#237 · kader attia courtesy of the artist, biennale de lyon, nagel draxler and lehmann maupin...

How do we assess contemporary art?

Mesk-ellil (2015)Hicham Berrada

Courtesy of Kamel Mennour and Biennale de Lyon 2015

© Blaise Adilon

#23722 february 2016

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#237 • 22 february 2016

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Museo SoumayaCarlos Slim's private museum

Courtesy of Museo Soumaya


In a novel retracing the life of Van Gogh’s post-man Joseph Roulin (La vie de Jospeh Roulin), writer Pierre Michon raises a question that has probably crossed the minds of all art lo-vers: “Who decides what’s beautiful and, on

this basis, what’s expensive or worth nothing among humans?” The question of a work’s va-lue is continually raised, and may sometimes be accompanied by bafflement — a feeling to which even experts may be prone. So then: how is it that contemporary art is assessed? Who are the players who take part in this game of meaning, that sometimes resembles a game of fools? Eva-luating an artwork means placing a value upon it. An aesthetic value, implicitly, but values are a porous field where different horizons mix, in a monumental and plural edifice that we custo-marily call “culture”. So who is responsible for us scrutinising a Jeff Koons sculpture or Henri Dar-ger drawings?

For American sociologist Howard Becker, the art world is a "collective action" (Art Worlds, 1982). Evaluation is based on several criteria — not merely formal ones — and can be divided into various temporalities at which different players intervene. And yet, the process is not so transparent in the eyes of the public in a broad sense. Perhaps this is because the evaluation process is not as rigid as one might think, but based instead on a fragile balance, subject to ongoing reconfigurations. It seems quite obvious that the reality is somewhere between two extremes: the relativism of taste-based judgments that amounts to implying that a work’s value is strictly subjective, and the idea that the work innately carries objective value. In the end, who should we hold responsible? Between the illusion of a whim underlying a judgment and the illusion of a work’s objective value, what is there left for us to understand how we evaluate contemporary art?

aesthetic evaluationWhat criteria do we use to evaluate the art of our time? There is one crucial criterion in assessing a work, and that is the question of form and formal analysis. What we ask an artist to do is to invent new forms and new creative procedures. Since the imitation of what already exists lacks interest, invention — of new forms and new procedures — is a basic element by which to consider art history.

Inventing a new form comes from feeling the necessity to express a new situation in a form that corresponds to it. This new situation is that of our contemporary era; it may be personal as well as collective, with both often joining up if they are not inextricably linked. This is also the reason why it is necessary to renew the forms by which our world expresses, considers and represents itself.

Aotw • How do we assess cont. art?As ingenious or inspiring as the works of the past may be, they belong to a world that is no longer ours. It is up to artists to continue to create new forms for our present time. In L’Atelier d’Alberto Giacometti, Jean Genet writes that an artwork is not aimed at future generations, but rather, “it is offered up to the countless people of the dead”. When an artist invents a new form, it is almost always a homage to the past that manifests the necessity to update the way we perceive and think about the world. For example, when Kader Attia explored the theme of repair at the last Biennale de Lyon, in Traditional Repair, Immaterial Injury (2015), we encountered a form that translates, into matter and signs, certain elements in our societies where the issue of repair is backed up by a nostalgic feeling of loss. Many observers agree to say that we are in the midst of a crisis, in other words, a period of mutation, deep and violent questioning of our societies. A break with the past, especially when the past is close, is the object of grief — a loss that must at all costs be compensated and repaired. The work of Kader Attia is in line with this perspective and gives us, through what can be perceived, keys for deepening our understanding of our situation as Europeans and Westerners. There is something necessary about this form and it speaks to “us” even when we turn our backs on it.

the three stages of recognitionDuring a conference held at the Collège de France, “Évaluer l'art contemporain”, Philippe Dagen suggested distinguishing between three stages in the process under analysis. Before an artist becomes an artist, many players are deployed in a relatively long temporality, beyond the very short time occupied by the market.

Biwat Flute Stopper Yuat River

Papua New-Guinea

© Sotheby's Art Digital Studio

Traditional Repair, Immaterial Injury (2015)Kader Attia

Courtesy of the artist, Biennale de Lyon, Nagel Draxler and Lehmann Maupin Gallery


#237 • 22 february 2016



The first stage of the evaluation process is a critical one. Indeed, this is a selection process that is set off — one that singles out, amongst all contemporary creations, those that deserve to be shown. Works are firstly selected through the training of artists, in specialised schools. The profession is learned and transmitted while taking stock of its specificities. Of course, artistic movements such as outsider art do not include this first stage, but this is not reason enough to ignore them in the midst of all contemporary artistic creations. The work of an artist who graduates from art school is evaluated by his or her teachers but also by critics or gallerists or curators. This first stage of evaluation thus takes place under an authority recognised as such by its institutional function. In this way, this is a critical stage that consists in sorting and selecting, detecting what may emerge as a new form. At this stage, the economic question is practically absent, or at least no more than a than a thought at the back of the mind. Evaluation is expressed through support or reticence, but from the perspective of an authority figure. In contemporary art, it is not rare to see artists accompanying their work with discourse that also offers keys to its evaluation without clamping down the work’s meaning. After this first circle of critics has operated, it is up to institutional networks to confirm this first evaluation. This time, it is the gallerist-collector duo that takes over.

The second stage of evaluation consists in widening the public’s recognition. It is at this point that an artist’s internationalisation comes into play, through big international fairs such as Art Basel, the FIAC, Frieze, etc. but also public institutions — the FRAC, kunsthallen, museums, art centres… — via their exhibition programming. And while the museum legitimates the artist,

the opposite can also be said to be true! The process of recognition is thus two-way. Obviously, the Centre Pompidou could make no claims of being a great modern-art museum without presenting the works of Jeff Koons, but reciprocally, Jeff Koons is a major artist on the contemporary art scene in that he is part of this museum’s collection.

Finally, the third stage of evaluation is played out at the time when art is received by the media. At this stage, art is in the hands of what Philippe Dagen calls a “collective social operation” on which critical authority no longer has any real influence. It is replaced by the ballet of auction sales, the sparkling acquisitions of major collectors or else subject to the opinion of the public who do not necessarily take aesthetics alone into account. Recently, debate surrounding Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner in Versailles clearly shows a shift in evaluation criteria, whereby ideologies contaminate the aesthetic experience at the risk of sometimes overtaking it.

Finally, a work’s monetary value is an evaluation subject to great variability — as well as visibility. The work’s objective quality and its formal description are swapped for a symbolic exchange value; in other words, we give a work a meaning that applies for the time present and that plays on the intersubjective mode. The symbolic chain is now at work.

the issue of values and symbolsThe issue of a work’s symbolic value arises during auction sales. Works become something like brands, and to design them, we often use metonymy. “It’s a Basquiat.” Descriptive evaluation gives way to prescriptive evaluation.

