113-en

Report: China

Xinhua Gallery, Chen Liqun

page 5

Culture shock,Qiu Jiepage 9

DataFrançois Morellet

page 11

Top Storiespage 16

Schoolspage 18

Museumspage 19

Galleriespage 22

Artistspage 25

Auctionspage 26

InterviewDialogue between cultures,

Anthony Phuong, page 27

Fairs & festivalspage 30

“The Shock of the New”

This month, plans were unveiled for a giant, floating art museum, designed to spread out across the bay of China’s Pingtan Island, towards Taipei. Variously described as a “massive lily pad” and “flying saucer,” the project is designed by the — perhaps appropriately named — MAD architects. Expected to hold around 1,000 Chinese na-tional treasures and modern works, the project received a great deal of media inte-rest, with writers, bloggers and arm-chair architects all offering their opinion on the sprawling island of 130,000 square feet. But what about the art inside this glittering UFO? Whilst impressive — or at least unique — does the project say anything signifi-cant about the way we encounter works? According to an attendance survey released in The Art Newspaper in March 2013, traditional museums continue to attract a signifi-cant number of visitors each year: last year’s Cindy Sherman exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art attracted 5,700 visitors per day, whilst Hockney’s show at London’s Royal Academy drew daily crowds of 7,512. In January 2013, London’s Tate Modern announced that it had received a record 5.3 million visitors during 2012, up by 9.5% on 2011’s figure.

AbouT AMAArt Media Agency (AMA) is a news agency sepcialised in the art market. If you would like to send us press releases, please do so at [email protected] agency produces more than one hun-dred fifty articles per week, all purely textu-al focusing on art news and current events. AMA covers all international markets.

LiceNceSAMA propose operating licences that allow one to receive thorough and up-to-date news on the art market, but also to reuse the provided content.If you are interested, please to not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] to find out more about our licences and content.

AdverTiSiNgTo advertise in AMA’s Professional Newslet-ter, please contact our advertising agency: Art Régie by email [email protected] or telephone at +33 (0) 1 75 43 67 20.For partnership requests, please write to [email protected].

BMW Tate Live Performance Room

Joan JonasThe Shape, the Scent,

the Feel of Things, Dia Beacon,

New York, 2006

THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR THE ExCLUSIvE USE OF ART MEDIA AgENCY’S CLIENTS. DO NOT DISTRIbUTE. www.artmediaagency.com

AMA NEWSLETTER

1131st August 2013

http://www.artmediaagency.com/en/


Yet, whilst some of these exhibitions were held in very established institutions, each is notably “contempo-rary” in theme. The same survey saw exhibitions of older works struggling to achieve coveted spots in the top ten most-visited galleries. Only Leonardo’s Saint Anne — billed as the artist’s “ultimate masterpiece” — was able to thrust the Louvre into the shortlist, placing the gallery 9th in the top ten most visited art gal-leries, with 3,985 visitors per day. There is, it would seem, a certain zeal for the contemporary — a delight for the new, unexpected or divisive, which extends to both the architecture of contemporary galleries and the works they house.

Art Media Agency succumbed to “The Shock of New” and examined the museums, galleries and projects seeking to change the way we encounter art.

“Dazzling Statements” and “Spectacular Wrappers”

The beginning of 2013 saw a significant number of new art galleries and museums in cities across the globe, many echoing the same strength of architectural ambition demonstrated by China’s extravagant floating museum.

Unveiled in June 2013, Marseille’s Museum of the Civilisations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM) is a brightly lit cube which stands on the city’s sea front, alongside the ancient Fort St Jean. Designed by ar-chitects Rudy Ricciotti and Roland Carta, the building cost €191m to construct, and houses exhibits across

MuCEM,J4,

Copyright Lisa Ricciotti

two levels, with an underground auditorium seating 400. The institution is home to a permanent collection of nearly one million art works and objects, inherited from the former Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires (MNATP — National Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions).

The new museum comes at a time when Marseille has been nominated as one of this year’s European Capitals of Culture. Whilst the new structure offers a physical celebration of this title, re-invigorating Mar-seille’s sea front and the area along the city’s sea wall, it also aims to be the first institution to offer a study of the culture specific to the Mediterranean region. A major exhibition considers the cultures of the Mediterranean basin and its history, and is accompanied by revolving temporary exhibitions, debates, film screenings and lectures.

The structure is notable for the diverse range of its exhibitions, and its desire to present contemporary works alongside displays which directly engage with history. This ambition, however, led some critics of the gallery to comment on the “hap hazard” structure of the museum’s displays. Reviewing the museum at the time of its opening in British newspaper The Observer, Rowan Moore described the disorientating ex-perience of passing paintings by Joan Miró to find Franco Zecchin’s mafia-themed photographs of Palermo to a replica of the Rosetta Stone.

For Moore, the gallery was a “dazzle of light” which provided a “specta-cular wrapper” for an incoherently arranged interior. For others, the opportunity to see such a diverse range of pieces in a single space might be the most thrilling element of the MuCEM.

Perhaps this is not a curatorial accident but curatorial honesty, the museum presenting a diverse swathe of works from the region in a manner which recognises and reflects Marseille’s notoriously di-verse history and population.

Other museums which opened this year have similarly caught the at-tention of architectural critics, ex-cited by art’s new packaging.


AMA Newsletter 113 2 1st August 2013


The bainbridge Island Museum of Art (bIMA) is Washington’s newest gallery and opened at Winslow on bainbridge Island in mid-June. Placing a focus on works by local artists from the West Sound and the Olympic Peninsula, the museum is the result of a collaboration between the Island gateway developers, Coates Design architects and PHC Construction. Its construction costs were covered by a $15.6m capital campaign, which saw significant donations from large numbers of the local population.

Like Marseille’s MuCEM, this is a project with a spectacular wrapper, directly engaging with its surroun-dings. Yet, whilst MuCEM’s architect Ricciotti has created a centre based on the aesthetic experience of a gallery, describing his building as “the rocky bottom of the ocean, lifted up,” bIMA has combined this focus on appearance with a strong environmental awareness. Combining the latest green technologies, the building hopes to be the first art museum to achieve coveted LEED status. Discussing the project in Seattle Magazine, founding board member Cynthia Seers described how this environmental awareness comes from a more general investment in the region itself. bIMA is “not just smaller, but more regional.” It is “less about big productions and famous works than about the excellence of craft and helping newcomers get a foot in the door.”

Old Museums get a face lift

Some of the year’s most significant “new” arts centres have a familiar face. Subject to a major, ten-year overhaul, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum reopened to the public in April, following a €375m rebuilding project led by Spanish architects Cruz y Ortiz. The remodelling of the institution was so extensive that only Rem-brandt’s famous Night Watch remained in its original location, out of a total of 8,000 objects spread across the museum’s 80 rooms. Whilst the project placed a focus on preserving the institution’s history, by resto-ring and reinstating many of its 19th century frescoes, it also placed a focus on the role of new technology. New showcases designed and developed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who previously pro-duced projects in Paris’s Musée du Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, are made from ultra-transparent glass, allowing natural light to illuminate works.

Other spaces dedicated to art have altered their form to focus still more heavily on technology’s potential to alter the way the public encounters works of art. Whilst the Rijksmuseum’s subtle use of lighting tech-nology came from a desire to uphold the belief, widely held by art historians, that many of the gallery’s finest works were intended to be viewed in natural light, other museums focused more directly on the growing influence which technology has on everyday life. gallery One, a newly-opened space at the Cle-veland Museum of Art, seeks to turn the gallery into an interactive space.

Featuring “real works” from the gallery’s permanent collection (including works by Picasso, Rodin, Schreckengost, Panini and Chuck Close), gallery One offers to visitors the opportunity to “explore these works of art like never before.” The centre features the largest “multi-touch microtile screen” in the United States, which displays over 3,500 objects from the museum’s collection. This project allows visitors to the gallery to shape their own visit. Though they have made it to the museum, it is no longer visitors who must seek out works. This “40-foot collection wall” brings up digital copies on demand.


Courtesy of MAD Architect

This screen is accompanied by ArtLens, a new app released by the Cleveland Museum of Art. This tool provides over nine hours of “additional multimedia content,” including audio tours of gallery exhibitions, videos and contextual information. Should visitors wish to move away from the screen in gallery One to physically explore the institution’s collections, the app also provides an interactive map of collections using “indoor triangulation technology.”

This virtual approach to physical works follows a growing trend for galleries and museums to make more of their contents available online. With the rise of technology, it seems restrictive to only make works available in their original format in a single gallery, even if this is one of the factors which make artworks compelling. The National gallery in London has re-cently joined this movement, streaming guided tours of its most popular exhibitions into cinemas across the United Kingdom.





In 2011, Leonardo Live saw live transmissions of the gallery’s sold-out exhibition “Leonardo da vinci : Painter at the Court of Milan,” featuring commentaries by broadcasters Mariella Frostrup and Tim Marlow. Whilst some critics objected to seeing works accompanied by subjective commentary, many praised the event for making a sell-out show accessible to an audience who would not otherwise have been able to attend.

Whilst the projects at the National gallery and the Cleveland Museum of Art focused on putting traditional works into digital formats, some contemporary artists are entirely escaping this transformation process, producing works which can — and are intended to be — viewed straight from tablets, phones and per-sonal computers. Well known for his paintings and collages, 74-year-old artist David Hockney began pro-ducing works on an iPad a few years ago. Commenting on the transition to this new technology, the artist himself seemed rather surprised, stating that “It took me a while to realize it’s [the iPad] quite a serious tool you can use.” These digital works were presented on canvases — perhaps ironically given their production method — as part of an exhibition titled “David Hockney: The bigger Picture,” which took place at London’s Royal Academy in 2012. The artist’s move to technology attracted wide-spread attention, with a review in british newspaper The guardian declaring Hockney “an artist who still genuinely matters.”

The increasing tendency for museum collections to be held online, along with a new trend for artists such as Hockney to produce works destined for digital media alone, indicates the possibility of whole new artistic forums springing up in years to come. Already, apps for smartphones and tablet computers allow art enthusiasts to access masterpieces without setting foot in the museum. And whilst such an idea will perhaps always face criticism from gallery purists (or simply those, understandably, wishing to see the aspects of artworks only visible in the original), the idea of integrating art more seamlessly into our every-day lives, and improving its accessibility might stimulate interest – and vital support – in institutions which work to promote cultural heritage.

Re-inventing the Museum

Hockney’s works motioned towards the idea that art itself has changed — and is changing. Conceptual, Installation and Performance art demands that the traditional gallery space evolve or adapt, along with the way in which works are visited. At the beginning of the 20th century, work by Futurists, Dadaists and Surrealists combined elements of theatre, dance, film, painting and sculpture, whilst the 60s saw a rise in Performance Art, with notable proponents being Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Robert Rauschen-berg. A work by Chris burden famously saw the artist shot in the arm by a studio assistant — an extreme example, but one which nevertheless reinforces the occasional inadequacy of traditional gallery spaces.

The Night Watch Gallery. Photo credit: Iwan Baan.

Image courtesy of Rijksmuseum

Opening in 2011, Tate’s “Tanks” respond to this need, opening up three large oil tanks in Tate’s foundations to be used as a per-formance space. Commenting on the development, Tate stated that “Ambitious and imaginative ins-tallations are pushing traditional gallery spaces to their limits. When Tate Modern opened in 2000 there were 86 large-scale installations in the collection; now there are more than 300.” Recent projects at Tate have included “Charles Atlas and Collaborators,” a multi-channel video piece “exploring the inter-sections of media and dance.” Other innovations launched by the gallery include the Tate Live perfor-mance room, featuring first artistic programmes created purely for live web broadcast. The centres which bring us art – and the art they pre-sent — are gradually changing.




interview…A New view of chiNA – iNTerview wiTh cheN LiquN,

direcTor of The XiNhuA gALLery

On the occasion of the grand opening of the xinhua gallery (Chine Nouvelle), Art Media Agency had a talk with its director, Chen Liqun, in order to find out more about the projects of this new Parisian gallery.

Could you please present your background?I studied literature and linguistics after obtaining my Master’s Degree in World Literature. I started working at the xinhua (Chine Nouvelle) press agency in 1998. From 2002 to 2005, I worked as a photography journalist in Paris. I became the editor of the photography department when I joined Chine Nouvelle’s press agency’s central office. In 2009, I was accepted at the EU-China Managers Exchange and Training Programme at the ESCP, and I stayed there for one year as a student in Europe. This was my third long stay in Paris. Managing the xinhua gallery as a director in France is a completely new experience for me.

Upon my initiative, the gallery has chosen to collaborate with the AFP for our inaugural exhibi-tion. This is the first time that the AFP and a foreign press agency have established a collabora-tion. It is also a first for the xinhua gallery.

In 2011, I co-organised an international photography contest with the United Nations Program for Development (UNPD), while I was working at the central office of the Chine Nouvelle press agency. This event was intended to draw the public’s attention on the fight against poverty. This collaboration was a success and was very much appreciated, so the UNPD asked to organised a new edition on the theme of energy the following year.

