leannegoebel

Archive for December, 2008

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Alchemical uncertainty at Boulder MOCA

In Art Museum, Mixed media, New Media, contemporary art on December 18, 2008 at 11:09 am

Erika Wanenmacher
The Science Club: The Boy’s Room, Now, Forever, Then, Part 1”

Sept. 26-Dec. 27, 2008
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
1750 13th Street
Boulder, CO
80302
303.443.2122

Entering the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art I am unsure what to expect from an exhibition about scientific experiments conducted on American citizens during the cold war and the age of nuclear fear. My husband, who is ten years older than me, remembers the drills at school, going to the bomb shelter, hiding under a desk, as if that would really help.

I am drawn to the large abstracted image mounted on acrylic or plexi glass. It’s organic, possibly cellular, human maybe. Horribly beautiful. It’s a blow up of a glass negative that artist Erika Wanenmacher found at a surplus store in Los Alamos, New Mexico¬¬–photographic images from a microscope ranging in magnification from 1,000 to 60,000x. It turns out they are mostly mammalian collagen connective tissue. She writes in her artist statement that they had the worst resonance of anything she had ever touched.

“They just felt ‘BAD.’ I let them sit in my studio for a couple years and sort of ‘off gas.’ They started to tell me stories.”

The Science Club is a collection of sculptural installations. In 1993, a reporter from the Albuquerque Tribune, Eileen Welsome published a series of stories about radiation experiments conducted on humans by the U.S. government from the 1940s to the 1970s. Those studied were primarily the poor, minorities, pregnant women, soldiers, and children. Welsome went on to write a book in 1999 called The Plutonium Files. At a state institution for retarded children in Massachusetts, scientists at M.I.T. conducted experiments on children, exposing them to radiation. In order to get the children to participate, they called the studies “The Science Club.”

Wanenmacher provides the viewer with rooms all in black and gray, circa 1950s–1960s. An accompanying audio component provides a fictionalized, first person narrative of a boy growing up in Los Alamos. Atomic insignia’s are everywhere. Even MAD Magazine is black, white and gray. I loved the paint-by-number paintings of the Hiroshima bomb blasts done in black, white and shades of grey. Curtains blow in the breeze against a window open to blackness. A short wave radio crackles with the boys’ story. It’s a bit creepy, all the glorification of nuclear and scientific exploration and the lack of color.

In another room, Wanenmacher, guides the viewer on a spiritual quest to rid them of the negativity. A bronze eyeball projects an image onto a floating screen. It sets amidst a pentagram on the floor. The artist herself leads the spell, calls the four directions and then the video follows her in the set up of the screen and projector. I wanted more magic, more mysticism, more cleansing. But perhaps, there is not enough to wash clean the horrible evil, the destructive power of the atomic bomb.

Wanenmacher’s work is guided by the principles of alchemy and the belief that each object made is a spell with the unlimited possibility for change and remediation. But I left the exhibit feeling exposed, radiated, and almost as uncomfortable as I felt when visiting the museum in Los Alamos tracing the history of the Little Boy and Fat Man following the successful detonation of the world’s first nuclear weapon at the Trinity test site–uncertain about the options for change and remediation when it comes to weapons of mass destruction.

artsjournalist@mac.com
Leanne Goebel is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and a 2007 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation | Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Damien Hirst–hypocrit

In contemporary art on December 15, 2008 at 7:45 am

From two recent stories: one from The Independent in the UK and one from Artinfo.com.

It seems that Damien Hirst is demanding recompense from a teenage artist who used images of Hirst’s diamond encrusted skull titled For the Love of God in collage paintings he sells on his website.

