The auction of Yves Saint Laurent‘s art collection in Paris last night brought in an astounding $262 million, according to Bloomberg. In fact, the sale set records for works of seven of the major artists, including Henri Matisse’s 1911 still life of cowslips in a vase titled Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, Read More
“One of the most ambitious … undertakings in the Whitney’s history” is how Adam Weinberg, the museum’s director, describes Picasso and American Art, an exhibition that sets out to examine the “profound impact” Picasso had on painters and sculptors stateside.
It had damn well better be an ambitious undertaking. Picasso’s influence on world art—forget Read More
Supernatural gifts—like communicating with the dead or powers of prophecy—aren’t typically associated with art critics. If that were the case, we could venture into more lucrative professions—real estate, say, or palm reading. Still, I feel confident divining the response of Marcel Duchamp, the grand père of anti-art, who died almost 40 years ago, to the Read More
Supernatural gifts—like communicating with the dead or powers of prophecy—aren’t typically associated with art critics. If that were the case, we could venture into more lucrative professions—real estate, say, or palm reading. Still, I feel confident divining the response of Marcel Duchamp, the grand père of anti-art, who died almost 40 years ago, to the Read More
I’m under attack. I’m the Typhoid Mary of the art world. In the last few weeks, I’ve been publicly vilified as “a hack” and a “rip-off artist.” It has even been said of me that I am “full of shit.” Charmed, I’m sure!
I’m not really surprised. It was inevitable; I could see it Read More
In the history of modern art, nothing dates more rapidly than audacity. Every fresh shock marks a new beginning for a rising generation eager to overtake established elders. The art that challenges orthodoxy in one generation is embraced as a classic by the next and soon absorbed into the realm of established convention. As a Read More
It’s both amazing and amusing to be recalled to a time-1917 or thereabouts-when Elie Nadelman (1882-1946), whose work is the subject of a marvelous retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, was denounced as “outrageous,” “unwholesome,” “gruesome,” even “degenerate,” for exhibiting sculpture that depicted adult men and women in modern dress. Proper people-the very Read More
“Marcel Duchamp,” writes Francis M. Naumann, “professed an aversion to any form of artistic repetition.” Like so many other of the arch utterances one encounters in Mr. Naumann’s latest opus on the artist, Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Making Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Henry N. Abrams, $70), this deadpan reference is itself Read More
When Larry Gagosian first came to New York from Los Angeles in 1986, he opened a small gallery on West 23rd Street between 10th and 11th avenues. The silver-haired gallerist was probably the only dealer in Chelsea at the time. In 1989, enriched by sales to S.I. Newhouse Jr., Leonard Lauder and other big collectors, Read More
Arturo Schwarz is a 75-year-old Egyptian-born poet, anarchist and former Trotskyist who has resided in Milan since the 1940′s. In addition to numerous works on alchemy and cabala, he is also the author of The Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp , a two-volume catalogue raisonée that was originally published in 1967 and reissued in an Read More