Why did you choose to settle in Paris at this moment?We chose the location for the xinhua gallery after a lot of reflection, as this is a first commercial trial for the xinhua press agency (Chine Nouvelle, or xinhua’s agency) abroad, since its establish-ment 80 years ago. We decided to open the gallery in Paris, since Paris is a major cultural centre in Europe for Chinese people, and as Europe is the cultural centre of the world. We chose Paris for various reasons. First of all, because Paris is the leading capital of Europe, in terms of culture. Paris is also at the centre of Western Europe, geographically speaking. In Paris, the xinhua gallery can thus expand itself to the whole of Europe, even to North Africa.

As for me, based on my experiences and training, I have already studied business at a major school in Paris, which allows me to appropriately run a business in France. And for my professional experiences, I worked in France for three years as a photography journalist, and my background enabled me to learn a lot about the country. That’s also the reason why I cherish my experiences, since I travelled a lot through different cities, discovering diverse cultures. My sense of communication and my ability to adapt have allowed me to establish great relationships, wherever I go. I also love art, as everyone knows, and France is an art country with a pleasant environment. It is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. I think that I can and I really will do my best to allow Eu-ropeans to develop an interest and love for Chinese culture.

What is the role of the Xinhua Gallery in the field of arts in China?The xinhua gallery was launched in 2010 as a new project that was developed throughout the past few years.

Front of Xinhua GalleryRue du Faubourg St. Honoré

Courtesy of Xinhua Gallery




interview…

Its goal is to show the development and progress of China. The xinhua gallery’s project goes from the presentation of photography to other visual media, both artistic and cultural.

The xinhua gallery is geared to become a major platform for cultural exchanges. Through the pho-tographs that it will exhibit, including themes surrounding world heritage, the traditions of various countries, education and the arts, the gallery’s goal is to allow the public to discover diverse cultures, and to promote a better understanding of different populations.

The inaugural exhibition of the gallery will feature snapshots that were taken throughout the past five decades. How did you choose these images?The photography exhibition titled “50 Years of Friendship between France and China” is the fruit of a collaboration between the Chine Nouvelle press agency and the France-Presse agency (AFP). On the occasion of this collaboration, we have established an agreement on the following criteria: each party has to provide 400 snapshots regarding the development of France and China’s 50-year relationship, in the fields of politics, economics, culture and social issues. Each party has to designate an exhibi-tion commissioner, who will select the 25 best images for the exhibition, after discussions.

The choice of photographs that will be exhibited highlights the establishment of the diplomatic re-lationship between the two countries, without leaving aside the great moments of their history. On that note, besides the images on the theme of politics, we wanted to choose images reflecting the va-rious aspects of everyday life, including culture, art, the economy, sports, society and celebrities. This will allow us to organise a complete exhibition, centred on politics while leaving place for different aspects of everyday life. This exhibition will be more than a simple retrospective, and a little tough because it is mainly based on politics.

Are all the artistic mediums that you will present mainly based on photographic documentaries?As the name of the xinhua photography gallery suggests, we mainly exhibit photographs. As for pho-tographic documentaries, we do develop this activity now, but we are open to all genres of photo-graphy.

We are planning on covering other artistic sectors in time to come. In order to do that, we will focus on all forms and visual productions that will catch our attention. We favour photography with all of its genres. My background in journalism and my predilection obviously influenced my choice for this genre, but I welcome the presentation of other visual media as well.

A New view of chiNA – iNTerview wiTh cheN LiquN, direcTor of The XiNhuA gALLery

What programme have you planned for upcoming exhibitions?All eyes will be on the xinhua gallery once it opens, with professionals from China and abroad, which will be an ex-cellent start. This adds to our motiva-tion and pushes us to go further with our next exhibitions.

Since our inaugural exhibition has drawn great attention from the start, with people eager to attend, we hope to organise better quality exhibitions in the future.

As for the content of these exhibitions, we would like to present the best em-blematic works of Chinese photogra-phy, from all artistic sectors and genres as possible.







Our major exhibitions will be centred on artistic, social, economic and sporting exchanges, as well as cultural projects between China and France.

Will these projects be organised through the initiative of the Chine Nouvelle agency or of professionals from the two countries?They will be done through the initiative of professionals from both countries. In France, since the inauguration of the gallery, we have received lots of collaborative suggestions from professionals in the art market. China is also concerned, since many professionals want to make themselves known in Europe. So all events will not be based on the initiative of one party, nor on a discourse from China to Europe, but on a real dialogue that we are seeking to develop.

France organises a great number of artistic festivals, including fairs dedicated to photogra-phy, while this offer is very much limited in China. Is the Xinhua Gallery planning on organi-sing big artistic events?I am not an expert on other artistic fields. In China, in terms of photography, this field is develo-ping at a very fast pace and has a colossal market.

There are also new photography festivals that offer exhibition opportunities. However, although these events are numerous in China, their reputation and quality need improvement. So my goal is to promote the best European artistic events in China. This promotion will be done through a collaboration between the two countries, with a branch of events or with the creation of a new event based on this genre. We have a project but it has not yet started to become a reality.

Our mission is to promote photography and Chinese culture on a worldwide level. As Europe is equipped with a well-anchored and large platform, we will certainly exhibit photographic works, photographs, as well as photographic concepts in France, in order to encourage exchanges but also to develop the level of Chinese photography.

A gallery’s role is to represent artists. Is the Xinhua Gallery planning on representing artists?We represent artists in the long term. However, the photography market in China is not mature enough and needs improvement. We will develop our gallery according to the circumstances. We have all the functions and regular activities needed to run a gallery. Our role regarding the representation of artists will be developed in time to come.

Is there a French artist whose works you would like to exhibit?Yes. I am interested in the works of Sebas-tião Salgado, a great Brazilian photographer who lives in France. He has a very interesting project for humanity: ecology. His works are fantastic. I contacted him regarding a poten-tial collaboration. He is very interested. We became friends. As far as I’m concerned, all great names have become trademarks. With great trademarks, we could organise exhibi-tions or other events in partnership with the Chinese.

Besides Salgado, I have a few friends at Magnum. I had a discussion with them regar-ding the possibility to organise an exhibition showing the snapshots of these great pho-tographers in regards to China. In fact, years ago, lots of photographers went to China to create reports, like Robert Capa, Henri Car-tier-bresson, Marc Riboud…







As for the gallery’s strategy, is it based on a purely educational approach, or will it deve-lop a business strategy?The gallery is based on an educational approach, but it is first of all a company. On that note, its goal is to also make profits. We are in fact looking for a balance between art and business.

As the gallery only represents a part of the activities of our company, we are not depending on it to make profits, which comes from our other activities, like the broadcasting of Chinese culture and the promotion of tourism in China.

The xinhua gallery remains a window through which we do not plan on making profits. In my opinion, a gallery is first of all a place for cultural exchanges, before becoming a business tool.

The Xinhua Gallery’s main objective is then to promote Chinese culture. How does the gallery plan on linking this mission to the promotion of other cultures?The xinhua gallery places special emphasis on the promotion of Chinese culture, while highlighting cultures from around the world. In essence, I will do my best with the xinhua gallery, which is a window for the promotion of Chinese culture to people all around the wor-ld, in order to better understand China and its culture. And I believe that the xinhua gallery will be a major platform for cultural exchanges.

Through the photographs that will be exhibited, along with their various themes, the gallery’s goal will be to allow the public to discover diverse cultures and to promote a better unders-tanding of different populations. Which means that we are seeking to be universal, in order to facilitate exchanges and refrain from presenting our own discourse. I am convinced that dialogues are the best way to create real communication.





interview…wheN weSTerN coNTeMporAry cuLTure eNcouNTerS The hiSTory

of chiNeSe SocieTy – iNTerview wiTh qiu Jie

Known for his large-scale pencil drawings, Chinese artist Qiu Jie will be presenting his new series at the Art Plural gallery in Singapore, from 13 September to 26 October 2013. In order to learn more about his work, Art Media Agency had a talk with Qiu Jie.

Could you please present your background?I was born in 1961 in Shanghai. I did all my high school studies during the Cultural Revolution. At the age of 17, while I was finishing my studies, China entered into a new era , after the death of Mao. I afterwards attended the School of Decorative Arts in Shanghai, where I studied for three years. I then went to geneva, where I joined the country’s Ecole des beaux-Arts.

You work solely with pencils. Could you please explain why you chose this medium?Well, I started practicing this medium while I was studying at the Ecole des beaux-Arts in geneva. Back in China, I had already developed a strong basis on realist techniques. In my third year at the Ecole des beaux-Arts, I wanted to create large-scale works.

However, because of a lack of means, I was not able to produce big installations. I further tried to find a solution to these financial constraints, and drawing seemed to be my best asset, linking my desire to create with my means. I then started to create large drawings. My choice regarding pencils was is in fact based on my “economical” strategy.

At the start, I only created small drawings. but little by little, these drawings became larger as I wanted to express many more things through them. Pencil drawings are often considered as a true passion, but not as a direct means of expression.

My works with pencils are then easier to notice. Many years ago, I started improving my work by creat-ing larger productions. In fact, my first large-scale work was made in 1993. So I have been working with this medium for about twenty years now, which I still admire, event though I also work with other mediums today.

Credit: Art Plural Gallery




interview…wheN weSTerN coNTeMporAry cuLTure eNcouNTerS The hiSTory

of chiNeSe SocieTy – iNTerview wiTh qiu Jie

How do you describe your art?

My work has enabled me to greatly improve my drawing technique. To be honest, I find it hard to come up with a speciality in contemporary art. Then with drawings of this size and this creation process, I stand out in the artistic sphere. In fact, everything is created very fast these days. However, my work takes much more time, as I do a lot of research and meditation. For me, research is very important and has a very special place. I think that my drawings are in fact quite particular and profound.

What are your sources of inspiration?I have always loved to tell stories about my personal life, since I think that my background is very atypical. In fact, for any famous Chinese artist, moving to Europe represents a major step. I faced a considerable change in the system, and I discovered another culture that was very different. It all greatly affected me, and I developed a very particular, very personal work method thanks to this confrontation between two worlds. In fact, my personal background had major repercussions on my creations. Everything that I experienced are expressed in my drawings.

My main concern is nostalgia, since this feeling is very complex. I am not a political artist. My work is based on aesthetical feelings that can sometimes become political. Today, there are lots of talks about “political art”: event though my works sometimes have political references, feelings are all that count in my opinion, nostalgia in particular. I am mostly touched by aesthetical beauty.

Otherwise, I don’t think that any particular artist has had a special influence on my work. Obviously, I do enjoy visiting museums and I am moved by the works of all great classical artists, but I also admire Chinese artists. My sources of inspiration can come from anywhere. I am inspired by everything, and I “digest” everything that I see and the feelings that I experience, in order to create my own language.

Among all of your creations, is there a particular work that you prefer?I devote myself to all of my works, and I spend a lot of time creating them. My works are like my children: I can’t favour one over another! In deeper terms, an atypical work like La Neige is more representative of my practice, although I place all of my creations on the same level.

There are works that are more important and that require more time for their pro-duction. La Neige touches me in that sense, because of its history and its composi-tions. To me, it is like a novel.

Could you please present your last series?The last series on which I worked is dedicated to street stories. This series will be present for the first time in Singapore, during my personal exhibition at the Art Plural gallery, from 13 September to 26 October 2013.

I have been living in geneva for about 25 years now: I am getting a little old! Then I am very much affected by nostalgia. I don’t know why. At the start, I had a great desire for new things. Today, when I draw pedestrians, I start remembering my life in the streets. I pay particular attention to the representation of details, since they form a means of expression for my feelings.

This series is very important and already includes eight works. I will continue to work in this same direction with my future works.

Credit: Art Plural Gallery




François Morellet… Art AnalyticsFrançois Morellet was born on 30 April 1926 in Cholet. In 1937, his family settled in Paris, and the artist started painting at the age of 14. Jean-Denis Maillart gave him painting les-sons some years later, enabling him to exhibit one of his works at the Salon de la Société Nationale des beaux-arts. After obtaining his high school diploma, he studied Russian at the School of Oriental Languages in Paris, whilst continuing painting. He also developed an inte-rest in the works of Raoul Dufy and Amedeo Modigliani. As he became known as one of the greatest geometrical abstraction artists of the second half of the 20th century, and a precur-sor of minimalism, he was able to host his first personal exhibition in Paris in 1950. Among the encounters that influenced his works were the ones with Philippe Condroyer, Christian Chenard, Dany Lartigue, François Arnal, Pierre Dmitrienko and Joël Stein. He then moved to brazil, where he met Almir da Silva Mavignier, Ellsworth Kelly and Jack Youngerman. There, he also discovered Max bill and concrete art, which greatly influenced his artistic practice. When he returned to Paris, Joël Stein introduced him to the works of Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian.

In 1960, along with his close friend victor vasarely, but also with artists such as Horacio garcia Rossi, Julio Le Parc, Joël Stein, François and vera Molnar, Francisco Sobrino and Jean-Pierre Yvaral, François Morellet created the groupe de Recherche d’Art visuel (gRAv, a French visual Arts Researched group). In 1962, the group published a manifesto catalogue for the Maison des beaux-arts in Paris. It was then that François Morellet started working with neon, with divers light intensities (just as Dan Flavin), and the art of light kinetics be-came the centre of gRAv’s creations, but the group was dissolved in 1968 after organising several exhibitions.