Below is from The Independent:

16-year-old’s stencil designs fall foul of multi-millionaire artist
One is an entrepreneurial 16-year-old who takes time off from his schoolwork to create urban stencil designs of cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse and Clint Eastwood, which he sells for £65 on the internet. The other is the Turner prize-winning father of Britart whose diamond-encrusted skull and pickled sharks have brought him a £200m fortune. Ordinarily, the two figures at opposite ends of the art spectrum should never have cause to meet. But Cartain, the moniker for the teenage artist, has earned the ire of Damien Hirst for incorporating photographic images of his platinum cast of a human skull, For the Love of God, into his graffiti prints. The two artists have become locked in an unlikely art clash that has led Hirst to demand recompense from the teenager for selling £200 worth of images of his skull without permission, says Private Eye magazine.

This would all make for interesting news if it weren’t so hypocritical. Damien Hirst has appropriated work from many artists and settled claims out of court according to the BBC. Most prominently, an article from The Times in which artist John LeKay, a former friend of Hirst, says the diamond skull is a copy of work he’s been doing since 1993. LeKay uses less expensive crystals in his piece, which he has been quoted as saying “looks as if it is covered in diamonds.”

In 2003, Hirst was accused of copying two different artists, again featured in an article from The Times.

Seems to me it’s the pot calling the kettle black in the case of Hirst and the teen artist Cartain. Of course the benefit is now everyone knows this 16-year-old artists name.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Tyler Green has got it going on

In Culture, media on December 12, 2008 at 5:49 pm

Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes is one of the finest arts journalists working today. And he is on the cutting edge of what is about to happen to journalism (the end of print). Thanks Tyler, for leading the way.

Do you read his amazing blog, twitter posts, facebook page? No? You should be.

Here is a great post from last week, where he captures a terrific piece from film critic Roger Ebert on the death of cultural journalism and the celebrity cult factor that seems to drive our culture.

Another short, but insightful comment from Dec. 5 at Modern Art Notes should be read by everyone trying to figure out this new technology and how it should be used or could be used.

Green has it figured out. The real news is happening here and now in the blogosphere, on the web and with twitter.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Their Way, Fort Lewis College seniors eschew imitation of others, Durango Herald, Dec. 5, 2008

In Durango, contemporary art on December 12, 2008 at 7:35 am

It’s the last hurrah for the Fort Lewis College graduating senior art majors. In their final exhibit – now on display at the college art gallery – students not only selected the art to display, they worked with gallery director Rita Cordalis to hang and light the exhibit. It is satisfying to see several of the soon-to-be graduates pushing boundaries and creating art that is different from what most viewers experience in Durango. Even without access to art museums, the faculty is managing to expose their students to the wide range of art being made today and more importantly, encouraging these young artists to find their own truthful form of expression beyond mimicry and imitation.


“Baby Girl,” colored pencil, is one of three in the Watermelon Portrait Series by Ebony Ice. Ice is a graduating senior at Fort Lewis College.

The absurdity of racial prejudice is explored in the highly detailed, exquisite, colored-pencil drawings of Ebony Ice. Ice says in her artist statement that her future plans include character design for animated films. Perhaps she might want to remake herself as the female version of Takashi Murakami, the artist who seeks to blur the lines between fine and commercial art, or take a stab at creating her uncomfortable yet humorous images as larger-than-life cartoon characters a la Jeff Koons and his giant, blow-up puppy.

Ice has the makings of being a far better artist than Koons or Murakami.

Her drawings and illustrations are competent for a college senior, and her sensibility is much deeper than that of most college students. I don’t know if Ice is a nontraditional student (someone outside typical college age) or a twenty-something.

She calls the three drawings her “Watermelon Revolution,” saying she has always been impressed by those with the integrity to stand up for what they believe.

Apayo Moore is another whose art is created with a mission in mind: protecting the wild salmon of Bristol Bay.

A native Alaskan, Moore provides a humorous look at salmon in her diptych “B.B. (Bristol Bay) Red” and “B.B. (Bristol Bay) King.” “B.B. King” is of a salmon playing the blues.

Moore writes in her artist statement that she hopes “the viewer will gain a new curiosity about the role a salmon plays in the natural lifecycle of this planet and will realize the importance of habitat conservation for pristine ecosystems.”

Maybe Moore should send her paintings to the governor of her home state.







