Last Saturday, November 13, 2010, the New Museum unveiled acclaimed German artist Isa Genzken’s first public artwork in the United States, installed on the façade of the Museum’s building on the Bowery. Standing twenty-eight feet tall, Genzken’s Rose
II (2007) is the second work to be presented as part of the New Museum’s ongoing Façade Sculpture Program since the building’s completion in December 2007. A crucial figure in Post-war contemporary art, Genzken is a sculptor whose work re-imagines architecture,
assemblage, and installation, giving form to new plastic environments and precarious structures. The artist represented Germany at the 2007 Venice Biennale and has shown her work in leading museums across Europe.

Part of original image by Naho Kubota

She was among a group of prominent international artists featured in the exhibition “Unmonumental,” the survey that inaugurated the New Museum’s SANAA building. Genzken’s first Rose was created in 1993 and reprised in 2007. The work can be seen as the culmination of a practice that explores the way we perceive objects and images through our senses; the implications of scale; and the integration of architecture, nature, and mass culture.

Although Genzken is a longtime resident of Berlin, she has had a forty-year love affair with New York City, which began when she first visited as a student. Looking back on
that experience, she commented, “To me, New York had a direct link with sculpture…(It) is a city of incredible stability and solidity.” The installation of Rose II can be seen as a tribute to a place Genzken continues to love. Rose II will remain on view through 2011. The New Museum Façade Sculpture Program is made possible by an endowment established by The
Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust. Rose II is on extended loan, courtesy David Zwirner Gallery, New York.

About the Artist

Isa Genzken’s diverse practice draws on the legacies of Constructivism and Minimalism and often involves a critical, open dialogue with Modernist architecture and contemporary visual and material culture.

Using plaster, cement, building samples, photographs, and bric-a-brac, Genzken creates architectonic structures that have been described as contemporary ruins. She further incorporates mirrors and other reflective surfaces to literally draw the viewer into her work. As part of her deep-set interest in urban space, she also arranges complex, and often disquieting, installations with mannequins, dolls, photographs, and an array of found objects.

Born in 1948 in Bad Oldesloe, Germany, Isa Genzken studied fine arts and art history in Hamburg, Berlin, and Cologne before completing her studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1977.

Genzken was the subject of a major retrospective in 2009, jointly organized by the Museum Ludwig, Cologne and the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. She represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 2007, and other notable solo exhibitions in the past decade include Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (2008); the Camden Arts Center, London (2006); the Photographers Gallery, London (2005); the Kunsthalle Zürich (2003); and the Städtlische Galerie im Lenbachhaus Kunstbau, Munich (2003).

Her work is included in the collections of many prominent institutions internationally, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Generali Foundation, Vienna; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Genzken lives and works in Berlin.

Façade Sculpture Program at the New Museum

The first artwork for the Façade Sculpture Program was installed in December 2007. Ugo
Rondinone’s Hell, Yes! (2001), was unveiled on the façade to celebrate the opening of the New Museum’s first freestanding building at 235 Bowery. The sculpture quickly became such a pivotal part of the Museum’s new identity that it was acquired and donated to the New Museum by several museum trustees. The New Museum plans to reinstall Hell, Yes! in another location soon. The Façade Sculpture Program is made possible by an endowment established by The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust.

The New Museum

The New Museum is the only museum in New York City exclusively devoted to contemporary art. Founded in 1977, the New Museum was conceived as a center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists from around the world. From its beginnings as a one-room office on Hudson Street to the inauguration of its first freestanding, dedicated building on the Bowery designed by SANAA in 2007, the New Museum continues to be a hub of new art and new ideas and is a place of ongoing experimentation about what art and arts institutions can be in the twenty-first century.

source: newmuseum.org

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In past years, SOFA NEW YORK has regularly drawn record numbers of collectors, curators, art advisors, architects, interior designers and new enthusiasts.

