The Art World’s Olympics

Well... I guess since most of us are so poor this year and are not in Venice either , might as well go global and see what everybody else who is there is talking about. This article by Kelly Crow for the Wall Street Journal discusses the Venice Biennial.

Enjoy!

The Art World’s Olympics
Century-old event copes with downturn; Artists’ moms cook soup
By KELLY CROW

The shaky global economy helped sink prices for new art last fall and exacerbated a world-wide pullback in arts sponsorship. The result is a biennial that is quieter than two years ago, although the competition for attention is still intense.

The U.S. and France are hosting opening-night cocktail receptions instead of lavish dinners. Russia, meanwhile, says it needs help meeting its roughly $993,000 pavilion budget. It’s around $70,000 shy. Over at the Palazzo Michiel dal Brusa, Iceland and Singapore are asking artists’ mothers to cook Thursday’s shared party meal—Icelandic fish soup and wonton soup, respectively.

Early last fall, organizers said 92 countries were expressing interest in joining the biennial but the number eventually dropped to 77, still a record. Among the absent: India, which is instead championing four Indian artists like Nikhil Chopra who are already exhibiting in other group shows here. “This is not the year to throw the biennial’s most extravagant dinner,” says Carlos Basualdo, commissioner for the U.S. pavilion.

The biennial is the Olympics of the contemporary art world, a century-old tradition in which countries send in their best artists to exhibit in pavilions and palazzos across the city. Instead of medals, artists vie for recognition on the global art field. The stakes here are high—Olafur Eliasson and Ernesto Neto are among the breakout biennial artists who went on to global fame.

The event is a proven hit with the public, and nearly 400,000 people are expected to visit the biennial before it closes Nov. 22. Roughly the same number of people attended in 2007.

United States

Bruce Nauman is an Indiana-born artist who rose to fame in the 1970s by using neon tubing, animal hides and ambient sounds to push conceptual art beyond the slick borders of Pop and into video art. Now, his neon signs that flash words like “Prudence” and “Pride” ring the roofline of the U.S. pavilion. In a new twist, commissioner Carlos Basualdo placed additional pieces in two local schools, and the artist enlisted local students to translate his latest sound piece, “Giorni,” into Italian

Paolo Baratta, the biennial’s president, says he began preparing for a financial slowdown last year by asking major artists in the biennial’s group show, “Making Worlds,” to help pay their own shipping and installation. He also raised ticket prices to $25 from around $20. (The 30,000 invited VIPs still get in free.) Such moves allowed him to use more of his roughly $10 million budget to defray costs for younger artists.

Participating nations say they would rather scale back sharply than bow out, and a visit to the biennial’s two primary venues helps explain why. Around 30 small buildings in a variety pack of architectural styles stand closely together within the Giardini, a Napoleonic park on the city’s eastern edge. Nations who have their own buildings are loathe to turn them over to any other country.

Beginning in 1895, during the heyday of world’s fairs, Venice invited powerful nations to erect art exhibition buildings: the U.S. pavilion is neoclassical, the Russian pavilion is peach-colored Baroque, the Nordic pavilion is sleekly modern. Nearly a dozen countries like China have since been assigned space in the nearby Arsenale, a cavernous storage area; the rest must rent palazzos elsewhere. The informal competition for best pavilion can be fierce. The United Arab Emirates, a first-timer to the biennial, is lending visitors audio guides that make wry references to Bob Dylan and pop performer Lady Gaga in addition to talking about Dubai photographer Lamya Gargash.

“Basically, it’s this artificial village where everyone wants to grow the biggest pumpkin,” says artist and curator Michael Elmgreen, who lives in London. Mr. Elmgreen and his collaborating partner Ingar Dragset, who hails from Berlin, have threaded a single exhibit, “The Collectors,” through two adjacent pavilions for Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden. The curators’ winning proposal involved transforming the two pavilions into “homes” for imaginary art collectors, complete with faux doorbells, mailboxes and actors hired to play real-estate agents. That exhibit marks the first time the two pavilions have agreed to share space and billing, the biennial says. Mr. Elmgreen says the move was motivated by an impulse to experiment rather than to save money.

Russia
The Russian pavilion’s “Victory Over the Future” group show aims to give off avant-garde energy. Alexey Kallima created a room-sized mural of a crowd at a soccer match and Andrei Molodkin’s “Le Rouge et Le Noir” features two vitrines shaped like the Nike of Samothrace, filled with either crude oil or blood. “It’s brutal and beautiful,” says curator Olga Sviblova.

Many artists this year tried to tackle the biennial’s theme, “Making Worlds,” by addressing issues of globalization, the economy and cultural memory. In the Dutch pavilion, Fiona Tan uses Venetian merchant Marco Polo as a muse: she trucked in antique treasures and Chinatown kitsch and arranged it all around the pavilion. The pieces have been cleared out, but visitors get a glimpse via her video, “Disorient.”

The biennial doubles as a showcase for government officials and arts councils who typically select their nations’ artistic representatives. During the opening ceremonies this weekend, expect everyone from Queen Sonja of Norway, to cultural ministers from Hong Kong to stop by. The U.S. pavilion, which is exhibiting Indiana conceptual sculptor Bruce Nauman, invited the Clintons and the Obamas but is awaiting a reply, says Mr. Basualdo.

At least 44 art foundations and private collectors are exhibiting work during the biennial as well, led by Francois Pinault’s newly opened art space Punta della Dogana, which juts out into the Grand Canal opposite St. Mark’s square. The collection includes several pieces by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Rachel Whiteread, Takashi Murakami, Paul McCarthy and newcomer Matthew Day Jackson.