“Things Fall Apart (The Epic of Dardanus)” a 13-panel installation by Chandler Wigton at the Fort Lewis College Art Gallery is part of the Senior Art Exhibit on display through Dec. 18.

Chandler Wigton makes a large statement with his 13-drawing installation on the back wall of the gallery titled “Things Fall Apart (The Epic of Dardanus).” The drawings are all the same height but vary in width, and the artist uses multiple media to create his work, such as ink, graphite, oil, watercolor and acrylic paint.

It’s a narrative work that tells a fragmented story with images and text.

“In my art, I want to express the utter and inevitable sense of despair, sadness, loss and hurt that comes along with being a living organism on this planet while simultaneously interlacing my imagery with messages of hope, healing, love and rebirth,” he writes in his artist statement.

The exhibit is heavy on drawing, painting and ceramic work. There are two photographs and one large sculpture on display.

Digital media is more prevalent than in earlier senior student exhibits.

Some of these artists will continue to pursue creative work, others likely will not.

Either way, these students understand a bit more about what it means to make art and then to display it, market it and try to sell it.

artsjournalist@mac.com Leanne Goebel is a member of the International Association
of Art Critics and a 2007 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts
Writers Grant.

Contents copyright ©, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved.
Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Author brings goddess lore to area, Durango Herald, Nov. 28, 2009

In Books on December 11, 2008 at 5:25 pm

Book highlights deity for each day

Review

Everyday Goddess: Ancient Myths for Modern Women by Julie Loar, BookSurge Publishing, 450 pages, $17.99 paperback.

For more than 30 years, Julie Loar has been a student of metaphysics and symbolism. She also is an astrologer and tarot reader. Her research has taken her around the world to sacred sites, and every year she leads a tour of Egypt to explore ancient, sacred spots.

Loar shares her insights along with the wisdom of goddesses from around the world in her fourth book, Everyday Goddesses: Ancient Myths for Modern Women. The book features a goddess for every day of the year, arranged by cycle, season and zodiac.

Every culture on Earth has marked time by tracking the motions of the moon and the path of the planets against the background of stars. In fact, the zodiac has been called the “Girdle of the Goddess,” Loar writes.

Every month of an adult woman’s life is a complete cycle of birth and death called menstruation. The cycles at one time were important to society, and women who had completed that cycle and entered a new stage once were revered for their wisdom. Today, we value the maiden and the mother more than the crone.

Loar has arranged her book as a meditative journey through the year. Goddesses associated with dawn and new beginnings appear in the spring. Goddesses associated with birth appear in the summer. Goddesses associated with the harvest appear in autumn and goddesses associated with death appear during the dark time in the Northern Hemisphere, winter.

Additionally, Loar perceives an alignment between the symbols of the zodiac and ancient symbols of the sacred feminine, such as birds, trees, serpents and spirals.

For example, we are now in Sagittarius, a mutable fire sign that embodies the idea of illumination. The symbol for Sagittarius is the hunter or the archer. The goddess symbol for this time of the cycle is the bow and arrow. Some of the most ancient goddesses were hunters of the primeval forest, guarding the animals who lived there.

The goddesses throughout this book are complex and contradictory: they are gentle but fierce, creative but destructive. They are strong, wise, brave and loving. Loar shares the myth or sacred story of each day’s goddess along with a contemplation.

“In Western culture we have devalued, even demonized, aspects of the feminine for nearly 4,000 years, effectively pushing these archetypes beneath our conscious awareness,” Loar writes.

Her book attempts to bring these archetypes back into consciousness by providing contemplation for each day of the year based upon a sacred feminine image. The book can be used as a daily meditation or as an oracle. The reader can set an intention or ask a question, and let the pages fall open and the divine feminine will speak.

