Elizabeth Taylor Wearing a Chador at the Shah Cheragh Shrine, Shiraz , 1976: © Firooz Zahedi - Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery, New York

© Firooz Zahedi - Dressed as an Odalisque II, 1976, Printed 2011 C-print 48 x 36 in/ 121.9 x 91.4 cm, Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery

The muse of many artists, including Warhol, the late actress Elizabeth Taylor reveals a more candid side in an exhibit of photographs by Firooz Zahedi, in which she returns to the glamorous age of Cleopatra. A show with over 40 photographs from the actress’s travels to Iran in 1976, is on loan from LACMA, and can be seen at Leila Heller’s new downtown gallery till October 29th.

Firooz Zahedi had left Iran as a child, but together with Taylor, he returned to his country to photograph the culture made exotic once more through the lens of a visitor. Together they traveled to Persepolis, the once destroyed ancient Persian capital, to Shiraz, and to the tile-decked town of Isfahan, where Taylor, after visits to the bazaars, purchased the costumes for her transformation to an oriental odalisque.

Elizabeth Taylor in Persepolis with view of the Tent City in the background. © Firooz Zahedi Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery, New York

Before her death last March, Elizabeth Taylor said to her close friend Firooz, “Seeing these photographs brings back fond memories of my visit to Iran, a country blessed with a rich and colorful culture that dates back many centuries.” Zahedi, who now lives in Los Angeles, started his career in New York during the mid-1970s working with Andy Warhol and Interview.

Elizabeth Tayolor's BVLGARI Emerald Suite being auctioned at Christie's, New York

The BVLGARI Emerald Suite, a suite of emerald and diamond jewelry, were gifts from Richard Burton from 1962-1967. The necklace alone is estimated at $1,000,000 – 1,500,000. Elizabeth Taylor began her work against AIDS in the early 1980s and in October 1991, Taylor established The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF). A portion of the monies generated by exhibition admissions, events and select publications related to the sales will be donated to her AIDS Foundation.

© Firooz Zahedi, Dressed as an Odalisque I, 1976, printed 2011, Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery

Elizabeth Taylor at Tomb of Saadi - Shiraz © Firooz Zahedi Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery, New York

Elizabeth Taylor Seated in a Meditation Room - Shiraz © Firooz Zahedi Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery, New York

Elizabeth Taylor Smoking a hookah at the Tea House © Firooz Zahedi Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery, New York

Elizabeth Taylor in Chador at the Shah Chirag Shrine -Shiraz © Firooz Zahedi Courtesy Leila Heller Gallery, New York

More information:
Elizabeth Taylor Foundation
Christies Auction of Liz Taylor jewels
Leila Heller Gallery Chelsea: 568 West 25th Street New York City

Simon de Pury, turning law and reason on its head, in front of Maurizio Cattelan's Frank and Jaime, 2002. Edition of 3. Estimated at $1-1.5 million. Photo credit:Kisa Lala

Let the drum-rolls begin – Simon dePury, the market-savvy chairman of Phillips de Pury & Company, was at hand to christen the new Park Avenue location for the inaugural preview of the Part 1- Contemporary Art Evening Sale. The collection, entitled ‘Carte Blanche,’ curated by Phillipe Segalot, former international head of Christie’s Contemporary Art, is scheduled for auction November 8, 2010, with a low-estimate of $80,000,000.

Richard Prince, Untitled (Cowboy) 1998-99.Ektacolor photograph. Edition of 2 plus artist proof. Estimated at $1-1.5 million

Phillips’ move uptown to the new 25,559 square feet space at 450 Park Ave will extend their buyers’ circle beyond the Meatpacking District, and bring them closer to their bidding rivals Sotheby’s and Christie’s. “The sale will be a game-changer in the way auctions are being prepared,” said Simon de Pury.