Aotw • How do we assess cont. art?

Dirty Corner (2011)Anish Kapoor

© François Guillot

Walter Vanhaerents

© Karel Duerinckx


#237 • 22 february 2016



This prescriptive power is exercised by great art collectors, and in their trail, great museums, both private and public. When Budi Tek chooses to add to his collection a work by Adel Abdessemed, Anselm Kiefer or Maurizio Cattelan, this is a major mark of recognition for the work of these artists at the same time as a mark of the artist’s internationalisation. The same thing applies when Eli Broad, Steve Cohen, or François Pinault buy a work; the act itself causes the work’s value to be reconsidered, not merely on an economic level — even if the phenomenon remains much more complex as collectors don’t divulge all their acquisitions.

Risk-taking is therefore relatively moderate. Of course, these are still bets on the future, especially for French museums that cannot sell the works that they have purchased in that they belong to the country’s heritage. In such a system, it’s better not to make any mistakes.

As the evaluation of contemporary creation lacks the perspective of art history, it may be a prisoner of its time. It is like a snapshot taken at a specific moment, revealing the trend of the moment, the values of an era, that may sometimes overlook certain aspects. It also sometimes happens that some creations are so new that they take all their contemporaries unawares, placing the present into such a deep crisis that they will only reach the public later. Without the distance of art history, evaluation is based on the laws of desire and the mimetic attitude that this encourages; in other words a fashion effect which is sometimes very difficult to shake off.

Art history shows us the extent to which our evaluation of contemporary art evolves, and therefore how there is something contingent about it. It shows us that our evaluation can be reversible.

Aotw • How do we assess cont. art?

the perspective of historyAttempts to rationalise on the evaluation of contemporary art are perhaps vain. The issue of values does not hinge on rationality alone. It is accompanied by an element of imagination and symbolism that makes the evaluation process somewhat opaque. This is inevitable but all the more significant as we lack perspective, and history has not yet operated its selection.

What this also indicates is the fragility of the construction of meaning; an inherent fragility that we need not regret, but can uphold in order to better evaluate our evaluation. It is normal for us to overvalue art from our lifetime. Given that this art’s meaning is not yet stabilised, it is endowed with a patent symbolic reach that gives artworks the status of an object of positioning where rivalry can be played out. Meanwhile, old art is evaluated differently, with more perspective. This explains why speculation about its symbolic reach is less significant.

The mechanism of evaluating contemporary art is complex and multifaceted, offering a reflection of the spirit of the times. It is highly instructive to observe evolutions in how a work is received. Spectators are generally more conservative than artists or players on the art field. Thankfully, in most cases, it is still the work that has the last word. Evaluation is the fruit of various temporalities juxtaposing different players, and the work of the symbolic that links all of these. Evaluation is a fragile mechanism, requiring prudence and a certain humility. It is a continually renewed venture that has something contingent about it, but that ultimately applies with the firmness of a necessity associated with the present time.

« Fernando Botero » Würth's Collection

Courtesy of Collection Würth

Kar-a-sutra (2015)Hamilton Anthea

Courtesy of Biennale de Lyon© Blaise Adilon


#237 • 22 february 2016



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The first guest will be Michel Pastoureau, professor of medieval history and author of numerous books on symbo-lic of colors and heraldic. He will give a lecture in French on Friday 18th of March 2016 on the following theme : “Bear : a Cultural History” .

The program of future conference-dinners will cover various topics like “Diamonds of the French monarchy”, “Women and landscapes in the 19th century”, “Could animal become the future of human being ?”, “Animals, human and plants in Amazonia : a network of history”.

École des chartes’ official conference-dinners

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Conference-dinner feesfrom 95 euros and upwardsAll greater amounts will contribute to the creation of an endowment for a student scholarship.

LocationHôtel de GuénégaudComité culturel du Club de la chasse et de la nature60, rue des Archives - 75003 Paris

Registrationhttp://www.enc-sorbonne.fr/fr/actualite/ours-histoire-culturelle-michel-pastoureau

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Marseille, le Vallon des Auffes, 1957 - Oil on canvas

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forgery could eric spoutz have sold fakes?

a new forgery affair rocking the world of art may even affect the Smithsonian Institute in

Washington, D.C.The forger, Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz, who claims to be the nephew of American artist Ian Hornak, is being accused of swindling, apparently having sold a dozen fakes to trusting buyers in the last five years. While Spoutz seems to be a bona fide relative of the American artist, it wasn’t by using this identity that he managed to cheat his clients. Indeed, Eric Spoutz used multiple pseudonyms such as Robert Chad Smith, John Goodman or James Sinclair to cover up his tracks. On his web site, Spoutz describes himself as “freelance mu-seum exhibition curator, private art dealer”. In 2013, he apparently helped the Smithsonian Ins-titute to acquire several works by Eugene Alain Seguy and Franz Kline. But according to autho-rities, the Klines are fakes. A Danish web site suggests that Spoutz may even have started his swindling by selling Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall or Matisse imitations before devoting himself to great American masters.This new forgery affair is shaking up the US art world after the Knoedler affair in New York.

project france launches two initiatives for developing artistic creation

the city of Paris will be launching, on 1 April, “Les oeuvres d'art investissent la rue” (Artworks in the

Streets), financed by the 2014 participatory bud-get, envisaging the creation of a Street Art fresco for each arrondissement in the French capital.The artists selected for the project include Noe Two, Hopare, 2shy, Shaka, Marko93, Da Cruz, Psy-ckoze, Alex, Zenoy, Astro and Lazoo.This is not an isolated project. On a national level, on 16 December 2015, Fleur Pellerin, then Minis-ter of Culture and Communication, launched the “1 immeuble 1 oeuvre” (1 Building 1 Work) charter aimed at encouraging building developers to com-mission or acquire an artwork from an artist for all building construction or renovation programmes. Companies such as Accor, BNP and Vinci have signed the charter. According to the then minister, “over a thousand works will thus be created or ac-quired every year and exhibited in all French terri-tories”. This project was launched at the instigation of Laurent Dumas, CEO of the Emerige group.

nomination audrey azoulay named minister of culture by françois Hollande

French president François Hollande has chosen Audrey Azoulay to take over the helm of the

French Ministry of Culture and Communication, re-placing Fleur Pellerin.The former presidential culture counsellor is therefore being given the opportunity to replace her previous supervising minister – a boon for the ex-number two at the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) who main-tains good relationships with the world of culture.Unlike her predecessor, Audrey Azoulay can claim special knowledge about the creative world, na-mely thanks to her training in film. This appoint-ment comes at a time when the Senate is exami-ning the Pellerin Bill on the “freedom of creation, architecture and heritage”, aiming to establish and guarantee the freedom of creation and to update the protection of heritage.