Accumulus Brooch, 2008 by Sergey Jivetin
(Ornamentum Gallery, Hudson, NY)

“Proven values in arts and design distinguish SOFA NEW YORK throughout as our dealers showcase artists and designers who have achieved prominent placement in world renowned museums with a great deal at accessible price points,” says Mark Lyman, Founder/Director of the SOFA Fairs and Vice President, dmg Art and Antiques. “That museum representation further confirms the validity of the extraordinary artistry showcased at the fair in the global marketplace,” he says.

Sixteen years ago, Lyman noticed that contemporary decorative artists and designers merited an international fair and since then he has developed three SOFA fairs, adding a new edition June 11 – 14, 2009 in Santa Fe, NM, Opening Night Preview, Wednesday, June 10 to benefit the New Mexico Museum of Art’s inaugural Design Collection. At SOFA CHICAGO last November, CBS MarketWatch cited the fair for sales exemplifying market stability.

Fine art auctions have been a tough sell this season, but some contemporary decorative pieces sold well at the recent SOFA Chicago Fair, Nov 2008.

Among the many artists coveted by collectors and curators is ceramicist Miyashita Zenji, renowned as a living legend in Japan and represented in museums far beyond Asia, showing at SOFA NY with New York dealer Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. She is presenting the first solo show of the artist outside Japan, as well as ceramics by other Japanese artists.

“With Miyashita’s works gracing the collections of over thirty museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, as well as a loyal following of private collectors, his prices have remained strong and gone up 40 percent over the last decade,” says Mirviss. Miyashita’s sculptural work perfectly marries abstract landscape imagery with innovative form via colored clay applications in subtle hues on stoneware and is priced from $3,000-$15,000.

“The fact that his sculptures are in the Metropolitan Museum’s Asian art collection as well as their 20th century decorative arts holdings demonstrates his wide appeal across multiple specialties,” says Mirviss, who has sold to more than 40 museums as well as a number of corporate collections such as Goldman Sachs and Coca Cola. She says lately new buyers from France, Holland and Germany have been scooping up examples by Japan’s latest ceramicists, indicating the new international reach of such artists.

Silver and gold sculpture, vessels and jewelry are also highly sought by a growing band of collectors. “Because of the inherent value of silver, we’re seeing a consistently strong demand for silver art objects and it’s not letting up,” says Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon in London. “The sense of luxury coupled with intricate craftsmanship of hand forging attracts clients to precious metals,” she says. On their stand will be silversmith Junko Mori whose hand forged sculptural objects are inspired by actual plants and pine cones, and begin at $8,000. Plus, Mori is participating in the SOFA NY Salon Artists Conversations, which along with an acclaimed lecture series, is free to SOFA attendees. Interestingly, at Sassoon’s last SOFA NEW YORK show, Europeans like the Brits and Italians shopped his stand.

In addition, new dealer Alastair Crawford of Manhattan, who specializes in Georg Jensen silver, will be launching his own contemporary line of silver flatware with handles of jasper and lapis lazuli, along with silver and gold vessels as well as jewelry. “Many clients were asking for handmade silver examples and unique items and with this new dimension to my dealership, I can fulfill those requests,” says Crawford, who is completing commissions for silver scones for a Dallas client. “I’m seeing clients seeking the security of investing in tangible assets like silver and gold that historically weathers recessions,” he says. Other dealers seeing an uptick in gold artist jewelry include Aaron Faber Gallery and Charon Kransen Arts, both of New York.

Then Philadelphia dealer Bob Aibel, who heads up Moderne Gallery, says “Studio furniture by the masters George Nakashima, Wharton Esherick and Sam Maloof remains in keen demand.” He believes the strength of that market is because choice work by those designers fits in a wide range of stylistic interiors, including contemporary, Modernist and Asian. At the same time, their design sensibilities are in sync with today’s emphasis on simplicity and integrity of materials. Due to his large holdings of such prized design, Aibel has been interviewed in Wallpaper magazine and the German AD singled him out as “the world’s leading Nakashima dealer.” Architects and interior designers on his client list include Michael Smith, whose clients include President Barak Obama, and Thad Hayes and Alan Wanzenberg. On his stand will be two rare Nakashima consoles dating from the seventies as well as an early coffee table.

