Newly Opened Tampa Museum of Art Lights Up the Riverfront

The Tampa Museum of Art opened to the public for the first time on February 6, 2010. The 66,000-square-foot building designed by Stanley Saitowitz is located next to Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park along the Hillsborough River. [Credit: James Ostrand via Daily Loaf]

TAMPA — The long-awaited Tampa Museum of Art, conceived in an effort to revitalize the city's downtown waterfront district, finally opened to the public on Saturday, February 6. Located along the Hillsborough River, the museum is adjacent to the newly opened Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, as well another property that will house the future Glazer Children's Museum.

"This is a new and very important public space for the city of Tampa and I truly believe it's going to be the focal point of cultural activity and family fun for generations to come," Mayor Pam Iorio announced at Saturday's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The 66,000-square-foot structure cost $26.6 million and was designed by Stanley Saitowitz of San Francisco’s Natoma Architects. Saitowitz describes the building as, "a hyphen between the earth and sky,” a neutral space whose intention is not to compete with the art. 

The building, also known as the Cornelia Corbett Center, is distinguished by a two-layer aluminum curtain wall perforated with 900,000 three-inch circles on four-inch centers, that wraps the exterior and some of the interior. Other modern features include translucent ceilings, polished concrete floors, an exterior sculpture gallery and 12,000-square-feet of LED lights on the south facade.

The Florida museum is showcasing a traveling exhibit of artwork by French artist Henri Matisse through April 18.

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Newly Opened Tampa Museum of Art Lights Up the Riverfront

What Recession? Giacometti Sets All Time Auction Record

Alberto Giacometti's bronze sculpture L'homme qui marche I set a new world record for fetching the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction, selling for $104.3 million at Sotheby's on February 3. [Credit: AP/Anthony Devlin]

LONDON — After eight minutes of "fast and furious" bidding, a new world record was set at Sotheby's London on Wednesday. An anonymous phone buyer successfully outbid at least nine other potential collectors in the battle for a rare work of art by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. When it was all over, the once hushed room burst into applause.

The six-foot-tall Giacometti bronze sculpture L'homme qui marche I ("Walking Man I")  sold for a record $104.3 million - the highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction (including the buyer's premium cost). The hammer price achieved was roughly four times the Sotheby's pre-sale estimates. Pablo Picasso's Garcon a la Pipe (Boy With a Pipe), which fetched $104.2 million in 2004, previously held the record.

The life-size Giacometti sculpture was conceived in 1960 and cast a year later. The piece was sold by Commerzbank AG, which inherited the work when it took over Dresdner Bank in 2009.

Other highlights from the Sotheby's sale were Gustav Klimt's Church in Cassone (Landscape with Cypresses), which sold for $43.2 million; Paul Cézanne's Pichet et fruits sur une table, which went for $18.9 million; and Henri Matisse's Femme couchée, which fetched $7 million.

"We are thrilled to have sold these great works...and that they have been recognized for the masterpieces that they are," said Melanie Clore, co-chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art at the auction house.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]

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What Recession? Giacometti Sets All Time Auction Record

Top Ten Art Auction Sales of 2009

With only a couple of days remaining in 2009, writers everywhere are compiling all sorts of Top Rankings for the past year, spanning categories from music to movies to art.

This week, Bloomberg published a list of the Top 10 art auction sales for 2009. And although the economy took a turn for the worse this year, these million dollar sales give hope to an already struggling art market.

The Top 10 Art Auction Sales of 2009 (in descending order):

1) Raphael, "Head of a Muse" (1508-11), chalk drawing on paper.

Sold Dec. 8 at Christies, London - $47.6 million.

2) Henri Matisse, "Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose" (1911), oil painting on canvas.
Sold Feb. 23 at Christie's, Paris - $45.6 million.


3) Andy Warhol, "200 One Dollar Bills" (1962), silkscreen ink and pencil on canvas.
Sold Nov. 11 at Sotheby's, New York - $43.8 million.

4) Constantin Brancusi, "Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.)" (1914-17), sculpture on wood.
Sold Feb. 23 at Christie's, Paris - $37.1 million.


