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Guggenheim

Guggenheim Announces YouTube Shortlist

Filed under: Art


From 23,000 to 125. The Guggenheim Museum has announced the shortlist for its video project. There were more than 23,000 submissions for the "YouTube Play, A Biennial of Creative Video" project. The museum announced the exhibition back in June. YouTube users submitted their short creative videos vying to be among the top 20 videos that will be chosen by a jury of professional artists and will be on view this fall at Guggenheim museums around the world.

The works will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on October 21, 2010 with simultaneous presentations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. The videos will be on view to the public from October 22 through 24 in New York and on the YouTube Play channel.

The 125 films will be on display in kiosks at the Guggenheim's museums and can also be watched on the designated YouTube channel. The NY Times reports that the jury deciding the on the winners include artist Takashi Murakami, designer Stefan Sagmeister, performance artists Laurie Anderson and filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.

YouTube Videos To Play At The Guggenheim

Filed under: Art


Your YouTube video could make it into the Guggenheim Museum. The museum has announced a new exhibition, YouTube Play, which is a partnership between the video site and the museum. YouTube user submit their short creative videos at http://youtube.com/play. The top 20 videos will be chosen by a jury of professional artists and will be on view this fall at Guggenheim museums around the world. This project isn't for goofy videos of your cat, the Guggenheim is looking for high-quality artistic work. The YouTube Play site also bears advertising from HP. Submissions will close July 31. The works will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on October 21, 2010 with simultaneous presentations at the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. The videos will be on view to the public from October 22 through 24 in New York and on the YouTube Play channel. So far the channel has around 5,000 subscribers.

[via Washington Post]

Harry Winston Premier Collection Guggenheim Chronograph Watch

Filed under: Timepieces / Watches

This watch almost slipped under my nose, but thanks so a helpful reader I was alerted to the timepiece. It just goes to show that watch makers still think wealthy people read museum catalogs. What? Like the rich have nothing better to do that wander around monolithic art depots all day? Well, maybe some do.

Specially made for the Guggenheim art museum is this Harry Winston Premier Collection Guggenheim Chronograph timepiece, for women. It is all about the bling. Nothing special about the Swiss quartz chronograph movement. You won't even use it anyway. The dial design is meant to replicate the view when standing in the Guggenheim and looking up at the atrium glass window - that here looks remarkably like an umbrella. The look is done with alternating diamonds and mother-of-pearl. A total of 2.65 carats of diamonds awaits your wrist. The rest of the watch is in white gold, and I am guess that it is not incredibly large in diameter. For the Frank Lloyd Wright and Harry Winston enthusiast who wants to pony up for the timepiece, maybe it is just what you need to lighten that dark winter coming up. You can also be assured that the iconic style of the watch tells people it is Harry Winston. Price is $46,000, but you lucky museum members out there get almost five grand off! Look closely at the Guggenheim online catalog and you can get some matching Harry Winston accessories.

See it here.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch review site aBlogtoRead.com.

Finalists Announced for Hugo Boss Prize in Contemporary Art

Filed under: Art

guggenheim new yorkWe're a step closer to finding out who will win the biannual Hugo Boss Prize, which is bestowed for achievement in contemporary art. Vying for the $100,000 award this year are the finalists just announced by the Guggenheim: Cao Fei from China, Hans-Peter Feldmann from Germany, Natascha Sadr Haghighian from Iran, Roman Ondak from the nation formerly known as Czechoslovakia, Walid Raad from Lebanon and Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand.

In addition to the cash – and possibly more valuable in the long run – the Hugo Boss Prize winner will also get a 2011 exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York. The winners are selected by a panel of art professionals that includes Ysmil Raymond, curator of the Dia Art Foundation; Udo Kittelmann, director of Berlin's Nationalgalerie and Tirad Zolghadr, an independent writer and curator.

Last year, the honor went to Emily Jacir. Previous winners include Matthew Barney, Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tacita Dean.

Unlike most art prizes, this one stipulates has no age, geographic or medium-specific qualifications. It is as open as open can be.

The Complete Works of Zaha Hadid

Filed under: Books


Architect Zaha Hadid, the first woman to receive the coveted Pritzker Prize (in 2004), is celebrated in a new book from Rizzoli titled Zaha Hadid: Complete Works. Hadid's designs are a "fusion of a Western modernist education and Middle Eastern art", as described in the introduction by Aaron Betsky, Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum: "...the intricate patterns that defeated comprehension and embodied the collaborative efforts of hands transforming reality into a sensuous surface, simple spaces into lush ones." The book encompasses Hadid's architectural designs as well as furniture, interiors, sculptures and objects such as bowls and jewelry. Included are her most recent commissions, such as the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum in Lithuania and the Aquatics Centre for the 2012 London Olympics, as well as her most renowned works, including as the Vitra Fire Station in Germany and the Lois and Richard Lowenthal Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.

