pieces in various media created by Hirst in the last two years, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. Its centerpiece is 'The Golden Calf,' a gold-framed 3 meter-long glass box containing a formaldehyde-dipped bull, whose head is crowned with a solid gold disc. Its hooves and horns are cast in 18-carat gold. 'It's a very democratic way to sell art,' Hirst said in his joint statement with Sotheby's. 'It feels like a natural evolution for contemporary art.' In October 2004, the artist sold the contents of his defunct Notting Hill restaurant Pharmacy for 11.1 million pounds, more than double the 4.9 million-pound top estimate. 'After the success of the Pharmacy Sale, I always felt I would like to do another auction,' said Hirst, whom the Sunday Times's 2008 Rich List estimates is worth 200 million pounds.
PETER FRIEDL WITHDRAWS FROM VINCENT AWARD
On the verge of the opening of The Vincent Award, Peter Friedl (1960) has decided not to take part in the contest. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam announced this week that Friedl regretted his initial decision to participate in The Vincent Award and had "ethical objections" to the prize and jury. Friedl earlier communicated his wish not to be included in the Public's Prize because of doubts that it would be "truly democratic". The museum states that the organisation of the prize and exhibition was entirely transparent about the procedure from the beginning.
ROBERT SAINSBURY COLLECTION FETCHES £16.5 MILLION
The personal collection of supermarket heir Simon Sainsbury has lived up to its billing as "the greatest collection of British art and furniture to be offered at auction for a generation", reports the Telegraph.
Records tumbled at Christie's in London as the personal collection of Simon Sainsbury, the late supermarket heir and philanthropist, was sold. An abstract 1936 painting by Paul Nash sold for £937,250 - shattering the £120,000 to £180,000 pre-sale estimate and setting a new world record for the artist. And a late George II mahogany side table from the mid 18th century sold for £847,650, more than twice the £200,000 to £400,000 estimate. The auction of more than 360 lots was expected to fetch around £15 million. But that milestone was reached just two-thirds of the way through the auction. The sale follows Hon. Simon Sainsbury's death two years ago. In his will he instructed that the contents of Woolbeding House in West Sussex, the home he shared with partner Stewart Grimshaw, were to be sold with the proceeds going to a charity he set up in 1965, the Monument Trust. The gesture followed a lifetime of philanthropy that included a multi-million pound donation to create the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery.
GUGGENHEIM GUADALAJARA PROJECT FLOUNDERS
The Guggenheim Foundation's proposal to build a museum in Guadalajara has failed because the foundation's director Thomas Krens refused to scale down the project to fit Mexico's art budgets, says Guadalajara businessman and art collector Jorge Vergara. As reported by The Art Newspaper, Mr Krens says that Mr Vergara has "absolutely nothing to do with our project in Guadalajara". However as a powerful figure in the region--Mr Vergara owns the nutrition and cosmetics company Omnilife, four football clubs, and produces films--he is in a position to offer an insight into the processes that have resulted in the impasse. He says that Mr Krens insisted on a project comparable to the Guggenheim Bilbao, with a $170m construction budget and a $20m fee to the Guggenheim, both of which are far more than the government and private backers in Mexico could afford.
FREEZE ARTISTS REUNITE
Twenty years after Damien Hirst launched the YBAs in an exhibition called "Freeze," the 16 artists who were there are reuniting, reports the Guardian. "Freeze 20" opens at the Hospital Club next month with 16 works, including two from the original event - Anya Gallaccio's molten lead poured onto the warehouse floor and a drawing by Stephen Park - and several from the time period. Also included are Hirst's first work in formaldehyde, featuring a fish, as well as pieces from Mat Collishaw, Angus Fairhurst, Gary Hume, Abigail Lane, Sarah Lucas, and Fiona Rae. The entryway to the exhibition will boast an archive of cultural ephemera and newspaper headlines from the late '80s, while the exit will show a 20-year timeline plotting key moments in contemporary art, particularly those involving the participating artists.
