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It took nearly 20 minutes and more than 20 bids between several specialists on the phone and a bidder in the room, but Sotheby’s came away with at least one major win at Thursday’s contemporary art evening sale. That victory lot was Francis Bacon’s Portrait of a Dwarf (1975), which hammered above its £6 million to £9 million estimate, landing at £13.1 million with fees, or approximately $17.6 million. While that’s nowhere near Bacon’s auction record of $142.4 million, set at Christie’s New York in 2013, the result—and the sale of another Bacon, the lot right before it, at just above the…
It was only a matter of time before another Banksy animal mural in London was removed by someone to prevent it being stolen or defaced. The escape artist gorilla stenciled on a shutter at the entrance to London Zoo last Tuesday has been taken down by the zoo for “safekeeping.” It follows the removal of a big cat painted on a bare billboard in northeast London by a contractor. The man said he did it to stop the artwork being “ripped down” by thieves. Banksy’s wolf daubed on a satellite dish was stolen by a hooded trio in broad daylight, his Rhino mounting a…
Andy Warhol, the iconic figure of the Pop Art movement, has left an indelible mark on the art world with his vibrant, bold, and often controversial works. One of his most famous pieces, “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” from 1963, stands out not only for its artistic significance but also for its record-breaking auction price. On November 13, 2013, at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York, “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” went under the hammer. This monumental piece, which depicts a mangled car crash scene rendered in Warhol’s characteristic style, captivated bidders with its boldness and rawness. The…
Ricardo Scofidio, an architect who helped reshape the museum landscape in the US, died on Thursday at 89. His death was announced by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the firm he founded with his wife Elizabeth Diller in 1997. Working alongside Diller and firm partner Charles Renfro, Scofidio worked on many US museum projects, from the Museum of Modern Art‘s 2019 expansion to a building for the Broad, the Los Angeles private museum of collectors Eli and Edythe Broad. The firm’s various projects included any number of projects that were not museums: Lincoln Center, redesigned with new outdoor spaces at a cost of $1 billion;…
In a cramped basement space in New York’s SculptureCenter in early February, ventriloquist Sophia Becker adjusted the metal legs of a doll with long black hair, a single guarache made from metal, and an underwear-like piece made from medical materials that looks oddly fashionable. “Oh god that feels good,” the doll chirped in a girlish voice, before complaining that she’s stiff from a lack of play. “The lookers come but they don’t touch. I wish they would touch!” Becker was on hand for a one-night-only performance activating the exhibition, “Ideal Space for Music,” by Mexico-based artist-duo Hanya Beliá and Matias Armendaris, better known…
New York is a pretty sick town. Not in the “bro, that’s sick” way. Morbid, ill, macabre. The sickness has a lot to do with how disastrously emphasized the “New” in “New York” is with each passing generation. Forget what came before you. Just accept that things change. Enjoy the present while it lasts. While eating at the new New York restaurant Manuela in SoHo, I had only one thought: Our present sucks. To be blunt: Manuela is quite nice. The food is obviously excellent; even better are the people who work there. It’s the streets around it that are…
Liu Jiakun, a Chengdu-based architect known for his sensitive, place-driven approach to design, has been awarded the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious honor in architecture. Liu, who has spent decades crafting a body of work rooted in the traditions and materials of his native Sichuan province, is only the second Chinese citizen to receive the prize, following Wang Shu in 2012. The Pritzker jury praised Liu for using “Chinese tradition without nostalgia, but as a springboard for innovation,” crafting spaces that function as historical records, infrastructure, landscapes, and public forums. His projects, which range from museums and universities to entire…
This week, fashion designer Gabriela Hearst debuted her latest ready-to-wear fall 2025 line at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris as part of the city’s fashion week. Those in the crowd may have noticed some familiar faces—namely, artist Rashid Johnson—among the models. This collaboration between art and fashion is hardly new, though it’s not often that contemporary artists walk the runway themselves. For the show’s 11th look, Johnson wore a black turtleneck, wide-legged black trousers fitted with a belt, and a knee-length dark brown coat. Related Articles In his art practice, Johnson is known for his sharp meditations on race and class rooted in…
The Canada Council for the Arts revealed the 2025 winners of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts on Wednesday (5 March). At a time when US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and make it the “51st state”, all the while launching a trade war between the longtime allies, the awards are a reminder of the richness of Canadian culture and celebrate the exceptional careers of the eight artists and curators working in diverse media across the country. From the decolonial history painter Kent Monkman to emerging artists like Sandra Rodriquez, the awards celebrate both the…
A $600m casino resort in Sonoma County is at the centre of an ongoing dispute between the Koi Nation and the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the latter of whom claim that the development violates its tribal sovereignty over the historical and cultural assets of the land. Last month, the outgoing administration of US president Joe Biden approved a land trust application for the Koi Nation’s Shiloh Resort and Casino, which has been met with resistance from the Graton Rancheria and other neighbouring communities since the project was announced in 2021. The application is a process required for tribal gaming,…