In 1970, the artist participated in the Venice Biennale. Starting from 1971, retrospectives on his works were organised at various European museums, then at American museums in the 1980s. He also developed an interest in the interplay between art and architecture.François Morellet started his series Paysages Marines in 1988, which led him to begin ano-ther series titled Défigurations. At the beginning of the 1990s, he produced works with a more Baroque style, with Les Systèmes à Travestir, Relâches and Free Vol. Les Lunatiques (1996) refers to the moon. Two years later, François Morellet invented a new system based on the number π.

In the 2000, numerous retrospectives and exhibitions on his work were held in Europe (ga-lerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, Matisse Museum in Cateau-Cambrésis, Stiftungfü-rKonkreteKunst de Reutlingen in germany…), in brazil (Hélio Oiticica Foundation in Rio de Janeiro) and in the United States (Los Angeles County Museum of Art…). In Paris, François Morellet is represented by the galerie Kamel Mennour.

0

20

40

1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

group shows solo shows

0

30

60

1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

gallery museum biennials others

Evolution of the number of exhibition per type

Evolution of the number of

exhibition per type of venue




François Morellet… Art Analytics

Since the beginning of the 2000s, the number of exhibitions devoted to François Morellet has been continually increasing. While his works benefited from limited exhibitions at the end of the 20th century, over forty exhibitions were held annually throughout the past five years. In total, his works have been exhibited more regularly in his homeland, France, with 184 events, passing germany (160), Switzerland (44) and the United States (28). More-over, 52 exhibitions were organised in France, while germany exhibited his work 28 times. Among the venues that hosted his exhibitions the most often are the galerie Hervé bize in Nancy, France, the galerie M in bochum, and the galerie Mark Müller. As for the artists whose works have been exhibited the most alongside those of François Morellet, the lead-ers are Josef Albers, günther Uecker, Jesús Rafael Soto, Sol LeWitt and Max bill.

0

100

200

1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

8%10%

27%55%

French GermanPortugese others

Evolution of the numberof articles published on

François Morellet

epartition of the number of articles by langage

30%

8%

29%

33%

France GermanySwitzerland others

22%

78%

group showssolo shows

3%

51%

43%

gallery museumevents others

Ouest France

O Globo

Le Figaro

0 65 130

44

97

122

Top publications

Repartition per type of exhibition

Repartition per type of venue

Repartition per country





At auction houses, François Morellet’s works have achieved a total turnover of nearly $7.2m, with an average price exceeding $17,000. but, as in most cases, this average price conceals some major disparities and does not allow the true value of the artist’s creations to be appreciated. In fact, while the artist’s sculptures are sold for about $15,000, François Morellet’s paintings are sold for an average price doubling this amount, superior to $30,000. but the medium that has allowed François Morellet to reach his highest average prices is multimedia, with about $50,000.

Among the works that achieved the largest sums, the artist’s record was set in 2012 at Sotheby’s Amsterdam for the painting titled 2 trames de tirets 0° 90° (1972), which was sold for about $490,680 hammer price, followed by the sculpture 4 Panneaux avec 4 Rythmes d’Éclairage Interferon’s (1963), which was also sold at Sotheby’s, but this time in Paris, in December 2012 for $234,630. In 2011, at Sotheby’s Paris, Super-position De 2 Trames De Carrés (Mailles 75mm Et 80mm) Inclinées à 2° Et 178° (1973) was purchased for $227,562.

While the number of his lots offered on auction have considerably increased through-out the past ten years, François Morellet’s popularity is more considerable than ever.

0

40

80

1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

$0m

$1m

$2m

$3m

1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

$0k

$20k

$40k

1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

Evolution of the numberof lots

Evolution of the revenue

Evolution of the averagevalue of lots





Although the artist’s paintings represent nearly 2/3 of his turnover at auction houses, his creativity is expressed through diverse mediums, which has enabled him to pres-ent drawings, multiples, as well as multimedia works.As for the unsold rate of François Morellet’s works, it remains relatively low for the contemporary artist, with the sale of 81% of his lots offered at auction houses.

In regards to the venues where the French artist’s works have been sold, while his cre-ations have been offered in various countries, France remains the country where his work has known the most success. In fact, more than half of his turnover was achieved there. As for the auction houses where his sales have been conducted, they are very diverse, although Sotheby’s accounts for more than half of the artist’s total turnover, Sotheby’s Paris in particular.

Multiples Painting SculptureDrawing Multimedia

7%

20%

30%

42%

7%

21%

65%

France Allemagne Suisse others

26%

9%

20%

45%33%

7%

57%

19%

81%

sold unsold Sotheby’s Artcurial Christie’sGermann Auktionshaus others

64% 6%7%

10%

13%22%

3%

11%

13%

51%

Repartition per medium of the numberof lots presented as well

as revenue

Repartition per country of the number of lots presented as well

as revenue

Unsold ratio

Repartition per auction house of the number of lots presented at auction as

well as revenue




François Morellet... Art Analytics

Auction results from Artprice.com

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011

sold unsold

The 87-year-old artist experienced a very intense creation period in the 1970s. At that time, he produced his top 3 works, which are also his top sales, and his creations per-taining to that period are the most sought after. However, very few of his works created from the beginning of the 1980s to today are offered.

Until 24 September 2013, the M-Arco fund is presenting a personal and original exhibi-tion on François Morellet’s work, at the box in Marseille, 5x3. Among the fifteen works displayed, nine of them are original.

In addition, as of 13 September 2013 and until 19 October, an exhibition on François Morellet’s works titled ‘’schwarz // weiss’’ will be held alongside those of Frank badur (DE), Ronald de bloeme (NL), Marsha Cottrell (US), Mikala Dwyer (AU), NuriaFuster (ES), Alan Johnston (UK), Judy Millar (NZ), Francois Morellet (FR), Jan van der Ploeg (NL), RagnaRobertsdottir (IS), Han Schuil (NL), AllysonStrafella (US), Alan Uglow (gb), and gor-don Walters (NZ).

Evolution of the unsold ratio

Number of presented lots andrevenue per creation year

CE DOCUMENT EST à L’USAgE ExCLUSIF DES CLIENTS D’ART MEDIA AgENCY. NE PAS DISTRIbUER. www.artmediaagency.com

AMA Newsletter 113 15 1er Aout 2013

0

20

40

1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1999 2002 2005 2008$0m

$1m

$2m

lots turnover

http://www.artmediaagency.com/

Top Stories…

cALL for AppLicATioNS…Applications open for the John Moores Painting PrizeOrganisers behind the John Moores Painting Prize 2014 have called for applications, with the deadline for sub-missions being 25 October 2013. The prize rewards works produced by painters who are based in the United Kingdom. Winners of this year’s edi-tion of the prize are to receive a grant of £25,000, with runners up receiving £2,500. The prize is to close with an exhibition, held at the Liverpool biennial, which will begin on 5 July 2014. The John Moores Painting Prize is organised in asso-ciation with the National Museums Liverpool’s Modern Masters exhibition series part funded by the European Union — the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This year’s jury consists of Tim Marlow, Direc-tor of Exhibitions at White Cube, and artists Lynette Yiadom-boakye, Zeng Fanzhi, and Chantal Joffe English painter. First held in 1957, the John Moores Painting Prize is the UK’s best-known painting competition and is named after Sir John Moores (1896-1993), the founder of the prize. The competition culminates in an exhibition held at the Walker Art gallery every two years, which forms a key strand of the Liverpool Biennial. The prize is or-ganised in partnership with the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition trust, and aims to support artists and to bring to Liverpool the best contemporary painting from across the UK.

Applications open for 8th International Arte Laguna PrizeThe 8th International Arte Laguna Prize, held in venice each year, has released a call for applications, which should be submitted by 30 October 2013.The prize is open to all contemporary artists – regardless of age, gender or origin — and welcomes applications in a broad range of media. The winner is to receive €35,000, whilst prizes of €7,000 will be given to a single artist in each of the following categories: Sculpture and Installa-tions; Photographic Art; video Art and Performance; and virtual and Digital Art.The prize culminates in a group exhibition featuring works by applicants, which is to take place in March 2014 at the Arsenal, venice, and the Telecom Italia Fu-ture Centre, which is to host the virtual Art section.

AppeL à cANdidATureS…Applications open for photography fair “La Quatrième Page”“La Quatrième Page” is a fair dedicated to photography, which is organised in as-sociation with Paris’s Town Halls. The event, which takes place between 31 Octo-ber and 5 November 2013, is to present the works of forty photographers, whose works are to be presented in the city’s Espace des blancs-Manteaux.Artists who wish to participate in the event have been asked to submit their ap-plications before 10 September 2013. There is no specific theme which entrants must adhere to, and applications should be submitted online via the fair website.Participants have the opportunity to win one of three prizes: the winner of the competition’s first prize is to receive €3,000 and a stand during the fair. A second prize winner will also receive exhibition space at the fair, and will receive a €1,000 voucher for photographic materials. The winner of the third prize is to similarly receive exhibition space during the event.

LegAL MATTerS..Glafira Rosales under investigationArt trader glafira Rosales is currently being investigated for suspected tax fraud, money laundering and the failure to disclose sums of money stored in off-shore bank accounts. If found guilty of the charges, Rosales could face up to 59 years in prison.Attorneys attached to the case have stated that glafira is suspected to have sold sixty works of art which buyers were led to believe had been produced by some of the most significant artists of the 20th century, including Pollock, Rothko and de Kooning. These paintings have now been revealed as counterfeits, with authori-ties suggesting that Rosales was entirely aware of their status, knowingly profiting from the sale of pieces which were fake. She is also accused of concealing the turnover produced by the sales of fake works between 2006 and 2008.US attorney Preet Bharara stated “The indictment depicts a complete circle of fraud perpetrated by glafira Rosales – fake paintings sold on behalf of non-existent clients with money deposited in a hidden bank account.”

Two rare books returned to SwedenThe United States has returned two rare books to the National Library of Sweden, after the works were stolen in 1990. The works are part of Sweden’s Royal Col-lection, but show depictions of regions in the United States.Manhattan-based lawyer Preet bharara commented on the case, stating: “These two books, which offered the world some of the first glimpses of the extraordi-nary American landscape and people, were wrongfully taken from the National Library of Sweden, only to end up in the land depicted in their pages more than 300 years ago.”The books were part of the collection of 56 rare and unique pieces held at the National Library of Sweden. They were stolen by Anders burius, a former library employee who attempted to present the works at an auction in germany. burius admitted to having taken the works in 2004, committing suicide shortly after the confession.

ArTicLe of The week… Artist Pension Trust to sell works from its collection

The Artist Pension Trust (APT) has announced that it is to sell 5,000 works from its collection. According to an article published in Journal des Arts, the APT’s collection includes over 10,000 works, produced by 1,600 artists from 75 countries, all of whom are APT members. The APT seeks to provide long-term financial security to artists who otherwise may not have a retirement plan. The organisation was foun-ded by entrepreneur Moti Shniberg and eco-

nomist Dan galai in 2004. Participating artists are chosen by a committee and must deposit 20 works of art over a fifteen to twenty-year period.The ownership of the artworks is re-tained by the artists, while the APT Collection is stored and insured by APT until the work is sold. Works given to the trust are held for up to twenty years. During this time, the APT’s Institute organises exhibitions and makes works in the collection available online. Forty

percent of the net proceeds derived from the sale of an artwork will go straight to the artist whose work was sold; 32 percent will go into a Pool from which all artists will receive a pro-ra-ta share tied to their artwork investments; 28 percent is retained by APT to cover operatio-nal costs. 5,000 of the artist’s works are not in-tended for auction, and, of those for sale, the APT has indicated a preference for collectors and institutions.




coNTroverSy…Freedom of expression in critical state for artists in the UkrainThe deputy of Kiev’s Mystetskyi Arsenal Museum has resigned, after the institution’s director Natalia Zabolotna’s destroyed one of the museum’s paintings, covering volo-dymyr Kuznetsov’s Koliivschina: Judgment Day with black paint because she deemed the work immoral. The event happened the night before a scheduled visit by President viktor Ianoukovytch’s, who was due to inaugurate an exhibition dedicated to Ukraine’s cultural heritage.The director’s behaviour has sparked protest across the country, and has been un-derstood as an assault on the liberty of expression for artists in the country. Commen-ting on the event in the press, the artist described his shock upon hearing that the work had been destroyed.The painting, a mural measuring 11 meters by 5 meters, showed a flaming nuclear reac-tor with priests and judges semi-submerged in a vat of red liquid. A car that appeared to be carrying officials was shown plunging into the vat — thought to be a reference to the numerous traffic accidents caused by officials in the country. Presented alongside this group is a figure resembling Iryna Krashkova, the woman who accused two police officers and a civilian of beating and raping her last month — a case which prompted protests across the country.Natalia Zabolotna has since then apologised for her actions, presenting an exhibition entitled “great and grand” which expresses pride for her country by way of compen-sation. Commenting on the event she stated: “You cannot criticize the homeland, just as you cannot criticize your mother. I feel that anything said against the homeland is immoral.” Zabolotna also claimed that Kuznetsov had diverged in his work from the concept that was previously agreed upon.It has been suggested that Zabolotna acted following pressure from the Ministry of Culture in advance of the President’s visit, though this body has denied any affiliation with the event. Another painting also seemed to have been taken out of the exhibition. The event spar-ked a protest, held in front of the 26 July 2013, which resulted in 8 arrests. Two other members of museum staff resigned in protest: Kateryna Stukalova, who di-rected the museum’s newspaper Art Ukraine, which was founded by Natalia Zabolotna, and Alexander Solovyov, the deputy director of the Mystetskyi Arsenal museum.