top stories cuLturaL war exact replicas of timbuktu mausoleums reconstructed

ding of the Koran and a collective prayer session, the mausoleums’ keys were handed over to the families in charge of the sanctuaries.The “City of 333 Saints” was occupied by Jihadists in 2012 before the latter were dispelled by an international military operation initiated by France. The “Pearl of the Desert” nonetheless remains under threat because an attack car-ried out by presumed Jihadists took place in February this year, on the base of the UN Mission in Timbuktu. This attack caused the death of one soldier and “at least four terrorists” according to the Malian army.

three years after the destruction of Timbuktu mausoleums by Jihadists, Mali declares that it

has regained possession of its sanctuaries, repro-duced identically and completed on 4 February.The replicas of these mausoleums were produced thanks to the traditional knowhow of Timbuktu ma-sons, using the remains of the original walls. After a ritual sacrifice and ceremony including a full rea-

Djingareyber Mosque, Timbuktu

© Ka Tzetnik

Audrey Azoulay

via Gouvernement.fr


#237 • 22 february 2016



this week: New YORk!

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As a leading international art fair and a New York institution, The Armory Show continues to evolve as the premier destination for discovering and acquiring modern and contemporary art in New York. Now in its 22nd year, The Armory Show remains a highly-anticipated event on the global arts calendar, connecting the world’s leading galleries with international collectors, curators and art professionals in the capital of the art world.

AUCTIONS

CONTEMPORARY CURATEdSotheby’s. 3 March 2016.FiRST OPEN: POST-WAR ANd CONTEMPORARY ARTChristie’s. 4 March 2016.

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VOLTA | NEW YORKPier 90. 2 - 6 March 2016.AdAA - THE ART SHOWPark Avenue Armory. 2 - 6 March 2016.

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MARCEL BROOdTHAERS: A RETROSPECTiVEThe Museum of Modern Art. Until 15 May 2016.

VigéE LE BRUN. WOMAN ARTiST iN REVOLUTiONARY FRANCEMetropolitan Museum of Art. Until 15 May 2016.WARHOL BY THE BOOKThe Morgan Library & Museum. Until 15 May 2016.

ANRi SALA. ANSWER METhe New Museum. Until 10 April 2016.

gREATER NEW YORKMoMA PS1. Until 7 March 2016.

LUigi gHiRRi. THE iMPOSSiBLE LANdSCAPEMatthew Marks gallery. Until 30 April 2016.LARRY BELL. FROM THE ‘60SHauser & Wirth Uptown. Until 9 April 2016.HENRiK OLESENgalerie Buchholz. Until 5 March 2016. PERSONAL WORK - iRViNg PENNPace gallery. Until 5 March 2016.LiAM giLLiCK. PHANTOM STRUCTURESCasey Kaplan gallery. Until 19 March 2016.

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#237 • 22 february 2016

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Les dîners-débats d’aaaaaaa au Club de la Chasse et de la Nature

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lundi 21 mars 2016, 20h 60 rue des Archives, F-75003 Paris, France

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Directeur de la galerie Didier Aaron, New York, Londres, Paris Président d’honneur du Salon du Dessin

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cLosure closing of the paris pinacothèque

It’s been official since 12 February: the Paris Pi-nacothèque is closing its doors on Place de la

Madeleine.The establishment, in receivership since the start of November, has encountered difficulties due to a variety of causes: tepid visitor rates in recent years, all the more affected by the attacks in Paris in 2015. The institution is nevertheless looking for new projects, and hopes to open two new sites in the next three to four years: one first site dedi-cated to contemporary art, the other to sculpture and tribal arts, on “economically more bearable” premises, declared the Pinacothèque’s president and founder Marc Restellini. The establishment is setting its sights overseas, namely in Asia and the Near East. The closure is more an “act of mana-gement” than a bankruptcy, reassures Marc Res-tellini, who offers a disturbing assessment of the situation in France to The Art Newspaper: “As a private museum, we provide a public service, but we face unfair competition compared to other museums that do not pay 10 % VAT on ticket sales or rent or insurance for works guaranteed by the State. There is work to be done in France on this issue of general interest. There should be more opportunities for setting up projects. The private realm contributes a great deal.”While the institution’s financial difficulties were no secret, the news has still produced the effect of a small electric shock. The biggest jolt is the cancellation of the photo exhibition “Karl Lager-feld, a Visual Journey”, initially scheduled to run until 20 March, which thus closed on Monday at 6 p.m.

Hr museu de arte moderna in rio de janeiro has a new visual arts curator

according to Artnexus, the Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro has ap-

pointed a new visual arts curator: Fernando Cocchiarale.This philosophy and aesthetics professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro has also notched up over twenty years of tea-ching experience at the Visual Arts School in Par-que Lage.A former curator of the cultural programme “Ru-mos: Itaú Cultural”, the curating career of Fernan-do Cocchiarale is now taking a new turn.

project new edition of the wikipedia edit-a-tHon at the moma

the third edition of the Wikipedia EDIT-A-THON will be taking place on 5 March, in hope that it

will achieve the same success as its previous edi-tions. It will be held at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Education and Research Building of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in New York.The EDIT-A-THON lasts one day and aims to create more Wikipedia pages dedicated to female ar-tists and feminist artistic movements. During the previous edition, over 330 articles were added to Wikipedia by 1,500 volunteers. This year, the edi-tion will include discussions on child protection as well as tutorial sessions on publishing articles on Wikipedia. The edition is being organised in partnership with the association Art + Feminism — with already a Wikipedia workshop scheduled at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on 16 Fe-bruary.According to Art + Feminism, other similar events will be taking place in 2016, at nearly 100 sites in-cluding the Tate Britain, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yale University, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporàneo in Mexico, and the Archives Na-tionales in Paris.

museums announcement the serpentine gallery reveals the architect of its 2016 architecture pavilion

architects Yona Friedman, Asif Khan, Barkow Leibinger, and Kunlé Adeyemi have been commissioned to produce summerhouses. The latter are to be inspired from the classically styled Queen Caroline's Temple, constructed in 1734.Co-director of the Serpentine Gallery Julia Peyton-Jones, made the following declaration in what is her last year at the head of the institution: “After fifteen years, the pavilion program has expanded. It now comprises five structures, each designed by an architect of international renown, aged between thirty-six and ninety-three.”

the Serpentine Gallery has announced that it has se-lected five architects this year — instead of the usual

one — for its yearly exhibition dedicated to architecture.But as is the case every year, the exhibition will be organised around the pavilion constructed in the Kensington Gardens. For this new edition, the se-lection has gone to architect Bjarke Ingels and his agency Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). At the same time,

Fernando Cocchiarale


#237 • 22 february 2016



Exhibition View "Franck Eon, Abstraction faite d'une

conception plutôt magique de la situation."