Australian commissioner Doug Hall says he’s still determined to show visitors a good time. This week, his pavilion threw a party for their artist Shaun Gladwell and over 300 guests on a rented island, nearby San Saovolo. “To look indulgent and indulge in art in Venice isn’t the image corporate sponsors want to project right now, so the biennial is more measured,” Mr. Hall says, “but maybe that also makes it cooler.”

Economic Downturn Hits Contemporary Art; Collectors 'Are Just Being So Cautious'

Skulls by Andy Warhol

Here is more for you all to know . Please enjoy article by Kelly Crow (and you will eat crow after reading it!) from the Wall Street Journal about recent ART auction results.

OCTOBER 20, 2008
Not a Pretty Picture at Auctions
Economic Downturn Hits Contemporary Art; Collectors 'Are Just Being So Cautious'
By KELLY CROW

After months of gradual softening, the contemporary art market suffered a sharp downturn over the weekend at a mid-season round of auctions held in London, with many collectors wary of making seven-figure bids for new artworks amid the global financial crisis.

Yet the world's chief auction houses -- Sotheby's and Christie's International PLC -- managed to calm some fears of a broader market meltdown by convincing many of their sellers to accept lower prices, which helped entice bargain hunters from the U.S. and Europe.

Overall, Sotheby's and Christie's evening sales of contemporary art brought in a combined £54 million ($93.4 million), well below their combined presale estimate of between £88.4 million and £118.3 million. The result was down 19% from similar sales last October. Boutique auction house Phillips de Pury brought in £5 million, less than a third of its expected total and representing only 25% of its sale's potential value.

"People are just being so cautious," says Roberto Annicchiarico, a Milan-based dealer. "Before, collectors had to take whatever art they could get from dealers and auction houses, but now those collectors are saying, 'Kneel down and ask nicely.' "

Christie's won this latest round over Sotheby's by selling £32 million at its evening sale on Sunday, below its presale estimate of between £57.8 million to £75.6 million. The star of the sale was Lucio Fontana's 1963 futuristic black oval, "Concetto Spaziale, La Fine di Dio," sold to a private buyer for £9 million, below its £12 million estimate. A pensive portrait of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud also sold for £5.4 million, inching over its £5 million low estimate.

Of the 47 lots offered by Christie's, 26 found buyers, achieving 62% of its potential value. Among those works that didn't sell were two particularly pricey disappointments: Gerhard Richter's 1986 abstract, "Claudius," which had been estimated to sell for around £6 million, and Francis Bacon's honey-hued portrait of a friend, "Portrait of Henrietta Moraes," which bore a low estimate of £5.5 million.

Two days earlier, Sotheby's evening sale brought in £22 million, far below its £30.6 million low estimate but besting its £9.9 million total at last year's sale. Its top lot was a rainbow-colored set of 10 "Skull" silkscreen paintings by Andy Warhol that sold to collector and dealer Jose Mugrabi for £4.3 million, under its £5 million low estimate. Mr. Mugrabi didn't need to put up much of a fight to win the work: His only rival was a Sotheby's specialist bidding on behalf of an unknown client.

Later in the sale, a European collector bidding over the telephone paid £2.8 million for Gerhard Richter's red "Abstracke Bild," under its £3 million low estimate. An American telephone bidder, meanwhile, paid £1.6 million for an untitled painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Basquiat had been estimated to sell for between £1.5 million and £2 million. Of the 62 works offered by Sotheby's, 17 failed to find buyers, including pieces by Cindy Sherman, Yan Pei-Ming, Erik Bulatov, Sigmar Polke and Marlene Dumas. The sale achieved 72.5 % of its potential value.

In a twist, 40% of the winning bids came from Americans, up from 19% at last year's sale. After the sale, New York collector Larry Warsh said he was "relieved" that a majority of the works had sold. But he said collectors who decide to put their works up for auction will need to scale down their expected price levels for art by as much as a third until the financial markets begin to climb again.

Most of the works offered during the London sales were consigned by sellers -- and given estimated prices -- at least three months ago when the financial outlook was somewhat sunnier. Over the past two weeks, the auction houses have been working overtime to persuade these sellers to lower their reserves, or the minimum price needed for the work. In the case of Damien Hirst's sculpture, "The Blood of Christ," at Sotheby's, the low estimate was £1 million but the auctioneer kicked off the bidding level at £400,000. The work sold for £825,250. Phillips' sale on Oct. 18 was highlighted by Warhol's "Flowers", which sold for £735,650, nearly reaching its £800,000 high estimate, but the crowd in the salesroom were more focused on artist Takashi Murakami, who sat in the front row and watched as his two-story-tall sculpture, "Tongari-kun," stalled at £3.2 million, just shy of its £3.5 low estimate, and failed to sell. Overall, 38 of the 70 artworks offered by Phillips failed to find buyers, including pieces by Richard Prince, Ron Arad, Ed Ruscha, Lisa Yuskavage and Eric Fischl.

After the sale, Phillips' Chairman Simon de Pury said he was "disappointed" by the result, adding that collectors "obviously took a wait-and-see approach" to the sale. He said he and his staff might work to further lower the reserve levels set for works already consigned to Phillips' important New York sale scheduled for next month.

The London auctions, which conclude with Christie's day sale on Tuesday, coincided with the city's biggest contemporary art show, the Frieze Art Fair, which also saw fewer sales despite large crowds, according to dealers exhibiting in the fair.

Tiqui Atencio, a major London collector, attended the fair and several auctions but says she didn't buy a thing: "I'm behaving right now."

Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com