Art Law Blog : New York Art Law Lawyer & Attorney : Fox Rothschild Law Firm : Theft, Intellectual Property, Institutional Negotiation : Manhattan, New York City

Alice Walton has opened the Walmart-financed Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum has had its negative critics, like Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who called attention to the disparity between the grandeur of the American museum and the poverty of the American people in this article. 

Nevertheless, Roberta Smith gives the museum itself a strong review and even says that “Crystal Bridges is poised to make a genuine cultural contribution, and possibly to become a place of pilgrimage for art lovers from around the world,” in this article from the New York Times.

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ArtInfo has published its version of the “top 20 shows to see in 2012.” 

With artists such as On Kawara, Damien Hirst, Henry Taylor and Cindy Sherman, the publication is bullish on modern and contemporary art in 2012. See the slideshow, with details on dates and locations, here.

[This article was drafted with the assistance of Nicole Dornbusch].

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According to this interesting New York Times article, Miami has become a year-round art haven, thanks to a successful ten years of hosting Art Basel and its satellite fairs. 

Though only 3 of the 260 galleries invited to Art Basel are actually based in Miami, lead collectors attribute the opening of dozens of new galleries in the past decade to the presence of the fair.

[This article was drafted with the assistance of Nicole Dornbusch}.

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The woman that “sold her soul on Craigslist for $100, earlier this year,” Aimee Davidson, reportedly paid $10,000 for Non-Visible Art this month according to NPR. In June, James Franco backed a new project called the Museum of Non-Visible Art, a museum of conceptual art where the works of art “don’t physically exist” but instead are “imagined by the artist.” 

According to this article, Davidson, like any other purchaser of Non-Visible Art, received a card that reads, “Beautiful work of art not pictured here due to lack of existence” to confirm her ownership of the work of art that she purchased called “Fresh Air.”

(Nicole Dornbusch contributed to this article.)

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According to this article, the Brooklyn Museum has canceled plans to hold an exhibition of graffiti art, citing financial constraints.

According to the article, the show, “Art in the Streets,” is currently in Los Angeles, where it has drawn large crowds but has also attracted criticism for prompting an increase in graffiti in the surrounding neighborhood.

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The groundbreaking for the new Whitney Museum in downtown New York has commenced.

Here is an article about the festivities that accompanied the groundbreaking.

Here is an article about the Museum.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that a professor at NYU has had to temporarily remove a tiny video camera installed in the back of his head, thereby stalling his year-long art project.

Art lovers should not fear too much delay, however, as the professor is wearing the camera around his neck in the meantime.

The art piece was commissioned by the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar.

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According to the Associated Press, the Center of Olfactory Art dedicated to scent as an art form was launched at the Museum of Arts and Design last Thursday.

The museum director stated that the new center was created because "scent is a really interesting part of the world of design," and adding that the Center of Olfactory Art  is a "sensuous, sensory-orientated museum" where patrons can touch and feel many of the objects.

According to the article, the center will present its first exhibition, "The Art of Scent, 1889-2011" next November, examining the reformulation and innovation of olfactory works by some of history's best-known perfumers through 10 seminal scents.

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Here is a great article from the New York Times about Art Basel Miami.

The Times summed up the seminal event this way:

"Four days and a small sliver of mostly man-made beachfront can barely accommodate the hordes of dealers, collectors, artists, designers, photographers, journalists and hangers-on that descend en masse for a quick pre-holiday sun and high-ticket spending."

A great set of photos published by the Times can be found here.

And here.

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The Chicago Tribune reports that the lions outside the Art Institute of Chicago will be wearing solar-powered wreaths this year.

Aside from the obvious environmental benefits, the wreaths apparently will be composed of a total of 2,011 spheres in various shades of red.  And inside each sphere will be "a wish for the world in 2011" written by Chicago-area schoolchildren.

If you are in Chicago, you can check them out starting the day after Thanksgiving.

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According to this recent article from the New York Times, the Apple iPhone app is becoming a mainstay for museums and other cultural institutions who want to assist their patrons in visiting their collections. 

But replacing audio guides and docents?  Probably not.  The review of the app as a do-it-all tool is not favorable:

"But the app’s limitations overshadow its strengths. The information is generally far less than what appears on the museum’s labels. There is no audio.  . . .The app also ends up undermining the structure of individual galleries, particularly when they have narratives. The app isolates objects rather than connecting them. "

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The Guggenheim Museum is currently exhibiting interwar posters from Europe created during the interwar years.

According to the museum website, "he 1920s and 1930s were among the greatest years in the history of poster design. Vox Populi, or the “voice of the people,” posters were used by manufacturers, political movements, and the entertainment industry as immensely refined art created for a vast public. "

More on the exhibit can be found here.

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According to the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit Institute of Arts is putting up ornately framed reproductions of some of its most significant paintings on the streets of southeast Michigan as part of a celebration of its 125th anniversary.

An interactive map of the locations in Wayne, Macomb, Oakland and Washtenaw counties will be posted on the museum’s Web site in mid-September, when the installation is complete.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art said  that its recent exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso was its seventh highest-attended show in the museum’s history.

The exhibition drew over 700,000 visitors, making it the museum’s best-attended show since 2001.

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At Art Basel, one of the largest and most famous contemporary art fairs in the world, the vibe was "boisterous," reports the New York Times.

Art Basel spans more than 300 galleries from 37 countries. And as reported by the Times, "while the quality of work was noticeably better than it had been a year ago, the days when collectors came to discover new talent are still a distant memory. Instead, booths are filled with a commercial smorgasbord of popular artists. "

Not everything is the way it once was, however. 

The Times also reported that "but to say that business was approaching that of the boom years would be an overstatement. 'There’s not the impulse shopping there once was,” said Tobias Meyer, who runs Sotheby’s contemporary art department. 'New buyers are coming here as much for information gathering as for collecting.' Many dealers said they felt a price resistance when it came to spending more than $500,000. "

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When you accidentally back into a lamp at Pottery Barn, your conscience -- or the store -- may make you pay for the damage.  What happens if you back into an $80 million Picasso at the Met?  Apparently they fix it for you. 

A January 25, 2010 article in USA Today describes how an art student tripped into a rare $80 million Picasso entitled The Actor and created a six inch tear.  The article states that "[t]he museum said the tear did not occur "in a focal point of the composition" and could be repaired in time for an April display of 250 works of art by the painter at the Met."

That art student may be thankful that the Pottery Barn rule does not apply at the Met. 

The article can be read in its entirety here:

content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/01/mets-rare-picasso-damaged-when-clumsy-art-student-stumbles-into-painting/1

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Among the always incredible array of exhibitions to visit in New York City is the “Street Art, Street Life From the 1950’s to Now” exhibition at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse at 186th Street, Bronx, New York, open to the public through January 25, 2009. 

The Museum’s website describes the exhibition as: “[a]n examination of the street as subject matter, venue, and source of inspiration for artists and photographers from the late 1950s to the present.” This exhibition includes “street photography; documentation of performance, events, and artworks presented in the street; works using material from the street; and examples of street culture by more than thirty artists including William Klein and Lee Friedlander” among others.

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