Simon de Pury looking pleased in front of the inverted cops' of Maurizio Cattelan's Frank and Jaime. Photo credit: Kisa Lala

Paul McCarthy, Mechanical Pig, 2005. Edition of 3 +1 AP. Estimate $2.5-3.5 million

Takashi Murakami, the poster child for the show, is his own best salesman. Riding high on his Versailles exhibition, he currently commands high prices (listed estimate of $4-6million for Miss KO²), but his work, though astonishing at first, can quickly turn dreary on the twentieth reiteration. It’s unfortunate for Warhol that his career ended before the Age of Reproduction fully took hold, because with the multiplicity of editions that abound, even Walter Benjamin would be baffled by the soaring and undiminished value of an ‘original’.

But sometimes, a reproduction, as in the case of Cattelan’s Stephanie, maybe a better bargain than its original.

Maurizio Cattelan, Stephanie, 2003. Edition of 3 + 1 AP Estimate: $1-1.5 million

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #153, 1985. Edition of 6. Estimate: $2-$3 million

View of Phillips de Pury's space at 450 Park Avenue with upper tier skyboxes for premium clients. Photo: Kisa Lala

Sunday marked the closing of another successful Armory Week in New York. Following the trend of Art Basel in Miami, the aisles were teeming with enthusiasts, artists, collectors, and dealers who seemed not to be aware in the least about our turbulent economic climate. Damien Hirst prints had five and six stickers next to them, denoting sales. It truly was a collector’s fair.

Photo by Stacy Kimball

Made up of the Park Avenue Armory show, Scope, Fountain, and Piers 92 and 94, this was the most important week in New York for collectors and gallery-owners alike.

Mike Bevilacqua

James Casebere

James Nares

It seems to be a good rule of thumb to not expect to meet any artists when making your way around art fairs. As one fantastic art—who will remain nameless—told me: “Why do I want to walk around an art show? I’m just going to get frustrated looking at all the crap that’s selling and wonder why mine isn’t up there. It’s very hard to get inspired that way.” As I’ve come to understand it, art fairs are another way for big-budget galleries to boast to one another about who has the most fabulous pieces in their collections and who has the biggest artists in their respective stables. Deitch is always certain to have at least a few Warhols, Basquaits, Harings, Barry McGee installations, ad infinitum. Tony Shafrazi usually counters back with a fantastic collection of David LaChapelle, Dennis Hopper, and Jasper Johns. Expect to see Richard Prince, Picasso, Ed Ruscha, and a handful of other A-listers at Larry Gagosian’s monolithic booth.

Regardless of what you think about the fanfare behind the art fairs, they’re enjoyable to peruse. Until December’s Basel in Miami, stay tuned for more about these cultural instigators.

Photo by Stacy Kimball

Photo by Stacy Kimball

Photo by Stacy Kimball

Sven'tgolle Sven'tolle. Photo by Stacy Kimball.

Photo by Stacy Kimball

Mel Bochner. Photo by Stacy Kimball

Jacob Hashimoto. Photo by Stacy Kimball

]]> http://www.spreadartculture.com/2010/03/10/new-york-armory-week-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.spreadartculture.com/2010/02/22/one-life-one-day-inside-the-mind-of-mr-brainwash/ http://www.spreadartculture.com/2010/02/22/one-life-one-day-inside-the-mind-of-mr-brainwash/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:27:27 +0000 Jonathan http://www.spreadartculture.com/?p=1235 By JRS

Mr. Brainwash, aka Thierry Guetta, holding court over his maze on West 13th Street

“If you do something you love, you become an icon, because you do it so well that in one moment, everybody appreciates it,” says Thierry Guetta, leaning back in a paint-splattered Eames lounge chair in the middle of his newest exhibition, Icons. The street artist-turned gallery sensation went on to talk about his time spent decorating the walls and sidewalks of New York: “The street is just a large gallery to me. Even the people that don’t like it are obligated to see it. There are no rules on the street, there is just freedom. Thousands of people can see it.”

