SCREW YOU

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SCREW YOU, curated by David Platzker of Specific Object, shines a light on the intersection of counterculture publishing, tabloid pornography and the art world which occurred in the creatively fertile years of the late 1960s and early 1970s. SCREW YOU draws its title and inspiration from the notorious pornographic tabloid Screw: The Sex Review, which came onto the New York scene November 29, 1968. Nestling porn and fine art side by side between the sheets, content ranged from spreads of large breasted women illuminating such erudite articles as “The Art of Buying Dirty Books” to centerfolds conceived by and featuring artist Yayoi Kusama. Issues of Screw throughout the late 1960s and the early 1970s embraced a cultural breadth spanning art, advertising and editorial. Contributors from the realm of visual culture included leading movers and shakers Dan Graham, Andy Warhol, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.While Screw, Kiss, Pleasure, and Kusama’s own tabloid, Kusama’s Orgy of Nudity, Love, Sex Beauty, played to the strengths of the genre, contemporaneous periodicals such as New York Review of Sex and Politics, Other Scenes, The East Village Other and artist Les Levine’s Culture Hero favored a merging of literature and art in addition to its pansexual content. Notable contributors to these loftier publications included the writers Gregory Battcock, Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski and artists Brigid Berlin, R. Crumb, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Carolee Schneemann, Bob Stanley, Walasse Ting, and Tadanori Yokoo, along with many others working in the realm of sex and sexual identity. SCREW YOU will be on view at Susan Inglett Gallery 31 May to 13 July.

Bittersweet Moments in Blazing Colors: Caro Niederer in NYC

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Hauser & Wirth New York will present an exhibition of eighteen new paintings by Caro Niederer – the first New York solo show for an internationally admired Swiss artist whose practice encompasses painting, sculpture, tapestries, photography and video. Caro Niederer. Paintings will open to the public on June 27th and remain on view at the gallery through July 27th, 2012, Hauser & Wirth, 32 East 69th Street New York NY

Yayoi Kusama for Louis Vuitton

Princess of polka dots Yayoi Kusama has teamed up with Louis Vutton for a special capsule collection. The collection, entitled Infinitely Kusama, is set to be unveiled on July 10, conveniently timed with Kusama’s major retrospective at the Whitney Museum in New York. The goods will be available in Vuitton’s 461 stores starting July 11, with a second line arriving in October.

DESTE & Barneys New York Public Art Collaboration

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Beginning June 6, 2012 the Barneys New York Madison Avenue flagship store’s windows will be transformed into dymamic vitrines for a public art exhibition organized in collaboration with DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, based in Athens, Greece. Conceived by DESTE’s founder, the internationally admired collector and patron Dakis Joannou, and Barneys Creative Director Dennis Freedman, this exhibition will present five ambitious site- specific installation projects by prominent artists in different disciplines. Each of the artists has participated since 2007 in destefashioncollection-- a DESTE Foundation special initiative devoted to investigating, interpreting and celebrating the complex relationships between art, fashion, and the culture at large. On view through July 4th, the project at Barneys New York will be the first U.S. presentation of destefashioncollection. The five participating artists are M/M (Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak) Paris; photographer Juergen Teller; artist Helmut Lang; poet Patrizia Cavalli; and filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari.

Song Kun: A Thousand Kisses Deep

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing, China presents an exhibition of new work by Song Kun, one of China’s most prominent young female artists. Song Kun: A Thousand Kisses Deep, opened yesterday. Hung salon-style across the twin walls of UCCA’s Nave, the exhibition features a new cycle of 28 shimmering paintings, technical studies of drifting light evoking a sinister, sensual beauty and the dual themes of carnality and spirituality. Paired with an immersive video installation, this presentation showcases the latest practice of one of China’s most interesting young painters. Song Kun: A Thousand Kisses Deep is on view until July 15 at the The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art,  798 Art District, No. 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

Patty Smith @ The DIA

The DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) will present the first American museum exhibition to focus on the photography of artist, poet, and performer Patti Smith. Smith's photographs are infused with personal meaning and highlight the rich relationships between art, architecture, poetry and the everyday. This selection of images from the past decade reveals the artists, poets, authors, family and friends from whom Smith draws inspiration. The exhibition includes 70 black and white gelatin silver prints and a small selection of original Polaroids and items from Smith’s personal collection. Patti Smith: Camera Solo will be on view from June 1st to September 2, 2012 at the DIA, 5200 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

