Arts Council Funding Cuts Announced Today

It is going to be a very difficult 24 hours for the arts as a body of industries. The wait will be over and Arts Council England will decide who's in and who's out in relation to funding. The list goes public and live at 10 am tomorrow at a press conference. This will hopefully create a clearer picture of how and where the cuts will be made. Speculation has been rife for months and now we will see who will be dead man walking.
There are 1,333 arts organisations that have entered the application process as part of the new National Portfolio. 850 are funded and an estimated 750 will have their projects realised. They will receive funding over the next three years. New organisations applying for arts council grants for the first time will stand alongside well known institutions. A clearer picture of the 15% cuts to frontline arts organisations. will become apparent and It will also allow the first real insight into the Arts Council's collective state of mind under the leadership of Dame Liz Forgan, the newish chair.
Read Full Story -Arts Council Funding Cuts Announced Today

Black Bloc Invade London 26 March 2011

This is the entry point of Anarchist Group Black Bloc to Trafalgar Square 26 March 2011. They are on their way up Charing Cross Rd. to Cambridge Circus. Note: the police don't seem to be following the splinter group. The rest is history.

At around midday a group of around 100 anarchists part of the organisation known as Black bloc, headed through Trafalgar square to the cheers of many, as they made their way up Charing Cross Rd towards Cambridge Circus.
  Watch Video   Black Bloc Attack London 26 March 2011 - ArtLyst

Ai Weiwei Sculpture for Somerset House This Spring

A large scale public sculpture by China's most controversial artists, Ai Weiwei's is to go on display in the courtyard of London's Somerset House. He is best know in London for his massive Tate/ Unilever commission in the Turbine Hall last autumn. Weiwei filled the vast space with over 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds. Read More...

Gaddafi's Son Saif's Eleven Million Pound Squat - ArtLyst

ArtLyst Visits the Gaddafi Mansion photo © 2011

This is a work of art

I visited the palatial Neo-Georgian red brick mansion belonging to Colonel 's son Saif in Hampstead Garden Suburb today. A group of squatters have taken over house but it seemed to be in a state of lock down and no one answered the door.     Read More

Kay Saatchi Collection Goes Under The Hammer - ArtLyst

Kay Saatchi Collection Goes Under The Hammer - ArtLyst

China Overtakes Britain as the World's Second largest Art Market - ArtLyst

China has overtaken Britain as the world's second largest art and antiques market .The dragon economy over took the UK last year as mainland buyers proved they were important players on the world art market stage. British art professionals have voiced concern about the planned EU levy on art, known as the Droit de Suite which comes into effect in 2012 The levy is aimed at the sale of works by living artists and was introduced in the United Kingdom in 2006 via an EU directive.  Read More...

AP Sues Urban Outfitters Over Shepard Fairey Obama Image

OOPS SORRY  Photo:  By Mannie Garcia © 2006 AP ,Iconic image by Shepard Fairey, Collage by Sue Me!

Associated Press has now decided to pour salt on the wounds of the recently settled Shepard Fairey case by suing retailers Urban Outfitters, Nordstrom and Zumiez, seeking unspecified damages. They have pinpointed the revenue generators who monetised  the image on T shirts and accessories and now want blood. They won the case through excessive litigative bulling pumping millions into the case. In 2009 Fairey sued AP,seeking a declaration that he had not violated their copyright with his image. AP counter-sued, stating that he had done so through his uncredited and uncompensated use of its picture. The lawyers representing AP stated that the  photo was used without permission, to create Fairey's image, violating copyright. AP successfully argued in court that using the image was a wilful and blatant violation of the copyright of the photo. Read Full Article...

Koons' Pink Panther Goes Under The Hammer $20 -$30 M Estimate

 The German publisher and art collector Benedikt Taschen, known for his glossy art books including a delightful publication of Koons fornicating with his ex porn star wife, La Cicciolina, is selling his 1988 porcelain sculpture of a tacky  blonde woman holding a large pink panther cuddly toy. It is going under the hammer, this May at Sotheby's spring Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York. The polychrome porcelain sculpture has a pre-sale estimate of 20 -30 million dollars.  Read More....

