LONDON ART AUCTION RESULT

Gerhard Richter, Kerze (Candle), 1982 (est. $9.3-13.9 million, realized $16.5 million). All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art sale on Friday evening in London ended the week’s auction blitz with a bang. The sale followed Phillips and Sotheby’s auctions in the same category that both failed to beat low presale estimates. The Christie’s sale was comprised of 47 lots that brought in $60 million, just shy of the $62 million high estimate. Top honors went to the evening’s cover lot- Gerhard Richter‘s Kerze – which was expected to bring in as much as $13.9 million. The artistmade headlines earlier this month when he characterized the art market as “impossible to understand” and “daft” during the press launch of his retrospective currently on view at Tate Modern. If anything, his comments seemed to have whet the already healthy appetite for his work, as Kerze sold for $16.5 million and set a record for the artist at auction. The candle paintings, in which the artist depicts lighted candles in his signature photorealistic style, are the most sought after works in the painter’s oeuvre.

Christie’s Jussi Pylkkanen at the rostrum.
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Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1992 (est. $3.8-5.3 million, realized $5.7 million), via Christies.com
Richter also secured the second highest earning lot of the evening with Abstraktes Bild, which sold for $5.7 million against a high estimate of $5.3 million. The painting last sold at Christie’s New York in 2002 for $1.05 million.



Antony Gormley, Angel of the North (Life-Size Maquette), 1996 (est. $2.3- 3 million, realized $5.7 million)
Six other artist records were set. Bidders chased after Antony Gormley‘s life size maquette of Angel of the North, one of England’s most recognizable pieces of public art. The work is number five in an edition of five. The third maquette in the series sold at Sotheby’s London in July 2008 for $4.6 million.



Martin Kippenberger, Untitled, 1990 (est. $380,000-530,000, realized $2.1 million), via Christies.com



Damien Hirst, Judas Iscariot (The Twelve Disciples), 1994 (est. $760,000-1.1 million, realized $1.6 million)
Sculpture fared well at the evening sale. Martin Kippenberger‘s squiggly lamp post carried a high estimate of $530,000 and was knocked down at $2.1 million, reportedly to former head of Christie’s Contemporary art department Philippe Segalot. The piece was acquired directly from the artist by the selling party. A bull’s head in formaldehyde by Damien Hirst  sold for $1.6 million against a high estimate of $1.1 million. Ron Mueck‘s hyper-real sculpture of a crouched man holding a sweater over his head sold for $947,000 against a high estimate of $900,000. The work carried a third party guarantee.



Ron Mueck, Man Under Cardigan, 1998 (est. $610,000-900,000, realized $947,000)



Ahmed Alsoudani, Baghdad I, 2008 ( est. $385,000-540,000, realized $1.1 million), via Christies.com
The artist record was also set for Iraqi-born Ahmed Alsoudani, whose work is currently on view in his homeland’s pavillion at the Venice Biennale. The painting on offer Friday evening was executed the year after Alsoudani graduated from Yale’s MFA program and carried a high estimate of $540,000. It fetched nearly twice that sum when it was hammered down at $1.1 million (with fees).
The results of the Christie’s sale proved that there is still energy in the market, despite fever-pitched concerns about the economy on both sides of the pond. All eyes are now on the next round of auctions next month in New York. Check back for a preview of the upcoming sales.
-J. Mizrachi
Related Links:
Christie’s Results [Christie's]
Christie’s Once Again Defies the Market, Pulling Off a $60 Million Triumph in Its London Contemporary Art Sale [Artinfo]
Richter $16.6 Million Record Leads Auction Boost to Art Market [Bloomberg]
Richter, Gormley records fall at Christie’s art sale [Reuters]
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artobserved.com

ROMAN ONDAK | DEUTSCHE BANK'S ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2012

Roman Ondák with "Loop", Czech and Slovak Republic Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2009.
Photo: Fabrizio Giraldi.
Roman Ondák

Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year 2012

db-artmag.com

Roman Ondák is Deutsche Bank's "Artist of the Year" 2012. On the recommendation
of the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council, consisting of renowned curators
Okwui Enwezor, Hou Hanru, Udo Kittelmann and Nancy Spector and chaired by
Pierre de Weck, member of Deutsche Bank AG's Executive Committee, the bank
honors young artists who have already created an extraordinary oeuvre in which
works on paper or photography play an important role. The selection was announced
at the Frieze Art Fair, which is supported by Deutsche Bank as main sponsor.