Photo Rebecca FanueleCourtesy of Galerie Thomas Bernard

- Cortex Athletico

tHomas bernard, tHe gambLe to Leave

bordeaux

the Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Atlan-tico recently moved to Paris after earning its stripes in Bordeaux. This was the oppor-tunity for Art Media Agency to ask Thomas Bernard about the prospects opened up by

such a change and to hear his lucid, critical views on the art market.

you recently moved your bordeaux gallery to paris. can you tell us what motivated this de-cision?The move took place in two stages. We arrived in Paris in 2013 as a branch of our Bordeaux gallery. The idea was to arrive gently in Paris, to take the time to test, observe, take stock of this change and this new city. I don’t like rushing into things, going too fast, and above all imposing myself. We needed to take our time. In 2015, we acquired this new space and we closed the Bor-deaux gallery for good.

why did you close the bordeaux gallery?We’ve come to a more functional venue. The gallery has four spaces: one for exhibitions, one for offices, a showroom, and a storage space. It’s also a warmer, more convivial, larger, more comfortable place.

Our initial experience revealed a few things. First – and perhaps it’s surprising for me to say so –, everything’s less expensive in Paris! I’m talking about the gallery’s structural costs. The professionals are very specialised – for example accountants or framers who work only with galle-ries – and this allows them to offer more attractive prices.

Above all, the professionals here have skills that are specifically adapted to our needs.

Secondly, inviting people to Paris is more prac-tical, especially when they come from over-seas. If you bring over an Australian artist to Bordeaux, it’s very likely that he doesn’t even know where Bordeaux is… Finally, there are structures that allow us to exist. Bordeaux, like other cities outside of Paris, isn’t big enough for the market to have its own identity. The way in which the market is constructed depends on institutions taking things in control. In Bor-deaux, culture is in the hands of the municipa-lity. In Paris, we – the gallerists – are numerous enough to hold weight in the face of these ins-titutional structures.

Exhibition View "Franck Eon, Abstraction faite

d'une conception plutôt magique de la situation."

Photo Rebecca FanueleCourtesy of Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico

interview • tHomas bernard We could have kept our Bordeaux space as a la-boratory, a more alternative place. But for now, the priority is to develop our activity on the spot. There’s still so much work to do!

Have you kept your bordeaux clientele?The Bordeaux clientele has never been very si-gnificant — but faithful. It’s the long experience of a gallery that’s important.

You know, it’s not often that people push open the door of a gallery by chance… Clients always know where they’re going, and this implies the establishment of mutual trust. It’s a matter of winning loyalty, accompanying certain buyers in their first choices, training new collectors. This is what we’ve done since 2003 in Bordeaux, where we initiated new collectors who now see with ex-perienced eyes.

The art market is a centrifuge system; it’s the edges that construct the core. And in this core, we find gallerists such as Taddeus Ropac or Al-mine Rech. Some of our clients are continuing to follow us to Paris. Here, we’ve gained in speed what we’ve lost in comfort. In Bordeaux, galleries are in the shadows; we can take risks and if we fail, it’s no big deal. We can adopt an experimen-tal approach. In Paris, it’s different.

in bordeaux everyone knew your gallery. in paris, competition is fiercer.In Bordeaux, people would come about once a year. You had to be ready that day! The risk in Paris is not the same as in Bordeaux. That said, in our profession, you need to always be ready to welcome clients. To do so, you need to be avai-lable, to be generous. The gallery’s site should enable this. When we sell a work to the FIAC, what do we represent? The packaging, and that’s about it!





#237 • 22 february 2016



what makes galleries different from mu-seums or fairs?In my opinion, the gallery is the place that has the most potential in the art world. It’s here that we can manipulate works, think about them with our hands – this is something that I understood when I was an artist’s assistant. The gallery re-mains a central place. We’ve reached the end of a consumption system and at the same time, a certain idea of luxury. I’m not going to sing the praises of slowness but things are gradually being relocated, recontextualised.

I’ve done a good deal of thinking thanks to the book by Yves Michaud, Le Nouveau luxe: expé-riences, arrogance, authenticité. He questions experience. And the gallery is the place of an ultimate experience. When we ask Axel Dumas from Hermès what luxury is, his answer is, I find, extraordinary: luxury is what can be fixed...

Today, the market has been divided up, so it’s necessary to keep looking for new clients and ensure a high visibility coefficient for artists. When I see the photograph by Ai Weiwei on which he reproduces the position of the Sy-rian child Aylan on the beach, I’m not afraid of saying that I find that disgusting. This stems from intellectual misery. And yet, this artist has been constructed by a system capable of absor-bing and creating that.

As for fairs, I think that they’ve created an aesthe-tic of sparkle. A fair is a very concentrated unit of space-time. As a result, it keeps out a huge share of the field of art. Driven by the desire to be the world’s most beautiful fair, Art Basel can become deformed. Sure, it’s a magnificent fair, but I do not know what I can think about Unli-mited section with its 300-metre-long hangars.

It’s up to us to make things change in an institu-tional system where public money is short. But as soon as we call on private sponsorship, auto-matically the law of the strongest applies. Today in Versailles (and this is only an example), you need to get people in through the door, howe-ver you do it. We’ve gone from a best-efforts obligation to obligatory results.

should local fairs be favoured over interna-tional fairs?The issue of proximity is far more complex than one might think. Paris and London are two cities that are geographically very close, but in rea-lity they are very different. As a result, they are further away from one another might appear. London not only has another language, another currency and another culture, but above all it has another art market and history of art.

what are the challenges for a gallery today?The question of place is crucial – or in the pro-cess of rebecoming crucial.




interview • tHomas bernard Internet platforms will never take the same place or play the same role as physical galleries.

The gallerist’s role is to take care of the cura-torship of his own gallery. This is why fairs are so different: the spaces there follow norms, they’re all identical. Generally, the riskier and more in-novative a gallery’s offer, the more original the stand’s furnishings. This is a sign of the times. The issue is to bring domesticity back to this type of place. This is possible through more intimate sta-ging, based on the model of curiosity cabinets for example.

what are your future plans?I’m giving myself about three years to really get settled in Paris. We’re young here, but not new. Next, the issue will be to find an exit path so that we’re not exclusively Parisian. I’d like to look at London, with the possibility of setting up connec-tions over there.

I’m confident, I can rely on a great team and on the special relationships that we have with our artists. We still have a lot of room for improve-ment, but we don’t want to rush ahead. We’re ad-vancing one step at a time, calmly. People have a good opinion of our work. Our exhibitions have followers, including students. Our Parisian clien-tele will build up over time.