Says curator Duncan Cargill: "This exhibition is not just about nostalgia -- it's about questioning what the effects of 'Freeze' were."
HARING FOUNDATION DONATES $1 MILLION TO THE NEW MUSEUM IN NEW YORK
The Keith Haring Foundation is giving $1 million to the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan, according to Bloomberg. This will be the Foundation's fifth and largest donation to the museum. Haring started the nonprofit six months before his death in 1990 to support AIDS-related causes and art education. The recent donation will underwrite the New Museum's School and Youth Programs Fund, which helps high school students develop critical thinking skills through art. The New Museum, which has a 1982 Haring lithograph in its permanent collection, raised its profile last year when it moved into a new home on the Lower East Side, where many of Haring's signature art works were created. "The gift is a way of ensuring that Keith's name is connected in a permanent way to a position at the museum," says Julia Grue, executive director of the Foundation. "It's a way of keeping his name alive for a new generation."
MICHAEL WINNER TO OPEN HOUSE AND COLLECTION TO THE PUBLIC
Retired film director Michael Winner is to open his London house and art collection to visitors, after his death. The ensemble is worth up to £100m. He told The Art Newspaper that discussions are underway about a bequest to Kensington and Chelsea council, and he hopes the arrangements will be concluded by next spring. Mr Winner, 72, has lived in his house in Melbury Road near Holland Park since 1946, when his father paid £2,000 for a 17-year lease. He says it would now be valued at over £80m. Woodland House was originally designed by Richard Norman Shaw for the artist Sir Luke Fildes and completed in 1876. There are 600 paintings hanging in the 47-room house. Mr Winner began to collect art in 1960, starting with Dutch golden age paintings, including a Jan Micker Tower of Babel. He also has a fine collection of Victorian and earlier pictures, which are particularly appropriate for the setting. Among these is a Venetian view of the Grand Canal by William James. Mr Winner's final artistic passion is British illustrators. There are three E.H. Shepard drawings on the grand staircase, including one of Christopher Robin bumping Winnie the Pooh down the stairs. He also has around 30 works by Arthur Rackham, 20 by Edmund Dulac and a small group by Kay Nielsen. "I've got the best collection of British illustrations outside a museum," he told The Art Newspaper.
PRIZES
A new photography award was announced this week - the Liliane Bettencourt Prix de la Photographie
"To Make the Ideal Book", worth €50,000. The inaugural prize was presented to Robert Polidori.
The Portland Art Museum has also awarded a new prize this week. The first-ever $10,000 Arlene Schnitzer Prize has been won by artist Whiting Tennis. Tennis is one of five artists featured in the Museum's inaugural Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition. Based on the quality and innovation of his work, Tennis was selected to receive this distinct honor by the six members of the Museum's curatorial department and the executive director. The $10,000 cash prize, named in honor of philanthropist, longtime regional arts advocate and Museum Life Trustee Arlene Schnitzer, celebrates this professional recognition and supports the artist's endeavors. Tennis is represented by Greg Kucera Gallery and Derek Eller Gallery.
The annual BP Portrait Award, aimed at encouraging artists to focus upon and develop the theme of portraiture in their work, has been won by 35-year-old London artist Craig Wylie. His winning portrait, 'K' (oil on canvas, 2100 x 1650 mm), is an epic study of his girlfriend Katherine Raw based on sittings at his Hackney Wick studio. Craig wins £25,000 and a commission, at the National Portrait Gallery Trustees' discretion, worth £4,000. The second prize of £8,000 goes to Simon Davis for Portrait of Amanda Smith at Vincent Avenue and the third prize of £6,000 goes to Robert O'Brien for Hannah O'Brien. There is, also for the second time, a BP Young Artist Award of £5,000 for the work of an entrant aged between 18 and 30. This has been won by Peiyuan Jiang for Untitled.
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