Roman Ondák, who was born in 1966 in Bratislava, Slovakia, is among the most
exciting representatives of a young generation of conceptual artists. In 2012,
he will play an important role in Deutsche Bank's art program. The Deutsche Guggenheim
will present a major solo exhibition of his work that will subsequently travel to additional
international institutions. Accompanying the show are an extensive catalogue and an
exclusive artist's edition. In addition, the bank will acquire a selection of works on paper
for its collection. Following Wangechi Mutu in 2010 and Yto Barrada in 2011, with
Roman Ondák the Global Art Advisory Council chose an artist whose work emphasizes
the draft character and conceptual approach of this medium. "It will be exciting to see
how he will challenge the medium of drawing and the material of paper in the future,
" says Udo Kittelmann, Director of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, who nominated Ondák
for the award.





Indeed, with the simplest means Ondák creates an art that lends everyday experiences
and perceptions a philosophical, political, or sociocritical dimension. At the same time,
his interventions scrutinize the art world. When he represented Slovakia at the 2009
Venice Biennale, Ondák extended the landscaping in the exhibition park, the Giardini,
into the interior of the Slovakian Pavilion. Bushes, shrubs, and even the garden path
continued through the exhibition building, as though the structure did not exist.
The work dissolved boundaries between interior and exterior space and hence the
pavilion itself along with its function. Ondák's interventions play with our standards,
expectations, and perspectives. The lines of people that he staged in 2004 in front of
booths at the Frieze Art Fair in London take the relationship between supply and demand
 to absurdity.



Although Ondák's reserved art is often recognizable only at second glance, his importance
in the art world is unmistakable. In 2011, he has had more international exhibitions than
ever before, including solo shows at the Kunsthaus Zürich and in Oxford, as well as
participation in the Venice Biennale.



More information at db-artmag.com.

ArtMag, Deutsche Bank's online art magazine, has reported on the international
art scene since 2002.
In addition to articles on and interviews with artists whose work is included in the
Deutsche Bank Collection and shown at Deutsche Guggenheim exhibitions, each
edition is devoted to a special topical subject.

Register here for your ArtMag newsletter and stay updated.