Thomas Bernard

© Florent Larronde - Same O


#237 • 22 february 2016



expansion Lazarides: fundraising, develop-ment and e-commerce

according to the Financial Times, galle-ry owner Steve Lazarides has signed an

agreement with wealthy Qatari investor Wissam Al-Mana. This financial contribution is expected to allow the gallery on Oxford Street (London) to move, and enable Steve Lazarides to develop on Internet.Last week, to mark the gallery’s 10th birthday, the exhibition “A Decade of Lazarides” opened to the public, comprising new creations by the most si-gnificant street artists including Jonathan Yeo, JR and Invader. Lazarides thus sends out a message to the whole of the art world, hinting at vengeance for this atypical figure in the gallery milieu. The gallerist makes the following declaration: "Firstly, no one can ever pronounce the name so we're changing it to LazInc. Secondly, we're moving to Mayfair. We've spent years working from a posi-tion of isolation, and now it's time to challenge the status quo from the inside. I can hear the shouts of 'Sell-out!' on the Internet from here. But find out what we have planned before you dish out any hate."So is Street Art in full expansion? At the start of his relationship with Banksy, Lazarides would sell the artist’s screen prints for £25. In 2014, they were worth 10 or 100 times more. A sure way to keep growing, perhaps at the risk of somewhat losing one’s street cred.

Galleries crisis the brazilian art market crumbles due to economic crisis

have melted by 30 %. At the Galeria Luisa Strina, the strategy is to look overseas to boost activity (ARCOmadrid and The Armory Show). And yet, sales globally increased between 2014 and 2015, producing $67 million in 2015 as opposed to $34 million in 2014. The Galeria Nara Roesler opened a showroom in New York on top of its two spaces in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Faced with this situation, gallerists reveal signs of concern about the country’s economic situation: the Brazilian currency has lost almost a quarter of its va-lue compared to the dollar, unemployment is on the rise, the economy is out of breath, and the government has acknowledged that it is undergoing recession.

while observers have praised its resistance in the face of the country’s economic problems,

Brazil’s art market has now well and truly plumme-ted into the crisis.The past year has not been a good one for the country, and many gallerists have come out with turnovers down by 50 %. If 2016 continues on this note, it will be a disastrous year, announce commentators. The Galeria Millan, for example, one of Brazil’s oldest galleries, is losing 40 % of its income while at the Galeria Fortes Vilaça, sales

opening a new space on the Lower east side: totah

david Totah is opening a new space, Totah, on the Lower East Side, demonstrating the

deep-running trend of galleries settling in this New York district.Totah will be opening on 25 February at 183 Stanton Street with an exhibition co-featuring conceptual artist Mel Bochner and the master of Arte Povera Alighiero Boetti. The exhibition, called “Verba Volant Scripta Manent”, will tackle the whimsical theme of puns.The space will be dedicated to modern and contemporary art, with an aim to “acknowledge and channel the creative dialogue between the artist, their perception and their work through our platform.”

opening massimo de carlo to open a new space in milan in april

Hot on the heels of his January announcement of the opening of a third space in Hong Kong

in March 2016, Massimo De Carlo is now ope-ning a fourth space in Milan in April.For his second gallery in Milan, Massimo De Car-lo has chosen to set up in the Palazzo Belgioioso, in the city’s historic district.The inaugural exhibition programme has not yet been released, unlike that of the Hong Kong gal-lery that will be welcoming new works by Yan Pei-Ming.

Steve Lazarides and Shepard Fairey

© Shepard Fairey

Obscene (2006)Mel Bochner

Courtesy of Totah


#237 • 22 february 2016



Propos d’Europe 14"Thoughts that breathe"

Exhibition view

Photo Aurélie CennoCourtesy of Fondation Hippocrène

Hippocrene, a bLend of famiLy and

pHiLantHropic vaLues

taking over from her father as head of the Hippocrene Foundation (Paris) in 2006, Mi-chèle Guyot-Roze can be said to have in-herited the foundation’s genes: family and philanthropy. To celebrate her tenth year in

this position, Art Media Agency went to meet her.

could you present the foundation to us? The Hippocrene Foundation is an independent, family-run public utility foundation. Our positio-ning is very much European because our mis-sion is to create a real European citizenship. So this is why we support projects and set up partnerships in the wide-ranging domains of culture, education, humanitarian and social action. For example, in 2010 we launched the Hippocrene Prize for Education about Europe, a competition organised in schools in partnership with the French Ministry of Education.

what activities do you develop in contempo-rary art? First of all, we organise one exhibition per year since 2002 : Propos d’Europe. These exhibitions aim to highlight the artistic scene of a country and the richness of cultural diversity in Europe. For example, in autumn and winter 2015, we held the exhibition “Thoughts That Breathe” in the framework of our “Propos d’Europe” pro-gramme, featuring artists Carol Bove, Martin Boyce, Bojan Sarcevic and Markus Schinwald — in partnership with the Haubrok foundation.

We also support many initiatives. We lend our space to the association Les Pépinières Euro-péennes that carries out many projects to do with young artists. We are letting them put on an exhibition here. In March 2015, we also allowed collector Daniel Bosser to organise an exhibi-tion on Claude Rutault: “AMZ ou le soleil brille pour tout le monde”.


Exhibition view


interview • fondation HippocrèneI mention our contemporary art initiatives but we need to bear in mind that these only repre-sent 10 % of our activity, and only in the last fif-teen years or so.

How did this develop? My father started organising contemporary art exhibitions in 2002. He wasn’t a collector in the way this term is understood today, but he owned a few works. Today, people are conside-red collectors as long as they actively buy art. In my father’s time, things were different: people would buy a decent number of works to hang on walls.

My father’s tastes tended towards modern art, but thanks to the foundation, he was in contact with young artists. He started buying works for the foundation, about once a year at first. I car-ried on this project. Today, it’d be presumptuous to declare that our foundation owns a contem-porary art collection – we only have around forty works. Perhaps one day, but today we focus on our core activity: spreading the arts throughout Europe.

How is the foundation organised? Like any foundation of public utility, we have a board of directors - which I chair. I have two vice-presidents, my sister and my nephew. Do-rothée, my niece, is in charge of communication. The board of directors includes one of my sons and one of my nephews. So our family commit-ment is very strong.

Jean Guyot

Courtesy of Fondation Hippocrène


#237 • 22 february 2016



How are you financed? We benefit from the fruit of our capital — which can cover both operating costs and the basis of our action. But this alone is not enough for us to finance ourselves. So we use family money with gifts. Since 2011, we’ve set up the Circle of Hip-pocrene’s Friends that contributes to our activity.