5) Rembrandt van Rijn, "Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo" (1658), oil painting on canvas.
Sold Dec. 8 at Christie's, London - $32.9 million.


6) Eileen Gray, "Fauteuil aux Dragons" (1917-19), sculpted wood armchair upholstered in leather.
Sold Feb. 24 at Christie's, Paris - $28.1 million.

7) Piet Mondrian, "Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir" (1922), oil painting on canvas.
Sold Feb. 23 at Christie's, Paris - $27.4 million.

8) Wu Bin, "Eighteen Arhats" (1615), hand scroll in ink and color on paper.
Sold Nov. 24 at Poly International Auction Co., Beijing - $25 million.

9) Alberto Giacometti, "L'homme qui chavire" (1950), painted sculpture in bronze.
Sold Nov. 4 at Sotheby's, New York - $19.4 million.

10) Edgar Degas, "Petite danseuse de quatorze ans" (1881), sculpture in bronze.
Sold Feb. 3 at Sotheby's, London - $19.2 million.

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Top Ten Art Auction Sales of 2009

Le Cirque du Pompidou Is Coming to Town

PARIS — Move over Ringling Brothers, the "Pompidou Mobile" is coming to town! But there's no need to buy tickets - this circus will be free. And instead of a ringleader, animals and clowns, there will be a curator and fine art masterpieces.

Provided it can raise the estimated $4.43 million necessary, starting in late 2010, France's Pompidou Center will hit "la rue" with 10-15 paintings from its permanent collection. Picassos, Matisses and Calders will be displayed in a 10,700-sq. foot high-tech canvas-like structure being designed by architect Patrick Bouchain. Every few months the big top will pick up, clear out and move to a different French town, concentrating on rural regions and poor, crime-ridden suburbs. "It's about bringing art to the people to awaken their desire to go toward the art," the Pompidou's president, Alain Seban, said in a statement.

Museums collections travel all over the world for special exhibitions at other museums, that's nothing new. But bringing modern art to less fortunate areas, setting up a makeshift museum in a field or parking lot, and charging no entry fee - that's a pretty great concept.

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Read More — Art Under the Big Top: The Roving Pompidou | AP
[Photo: The Stravinsky Fountain outside the Centre Pompidou]

Le Cirque du Pompidou Is Coming to Town

Right-Wing Flails Over Obamas' Return of Controversial Painting

WASHINGTON D.C. — In early October, the White House released a list of 45 works of art chosen to adorn the walls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but just when it seemed the Obamas' taste in fine art couldn't be any more scrutinized, the dissension continues. A certain painting on the list - originally slated to hang in the First Lady's Office in the East Wing - has since been returned to the Hirshhorn Museum. As to why it was returned, therein lies the controversy.

Alma Thomas' 1963 painting entitled Watusi (Hard Edge) looks remarkably similar to Henri Matisse's The Snail, painted ten years prior. Rotate The Snail [shown above right] 90 degrees counterlockwise, use a cooler color palette and - ta da! Watusi [shown above left] emerges.

Imitation is certainly nothing new in the art world, in fact, for centuries artists have perfected their craft by more or less copying the masters who came before. Similarly, musicians remix songs and filmmakers remake movies. In this case, the two works are so blatantly similar that it would be hard to argue Thomas was doing anything but paying homage to Matisse. Of course, that didn't stop certain conservative bloggers from flailing accusations, saying the Obamas were either ignorant as to the vagrant plagiarism, or excusing it because Expressionist painter Thomas was an African-American. But a simpler, more reasonable explanation came from Mrs. Obama's deputy press secretary, Semonti Stephens: “This piece just didn’t fit right in the room. There’s no other reason. It really has nothing to do with the work itself.”

Alma Thomas was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibit at the Whitney Museum. Her painting Sky Light (1973) continues to hang in the Obama family's private quarters.

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Read More - The Obamas Return a Painting | Time.com

[Photo: Left - Alma Thomas. Watusi (Hard Edge), 1963. | Right - Henri Matisse. The Snail, 1953.]

Right-Wing Flails Over Obamas' Return of Controversial Painting