“Bribed” journalism at Wall Street Journal: Gagosian pushing up Grotjahn for U.S. Art Flippers, 6 days before the exhibition "Bribed" journalism at Wall Street Journal: Gagosian pushing up Grotjahn for U.S. Art Flippers, 6 days before the exhibition
Up-dates:
Prices of similar works by Mark Grotjahn went rapidly down:
Christie’s New York, May 2017: US$ 16.8 million (sold)
Lévy Gorvy (ART BASEL), June 2018: US$ 12.7 million (UNSOLD)
Christie’s London, October 2018: US$ 7.8 million (UNSOLD)
GAGOSIAN New York, October 2018: US$ 5 million (gallery price list)
Sotheby’s New York, November 2018: US$ 6 million (plus fee) Sold to 1, the only, anonymous bidder on telephone.
Mark Grotjahn’s bullshit art for American Art Flippers.
The Gagosian solo show starts in 5 days, 30th of October in New York.
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal already published an article on this exhibition with US$ prices of Grotjahn works and already “pre-sold” works.
American bribed art journalism naked.
One example how the manipulative, corrupt U.S. culture art operators (= fixing artists’ US$ value) functions.
(Wall Street Journal October 24, 2018)
After a Record Sale, Mark Grotjahn Changes Course
The Los Angeles painter’s new work comes to Gagosian; ‘one of the best examples of how much power an artist can wield’
Oct. 24, 2018 9:34 a.m. ET
By Katerina Ang
When the gavel came down at Christie’s contemporary art sale in May 2017, a painting by Mark Grotjahn had sold for $16.8 million.
The price for “Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14),” full of feathery red, black and yellow lines and part of the Los Angeles artist’s “Face” series, was roughly double what his work had ever fetched at auction. By then, however, he had moved on.
“I was sick of relying on the face for composition and wanted to find a way of working where I strictly dealt with colors and textures,” says Mr. Grotjahn, who counts David Geffen and the Museum of Modern Art among his collectors. Viewers in New York will see the results of his creative shift when “New Capri, Capri, Free Capri,” opens on Tuesday at Gagosian’s West 24th Street gallery.

‘I did not enjoy the struggle,’ Mr. Grotjahn says of the process of making his recent paintings. ‘After long enough, there’s a different kind of dexterity and muscle memory as the work becomes significantly free.‘ Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images
Billed as the artist’s largest-ever display of new work, the show marks the 50-year-old’s change in style. A breakthrough came when he started experimenting with scraping leftover paint off a canvas and then spreading chunks back onto the work—a process that felt indulgent at first.
“I did not enjoy the struggle,” he says, but “after long enough, there’s a different kind of dexterity and muscle memory as the work becomes significantly free.”
Mr. Grotjahn’s new, earth-toned works range in size from 23-by-19 inches to a cardboard-on-linen painting nearly 6 feet tall. Several in the series include an almond-shaped motif that appeared in some of his earlier work.
The Broad in Los Angeles is acquiring some of the “Free Capri” pieces. “There’s a sense of open-endedness and freedom that seem apparent in these paintings, though they still have the same rigorous sensuality about them,” says Joanne Heyler, the museum’s founding director.

Mr. Grotjahn’s ‘Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14)’ went for $16.8 million at auction last year. Photo: Christie’s Images LTD.
Mr. Grotjahn has come a long way since an early show where he only sold one $3,500 painting. His works in the Gagosian show are priced from $750,000 to $5 million.
At the same time, he possesses an unusual amount of commercial independence. At a time when blue-chip galleries can make an artist’s career and demand exclusivity, he works with four galleries in the U.S. and is known to occasionally cut out dealers by selling directly to collectors.
“He is a very unique case but also one of the best examples of how much power an artist can wield at the highest reaches,” says Natasha Degen, who leads the art-market studies department at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “Clearly, enough money is being made that Gagosian is going to overlook the fact that there are multiple parties involved.”