Loar presents a simple concept: provide a goddess a day for contemplation. Yet no other book has aligned the goddesses with the cycles and the seasons, with the zodiac and the symbolism. Her book is a tool to create empowered women one day at a time, to turn every woman into what the ancient Egyptians called a nutrit, a little goddess.

artsjournalist@mac.com
Leanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the arts.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Pagosa actors put on Into the Woods, Durango Herald, Nov. 21, 2009

In theatre on December 11, 2008 at 11:33 am

Play benefits music students’ education

The childless baker’s wife (Jessica Krebs) and the baker (Bill Nobles) make a deal with the witch (Kathy Isberg) in Wednesday’s dress rehearsal for the Pagosa Springs’ Music Boosters’ production of “Into the Woods” at Pagosa Springs High School.

Grimm’s fairy tales get a dose of reality in a production of “Into the Woods” by Pagosa Springs’ Music Boosters. Three more performances will be at the Pagosa Springs High School auditorium today through Sunday, featuring local amateur and professional actors.

Bill Nobles and Jessica Krebs lead the talented cast as the childless baker and his wife, respectively. Kathy Isberg as the witch hinted at a strong performance in rehearsals. Former professional actor Zach Nelson serves as the narrator. The soft, lovely voiced Josie Lafferty plays Cinderella, and Robert Neel plays a naïve, young Jack.

Singing, dancing and costumes are strong. Set design is by Scott Farnham and Lisa Hartley directs the orchestra.

Yet the highlight of this production, directed by longtime Music Boosters board member Dale Morris, is the way community theater brings people together. The production features 25 locals and dozens more behind the scenes helping with lighting, makeup and dressing.

Community theater provides a lot of hard work, endless volunteer hours and hopefully a lot of applause from neighbors and friends. Music Boosters hardly ever disappoints, and based upon early dress rehearsals, “Into the Woods” is shaping up to be another strong musical.

“Into the Woods” is a Steven Sondheim and James Lapine show. It debuted in 1986 and first appeared on Broadway in 1987. This challenging musical’s first act was written almost completely in iambic meter. The Music Boosters cast can pull off the syncopated presentation and the ensemble of soloists allows for a breadth of talent to be showcased.

The play interweaves many of Grimm’s fairy tales including Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstock, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, with the original story of a childless baker and his wife. The play goes beyond the happy ending and explores the reality of decisions made and the consequences resulting from individual actions. It is a play about what happens after “happily ever after.”










From left, Lucinda (Zoe Falco), Florinda (Amber Ricker) and Cinderella (Josie Lafferty) discuss going to the king’s party with Cinderella’s stepmother (Sally Neel). The play benefits music students who continue their studies in college.

“Into the Woods” is about how lives are intertwined in a community and in a family. The play explores the complicated parent-child relationship, what it means to accept responsibility, morality and what happens when a wish comes true.

One of the great things about a Music Boosters production is the scholarship program. Music Boosters buys instruments for the local schools and currently supports six students who are furthering their education in Colorado, California and New York. A night of entertainment is also a night of social consciousness. Knowing your ticket may help one of the young people on stage go to college might make the experience all the more enjoyable.

artsjournalist@mac.com
Leanne Goebel is a freelance writer specializing in the arts.

Contents copyright ©, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved.
Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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No More Glitzy Art?

In art market, contemporary art on December 9, 2008 at 6:44 pm

IS GLITZY ART ON THE WAY OUT?

Prices aren’t the only thing different about the art on offer at ABMB [Art Basel Miami Beach] this year: tough economic conditions have also influenced what many dealers have brought and what many collectors are buying. Eventually, the times may also affect what art is made. In a word-or a few-big, glitzy, high-cost art is out, replaced by smaller, less showy works that don’t require artists or dealers to take out a mortgage to produce, or collectors to build showcase museums to display their treasures. ArtNewspaper

Wow?! Imagine a world without diamond encrusted skulls or gigantic installations requiring their own museum. Hmm. What might the new art look like? Perhaps, old art?

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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An Art Fair that’s all about the art? Did hell freeze over?

In Art Fair, art market, contemporary art on December 9, 2008 at 10:01 am

The Miami Herald has a fun article on the results of Art Basel. Read it here. And play along by watching the video and trying to guess how much the art costs.

