Urs Fischer's Yellow Teddy Bear stands on Park Ave!!

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!!
Park Ave definitely became a wonderland! A giant Teddy Bear currently stands on the lower part of the Avenue, below the roses made by Will Ryman. A huge yellow Teddy Bear sitting under a lamp and made by Urs Fischer! I remember I saw them building the sculpture a few weeks ago while I was walking on Park and I was so confused I didn't understand what was going on!

Urs Fischer is a Swiss artist born in 1973 and who lives and works in both NY and Zurich. Everybody remembers his exhibition at the New Museum in 2009-2010, the first in an American museum. His work is very provocative and controversial, and raises questions and interrogations. At first he made a small piece, a bear sewn by his friend with a real desk lamp in the size of 30cm about six years ago. The sculpture on Park "Untitled (Lamp/Bear)" is about 23 feet tall and weights 35,000 pounds.

On display between 52nd st and 53rd st until the end of September, the sculpture, owned by Rosen and Mugrabi, will be on sale at Christies on May 11th. This work will be the matching piece of Jeff Koons's Pink Panther that will be on sale at Sotheby's.

"Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective" at the Met

Good afternoon contemporary art lovers!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its new exhibition a few days ago. The Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective is its first retrospective of drawings that was made possible thanks to the Jane and Robert Carroll Fund. Richard Serra is an American minimal sculptor and video artist. He is best known for his monumental sculptures made of sheets of metal. He studied painting with Josef Albers and traveled through Europe continuing his training. He lives and works in New York.

Well-known for his sculptures, Serra is also an amazing painter and draftsman. His drawings are made on paper using various techniques such as paintstick that is a wax-like grease crayon. He used to use ink, charcoal, lithographic crayon... and definitely turned to black paintstick in the mid-70s. His first "Installation Drawings" were made in mid-70s on huge and monumental canvases or linen pined directly o the wall and thickly covered with black paintstick . Those made in 80s are less big than the first series. At the end of the 80s he explores the tension of weight and gravity by placing sheets of paper saturated with paintstick in horizontal and vertical compositions. "Black" is more a material than a color in Serra's work. It's strong, deep, and heavy.

Exhibition shows fifty drawings and a selection of sketchbooks. He always put a lot of emphasis on drawing in his works. Drawing played a crucial role in the investigation of new concepts and new creative methods.

Domingo Zapata!!!

Good morning contemporary art lovers!
I went last night to this incredible event hosted by Whitewall Magazine and I had the good luck to discover Domingo Zapata! Zapata was born in Mallorca in 1974, he lives and works in NY. His huge and colorful paintings are made of oil and acrylic and often including mixed media such as pieces of newspapers, pictures of famous icons and collages.

When I first came in the studio I didn't know where to look! His paintings are full of symbols. We can easily say that is a perfect mix between street art and graff, figurative and abstract in the same time. Some symbols are recurrent such as elephants and bulls or planes and propellers. About planes and propellers he told us he was obsessed with light and air which is perfectly depicted in some of his paintings. Most of the paintings mix writing and painting which is interesting because you can stand in front of it and think about everything. Each time it's a different story. Zapata's work is joyful, spiritual, very sincere and authentic.

Great evening, great party and great guy! Well known for being involved in the music industry, here is the other side of Domingo's work! For those who wander in the Lower East Side, go to 237 Lafayette st cross with Spring. Exhibition will bring you into his world...

"Picasso and Marie-Therese" at gagosian NY

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
Back from the opening of the new Gagosian exhibition: Picasso and Marie-Therese. As usual definitely too crowded and as usual undoubtedly stunning! That's hilarious to see how people can be so ridiculous at openings by wearing crazy outfits or acting like if they knew everything about art! Anyway show is amazing, once again the Gagosian's team brought masterpieces from all around the world.

Marie-Therese Walter met Picasso while she was 17 years old and became is longtime mistress from 1927 to 1935. They had a child together named Marie de la Concepcion aka Maya. Their relationship remained secret from Picasso's wife til 1935. She used to live next to Picasso's home and she was his model and muse for both paintings and sculptures. Maya also posed for him. He left her for Dora Maar who was a French artist and model. They both appeared in two different kind of women: while Marie-Therese is portrayed like a blond, sunny, bright women, Dora appears as a strong and dark brunette.

More than eighty works including several pieces that are never been seen in the US are shown. Exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue and has to be seen. Runs til June 25th.

The Great Upheaval: Modern Art From The Guggenheim Collection

Good evening contemporary art lovers!
A few days ago I went to the Guggenheim to see the new exhibition. Amazing!! The Great Upheaval: Modern Art From The Guggenheim Collection, 1910-1918. Curated by Tracey Bashkoff and Megan Fontanella, the exhibition is organized around 100 works representative of that era marked by the creation of the Blau Reiter, the World War I, the Cubism and expressionistic manifestations.

Dead in 1949, Solomon R. Guggenheim was an American businessman, art collector and philanthropist. He worked in the family mining business and founded the Yukon Gold Company. He retired in 1919 to devote his life to art. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (1937) which goal is to foster the appreciation of Modern Art and to encourage its development. Museum was designed in the mid 40's by Frank Lloyd Wright who was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator. Guggenheim and Wright both died before the opening in 1959. Wright was a leader of the Prairie School (usually: horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs, integration with the landscape...) and promoted organic architecture. In 1991 he was recognized as "the greatest American architect of all times" by the American Institute of Architects. The spiral design recalls a nautilus shell. Well integrated with the nature, the space organization and its light (there is a huge rotunda on the top) makes viewing and visits very easy.

A lot of works that belong to the museum collection are from Solomon's one. The Guggenheim Collection results from a combination of different privates collections such as the Solomon Guggenheim collection, the Thannhauser collection, the Panza collection or else the Hilda Rebay collection. The collection was also augmented with gifts made by the Robert Mappelthorpe Foundation and the Bohen Foundation. The collection isn't divided into departments devoted to specific mediums or eras. Exhibition features works made by 48 artists such as Umberto Boccioni, Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger, Kazimir Malevitch, Marcel Duchamp among others. My favorites are those made by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Several "Eiffel Towers", made by Robert Delaunay are also exposed. And the painting that moved me deeply: Artillery Men in the Shower made by Ernst Kirchner in 1915.

Exhibition is arranged chronologically which makes visit more understandable. And it runs until June 2011.