Art News Digest

Governor's Island, New York. via geocities.com

Art comes to a TV near you, keeping an eye on Chicago, porcelain bandits, and a 40,000 year old painting were among the week’s headlines.

THE REAL WORLD: REALITY TV, LEHMAN’S FIRE SALE, AND THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE’S INGENUITY

Reality hits (your TIVO) this week, when “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” an American Idol for the painterly set, debuts on Bravo. But there’s no way Bravo can match the reality Lehman Brothers gave us all a year and a half ago, and now, the bankrupt financier must sell their art collection to pay off debts. Among the 447 name brands expected to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in September are Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Maya Lin, Claes Oldenburg, Julie Mehretu, and Robert Rauschenberg. The new Athens World Fine Art Fair recently announced that its country’s own financial woes have led to plans for a postponed opening, from November 2010 to May 2011. Meanwhile, The Chicago Tribune gets creative with their extensive photo collection dating back to the 19th century. The newspaper has begun digitizing its photo archives and selling them to collectors as fine art prints. Artists and musicians band together to protest Arizona’s new “show your papers” statute, including photographer and performance artist Harry Gamboa Jr., who is distributing a “Boycott Hate State” graphic for free via his website. And sculptor Louise Bourgeois, noted for her sexually charged spider imagery, died in Manhattan at age 98.

Keep reading at ArtWeLove.com.

Art News Digest

Italian researchers say they are but a ghostly whisper from identifying the 400-year-old bones of Caravaggio—just two more weeks and they should have the results of DNA tests. If they’ve found the bones, they might be able to determine the circumstances surrounding the artist’s untimely death. An exhibit of art and crafts made by Japanese detainees in World War II internment camps is showcased at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C. Many of these works, some of which are by Isamu Noguchi and Henry Sugimoto, have never been publicly displayed before. At Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum, a gaggle of geese and goslings gave the Van Goghs a passing glance on their shortcut to the pond—through the museum lobby! A statement made by the new Supreme Court nominee a couple decades ago has concerned parties wondering if Elena Kagan has already ruled against art, and Lou Reed, former Velvet Underground frontman and photographer, was one of the curators of the third annual New York Photo Festival. Keep reading at ArtWeLove.com.

Art News Digest

Picasso breaks Giacometti’s record, the Met is promised a $10 million fountain, and architecture for the people were among this week’s headlines.

Giacometti, Then and Now

New York Times: Giacometti Bronze Breaks World Record Auction Price

“I remember Giacometti’s studio in Paris, in an overgrown garden: bits of plaster and other debris, stained walls, rain trickling through the ceiling, and G. shivering in the winter. I don’t think any American artist could work in such extreme poverty.”

Simone de Beauvoir, America: Day by Day

State of the Arts

A summary of last week’s art news, minus the Met’s Rose Period Picasso fiasco, because that’s hardly news at this point…

What Recession?

Demand and short supply prevailed at the Sotheby’s and Christie’s old masters sales this week. The $109 million that changed hands at Christie’s set a new record for a single old masters auction and established new price highs for the artists Rembrandt, Raphael and Domenichino. Sotheby’s old master’s sales totaled $74 million, well situated in the pre-sale estimate of $54-75 million. Sotheby’s most buzzed items included “Portrait of a Woman, Called ‘La Belle Ferronniere,’ ” once thought to be authored by Leonardo da Vinci. It sold for $1.5 million—triple the  $500,000 estimate.

These outcomes support the prediction that high quality conservative art will fare better during a recession. The old masters, the impressionists and the modernists are an inflation hedge, while acquisitions by recent superstars have become risky investments.

In a survey of 25 museums, The Art Newspaper notes that endowments are recovering, and the Met reports that its income is at pre-recession levels. But California closings (Claremont Museum of Art and the Fresno Metropolitan Museum) and cautionary moves, such as the Los Angeles County Museum sending 17 pieces through Sotheby’s last week, indicate that institutional art budgets remain shaky.

All is not lost in our most leveraged state. On Wednesday the Getty Foundation announced that it will award $3.1 million in grants to 26 California institutions to help fund next fall’s bevy of exhibits, “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980.” This gift doubles the previously announced commitment.