Equal parts let’s party while Rome is burning and wait a minute, this art fair circuit is not just about bloated sums of money, they are actually showing some pretty interesting art, too. Art Basel came to a close. Too bad Steven Soderbergh and Benicio del Torro chose Miami over Santa Fe to schmooze and party, because Che was also showing last week at the Santa Fe Film Festival. But Miami was still the place for the jet set to party. And since I do not have an account with NetJets, I drove to Santa Fe for the film festival.

The official press release from Art Basel doesn’t mention that the event was a bust or a bore or that the energy was off. Read it below if you dare.

Exceptionally high quality at Art Basel Miami Beach 2008 Miami Beach, Florida, USA – The seventh edition of Art Basel Miami Beach closed on Sunday, December 7, 2008. More than 250 galleries from 33 countries exhibited works by over 2,000 artists. With a program of special exhibitions, performances, panel discussions, visits to private collections, and crossover events featuring film, music, and architecture, the show attracted more than 40,000 visitors and 1,800 journalists from all over the globe.

Many thousands of guests attended the surrounding cultural exhibitions and events, while renowned artists and leading artworld personalities participated in the programs of Art Basel Miami Beach. The visitors included art collectors, museum professionals, and art enthusiasts who flew in from all over the USA and the rest of the world. A great many artists were also drawn to the event, among them Chuck Close, Ai Weiwei, James Rosenquist, Olafur Eliasson, Philip Taaffe, Jeff Koons, AA Bronson, Vik Muniz, and Francesco Vezzoli. Over 100 museum groups visited the show with delegations from their boards of trustees, as did private collectors North and South America, Europe and the emerging markets of the artworld.

Despite the difficult broader economic situation, Art Basel Miami Beach proved that high-quality works remain in strong demand, as collectors rewarded excellent material and strong booth presentations with steady sales throughout the week. Many exhibitors reported satisfactory to excellent results given the current conditions, made valuable new contacts for the future of their program, and are already looking forward to the next Art Basel Miami Beach, which takes place December 3 through December 6, 2009. Discussing their experience with the show’s organizers, gallerists offered positive reports, including: Raimund Thomas, Galerie Thomas (Munich): ”We have been participating at Art Basel Miami Beach since its second edition and have established many personal contacts over the years. This proves its value now and we have an extremely positive response to our offerings.” Courtney Plummer, Lehman Maupin Gallery (New York): “Considering other factors affecting the art world, Art Basel Miami Beach was far more productive than anticipated. We had again the unparalleled ability to expose our artists to new collectors and curators on an international level.” Franco Noero, Franco Noero Gallery (Turin): “In general the quality of this year’s show is very high. For us it went really well and we made some very interesting new contacts.“ Johann Koenig, Galerie Johann Koenig (Berlin): “Surprisingly, the sales for us went even better than at last year’s Art Basel Miami Beach. Moreover we could arrange institutional exhibitions for two of our artists.” Alexander Gray, Alexander Gray Gallery (New York): “The advantage of exhibiting in Art Basel Miami Beach is the audience of collectors who appreciate the classic 20th century masterworks of art and the way they contextualize great contemporary works. As a first-time exhibitor, this was one the strongest values of the show.” Chiara Repetto, Gallery Francesca Kaufmann (Milan): “This year was very much about quality instead of quantity. Maybe there were fewer people, but the ones who came were the really interested and serious collectors. We could build up better dialogues and could sell more complicated works.“ Zhang Wei, Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou): “We are very happy to have sold the whole installation on opening day to a European private collection.“ Andrej Przywara, Foksal Gallery Foundation (Warsaw): “The sales exceeded our expectations by far and we even sold the huge aluminium cast sculpture by Pawel Althamer to a private American collection.“