During the first week of his debut New York show, it’s safe to say that no one could have anticipated the turnout that the gallery at 415 West 13th Street has seen. “People started lining up at five o’clock in the morning to get into the gallery, because they knew they were going to get a screen print.” In the few days since the show has been open, it’s received an incredible amount of foot traffic, attributed directly to the marketing phenomenon behind Guetta’s show, his alter ego, Mr. Brainwash.

Mr. Brainwash's Street Art in the Meatpacking District

A highly excitable man with a wild nest of black and gray curls sitting underneath his signature fedora, Brainwash spoke to me through an old pair of aviators, their lenses splattered with paint. I questioned their practicality, but it just adds to the “Mr. Brainwash starter kit,” complete with a pair of old sneakers and jeans so thoroughly covered in every shade of paint imaginable, it almost seems contrived. Almost. Until he starts speaking about his art, frantically moving around the 15,000 square foot gallery. “So the other day I was hanging this painting of Madonna and I thought that I would like to color her face more.” He reached up to said painting and recreated smearing paint on his hands and rubbing it across her eyes and mouth. I said I liked it. “I’m always added to my work, even years from now, I will look at something and want to change it. I’m not a guy who gets mad when someone is carrying one of my paintings and he drops it. I’m not going to run up to him and yell at him about how he destroyed it and it’s worth so much money. I’m going to say ‘You know what, it looks beautiful.’ Accidents can improve work. I accept everything that happens to me in a good way. It’s always enjoyment to me.” I considered testing this theory by reaching up and ripping a piece of vinyl off the broken-record collage on the canvas that we stood admiring, but knowing what I do about how much his work has been going for since his first show, I decided against it.

From Mr. Brainwash's "Icons"

As we strode through the gallery, the door never stopped opening. People were in and out all day, some staying for hours at a time and reclining on the furniture with friends. The look on their faces was a calm, satisfied one. They could understand the art they were seeing and enjoy it. It’s wasn’t overly cerebral for the Sunday afternoon browsers, tire kickers, and tourists.

Amidst the chaos, SPREAD ArtCulture was able to get him to sit down (not an easy task) and give us the details on his new work and artistic philosophies.

SPREAD ArtCulture: Tell us about your show. What makes someone an icon?

Mr. Brainwash: It’s people who really give deep effort in life and make something out of it. And what I like about icons, there are some people who come from nothing. Take Jimi Hendrix: I’m sure he came from a poor family and things, but he had the passion in life and he had something he wanted to do. He was not just about money or success but it was about believing in something he loved. If you do something you love, you become an icon, because you do it so well that one moment everybody appreciates it. It’s like the guy from Twitter who is twenty-five. To do something so giant that everybody in the world are using what he did and he’s twenty-five! It’s for me to show the people that you can do it. There’s a possibility you just have to do what you love in life. All of the people (in this exhibit) they’re just normal people, just like everybody else. Somewhere it’s like giving a message to the ordinary people that you can do it. Just go for it.

SAC: Your work is influenced, quite clearly, by some of today’s commercial art frontrunners: Shepard Fairey, Banksy, and Warhol’s ubiquitous pop art portraits. How is what you’re doing different from what they’ve already done?

Mr. B: When I did my first show, a lot of people said, “He looks like this, it looks like this guy’s,” but somewhere, it’s like I’ve said, you cannot judge somebody by their first show. You have to let them evolve. Like my new show, “Icons,” I don’t see any resemblance of any other artists today. You couldn’t say that you see Shepard (Fairey)’s work. I don’t see it. You couldn’t say, “This looks like a Banksy.” Little by little, I’m finding my way of being my own artist. I don’t believe that nobody doesn’t look at someone else. That’s what the recycle of the world is. It’s like me putting a taxi in a box. I’ve never seen it before and it’s something that I wanted to do.

SAC: What are you doing to further culture?

