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Artnet News
4/18/02

DUANE HANSON IN EUROPE
A retrospective of the late Photo Realist sculptor Duane Hanson (1925-1996) is currently in the midst of an extensive tour of European museums, accompanied by a catalogue raisonné edited by Thomas Buchsteiner and Otto Letze and published by Hatje Cantz. Launched last fall at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, the show is currently on view at the Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, Jan. 19-Apr. 28, 2002, with future stops scheduled at the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea in Milan, May 17-Sept. 1, 2002, the Kunsthal Rotterdam, Sept. 14-Nov. 24, 2002, the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, Dec. 14, 2002-Feb. 23, 2003, and the Kunsthaus Zürich, Mar. 22-July 13, 2003. In addition to color illustrations of all the works, including early political sculptures such as Abortion (1965) and Race Riot (1968), and a number of later works pictured in variations of costume, the catalogue features several essays, including one comparing Hanson with Otto Dix by Johann-KIrl Schmidt.

LEO KOENIG OPENS IN LAS VEGAS
SoHo dealer Leo Koenig is branching out to Las Vegas. A group show of gallery artists opens May 2-Nov. 2, 2002, in a 11,000-square-feet space on the third floor of a new glass pavilion on the glittery city's downtown mall. Among the offerings is a 22 x 11 foot painting of New York by Lisa Ruyter, "Adam and Eve" ape sculptures by Tony Matelli, a suite of 16 paintings by Les Rogers, and works by Nicole Eisenman, Torben Gehler, Frank Nitsche, Erik Parker and six other artists. The show is organized by Helen Varola, curator for the New York art consulting company Art Assets and the Neonopolis development.

SEATTLE MUSEUM GETS 33 WORKS
A Seattle collectors group, the Contemporary Art Project LLC, has given the Seattle Art Museum a collection of 33 works by artists including Sue de Beer, Cecily Brown, Kim Dingle, Inka Essenhigh, Brad Kahlhamer and Lisa Yuskavage. Former Seattle art dealer Linda Farris originated the project three years ago, assembling a group of patrons who would each donate $15,000 annually) and who would each get to display the works at their homes before they were donated to a museum. The collection goes on view at the museum in December 2002 as part of the its 70th anniversary celebration.

ARTIST SEEKS DOLLAR BILLS
Catherine Chow, a Chicago sculptor and clothing designer who goes by the name Cat Chow, is seeking donations of dollar bills for an art project to be exhibited at Monique Meloche Gallery at Art Chicago, May 10-13, 2002. The project, dubbed Not for Sale, is a sculptural garment made of 1,000 crisp one-dollar bills. A list of 1,000 sponsors is to become an integral part of the final installation. For more info, email info@moniquemeloche.com, or mail $1 to the gallery at 951 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, Ill. 60607. The dollar "does not need to be new and crisp," says Meloche. "The artist will exchange all donations at the bank for fresh tender."

WHISTLER'S NUDES AT FREER
The Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., opens a show of "Whistler's Nudes," Apr. 21, 2002-Jan. 5, 2004, featuring 25 prints, pastels and paintings of scantily clad and nude female models made in the 20 years before the artist's death in 1903. Highlights of the show include Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl (1894) as well as pastel studies for the artist's large academic figure compositions.

NORTON SIMON LAUNCHES WEBSITE
The Norton Simon Museum has unveiled a new website at www.nortonsimon.org, featuring a searchable catalogue of nearly 1,000 works of art from the museum collection. Eventually, the museum says, images of all its holdings will be online. "The Norton Simon Museum is committed to making its collection, exhibitions and programs accessible to a worldwide audience," says museum curator Gloria Williams. The Norton Simon first plunged into cyberspace in 1995 with a website that included less than 30 images from the collection.

BIG BUCKS FOR SOTHEBY'S BOSSES
Sotheby's auction house may have registered a $41.7 million net loss last year, but it paid approximately $9.5 million to its seven top people in "golden handcuff" packages designed to keep them working for the beleaguered auctioneer for the next 18 months, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal by Alexandra Peers. Sotheby's CEO William Ruprecht gets two-thirds of the sum, according to the report, receiving a total of $6.5 million on top of his $1.2 million salary and bonus.

NO JAIL FOR TAUBMAN?
Federal probation officials have recommended that former Sotheby's chairman A. Alfred Taubman, convicted in last year's headline-making auction-house price-fixing case, receive no jail time because of his advanced age and ill health, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors are pushing for the maximum three-year prison sentence, however. Sentencing is set for Apr. 22. 2002.

CHRISTIE'S RAISES PREMIUMS, TOO
Christie's has raised its buyer's premiums to match those of Sotheby's. Both companies now charge 19.5 percent on the first $100,000 and 10 percent on the remainder. Careful, guys, this kind of thing can lead to trouble!

PAINEWEBBER ARTWORKS TO MOMA
In a happy marriage of corporate and nonprofit museum interests, the Museum of Modern Art is acquiring 37 contemporary artworks as a gift from the 850-work collection of UBS PaineWebber. The donation includes works by Chuck Close, Vija Celmins, Willem de Kooning, Lucian Freud, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and others, and is to be put on view (along with other works from the PaineWebber holdings) when the renovated MoMA opens in 2005 in a show organized by curator Robert Storr. The art trove is worth an estimated $15 million, according to a report in the New York Times, and will be donated over a 15-year period to maximize the tax benefits for the corporation. PaineWebber's unusually hip art holdings are thanks to Donald B. Marron, chairman of UBS America and a MoMA board member.

NEW GALLERY IN COPENHAGEN
Danes are flocking to the new Galleri Christina Wilson in Copenhagen, which opened with a show of Kirstije Roepstorff on Mar. 1. Located in the city's hip Islands Brygge section near the waterfront, near the galleries of Nicolai Wallner, Tommy Lund and Nils Staerk, the gallery is located in the ground-floor space of a former pencil factory. Wilson has worked as a curator for the last 10 years; she plans an international program, and currently represents Kirstine Roepstorff (DK), John Körner (DK), Ulrik Möller (DK), FOS (DK), Marc Räder (GE) and Grayson Perry (GB). For more info, check out the website at www.christinawilson.net.

SKINNER ONLINE
Boston-based auction house, Skinner, Inc., sees no evidence of an auction slow-down, according to company CEO Karen Keane. Skinner, which originated in Bolton, Mass., and specializes in antiques and the decorative arts, has completed an expansion and renovation of its downtown Boston gallery and relaunched its website at www.skinnerinc.com.



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