The sectors at Art Basel Miami Beach 2008 More than 250 galleries participated in this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, of which 25 were new galleries chosen by the Selection Committee. Two new countries represented were Sfeir-Semler from Lebanon and The Third Line from United Arab Emirates. The sector Art Galleries featured four galleries that exhibited the first time or returned after a brief hiatus: Air de Paris (Paris), Greenberg Van Doren Gallery (New York), and Eleni Koroneou Gallery (Athens). Many exciting projects were on view at Art Galleries such as huge stone sculptures by Michael Heizer (Peter Freeman Gallery, New York), a solo exhibition with new works especially made for this installation by Philip Taaffe (Jablonka Gallery, Cologne/Berlin), the first presentation since the 1980ies of central works by Robert Rauschenberg (Washburn Gallery, New York), from the collection of late actress Lily Tomlin, and a solo show of work by Jean Dubuffet (Helly Nahmad, New York). This year’s Art Kabinett was of extraordinary quality and showed an interesting mix of carefully curated exhibitions in the booths of the galleries. The 17 projects in this sector featured a wide array of artists, ranging from young artists such as William Cordova (Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Zurich) and Tomasz Kowalski (carlier gebauer, Berlin) to historical figures like Meret Oppenheim (Ursula Krinzinger, Vienna), Francis Picabia (Haas & Fuchs, Berlin), Robert Smithson and Marcel Duchamp. Group shows included exhibitions titled “Text and Image in 20th-Century Art” and “Kusama and Her Contemporaries.”

The sectors Art Nova and Art Supernova presented surprising works by emerging artists, some fresh from the studio, and included a striking number of solo shows, featuring premier works by Kris Martin (Sies and Hoeke), Aïda Ruilova (Salon 94), and Sturtevant (mezzanin) as well as artists from emerging markets of India (Nature Morte / Bose Pacia), the United Arab Emirates (The Third Line) and China (Vitamin Space). With its 20 gallery exhibitions in converted shipping containers, Art Positions was a favorite among visitors.

The ULTRA installation by Federico Diaz and the Czech design collective E-Area at the Art Positions site showcasing the Art Sound Lounge in collaboration with David Weinstein attracted a huge audience, especially at nigh
t. This year, Jens Hoffmann again curated the successful Art Perform program at Art Positions, which included special daily performances by Jordan Wolfson, Christian Jankowski, Yoshua Okon and Adriana Lara. Located in the Botanical Garden, the Art Video Lounge, titled “HONEY, I REARRANGED THE IMAGE…!“ and curated by Rike Frank, presented an extensive overview of the latest work in video art by some of today’s most exciting international artists, and accompany the video program were special screenings and an exhibition, both very well received.

The Art Projects, seven art works in public spaces in Lummus Park on Ocean Drive, at the Oceanfront and on Island Gardens attracted many visitors, especially during the two Nights at Lummus Park evening events, featuring special performances by Jiri Kovanda and Dora Gracia. One major highlight of this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach was “Bubble,” the work by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, presenting 100 blue shimmering ceramic bubbles that were spread over an area of 600 square meters (more than 6,500 square feet) at Island Gardens on Watson Island.

Many leading art-world personalities attended or took an active part in the Art Basel Conversations and Art Salon. Participating artists, architects, critics, curators, filmmakers, and museum directors were pleased to appear before such an interested audience. The premiere was a discussion between the two artists Chuck Close and Vik Muniz. Other panelists this year included such renowned artists, collectors, curators, and critics as Richard Flood, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Thelma Golden, Glenn Ligon, Billy Al Bengston, and Paul Schimmel, to name only a few. The panels took place before a packed crowd every morning and the topics were: “The Future of the Museum: Africa, America and the World,” “Public/Private: The Artist as Philanthropist” and “Artistic Production: Los Angeles, an Alternate Art World Model?”

Art Basel Miami Beach also staged three cultural crossover events: Wednesday’s Art Loves Music concert on the beach offered over a thousand people an electrifying performance of French electro-pop artist Yelle; Art Loves Film, honoring art collectors Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, presented the documentary about their artworld experience, “Herb and Dorothy”; Art Loves Architecture’s evening on Saturday featured architect David Adjaye, with artists Matthew Ritchie and Teresita Fernandez in a discussion about the blurring of art and architecture.