Debate surrounds authenticity of Jean Metzinger paintingAccording to an article published in The Journal des Arts, bozena Nikiel, an Jean Metzinger expert, has announced her intention to go to Paris’s high court, following a debate surroun-ding an authentification certificate for Maison Blanche, a painting supposedly created by Metzinger.In 2005, Laurent Alexandre, the current owner of the canvas, sought to sell the piece and contacted bozena Nikiel to receive a proof of authenticity for the painting. The expert, howe-ver, has refused to issue a certificate for the piece, which she is not convinced is by Metzinger.A decision given following an intial court hearing demanded that Nikiel release an authenti-city certificate to Alexandre, however Nikiel appealed against this decision, going to a Court of Appeals who only re-iterated the instructions which the first court had given. The court called upon M. Perazzone, a second Metzinger expert, who insisted that the work was authen-tic and should be recognised as such.In an interview published by Next Libération, bozena Nikiel said that “no one can make me go against my personal convictions.”

reSeArch...Assessment of England’s regional collectionsAccording to an article published in The Art Newspaper, London’s Whitechapel gallery and the Contemporary Art Society have joined to launch a project that explores the impact of private collecting and philanthropy on regional collections across the UK.Research for the project is to be conducted at institutions in the Midlands, and in the South and East of England. Three curators are to be assigned to the project. Curator Helen Kaplinsky will undertake research along the East coast of England, and will consider the role of art schools as centres for creative production. Ingrid Swenson is to work in the Midlands, where she will consider the placement of art works and “the debates around their perceived and actual value”, whilst gaia Tedone is to examine the individual’s role “in creating visions for particular collections”, focusing her study on the South of England.This project is sponsored by the Arts Council England, and will be supported by a touring exhibition, as well as talks and publications.

coNfereNce…Rio to host the 23rd General Conference of the ICOMFrom 10 to 17 August 2013, Rio de Janeiro is to host the 23rd gene-ral Conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), an event which is held in a different country every 3 years. Bringing together over 2,000 mu-seum professionals, the theme of this year’s conference is “Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change”. The event aims to encou-rage participants to share their ideas and expériences in the field, and to discuss the museum’s role in society.The conference is to take place over 8 days, and will consider topics in-cluding collaboration between mu-seums, professional training, the trafficking of cultural goods and the preservation of national heritages. The event will be accompanied by visits to museums and art perfor-mance pieces, with a special display devoted to Brazilian culture.ICOM was created in 1946; this is to be the second time that one of its general conferences is held in Sou-th America. According to Hans-Mar-tin Hinz, the president of the ICOM, “This is an opportunity to strengthen ICOM’s presence in the region, al-lowing museum professionals from across Latin America and around the world to dialogue on the future of our field.”

uNuSuAL STory…Rare set of Chinese vases discoveredAccording to an article published on the website of The Telegraph, a set of rare, 200-year old Chinese vases have been discovered.The two porcelain vases are to be offered at auction, where they are expected to reach in excess of £100,000. The vases were originally be-queathed to the Reverend Samuel Edward valpy Filleul by a Chinese trader, whom the Reverend had sa-ved from drowning. The pair became friends and, upon returning to China and making his fortune, the trader send the two vases to the Reverend as a means of thanking him for his rescue.The vases are thought to havebeenc reated during the Qing Dynasty, between 1820 and 1950. They had been held at the Reverend’s house, and had passing through several generations following his death in 1931.




Schools…

NoMiNATioNS…Courtauld Institute announces new British Academy FellowThe Courtauld Institute of Art in London has announced that Professor John Low-den, an art history professor, has been elected fellow of the british Academy.The british Academy has elected 42 fellows from 18 universities across the UK, each of whom is recognised for their outstanding research projects and contribu-tions to the humanities and social sciences.John Lowden studied English as an undergraduate at Cambridge, before gaining a MA (1977) and PhD (1980) at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He became a member of the institute’s academic staff in 1982, being promoted to Reader in 1995 and Professor in 2002. He is the author of ninety academic publications, including The Making of the Bibles Moralisées, which was awarded the 2002 gruendler Prize for the best book in medieval studies, as well as Early Christian and Byzantine Art, which has been reprinted five times and translated into four languages.The Courtauld Institute is considered to be one of the world’s most esteemed centres for the study of art history, curatorship and conservation, with its attached gallery holding some of Britain’s most valued art.

Appointment at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)The RISD has announced the appointment of Dr Carol Strohecker as vice Provost for Academic Affairs. She is to join the institution’s team of professors at the end of the month of August.With a broad range of professional experience in arts and arts education, St-grohecker is expected to bring valuable knowledge to the RISD, and will contri-bute to the ongoing development of its strategies.Carol Strohecker formerly directed the University of North Carolina’s multi-cam-pus Center for Design Innovation. She has also taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Harvard University graduate School of Design, the Media Lab Europe and the Learning Lab Denmark.

eXhibiTioN...“Split Seconds” presented by MFA graduates at the Hartford Art SchoolAn exhibition entitled “Split Seconds” is to take place between 7 and 12 August 2013 at the Joseloff gallery, featuring works by MFA graduates who have under-taken a thesis in Photography at the Hartford Art School, Connecticut.The show presents works created by 15 MFA graduates including: Morgan Ashcom, Sebastian Collette, Rafael D’Alo, Scott Dalton, Michael Dalton II, Doro-thee Deiss, geoffrey Ellis, Dagmar Kolatschny, Adam Long, Daniel Claus Reuter, Felipe Russo, Nicholas Silberfaden, Chikara Umihara, Ira Wagner and Zack Zoll.The Hartford Art School’s MFA degree in photography aims to cater to both ex-perienced and individuals and graduates who wish to expand upon their exis-ting experience in the field and obtain an academically recognised qualification. The programme is taught by professors Alec Soth, Mary Frey, Dr. Jörg Colberg, Thomas Weski, Michael Schäfer, Doug Dubois, Alice Rose george, Adam bartos, Ron Jude, Mark Steinmetz, Susan Lipper, Wiebke Loeper, gerry Johansson and Robert Lyons.

New progrAMMeS…Chicago’s School of the Art Institute opens new MFA programmeThe School of the Art Institute of Chicago has launched a new programme, titled “Low Residency Master of Fine Arts” (or Low-Res MFA). The three-year course offers a tailor-made approach, crafting a programme which is shaped around the interests and talents of participants, whether they consider themselves to be either “a contemporary artist, art educator, writer, or scholar.” The programme operates in conjunction with the SAIC’s nationally-ranked graduate fine arts pro-gramme, and dedicates each year of study to specific cate-gories – Attention, Sensation and Perception. The school describes “contemporary debates around Poetics and Visual Arts” as its core concern. The MFA includes studio visits and immersive summer residencies at SAIC’s Chicago campus. The faculty is directed by gregg bordowitz.The School of the Art Institute of Chicago opened in 1866, and offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees to around 3,200 students. It has an “educational philosophy built upon an interdisciplinary approach to art and design.”

V-A-C Foundation launches next generation of Russian curatorsThe v-A-C Foundation is currently holding the 2013 edition of its Moscow-based curatorial summer school.Directed by contemporary art curator, critic and theorist viktor Misiano, the programme places a strong focus on the contemporary art system in Russia, which the foundation said “has turned the curator into one of the most important and at the same time problematic figures within the Russian cultural context.” Some of the questions the school intends to ask are: “What are the professional boundaries and com-petences of a curator? What are his/her author’s rights and professional duties? What are the levels of knowledge and skills that define this new sphere of professional activity? How should this specialised experience be applied and por-trayed professionally?”The school was conceived in 2012, and runs every July for three weeks, focusing on a specific topic each year. The theme of last year’s edition for the project was “Doing Ex-hibitions Politically.” The theme of the second Moscow Cu-ratorial Summer School is “This is the Show and the Show is Many Things,” referring to belgium curator bart de baere’s pioneering 1994 exhibition.The v-A-C Foundation is a non-profit private institution founded in Moscow in 2009, committed to supporting con-temporary art in Russia.

ArTicLe of The week…MIT announces publication of arts-focused journalThe MIT Press has announced the launch of its latest issue of ARTMargins, the newest arts journal from the publi-shing house, dedicated to art, theory and cultural politics in emerging global margins. Volume 2, Issue 2 is to feature contributions from scholars, artists, cu-rators and critics based across the world, with this edition placing a special focus on the legacy of the 1967 Arab-Israeli

war in Middle Eastern art. Featured ar-ticles include: Clare Davies, Arts Writing in 20th Century Egypt; Anneka Lenseen; Mari Laanemets, Flight intoTomorrow: Rethinking Artistic Practice in Estonia Du-ring the 1970s (Leonhard Lapin); Saleem Al-bahloly, The Persistence of the Image: Dhākira Hurra in Dia Azzawi’s Drawings on the Massacre of Tel al-Zaatar; and a translation of the Objective Art manifesto

which Leonhard Lapin (Tallinn) wrote in 1975.ARTMargins intends to act as a forum for scholars, theoreticians and critics who are interested in art history and political movements from across the world. The MIT press is in its 51st year, and specia-lises in publications written by acade-mics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.




Museums…

chANge of poSiTioN…Eléonore de Lacharrière named new President of the Musée Rodin Eléonore de Lacharrière has been named the President of the Mu-sée Rodin’s Administrative Council, according to an article which appeared in The Art Newspaper.She succeeds Yves Chaisemartin, who has been the President of the institution’s Administrative Council for six years. Past roles have included Director general of the Fondation Culture & Diversité (The Foundation for Culture and Diversity), which seeks to increase the visibility of culture in deprived areas. Lacharrière is also a member of the Conseil de Fimalac, a society which was founded and directed by her father Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, and the Centre Français des Fonds et Fondations.

Jeffrey Deitch to leave Los Angeles’s MoCAThe board of directors for the Los Angeles Museum of Contempo-rary Art (MoCA) has announced the departure of Museum Director Jeffrey Deitch, who leaves after spending 3 years in the role.Deitch announced his intention to leave during a board meeting held on 24 July 2013. He is currently remaining his responsibilities until a new Director is found, and is to continue a campaign intended to raise $100m, which is scheduled to end in the autumn.A committee has been established to find a new director, and is headed by Maria bell and David Johnson, who are assisted by Joel Wachs. Jeffrey Deitch’s colleagues honoured his decision, and thanked the director for the unconditional commitment shown over the past three years. Dietch’s fundraising efforts have enable the MoCA to regain financial stability.

reopeNiNg…The Contemporary Museum re-opens in BaltimoreThe Contemporary Museum, based in baltimore, closed last year following the board’s request that its Director resign. Now, howe-ver, the institution has re-opened, removing “Museum” from its name to become, simply “The Contemporary”, and gaining a new Director and board.According to an article published in Arts in America, the museum is to begin operations later this year, under the guide of new di-rector Deana Haggag, who is the only new member of the mu-seum’s staff. The institution is to continue its tradition of presenting temporary exhibitions in public venues, following a tradition practiced since the beginning of its existence in 1989.Commenting on the opening, Haggag stated “We’re trying to stray away from taking over a venue, but rather focusing on experien-tial projects in baltimore, for civilians, pedestrians…The Contemporary lost that over the last 20 years.”

iNiTiATiveS…The Metropolitan Museum announces a Global Colloquim for Spring 2014The Metropolitan Museum has announced that it is to launch a “global Museum Leaders Colloquim” in spring 2014, in a move intended to “broaden dialogue on Museum Management among International Museum Directors.”The announcement was made by the Museum’s director and CEO, Thomas P.Campbell, who commented: “The Met was founded as an international museum 143 years ago, and this global approach is now reflected in our collections, programs, and audience. given the breadth and depth of our holdings, it is our responsibility to encourage a dialogue that can benefit museums worldwide, one that reinforces their relevance and encourages their appropriate stewar-dship. The global Museum Leaders Colloquium has been designed specifically to address a broad range of museum management issues, and we look forward to welcoming our colleagues to the Met next spring.”The colloquium is to take place between 7 and 18 April 2014, and will bring together 12 to 15 directors from mu-seums across Asia, Africa and Latin America. A varied programme will discuss issues including curatorial research, collections management, conservation, fundrai-sing, education, government and digital communications. András Szántó, a museum analyst and writer on arts institu-tions, stated that the colloquim was “founded on the pre-mise that, despite our cultural and economic differences, institutions and their leaders have much to learn from each other.”

