Posts tagged as:

Ann Freedman

Tuesday Links: Leather Daddy of Luxury’s Condo Rises High

by Paddy Johnson and Emily Colucci on May 24, 2016

Image by Tod Seelie of Gothamist.

Knoedler & Co.’s sale of 80 million dollars worth of fake paintings is the scandal that just keeps giving. This Sunday, 60 minutes did a segment, with Anderson Cooper hosting. Cooper couldn’t get the gallery’s owner, though, Ann Freedman to agree to the interview. That’s more interesting than the segment itself, which reveals little [CBS News via ARTnews]
Two parents forgot the essential “do not touch” lesson of art-viewing at the Shanghai Museum of Glass. In a stunning but–let’s be honest–hilarious CCTV video, two boys not only touch Shelly Xue’s ethereal “Angel Is Waiting” sculpture, but yank it off the walls as their parents stand by filming [Hyperallergic]
Holy crap. In Canadian news wholly unrelated to art, The Tragically Hip, Canada’s most beloved rock band, announced that their lead singer Gord Downie has terminal brain cancer. [Local xPress]
Noel Cruz removes the paint on faces of dolls so he can repaint them. He choses dolls of celebrities, and gives them an eery life-like look. Normally, not our bag, but you gotta admit there’s some serious skill here. [Deviant Art]
239 Tenth Avenue in Chelsea, the one time home to Getty Gas station, and an art installation of fake sheep owned by Peter Marino (referred to by Curbed as “the leather daddy of luxury”), is currently under construction. Get ready for condos! Curbed, doing what Curbed does, has the photos of that…construction. [Curbed]
The art world can also produce tabloid fodder worthy of Hollywood as seen in the headline “Isa Genzken Says She Became An Alcoholic After Her Divorce From Gerhard Richter.” Juicy. [artnet News]
Every so often it’s important to get an education, as well as see what materials renowned artists are reading. Hank Willis Thomas provides a curriculum on “Vision & Justice” including, unsurprisingly, texts by Audre Lorde, James Baldwin and Marlon Riggs. [Aperture]
The Rider’s Alliance, a grassroots transit advocacy group has polled New Yorkers who live in zip codes served by the L train whether they’d prefer an 18 month, full shutdown, or three years of disrupted service. 77 percent of the 350 respondents said they’d prefer the 18 month shut down. The L Train tunnel incurred significant damage during Hurricane Sandy and requires the work. Many galleries and artists are served by this line. [Capital New York]
After binge-watching every season of The X-Files, we’re a little disappointed we missed this weekend’s annual Pine Bush UFO Festival, which includes, according to their website, UFO novelties, live characters and the “now INFAMOUS (and often hilarious) ‘Alien and UFO Themed Parade’.” Here are the pics from that event, which includes adults, children and dogs in tacky green alien costumes. [Gothamist]

Read the full article →

Monday Links: James Franco Calls AFC “Particularly Nasty”

by Paddy Johnson Michael Anthony Farley Rea McNamara on April 18, 2016

James Franco

It’s the 10th anniversary of the 2006 Youtube sensation “Shoes” by actor Liam Kyle Sullivan. Not sure the video tells us too much about the internet 10 years ago, though it is a good reminder that Peaches and more generally electroclash were widely popular. The music video, which is about a teenage character named “Kelly” who likes shoes and parties, still holds up. [The Onion AV Club]

Ann Freedman, former director of the scandal-ridden Knoedler Gallery, has given her side again, and what she reveals, is well, not much. Her much-anticipated testimony in the trial over the $8.3 million sale of a fake Rothko to Domenico and Eleanore De Sole was averted when the gallery and collectors settled out of court in February. Expectedly, Freedman confesses she didn’t know any of the works she sold were fakes, and while she says she’s sorry, adds “but let me be clear, this is [about] works of art. I didn’t slay anybody’s first-born. We have to have some perspective on suffering.” While six lawsuits have been settled against Knoedler for all the fakes they sold, four are still active. [Art Newspaper]

Finally, a listicle we can get behind: 10 Awful Public Art Pieces. [Houston Press]

