Controversial, thoughtful, hilarious. Italian-born, New York-based artist Maurizio Cattelan, known for his hyper-realistic sculpture pranks and generally stirring things up, is currently showing all of his work in a new “anti-retrospective” at the Guggenheim. No, really, it’s basically all there. Maurizio Cattelan: All features more than 130 of his provocative works hanging in the middle of the Wright-designed rotunda, tied up into a giant, swinging heap. If you get a chance, you should take a closer look in person before January 22. In the meantime, here are our favorite pieces created by the purportedly retiring artist — from the pathetic Hitler to the meteorite-stricken Pope to the trophy of a trophy wife. See some of Cattelan’s best pranks in our gallery. Read More »
Last year German conceptual artist Hans-Peter Feldmann was named the winner of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s $100,000 Hugo Boss Prize; as part of his resulting exhibition (which runs through November), he has taken 100,000 out-of-circulation bills and cover the walls of a large gallery in the museum — a process that took art handlers almost two weeks.
“I’m 70 years old, and I began making art in the ’50s,” he told The New York Times. “At that time there was no money in the art world. Money and art didn’t exist. So for me $100,000 is very special. It’s incredible really. And I would like to show the quantity of it.” Head over to Colossal for more of David Heald’s photos of the installation, which were provided courtesy the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York.
After weeks of delays, News Corp. has officially announced that the launch of Rupert Murdoch’s iPad newspaper The Daily will take place on Wednesday, February 2 at the Guggenheim Museum. Despite earlier rumors, we’re now hearing that Steve Jobs will not be in attendance, but Apple’s VP of Internet Services, Eddy Cue, will be. From what little we’ve already seen, The Daily‘s content doesn’t look to be much different that what we’d see on the cover of the New York Post; that said, a staff that includes editor Sasha Frere-Jones and critic Heather Havrilesky suggests that there will be some meatier features as well. And for a $4.25 monthly subscription, we think most iPad users will be willing to risk it. Are you planning to check it out?
For the inaugural installment of YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video, a curatorial team from the Guggenheim weeded through more than 23,000 submissions from 91 countries to come up with the 125 videos on the shortlist (which you can view now on the YouTube Play channel). “We focused on works that really were conceived from the start for an online medium, so not necessarily works that were to be projected in a museum space or works that simply documented a performance,” explains Joan Young, associate curator of contemporary art at the Guggenheim. “The idea really is working with the medium.”
Beginning today, their selections will play at the various Guggenheim museums around the world; a jury that includes Darren Aronofsky, Animal Collective, and Takashi Murakami will narrow down the list to 20 videos that will be presented at a special celebration the Guggenheim in New York on October 21. These finalists will be on view to the public October 22 through the 24th, as well as online. Click through to check out our top picks.
From blueprints to renderings, budget restraints to breaking ground, the architectural review process is slow-moving beast. (Just consider the Second Avenue subway punchline.) So imagine our excitement over the highly anticipated May opening of the Pompidou-Metz after a scant three-year delay. The high profile of the museum means that Metz will have the chance to reinvent itself from a town of industry in northeastern France into a full-blown arts hub.
The idea of the expanding museum brand is nothing new — we’ve seen it thanks to franchises like the Guggenheim and the Tate, while Whitney and Louvre offspring wait in the proverbial wings. So what we can expect from the newest outpost of France’s most venerable contemporary art institution? A sneak peek at Pompidou-Metz after the jump.
Celebrated for his gigantic, stainless steel Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Anish Kapoor is changing the cultural environment with his public works.
The Indian-born, London-based artist represented Britain at the 1990 Venice Biennale and took home the 1991 Turner Prize with his monochromatic, pigment-covered, abstract forms. Since then, he’s carved mysterious cavities in stone, made massive wax installations, and fabricated shiny concave disks — like the enormous Sky Mirror in New York’s Rockefeller Center — that dynamically reflect their surroundings.
The Hugo Boss Prize was established in 1996 with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as a way to “support talented young, emerging artists as well as established individuals whose public recognition may be long overdue.” The winner — who receives $100,000 and a show at the Gugg — is chosen by an international panel of distinguished judges from the art world.
Last year Palestinian artist Emily Jacir took home the prize, and past winners include Matthew Barney, Pierre Huyghe, and Tacita Dean. After the jump peep some offerings from this year’s finalists.
We caught Yeasayer at the Guggenheim on Friday as part of the museum’s It Came from Brooklyn series. Two-person rave Tanline opened for them after a reading by Rachel Sherman. Brooklyn comic Max Silvestri emceed the event. While we fully expected Yeasayer to blow the roof off the Gugg’s rotunda, the epic electro/psychsters more than delivered — a light show complete with “light-bending glasses” helped augment the performance.
The name Kandinsky is one for the ages, like Lincoln or Roosevelt. Even the average art novice knows that Kandinsky was a trailblazer, much like a C-average student knows, at least in theory, that Lincoln “freed the slaves.” The current Kandinsky exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim is an easy fit.
The knowledge that François Pinault — owner of Christie’s, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Puma, Chateau-Latour, and other major brands — is one of the richest men in the world doesn’t make his art collection any better than the next guy with deep pockets; but the fact that he has impeccable taste in art and design certainly makes his collection, and the buildings that house it, stand out. Read More »