South Australian Museum launches websiteAdelaide’s South Australian Museum has announced the re-launch of its website, which is intended to be more ac-cessible, and which will allow users to access a new appli-cation for tablets and smartphones.The Museum is to celebrate the launch with a selection of events, including the Sprigg Lecture Series, taking place on 30 July 2013. Recordings of these lectures are to be made available online, along with a talk by Professor Peter Sut-ton, who is to discusss the pioneering work of Australian anthropoligist Ursula McConnel. The museum is currently hosting the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize 2013, an exhibition which allows the public to vote for a winning ar-tist.The museum has also launched a fundraising campaign through its website; it is hoped that this project will raise enough funds for the museum to acquire a rainbow-co-loured opal, considered to be one of the country’s most beautiful precious stones.

ArTicLe of The week…Crucial moment for the contemporary art department of Île Seguin

The conversion of Île Seguin has successfully entered into a significant period in its deve-lopment, having acquired a building permit for “R4”, a new centre dedicated to contem-porary art. The centre is to be designed by ar-chitect Jean Nouvel, and will hold exhibition space, gallery and sales areas, and workshops

for artist’s and craftsmen. The building co-vers a total area of 25,000m2. Construction is expected to begin in 2014, with the buil-ding being opened in 2016. With François Pinault’s project for the was abandoned in 2005 The construction work should begin in 2014, and end with a grand opening in 2016.

As François Pinault’s project for the site ha-ving been abandoned in 2005, this repre-sents crucial progress for the region, which is home to Renault’s former factories – closed around 20 years ago. The new site will also include an area devoted to music, a cinema and a centre for digital projects.




Vida Lautner at DeVos Art MuseumAn exhibition entitled “vida Lautner: Works on Paper” is currently on show at Michigan’s Devos Art Museum, at the School of Art and Design at Northern Michigan University.

Lautner produces works which were heavily influenced by her travels and her desire to explore. The exhibition presents several hundred works on paper, which illustrate the increasing influence of Modernism and Abstraction in the artist’s works, and the evolution of her practice.vida Lautner (1885-1978) was an artist often described as a modern Renaissance figure, who engaged with design, history, architecture, music, painting and sculpture. She received a teaching qualification frol Northern State Normal School in 1906, going on the gain a bachelor of Arts degree in 1924. During the 1920s and 30s, she was an active member of New York’s fast-developing greenwich village. She received several awards for her designs, and was the subject of several exhibitions at institutions including the Detroit Institute of Art.For the past two years, the Devos Art Museum has been working in collaboration with the Lautner family to create a catalogue featuring over 1,000 of the artist’s pain-tings. This exhibition represents a rare opportunity for visitors to observe all of these works together. volunteers and students from the NMU continue to photograph and catalogue her collection, which is currently on long-term loan to the museum. 400 paintings are displayed on the museum’s website, which is regularly updated accor-ding to the progress of its archival work.

Alexander Calder at the Samsung Museum of ArtThe Samsung Museum of Art is currently presenting a retrospective exhibition on the works of Alexander Calder, titled “Calder,” which is to run until 20 October 2013.

Calder (1898-1976) is renowned for his invention of the mobile, which made movement an integral part of his formerly static sculpture. The exhibition in-cludes a range of his works, from jewellery to monumental sculptures, and is accom-panied by documentaries and experimental films featuring the artist.The large-scale retrospective is the first of its kind to be held in Korea, and features works from across the artist’s career. The pieces on display are on loan from some of the world’s most significant collections of the artist’s works, including those held at New York’s Calder Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. gug-genheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum, as well as the National gallery of Art in Washington, and Paris’s Centre Pompidou. The exhibition is jointly curated by Alexander S. C Rower, the President of the Calder Foundation in New York, and Hyun-sun, the Senior Curator of Leeum at the Samsung Museum of Art.The Samsung Museum of Art opened in central Seoul in 2003, and houses a collec-tion of traditional and contemporary Korean artworks.

Ancient art confronts contemporary production at the Botin FoundationThe botín Foundation is currently hosting an exhibition titled “Art in the Age of Altamira.” Running until 29 September 2013, the show is a collaborative effort between the Fundacíon botín, Santander, and the

british Museum, London.The exhibition is curated by Jill Cook, the Deputy Keeper of the Department of Prehistory and Europe at the british Museum, who has sought to produce a display which examines the “histories of art and humanity.” Rare sculptures and drawings of humans and animals from 22,000 to 12,000 years ago are to be presented alongside modern works by artists including Miró, Matisse, Hecht and Pasmore, as well as a film installation which aims to reflect the experience of creating art in artificial light underground. A press release given by the institu-tion states that “the exhibition reveals that the concepts and techniques used have changed little through time,” adding that “the ability to make art was and is crucial to human survival.”The exhibition follows the theme of the highly successful show “Ice Age Art: Survi-val of the Modern Mind,” which combined ancient and modern works, and which was held at the british Museum earlier this year. It also celebrates the connection between the botín family and the discovery of the Altamira cave in 1879.Created in 1964 by Marcelino botín Sanz de Sautuola and his wife Carmen Yllera, the Botín Foundation is a family-run initiative which aims to “mitigate the needs and promote the social development” of Cantabria. It hosts art exhibitions and concerts, and is to open a new space dedicated to art exhibitions in the summer of 2014.

whAT’S oN…Nouvelles Vagues at the Palais de TokyoParis’s Palais de Tokyo is currently hosting a series of 53 exhibitions, collectively tit-led “Nouvelles vagues,” situated in both

the museum’s building itself and in around 30 galleries across Paris. Shows will be on display until 9 September 2013.The event seeks to place a focus on the importance of the curator, as an independent figure who is capable of escaping predefined institutional codes, and the conventions of academic or market-focused institu-tions. 21 curators and groups of curators have produced exhibitions for Nouvelles vagues, selected by a jury for over 500 applicants.The event comprises works by a huge number of contemporary artists, including Oliver Beer, Simon boudvin, gabriele Chiari, exhibited as part of a show or-ganised by the Hermès Foundation; Zhanna Kadyrova, Kitty Kraus, Hugo Pernet, exhibited as part of an exhi-bition by Ana Mendoza Aldana (guatemala, 1987) and Cartel de Kunst, and Randy Chan, Zaki Razak, Lee Wen, Joel Yuen, exhibited by the Singapore Art Museum.The jury that selected the participants was composed of Hans Ulrich Obrist (Co-Director, Serpentine gallery), Massimiliano gioni (Associate Director and Curator, New Museum), Jens Hoffmann (Co-Director, Jewish Museum, New York), Jean-Hubert Martin (Independent Curator), xavier Franceschi (Director, FRAC Ile-de-France), Co-lette barbier (Director, Fondation d’entreprise Ricard), Fabienne Leclerc (Comité professionnel des galeries d’art), Alain Reinaudo (Institut français), Jean de Loisy (President of the Palais de Tokyo) and the curators of the Palais de Tokyo.

Code breaking at BALTICgateshead’s bALTIC Centre for Contem-porary Art is currently hosting an exhibi-tion on new and recent works by Thomas

Scheibitz. Titled “ONE-Time Pad,” the exhi-bition is to run until 3 November.Born in 1968 in Radeberg, Thomas Scheibitz began to develop “a new form of conceptual painting” (bALTIC) whilst studying at Dresden’s School of Art. His pieces draw upon a variety of themes and motifs from everyday and popular culture, considering film, li-terature, music and advertising, as well as architecture. These references are joined by excerpts from historical sources, including Renaissance paintings and medieval engravings.The exhibition is to feature 200 pieces created by the artist during the last 5 years, including paintings, sculp-tures, drawings and works on paper, and a new work commissioned especially for bALTIC. The title “ONE-Time Pad” takes its name from a method of encryption used to transmit secret messages, considered to be impossible to crack if used correctly, and refers to the coded nature of Sheibitz’s production.The exhibition is organised by the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main, and is supported by Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA). The bALTIC gallery was founded ten years ago, and is housed in an industrial building on the south bank of the River Tyne, in gateshead. Focusing on contemporary art, it has no permanent col-lection, providing instead a constantly changing calen-dar of exhibitions and events.




Forthcoming Exhibition of Chinese Painting at London’s V&AFrom 26 October 2013 to 19 January 2014, Lon-don’s victoria and Albert Museum is to host an

exhibition titled “Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900.”The museum bills the event as a “once-in-a-lifetime chance” to see rare surviving works, which have been gathered from col-lections across the world. 70 pieces will be on display, and will demonstrate some of the finest examples of Chinese paintings, from small-scale works by monks and academic figures, to a 14-metre long scroll painting. It is the first time that many of the works will be shown along-side one another.Covering a 1,200 year period, the exhibition demonstrates the evolution of styles and subjects in Chinese art. Religions figure paintings on silk will be accompanied by landscape paintings, which demonstrate the introduction of Western influences.

Panoramic film installation fills floor of Whitney MuseumFrom 19 September 2013 to 9 February 2014, New York’s Whitney Museum is to present an exhibition

titled “From T.J. Wilcox: In the Air,” featuring a pano-ramic film installation which is to fill the institution’s second floor.Revisiting the notion of “cinema in the round” which was popu-larised in the 19th century, Wilcox employs state-of-the-art tech-nology to produce an immersive cinematic environment. The artist’s work considers personal narrative and the construction of history, with Wilson ever-conscious of history’s construction in the present — from a conglomeration of fact, myth, memory, association and information.Shot from the artist’s studio, which has 360 views of Manhattan from high above Union Square, “In the Air” presents fantasti-cal narratives set in New York. Commenting on the work, Wilcox stated: “I like my film and video work to appear as the visible record of my own journey through our saturated mediated age, highlighting those things that have held my attention and cap-tured my imagination.”The exhibition also features related pieces selected by Wilcox from the Museum’s permanent collection, including works by Morgan Fisher, Felix gonzalez-Torres and Yoko Ono, as well as a film and a video series devoted to ways artists have viewed the cityscape of New York. It is organised by Chrissie Iles, Anne and curator Joel Ehrenkranz.

Elizabeth I to reign again at London’s National Por-trait GalleryFrom 10 October 2013 to 5 January 2014, the Na-tional Portrait gallery in London is to present an

exhibition featuring portraits of Queen Elizabeth I.Titled “Elizabeth I & Her People,” the show will explore the mo-narch’s 40-year reign through the lives and portraiture of her people. During her time on the throne, she was responsible for creating new industries, contributing to a growth in the middle classes and encouraging the development of a remarkable lite-rary culture.The exhibition is to place a strong focus on personal stories, and will present portraits not only of Elizabeth I, but also of the explorers, statesmen and soldiers considered to be significant members of her court. A broad cross-section of Elizabethan citizens are also repre-sented, through works which depict butchers, goldsmiths, per-sonal servants, businessmen, writers and artists. Paintings will be joined by jewellery, clothing, books and coins of the period.

coMiNg SooN…The Pinault Collection on display in ParisAn exhibition held in Paris from 21 October 2013 to 6 January 2014 is to present works from the personal collection of major French

collector François Pinault, on display in Paris for the first time.Entitled ‘Triple Locked: Works from the Pinault Collection’, the exhibition, which is curated by Caroline bourgeois, is to feature 50 works from the French businessman’s collection. Created by 22 different artists, they represent photography, painting and installations.The exhibition, which is held at the Conciergerie, is to focus on two themes, examining physical confinement which is the result of exterior forces, and a sense of personal confinement resulting from a relationship with the self.The exhibition will be presented alongside FIAC, takes place at the grand Palais from 24 to 27 October 2013.

Columbian heritage exhibited at the British MuseumAn exhibition entitled “beyond El Dorado: power and gold in ancient Colombia” is to take place London’s british Museum from 17 October to

23 March 2014. The show is to display some of the objects excavated from Lake guatavita in the early 20th century including ceramics and stone necklaces.The british Museum will show over 300 objects, drawn from the Museodel Oro in bogotá, as well as the british Museum’s own collections. Displays focus on the symbolic value of cur-rency in pre-Hispanic Colombia, and its association with spi-ritual practices.The event is organised by El banco de la Répública, that is ce-lebrating its anniversary by focusing on the following theme: “90 años cuidando el patrimonio de los colombianos.” It is the 205th event organised abroad by the institution, that is launching its annual international exhibition for the 59th time.

