Piotr Uklanski, Jeppe Hein and Jim Lambie are among the artists who will create art works for the public to interact with, at a new IKEA store in Moscow.

Jim Lambie’s floor at MoMA. Image: apartmenttherapy.com

The art is part of a mixed-use plan for IKEA, where new developments will “fuse culture, commerce and leisure.” Plans for the site includes shops, restaurants, an ice-rink, as well as an Ikea flat-pack furniture store.

Could this idea be the start of something big for the Swedish retailer?  And if so, what impact, if any will it have on the art market?

Jeppe Hein’s Moving Neon Cube. Image: euroassistance.com

Read the full article from the Art Newspaper, HERE

In Edmonton, a writer’s despair over provincial arts cuts is both convincing and less so on Government arts support.

“Alberta artists have taken the latest news of a 15-per-cent cut (to the arts) in their stride”, says Marliss Weber in SEE magazine.

Andrew Rucklidge, Sleeper, 2009. Image: courtesy the artist.

She continues, “Art allows us to express ourselves, which is an innate human desire. Without access to art, without the ability to write and draw and act and make music, or consume all of the above, we seriously limit the effectiveness of our communication abilities. We also limit our ability to persuade, to entertain, to connect with each other.”

Can’t argue with that.  She makes some good points in her article, and yet, while cities need the arts in order to thrive, her insinuation that the arts will cease without government support is troubling.

Read the full article HERE.

There will always be art, with or without government support and there should be absolutely no doubt about that.

A painting by Toronto artist Douglas Walker. Image: tulippress.ca

It’s dangerous to equate government support with the existence of the arts. Government support is important to many arts organizations and artists to get their work made, but there seems to be an idea in Canada that the government owes support to artists.

Does that help or hinder excellence in art?

It’s true that artists benefit greatly from government support, especially as the market is so weak in this country compared to the U.S.

But take a classical pianist, who succeeds with talent, along with drive and determination. So it is with art. If you’re not talented, you’d be wise to consider whether to make a career out of art. There’s nothing wrong with being an artist with a JOB. Ernst Beyeler, the legendary Swiss art dealer, referred to himself as a ‘Sunday painter.’ I think too many artists rely on government support. It’s a very generous situation that Canadian artists have, and it’s in many ways a wonderful thing, but it breeds mediocrity and complacency among the visual arts.

How’s that for a controversial statement? It’s harsh, but I believe it’s true.

Ben Reeves, Dog Walker, 2009. Image: johnbentleymays.com

Does government support mean better art?  Not necessarily.

Artists should pursue art for art, not for ego or adulation. To be creative is a wonderful, and necessary. But to be famous or successful to your peers is a different thing altogether.

The debate continues.

Barnett Newman, Voice of Fire, 1967. Image: gala.univ-perp.fr

Yesterday, VoCA reader Earl Miller posted a comment HERE in response to the post ‘Should VoCA be More Critical?’ He says that, given the amount of ‘bad’ art in the world, it’s important as an art journalist to find art that he likes or feels is important, but flawed.

We were inspired by Miller’s comment, a topic which is something that VoCA spends a lot of time thinking about.

It is perhaps useful to turn it into a question – which is more important to write about, art that the critic ‘likes’ or art that is “important for its stature, timing or positioning?

For that matter, does the critic automatically like art that is important?

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Edward Dolman, Christie’s International chief executive talks to the Financial Times on art world recovery, the shift eastwards and whether art is still reliable as an asset class:

Click HERE to watch the short videos.

It’s also interesting to note the relationship between the Rolex ads preceding each clip and the (Rolex?) watch that sits prominently on Dolman’s wrist.

Apparently, the art market has returned.

Andy Warhol’s 200 One Dollar Bills. Image: nyt.com

After a year of caution on the part of collectors, recent sales in New York and London have shown a dramatic return.  The other day, Sotheby’s New York sold Andy Warhol’s huge 1962 canvas 200 One Dollar Bills for $43.7 million (U.S.) – more than triple its pre-sale estimate.

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…In London:

Sales were up at Frieze art fair in London apparently, but collectors are bargain-hunting. Artists continue apace, and you’ve got to hand it to Swiss artist Christoph Buchel for bravely exhibiting a pair of his old, worn socks on the floor of Hauser & Wirth, for sale at €20,000. Not sure if they sold.