e-flux.com

ETTORE SPALLETTI | LIA RUMMA

Galleria Lia Rumma Via Vannella Gaetani 12 - 80121 Naples Italy EuropeT: +39 081 19812354 F: +39 081 19812406 M: W: www.liarumma.it   10 Nov 2011 to 31 Dec 2011
Artists in this exhibition: Ettore Spalletti
Ettore Spalletti opening: giovedì 10 novembre 2011 h 18.00 Galleria Lia Rumma, Via Vannella Gaetani 12 - 80121 Napoli Un giorno ho visto Spalletti disporre i cavalletti in studio in modo diverso. Gli ho domandato il motivo. Mi ha risposto che lavorava alla mostra per la galleria di Lia Rumma a Napoli. Ha voluto che lo spazio fosse vuotato e che il pavimento fosse lavato. Lo osservavo passeggiare nello studio in cerca di una luce, di un’ombra, come per trovare un’immagine per poi liberarsene un attimo dopo. La geometria dello studio poco a poco veniva scomposta dai tagli ordinati dei cavalletti. Ho sentito che aveva già precisato un percorso ma non riuscivo ancora a comprenderlo. Spalletti prepara le tavole meticolosamente, il retro viene coperto perchè non ama le sbavature. Dipinge tenendo le tavole in orizzontale, mi spiega che in questo modo la pasta di colore si stende meglio: “il colore si stende, asciuga, ispessisce, riposa”. L’impasto di colore viene dato sulle tavole, quasi alla stessa ora, per dieci o quindici giorni, fino ad ottenere uno spessore che non consente di capire se “il colore dalla superficie si muove verso l’interno del quadro o se dall’interno si muove verso l’esterno”. I tempi di essiccazione determinano quella leggera trama che traspare sulla superficie. Su quei cavalletti ha cominciato a posizionare le tavole, di diverso formato, ciascuna preparata con una cornice diversa, alcune rastremate, altre a sbalzo, altre ancora sottili su un lato e più spesse sull’altro. Ai miei occhi sfuggiva il disegno complessivo. Così Spalletti ha iniziato a definire i primi colori, uno dopo l’altro, ed a stenderli, uno dopo l’altro. Quando prepara l’impasto di colore gli abiti non vengono toccati dalla vernice, i gesti sono meditati, il dosaggio è sapiente. I primi colori erano tenui, un rosa impalpabile, un azzurro acquatico, seguiva un rosso porpora, poi il grigio che “meglio di tutti gli altri colori riesce ad accogliere”, infine il bianco sull’idea verticale della colonna e sulla pietra di alabastro tinta solo per metà. I colori però non erano ancora leggibili, soltanto dopo l’abrasione, quando i pigmenti si rompono e si distribuiscono come polvere di colore sul quadro, il bianco del gesso contenuto nell’impasto li fa vibrare. Quando d’improvviso i colori si sono rivelati nel loro definitivo cromatismo, Spalletti mi ha guardato accennando un sorriso: “d’incanto l’incanto di aver trovato una foglia di acanto”. Sulle cornici andava poi ad adagiarsi il luccichio della foglia d’oro o la rotondità della pasta d’argento. Le tavole, distese, una di fianco all’altra, lasciavano già intuire la loro ragione, poi, una volta appoggiate sulla parete, una dietro l’altra, d’improvviso si sono manifestate in tutta la loro presenza. L’andamento delle cornici imprimeva il movimento, l’oro andava a riflettersi sul muro, il colore viaggiava su di esse. In quel momento, come in una apparizione, tutto si è svelato. Ciò che prima non riuscivo a cogliere era lì di fronte a me come un tutt’uno. E’ stato soltanto allora che Spalletti mi ha detto che il suo desiderio era quello di far correre i colori lungo le pareti della galleria “come a dipingere un solo quadro”. Azzurra Ricci Mostre personali sono state dedicate a Spalletti (Cappelle sul Tavo, 1940) da istituzioni prestigiose come Museum Folkwang, Essen (1982), Museum Van Hedendaagse, Gent (1983), Kunstverein, Monaco (1989), Portikus, Francoforte (1989), ARC, Parigi (1991), IVAM, Valencia (1992), Guggenheim Museum, New York (1993), MUHKA, Anversa (1995), Museo di Capodimonte, Napoli (1999), Musée de Strasbourg (1999), Fundaciòn La Caixa, Madrid (2000), Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds (2005), Villa Medici, Roma (2006), Museum Kurhaus Kleve (2009). Diverse le partecipazioni a mostre internazionali, tra cui Documenta VII (1982) e IX (1992), Kassel e la XL (1982), XLIV (1993), XLVI (1995), XLVII (1997) Biennale di Venezia. - One day I saw Spalletti arranging his easels in the studio in a different fashion. I asked him why. He replied that he was working on the exhibition for the Lia Rumma gallery in Naples. He wanted the space to be emptied and the floor to be washed. I observed him as he walked around the studio in search of light and shadow as if he was trying to find an image and then liberate himself from it the very next moment. The geometry of the studio gradually was decomposed by the regular edges of the easels. I felt that he had already defined a sequence although I still could not understand it. Spalletti prepared the paintings meticulously. The rear of the painting was covered because he does not like smudges. He paints with the canvas placed horizontally; he explains that in this way the paint can be spread on more evenly: “the paint is spread, it dries, thickens and settles”. The paint is applied to the canvases, almost at the same hour, for ten or fifteen days, until it reaches a thickness that makes it impossible to understand whether “the colour of the surface is moving towards the inner part of the painting or whether the inner part is moving towards the outside”. The drying times creates the slightly loose-textured effect that appears on the surface. He began to position the paintings on the easels. Each painting had a different format and was prepared with a different frame, some of them tapered, some embossed, others thin on one side and thick on the other. I was unable to grasp the overall design. So Spalletti began to define the first colours, one by one, and spread them on, one after the other. While he was preparing the paint, his clothes were not touched by the paint. The gestures were meditated and the quantities were carefully chosen. The first colours were delicate, a very light pink, a watery blue, followed by crimson, then grey which “manages to absorb more than all the other colours” and, lastly, the white on the vertical idea of the column and on the alabaster, which is only half-painted. However, the colours were still not intelligible; only after the abrasion, when the pigments break up and are distributed like powder paint on the painting, the white of the chalk contained in the mixture begin to make them resonate. When the paints suddenly became clear in their definitive chromatic sense, Spalletti looked at me with a half-smile and said, “d’incanto l’incanto di aver trovato una foglia di acanto” (as if by some enchantment, the enchanting discovery of finding an acanthus leaf). The glitter of the gold leaf or the rotundity of the silver substance settled on the frames. The paintings, arranged one beside the other, left the viewer to guess the meaning; then, once they had been placed on the wall, one behind the other, they suddenly manifested themselves with the entire force of their presence. The pattern of the frames determined the movement, the gold began to be reflected on the wall, the colour travelled on them. At that moment, as if in a vision, all was revealed. Everything that I had previously been unable to comprehend stood before me as a unified whole”. It was only then that Spalletti told me that his intention was to make the colours run along the walls of the gallery “like painting a single picture”. Azzurra Ricci
Galleria Lia Rumma Milano

