May 8, 2008 

FINE ART FAIR HITS NYC
The 15th edition of Anna and Brian Haughton’s International Fine Art Fair, May 9-14, 2008, rolls into the Park Avenue Armory in New York City this weekend, with over 50 dealers from Europe and the U.S. Devoted solely to paintings, drawings and sculpture, in recent years the fair has seen an increase in American dealers featuring American art, according to the Haughtons. New exhibitors in 2008 include Clarke Fine Art (New York), Fine Art Gallery (Barcelona), Framont (Greenwich, Conn.), Galerie Normand (Paris), Kendall Fine Art (Atlanta), McColl Fine Art (Charlotte) and Piacenti Art Gallery (Florence).

Gauging from the catalogue, the exhibitors have some alluring wares: A late gouache by René Magritte showing a leaf-shaped bare tree silhouetted against an orange sky at A.L.F.A. from Paris; a Kees van Dongen Bouquet of Roses from ca. 1930 at Galerie Tamenaga from Paris; a beautiful Art Deco white limestone bust of a woman by Boris Lovet-Lorski at Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts from New York; a charming painting of a Belle Époque beauty, seated with binoculars on a balcony, waiting for her husband at sea, by Alfred Stevens at Guarisco Gallery from Washington, D.C.; an amazing Kirchner-esque painting of a Newark, N.J., street scene done by Stuart Davis in 1917 at Hollis Taggart Galleries from New York; and much more.

The gala preview on May 8, 2008, benefits the Frick Collection. General admission, which includes a copy of the catalogue, is $20.

ART HK 08 TAKES OFF
Art HK 08, the Hong Kong International Art Fair, May 14-18, 2008, brings 102 galleries from 20 countries to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in an event sponsored by investment bank Lehman Brothers. Exhibitors include Albion (London), Ben Brown (London), Chinablue (Beijing), Cook Fine Art (New York), Galleri Faurschou (Beijing / Copenhagen), Frey Norris (San Francisco), Gana Art Gallery (Seoul), Galerie Caprice Horn (Berlin), Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery (Osaka) and Bernard Jacobson Gallery (London). A conference is also planned. For further details, see www.hongkongartfair.com

LOOP’08 IN BARCELONA
Video lovers are converging on Barcelona for Loop’08, May 8-10, 2008, the global art fair devoted exclusively to video art. This year -- the fair was launched in 2003 -- the 44 participating galleries were selected by a committee including collector Jean-Conrad Lemaitre, Frankfurt art dealer Anita Beckers, Los Angeles dealer Christopher Grimes and Boston-based collector Manel de Santaren. For the fair, each gallery converts a room in the Hotel Catalonia into a mini-theater to present video by a single artist.

Among the participants: Harun Farocki at Angels Barcelona; Ofri Cnaani from Braverman By Art Projects, Tel Aviv; Jordi Colomer from Carles Taché, Barcelona; Mariana Vassileva from DNA, Berlin; L.A. Raeven from Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam; and Pilar Albarracin from Filomena Soares, Lisbon. For more details, see www.loop-videoart.com

WARHOL’S MAOS TO HONG KONG
Christie’s auction house and L&M Arts in New York are collaborating on the first big exhibition in Hong Kong of Andy Warhol’s famous portraits of Mao Tse-Tung, an image that dates from 1973, the time of the first thawing of relations between the U.S. and Communist China. "Mao by Andy Warhol," May 22-29, 2008, features 16 portraits of Mao by Warhol, and goes on view at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where Christie’s conducts its Hong Kong auctions. Highlight of the exhibition is a 14-foot-tall version of the painting, one of a series of four and the only one still in private hands (the other three are at the Metropolitan Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin).

And just as a sign of how much things have changed in the last 35 years, the huge portrait is for sale for $120 million, according to a report by Kelly Crow in the Wall Street Journal. The painting, originally sold by Warhol himself to restaurateur Michael Chow, is now owned by an anonymous European collector represented by London dealer James Mayor. Warhol’s current auction record is $71.7 million.

TOM SACHS AT LEVER HOUSE
Bricoleur supreme Tom Sachs is the latest contemporary artist to be featured in the ground floor exhibition space of supercollector Aby Rosen’s Lever House on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Opening May 8-Sept. 6, 2008, is "Tom Sachs: Bronze Collection," a presentation of 12 specially commissioned works, including a 21-foot-tall cast-bronze Hello Kitty character and two nine-foot-tall fountains, one in the shape of a rabbit and the other a Hello Kitty, plus a skateboard quarter pipe, a bronze dumpster and a series of towers made from electric batteries, from six to nine feet tall.

