Platform for Art: Art on the Underground

 

‘Platform for Art: Art on the Underground’ explores the rich heritage of art on the London Underground and traces the current project’s growing success.

The book showcases some of the most exciting and innovative work from the contemporary international art scene, featuring visually stunning reproductions of works by many of the participating artists. These include Cindy Sherman, Janette Paris, David Shrigley, Bob and Roberta Smith, Emma Kay, Gary Hume and Liam Gillick.

The book also includes an introduction by the programme curator, Tamsin Dillon, and text by renowned art journalist and author Alex Coles, who explores the broader implications of the scheme and the role of public art in general.

Tuesday 27 November 2007, 6–9pm. Speeches will begin at 6.30pm.

London Transport Museum,
Covent Garden Piazza,
WC2E 7BB

Current exhibition:

Brian Griffiths ‘Life Is A Laugh’

July 2007 – May 2008
Gloucester Road Underground station

via: Transport for London

The graffiti that’s good for the environment

Edina Tokodi brings the greenery of the countryside to the city with her installations, many of which you can see at Inhabitat. “City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery”, says Tokodi: “As a public artist I feel a sense of duty to draw attention to deficiencies in our everyday life.”

Via: Hippyshopper

Vivienne Westwood, “Active Resistance to Propaganda” manifesto reading on December 1, 2007

HAVING had her Active Resistance to Propaganda manifesto widely panned when she presented it at this year’s Hay Literary Festival, Vivienne Westwood will be hoping it receives a warmer response in London as she prepares to take it public again. The grande dame of British political fashion will present her ideas on art and insight amid the 17th century Dutch paintings and 18th century French works of the Wallace Collection at Hertford House next month. The manifesto – a dialogue between 25 characters including Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Aristotle and Whistler – will be read by Georgia May Jagger (as Alice), with other parts open to members of the public. “The most important thing about this manifesto is that it is a practice,” Westwood explains. “If you follow it your life will change. In the pursuit of culture you will start to think. If you change your life, you change the world.” Interested in giving it a go? The Active Resistance to Propaganda manifesto reading will take place at The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, W1 at 2pm on December 1. Tickets cost £12; call 020 7563 9551 to book, or to request to play a role.

via: vogue.co.uk

Contemporary art and China: UCCA, Ullens Center Of Contemporary Art

Opened on 5th November 2007, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) is situated in a 8,000m2 Bauhaus styled factory building in the Dashanzi Art District in Beijing. Aiming to be China’s most comprehensive institute for contemporary arts, UCCA plans to engage a wide audience through a variety of activities and facilities: Three exhibition halls will show cutting edge contemporary art from China and around the world; a cultural events program will engage people with film, music, and dialogue; our contemporary art research room will be the only one of its kind in Beijing; and an education program will bring people into closer contact with the art, the artists, and their ideas.

UCCA works in conjunction with the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, a vigorous supporter of Chinese artistic practice that has one of the largest collections of Chinese contemporary art in the world.

UCCA

Laughing in the face of adversity – about contemporary art market

From Economist.com

Is the boom ending?

Yue Minjun 1995/Sotheby’s
“BY THE end of the year we will be in the correction phase of the hot contemporary art market,” predicts Charles Dupplin of Hiscox, the largest insurer of fine art in Europe. Closely watched sales of contemporary art in mid-October at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the duopoly that dominates fine-art auctions, showed signs of a bubble deflating. Some important works failed to sell or make pre-sale estimates. But bigger tests are to come: contemporary-art auctions in New York in November and Miami Beach in December. FIAC, an art fair that opened in Paris on Thursday October 18th will provide an indication of the market’s health.

The boom that might precede a bust is evident. This year is likely to prove one of the most successful ever for the art business. Christie’s and Sotheby’s reported their highest sales ever in the first half of 2007 with sales of around $3.25 billion each, nearly 50% more than a year ago. Works by well-known artist all set record prices. “White Centre”, an early abstract painting by Rothko, sold for $72.8m at Sotheby’s in May. Warhol’s “Green Car Crash”, part of his “Death and Disaster” series, went for $71.7m. At another auction one of Damien Hirst’s trademark medicine-cabinet sculptures fetched £9.7m ($19.3m), breaking the European record for a work by a living artist.

Since then paintings have lost some of their gloss. The October auctions that ran alongside London’s Frieze Art Fair, saw Sotheby’s rake in $70.7m and Christie’s $80.6m. Superficially all seems well. But a close inspection reveals flaws. “Man Turning on the Light”, a painting by Francis Bacon, sold for $16.3m in the middle of Christie’s pre-sale estimate of $14.2m to $18.3m. Other high-profile lots underperformed too. Works by Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat failed to sell; several Hirsts went for below estimates. Almost one in six of lots failed to find buyers. It was a similar story at Sotheby’s. A polka-dot painting by Mr Hirst valued at up to $5.1m went unsold.

The big money paid for Warhols and Hirsts earlier in the year may have inflated expectations and convinced some collectors to cash in. Sotheby’s sold ten Warhols in October, but the priciest, a portrait of Jackie Kennedy, went for just $3.5m. A further test comes later this year. Christie’s is auctioning “Liz”, a version of Warhol’s famous picture of Elizabeth Taylor owned by another British actor, Hugh Grant. The auction house estimates that the picture might fetch £34.8m. If prices for Warhols are softening Mr Grant may have to do make do with a little less.

The picture, however, is not just of storm clouds gathering. The market for Chinese contemporary art is roaring ahead unabashedly. Yue Minjun’s “Execution”, a painting (see above) inspired by the Chinese government’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989, became the most expensive work by a Chinese contemporary artist ever by going for $6m at Sotheby’s, well over its upper estimate. Prices for Indian art have also been buoyant.

Andras Szanto, a fellow at the Centre for Arts and Culture in Washington, DC, is not sure where the market is heading. He thinks that a correction or a crash is possible. Or perhaps investors might consider art a safe-haven if the economy turns sour. The scarcity of top works and the desire of rich punters drive a market where predictions are hard to make. If, for instance, Ronald Lauder, a fabulously wealthy philanthropist, thinks a painting by Gustav Klimt is a must-have for Neue Galerie New York who knows how much he might be prepared to part with.

So far the credit crunch, and fears of recession in America with its depressed housing market and weak dollar have had little impact on contemporary-art sales. “But the art market tends to follow financial markets with a delay of a few months,” says Edmondo di Robilant, an art dealer in London. In January the golden boys running private-equity firms and hedge funds in the City of London and on Wall Street might find bonuses have dwindled. For many of these buyers the passion for contemporary art is a recent one. Faced with the decision between buying the latest Ferrari or a work of art, says Mr di Robilant, they might revert to type and plump for a fast car.