Brian Griffiths Stone Face Bear 2008
Griffiths is my underdog/wild card pick. He isn’t the biggest name, but one of his cheaky sculptures would really fit in at Trafalgar Square.
hyde or die
Katarina Fritsch Rat King 1993
While I enjoy Fritsch’s cartoonish sizes and representations of the figure and other objects, I think the consistent use of a static color would be a turn-off for me if I was a judge on the Fourth Plinth’s jury.*
But then again she is represented by White Cube, and you can never discount the influence of a power dealer. She is in my solid #3 spot.
*Call me.
“The work was a forgery. Science proved it. And so there it hangs in the show, on a wall of shame, surrounded like a mug shot by the evidence of its true crime. But look, never mind what the label says, and you may notice something else about the picture, too, some other truth. It’s beautiful.”
— Michael Kimmelman on the “Fakes” show in London.
» Charles Saatchi Donates 200 Artworks Valued at More than 25 Million Pounds, Gallery to UK
The advertising tycoon, whose patronage made household names of artists like Emin and Damien Hirst, announced Thursday he is donating his London gallery and 200 works in its collection to the nation as a new public art museum.
The gallery said the works, valued at more than 25 million pounds ($37 million), will be given to the government. The 70,000-square foot (6,500-square meter) Saatchi Gallery will be renamed the Museum of Contemporary Art, London.
The artworks being donated include Emin’s “My Bed” — the artist’s famous recreation of her boudoir, complete with empty liquor bottles, condoms and cigarette butts — and Richard Wilson’s “20:50,” an eye-dazzling room filled with oil. There are also works by Perry — best known for vases adorned with disturbing twists on classical scenes — and artists from around the world, including China’s Zhang Dali and India’s Jitish Kallat.
» BP protesters stage mock oil spill on steps of London's Tate Britain
According to reports from BBC News, a group called the Good Crude Britannia is demanding that the gallery cut its ties with the company over the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf. The group used a substance resembling oil to stage the mock spill, then covered the scene with bird-like feathers. (One report identified the thick black substance as molasses.)
BP has numerous ties with cultural institutions in the U.K. A recent article in the Guardian stated that the oil company has partnerships with the British Museum, the Tate galleries, the Royal Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery, the Almeida Theatre, the National Maritime Museum and the Science and Natural History Museums.
On Monday, the Guardian published a letter signed by numerous artists and cultural figures protesting BP’s involvement with the Tate Britain. “These relationships enable big oil companies to mask the environmentally destructive nature of their activities with the social legitimacy that is associated with such high-profile cultural associations,” stated the letter.
- I like how in this article published via the LATimes Culture blog conveniently leaves out that our own LACMA has a BP Grand Entrance, even though they have reported about it before.
- Devil’s advocate: shouldn’t we be happy to take their money for whatever we can? Yes, what they have done in the gulf is unforgivable, but with the ever shrinking list of people/corporations willing to donate millions of dollars towards the arts, can beggars be choosers?*
*This situation is obviously more complicated than this, just thinking out loud.
To celebrate Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary, the gallery will host No Soul For Sale – A Festival of Independents. For this free arts festival, Tate Modern is inviting 70 of the world’s most innovative independent art spaces to take over the Turbine Hall. The festival will fill the iconic space with an eclectic mix of cutting-edge arts events, performances, music and film on 14-16 May 2010.
The gallery will stay open until midnight on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 May for free late night performances by artists and musicians including Cosey Fanni Tutti, DJ Spooky, Jeffrey Lewis, Kaffe Matthews, Long Meg, patten, Martin Creed and his Band, Skin Jobs, Temperatures, and Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz.
No Soul For Sale is a festival that brings together the most exciting non-profit centres, alternative institutions, artists’ collectives and underground enterprises from around the world. The participants are encouraged to show whatever they choose, be it art, performance, video, publications, or simply themselves. Neither a fair nor an exhibition, No Soul For Sale is a convention of individuals and groups who devote their energies to art they believe in, beyond the limits of the market and other logistical constraints – it is a celebration of the independent forces that animate contemporary art. The festival is an exercise in coexistence: organisations exhibit alongside one another without partitions or walls, creating a pop-up art village.
Why don’t I live in London?
Installation shot at the Saatchi Gallery of the new exhibition The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today
And here is the weekend/near future guide for cities other than Los Angeles. This week it includes:
New York
- The Gagosian located at Madison Avenue is opening Damien Hirst’s new show End of an Era. I don’t know if it will be good, but it will probably be flashy. So that’s something, right?
- You only have about one more week to go take in some pretty epic Keith Sonnier’s at Mary Boone Gallery. It comes down on February 6.
- A little more than half way through it’s show is Anish Kapoor: Memory at the Guggenheim. Something to do to keep you out of the cold, right?*
London
- The Saatchi is opening it’s newest exhibition (pictured above) entitled The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, looks to be a promising show.
- Ed Keinholz at The National Gallery is certainly a must see! If you haven’t had a chance to go by yet, hurry up because it’s only on through February 21st.
- The Unilever Series by Miroslaw Balka is halfway through its run at the Tate Modern.
Paris
- Palais Tokyo is closing Bertrand Dezoteux this Sunday. Last chance!
- Herman Diephuis: Ciao Bella is at the Centre Pompidou this weekend. Buy tickets here.
- L’interprétation des rêvesat is opening at the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian this weekend. Looks surreal.
*You’re right, I don’t know how cold it is there. It’s sunny and warm. Sorry for trying to pretend like I understand.