The art market is ripe for abuse, say some. High quality global journalism requires investment. “There were huge steps towards greater transparency in the past 20 years,” says Clare McAndrew, author of the TEFAF Art Market report. “But in the past couple of years it has been going backwards.” Apparently, the trend of private sales at auction houses has created problems as has an unwillingness of private galleries to participate in surveys about purchasing. [FT.com via Art Market Monitor]

Jerry Saltz interviews James Franco. The crux of it seems to be that Franco has been unfairly persecuted in the art world because he’s an A-List actor who’s also an artist and scored his first show at a blue chip with conceptually weak work. The cruelties of the world continue: Jay Z was also unfairly persecuted, for shooting “Picasso Baby” at Pace filled with art world celeb cameos. What planet are these two on? There’s a tiny bit of talk about how Franco’s work wasn’t that strong, but come on. He remade Cindy Sherman photographs and showed them at Pace. Terrible. Franco says the gallery was embarrassed by the show, which HELLO. Of course they were. James Franco describes Art F City as “particularly nasty”. [NY Magazine]

Somewhat tangentially related, but Franco’s talent agency, WME | IMG, have bought a stake in in Frieze. The power-house agency, run by the inspiration for Entourage’s Ari Gold, will now sponsor the Frieze Tate Fund, providing the Tate with $213,000 for acquisitions. Beyond that, this all basically means you’ll see more celebrities at the fair previews, and the parties will be even more of a hassle to get into. [Artforum]

The Art Basel stabber says she attacked a fellow fair goer to prevent an ISIS attack. [The Observer]

Norwegian grocery baron/art collector Stein Erik Hagen is giving The Norwegian National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design free reign to pick out works from his $120 million collection. [Forbes]

The dreaded L Train shutdown could begin in 2019. [Curbed]

Read the full article →

Monday Links: The Home Depot-Sized Art Gallery

by Paddy Johnson on February 8, 2016

I gotta say, the new Beyonce video “Formation” (dirty) is pretty incredible. Pretty amazing to see such a political video played at the Super Bowl. [The Internet]

The Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles sounds like it will be a sight to behold. It’s 100,000 square feet—the size of a Home Depot—and will be modeled off the Kunsthalle — a nonc-ollecting art museum. Except, of course, that this gallery will sell art. Curator and partner Paul Schimmel is organizing the first show, which will be a historic survey of women working in sculpture. [Culture: High & Low]

According to Knoedler & Company’s accountant, apart from the sale of the fakes, the company did not make money. [artnet News]

Speaking the Knoedler & Company, Ann Freedman, the former president of New York’s Knoedler gallery has settled a lawsuit with collectors Domenico and Eleanore De Sole over the sale of a forged Mark Rothko purchased from Knoedler in 2004. The piece sold for $8.3 million. The terms have not been disclosed. [Artnews]

Quote of the year:

So since Hillary cannot yell, since by the virtue of being sane and not a white man she is forced to be the biggest adult in the room, just like Obama has had to for eight goddamn years, I will yell for her.

FIRST AND FUCKING FOREMOST, COOL, YOU LIKE BERNIE’S WISHES AND DREAMS APPROACH TO POLITICS. “FREE COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE AND A GODDAMN PONY.” YES, THAT SOUNDS FUCKING WONDERFUL BUT DO YOU THINK HILLARY COULD EVEN SAY THOSE WORDS WITHOUT FOX NEWS LITERALLY BURYING HER ALIVE IN TAMPONS AND CRUCIFIXES? [Pajiba via: Hyperallergic]

Leave it to Hyperallergic to create the longest, most comprehensive link list of art news out there. Say good-bye to your afternoon [Hyperallergic]

A round up of Super Bowl ads. [It’s Nice That]

An electronic circuit similutor made in HTML5. [Falstad via: Metafilter]