Larry Gagosian and Mark Grotjahn in 2015. ‘We’ve developed a bit of a shorthand over the years for how he wants things handled,’ Mr. Gagosian says. Photo: DAVID CROTTY/PATRICK MCMULLAN AGENCY
“It doesn’t bother me,” says Larry Gagosian, whose 16 galleries include locations in Paris, London, Geneva and Hong Kong. “We’ve developed a bit of a shorthand over the years for how he wants things handled.”
Sam Orlofsky, a Gagosian director who began working with Mr. Grotjahn over a decade ago, attributes the artist’s market ascent to his prowess as a poker player. “He has a super-intense sense of risk-taking and knows how to gauge someone’s appetite,” Mr. Orlofsky says.
Mr. Grotjahn is tight-lipped about the commercial aspect of his career. But he still talks about poker, which he now rarely plays, with the vocabulary of the art dealer he once was.
Mark Grotjahn, ‘Untitled (New Capri XIII 47.13)’ (2016) Photo: © Mark Grotjahn/Gagosian
“There are moments of clarity where you read the table,” he says. “One person’s pain threshold is very different from another’s, and it’s really helpful to gather that information to take advantage of a situation.”
Ultimately, prices and market strategies aren’t what makes Mr. Grotjahn tick, Mr. Gagosian says. “What excites him is what’s going on in the studio every day.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-a-record-sale-mark-grotjahn-changes-course-1540388061
MARK GROTJAHN
New Capri, Capri, Free Capri
October 30–December 22, 2018
Gagosian, West 24th Street, New York
https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2018/mark-grotjahn-new-capri-capri-free-capri/
my contribution today:
New York 1986: Longtime friends, Eli Broad (BROAD MUSEUM, Los Angeles) and Larry Gagosian in front of ‘Leo Castelli Gallery’.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
Board of Trustees
Mark Grotjahn
https://www.moca.org/about/board
MARK GROTJAHN
Mark Grotjahn was born in 1968 in Pasadena, California, and currently lives in Los Angeles. He received his MFA from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Grotjahn’s work was presented in the survey exhibition Painting in Tongues at MOCA Grand Avenue in 2006. Seven works by Grotjahn are included in MOCA’s permanent collection including a painting, Untitled(three‐tiered perspective), 1997; and four works on paper; Untitled (Black Butterfly), 2002, Untitled (Red Butterfly), 2002 and Untitled (White Butterfly), 2002. Recent solo exhibitions include the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2005); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006); Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (2007); Portland Art Museum (2010) and Aspen Museum of Art (2012). Upcoming solo shows will open at Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany May 2014 and at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas May 2014. Group exhibitions include the 2006 Whitney Biennial, New York; the 54th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2004); Whitney Biennial, New York (2006); Oranges and Sardines, the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2008).
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-board-of-trustees-of-the-museum-of-contemporary-art-los-angeles-elects-returning-artist-trustees-john-baldessari-barbara-kruger-and-catherine-opie-new-artist-trustee-mark-grotjahn-returning-trustees-kathi-cypres-and-steve-250897231.html
see also:
サザビーズとクリスティーズのオークションに夢中になっている前澤友作
MAEZAWA Yusaku, crazy about auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s
https://art-culture.world/articles/maezawa-yusaku-crazy-about-auctions-at-sothebys-and-christies/
前澤友作の米国アーティスト・ダーリン、マーク・グロッチャンの作品：クリスティーズのロンドン・オークションで下落
MAEZAWA Yusaku’s American Artist Darling Mark Grotjahn @ Christie’s London & Lévy Gorvy : Sharp Depreciation
https://art-culture.world/articles/maezawa-yusaku-mark-grotjahn-christies/
アートマーケットと現代アート・フリッパーについて
Art Market and Art Flippers
https://art-culture.world/articles/art-market-and-art-flippers/
Mark Bradford + Kerry James Marshall: ‘Black Art’ for American Art Flippers
https://art-culture.world/articles/mark-bradford-kerry-james-marshall-black-art-for-american-art-flippers/
for the record:
Auction House Christie’s
SALE 14187
Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York
17 May 2017
LOT 36 B
Mark Grotjahn (B. 1968)
Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14)
Price realised
USD 16,767,500
Estimate
USD 13,000,000 – USD 16,000,000
Mark Grotjahn (B. 1968)
Untitled (S III Released to France Face 43.14)
titled and dated ‘untitled (S III Release to France Face 43.14) 2011’ (on the overlap)
oil on cardboard mounted on canvas
101 x 73 1/2 in. (256.5 x 186.7 cm.)
Painted in 2011.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/mark-grotjahn-b-1968-untitled-s-iii-6076430-details.aspx
2018/11/1 up-date:
MARK GROTJAHN
New Capri, Capri, Free Capri
October 30–December 22, 2018
Gagosian West 24th Street, New York
https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2018/mark-grotjahn-new-capri-capri-free-capri/
Gagosian didn’t yet up-load the works by #MarkGrotjahn Why??!
Behind Gagosian’s Online Viewing Room: Sam Orlofsky and Alexander Wolf
up-date, 2018/11/15:
Eli Broad, whose private art museum in LA supposedly serves the public interest, will be acting * against * the public interest when one of The Broad’s Jasper Johns masterworks —the melancholic Flag” (1994) —is offered for sale tonight at Sotheby’s.
https://twitter.com/deborahsolo/status/1062784002417930242
This #JasperJohns finishes at estimate for a final of $13,056,700 @Sothebys
https://twitter.com/ArtObserved/status/1062878829155377152
上の記事はアプロプリエーションアートとして再概念し、記録や参考のために、こちらに発表させていただきました。
ここに載せた写真やスクリーンショットは、すべて「好意によりクリエーティブ・コモン・センス」の文脈で、日本美術史の記録の為に発表致します。
Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial-NoDerivative Works
photos: cccs courtesy creative common sense