21er Haus: Museum of the 21st century opens in Vienna with Great Prospects! exhibition

VIENNA.- For the opening of the 21er Haus, invitations were extended to artists who raise questions about the social and institutional significance of the museum and address the new venue and its history. Each artistic intervention approaches the site in an individual way and contributes to an open field of experimentation, in which different artistic disciplines can encounter each other and overlap. The various approaches chosen by the artists reflect a broad spectrum: Marcus Geiger’s parody of official symbols representing the state [...]

Sotheby’s London presents its strongest ever sale of 20th century Italian art

LONDON.- Sotheby’s announces that its forthcoming 20th Century Italian Art Sale on Thursday, October 13, 2011 will be the company’s strongest ever, both in number of lots offered and the quality of works featured. Expected to realise between £15,872,000 and £21,718,000, it is also the highest estimated sale in this collecting category ever staged by an auction house. The sale, which is highlighted by two important private collections ‘Italian Identity’ and Property from an Important New York Collection, features works by Alberto [...]

New York Graffiti Art of the 1980s from The Scharpff Collection at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart

STUTTGART.- For museums the exchange with private collectors is becoming increasingly important. A new series of exhibitions in the Kunstmuseum aims to make the engagement of these art patrons visible. The first show presents Ute and Rudolf Scharpff, who have been collecting for over fifty years and in the 1960s initially concentrated on the Nouveaux Réalistes. A young man look at an artwork, entitled Deadly Solitaire, by artist Lee Quinones in Stuttgart. Works by graffiti artists from New York from [...]

Sotheby’s Hits Contemporary, Italian Art Targets with Combined Sales of $48.8 Million

LONDON (REUTERS).- Contemporary and Italian art sales in London last week largely underlined the sense that stability was gradually returning to a market that saw values soar in 2007 and 2008 before tumbling dramatically in 2009. Sotheby’s raised a combined 30.4 million pounds ($48.8 million) from its contemporary and Italian 20th century art sales on Friday, and added a further 9.7 million pounds from its contemporary day auction on Saturday. The overall tally of 40.1 million pounds was toward the [...]

Masterworks by Fontana and De Chirico Lead Sotheby’s Auction

LONDON.- On Friday, October 15, 2010 Sotheby’s annual 20th Century Italian Art Sale will showcase the work of many of Italy’s foremost Modern, Post-War and Contemporary artists, including Marino Marini, Giorgio de Chirico, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and Alberto Burri. Sotheby’s, the only auction house to have staged a dedicated sale in this category each year since pioneering auctions in this collecting field in 1999, has achieved sell-through rates by lot of 88.5% and 90.9% respectively for its 2008 and [...]

Unquestioned Protagonist of Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibits in Milan

MILAN.- Councillorship for Culture and 24 ORE Motta Cultura present the exhibition Yayoi Kusama. I Want to Live Forever at PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, under the curatorship of Akira Tatehata (Director of Osaka National Museum of Art). A unique, exclusive event for Italy, dedicated to the unquestioned protagonist of Japanese contemporary art. In addition to recent figurative and abstract paintings, large-scale sculptures and installations from the last decade, there will be a selection of formative drawings from the 1950s and [...]

Sotheby’s Hopes “Zero Art” Sale will Raise Plenty of Cash

LONDON.- Sotheby’s is hoping its February sale of 49 works from the so-called “Zero Art” movement will raise plenty of cash, and confidence is high after a recent New York contemporary auction that eclipsed expectations. The works from the private collection of Gerhard and Anna Lenz are expected to fetch more than 12 million pounds ($20.2 million) and will form part of the auctioneer’s London contemporary art sale in 2010. Jan Schoonhoven, “Relief R 69-1″, 104 x 104 cm. Executed [...]