Finally, we dedicate a limited budget to our operational fees. In this way, 75 % of our budget is devoted to grants.

the building that you’ve occupied since 2001 is the former agency of architect robert mal-let-stevens. That’s right. Very surprisingly, when we bought it, hardly any mention was made of this “detail”. Renowned architects or artists can stay in the shadows for a long time before being redisco-vered. In the case of Robert Mallet-Stevens, it’s very clear that he was a poor relative of modern


Exhibition view


interview • fondation Hippocrènearchitecture, unlike Corbusier. It was thanks to an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2005 that he came back to centre stage – we also held an exhibition at the foundation echoing the one at the Centre Pompidou.

why did you choose this site? In 1992, my father decided to set up a founda-tion. He started developing it without having any special site. He ran it by himself, which in a way was quite modern. Today, there are many more family foundations – and perhaps even more endowment funds, which have the advan-tage of flexibility.

In 2000, he was invited to visit the agency that we currently occupy. He liked what he saw and things progressed very quickly after that. The foundation developed and we needed pre-mises. Today, this site allows us to keep the foundation alive.


#237 • 22 february 2016



contestation a group of croat artists demands the resignation of the minister of culture

Kulturnjaci 2016, a group of Croat artists, has launched a protest campaign against the Mi-

nister of Culture, historian Zlatko Hasanbegovic. In a press release whose virulence recalls cer-tain Surrealist tracts from the 1920s, the artists consider the minister incompetent in the culture domain, and assert that some of his decisions flirt with fascism.A few choice morsels: “We, the cultural workers signed below, believe that we are witnessing the threatening and humiliation of the field of culture by the decision of the new Croatian Go-vernment to appoint Zlatko Hasanbegović who, on top of being entirely incompetent in the ma-nagement of cultural institutions, local and in-ternational collaborations as well as the use of the European cultural funds, holds completely unacceptable reactionary ideological positions.“We believe that culture has to be defended from all ideologies that champion bigotry, nar-row-mindedness, revisionism and nationalist concepts of cultural politics and production. A culture robbed of humanist principles and rolled in the mud of dictatorship no longer re-presents freedom but is only a medium for poli-tical pragmatism.”

exHibition the collège des bernardins to host the exhibition “solitaire”, giving carte blanche to stephane thidet

the exhibition “Solitaire” can be seen from 1 April to 10 July 2016 in the former Sacristy of

the Collège des Bernardins (Paris), in associa-tion with the Rubis Mécénat Cultural Fund. For this exhibition, the institution is according carte blanche to Stéphane Thidet, the third guest in the residence programme initiated by curator Gaël Charbeau.Stéphane Thidet’s work is characterised by re-flection on the perception of time and the aura specific to each material. In the former Sacristy at the Bernardins site, the artist will be offering a metamorphosis of this space that is blatantly loaded with history and symbolism. An installa-tion has been designed by the artist, associating a “drawing machine” with the “bachelor ma-chine” model invented by Michel Carrouges, performing a “liquid, mineral and solitary choreography”.We’ve previously had the chance to see an ins-tallation by Stéphane Thidet at the “Inside” exhi-bition at the Palais de Tokyo: his “refuge”, a small wooden cabin inside which torrential rain fell continually.

deatH death of david weinrib (1924-2016)

sculptor and multimedia artist David Weinrib has died.

Recognised in the 1960s for his abstract sculp-tures, David Weinrib worked with different me-dia, namely sculptures from resin moulds. His more recent work has consisted in cut-outs of pa-per forms, 3-D acrylic collages and nude self-por-traits. He taught at Pratt University for over twenty years, and set up the Clinton Hill sculpture gar-den at Pratt University in 1999, showing nearly 50 works per year.

artists

Le Refuge (2007)Stéphane Thidet

© Stéphane Thidet

La Crue (2010)Stéphane Thidet

©Stéphane Thidet

prize announcement of winners of the icp infinity award 2016 graphy critic for The New York Times Magazine and Brian Sholis, curator at the Cincinnati Art Museum.David Bailey received a prize honouring his entire career from the board of trustees and senior staff. Other prizes were awarded to Walid Raad in the “art” category, Matthew Connors in the “artist’s book” category for his Fire in Cairo, Jonathan Harris and Gregor Hochmuth in the category of "online platform/new media", Zanele Muholi for "documentary and photojournalism", and Su-san Schuppli for "critical writing and research".

the International Center of Photography (ICP, New York) has announced the winners of its Infi-

nity Awards. Prizes will be awarded in New York on 11 April.This year, the different Infinity Awards have been attributed by a committee including Charlotte Cot-ton, curator in residence and director of the new ICP's space program, as well as Teju Cole, photo-


#237 • 22 february 2016



Digue de mer, Ostende, reflets de lumière (1908)Léon Spilliaert

Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946) is a Belgian Symbolist artist, renowned for his melancholic watercolours, gouaches and pastels, characterised by wide empty spaces and an ingenious use of chiaroscuro.Léon Spilliaert was born in Ostende (Belgium) on

28 July 1881. He was the son of a perfumer whose clients included King Leopold II. His childhood was happy until he started school. His letters reveal the following: “I keep a wonderful memory of my childhood until the day I was sent to school. From that point, my soul was stolen and I never again found it. This painful search is the full story of my painting.”Between 1899 and 1900, Léon Spilliaert had a short stint at the Bruges Academy of Fine Arts. He signed his first drawing in 1899. However, he was essentially self-taught, namely from his time in Ostende.In 1902, the Brussels publisher Deman hired Léon Spilliaert as a salesman and public relations manager. He worked in this capacity only briefly, preferring to continue his artistic learning. In 1904, he painted his well-known Self-Portrait with Masks.Still in 1904, Léon Spilliaert met Émile Verhaeren for the first time, in Saint-Cloud. The meeting was life-changing. Léon Spilliaert was born twenty years after the main Symbolists, but he followed in their footsteps and perpetuated the movement in the early 20th century. He read Nietzsche and Lautréamont. He also attended Symbolist salons alongside Maurice Maeterlinck and even Émile Verhaeren. He also became close to James Ensor. During this period, Léon Spilliaert painted a great deal, mainly in Ostende. He drew inspiration from long nocturnal strolls, for example by the sea. Between the age of 26 and 27, he created a series of nocturnal self-portraits, lit by moon or artificially, showing plays on light to advantage. In 1908, Stefan Zweig bought four of his works and gave him a letter of introduction addressed to Hugo Heller. In 1909, he exhibited his works for the first time, at the Salon de Printemps, in Brussels. Then came the war. In 1915, Léon Spilliaert met Rachel Ver-gison, and the two married in December 1916. For good reason, because in the same year, the artist was called up to join the Civil Guard. This contact with the war plunged him into violent fits of anguish. In 1917, the couple settled near Brussels and their daughter Madeleine Spilliaert was born. The new father changed his artistic practice. His pa-lette opened up to more colours, and Léon Spilliaert tried his hand at painting. As of 1922, the couple returned to Ostende where he stayed until 1935. Léon Spilliaert devoted himself to marine art, a genre that he handled in a quasi-abstract manner. He and Rachel Vergison would live their final years near Brus-sels. The artist died from an angina pectoris attack in 1946.

