Flash News: Giuseppe Penone – An alchemist in Grenoble — Claude Rutault exhibiting in New York — Braque – Gris – Léger – Picasso

[29 Dec 2014]

 

Every fortnight, Artprice provides a short round up of art market news: Giuseppe Penone – An alchemist in Grenoble — Claude Rutault exhibiting in New York — Braque – Gris – Léger – Picasso

Giuseppe Penone – An alchemist in Grenoble

In 2013, at the invitation of Catherine Pégard, the works of Giuseppe Penone were shown against the glorious backdrop of Versailles. From 11 June to 30 October 2013, they could be viewed inside the château and along the Grand Perspective in the park. This exhibition followed on the heels of some major contemporary artists who have been featured at Versailles since 2009: Jeff Koons, Xavier Veilhan, Takashi Murakami, Bernar Venet and Joana Vasconcelos.
Now it is the turn of the Musée de Grenoble to pay tribute to Penone. Until 22 February 2015, the artist has been given carte blanche to design an open exhibition and create an intuitive experience that is unrestricted by chronology. His exhibition reflects a close dialogue with nature – forests, stones, and rivers – which truly speaks to all the senses. It includes older works and recent sculptures, one of which was actually created in-situ.
Despite being widely fêted by cultural institutions for more than 10 years (most notably at the major retrospective held in Beaubourg in 2004), this leading sculptor of the Arte Povera movement only rarely appears in the sale rooms. His works generally change hands via other channels, but his market is remarkably robust and firmly anchored in 20th and 21st-century art history. He recently set two new records in London, posting £240,000 in February 2013 and £220,000 in February 2014 (equivalent to almost $378,000 Pelle Di Foglie (Occhi Al Cielo, Mano a Terra), Sotheby’s and close to $361,000, Christie’s, Treccia). Current trends seem set to boost his value even further, but it is still far removed from the kind of six-figure sales that are the preserve of artists like Jeff Koons.

Claude Rutault exhibiting in New York

There are just a few days left to visit the exhibition dedicated to Claude RUTAULT at the Perrotin gallery in New York (until 3 January 2015).
This French painter, born in 1941, entered another artistic dimension in 1973 when he decided to repaint his kitchen. In the process, he uncovered a small painting that had accidentally been left on one of the walls. Since then, his preferred language has been an affirmation of painting for what it is, involving a mechanistic, pared-down treatment of everything that is not its space. Claude Rutault’s career began with a bang when he exhibited at the Documenta 6 Cassel in 1977 and at Arc 2, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1983.

He was even one of the first artists to take part in the MoMA PS1 artist residency programme. His minimalist works certainly won over the New York scene 35 years ago, but since then his career has been marked by few major events. This has been reflected at auction, where his market has been equally moribund. Only five works have appeared in the sale rooms in the last 30 years. He achieved his best sale (equivalent to $9,000) in 2009 at Millon – Cornette de Saint Cyr, Paris, for a museum installation entitled Stock Exchange 1.
It is encouraging to see a French artist like Rutault being rehabilitated on the New York scene, and this exhibition at the Perrotin gallery is an opportunity to make up the huge amount of ground he has lost there since his PS1 days.

Braque – Gris – Léger – Picasso

Braque – Gris – Léger – Picasso: the sub-heading of the exhibition currently running at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art goes straight to the point, announcing a show that delves deep into Cubism via the Leonard A. Leonard collection (until 16 February 2015). Cubism, the most influential art movement of the early twentieth century, still resonates today. It destroyed traditional illusionism in painting and radically changed the way we see the world.
Since 1976, Leonard A. Lauder has built up an unparalleled private collection of the very best Cubist works. It constitutes 78 works in total, including 33 by Pablo PICASSO, 17 by Georges BRAQUE, 14 by Juan GRIS and 14 by Fernand LÉGER. Most of these works date back to the transitional period of 1909-1914. Mr Lauder has decided to donate this incredible collection to the Metropolitan Museum. This magnificent gift adds great weight to the New York institution, placing it on a par with MoMA in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The value of this donation is estimated at just over one billion dollars…