Florida-based private dealer Donna Schneier cites iconic examples by pioneers of the studio ceramics and glass movements such as Betty Woodman, Harvey Littleton and Toshiko Takaezu as “really recession proof…While those artists are frequently exhibited in fine art museums, they can be acquired for a fraction of the cost of contemporary art and more importantly, their names will live on for centuries,” says Schneier. She is witnessing another market shift. “Especially in the past year, I’m seeing younger collectors, many totally new to field, taking on classic work as objects of beauty and a proven asset class all rolled into one,” says Schneier, who has regularly achieved sales to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.

Glass by leading artists is another “blue chip investment category” according to Doug Heller, who heads up Heller Gallery in Tribeca. He is featuring work by four artists: Lino Tagliapietra, who taught secret Venetian glass blowing techniques to Dale Chihuly as well as a host of other Americans; and Nicole Chesney, noted for her cast glass wall sculptures referencing color-field paintings, as well as Danes Steffen Dam and Tobias Møhl. Heller says of the latter, “Their sales in the past two months are both impressive and consistent.” An added bonus for collectors is a Tobias Møhl costs only $5,500 to $17,500.

“Today, more clients want something of lasting beauty by an artist who is making a considerable impact in the larger art world,” says Heller who just confirmed two corporate commissions for Lino, a museum acquisition for Steffen Dam, and a private commission for Tobias Møhl. “The Møhl is an intended gift from collector and Longhouse founder Jack Lenor Larsen and speaks of the artist’s dazzling blown and etched glass skills,” adds Heller, who has sold to the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Art Museum, among many other internationally prominent museums.

Like glass, wood artistry is now receiving enormous attention. At SOFA CHICAGO, the del Mano Gallery of Los Angeles achieved their most successful show in William Hunter’s entire career with sales to the Carnegie Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Mint Museum as well as to private collectors. “For SOFA NEW YORK, we aim to repeat this by bringing William Hunter to the fair, so new collectors can meet him and have a dialogue about his latest sculptural work in Latin American rosewood,” says Ray Leier, who founded del Mano over 30 years ago.

Other artists of note include Michael Peterson who will be honored with a three-year museum touring show shortly. “Fifteen years ago, a Peterson cost $500 to $1,500,” says Leier. “Now they are priced from $6,000 to $20,000,” he says. “Wood is organic in nature and collectors today rightly fixate on this artistic trend that is never going away,” says Leier. With some artists’ prices beginning as low as $500, Leier expects to introduce new collectors to an entirely different artistic endeavor.

SOFA NEW YORK 2009 Opening Night, Wednesday, April 15, 5:30 – 9 pm; Exposition hours are Thursday & Friday, April 16-17: 11 am – 8 pm; Saturday, April 18: 11 am – 7 pm; Sunday, April 19: Noon – 6pm.

(press release)

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Motifs in the Art of Jim Dine

Jim Dine has been depicting everyday household objects and his personal possessions as far ranging as hearts, hammers & other hardware tools, painting tools such brushes, palettes and canvases, bathrobes (self-portraits), as well as shoes, neckties and other articles of clothing to braids (portraits of his wife). He even depicted a bathroom sink.

It’s a little hard to pin him down as additional new motifs keep appearing. And there is no predictability re. his usage for earlier motifs either: just when you think he has moved beyond hearts, a new heart emerges.

For Dine, all these objects offered a vocabulary of feelings. The repeated use of these images in his artwork became signatory for Jim Dine’s oeuvre.

While Jim Dine is possibly best known for his heart art, actually, his bathrobe motif has been most enduring. He created his first bathrobe work in 1964, after being triggered by an newspaper advertisement of a man in a dressing gown. The bathrobe has been the subject of more than 70 printed works. Dine incorporated hammers, brushes and clamps in his paintings, based on memories of his childhood when his father and grandfather had a hardware store.

