May 21, 2013, 12:36 pm
In a temporary office near Berlin’s Zoologischer Garten last August, Sven Johne took a handful of amateur and professional actors for a ride. Thought to be auditioning for the part of Friedrich Engels in an upcoming film, the retirement age players each stand before a brash American casting director to read Engel’s famous eulogy for his dear friend Karl Marx. They give a brief history of their past performances — some much more accomplished than others — and undergo increasing levels of subtle torment. They turn for the camera, modulate their voices, and eventually all try on an all but absurd fake beard. Continue Reading
May 16, 2013, 12:33 pm
In his latest exhibition at Frankfurt’s Berhard Knaus Fine Art, “Seven Stones,” Dutch painter Robert Zandvliet has hit the reset button on his formerly art historically oriented practice in exchange for minerals. A single stone is featured in each of the seven paintings and eight watercolors on view through the end of August, with each work oscillating between pure figuration, geometric abstraction, and color field painting. Zandvliet spoke with BLOUIN ARTINFO before the opening about the new works and making art without pretense. Continue Reading
May 15, 2013, 12:49 pm
Danica Dakic’s latest exhibition at the MMK Frankfurt “Safe Frame” (May 8 – September 29) is truly a group effort. Dakic collaborated with photographer Egbert Trogemann, composer Bojan Vuletic, the Crespo Foundation, and the MMK’s own art education department to create a poignant video and sound installation that exposes the struggles of Frankfurt’s immigrants and the conflicts and contexts from which they came. Continue Reading
May 14, 2013, 11:44 am
Anton Mozart’s “Turmbau zu Babel” (The Tower of Babel) led Lempertz’s Old Masters and 19th Century Art auction to a total topping €3.3 million on Saturday (€6.3 including their Decorative Arts auction). The painting, dated to 1600/1601 set a record price of €305,000 (est. €250,000-300,000) for the colleague of Johann König, selling to a Belgian private collection. Following not far behind in the 19th century section, Norwegian artist Johann Christian Clausen Dahl’s “Blick auf den Vesuv von der Küste bei Castellammare” (1820) was picked up by an English dealer for €207,000. Continue Reading
May 2, 2013, 9:35 am
Berlin gallerist Max Hetzler announced to ARTINFO on Monday that he will open a new outpost in Paris in spring 2014. That gallery will follow the opening of two new spaces near Kurfürstendamm in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district and a celebration of the gallery’s 40th anniversary this fall with a show of new works by all artists he has worked with over the years. That show will bring to a close his Wedding space, a neighborhood which Guido W. Baudach also departed for the city’s west in recent months. Continue Reading
May 1, 2013, 4:06 pm
In the wind-up to Gallery Weekend Berlin, British leather goods brand Mulberry opened their first German stand-alone store on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm. For the opening, the brand collaborated with Berlin based artist, Frank Hülsbömer to create two unique installations. One piece, a multi leveled arrangement of sea foam green, tan, and brown forms which sits in the window is described by the artist as more of a design or architectural element, picking up on touches from the store’s designers, Universal Design Studio. Continue Reading
April 9, 2013, 10:40 am
The Highlights International Art Fair announced on Monday that it would no longer be taking place in Munich’s Haus der Kunst, rather moving to a space in the city’s Residenz (Palace) formerly occupied by the Museum of Egyptian Art. With a fair design by Dutch architect Tom Postma, the new Highlights will span 2,000 square meters of the Residenz, a considerable increase from the Haus der Kunst. Continue Reading
April 8, 2013, 4:30 pm
Opened on April 5th at the Kunsthalle Zurich, Yang Fudong’s “Estranged Paradise: Works 1993 – 2013” is the fist major survey exhibition of the renowned Chinese filmmaker and artist in Europe. The show spans Yang’s oeuvre from groundbreaking works like “An Estranged Paradise” (1997-2002) which brought him onto the radar in Europe at Okwui Enwezor’s Documenta XI in 2002 to some of his newest works such as “The Fifth Night (Rehearsal)” (2010). Continue Reading
April 2, 2013, 1:07 pm
“The young man is divine. In his promise lies my joy, as for me, I am a sorrowful being; only what I struggle for suffices in my work,” wrote Lyonel Feininger to art historian Alois J. Schardt in 1930 about his then 20 year old son, T. Lux Feininger. Though unique in his practice, the younger and arguably lesser known Feininger’s admiration for his father’s practice is palpable in Moeller Fine Art’s first ever showing of the pair’s work side by side. Continue Reading