Mr. B: I don’t think too much, the only thing I do is try to do something that will make people happy. I’m not here to judge myself or what’s going to happen to me in my life. You can’t judge someone without knowing him, you need to give him time to do his own thing. During my first show, they were trying to judge me and I asked them to “Let me go, it’s my first show. You’ll see if I’m a copycat or if I’m good or bad.” You cannot get away from talent. If you have it, you have it.

SAC: Do you have talent?

Mr. B: Talent is something that is a judgment. I just work. My talent is just to work. Every single day is another life to me. One life, one day. The next day is another life. You have to be in the moment. I do everything with passion. You can have talent, but not use it. There’s a million people who are more talented than I am, but maybe they don’t work to get it all out.

SAC: Are you going to keep filming?

Mr. B: I don’t know. I’m so involved with making art now, I don’t have the time. I did it for so long: twelve years non stop. I have more than thirty-thousand hours of footage. I’m going on another path.

SAC: What do you want people to think and feel about your art when they come into this exhibition space and see your work for the first time?

Mr. B: I want people to have fun. I want for them to be able to do something with it, to get influenced by it and maybe go home and start doing some art of their own. Right now, sitting here with you, I hear kids running around and to me, this is the best thing possible. I didn’t do anything wrong with this show. It would come with too strong a message, because maybe a kid would see it and not understand it. You can bring people from two years old to seventy-five years old and they can enjoy the show. I will let the other artists be controversial. I just want people to smile.

"There are no rules or judgement in the world of art for me." -Mr. Brainwash

DENIM – Curated by David Rimanelli

I once asked shuttle loomer and denim aficionado Matt Weintraub to explain, in as few words as possible, what was behind the complex mystique fueling the denim craze. He wrote me, “I prefer my denim raw, thick, and selvage. Raw means the denim has not been pre-distressed. It’s going to get beat up over time. Every crease, bend, and crinkle is going to reflect your personal story. Whiskers will build, honeycombs will form, and edges will wear. But this is exactly as it should be, as each fade and tear will remind you of where you’ve been.”

Succinct, he was not, but this opened my eyes as to how serious denimphiles take their jeans. Weintraub takes his denim seriously, and his eyes lit up when I asked what the difference between Levis and Samurai was. ”Thick means the denim is heavyweight,” he told me. “They stock denim that’s 13, 17, 19, 21, or even 24 ounces. Thinner denim is fine for the summer and breaks in quicker, but I find that the best things take time. The heavier the denim, the longer it’s going to take to fade. Fortunately, for your effort you will be rewarded. Thicker, unwashed denim is going to be stiffer. It may even stand up on it’s own. This means that when it does crease and wrinkle, the wear will become clearly apparent. When it’s done, and you’ve finally given them a first wash 6 months or a year later, you’ll reveal a rich contrast. This is something you’ve got to work for. You can’t buy it off the rack.”

DENIM – Curated by David Rimanelli

80WSE, NYU’s art gallery that recently played host to Charlie White’s brazen “A Selection From the Teen and the Transgender Comparative Study,” is now home to DENIM, curated by David Rimanelli. Rimanelli, a renowned art critic, member of the NYU faculty, and contributing editor to Artforum since 1997, has combined works of  Andy Warhol, Rob Pruitt, Tom Burr, Valie, Export, K8 Hardy, Hanna Liden, Klara Liden, Jack Pierson, Michael Smith, Karlheinz Weinberger, and Knut Asdam into this retrospective work that pays homage to a symbol as American as television, binge-eating, and white sneakers.

Of his show, Rimanelli writes,”Denim’s cult status as a rebel uniform emerged in the public mind largely through classic Hollywood cinema—for instance, Marlon Brando in The Wild One, James Dean in Rebel without a Cause, and Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits, and later as the preferred style for certain subcultures, for example, gay subculture, as can be seen in Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and Kustom Kar Kommandos; or, returning to Hollywood, William Friedkin’s controversial Cruising.

