Andy Warhol in Union Square...

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
Even if winter hasn't really started yet, one already speaks about spring. The Public Art Fund (leading presenter of artists' projects, new commissions, and exhibitions in Public spaces) scheduled the installations of three massive sculptures this spring. 20 sculptures - minimal structures - made by Sol LeWitt, an American artist who died 3 years ago, will be installed in City Hall Park downtown. A "gateway" made by Eva Rotschild, an iris artist based in London, will be placed in front of the Plaza at the entrance to Central Park. That piece is supposed to be "the form of a multidirectional arch". And finally, a 10-foot-tall bronze sculpture of Andy Warhol will be exhibited in Union Square.

This sculpture is made by Rob Pruitt, an American visual artist based in New York. He decided to put the sculpture, called "The Andy Monument", on the corner of 17th street and Broadway which is actually the location of the Factory. He depicted Warhol wearing blue jeans and a tweed jacket. "Andy" is posing with a camera around his neck and he's carrying a shopping bag full of magazines. One says it would be issues of the Interview magazine. Warhol helped found it and he would have been seen in Union Square, standing here and giving out the magazines to the crowd.

Exhibition will be open on March 1st and will run until Aug. 28th.
Will I meet at the Warhol's Factory party this saturday?

Ugu Rondinone at Gladstone

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
What a funny exhibition! Gladstone gallery hosts a super cool show: seven little men are sitting on the floor of the gallery. Ugo Rondinone is a Swiss artist who currently lives and works in New York. He's know for being a mixed-media artist whose works explore themes of fantasy and desire.

At the first sight and if it's crowded you might can think that those are real people!! (you might also need glasses...) The seven human-scale figures have quite the sane size than a human being. They are all made from a mixture of wax and earth pigments. They are all sitting on the floor, against the wall and posing in different positions. Some of them remind me the Thinker of Rodin or event eh human-scale sculptures made more recently by Gormley.

Wanna pose next to those little men?!

Rauschenberg and Kiefer at Gagosian

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
What a feast for the eyes! Those exhibitions are so amazing. And as usual in every Gagosian exhibition, works are beautifully exposed. For those who may don't know, Robert Rauschenberg was an American artist dead in 2008. He was best know for his Combine Paintings: two-dimensional paintings made of non-traditional materials and objects. Anselm Kiefer is a German born artist who lives and works in Paris. He is known for his works based on themes of German history and the horror of the Holocaust.

Rauschenberg was one of the first artist who mixed art and the mess of life and one of the most inventive. His inspiration came from the immediate and the incidental. He created a new visual language based on collage and mixture between painting and sculpture. He rejected traditional conventions of unitary meaning advanced by hight art. He always tried to experiment new ways to create and construct a pictorial surface. Throughout this exhibition you'll see the Monochrome Paintings but also some Combines, other huge paintings and sculptures such as those made of cardboard.

The Kiefer's exhibition is the first one in New York since 2002. This show is very intense and deep but not too oppressive. As we could have imagine. The main subject of this exhibition is the installation Occupations which is based on the series of photographs from 1969 in which he appears making the HitlergruB in front of European sites of history. Int he room you definitely feel the weight of history and the horror of the war. But it's not disturbing. It's even kind of beautiful and touching.

Both in Chelsea, these exhibitions are totally different but if you have, go for it. They are very impressive and they both run until December 18th...

AUCTIONED!! Modigliani: 61.500.000 USD at Sotheby's

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
As you may know auctions started yesterday night at Sotheby's. November is an important month in the art world in the City. Opened yesterday with the evening Impressionist and Modern Art sale, one can say that the season is off to a good start. Prices were solids even if about fifteen lots were passed. I was quite surprised to see that some works such as those made by Moore haven't been sold. Speaking about sculpture, Maillol seems to have the wind in his sails!

The masterpiece of this evening sale was without any doubt: Nu Assis Sur Un Divan (La Belle Romaine) painted by Amedeo Modigliani in 1917 and sold for more than 61M USD. His other painting, Jeanne Hebuterne, was sold for 17M USD, but the quality is clearly not the same. Someone maybe wanted to increase the cote... Anyway, the painting made by Henri Matisse, Danseuse dans le Fauteuil, Sol en Damier, was auctioned for more than 18M USD and next to The Modigliani, it matched perfectly... But it's not the same buyer!!

Let's see what's gonna happen tonight at Christies!! Personally, can't wait to see the Contemporary Art Sales next week...