Flash News: Calzolari – Dehli – Kai Althoff

Every fortnight, Artprice provides a short round up of art market news: Calzolari – Dehli – Kai Althoff

Calzolari show to come to Paris
If you feel it is too rare that Pier Paolo CALZOLARI does a solo show, you have to get to Paris, where Mennour Kamel (from January 29 to March 5, 2016) is to renew an experience offered three years ago. It was in 2013 that the gallery first presented some thirty works of this major Italian artist, an alchemist of matter whose works use fire and ice, rust and salt. This master of Arte Povera enjoys immense popularity on the market, with a price index that has risen by 628% since 2005 and a record of USD 725,000 being set this year for a living sculpture from 1976, featuring dancing flames from small oil lamps (Untitled, Phillips New York, 13 May 2015). Calzolari, who exemplifies the currently soaring interest in twentieth century Italian masters, is sure to attract major international collectors in Paris.

Delhi set for a good start to 2016
The megalopolis of Delhi is getting ready to stage its Indian Art Fair from 28 to 31 January 2016. Founded by Neha Kirpal in 2008, this fair happens to be the largest in the world in terms of visitors – with some 300,000 art lovers thronging in over four days – and has proven essential for its panorama of modern and contemporary Asian art. The event’s timing is also auspicious because the Indian market is currently doing remarkably well, with especially good results achieved on 15 December at Christie’s in Bombay. The auction house recorded turnover of USD 14.7m, and set a new world record for a work by Vasudeo. S. GAITONDE, an untitled oil painting from1995 that sold for USD 4.3m, twice its estimated price.

Qui est donc Kai Althoff ?
Preparations are in full swing at MoMA for the first major American retrospective dedicated to the German artist Kai ALTHOFF, to be held from 28 September 2016 to 22 January 2017. More than 200 works have been selected by the curators of the exhibition, Laura Hoptman and Margaret Ewing.
But who is Kai Althoff to be honoured with such a tribute?
It must first be noted that Althoff has several strings to his bow: artist, painter, performer, sculptor and photographer, he also works in video, music and installation. He is an all-round artist, confident in his desire to be culturally “autonomous”, all the better to draw visitors into his captivating worlds. Born in 1966 in Cologne, he emerged in the 1990s in his hometown before settling in the United States, where he is now represented by such influential galleries as Barbara Gladstone and Michael Werner. With the backing of these prestigious names, his work has appealed to collectors of Alighiero Boetti, Anish Kapoor, Peter Doig or Sigmar Polke. Although still little known in Europe (despite an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery and the presence of Michael Werner in London), Kai Althoff is far from a novice, as shown by the solidity of his CV as well as by his valuation on the auction market (63% US). While reaching six-digit prices for ten years, with a peak of USD 323,050 (for an untitled painting sold in 2008 at Phillips de Pury & Company in London), some of his works are still available for less than USD 2,000.