Travel through CanadaDuring summer and autumn, the Canadian Mu-seum of Civilization and the Canadian War Mu-seum are send permanent exhibitions to cities

across the country, including including Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, british Columbia and Manitoba.An exhibition entitled “Expedition: Arctic” is to be on display from 12 August to 2 November at british Columbia’s Nanai-mo Museum, before moving to the Red Deer Museum and Art gallery from 25 November 2013 to 16 February 2014. Mon-tréal’s Musée du Château Ramezay is to present “Heart and Soul: Quebec Folk Art” until 3 November 2013, whilst The Musée Abénakis in Quebec is offering “Estampes Inuites… Inspiration Japonaise” (Inuit Engravings…Japanese Inspira-tion) until 14 October. Other significant exhibitions in the series include “Coup de Patins: La Passion Canadienne Pour le Patinage” (“The Love of Ice Skating: The Canadian Passion for Ice Skating”) which is to run until 11 August, and which will then travel to Musée Héritage Museum in St Albert, Alberta from 3 September to 3 November 2013.An exhibition entitled “1812” is to be held at St Catharines Museum in Ontario, where it will be on display until 18 Au-gust 2013. This show will then travel to the Arthur Child Heritage Museum in Ontario, until 25 August, moving to the Peterborough Museum and Archives in Ontario, from 14 Sep-tember to 8 December 2013. The Reach gallery Museum Ab-botsford in british Columbia is to host “The Navy, A Century in Art” from 26 September 2013 to 5 January 2014.




galleries…

repreSeNTATioN…Amy Sillman and Phillip King join Thomas DaneAmy Sillman was born in 1956 in Detroit, Michigan, and lives and works in New York. She graduated from the School of visual Arts in 1979, before obtaining her MFA from bard College in 1995. She first exhibited her work at New York’s brent Sikkema gallery in 2000, and has been the subject of exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, boston, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.Phillip King was born in 1934 in Tunis, but lives and works in the United Kingdom. He predominantly produces sculptures, and is frequently cited as a contempo-rary to artist Anthony Caro, with whom he assisted sculptor Henry Moore. His works were featured in a group exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2011, which feature pieces by prominent British sculptors from the 20th century.

iNSTALLATioNS…Carré d’Artistes moves to Greenwich VillageCarré d’Artistes opened its doors on 6 July 2013, in the heart of the greenwich village in New York.Created in 2011, the gallery specialises in contemporary art, offered at affor-dable prices. The intitiative began in France, where it rapidly expanded, before moving to other countries. After opening a branch in São Paulo in November 2012, the 18th Carré d’Artistes gallery opened in New York, becoming the first of the institu-tion’s centres in the city.Carré d’Artistes motto is “four formats, four prices”. Over the past 12 years, the gallery has represented works by 500 artists, which it seeks to promote across the world. If offers art enthusiasts a rare and unique ability to purchase unique works at accessible prices.

Four new galleries in Potrero HillOn 7 September 2013, four new contemporary galleries situated in San Fran-cisco’s Potrero Hill district will open, simultaneously presenting their inaugural exhibitions. gallerists Catharine Clark, brian gross, Jack Fischer and geroge Lawson are to join Todd Hosfelt, who first established a gallery in the area in 2012.The openings are to be accompanied by events in neighbouring cultural insti-tutions: Southern Exposure is to celebrate its 39th anniversary, and events are also expected to be held at the CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts and Steven Wolf Fine Arts.The new institutions continue a growing trend in the city, which has seen gal-lerists gradually moving out of central districts into areas of downtown San Francisco.

ArTicLe of The week…Report on City Factory Gallery’s Partitions ConferenceA symposium held at Derry’s City Facto-ry gallery saw Liverpool’s Static gallery and Derry’s void gallery collaborate to produce a programme for artists and cu-rators, which considered the process of constructing an exhibition.The conversations which took place during the event were recorded, and are to be presented as part of an exhibition which follows the event. These videos are

to be accompanied by an extensive pub-lication featuring a commentary on the ideas exchanged.Figures who participated in the event in-clude: John byrne, the Co-Director of the Static gallery, Mary Conlon, the Director of the Ormston House gallery in Limerick, lecturers Anna Dezeuze, from the Univer-sity of Marseille, and Aislinn O’Donnel, of the University of Limerick, Francesco

Manacorda, Artistic Director of Tate Liver-pool, Paul Sullival, architect and Director of Static gallery, Katherin Waugh, writer, Eyal Weizman, an Architect, Professor Stephen Wright, george Yúdice, Direc-tor of Modern Languages, Literature and Latin American Studies at the University of Miami, as well as artists Mark O’Kelly, Seamus Nolan, Frederic Pradeau, Sigi Sig-urdsson, and Padraig Timoney.

MooviNg...…Monya Rowe moves to Lower East SideNew York’s Monya Rowe gallery is to leave its current space on the second floor of Chelsea’s West 22nd Street, to move to a new ground floor space at 34 Orchard Street, in the city’s L ower East Side.Monya Rowe joins several other major gal-leries in the district, including Miguel Abreu and Untitled. Rowe is to be joined by the gasser grunert space, which is to move to number 33 Orchard Street this September.Speaking in an e-mail to The Observer, Ms. Rowe said that her Chelsea lease was up, and that she wanted to “increase the visibi-lity of the gallery by moving to the ground floor,” adding that “the new space is in a really good location; the timing was right, so I signed the lease immediately.”The new gallery is to open with a group exhibition by artists Larissa bates, Natasha bowdoin, Angela Dufresne, vera Iliatova, Jake Longstreth, Joe Pflieger, Jacolby Sat-terwhite, Mark Schubert and Ann Toebbe.

cALL of AppLicATioNS…Spacex looking for new directorExeter’s Spacex gallery, which specialises in contemporary art, is currently looking for a new director to replace Nicola Hood.The gallery was founded by a small group of artists who sought to inject contempora-ry art into the region. Since its creation, it has exhibited works by artists including Richard Long, Bridget Riley, William Kentridge, gillian Wearing, Shaun gladwell and geoffrey Farmer.2014 will mark the 40th anniversary of Spacex, which is sponsored by the Arts Council England and the Exeter City Coun-cil. Applications for the position of director may be submitted until 2 Spetember 2013.




Transmissions at Altman SiegelAltman Siegel is currently presenting a group exhibition of works by an international selection of artists. Entitled “Trans-missions,” the show is to run at the San Francisco-based gal-

lery until 31 August 2013.This is the second show to be held at the gallery this summer, and features works by local artists including Zarouhie Abdalian, Nate boyce and Liam Everett, alongside works by artists based in New York and Los Angeles, in-cluding Matt Keegan, Trevor Paglen, Sara vanDerbeek and Shannon Ebner. Though diverse, works in the exhibition present shared concerns, inclu-ding the potential for language to dissolve to the abstract, and the crea-tion of form from processes. Altman Spiegel was established four years ago by Claudia Altman-Siegel.

The Sum of all Evil at White Cube Hong KongWhite Cube’s Hong Kong gallery is currently presenting “The Sum of all Evil,” an exhibition of works by Jake & Dinos Chap-man, which is to run until 31 August 2013.

This is to be the first exhibition of the british artists’ work to be held in China, and is to feature “Hell,” a major new installation, as well as a group of single dioramas and a new series of reworked paintings. Describing their practice in a conversation with Sarah Kent, Jake Chapman stated: “We’re making work that contradicts the idea that art is inherently good and based on idealism.” The duo’s works frequently examine cultural and historical stereotypes, and “how and whether we are allowed, or able, to show moral views.”Jake Chapman was born in 1966 in Cheltenham. Dinos Chapman in 1962 in London. They live and work in London, and have exhibited interna-tionally at institutions including Tate britain, bundeskunsthalle, bonn,Ha-reng Saur: Ensor and Contemporary Art, S.M.A.K, ghent, the National Cen-ter of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Kunstverein Hamburg, and the british Museum, London. They began working together upon graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1990.

Lines and Realignments at Simon Lee LondonSimon Lee is currently presenting “In Lines and Realign-ments,” a group exhibition curated by Luiza Teixeira de Frei-tas and Thom O’Nions.

The exhibition features works by 6 artists currently living and working in São Paulo, accompanied by a documentation by Brazilian conceptual artist Cildo Meireles. Pieces in the show draw upon Meireles’s work “O Sermão da Montanha: Fiat Lux” (The Sermon on the Mount: Let There be Light), which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1979 as a twenty-four-hour performance event. Simon Lee brings together works which echo this original piece’s notion of suspended action, or which appear to be on the cusp of transformation or change. Artists featured in the show include: Adriano Costa, Marcius galan, André Komatsu, Cildo Meireles, Nicolas Robbio, Roberto Winter, and Carla Zaccagnini.

Double Bound Economies at Thomas FischerBerlin’s Thomas Fischer gallery is currently presenting an exhibition titled “Double bound Economies,” to run until 3 August 2013.

The exhibition focuses on an archive of photos from East ger-many, created between 1967 and 1990 by freelance photographer Re-inhard Mende. Commissioned to produce his works by the gDR, Mende’s exhibited images include depictions of the trade fair in Leipzig. “Double bound Economies” considers socialism’s proclamations of inter-nationalism as a starting point, considering the economic, frequently par-adoxical repercussions of the movement, and the gestures, staged images displays and spaces it shaped.The exhibition features new works and responses to the archive by Tekle belete, KP brehmer, Seiichi Furuya, Allan Sekula, Noël burch, Olaf Nicolai and the Otolith group. “Double bound Economies” is curated by Estelle blaschke, Armin Linke and Doreen Mende.

whAT’S oN…A trip to the moon at Proyectos Monclo-vaAn exhibition entitled “A Trip to the Moon” is currently being held at Mexi-

co’s Proyectos Monclova gallery. Featu-ring works responding to factual and imagined re-présentations of space travel, the show is to continue until 17 August 2013.Artists with works featured in the show respond to the landing of Apollo 11 in 1969 and the georges Méliès film A Trip to the Moon (1902). Merging fact and fiction, the exhibition places challenges visitors to separate scientific fact from presumptions, or be-liefs based in fiction.French artist Laurent grasso is to present a video ani-mation entitled Psychokinesis (2008), which focuses on the simple process of generating fake images. Also included in the exhibition are Pérez Córdova’s How to use reverse psychology with pictures (2012-2013), and Roisin Byrne’s It’s not you, it’s me (2010-2011).

The Wilson sisters at 303 GalleryAn exhibition of works by The Wilson sisters is currently on display at New York’s 303 gallery, which is to conti-

nue until 2 August 2013.The show features two recent projects, which see the artists continue an examination of their ongoing interest in these including the Cold War, nuclear projects and socialist notions of Utopia.A series of photographs, Atomgrad, Nature Abhors a Vacuum (2010-2012), features images of Pripy-at, a soviet city built towards the end of the 1970s in what is now the Ukraine, and which provided a home for workers affected by Chernobyl. Sculptures which hang in the centre of the galle-ry include Altogether (2010), demonstrate the in-fluence of the radical constructivism by which they are inspired as much as a more pure awareness of form.

Caro’s Park Avenue series at Gagosian Londongagosian’s britannia Street gallery is currently presenting an exhibition of

works by Anthony Caro, to run until 23 August 2013.The gallery presents works from the artist’s Park Avenue sculpture series, composed of steel pipes, beams, disks and agricultural tools. The pieces were created by Caro during the planning process of an enormous public sculpture envisioned for a busy thoroughfare in New York City, and exhibit a dynamism and sense of ground-parallel speed. The project was cancelled for financial reasons, yet Caro used his designs as starting points for works in the exhibition.Sir Anthony Caro was born in Surrey, England, in 1924, and lives and works in London. His work has been exhibited across the world, at institutions inclu-ding Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, and Tate Britain in London.The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by art critic and historian, Michael Fried.




coMiNg SooN…Van Gogh at Eykyn Maclean in Parisbetween 26 September and 29 November, Lon-don’s Eykyn Maclean is to present an exhibition titled “van gogh in Paris,” exploring the years

1886 to 1888, during which the artist lived and worked in the city.With a career that spanned no more than ten years, the two years van gogh spent in the city formed a significant portion of the artist’s career. The period marked a significant transi-tion in the artist’s style, seeing him move away from the dar-ker, more sombre works of his Dutch period, to a bright, ex-pressive practice. The show includes rarely-exhibited works, many of which have been drawn from private collections. These works are accompanied by pieces which the artist would have encoun-tered at the time, including works by Monet, Pissarro, Tou-louse-Lautrec and gauguin. Eykyn Maclean is a private gallery with locations in New York and London, specialising in mu-seum-calibre works by key Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary artists. It was established by Christopher Eykyn and Nicholas Maclean in 2006.

Summer exhibition at 10 Chancery LaneAn exhibition entitled “Hot Summer Nights” is to be held between 1 to 17 August 2013, at 10 Chancery Lane gallery, Hong Kong.

The group exhibition is to present works by Nadan ghiya, Huang Rui, Pan Jian, Wang Keping and John Young.10 Chancery Lane opened its first branch in the art district of Chai Wan in the autumn of 2006, opening 10 Chancery Lane Art Projects in 2008, and a further exhibition space in 2013. The gallery encourages participation from international cura-tors, and also endeavours to host group shows which focus on work by emerging artists from South East Asia, particularly those from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Ernesto Ballesteros drawings at Bendana-PinelFrom 7 September to 12 October 2013, the Ben-dana-Pinel gallery is to present “Cinco Dibujos” an exhibition devoted to the work artist Ernesto

Ballesteros, who has been drawing profusely since 2006.The gestation period of the artist’s works is dépendent upon the number of people participating in their conceptions, though they generally take at least two months to reach com-pletion. Their principal subject is the act of drawing itself: it is not the final image which matters to Ballesteros, but the status of its lines as records of the artist’s movement upon the paper. Having completed his works, ballestero calculates the total length of the lines which cover his canvas in ki-lometres, multiplying the speed at which each stroke was formed by the time it took to produce the work.