Concurrently, Sperone Westwater in Chelsea presents "Tom Sachs: Animals," May 8-June 21, 2008, featuring a piano completely constructed by the artist and a "cat tower environment" reflecting the artist’s own "efforts at personal organization."

$1 MILLION GRANT FROM HARING FOUNDATION
The Keith Haring Foundation has given $1 million to the New Museum to endow the new School and Youth Programs Fund, which includes a "global classroom" program and website, as well as "family day" programming, teacher guides and a "youth council" pilot program. The funding also underwrites the education project’s director’s post, currently held by Eungie Joo, now titled the Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs. The gift marks what would have been Haring’s 50th birthday on May 4, 2008. The New Museum has also launched a special website, called Bowery Artist Tribute , devoted to artists (like Haring) who lived and worked in its new Bowery neighborhood.

PHOTO DEALER GETS JAIL TIME
Beverly Hills photo dealer G. Ray Hawkins has been sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison on tax fraud charges, according to published reports. A top dealer who opened his gallery in 1975 and closed it three years ago to go private, Hawkins admitted in a plea deal to participating in a tax avoidance scheme involving backdated appraisals of artworks donated to charitable institutions. The fraud involved at least 24 false tax returns by at least 14 clients, claiming a total of almost $380,000 in phony deductions. Hawkins was ordered to pay restitution to the IRS totaling more than $35,000. He begins serving his sentence in July 2008.

"SAND" FOR THE SUMMER AT THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM
The Parrish Art Museum in Southampton is taking its beach-town location to heart for its summer exhibition, "Sand: Memory, Meaning and Metaphor," June 29-Sept. 14, 2008. Organized by Parrish curator Alicia Longwell, the show explores the ways that artists have used "sand’s physical and metaphysical properties." The exhibition presents more than 50 works, organized around such themes as "A Line Drawn in the Sand" and "The World in a Grain of Sand," by artists ranging from William Merrit Chase and Winslow Homer through Alfonso Ossorio and Constantin Nivola to Ashley Bickerton and Ernesto Neto.

LINCOLN CENTER PRINTS AT UBS
The summer show at the UBS Art Gallery at 1285 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan is "On Paper: The Lincoln Center / List Collection," May 1-July 25, 2008. A comprehensive survey of the prints and posters commissioned from contemporary artists in support of Lincoln Center, the show features more than 70 works made from 1962 to 2007 by artists ranging from Jennifer Bartlett and Helen Frankenthaler to Gerhard Richter and Joel Shapiro. Admission is free.

BKHF OPENS IN MIAMI
Two German galleries -- Benden & Klimczak from Cologne and Hafenrichter & Flugel from Nuremberg -- are opening BKHF Gallery in Miami’s Wynwood Art District with "Original Pop Art," May 10-June 8, 2008, a show of works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann. The Miami gallery (which is located in the former premises of Karpio + Facchini) promises to exhibit Conceptual and Minimal art as well, along with works by younger artists. For details, see www.bkhfgallery.com

SUNDARAM TAGORE IN HONG KONG
Sundaram Tagore Gallery, currently with spaces in New York and Beverly Hills, opens a third space in Hong Kong with "East / West," May 9-June 15, 2008. The show presents works by Natvar Bhavsar, Stan Gregory, Fré Ilgen, Nathan Slate Joseph, Judith Murray, Sohan Qadri, Anil Revri, Hiroshi Senju, Merrill Wagner, Lee Waisler and Susan Weil. For more details, see www.sundaramtagore.com

CARNEGIE PRIZES TO CELMINS, WEERASETHAKUL
New York artist Vija Celmins has won the $10,000 Carnegie Prize, which includes a medal designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and made by Tiffany & Co., on the occasion of the 2008 Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul receives the $10,000 Fine Prize, which honors an emerging artist in the show.

FRIEZE AWARD TO WILFREDO PRIETO
The Frieze Art Fair has presented its 2008 Cartier Award to the Barcelona-based Cuban artist Wilfredo Prieto, a conceptual artist whose works often take the form of site-specific installations. His winning proposal, Pond, an installation of over 100 oil drums -- and a live frog -- is to be featured at the upcoming Frieze Art Fair 2008.

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