It seems that the metaphors come into his life, grab his attention, become part of his life, and become motifs in his work. In 2006, Jim Dine illustrated Carlo Collodi’s book Pinocchio published by Steidl. In 2007 The original 39 hand-colored lithographs used to illustrate the book were exhibited at his long representing gallery, PaceWildenstein, “Jim Dine: Pinocchio” and acquired byThe New York Public Library for its permanent collection. In 2008, just last year, he made a poster for his show at the Lincoln Art Center, featuring Pinocchio. Even though the book illustration project was finished, Pinocchio was to stay as a motif in Jim Dine’s artwork. Beyond the initial drawings and prints, he has since made sculptures and digital photography on canvas featuring Pinocchio. Jim Dine read the Pinocchio story as a young boy, and it made a strong impression on him, the artist once said in an interview. Hence the exploration of the theme.

Tomorrow, we’ll publish the conclusion of this four part article on artist Jim Dine.

Heart Paintings by Jim Dine

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But how are bronze and other cast sculptures made? It’s not like there’s a chunk of metal and the sculptor chisels away at it. Casting is a little more complicated than the other two types of sculpture. It takes a team of several people, a foundry, and a 10 step process that has been around since 3000 B.C. When completed, you will have a work of art that will be around for that same amount of time into the future.

In a nutshell founders reproduce in bronze a sculptor’s plaster original. The process is a back and forth system of molding until the final mold is made to withstand molten bronze. This is how it goes:

1. The sculptor creates a model, usually plaster, to send to the foundry.
2. Using elastic material in a solid container, the founder makes a mold of the model.
3. The mold is used to make a model of fireproof cement that will serve as the core of the bronze during casting. Iron shafts are inserted to make sure it remains stationary within the mold.
4. The surface of the core is worn down, creating a narrow space between it and the mold.
5. Melted wax is poured into the mold, filling the space between it and the cement core. The mold is then removed, revealing the core shape covered with a layer of wax. The artist’s signature, the casting number, and the foundry stamp are imprinted in the wax.
6. A network of conduits is created to allow the melted wax to run out of the mold when it is heated. Later the conduits will also be used to pour in the molten metal.
7. A second mold is created of fireproof clay. When it is sufficiently thick, and throughly dry, it is heated, both to melt the wax and to harden the clay.
8. The fireproof mold is then covered by an exterior mantle of fireproof cement.
9. The mold is fired at high temperature. Molten bronze (2850° F) is poured into the space formerly occupied by the wax. After the bronze cools, the mold is broken to reveal a bronze replica of the model.
10. The conduits and other protuberances are removed from the bronze figure, which is then finished with chisels, polished, and treated with chemical solutions to give its surface the desired patina.

So there you have it. An artist can have their sculptures cast in bronze by sending it to a founder and paying them to do all the hard work. After all, you’ve done the easy part by creating the object in the first place. It must be interesting to see the final result, one of your own sculptures actually made in bronze, to be around forever.

Article by Daniel Kretschmer
Dan Kretschmer keeps a daily blog at www.vincesear.com. (Original title: ‘how is a sculpture made?’)

Joan Miró, the legendary Spanish painter, sculptor and ceramist, was born in Barcelona in 1893. Miró’s early life was nothing out of the ordinary, at age 14 he enrolled in the “Escuela Superior de Artes Industriales y Bellas Artes” where he studied for three years. After this he took on a job as a clerk In Barcelona but after suffering a nervous breakdown Miró decided that this wasn’t the career for him so he returned to his studies, this time at Francesc Gali’s “Escuela d’Art” where he studied for a further 3 years up until 1915. Miró’s first real breakthrough came when he had an opportunity to display his art in 1917. Local art dealer José Dalman had shown an interest in the young artist’s early work and used his studio for the exhibition.