STEFANO ARIENTI | STUDIO GUENZANI MILAN

Stefano Arienti’s latest show consists of two works, both comprising polystyrene panels on which the artist has reproduced photographs of travel images. The exhibition’s title piece, Postcards, 1990–91, features eleven panels with images of tourist sites taken from postcards. Untitled, 1992, is composed of seventeen panels with images of photographs Arienti took during his travels. In both cases, the viewer encounters banal, typically touristic images that evoke both personal and collective histories and speak to the way private experiences can become the stock imagery of the public sphere—and vice versa.

View of “Postcards,” 2011.

Arienti emphasizes these dynamics through his use of space. The tall panels are propped against the walls, creating a pathway through the gallery. Neon tubes behind each allow light to pass through the perforated polystyrene, emphasizing the work’s expressive potential as well as its fragility. Walking through the exhibition, one has the sense of traversing both public and private domains; and, as light radiates out of the panels, pooling in the middle of the space, Arienti emphasizes of how deeply photography has entangled these two spheres.

Postcards was originally part of an installation exhibited at the 1990 Venice Biennale; looking at the work today, there is no mistake that it was a portent. Both pieces allude to the formal and conceptual lightness that would reach their peak the ’90s (as seen in the work of Maurizio Cattelan, Paola Pivi, and Vanessa Beecroft), and they anticipate the recent interest in cultural memory and the archive as an artistic paradigm. In an age when photography is more ubiquitous than ever, the prescience of Arienti’s two works continues to prevail.

Translated from Italian by Marguerite Shore.

Stefano Arienti

STUDIO GUENZANI
Via Eustachi 10
September 15–November 12