Sotheby's Opens in Doha, Bizarre Timing

Filed under: Auctions, Art



Once the undisputed land of conspicuous wealth and consumption, the United Arab Emirates is being squeezed by a large drop in oil prices. It's a shame this comes after the region's addiction to art has become fully entrenched. Sotheby's is planning its first contemporary art sale from its new Doha, Qatar branch on March 18, 2009 – also the opening day of the Art Dubai fair. Hell, it's enough to make you "scream" (see photo).

This looks like the triumph of ambition over common sense, but Sotheby's was probably too far into its Middle Eastern endeavors before the bottom fell out on the region's finances. And with Bonhams and Christie's already in town, Sotheby's had little choice but to follow.

The UAE has committed quickly to the art scene. Abu Dhabi is working on building a Louvre, and is erecting a Guggenheim. Last year, art auction revenues reached $34.9 million, up 70 percent from 2007. But, the upcoming auction should be tricky, particularly with the poor performance of the sector last fall in more established markets, like New York, London and Hong Kong.

In around two weeks, we'll see if Sotheby's will be able to make this new auction house work, or if it will fall victim to the greater recession-triggered decline in the art market. The Mei Moses All Art Index dropped 4.5 percent last year. This seems like a modest amount, but you need to remember that record-setting sales continued through the middle of the summer. Last May, Roman Abramovich was a billionaire with a new Francis Bacon piece in his collection. Today ... we know he feels pain, too. The second half of the year wiped out the first half's records and pulled prices down further.

It's a tough time to count on the market to make Sotheby's Doha a success, but the market doesn't give us choices.

[Photo: "El Grito" by Julio Aguilera]

Guggenheim Foundation Appoints 5th Director

Filed under: Charity

The Guggenheim Foundation has announced its appointment of its fifth director since its inception in 1937, former Director of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Richard Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong also spent 11 years at New York's Whitney Museum. He will have vast reach over the art world in his new position, as he controls both the Guggenheim Museum and its foundation, as well as Guggenheim institutions in the leading art capitals of Venice, Bilbao, Berlin and soon enough, Abu Dhabi (the Guggenheim Museum will open there in 2013).

The 89th and 5th fixture has recently undergone a $29 million restoration, just in time for Armstrong's arrival. He starts in November.

Wear a Fragment (or Two) of the Guggenheim Museum

Filed under: Jewelry


I simply LOVE this collection of jewelry! Aptly named Restoration Rocks, each piece contains fragments of Frank Lloyd Wright's historic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that were set aside and saved during the 2007 restoration process. In the hands of jeweler Cara Tilker the little bits of concrete become wearable works of art that, due to the very nature of the material, are each individually unique and in limited edition. The collection is made of sterling silver and crystal clear acrylic, but a few of the pieces are also available in 14K gold by special order. Prices range from $125 - $4,350.

Via psfk

Las Vegas Guggenheim Heritage To Close

Filed under: Art


For a brief shining moment it looked like art was going to be the next big thing in Las Vegas casinos, soon there will be only one Las Vegas Strip museum now (the gallery in the Bellagio) that the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Venetian is set to close on May 11. In 2001, the Guggenheim opened two Las Vegas museums designed by Rem Koolhaas: the Guggenheim Las Vegas and the Guggenheim Hermitage. The Guggenheim Las Vegas closed 15 months later after one showy exhibit dedicated to the Art of the Motorcycle. The Guggenheim Hermitage was a partnership between the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Guggeenheim Heritage saw shows by Lichtenstein, Johns, Oldenburg, Rauschenberg, Wesselmann, Beckmann, Degas, Picasso, Rubens, Miro, Chagall, Bonnard, Kandinsky, Modigliani and Klee but some say that the New York Guggenheim did not do all it could to help their Las Vegas outpost stay afloat. Others say that even with more exhibits the Guggenheim Hermitage struggled to create community interest. If you want to check out the museum, now is the time, they are offering free admission until the museum closes.

[Thanks, Lana]

Guggenheim Museum Planned For Abu Dhabi

I have been steadily watching Abu Dhabi in the United Emirates as it emerges onto the world stage, transitioning toward a Dubai-like opulence. The latest move for Abu Dhabi is the announcement that the Guggenheim Foundation will create a new museum  there for modern and contemporary art. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be designed by Frank Gehry.  It will be the only Guggenheim in the region and the largest worldwide. It is expected to be completed in 2011 and will be built on Saadiyat Island.

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