Gallery: Own Original Works of Art - MoMA and Peter Norton Team Up To Raise Money for P.S. 1

Own Original Works of Art - MoMA and Peter Norton Team Up To Raise Money for P.S. 1 originally appeared on Luxist on Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ten artists found a way to make vacant commercial space incredibly exciting. I wandered by 25 Central Park West on a walk in my neighborhood a few days ago and saw artists inside. They were hard at work cleaning, preparing and hanging their pieces. Tapping on the window was one of my smartest moves this week. By doing so, I learned of a new exhibition, which opened Wednesday night. The show, 10 from 25: Emerging Artists using Photography, is set to run through December 13, 2009. It includes flat art and video, bringing to life an empty space in a part of Manhattan generally forgotten by the art community.

The artists, including Bess Greenberg, who gave me a tour of the space as she and the other artists prepared for opening night, have created an integrated show that doesn't sacrifice the message of each of the participants. So, in addition to a group exhibition, visitors are treated to 10 individual efforts, in which one can appreciate a specific style without having to cope with the intrusion of other pieces on his experience.

Gallery: 10 from 25: Emerging Artists using Photography

Continue reading 25CPW: Artists Turn Empty Upper West Side Space into Den of the Aesthetic

25CPW: Artists Turn Empty Upper West Side Space into Den of the Aesthetic originally appeared on Luxist on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Olive Oil, Lemon And A Whole Lot Of Cash originally appeared on Luxist on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Hans van Bentem Chandeliers at the Escher Museum

The Glorious Chandeliers of the Escher Museum originally appeared on Luxist on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Art Work Partners, Fine Art In Stone

Art Work Partners, Fine Art In Stone originally appeared on Luxist on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Keybrid originally appeared on Luxist on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Phillips de Pury auction on Thursday night raked in what once would have come from a single painting. Despite parading out pieces by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Richard Prince, the sale was good for a mere $7 million, with individual lots moving for prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thirty-nine went under the gavel, and eight didn't sell.

The Chelsea auction house lacks the savvy, knowledge and reach of Sotheby's and Christie's, so it had to lean on British art collector Charles Saatchi, who has agreed to complete most of his transactions through Phillips de Pury. In trade, subsidies from the auction house help keep access to Saatchi's gallery free.

Roughly a dozen of the lots came from Saatchi, while the others are said to have been rejected by Sotheby's and Christie's. In general, the pieces were "pretty skimpy," according to Manhattan art dealer Edward Tyler Nahem, who observes that the auction house "did pretty well with what they had."

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama was the top seller, with her painting "Infinity Nets (T.W.A.)" busting past its high-end presale estimate of $400,000 and settling at $842,500 (including fees). Kusama's performance follows a well-hyped exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery this year.

Continue reading Phillips de Pury Auction Worth the Price of a Painting

Phillips de Pury Auction Worth the Price of a Painting originally appeared on Luxist on Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gisele, Carla Bruni Nude & More in Photo Sale originally appeared on Luxist on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Christie's crowd on Tuesday may not have been ready to shell out big bucks for Andy Warhol's "Tunafish Disaster," but the crowd at Sotheby's was more than happy to by a boatload of currency. The top pop artist's "200 One Dollar Bills" found a buyer for a monstrous $43.8 million at the Sotheby's art auction in New York on Wednesday.

Pauline Karpidas, an art collector in London, offered the piece, Bloomberg News reports but wasn't able to verify with the collector herself. It looks like she scored with this one. "200 One Dollar Bills" carried a presale estimate of $8 million to $12 million, which didn't last long.

The piece consists of what its title states: 200 real-sized one dollar bills reproduced in black on grey ... and with a blue replica of the Treasury Department seal. If they were real cash, the sale price was greater by a factor of 219,000.

This wasn't the only success of the evening, and overall, the outcome was fantastic. Only two of the 54 lots failed to find new homes, and the final number, $134.4 million, thrashed the presale estimate of $97.7 million.

Sotheby's Wins with Warhol originally appeared on Luxist on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Christie's tried in New York with a 1983 piece by Jean-Michel Basquiat and didn't succeed. The auction house may have been too aggressive in estimating the 16-foot piece at $9 million. That's what's tough about the art market right now. There are signs of recovery, and it can be tempting to push for higher prices. Unfortunately, it's easy to get a bit excited. The painting had the highest estimate at the auction. The piece with the second highest presale estimate, a piece by Andy Warhol, met a similar fate.

The Basquiat piece, "Brother Sausage," was offered anonymously by a buyer later revealed by Bloomberg News to be Peter Brant, an art collector based in Connecticut. The piece may be a casualty of his divorce from model Stephanie Seymour. Well, it won't be financing post-marital discord and could remain a contested asset for a while.

Warhol's "Tunafish Disaster" was projected to move for up to $8 million and, like the Basquiat painting, didn't receive any bids. Art dealer Robert Mnuchin of L&M Arts was stuck taking it home.

Yet, some works beat the odds in an auction that raked in $74.2 million, within the presale range of $61.5 million to $88 million. Nonetheless, this was the lowest result we've seen from a Christie's New York contemporary art effort since May 2003 and down 81 percent from the top of the market two and a half years ago.