From this point on Miró’s career as an artist really took off. He made his first visit to Paris in 1919 and moved there a year later to be part of the artistic community in Montparnasse. It was here as well that he met his fellow countryman Pablo Picasso, for the first time. After this Miró would spend the rest of his life dividing his time between Paris and Montroig back in his native Spain. His first solo show in Paris followed quickly in 1921. Paris was the place to be for a young artist at this time, it allowed Miró to meet many other great artists and in 1924 Miró joined Andre Breton’s Surrealist movement. This gave Miró the opportunity to work with fellow surreal artists Andre Masson and Max Ernst and in 1926 he helped Ernst to pioneer his “grattage” technique. Despite his ties with the movement, it has been said that he was always something of an outsider; indeed Breton later went on to say of Miró that he was “the most surrealist of us all”. As Miró developed his new style he claimed that he wanted to “assassinate” and “murder” traditional painting techniques.

By the early 1930’s Miró’s own style was developing and he was starting to get recognised as one of the leading artists of his time. His vibrant colours and almost amoebic shapes are reminiscent of a child’s drawings. On the home front, Miró had also been married to Pilar Juncosa in 1929 and this period also saw the arrival of their first daughter in 1931.

Miró was an artist revered for his adaptability and his use of different media. In 1929 he started his first experiments with lithography and his first etchings and sculptures also date from around this period. These different forms of artistic expression would go on to form a huge part of his work and, like his peer Picasso; it would ultimately make him more accessible as an artist.

The 1936, due to the outbreak of the civil war, Miró decided not the return to Spain; he moved his wife and daughter out to join him in Paris. He would not return to his homeland for nearly five years. Miró continued to experiment with new mediums and in 1944 he produced his first ceramics piece. By now his renown was worldwide and he made his first trip to America in 1947. He returned again frequently and had successful one-man shows at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York in 1951 and 1959.

Some of the highlights in Miró’s glittering career include receiving the 1954 Venice Biennial printmaking prize, in 1958 he was commissioned to do two murals for the UNESCO building in Paris which won the Guggenheim International Award for and in 1980 he received the Gold Medal of Fine Arts from his sovereign, King Juan-Carlos.

Undoubtedly Miró was one of the 20th century’s finest artists – his legacy lives on today and a huge volume of his work can be seen at the Fundacio Joan Miró in Barcelona, a superb museum that is a fine showcase to this extremely talented man.

Miro Books

Article by Mike McDougall. Mike McDougall has five years experience working as a travel writer and marketeer. He is currently working to provide additional content for Babylon-idiomas, a Spanish language school with an excellent presence in Spain and Latin America. This work is covered by a creative commons licence

Monumental sculpture is exceptionally large sculpture. It is called “monumental” because monuments are often large sculptures. But such sculptures are not just monuments. Any large public sculpture, or any large sculpture, for that matter, is monumental. What should you look for? It should be sturdy and long-lasting. It should have a powerful presence. It should be the product of a big idea. Last but by no means least, it should be safe. I will review these criteria.

A public sculpture has to be a lot sturdier and a lot more structurally sound than a sculpture that goes in someone’s backyard. The collector who buys art for the home or outdoor landscape would hope his purchase was as structurally sound and sturdy, but it rarely is. One should not be too upset about this. Public sculpture has to be exceptionally sturdy. The sculptor who attains public placement usually has a level of professionalism that recognizes the demands of public sculpture, demands that are different from backyard and garden sculpture.

Generally, the bigger the sculpture, the more structurally sound it has to be. If the sculpture is bigger than human-size, it moves out of the realm of that which the private art collector would buy and deeper into the realm of public sculpture. Thus, sculptors who regularly produce large, monumental pieces – anything over six feet tall or wide – tend to produce very sturdy pieces. Sculptors who regularly produce small work – anything less than four feet high – tend to have much less concern about structure and sturdiness. This may seem obvious, but it is something to remember when commissioning large pieces.