Yan Pei-Ming’s works exhibited at Thaddaeus RopacFrom 21 October to 23 November 2013, Thad-daeus Ropac is to present an exhibition of works by artist Yan Pei-Ming. Entitled “Help!”, the show

is to take place across the gallery’s three floors in Paris’s Marais district, and will feature newly-created paintings and watercolours.The exhibition is presented as a series of scenes from a film, played out across the rooms of Thaddaeus Ropac- whilst ne-vertheless preserving the historical elements of the Fran-co-Chinese artist’s production and his characteristic style. The artist’s works examine recent history through images from the media, transforming them into historical monuments by enlar-ging them to a monumental size. “Help!” sees Pei-Ming create works which combine this awareness of current affairs with tra-ditional painterly techniques. Yan Pei-Ming graduated from the Ecole Nationale des beaux-Arts in Dijon. He has recently held exhibitions in Qatar and in France, where his works formed part of an exhibition at Paris’s Musée du Louvre. The exhibition at Thaddeus Ropac is to be accompanied by a catalogue contai-ning texts by Henri Loyrette and Robert Fleck.

Amitava Dhar and Sunil De at Aakriti ArtAn exhibition entitled “Strokes Of Soulful Thoughts, Display of Paintings by Amitava Dhar & Sunil De” is to be held at Calcutta’s Aakriti gallery between

5 and 31 August. Amitava Dhar and Sunil De are two of India’s best known contemporary artists. Both artists pro-duce works which engage with abstract traditions, and cover a diverse selection of themes, combining expressions of love, beauty and spirituality with paradoxical notions of agony and considerations of time. Each of the artist’s produce oïl and ar-cylic works on canvas, and have careers which have spanned approximately thirty years.

Prune Nourry at Magda DanyszAn exhibition entitled “Terracotta Daughters” is to be held from 14 September to 26 October 2013, at the Magda Danysz gallery in Shanghai, and will

feature work from across the career of artist Prune Nourry. Nourry hails from France, and produces works in a va-riety of genres. Her pieces focus on the problems associated with biotechnology and genetic engineering. The exhibition at Magda Danysz is to feature 108 sculptures created from images of the Terracotta Warriors in xi’an Chi-na. The artist produced her sculptures in collaboration with Chinese craftsman, following traditional techniques. Her work replicates the Chinese Terracotta Warriors, replacing the soldier’s faces with those of 108 young women, whose appearance is based on 8 Chinese women. This army of 108 near-identical girls aims to question the idea of artificial re-production.

ArT MediA AgeNcy (AMA)

Art Media Agency (AMA) is published by the A&F Markets company, Limited company with a registered capital of €40,000, incorporated in the Company and Trade Register of Paris under the n°530 512 788. 267 rue Lecourbe, F-75021 Paris, France.artmediaagency.com is hosted by the OvH company, Simplified joint stock company with a regis-tered capital of €10,000,000, incormporated in the Company and Trade Register of Roubaix-Tourcoing n°424 761 419. 2 rue Kellermann, F-59500 Roubaix, France.

Director of publication: Pierre NaquinChief editor: Antoine Cadeo de IturbideContact: [email protected]: 100,000 subscribers




Artists…

deATh…Sculptor Walter De Maria passed awayA report in the Los Angeles Times has an-nounced that sculptor Walter De Maria has died. The artist, who was 77 years old, had suffered a heart attack.Known for his large sculptures and ins-tallations pieces, Walter De Maria pro-duced pieces which combined the sim-plicity of minimalism with an awareness of excess.The artist led a discrete life, rarely giving interviews or sitting for photographs. Though his works have not been wi-dely exhibited in the US, they have fre-quently been the subject of studies by art critics, who noted the artist’s ability to produce accessible pieces which are nevertheless intellectual and concep-tually-focused.The artist’s most famous work is entitled The Lightning Field, which was establi-shed in New Mexico in 1977.

Death of artist Ronnie CutroneArtist Ronnie Cutrone has died, passing away on 21 July 2013 at the age of 65.born on 10 july 1948, the artist is known for his large-scale paintings representing some of American’s most popular animated characters, inclu-ding Felix the Cat, the Pink Panther and Woody Woodpecker. Associated with Pop Art, the artist is celebrated for ha-ving produced works which are vividly colourful and accessible, and assisted at Andy Warhol’s infamous factory from 1972 to 1980.Cutrone has been the subject of ex-hibitions at numerous museums and art galleries, including the Whitney Museum, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum boijmans van beuningen, Rotterdam, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

progrAMMiNg…Artists selected to participate in WARP Artist Village announcedbetween 5 and 10 August, a group of approximately 25 artists from around the world will be given the opportunity to join the Artist village in C-mine genk, belgium.The project aims to give artists the opportunity to discuss their practice with professionals from the international art scene, including critics, curators, established contemporary artists and museum direc-tors. Each of the 25 participating artists is under 35, and it is hoped that the event will be an occassion for these emerging figures to meet influential members of the field and develop their ideas. Artists who take part have the opportunity to exhibit their works as part of the triennial “Coup de ville”. This year’s edition is to place a special focus upon the local Ford manufacturing plants and the future of the genk area, and is organised in collaboration with the Warp Contemporary Art Platform, located in Sint-Niklass and C-Mine, in genk.Selected participating artists are: Ifeoma Anyaeji (Nigeria), Hannes bend (germany/Norway), Mike Crane (Colombia/USA), Liesje De Laet (belgium), Sylvie De Meerleer (belgium), Arnaud De Wolf (belgium), Sarah-Mace Dennis (Australia), Nicolas grenier (Canada), Liesbet grupping (belgium), Marie- Claire Krell (The Netherlands), Catriona Leahy (Ireland), Ulrik Lopez (Mexico/USA), Maria Mc Kinney (Ireland), Hsiang-Lu Meng (Taiwan), Jane Mi (USA), griet Moors (belgium), Kevin Nieuwenhuijs (The Nether-lands), Felix Nybergh (Finland), Rashanna Rasied-Walker (USA), Eva Spierenburg (The Netherlands), ben vandenberghe (belgium), Javier velazquez (Spain), Morgane vie (France) and Colin Waeghe (belgium).

Chicara Nagata and Junko Narita at the second International Triennale of KogeiOrganisers of the 2nd International Triennale of Kogei, to be held between 3 and 29 August 2013, have announced the participation of Japanese artists Chicara Nagata and Junko Narita, who are represented by the Ippodo gallery. The International Triennale takes place in the city of Kanazawa, and focuses upon “Kogei” or “craft”. It is curated by Yuji Akimoto, Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa. Chi-cara Nagata is to present 3 motorcycles, and Junko Narita 9 dolls. Nagata’s motorbikes are handmade, representing around 7,500 hours of work. He has been focusing his production on these pieces since 2010. In 2008, the artist’s works exhibited at New York’s Ippodo gallery and as part of the city’s Asian Contemporary Art Fair. Junko Narita graduated from Japan’s College of Creative Doll Making in 1982, and started to produce dolls inspired both by her own imagination and Kabuki, a form of classical Japanese dance. Her works have been exhibited as part of solo exhibitions at the Ippodo gallery in Tokyo, in 2006 and 2009, and were also formed part of an exhibition held in Kyoto’s Kodai-ji Temple.

Finalists for inaugural Hugo Boss Asia Art prize announcedThe finalists for the inaugural edition of Hugo boss Asia Art have been announced as birdhead (Shang-hai), Hsu Chiawei (Taipei), Hu xiangqian (beijing), Kwan Sheungchi (Hong Kong), Lee Kitt (Hong Kong), Li Liao (Shenzen) and Li Wei (beijing). The new biennial prize, awarded by Hugo boss and the Rockbund Art Museum, places a special focus on contemporary art in Asia. Finalists are to have their works fea-tured as part of an exhibition, to take place at the Rockbund Museum between 13 September and 8 December 2013, with the winner of the prize being announced on 31 October 2013. The winner is to be selected by a jury chaired by Larys Frogier, with the winner receiving a prize fund of 300,000 RMb.An announcement released by the organisers of the event states that Hugo boss Asia Art “activates an ongoing research platform,” which will see this exhibition accompanied by “symposia, dialogues, lectures and publications.”

ArTicLe of The week…Andy Goldsworthy creates new installation for Presidio, San Francisco

Artist Andy goldsworthy is creating a new work, entitled Tree Fall, which is to be displayed at the Presidio state park, San Francisco.The Presidio was formerly a military base; goldsworthy’s installation consists of a felled tree, covered in cracked clay, which is to hang from the ceiling of a building formerly used as a munition store. Com-menting on the piece in The Art Newspa-per, goldsworth stated “The gunpowder

room would’ve been a fairly dangerous place to be, so [the work] will have that sense of caution to it”.Expected to be completed in August, Tree Fall is to be the artist’s third project in the park, joining Spire (2008) and Wood Line (2011). goldsworthy has described the ‘fascinat-ing’ nature of the former military base, which features a 300-acre forest plant-ed by the US military between 1886 and

1900. “They had quite a sophisticated sense of landscape,” he says. “They read the landscape in the way that sculptors do—or at least the way I do.”A statement released by the Presidio Trust stresses the work’s compatibility with its setting, emphasising that “the in-stallation has been designed by a struc-tural engineer in order to avoid harm to the existing structure, and include no ar-tificial lighting’.




Auctions…

reSuLTS…

Results: Tajan auctions in Monte CarloA series of recent sales organised in Monaco by auction house Tajan resulted in total sales of €6m.The Modern and Contemporary Art and Design sale made a total of €945,000, with 60% of all available lots selling at 60% of their esti-mated value. Laurence Jenkell’s Bonbon Victoire de Samothrace sold for €60,000, whilst a work by Walasse Ting reached €16,000.A sale of jewellery saw 58% of lots sold at 70% of their total esti-mated value, realising €4.4m. Lots on offer including a Riviera Ruby, which set a new record when it was purchased for €1,125,000. A so-litaire diamond ring sold for €27,000. An auction devoted to watches realised a total of €555,000, with 70% of lots sold at 78.5% of their estimated value. Significant lots on offer included a 1982 Rolex, which sold for €27,000, and a piece by Philippe Calatrava, which sold at €12,000.

Philippe Hiquily sees strong resultsAn exhibition dedicated to sculptural works by Philippe Hiquily raised a total of €610,500 (hammer price), or €775,000 (bPI), far exceeding its estimate of €488,000. The sale was hosted by Artcurial in Monaco, and took place on 23 July. The sale offered fourteen sculptures issued from the personal collection of Jean-Marc Decrop, thirteen of which found buyers. The highest-selling work was La Girouette, number 2/8 (2004-2009), which sold for €150,500 (bPI), at four times its original estimate. Considered by many to be the artist’s most iconic work, Mar-athonienne (2004) was purchased for €150,500 (bPI). Philippe Hiquily has been creating fantastical and surrealist furniture since the 1960s. His works are included in major museum collections and in institu-tions including MoMA, the Habana Museum of Modern Art and the Pompidou Centre.

Results of SVV Aguttes sales in DeauvilleAuction house Svv Aguttes held a prestigious sale in Deauville on 20 and 21 July 2013, which raised a total of €1.3m (tax included).Pieces on offer included luxury luggage, jewellery, watches, paintings, silver, furniture, and art objects. The sale was conducted by Claude Aguttes, and brought both French and international buyers to the auc-tion room, as well as to the auction house’s website.Half of the total figure raised represented sales of jewellery, silver and watches. Of these lots, 59 were sold via the Drouot Live website, re-presenting one in every three sales made; online sales of these lots raised €75,000. A diamond ring found a buyer at €232,000, whilst a 1966 chronograph Rolex Daytona was sold for €67,500. A rare 1920 Cartier pocket chronograph was purchased for €24,225.

ArTicLe of The week…Alan Wintermute joins Christie’s San Francisco

Alan Wintermute, a specialist in Old Mas-ters & 19th century art, has moved to Christie’s San Francisco, having previously worked at the house’s New York branch.Wintermute is to be the first and only auc-

tion house specialist in his genre on the West coast. According to a brief interview on Christie’s website, his specific areas of interest are French paintings and drawings from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Wintermute has had a long and success-ful career at the auction house, having worked as a Senior Specialist of Old Mas-ter Paintings, vice President and Director of Private Treaty Sales.

coMiNg SooN…An antique dealer’s estate at PiasaOn 2 October 2013, auction house Piasa is to host a sale featuring major pieces from the estate of antiques dealer Jean Rimbault-Joffard’s estate. Entitled “Mobilier, objets

d’art et bel ameublement principalement Haute Époque” (Furniture, Objets d’Art and Fine Furnishings, predominantly from the Haute Époque) the exhibition will feature an oak table used in the film Le Tatoué, with Louis de Funès and Jean gabin, estimated between €10,000 and €15,000. Other pieces to feature in the sale include a Tuscan mar-riage chest, dating from 16th century, estimated between €6,000 and €10,000; a piece in walnut, dating back to the 15th century, estimated between €3,000 and €4,000; an 18th century Portuguese bed, estimated between €5,000 and €7,000; a wardrobe in walnut, dating from the 17th century, estimated between €3,000 and €4,000; and a Roman-style white marble sarcophagus, 3rd century, estimated between €20,000 and €30,000. A presale exhibition is scheduled to be held on 1 and 2 Octo-ber 2013 at the Hôtel Drouot.