PICASSO AND FRANÇOISE GILOT

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Gagosian Gallery is presents Picasso and Françoise Gilot: Paris–Vallauris 1943–1953, the fourth major exhibition in an ongoing series on the life and work of Pablo Picasso at the gallery. This exhibition is a departure from its precedents in that it has been conceived as a visual and conceptual dialogue between the art of Picasso and the art of Françoise Gilot, his young muse and lover during the period 1943–53. The result of an active collaboration between Gilot and Picasso’s biographer John Richardson, assisted by Gagosian director Valentina Castellani, Picasso and Françoise Gilot celebrates the full breadth and energy of Picasso’s innovations during these post-war years. On view until June 30, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10075

Ari Marcopoulos: Wherever you go

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Marlborough Chelsea is pleased to present Wherever You Go, a solo exhibition of new work by Ari Marcopoulos. Often atmospheric and abstracted, the works comprising Wherever You Go by renowned photographer, filmmaker and artist Ari Marcopoulos include grandly-scaled pigment prints and smaller photographs on rice paper that, through the processes of multiple printings of the same image, result in lush surfaces of densely textured black and white. On view until June 15, 2012. Marlborough Chelsea, 545 West 25th Street. Photograph by Austin McManus

Beauty Is Embarrassing

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Beauty Is Embarrassing is a funny, irreverent, joyful and inspiring documentary featuring the life and current times of one of America’s most important artists, Wayne White. Raised in the mountains of Tennessee, Wayne White started his career as a cartoonist in New York City. He quickly found success as one of the creators of the TV show, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which led to more work designing some of the most arresting and iconic images in pop culture. Most recently, his word paintings, which feature pithy and often sarcastic text statements crafted onto vintage landscape paintings, have made him a darling of the fine art world. Beauty Is Embarrassingis currently screening is select cities.

Silhouettes by The Julliene Brothers

"Play it loud & enjoy." The Jullien Brothers have released a new video featuring the music of Niwouinwouin, aka Nicolas Jullien. The video is directed by Jean Jullien and his brother Nicolas who together make up the creative duo. The video features illustrations from Jean Jullien's book Silhouettes published by Lendroit.

Entre Nous: The Art of Claude Cahun

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These are the last few days to catch Claude Cahun's firs retrospective in the states. Born Lucy Schwob to a family of French intellectuals and writers, Claude Cahun (who adopted the pseudonym at age 22) is best known for the staged self-portraiture, photomontages, and prose texts she made principally between 1920 and 1940. Rediscovered in the late 1980s, her work has not only expanded our understanding of the Surrealist era but also serves as an important touchstone to later feminist explorations of gender and identity politics. In her self-portraits, which she began creating around 1913, Cahun dismantled and questioned preexisting notions of self and sexuality. From her university years until her death, Cahun was accompanied by her partner and artistic collaborator, Suzanne Malherbe, a childhood friend and stepsister. They surrounded themselves with members of the Surrealist movement and created work that embraced leftist politics. Cahun, with assistance from Malherbe (under the pseudonym Marcel Moore), produced photographs, assemblages, and publications from the 1920s on. The photograph Entre Nous (Between Us), featuring a pair of masks embedded in sand, gives the title to this show and is emblematic of their multifaceted relationship. The first retrospective exhibition in the United States of Cahun’s work, Entre Nous: The Art of Claude Cahun, is on view now at the Art Institue of Chicago, brings together over 80 photographs and published material by Cahun and Moore, including several photomontages from their 1930 collaborative publication Aveux non avenus (Disavowals), and the only surviving object by Cahun, which is in the Art Institute’s permanent collection. On view until June 3, 2012.

She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea

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Tracey Emin's first major solo exhibition at Turner Contemporary, entitled She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea, is conceived specially for Margate, where Emin grew up and which has provided inspiration for many of her most famous art works. The exhibition explores the themes of love, sensuality and romanticism in Emin's oeuvre, featuring both new and existing works including drawings, monoprints, sculptures and neons. The exhibition's central themes continue in a display of paintings, sketches and watercolours of erotic subjects by Tracey Emin as well as JMW Turner and Auguste Rodin, whose iconic sculpture The Kiss is on show at Turner Contemporary until 2 September 2012. Tracey Emin: She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea will be on view from May 26 to September 23 at the Turner Contemporary