Léon spiLLiaert

Art AnalyticsData • léon spilliaertLéon Spilliaert earned very little institutional recog-nition even if museums have hosted 81 % of the ex-hibitions dedicated to him. His work continues to be little shown to the public – an average of barely two exhibitions per year since 2000. Between 1998 and 2015, only a handful of personal exhibitions were dedicated to him.

Only 2006 and 2007 stood out, with eight exhibi-tions in the space of a few months. The reason? It

was 60 years since the artist’s death and two major retrospectives were organised: “Spilliaert” in 2006 at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Brus-sels) and “Léon Spilliaert – Autoportraits” in 2007 at the Musée d´Orsay (Paris).

The work of Léon Spilliaert is found in several emi-nent public collections including those of the Mu-sée d’Orsay or the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

Autoportrait, 2 novembre 1908 (detail)(1908)

Léon Spilliaert

0

2

4

6

8

1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

group shows solo shows

0

2

4

6

8

1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

gallery museum biennials other

Evolution of the number ofexhibitions by type

Evolution of the number ofexhibitions by type of venue


#237 • 22 february 2016



Art AnalyticsData • léon spilliaert

Owing to his nationality, it is in Belgium that Léon Spilliaert has been exhibited the most. Belgium has hosted 38 % of his exhibitions, followed by France, the artist’s second home, with 17 % of his exhibi-tions. The Mu.ZEE (Ostende) has hosted five exhi-bitions featuring Léon Spilliaert.

Léon Spilliaert has most often been exhibited alongside Belgian Symbolist painters Maurice Maeterlinck and Émile Verhaeren.

0

2

4

6

8

1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

Belgium other

5 %

81 %

10 %

gallery museumevents other

17 %

83 %

group showssolo shows

33 %

12 %17 %

38 %

Belgium FranceItaly other

0

50

100

150

200

1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

In terms of media, coverage of Léon Spilliaert leapt up between 2006 and 2008. This was a logical con-sequence of the major exhibitions (two retrospec-tives at the Musée d’Orsay and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) devoted him on the 60th anniversary of his death.Dutch and French are the two languages in which

the most number of articles about him have been published (respectively 40.7 and 40.4 % of his media coverage). The most prolific journalists writing about him have been Éric Rinckhout (De Morgen), Guy Gilsoul (Le Vif / L’Express), Ger-rit van den Hoven (Brabants Dagblad) and Suzy Menkes (Vogue).

Distribution by venue type

Distribution by exhibition type

Distribution by country

Evolution of the number of exhibitions by country

Evolution of the number of articles about Léon Spilliaert


#237 • 22 february 2016



Art AnalyticsData • léon spilliaertAt auctions, the works of Léon Spilliaert have yielded $18.4 million in 856 lots, in other words an average price of $21,476 per lot placed on sale and $13,980 per lot sold. The artist’s unsold rate is high (33 %) – a phenomenon that has in-tensified since the start of the 2000s (an average of 42 % over the period 2000 - 2015). In 2003, out of 39 lots placed on sale, 24 were withdrawn from sale.

The record price for a work by Léon Spilliaert sold on auction was reached by De Vuyst in Loke-ren (Belgium) in October 2015, with Self-Portrait, 3 November 1908 (1908), going for $665,100. A few months earlier, in June 2015, Sotheby’s Paris

sold a watercolour, The Absinthe Drinker (1907) for $440,800. The artist’s third-best auction sale was also concluded at Sotheby’s Paris, in June 2013, with Dike, Ostende, Light Reflects (1908), sold for $392,430.

Unsurprisingly, the artist’s drawings and waterco-lours are his most sought-after works. His most lucrative period is the intense creative phase taking place between 1906 and 1910, a time at which Léon Spilliaert was violently distressed and deeply nourished by Symbolist ideas. The self-portraits produced over this period include his most famous ones — those that are the most in demand.

0 %

25 %

50 %

75 %

100 %

1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015

sold bought in

33 %

67 %

sold bought in

5 %8 %

87 %

Drawing Multiples Painting

6 %

93 %

6 %9 %

11 %

72 %

Belgium T e Netherlands FranceUnited Kingdom other

17 %

20 %

11 %

51 %

33 %

10 %10 %

18 %

30 %

De Vuyst Campo Christie’sSotheby’s other

22 %

24 %20 %

12 %

23 %

Distribution of lots bymedium and revenue

Distribution of lots bycountry and revenue

Rate of sold lots vs. bought-ins

Distribution of lots and revenue by auction house

Evolution of unsold rate


#237 • 22 february 2016




$0

$1m

$2m

$3m

1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015

$0

$20k

$40k

$60k

1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015

0

20

40

60

80

1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015

> $100k$50-100k$20-50k

$10-20k$5-10k

< $5k

0 % 25 % 50 % 75 % 100 %

sold bought in

> $100k$50-100k

$20-50k$10-20k

$5-10k< $5k

$0 $1m $2m $3m $4m $5m

8435

21

163167

259

Rate of unsold lots by estimates range

Turnover and number of lots by price range

Evolution of thenumber of lots

Evolution of the yearly turnover

Evolution of the average value

per lot


#237 • 22 february 2016




Léon Spilliaert‘s popularity is stable. Could the significant unsold rate of the artist’s works at auctions cause auction houses to undervalue him? 33 % of his works have sold over their high estimates. Only the auction De Vuyst seems to slightly overvalue Léon Spilliaert (46 % of lots sold below their low estimates).

De Vuyst

Campo

Christie’s

Sotheby’s 21 %

36 %

40 %

21 %

61 %

40 %

39 %

34 %

18 %

24 %

21 %

46 %

$0

$0.5m

$1m

$1.5m

$2m

0

20

40

60

80

1900 1903 1906 1909 1912 1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939 1942 1945

lots turnover

33 %41 %26 %

At the moment, Léon Spilliaert’s works are visible at the Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen (Norway), at the exhibition “Silence out loud”, open until 12 June 2016.