Read the full article →

Friday Links: Rust Belt Depression Art

by Paddy Johnson on October 2, 2015

Mike Kelley at Hauser & Wirth

Howard Halle reviews the Mike Kelley show at Hauser & Wirth, but I can’t tell if he likes it. (He gives the show five stars, so I guess the answer is that he does.) He sees great sadness in the show. Like Superman, the subject of the exhibition, Kelley comes from the rust belt. Halle says that the people who destroyed industry in that part of the nation are the same people who are now underwriting the art world. Who are these people he’s talking about? [Time Out]
Holland Cotter gives the new Archibald Motely show up at the Whitney the thumbs up. “It has features that many bigger, sexier exhibitions lack,” he writes, “an affecting narrative, a distinctive atmosphere and a complicated political and moral tenor.” We agree. [The New York Times]
Good lord. An artist painting an anti-violence mural was shot in Oakland. Terrible. [Hyperallergic]
There is now an art loans database. Only $799 per year for access courtesy of Skate’s. Can anyone tell us what people do with this information? We assume it’s for investment purposes. [Artnews]
Former Knoedler gallery director Ann Freedman and the now-shuttered gallery will go to trial for two cases involving sale of fake Abstract Expressionist paintings. Judge Gardephe denied Freedman and the gallery’s motions for summary judgment in the lawsuits lodged by New York collector John Howard and Sotheby’s chairman Domenico De Sole and his wife, Eleanore. His reasons will be explained forthcoming Memorandum Opinion and Order but no date on when that would be released was given. I bet that’s going to be juicy. [The Art Newspaper]

Read the full article →

Ann Freedman Bought Her Own Fake Jackson “Pollok”

by Henry Kaye on June 12, 2014

On Thursday, in an entertaining twist, newly released documents in an ongoing civil case showed that a $280,000 Pollock purchased from the same source as the other counterfeit by Ann Freedman herself was a fraud. What’s the proof? The painting was signed “Jackson Pollok.” Thats P-o-l-l-o-k.

Read the full article →

Wednesday Links: Identifying The Purpose of Art

by Paddy Johnson on August 28, 2013

A new facade takes shape at the Queens Museum.

Ann Freedman, the Knoedler & Company gallerist at the center of the $80 million art forgery speaks to New York Magazine. It really looks like she got bamboozled here, which is too bad, because the scandal’s effectively shut down the storied gallery. The magazine’s reporter, James Panero, managed to find one gallerist, Marco Grassi of Grassi Studios to sling some mud at Freedman. Grassi seems a little evil for doing so. [New York Magazine]
Good God, the loss of Mike Kelley really hits home while watching this two hour long video interview with him. He talks about everything from cave paintings to the media industry. He’s just so smart. A quote:

“I truly believe in the difference between art and life because I think art is political and thus it has to be symbolically separated from daily life, otherwise it has no meaning. That’s why I really disagree with Kaprow, because I think unless you separate life and art, it doesn’t imply a conscious motivation, it doesn’t imply a will, it doesn’t imply resistance. And art is the only arena in American culture in which difference is tolerated. I mean, I don’t even think it exists in politics…what scares me about contemporary art is the merging of it with the entertainment industry…because once the entertainment industry can produce fake resistance then you don’t have real resistance.” [YouTube via Gregdotorg]

More on the purpose of art from Frieze’s Alexander Alberro. He identifies its primary aim as one that defamiliarize and estranges the viewer from “habits of understanding”. Sounds about right. [Frieze]
New York City contributed 48 million to the Queens Museum renovation, the museum has no debt and they’ve doubled their board to 24 over the last decade. They’ve doubled their size to 105,000 square feet, and are adding six new staff members. They open in November. Now to get people out to Queens. As a part-time Queens dweller, I couldn’t be more happy about their growth. [The New York Times]
Hyperallergic is on the 3D printing beat. They’ve recently published two stories on the subject; a 3D printed database of fossils, and another about 3D printed Van Gogh paintings. I went to an opening in Denver last month where they were printing 3D labels. Much less exciting. [Hyperallergic]

Read the full article →

Ann Freedman

Ann Freedman Bought Her Own Fake Jackson “Pollok”

Get Our Newsletter!

Like Us On Facebook!

Follow Art F City

What is Art F City?