James Gleeson, 88 years old and still carrying the Surrealist torch that he has carried almost since he picked up a brush has been awarded with the prestigious Painters and Sculptors Association Medal at the opening of his retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.

40% return over a few months sounds good to me.. too good!

Art scam suspect arrested

“The suspect convinced investors that she would buy undervalued paintings with their money, Hinnant said. Jacoby told investors she would sell the paintings a few months later for a higher amount and give them a 40 percent return on their money. Once Jacoby got the cash, the art never materialized.”

newsobserver

The ArtReview magazine has released its list of what it considers to be the top 100 people in art. They include gallerists, artists, curators, and art collectors from all parts of the world.

Gallery owner Larry Gagosian is number one, with a stable of famous artists and galleries placed in all the important places. He has five galleries located in London, New York and Beverly Hills. The artists he represents include giants like Andy Warhol, Georg Baselitz, Jasper Johns, and Cy Twombly.

Top40 in the Art World..

The full list of 100 can found at the Guardian-arts..

(position last year is in brackets)

1 (4) Larry Gagosian, dealer

2 (14) Glenn D Lowry, director, MoMA New York

3 (3) Sir Nicholas Serota, director, Tate

4 (24) Maurizio Cattelan, artist

5 (15) Samuel Keller, director, Art Basel

6 (10) Dakis Joannou, collector

7 (-) William Ruprecht, CEO, Sotheby’s

8 (1) Ronald Lauder, chairman, MoMA

9 (-) Robert Storr, US curator and academic

10 (7) Takashi Murakami, artist

11 (17) Iwan Wirth, dealer

12 (5) Gerhard Richter, artist

13 (2) François Pinault, owner, Christie’s

14 (-) Rem Koolhaas, architect

15 (28) Marian Goodman, dealer

16 (-) Steve Wynn, collector

17 (6) Charles Saatchi, collector

18 (48) Jeff Koons, artist

19 (9) Leonard Lauder, collector, philanthropist

20 (21) Zaha Hadid, architect

21 (-) Marc Glimcher, gallerist

22 (19) Eli Broad, collector and philanthropist

23 (-) Richard Serra, artist

24 (26) Adam D Weinberg, director, the Whitney

25 (-) Peter Brant, publishing magnate, collector

26 (77) Nicholas Logsdail, owner, Lisson Gallery

27 (-) König family, gallerists, publishers

28 (-) David Teiger, collector

29 (-) Olafur Eliasson, artist

30 (-) Daniel Buchholz, gallerist

31 (8) Maja Oeri, presides over Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation

32 (-) Amanda Sharp & Matthew Slotover, magazine publishers

33 (-) Jasper Johns, artist

34 (32) David Zwirner, gallerist

35 (43) Mick Flick, collector

36 (18) Barbara Gladstone, gallerist

37 (-) John Currin, artist

38 (27) Sadie Coles, gallerist

39 (-) Gary Garrels, director of painting and sculpture, MoMA

40 (-) Don & Mera Rubell, collectors

Michael Klein from Microsoft is leaving his job as art curator to take a new position as the director of the International Sculpture Center in New Jersey.

The Microsoft Art Collection started in 1987 and now consists of more than 4000 contemporary works. It was started to create a positive work environment and to engage its workers, customers and the community.

It would be interesting to see the budget allocated for art collecting at Microsoft each year.. “The company grows; the collection grows”

Microsoft art curator is packing his bags

“At Microsoft, he has favored painting and photography, especially still lifes, abstractions, landscapes and figure studies with their clothes on. By nature a contrarian, he collects at the edges of the mainstream and celebrates the underdog, which doesn’t mean he passes on central figures if he has the right opportunity to acquire their work.”

seattlepi

Is this just another artist trying to shock or is it the shocking times we now live in?

Video of beheading in Iraq part of Nashville art exhibit

“A video showing the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq and a photograph of a man masturbating have divided students and challenged administrators at Watkins College of Art & Design.”

tennessean

Damien Hirst stamps his authority on the contemporary art market with record sales at the Sotheby’s, London auction.

Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy Sells For 11.1 Million

Damien Hirst reaffirmed his position as one of the leading contemporary artists of the 21st century this evening (October 18th, 2004), when all 168 lots of original items from the celebrated Pharmacy restaurant sold at Sotheby’s London for a total of £11,132,180 ($20,063,528), far in excess of the pre-sale estimate of £3.5 – 4.9 million. His international status attracted more than 500 people into the saleroom, many of whom spent the hour before the sale queuing on New Bond Street eager to bid for a piece of Pharmacy’s history.

artdaily

Spam and adult filters are censoring the family friendly Horniman Museum in London. I cannot see how such a wholesome establishment like the Horniman Museum would be censored..

Online censor says no to the Horniman

“Mr Horniman would be mortified. One mention of his name, and internet filters are consigning the museum founded by the blameless Victorian tea merchant to the outer reaches of the web.

Museum staff at the south London museum have discovered that up to a tenth of all emails sent to or from the museum are being hoovered up by spam filters.”

guardian-arts

ArtQuest, an online gallery for artists is warning its members of an increase in scammers trying to rip artists off. Over the past few weeks they have had more than 15 members contact them in regards to scammers. Problems with cashiers checks (cheques), credit cards, and international money orders have been reported.

ArtQuest has started a list of art scammers, along with some information about avoiding these kind of people.

I personally get at least two emails per month from a Nigerian, first letting me know what paintings they like, then asking how they can pay immediately. Their name is different each time, so I hope no legitimate Nigerian art collector ever contacts me by email because they get deleted immediately.