Category: visual

Records continue to fall at New York’s spring art auctions. “Three sculptures — one fashioned from a dozen African masks, a dead deer cast in bronze, and a ball of painted and chromium-plated steel mangled as if hit by a truck — by some of today’s most popular artists brought record prices last night at Phillips de Pury & Company.” But the real star of the night was yet another Warhol – one of the artist’s soup can paintings went for $3m.

Documenta tries to keep the list of artists being shown this year a secret until the fair opens. “We want to direct as much attention as possible from the list to the artworks themselves.” But “how can there be artworks to talk about without artists? The attempt has turned this Documenta into an art-world parlor game, with some dealers and critics trading guesses — and others dismissing artistic director Roger Buergel’s decision as merely an effort to create buzz.”

The West seems gaga over Chinese art. With such a huge population, will China swamp the contemporary art world? Ana Somers Cocks thinks not. “In fact, within China, 2006 was a bad year for the art market as the wave of speculation in art, which followed the property boom, peaked in 2005.”

“Modernist buildings across the United States are now facing demolition. The main threat comes from skyrocketing land prices; these landmark buildings are prized more for their land than their architecture, say design curators and preservation experts nationwide.”

There is “a deepening malaise within the National museum and gallery sector in the UK. This stems from two related factors–a decline in the quality of many trustee appointments and a growing tendency on the part of boards, especially chairs of boards, to meddle in matters that should be solely within the executive remit of the director. These factors can be traced back to the decision of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), newly formed by the Labour Government in 1997, to democratise and popularise the operation of existing boards of trustees.”

“The Metropolitan Opera says its simulcasting of operas into theaters, which has sent ripples through the opera world, was so successful over the last five months that it will expand the program next season. [The company] hopes to double the number of theaters for each broadcast; increase the number of simulcast productions to eight; expand its foreign coverage… and offer pay-per-view showings for a month after the live event.” The first season of simulcasting was so successful that the Met even expects it to turn a profit in future years.

“A new record was set for work by Andy Warhol when a painting of a car crash sold for $71.7m in New York. The 1963 painting, Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), depicts an overturned car on fire. It easily beat the previous auction record for work by the pop art pioneer, set last November when a painting of Chairman Mao sold for $17.4m. The sale, at Christie’s, was part of the second most-lucrative art auction ever, earning a total of $385m.”

“Gary Beer, 46, a former executive at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks as the Smithsonian has been roiled by controversy over its leadership and finances. In March, the Smithsonian’s top leader, Lawrence M. Small, was forced to resign following revelations of lavish expense account spending, including $2 million in housing and office expenses over seven years.”

Mark Rothko’s “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)” sells for a record price. “The $72.8 million Sotheby’s declined to say who the buyer was or where he was from. But the seller was David Rockefeller, the retired banker and chairman emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art, who had decided to cash in on the market and invest the money in other philanthropic endeavors.”

There may be a record price for a Warhol this evening at auction. “The estimated sales price for 1963’s ‘Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)’ — $35 million — says great things about the enduring legacy of Pittsburgh’s most famous artist. But it also stokes the fear of money-strapped public museums that they are getting priced out of the exploding contemporary art market.”