What I Want For Christmas

Image: From Your Daily Awesome 5.27.7

That’s right, Hieronymus Bosch figurines! The National Gallery of Art (the nation of England) is selling them on their website. They are made of resin, which seems poised to be the 21st Century version of genuine imitation leather and replace plaster and PVC as the gold standard for mass-produced statuettes. At any rate these look totally awesome. You can get almost ever character from Bosch’s famous The Last Judgment.

There are characters from other artworks as well. The Dali is pretty cool, but the others are kind of lame. There is a weird looking art deco bong thing that is from Aubrey Beardsley's illustrations for Salomé. But it is the wide selections of damned beings from Bosch that steal the show.
> SHOP

40000 Closing: Not an Exhibition

David Coyle • Come in / Keep out • 2006 • oil & enamel on canvas 20 x 26 in

Sadly, another gallery in Chicago is closing down. This one is a heartbreaker, 40000, one of the best younger galleries in the city is closing its doors after "3 years and 37 events" when the current show ends on December 29. In an email director Britton Bertran stated:

I would ... like to profoundly thank all the artists, assistants, visitors, students, curators, collectors, fellow gallerists and the plainly curious.

I started 40000 for many reasons, but most importantly it was an opportunity to work with artists I respected and was thrilled by. It was also a way of bfringing to Chicago another venue from which to expose new and emerging artists with new and emerging ideas.

I strongly encourage everyone to stop by the space and check out David Coyle: 2007. Coyle is one of the most interesting painters right now, and a favorite of mine. His work runs from painterly to geometric abstraction, from simplistic to complex, and from serious to casual. In my mind, his paintings can be placed alongside the contemporaries Thomas Scheibitz, Mark Grotjahn and Katherine Bernhardt. All unique in what they do, but all with a certain sensibility for color, composition and paint handling that seems to connect them.

Also apparent is the influence of Bernard Frize and Kenneth Noland, albeit with taken with a grain of salt and a healthy dose of mirth. This isn’t to say Coyle is derivative, more that he draws from painting’s recent history and works from there. If anything, it gets my mind working, thinking of how his pieces fit into the practice of painting, and giving me the itch to get back into the studio myself. It is sad to see 40000 go, but this exhibition strikes a final, high, note.

Bertran also noted plans for a future venture. You can always look here for updates, of course.

David Coyle • Beyond Infinity • 2007 • oil on canvas • 40 in sqr

> 40000
> DAVID COYLE

Prelude to the Afternoon of A Forgery

Shaun Greenhalgh • The Faun by Gauguin, 1886 • ca. 1997 • unglazed stoneware with touches of gold gilding • h. 47cm • The Art Institute of Chicago: Estate of Suzette Morton Davidson; Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment • 1997.88

You have probably heard by now that The Faun, also known as The Satyr, by Paul Gauguin from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago is a fake. It was a lost work that a family of art forgers recreated based on a small sketch Gauguin made in a sketchbook. The “well researched” piece along with its forged documents fooled Douglas Druick, Searle Curator and Chair, Department of Medieval to Modern European Painting and Sculpture, and Prince Trust Curator and Chair, Department of Prints and Drawings, but not before London art dealers Howie and Pillar, who bought it at auction from Sotheby’s, who were the first fooled. Also taken in was Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark, the leading Gauguin ceramics expert. She has said it is “among Gauguin’s most satirical” pieces, no pun intended, I’m assuming.

It is pretty amazing that a 46 year old man, his mother (82) and father (84) could pull off not only this, but a forgery of an Egyptian statue, an investigation into which uncovered The Faun.

Sotheby’s has promised to reimburse the museum, but it still has a bloody nose. It is interesting to wonder what will become of the piece. For now it is going to Scotland Yard as evidence, although now people are interested more than ever in seeing this mystery object. I by chance saw it being wheeled on a cart into conservation last week. Unknowing of the future controversy, and that possibly I was among the last to see it.

It goes without saying how sad and disappointing this is. I remember being pretty impressed seeing it on view, and thinking about how lucky we are to have a Gauguin ceramic, something I wasn’t aware even existed, on permanent display in Chicago. I guess I was sort of right, it didn’t exist. There is something fascinating about the whole thing though. Stories of art forgery and theft tend to capture the public imagination. The idea of some criminal mastermind fooling all the experts appeals to our sensibilities.

For the most detailed story, from which this post has referred to, see the Art Newspaper.
> Revealed: Art Institute of Chicago Gauguin sculpture is fake
>The Faun on Wikipedia

A man puts on a bear suit and wanders round an art gallery. Yes, it's Turner Prize time again

The artist (center) seen in his current installation at Donald Young Gallery • Mark Wallinger • The Human Figure in Space • 2007 • 3 miles of kite string, mirrors & stenciled numbers • dimensions variable

You may well have heard this elsewhere, but Mark Wallinger has won the Turner Prize, Britain's premier badge, crown, cup, laurel, medal, order, ribbon, trophy; accolade, applause, bravo, encomium, hallelujah, homage, paean, panegyric, plaudit, tribute; citation, commendation, compliment for a contemporary artist. Wallinger currently has an exhibition on view at Donald Young of recent work, complimenting the main installation, The Human Figure in Space, a piece he created especially for the space. A video Sleeper, on view at Young, first wowed audiences and critics at the 2005 Venice Beinnale, it is also on view at the Turner Prize exhibition. Wallinger's exhibition in Chicago is on view through February 8 of next year.


Mark Wallinger • Sleeper • 2004 • single channel video, silent • dimensions variable • Ed. of 3/AP

The headline for this post was from The Daily Mail if you think there are loads of willfully ignorant members of the public here in America, visit these links to stories from another British staple, the tabloid.

> We've had pickled sheep, an unmade bed and a shed that turned into a boat.
You have to love this quote: " It is the second time Wallinger has been nominated. The first was 12 years ago when he named a racehorse A Real Work of Art. He lost out to Damien Hirst."

> Artist Mark Wallinger, who wanders around galleries dressed as a bear, has won this year's £25K Turner Prize.
I am jealous that their tabloids actually bother to attack art. What do we have? Oh right, "legitimate" news sources, and mayors running for President.

> DONALD YOUNG
> ARTFORUM