Parallel exhibitions in the greater Miami area Following long tradition, the Miami museums organized important exhibitions including Yinka Shonibare at the Miami Art Museum; Anri Sala at the Museum of Contemporary Art; “Possibility of an Island” (Mungo Thomson, Peter Coffin, and others) for MOCA at the Goldman Warehouse; “Russian Dreams…” at the Bass Museum of Art; and both “American Streamlined Designed: The World of Tomorrow” and “Democrazy: An Installation by Francesco Vezzoli” at The Wolfsonian-FIU. Once again Miami’s leading private collections – among them the Margulies Collection, the Rubell Family Collection, CIFO, the private collection of Ella Cisneros, the de la Cruz Collection, the Mora Collection, the Scholl Collection, the Shack Collection, Dacra/Aqua, and the Robins Collection – opened their homes and warehouses to guests of the international art show. The daily visits to artists’ studios in the Greater Miami area were also very popular with visitors. Partners Art Basel Miami Beach’s cooperation with the authorities of the City of Miami Beach, the City of Miami, and Miami-Dade County contributed to making the international art show a cultural event spread throughout the area and involving the local community. The Host Committee of Art Basel Miami Beach, chaired by Norman and Irma Braman, also played an active role in ensuring that attendees of the international art show would experience Miami’s legendary hospitality. Art Basel Miami Beach would like to thank its main sponsor, UBS, who just renewed their contract. “UBS is pleased to be a longstanding partner of Art Basel Miami Beach, which is the highlight of the Fall art season every year,” said Robert Wolf, Chairman and CEO, UBS Americas. “We have recently renewed our commitment to Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, and we look forward to a dynamic and engaging partnership for years to come.” The world-renowned jeweler Cartier, which supports Art Basel Miami Beach as Associate Sponsor, stunned visitors to its Cartier Dôme in the Botanical Gardens with a new film by famed director David Lynch and in the Art Collectors Lounge. Associate Sponsor NetJets, the first, largest and most experienced fractional aircraft ownership company in the world, continued its support for Art Basel Miami Beach with a large private lounge in the Art Collectors Lounge. Our third Associate Sponsor, AXA Art, the globally active specialty art and collectibles insurance company, again provided multi-lingual VIP guided tours at Art Basel Miami Beach. Additionally, Flagstone Island Gardens for the first time sponsored the Art Projects section, allowing it to take on a new dimension. And also for the first time, the VIP car service was provided by Audi.

Catalog The premium quality catalog, which provides an extensive overview of over 1,000 art works on the international art market, was almost sold out during the week. A few hundred copies are still available from D.A.P. in New York (Toll Free: Tel. +1/800 338 2665, Fax +1/212 627 9484) for the USA, or from Hatje Cantz Publishers in Germany: Fax +49/711 4405 220.

Art 40 Basel Art Basel, the original international art show established in Switzerland in 1970, runs from June 10 through 14, 2009, and will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a very special edition of Art Basel. It is the world’s most prestigious show of modern and contemporary art, featuring 300 galleries from all continents showing works by over 2,500 artists.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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Mixed results in Miami

In Art Fair, art market, contemporary art on December 8, 2008 at 5:26 pm

Art Basel, the largest art fair in America ended yesterday in Miami. Results this week will likely be mixed. Some art sold, but much went untouched. Crowds were smaller and some galleries bowed out. Hotels were easier to find. But celebrities were still sighted and parties still happened.

According to Reuters, art was down but not out in Miami.

And at Bloomberg, the reported that attendance was down to 40,000 from 43,000.

Here’s the report from the Miami Herald.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.

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More MOCA news

In Art Museum, contemporary art on December 8, 2008 at 10:12 am

On Friday, the MOCA story was front page news at The New York Times. Written by Edward Wyatt and Jori Finkel.

On Sunday, Roberta Smith, in her ever calm and aloof manner, suggests what needs to happen to fix the problems at MOCA. Read it here.

Copyright Leanne Goebel. May not be used without permission.