Aside from structural integrity, monumental sculpture offers, or should offer qualities that do, as it happens, reflect the title “monumental”. Large sculpture should stand out. It should have a powerful presence. It doesn’t necessarily have to leap out at you as a billboard would. Rather, it should have a powerful presence that does not have to leap out at you like an advertisement. The sculpture should give the viewer the feeling “Ah, here’s something.” The sculpture should capture your attention with its powerful presence. It should evoke awe and wonder – as well as any other emotions.

Big sculpture must present the “big idea”. So if you were to say, “What’s the big idea?” And someone pointed to the sculpture and said “That is, over there.” You would have to agree, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That is a big idea.” Some ideas should not be big: They should not be presented in large work. That does not mean the idea is any less worthy. It’s just not a big idea…yet, anyway.

A sculptor need not come up with lots of big ideas. He might come up with one big idea and work that idea for years, perhaps a lifetime. Another artist might be comfortable working out little ideas, one and then another. Neither artist is better. The little idea artist should not, however, be making large, monumental sculpture: not unless he’s found a big idea, or melded all the little ideas into a big one.

The last criterion for monumental sculpture one is pragmatic – and important, prosaic as that criterion might be: large sculpture has to be safe. Such sculpture is often made of metal. If it is not made of metal, it can be made of stone or concrete. The point here: Most materials a large sculpture can be made of are not soft. Therefore, they should not have any uncommonly sharp edges. For sure you expect a public work to be devoid of that. But the private sculpture also has to be safe. We, the general public, assume the sculpture is safe whether it is or is not. Thus, the creator of large sculptures has to take safety into account. If the work has a patina, is it safe to handle the work? Have any excess chemicals been washed off? Can the sculpture poke someone in the eye? Is it possible to walk into the sculpture and hurt oneself? And so on.

The private collector should think about this. He is not as protected as the buyer for public work. The buyer for public work is going to think about safety. The residential buyer, not necessarily. But he should.

Beau Smith is a professional multi-media artist who creates human-sized copper frogs. He also paints, writes, makes music, and designs for the web. His site is at http://beautifulfrog.com

Buying Stone Art

If you’ve been considering getting an art purchase, you probably know there are numerous different types of artwork. I would venture to say; however, that few types of artwork are more permanent than art in stone. This is because stone is extremely durable and impressive. When you purchase it for someone you care about they will immediately know that your love is undying. Revealing your love for someone through art in stone symbolizes your feelings for them: simple and unbreakable.

I should say that my interest in art carved in stone primarily stems from the fact that I have create it myself. For the last twenty years I have been a stone carver and over the course of this time my knowledge of this type of artwork has increased and evolved. When I first began to work with art in stone I started out with some of the most simple projects. This included statues. In fact, the very first carving I did was of a man. That project required me to work daily for three weeks to complete it. I learned through that project that working in stone requires a serious dedication, plenty of patience and a lot of time.

There are numerous artisans today that do art in stone work. In fact, many people opt to specially commission their artwork. The price can vary, some pieces can run as high as thousands of dollars. One thing is for sure; however, the final product is definitely worth the price considering the amount of time that is invested in the crafting of the piece. Large soapstone projects can easily require months of handcrafting and carving. When this is taken into consideration, you can easily see why it should not be taken for granted. Truly, art in stone is created by some of the most skilled artisans in the world.

When you start thinking of an art in stone project, you should always consider not only what you want to create but also the materials you have available. For example, soapstone lends itself well to softer and gentler features than harder materials such as jade. You should also keep in mind that whatever rock you choose possess features that should be respected. It is not simply a blank canvas. If you allow it, the material will direct you and in the end you will achieve a much better piece. Never start out with a project thinking you will create whatever you want with any piece of material. While you might end up with something quite good, it won’t be in harmony with the rock and will never have achieved all the potential available.

Article source: ContentLog.com

Author Description
John Park has been involved in artwork his entire life. He also writes the occasional article for http://articleforest.com/category/art/