News Summary

Francesco Bonami defends his ?40 years of Italian art?

19/11/08 12:00 AM The Art Newspaper
VENICE. Curator, writer and critic Francesco Bonami is running into trouble. His current exhibition ...
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Latin America?s big biennial at risk

19/11/08 12:00 AM The Art Newspaper
SÃO PAULO. Since it was founded in 1951, the São Paulo Bienal has been the most important ...
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?I never thought there would be an audience for my work?

19/11/08 12:00 AM The Art Newspaper
Widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in contemporary sculpture, Richard ...
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Opening: The Keywords

19/11/08 12:00 AM The Art Newspaper
From Thursday 20, Centre d?Edition Contemporaine, Geneva
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Kapoor sculpture may fetch $2.6 million at Bonhams Dubai sale

18/11/08 01:09 PM ArtReview News
By artreview.comA sculpture by Anglo-Indian artist Anish Kapoor may fetch up to $2.6 million at the second Bonhams auction of Arab, Iranian, Indian and Pakistani art in Dubai, to be held on November 24.The 149-lot sale is expected to fetch between $9 million and $12 million, said the London-based company. Bonhams's smaller inaugural sale of contemporary art in Dubai in March took $13 million with 33 artists setting records.Since then, falling oil and equity prices have reduced demand at Dubai auctions. Last month, Christie's International held a two-day sale of art and jewelry in the city that fetched $16.9 million with fees against a presale low estimate of $32 million, based on hammer prices."The froth's gone," said Matthew Girling, Bonhams's chief executive for Europe and the Middle East. "At the beginning of the year, works were selling for six or seven times the estimate. Now it's not quite the same." See www.bloomberg.com for full story.
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Cowhide giant, blown walls at Dior's show at Ullens in Beijing

18/11/08 12:59 PM ArtReview News
By artreview.comChristian Dior SA has tapped China's top contemporary artists such as Zhang Xiaogang for its Beijing exhibition, the latest European luxury-goods maker to blend fashion and culture to promote their brand in the nation.For the show, Dior uses pieces from its haute couture collection and art from the collection of Chairman Bernard Arnault as context for Zhang, Li Songsong and 19 artists to create sculptures, paintings, installations and photographs. The show, at Ullens Center of Contemporary Art, runs through January 15."This exhibition creates an unprecedented dialogue between two different forms of artistic expression: contemporary art and fashion,'' Ullens Director Jerome Sans said in an interview. See www.bloomberg.com for full story.
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Art Paris Abu Dhabi: modern & contemporary art fair opens

18/11/08 12:42 PM ArtReview News
By artreview.comFor its second edition, Art Paris-Abu Dhabi is returning to the Emirates Palace from November 17 to 21, 2008, to present a broad and impressive panorama of artistic creation of the 20th and 21st centuries. This year, the fair is strengthening its policy of selection and participation of contemporary art galleries active in the international market.In 2007, Art Paris installed itself for the first time in Abu Dhabi, creating the largest fair for modern and contemporary art ever organized in the United Arab Emirates. The result: a turn over of USD 15,867,000 for a fair that attracted 9,200 visitors and collectors in just three days.… a turn-over full of promise for the organizers who are expecting this year more than 15,000 visitors.With the support of the authorities in charge of culture and patrimony (ADACH – Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage), the art fair plays an active role in the cultural activities of AbuDhabi. Thus, the fair’
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Pace Wildenstein fires 12 percent of its staff

18/11/08 12:33 PM ArtReview News
By artreview.comMore gloomy news from New York contemporary art galleries: sources say Pace Wildenstein, one of the largest contemporary galleries in city, let go of 18 of its 146 employees on Friday (12 percent of its staff). President Marc Glimcher has not yet responded to this morning's request for comment. See www.artfagcity.com for full story.
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Graffiti activists target São Paulo Biennial

18/11/08 12:28 PM ArtReview News
By artreview.comOfficials at the São Paulo Biennial have stepped up security measures and added metal detectors after a group of graffiti activists vandalized an exhibition, reports Artforum via O Globo. The activists targeted the walls of the empty first floor of the Ciccillo Matarazzo pavilion in Ibirapuera Park, where no artworks were on display, and wrote slogans such as "the empty biennial," "under dictatorship," and "this is art."The responsible group, known as the "Pichadores," are renowned in São Paulo for attacking cultural institutions including the academy of fine arts and for leaving their tags across the city. The 40 vandals involved struggled with the guards on duty, but most of them escaped, some by breaking a window in the pavilion. Only two were arrested.See www.artinfo.com for full story.
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Art Cologne to shrink

18/11/08 12:18 PM ArtReview News
By artreview.comAfter losing Deutsche Bank as a sponsor earlier this month, Art Cologne has eliminated one of three planned floors of exhibition space for its next edition, in April, reports Artforum via the Süddeutsche Zeitung. According to the report, new artistic director Daniel Hug has managed to retain most Cologne galleries and attract new ones from Düsseldorf, although some big names, such as Galerie Sprüth Magers, which has spaces in Berlin, London, Cologne, and Munich, have not yet applied. See www.artinfo.com for story.
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Rare Arkwright portrait acquired

18/11/08 09:43 AM BBC Entertainment
The National Portrait Gallery in London teams up with a museum in Preston, Lancashire to buy a portrait of a giant of the Industrial Revolution.
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