Christoph Büchel Socks, 2009. Image: artfagcity.com

Editions are big news. White cube gallery in London exhibited as White Cube Editions at the Zoo art fair, offering affordable but highly branded prints and multiples by artists.

One of Damien Hirst’s Blue Paintings that are being slammed by critics in London.
Image: slamxhype.com

The latest trend seems to be blatant piss-taking (Hirst on Francis Bacon, Elmgreen Dragsett on Giacometti, the Korean artist Gimhongsok on Jeff Koons, or one of Stephanie Syjuco’s artists who have copied Gimhongsok’s copy of Koons.) This seems to point to a lack of creative inspiration among artists, perhaps a fatigue of having to create new, inspiring artwork. It’s as if they are creating lesser, imitation editions of great work and it’s an interesting trend to keep watching.

In related news, in THIS op-ed in the NYT last week argued that today’s conceptual art will go the way of the dodo bird. It’s craftsmanship and technical skill that will serve art in the long term, not “witty” conceptual ideas. VoCA thinks the writer certainly has a point.

…and in Canada:

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Superstar art dealer Larry Gagosian is certainly tapped into the zeitgeist, with his high-profile stable of artists, mini-empire (New York, Beverly Hills, London, Rome, Hong Kong, Athens) and recently, with his new shop that sells multiples by big-name artists in New York. The shop is new for a dealer, but not so new for the art world. It began with Claes Oldenburg’s art project The Store from 1961, and more recently, when Takashi Murakami began collaborating on Louis Vuitton-emblazoned merch, (and then opened a shop with his show at the LA MOCA.)

It’s clear that art has met fashion, and fallen in love.

The Gagosian Shop at 988 Madison Avenue. Image: selectism.com

As author Don Thompson makes evident in his observations from inside the international art world in his book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art (a reference to Damien Hirst’s shark preserved in formeldahyde), art has become about brands. And almost no one brands more successfully than Hirst and Gagosian.

It was probably inevitable, but it seems a shame that art has been reduced to branding. When the focus is on the brand, it takes away from the value of the art.

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“An art gallery is like a single-cell organism: it is the crudest but also the most essential life form in the art-world food chain. It is among the easiest of public forums to start up…

Luanne Martineau, Gobbler, 2005. Image: trepanierbaer.com

…At the same time keeping a gallery going is usually fairly hard, and can seem impossibly daunting when sales slump. As small operations, galleries are…canaries in the coal mine, as they have often been called. So it made sense, as the bottom fell out of the art market last winter, that many people predicted galleries would start closing fast and furiously.”

This is from an article by Roberta Smith from the New York Times. Check it out HERE.

Graham Gillmore, Turns You On, 2005. Image: monteclarkgallery.com

Because Canada’s contemporary art market pales in comparison to that in the U.S., we don’t, perhaps give it much thought. But now’s a good time to set aside a budget to buy some art. $2000 would do nicely, and there’s the Toronto International Art Fair coming up, as well as excellent exhibitions opening this month. Here are some of our picks:

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The article, which you can read HERE, is a highly entertaining read, designed to promote Saatchi’s new book, My Name is Charles Saatchi and I Am an Artoholic, out in the UK on Sept 8.

An image from The Revolution Continues at the new Saatchi gallery. Image: guardian.co.uk

Some nice quotes from the article:

“There’s no crime in art being decorative.”

“When a critic knows what she or he is looking at and writes revealingly about it, it’s sublime.”

“Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on.”

You’ll soon be able to order the book HERE.

With so much writing being done online, books have taken on a precious new meaning.

That’s no different in the art book world, or more specifically, the luxury book market as defined by Benedikt Taschen, the German publisher who in 1999 famously published SUMO, a retrospective of the work of iconic photographer Helmut Newton.

It was the largest book produced in the 20th century and now sells on Ebay for $15,000.

An image by the late, great Helmut Newton, from SUMO. Image: livresphotos.com

“…books can themselves become their own pieces of highly sought-after art. “The making of the titles is a collaboration with the artists,” (Taschen) explains. “Their ideas are at the centre of the work and they are involved all the way through the process, making the books original, personal and desirable – like great art should be. Why shouldn’t an art book be something to be revered?”

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