Continue reading Basquiat and Warhol Fail Christie's

Basquiat and Warhol Fail Christie's originally appeared on Luxist on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Four Beatles, Four Toothbrushes

Unused Beatles Album Art Goes Up For Auction originally appeared on Luxist on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Bentley Art Project

Bentley Art Project Benefits Cancer Research originally appeared on Luxist on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Panerai Collectors Come Together For a Good Cause originally appeared on Luxist on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It looked like to sculptures by Damien Hirst were headed for court. The two pieces, worth an estimated $47.6 million, were part of a broader lawsuit involving Udo Fritz-Hermann Brandhorst, an art collector and heir to the Henkel AG & Co. fortune. Brandhorst's former mistress, Venetia Kapernekas, sued Brandhorst in federal court for the artwork.

Kapernekas, a 49-year-old art dealer, agreed to drop the lawsuit over the weekend in exchange for custody of the daughter she had with Brandhorst, a one-time $100,000 payment, a $500,000 trust for their daughter's education, a loft in Soho (worth around $5 million) to be held in the daughter's name and $640,000 to cover her legal expenses. She'll also get $5,000 a month in child support.

As part of the deal, Kapernekas will be able to sell an Andy Warhol painting she received from Brandhorst. It's a heart-shaped blue and red piece called "Candy Box Open" from 1983. She has chosen Sotheby's in London to handle the sale, and it could go for $40,000. She won't be able to sell another Warhol, "Heart," because it belongs to her daughter.

Continue reading Two Hirsts Dodge Day in Court

Two Hirsts Dodge Day in Court originally appeared on Luxist on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sexy Polaroids Earn a Celebrity Fan originally appeared on Luxist on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Celebrate if you own an Ed Ruscha print. At a Bohnams and Butterfield's auction last week, excited bidders pushed Standard Station (E.5) past its high estimate of $40,000 ... all the way to $170,000 and a new record for Ed Ruscha's work. The previous top spot for Ruscha was $133,000 for Hollywood, which was attained during the art boom in 2007.

The record-setting piece features a red gas station, an image now associated with Ruscha, and is #33 in an edition of 50 (a pretty large run). The strong auction performance follows an enormous retrospective held for the artist at London's Hayward Gallery and recognition by Americans for the Arts with its Artistic Excellence Award.

But, there's no prize so grand as an outstanding performance at auction.

Ruscha Print Sets New Record for Artist originally appeared on Luxist on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty Celebrates Turning 35 with Bling originally appeared on Luxist on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A big auction with major pieces actually beat the top-end estimate - when's the last time you heard that? Wednesday night at Sotheby's, the Impressionist sale brought in $181.8 million, thrashing the high estimate of $163 million and almost tripling the Christie's auction from November 3, 2009. It's also around three times the last equivalent sale by Sotheby's, which was back in May.

The Sotheby's auction was packed with notoriety. Conde Nast's top dog, S. I. Newhouse Jr., sent some work under the gavel, as did Louis Reijtenbagh. Artwork by Giacometti, Picasso and Renoir was sold. Sixty-six lots were offered, with only 10 failing to sell.

New York art dealer Helly Nahmad told Bloomberg News, "The art market is back," but that may be premature. Bidders were chasing the high-quality pieces, and it is tempting to believe that what auctioneer Tobias Meyer calls "a year of abstinence" is over. The fact that the Sotheby's auction was so much greater than that at Christie's, though, makes me want to see a few more sales before calling it a trend.

Continue reading Sotheby's Triples Christie's Result, Top Estimate Beat

Sotheby's Triples Christie's Result, Top Estimate Beat originally appeared on Luxist on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Massive $12 Million Basquiat on Offer at Christie's originally appeared on Luxist on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sotheby's and Christie's are heading east to seek their respective fortunes. The two auction houses are offering more than $26 million of Asian art this week in London. The lots themselves are attracting record numbers of buyers from mainland China, a section of the market that has shown signs of life this year. Chinese buyers were quite active in Hong Kong last month.

Nicholas Chow of Sotheby's told Bloomberg News, ""We've seen a really aggressive push from mainland Chinese collectors during the last season of sales" and that "they're buying things at the very highest level." An Imperial jade seal, for example, moved for GBP3.6 million on Tuesday, six times the high-end presale estimate.

On November 3, Christie's sold an aggregate GBP5.7 million, beating the presale estimate of GBP5.2 million. Of the 319 lots, a third didn't move. The top seller was an eighteenth century enamel model of a Buddhist shrine, which beat its presale range of GBP60,000 to GBP80,000 with a hammer sale of GBP229,250. Nine of the top 10 most expensive items went to buyers from Asia.

Collectors from mainland China are quite eager to repatriate art and other objects from their heritage, particularly the Qing and Ming dynasties ... a fact of which the auction houses are fully aware. Christie's sent 210 invitations to mainland Chinese for its 12th annual Asian Art in London event, which ends November 7, 2009. Sotheby's pursued a similar number of collectors. Bonhams has invited 30 new buyers from mainland China.

In October, the Sotheby's Hong Kong art auction was good for $170 million, with plenty of bidding and buying by mainland Chinese buyers.

Asian Art Goes under the Gavel in London this Week originally appeared on Luxist on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.