Auctions results from Artprice.com

ART MeDIA AgenCy (AMA)

Art Media Agency (AMA) is published by the A&F Markets company, Limited company with a registered capital of €40,000, incorporated in the Company and Trade Register of Paris under the n°530 512 788. 267 rue Lecourbe, F-75015 Paris, France.

director of publication: Pierre Naquinchief editor: Clément Thibaultcppap: 0116 W 92159contact: [email protected] +33 (0) 1 75 43 67 20distribution: 170,000+ subscribers

Number of lots presented, and sales figures by year of creation

Percentage of works soldbelow, within, and above estimates

Percentage of works sold below, within,and above estimates per auction house


#237 • 22 february 2016



resuLts shower of records for artcurial “ur-ban art” sales

the “Urban Art” sale on 14 February 2015 in Pa-ris was marked by a shower of records, adjudi-

cated by the licensed auctioneer Artcurial.600 collectors and urban-art lovers gathered for the occasion. The sale raised a total of $1,567,050 (€1,386,770) with 82% of lots sold. A new world record was set for a work by artist Speedy Graphi-to, Captain Spray, selling for €37,700 ($42,601). Ditto for Toxic’s Ach, selling at $29,380. Ten other records were set for artists in this category.Director of the Urban Art department of Artcu-rial, Arnaud Oliveux, expressed his satisfaction with this success: “This tenth session on urban art was a lively celebration of this movement, today recognised internationally. There is wide interest in historic graffiti as well as in the contemporary scene. The new records set this evening confirm Artcurial as a reference spot for urban art.”

announcement sale of pierre Hebey’s col-lection at artcurial

artcurial is organising, on 22 and 23 February 2016, a sale called “Le regard de Pierre Hebey

- Les Passions modérées”.The sale is divided into four chapters: decora-tive arts, books and manuscripts, modern and contemporary paintings, and French 19th century bronzes. The collection is estimated at being wor-th between 6 and 8 million dollars. Pierre Hebey, a former lawyer specialising in intellectual pro-perty, defended many artists with whom he be-came close, including Max Ernst, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle, Bram Van Velde, Chagall and Alechinsky. As of the 2000s, Pierre Hebey devoted himself to writing.This sale, offering around sixty works for sale, will also be the opportunity to retrace the itinerary of this atypical collector and his collection gathered via his contact with major 20th century artists.

resuLts 2016, a good year for rodin in auc-tion rooms?

on 16 February 2016, at Drouot (Paris), auc-tioneers Binoche et Giquello dispersed

around fifteen lots from the collection of former gallerist Jean de Ruaz. The collection namely in-cluded five Rodin bronzes.An American buyer acquired the sale’s two major lots: a Baiser “the size of a door”, cast by Alexis Rudier, going for €2.2 million, expenses included, and L'Éternel Printemps, cast between 1935 and 1945 by Alexis Rudier, for €693,000. Out of the five Rodin lots, four sold for over their high esti-mates. The sale also featured furniture pieces by Paul Iribe, including a Fauteuil Nautile, estimated as being worth between €100,000 and 120,000, purchased by a buyer from the Middle East for €226,800, expenses included.These pleasing results are not just one-offs. On 3 February 2016, Sotheby's sold Iris, Messagère des Dieux in London for £11.6 million, expenses included (€15.3 million) — a record for a Rodin work and one of the two last bronzes cast during the artist’s life to still be on the market. Then on 4 February, it was Bonhams that sold a version of L'Éternel Printemps, cast between 1905 and 1907 by caster Barbedienne, for £938,500 (€1.21 mil-lion).

auctions Hr melanie clore, chairman of sotheby's europe, steps down

Art in 2000, and chairman of the Europe zone in 2011. Her trajectory led her to become the first woman auctioneer to take charge of a sale in 2000 and to be appointed as trustee of the Tate Gallery by Tony Blair in 2004.Her departure is possibly prompted by a voluntary redundancy plan in place at Sotheby's since the end of 2015, instigated by Tad Smith. An alle-gation that Melanie Clore refuses to confirm.

melanie Clore, chairman of Sotheby's Europe and worldwide co-chairman of Impressio-

nist and Modern Art, is leaving Sotheby’s after 35 years with the auction house.tHer career began in 1981 as an intern. She then climbed up the ranks until she became vice-chairman of the Impressionist and Modern

Carouge (1967)Bram van Velde

Hebey's Collection © Artcurial

Meuble de collectionneur (circa 1937)Eugène Printz

Hebey's Collection© Artcurial


#237 • 22 february 2016



birtHday arteba celebrates its 25th anni-versary in 2016

to mark its 25th birthday, the arteBA fair (Bue-nos Aires) will be held at La Rural convention

centre, from 19 to 22 May 2016.In the context of the Dixit section, we will be (re)discovering three winners of the Young Cura-tors section — Federico Baeza, Lara Marmor and Sebastián Vidal Mackinson — who will be putting forward a curatorial project covering the last 25 years in Argentinean artistic creation.This year, the selection committee will include Mercedes Casanegra (curator), Orly Benzacar (director of the gallery Ruth Benzacar), Eduar-do Brandão (director of the gallery Vermelho), Ignacio Liprandi (director of Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporáneo) and Sabine Schmidt (di-rector of PSM).

incoming the european festival circu-lation(s), for young photography, from 26 march to 26 june 2016

the Circulation(s) festival will be taking place at the Centquatre in Paris, from 26 March to

26 June 2016, in the presence of Agnès b., god-mother of the 2016 edition.Circulation(s), a European festival for young photography is back for the sixth consecutive year for a three-month duration. The festival’s ambition is to promote the emergence of young photography artists while offering a series of cross perspectives on Europe today. The pro-gramming will draw together a guest jury, gal-lery and school, as well as a child-high section, “Little Circulation(s)” including a series of activi-ties for young attendees.The exhibition will gather some 51 European photographers, with the hope of reproducing the success of the 2015 edition.

announcement the contemporary afri-can art fair 1:54 unveils its list of exhibitors

For its second year in America, the fair 1:54 will be taking place in New York. It will be

gathering 70 galleries, 25 countries, and a se-lection of works by sixty or so artists including Derrick Adam, Joël Andrianomearisoa, Edson Chagas, William Kentridge, Otobong Nkanga and Billie Zangewa.The fair will be opening at the Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn from 6 to 8 May. The coun-tries represented include Angola, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.Fair director Touria El Glaoui said the following: “The energy, interest, and overall success of the inaugural US fair in 2015 has led us to return this May in hopes of broadening our reach and ex-panding the art world's knowledge of Africa and the ever-evolving African art market.”

fairs & festivals announcement reed expositions announces the end of paris photo Los angeles and renounces setting up the fiac in La

Compain, head of the culture, luxury and entertainment division at Reed Expo-sitions France, by the “lack of the market’s maturity” that fails to offer adequate guarantees for exhibitors. He nonetheless reassures that alternatives are being explored for the international development of Reed Expositions’ fairs.Paris Photo will be taking place from 10 to 13 November this year at the Grand Palais, and will be celebrating its 20th edition.

the Paris Photo Los Angeles fair, initially sche-duled to run from 29 April to 1 May 2016, has

been cancelled despite the popular success of its previous editions. The project to set up the FIAC in Los Angeles has also been abandoned.This withdrawal has been explained by Jean-Daniel

Camille Sonally

Courtesy of Festival Circulation(s)

Pàtric Marin

Courtesy of Festival Circulation(s)


#237 • 22 february 2016



#237 · kader attia courtesy of the artist, biennale de lyon, nagel draxler and lehmann maupin...

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