THE PUBLIC WORKS: A New Mural Project By Shepard Fairey

Country Club Presents Shepard Fairey: The Public Works
© Obey Giant
Courtesy Country Club

December 3 - 6, 2009
To Be Unveiled During Art Basel Miami Beach 2009

As part of the programs surrounding Art Basel Miami Beach this year, Shepard Fairey will unveil a major new mural presented on shipping containers. Located at 2700 NW 2nd Avenue on an empty lot in the Wynwood District of Miami, Fairey's project will continue the artist's approach to urban explorations of neglected, unclaimed or interstitial sites. The blank facade of the barricade will provide a significant expanse for Fairey to develop a cohesive series of images. The project is being produced by Country Club, a gallery with locations in Los Angeles and Cincinnati, in partnership with The Fountainhead Residency and Miami Art Museum, where an additional component of the project is being presented. Shepard Fairey is one of the most visible and celebrated artists of his generation. Fairey first gained notoriety by translating pop culture imagery into guerilla propaganda campaigns that quickly became global phenomena, most prominently with his ubiquitous "OBEY" images. Fairey's recent work consists of complex, multi-layered portraits of counter-cultural revolutionary figures combined with politically charged propaganda style imagery. Fairey's image of Barack Obama propelled him toward widespread international acclaim when the stylized portrait of the presidential candidate with the word "HOPE" became the most recognizable image of the 2008 elections and a survey exhibition of his work was organized at the ICA Boston in early 2009.

TIM BURTON AT MOMA

NAUMAN NOT SO SILENT

Image via Getty

Violins Violence Silence
Executed in 1981-1982. neon tubing with clear glass tubing suspension frame
62 1/8 x 65 3/8 x 6 in. 157.8 x 166.1 x 15.2 cm.

Some people say that Bruce Nauman is the most influential American artist since Andy Warhol. Today, there's hardly a tyro's installation or video or ad hoc sculpture that can't be traced back to something Nauman made in the 1960s or '70s. Bruce Nauman's neon installation Violins Violence Silence from 1981-1982 sold last night for $4,002,500 with premium. The neon twists and turns the English language with a sense of humor and aggression that forces the viewer to contemplate the visual possibilities of words. This optically engaging and intellectually provocative work is confrontational with its illuminating radiance and at the same time contemplative and seductive. The inclusion of words would imply a degree of clarity; however, Nauman manipulates the words and sentences in his neon pieces to create tension and to challenge our understanding of the message. Clearly influenced by his conceptual and minimalist predecessors, Bruce Nauman's neon signs by their very nature are meant to draw in our attention; however once they have it, his undermines it with great genius. Neon is one medium that serves as a platform for Nauman's formal, linguistic and humorous investigations. Nauman, and other artists working with language, borrowed the format and type face of commercial signs from streets and advertising venues and brought them into galleries and museum spaces. People tend to ignore or pass by signs on the street, yet in an art space, they are elevated to high art. The significance of the artist's neon series is conceptual, dependent more on the message than on the craftsmanship or fabrication of the work itself. Text art proliferated in the 1960s and 1970s particularly with pop artists such as Ed Ruscha, who like Nauman, focused on the meaning in combinations of words and their effect on the viewer. Nauman's first explorations in this genre were word games in which he rearranged words and letters to create new expressions – blurring the lines between language and meaning.

WARHOL NETS $43.7 MILLION AT AUCTION

Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987), 200 One Dollar Bills, 1962. silkscreen ink and pencil on canvas, 80 1/4 x 92 1/4 in.

It was an OMG moment! When a seminal Warhol — one of the artist’s first silk-screen paintings — came on the block at Sotheby’s auction of contemporary art on Wednesday night the auctioneer opened bidding at $6 million and was stunned when a bidder instantly doubled it. The Andy Warhol painting of 200 dollar bills was sold for $43.8 million by London-based art collector Pauline Karpidas, more than 100 times what she paid in 1986. Five bidders vied for Warhol’s 1962 “200 One Dollar Bills" and it went to an unidentified phone buyer. The 7 1/2-foot wide silkscreen canvas comprises repetitive images of one-dollar bills, reproduced in tones of black on grey, with a blue Treasury seal. In pristine condition, “200 One Dollar Bills” was enticing to any Pop Art collector. Add to that the provenance — it had once been part of the celebrated collection of Robert C. Scull, the taxi tycoon — and it was irresistible.
Just a year after the art market was in the doldrums with the world’s financial markets, buyers with deep pockets were not shy about stepping up for tried-and-true artists. The sale topped Sotheby’s expectations, totaling $134.4 million, well above its $67.9 million high estimate. Of the 54 works on offer, only two went unsold. The evening also eclipsed Christie’s auction of postwar and contemporary art on Tuesday night, which brought in $74.1 million. While both sales featured big-name artists, Sotheby’s had just enough blockbusters to make for a successful evening. “The art vacation is over,” said one New York art dealer, commenting that art has come back more than stocks or housing. The Warhol was a masterpiece, rare and great. It was his night!