“DENIM, these cinematic references commingle with denim’s ‘high-art’ associations, which have become ingrained through the sixties image of the ‘artist-worker,’ exemplified by minimalists like Robert Morris, or by Carl Andre, habitually attired in overalls. Andy Warhol is a key figure in this respect, both in his own sartorial inclinations but particularly in his art and films.”

DENIM – Curated by David Rimanelli

Regardless of your level of interest in the differences of selvedge or acid-washed jeans, the exhibit is masterfully curated, as one would expect from Mr. Rimanelli. It is running through March 12th.

]]> http://www.spreadartculture.com/2010/02/04/denim-%e2%80%93-curated-by-david-rimanelli/feed/ 0 http://www.spreadartculture.com/2009/12/09/an-art-basel-conversation-shafrazi-gallery-on-david-lachapelle-and-dennis-hopper-2/ http://www.spreadartculture.com/2009/12/09/an-art-basel-conversation-shafrazi-gallery-on-david-lachapelle-and-dennis-hopper-2/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:07:24 +0000 Jonathan http://www.spreadartculture.com/?p=593 By JRS

SPREAD ArtCulture caught up with George Horner, an administrator at New York’s Tony Shafrazi Gallery, at Art Basel and talked about David LaChapelle and Dennis Hopper’s new exhibitions.

SPREAD ArtCulture: When did these new LaChapelle images come about?

George Horner: These images were shot in Hawaii recently because David has a lot of land there. It was actually once a nudist colony that he bought years ago. He flew in Michael Jackson impersonators and look-a-likes for this shoot. He was a huge Michael fan and was really affected by his death. The look-a-likes go through real pains in this series, in order to be as genuine as possible.

He’s certainly not poking fun at Michael; he has complete reverence for him, almost to the point of absurdity. Mr. LaChapelle, who never photographed Mr. Jackson, said he wanted to depict the singer as a “martyr crucified by the media.” These photographs are kind of like the three different stages of Michael: Michael in the eighties with the curly hair, then Michael of about two thousand or so, with the light skin, straight hair, and the extreme nose job and chin implants that he claimed he never got. At the end, where he’s actually dead, the glove has fallen off. We’re selling it as a triptych because it’s almost like an altarpiece. Mr. Shafrazi has an incredible eye for installation.

SAC: What of this new Dennis Hopper work?

GH: The photographs are photographs that Dennis took from about 1960 to 1967. Taschen just put out a new book all about the photographs. It was incredible the circles Dennis was privy to, he was a really privileged character, being a movie star. He was an artist then and he’s an artist now. It’s not like this is new work, like he’s decided to take some photographs now. These photographs are forty-five years old. And, you know, he’s a collector. He’s been a collector his whole life and he’s been an artist his whole life. He was one of the first people to buy Warhol, and Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns, and Rauschenberg. He was a real champion of pop art. It spoke to him somehow.

SAC: Why billboards?

GH: So, an early inspiration of the pop artist were billboards. Rosenquist was a billboard artist. A lot of the photographs are of billboards. A number of years ago, Dennis had this idea that he wanted to go full-circle: he had the billboards and he took photos of the billboards and the billboards become photographs and then you take those photographs and you turn them into billboards again. It’s like the full journey. He employs billboard painters to paint them. It’s not that he couldn’t or I don’t know if he has that in him—that’s not the point. It’s really more like paying homage to the old school and to the original inspiration to a lot of these pop people and kind of paying homage to a dying art. There’s fewer and fewer companies that still hand-paint. Everything’s digital now. These particular ones were done by a company we found in Brooklyn called Colossal and they did a fantastic job. Of course Dennis was there every step of the way, it’s not like “Do this, I’m going to walk away.” It wasn’t like that at all. He was really there and worked with them and Mr. Shafrazi did, too. They’re really beautiful.