Mr Brainwash Run DMC Lawsuit

This must be the season for artists lawsuits. First it was Shepard Fairey settling the case concerning the iconic disputed photo of Obama. Than Jeff Koons sued Canadian company Imm-Living for allegedly copying his metallic balloon dog sculptures and marketing them as $30 resin bookends. The suit implied that Koons owned the intellectual rights to balloon dogs so to stop further embarrassment, he conceded. The latest in line for a court battle is Thierry Guetta, a.k.a. Mr. Brainwash who is being taken to court by the photographer Glen Friedman, creator of one of the best known photos of rap group, Run DMC. It has been implied that Guetta ripped off the image using it for limited edition prints and promotional material for his 2008 break-out exhibition.  Read More..,.,.

Frieze Art Fair Appoints Carmody Groarke 2011 Architects - ArtLyst

Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover,the directors of the Frieze Art Fair have announced the appointment of the London-based architectural studio Carmody Groarke as the new architects for the Deutsche Bank sponsored, Frieze Art Fair 2011. The firm designed the Surreal House Exhibition at the Barbican one of the most successful events last year. It was A series of archetypal "house" forms are clustered together in the Barbican Art Gallery to create a bespoke backdrop for presentation of surrealist art, sculpture, film and architecture. The labyrinth of rooms created by the installation draws on familiar as well as abstract associations of domestic space, and challenges the visitor's preconceived expectations of the existing gallery. Frieze Art Fair Appoints Carmody Groarke 2011 Architects - ArtLyst

Tino Sehgal Gets Tate Turbine Hall Commission For 2012

Tino Sehgal commissioned for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall for the 2012 Olympic period.
17 July to 28 October 2012
Tate has announced that Tino Sehgal will undertake the annual commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2012. To be unveiled on 17 July that year, Sehgal’s new work will be the thirteenth to be commissioned in The Unilever Series.
 Tino Sehgal 2012 will be part of the London 2012 Festival, the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. Sehgal has risen to prominence for his innovative works which consist purely of live encounters between people. Avoiding the production of any objects, he has pioneered a radical and yet entirely viewer-oriented approach to making art. His works respond to and engage with the gallery visitor directly, creating social situations through the use of conversation, dance, sound and movement, as well as philosophical and economic debate. Having trained in both political economics and choreography, the resulting works are renowned for their high levels of interaction, intimacy, and critical reflection on their environment.Read More....

Overhyped Picasso Painting Hung At Tate Modern - ArtLyst

Overhyped Picasso Painting Hung At Tate Modern - ArtLyst

Review- Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970’s - ArtLyst

Review- Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970’s - ArtLyst

Pinner Vase Sale a £51m Stiff ?

Intrigue and sabotage blamed for the sales collapse.

The internationally reported sale of an 18th century Qianlong-dynasty Chinese vase from a small suburban London auction house last November has fallen through. Bainbridge's of Ruislip scored the record, for the highest price realized for a piece of Chinese art, sold in the UK. The fact of the matter is the buyer has never payed for it and it looks like the sale was either shambolic or a severe case of buyers remorse.    Read More....

Artist Suze Rotolo Dies in New York - ArtLyst

Artist Suze Rotolo Dies in New York - ArtLyst

Damien Hirst Survey Tate Modern 2012

The Tate feel that this is the best Artist to represent Britain during its most high profile world event in the last 100 years.

 Tate Modern have announced the first substantial survey of the work of Damien Hirst which will run from 5 April - 9 September 2012. This is hardly a retrospective, given Hirst's age. It will instead cover in-depth two decades of the artist's output. The exhibition will highlight works including many of his most iconic pieces such as, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living 1991 (the shark) and his Spot and Spin paintings. The exhibition is sponsored by the Qatar Museums Authority and takes place during the period of the Olympics.  Read Full Article....

Tate Exhibition Programme 2012 Include Picasso, Hirst and Munch

The Tate has  announced an ambitious exhibition programme for 2012, just in time for the Olympics. First off Tino Sehgal is to create the Turbine Hall commission for the  London 2012 Festival. Other major exhibitions will stretch across all four Tate galleries and will feature some of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Outstanding contemporary artists including Picasso, Munch, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, Cy Twombly and Alex Katz, alongside a range of pioneering historic exhibitions including the Pre-Raphaelites.  Read More....

March Latest London Art Reviews - ArtLyst

March Latest London Art Reviews - ArtLyst

John Galliano You're Fired - ArtLyst

John Galliano You're Fired - ArtLyst

Susan Philipsz New Chicago Installation - ArtLyst

Susan Philipsz New Chicago Installation - ArtLyst