Abba memorabilia at Stockholms AuktionsverkAccording to Quotidien de l’Art, auction house Stockholms Auktionsverk is to auction the private collection of Thomas Nordin in sales on 10 and 11 August 2013. The collector

gathered over 25,000 objects linked to pop Swedish group Abba, including discs, costumes, and books. The presale exhibition is held in Stockholm until 10 August, and the collection can also be viewed via an online catalogue on the auction house’s website.

Contemporary rendez-vous with Jean-Charles De Castelbajac at Christie’s ParisA sale entitled “Rendez-vous Contemporain” is to be held at Christie’s Paris on 9 October 2013, with the assistance

of fashion designer Jean-Charles De Castelbajac. The sale will present Impressionist & Modern works, Contemporary Art, 20th century de-corative art and photographs. The auction is also to feature works from the private collection of Rodolphe Stadler. Notable amongst the works on of-fer is Alberto giacometti’s 1961 work Etudes de Tête, estimated at €14,000 to €18,000, Picasso’s Le Barbu (1953), estimated at €4,000 – €6,000, Fran-cis Picabia’s Chiens, estimated at €8,000 and €12,000, and Man Ray’s Nu de Dos estimâtes at €6,000 and €8,000. The sale is also to include photographs of works by germaine Richier taken by brassaï, including two series of photographs estimated at €2,000 to €3,000- each of which is taken from the private collection of Bernard Lamarche-vadel. A section of the auction dedicated to contemporary art is to present Anadir II, estimated between €25,000 and €35,000, as well as a set of twelve works on paper by george Condo, dated 1998, estimated between €5,000 and €7,000. Pieces in the 20th century descorative art category include pieces from the collection of Jean Ridoux, including an ash chest (1939-1945), estimated between €6,000 and €8,000, a Turt-ledove by François Pompon, estimated between €12,000 and €18,000, and a bench by the Campana brothers (2002) estimated between €15,000 and €20,000.




interview…

For the past four years, the a2zart gallery has been striving to promote young and emerging artists, and to encourage exchanges between China and the West. In order to learn more, Art Media Agency met with gallery director Anthony Phuong.

Could you tell us about your gallery?I’ve been managing the a2zart gallery in Ivry-sur-Seine for about four years now, and we’ve participated in Art Paris Art Fair four times already.

Does your gallery’s location in Ivry-sur-Seine (just outside of Paris), pose a problem for your visibility?To be honest, it is quite difficult to get journalists and the public to come out and see us. but I am thankful that there are people who do make the short journey. As an art lover, I don’t hesitate to tra-vel and go see an exhibition that catches my interest, even if it is far away. Also, my gallery is special, because it is new and presents young artists. I think that the fact that we are in Ivry-sur-Seine is an advantage, in the sense that I needed some time to develop my profession as a gallery owner.

© Luke Newton, Photographer Gwen Le Bras

iNTer-cuLTurAL diALogue:iNTerview wiTh ANThoNy phuoNg, direcTor of A2zArT

Originally I trained as a picture framer, and took art history courses to gain the knowledge necessary to begin working in the gallery sec-tor. This career has allowed me to develop my own personal skills. Anyone starting off in this profession has to be very sure of the deci-sions they’re making, and every little step represents a victory. Every person who visits us here in Ivry-sur-Seine represents a victory.

Which artists that you represent?The gallery predominantly seeks to represent Chinese artists who have studied in France. Over time, we have begun to represent Wes-tern artists, as our audience is predominantly Western.

Why did you choose to work with Chinese artists?Quite simply, because my wife and I are originally from China. Du-ring my first job, I realised that these artists were going through a hard time finding their place on the French artistic scene. There were lots of reasons for this. One of the most obvious and signi-ficant problems is the language barrier. Even though these artists have diplomas, they are not really able to express themselves and get their messages across. The second difficulty arises from the fact that galleries representing Chinese artists don’t provide the public with the degree of information necessary to make their works accessible. In fact, I find that galleries that feature Chinese artists unfortunately make too many references to codes or ele-ments of Chinese culture – which is the opposite of what this new generation wants. Having been raised in a French and Chinese environment, most of these codes and historical facts are familiar to me.

I am able to take advantage of my background, and find French equivalents for Chinese cultural references – we just have to find the right references to successfully establish a link between the two countries. All artists, regardless of their nationality, deserve to have the same degree of visibility. I chose to represent Chinese artists because I wanted to improve the way they are represented. It’s a job that is easy for me to carry out, owing to the familiarity with each culture. I’m able to translate coded cultural references and make them understood by people who are familiar only with Western culture. In fact, my unique approach has allowed our gal-lery to distinguish itself from others that similarly present works by Chinese artists.




interview…

Over the past three years, I’ve also held residences in China, and encouraged the Western artists we represent to travel and work in the country. This culture of exchange is aimed at improving the relationship between Western artists and the Chinese community. We also encourage this exchange to take place the other way round, and invite Chinese artists over to France when we host an exhibition of their works. So all of our artists have met and know each other, and we real-ly hope that this culture of exchange stimulates a productive dialogue between them. We really focus on creating a familial environment, encouraging members of the community attached to our gallery to be inspired by one another, and to learn from each other – both culturally and artistically.

How has the public responded to your work?We’ve certainly received very positive feedback from art lovers with a strong interest in China. Others, however, might find my approach difficult to understand; I really want my gallery to have a universal outlook, representing Western artists alongside Chinese artists. The interest at the heart of all this is Art with a capital A! but my Chinese heritage makes my associations with the cultural and its artists a logical step.

How do you choose the artists that you wish to represent?Deciding which artists to represent is at once simple and very complicated. I try to select artists from my generation – who are between 30 and 40 years old. I am not looking to promote youth-fulness by choosing this age bracket. As far as I’m concerned, the various artistic movements that have emerged throughout the past few years are the result of a major historical event. This phenomenon has often been noticed after major wars, since these periods have led to the crea-tion of most of the major movements of our days. Since then, we have noticed that few of these movements have managed to make themselves widely known, even though there have been many attempts, as in the case of street art. However, these movements do not draw enough inte-rest to become internationally successful. I chose this generation because it represents the last adolescent generation before the appearance of the internet. In fact, in my opinion, the internet is the greatest turning point of this century. This phenomenon has touched the whole world: it is not a war, in the traditional sense, but a communication and visual battle. This war is also more aggressive, since people are faced with an excess of information. The fact that this generation was born before the appearance of the Internet accounts for the various differences in the works and approaches of the artists. By deciding to represent artists from this generation, my gallery represents mainly emerging artists.

iNTer-cuLTurAL diALogue:iNTerview wiTh ANThoNy phuoNg, direcTor of A2zArT

© A2Z Art Gallery, Photographer Gwen Le Bras

Is there an artist that you prefer among those that you represent?The fact that my work as a gallery owner is based on creating a synergy around art in general, I can’t spotlight an ar-tist and leave out the others. As far as I’m concerned, whether our artists are painters, drawers or work with a diffe-rent medium, it doesn’t matter since they are all competent. All of them are interested in their artistic field of predi-lection, with different approaches.

My job is to really create momentum, thanks to the work of each one of them. I obviously need more time to promote the work of artists specialising in abs-traction, conceptualism, video, etc., since their approaches are harder to explain. I don’t think that artists who choose to present themes that are more accessible to the public are more im-portant.




interview…iNTer-cuLTurAL diALogue:

iNTerview wiTh ANThoNy phuoNg, direcTor of A2zArT

These artists easily benefit from more fame, but my work is in fact based on creating a balance between these artists and others. We have to think about the long term: artists who encounter difficulties are sometimes the ones who resurface later on in time.

What are your upcoming projects?In the autumn, we will be participating in the Docks Art Fair, which will be held in parallel with the Biennale de Lyon. We have decided to host a solo show and will present the works of Luke Newton for this occasion. Just after his presentation at the fair, he will ex-hibit his works at the gallery.

Later on, we will organise the first exhibition of Chinese artist Li Wei in France. She is cur-rently the best sculptor of her generation in China. She was selected to participate in the Hugo boss Prize, which allows winners to exhibit their works at guggenheim.

© A2Z Art Gallery, PhotographerGwen Le Bras




fairs & festivals…

progrAMMiNg…Details of Aspen’s ArtCrush 2013 announcedThe Aspen Art Museum’s 9th annual ArtCrush gala is to take place between Wednesday 31 July and Friday 2 August 2013.The event brings together 400 participants, inclu-ding art collectors, wine connoisseurs, artists, gal-lery owners, museum directors, curators and global business leaders. A number of events will take place over three days, with the main “ArtCrush gala” taking place on Friday 2 August, featuring silent and live art auctions. Items available for auction include works by artists Cory Arcangel, Iwan baan, Alexandre da Cunha, Ellsworth Kelly, David Shrigley, Taryn Simon and Lorna Simpson, amongst others. The evening’s live auction is to be conducted by Sotheby’s European Deputy Chair-man and Senior International Specialist of Contempo-rary Art, Oliver barker.The winner of the 2013 Aspen Award for Art has been announced as Teresita Fernández, who will receive the prize during Friday’s gala evening. Fernández pro-duces experimental, site-specific sculptural installa-tions, and has produced works which are included in the major private collections of the Museum of Mo-dern Art, NY; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the St. Louis Museum of Contemporary Art; MoCA Miami; and the Albright-Knox gallery in buffalo, NY, amongst others. She lives and works in Brooklyn.

The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts announces the programme of the 2013 Asian Art BiennaleThe National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts has announced the programme for the forthcoming 2013 Asian Art bien-nial, which is to run between 5 October 2013 and 5 Janu-ary 2014, and is titled “Everyday Life.”Curated by Iris Shu-Ping Huang, the fair focuses on the creative trends observed in Asian arts that were created in recent years, and aesthetic depictions of ”everyday-ness.” Exhibits at the fair seek to question what it means when things become quotidian, considering attitudes, habits or practices which have become integrated into daily life.The exhibition is to feature contributions from 20 Asian artists, and will also feature works by 15 invited artists from Israel, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The biennial is to be held at the Nation-al Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and will be accompanied by a series of symposiums dedicated to Asian art, curating and scholarships.

ArTicLe of The week…Tickets for Frieze London 2013 now availableTickets have now gone on sale for Oc-tober’s Frieze London, which co-incides with Frieze Masters. This year’s edition of the fair will join 150 contemporary galleries from across the world, with a large number hailing from berlin, New York, London and Tokyo. The event will be organised with the

support of a Dutch bank, and will pre-sent the works of over 1,000 internatio-nally renowned artists, accompanying Frieze Projects, Frieze Film and Frieze Talks. Organisers behind the fair also release the publication Frieze three times a year. The 2013 edition of the event will in-

cite visitors to subscribe to the maga-zine once they purchase their entrance tickets, with a discount of up to 45%. This offer will only be available during the purchasing of entrance tickets for the fair. Tickets offering same-day ac-cess to both Frieze London and Frieze Masters are available, but limited.

cALL for AppLicATioNS…Call for applications: SCOPE Miami Beach 2013The organisers behind SCOPE Miami beach 2013 have released a call for applications for its 2013 edition, which is to run between 4 and 8 Decem-ber. Applicants are requested to submit their applications by 30 Septem-ber 2013. Those who are successful will join a programme featuring 100 internation-al exhibitors and 15 “breeder Program” galleries, situated on the sands of Miami beach. Over the past decade, SCOPE has held more than 65 art fairs across the world, and prides itself on existing as a showcase for works by emerging contemporary artists, and embracing a multidisciplinary ap-proach to artistic production. SCOPE Miami beach is expected to attract over 40,000 visitors over the course of five days, with a target audience of collectors, curators and art enthusiasts. Over the course of its existence, SCOPE has been responsible for generating total sales of over $500m. The event will open with a vIP and press evening on 3 December.

Applications open for Festival Circulation(s)Circulation(s) is a festival for young photography in Europe. The next edi-tion of the event is scheduled to take place between 7 February and 16 March 2014, at CENTQUATRE in Paris.The fesitval is now in its 4th year, and aims to look at Europe through pho-tography, bringing together works by forty European photographers. The event is organised in association with French group FETART, and recorded a total of 28,000 visitors in 2013.Applications are open to all Europe-based photographers who have just begun their careers. Applications can be downloaded from the event’s we-bsite, and must be submitted by 21 September 2013.

NoMiNATioN…Zoë Ryan appointed curator of the 2nd Istanbul Design BiennialThe organisers of the 2nd edition of the Istanbul Design biennial, to be held from 18 October to 14 December 2014, have announced that british curator and writer Zoë Ryan is to join the project as a curator.The biennial is organised in conjunction with the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. The conceptual approach of the event is to be announced by Zoë Ryan at a press conference, which is to take place in November.Zoë Ryan is the John H. bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has been responsible for building the museum’s collection of contemporary design, as well as its holdings in historical and contem-porary architecture. Ryan is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Art History at the School of the Art Institute and the School of Design at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She has formerly acted as Senior Curator at New York’s van Alen Institute, and has held curatorial assistant positions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the victoria & Albert Museum in London. In 2012, the Fast Company magazine identified Ryan as one of the 50 people sha-ping the future of design.




Documents

113-en