Following the absolution of former Knoedler & Co president Ann Freedman in the ongoing criminal investigation over the sale of over 60 forged artworks, the former Knoedler head is suing dealer Marco Grassi for defamation.  Freedman, in her lawsuit, cites over 20 sources claiming she performed due diligence on the origins of the work, and that Grassi overstepped his grounds in recent comments to the New Yorker.  “A gallery person has an absolute responsibility to do due diligence, and I don’t think she did it. The story of the paintings is so totally kooky. I mean, really. It was a great story and she just said, ‘this is great.'”  Grassi said in the aforementioned interview.  (more…)

The Wall Street Journal interviews Raymond Pettibon, who recently settled into a residency at David Zwirner Gallery in New York.  His new show, “To Wit”, a show features more than 200 works from this period of creative output. “I had the opportunity to do things on the spot, which is not normally the case. It is a space to work on, rather than just a place to put up work,” said the artist.  (more…)

Joan Miró, Sans titre, (n.d).,courtesy Fondation de l’Hermitage

On view at the Fondation de l’Hermitage are 80 seminal works from Joan Miró, on loan from the Foundation Pilar í Joan Miró in Palma, Majorca. The exhibition focuses on the last phase of Miró’s career, when he was able to work with the most freedom in his own workshop and laboratory in the midst of a natural environment.  What followed was a series of loose, spirited works that highlighted a poetic, highly graphic approach to his work that distilled the whimsical forms of his early pieces into a new aesthetic freedom.

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Three years after being discovered by Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn during his senior thesis show at Cooper Union, Lucien Smith now has a solo show opening on Friday at both Salon 94 locations (owned by Mrs. Rohatyn). The New York Times profile on Mr. Smith summarizes his living situation (a one bedroom in the Financial District), his love interest (Marlene Zwirner, daughter of David Zwirner), and his views on Salon 94 for his solo show entitled, “Nature Is My Church (“The place becomes kind of an altar.”). (more…)

Ralph E. Lerner, New York lawyer and co-author of the multivolume “Art Law,” was accused on Wednesday for charging over $750,000 in unauthorized legal fees from the Cy Twombly Foundation, where he served as board secretary and director, The New York Times reports. The papers served yesterday describe that Mr. Lerner, “even charged legal fees for merely attending board meetings as a director,” and that, “no other board member received (or was entitled to receive) compensation (much less at the significant rate of $950 an hour) for attending the meetings or reviewing and editing the board meeting minutes.” Mr. Lerner’s contends, as released in a statement from his law office, that all his legal service fees “were made in accordance with the practices and procedures established by Mr. Twombly when he was alive. (more…)

Matthew Stone, Unconditional Commitment to Sacred Love (2011) via Ben Richards for Art Observed

Dustin Yellin’s Pioneer Works Center is open again in Red Hook, with a series of exhibitions, concerts and events that have trumpeted the space’s return after the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.  At the forefront of the Center’s fall calendar is Amor Fati, a tightly curated group exhibition featuring works by Yoko Ono, Angel Otero, Nicolas Provost, Matthew Stone, Mickalene Thomas, Nick van Woert, Andy Warhol, and many more, which seeks to explore the wild emotions and impulses so often present in the artistic treatment of love.

John Miserendino, Funny Games Pavilion (2012), foreground, and Andy Warhol, Kiss (1963), background, via Ben Richards for Art Observed

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Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #564, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

As an aspiring painter in New York City during the late 1950s, American artist Sol LeWitt struggled to find his “touch,” in the midst of the waning days of Abstract Expressionism- a movement which focuses on the importance of individual creation.  After taking a job at the book counter of the Museum of Modern Art in 1960, LeWitt became familiar with the engineering aesthetic of Russian Constructivism and Eadweard Muybridge’s sequential photographs, developing an interest in reducing art to its bare essentials. Literally recreating art from square one though his explorations of geometric forms, LeWitt is now considered to be one of the essential founders of both Conceptual and Minimal art. Differing from strict Minimalists by his focus on systems and concepts over materials, LeWitt’s art is one in which ideas and collaboration are paramount.

Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #564 (2013), Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery (more…)

Sculptor Anish Kapoor has unveiled Unity, a memorial to those killed in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.  The 19.5 foot tower will be installed at Hanover Square, near the site of the original towers, and will contain a mirrored interior.  “The chamber reflects light so as to form a column, which hovers, ghost-like, in the void of the stone.”  Says Kapoor.  “This very physically monolithic object then appears to create within itself an ephemeral reflection akin to an eternal flame.” (more…)

Part of the 2013 London Design Festival, Alex de Rijke of dRMM Architects and Dean of Architecture at the Royal College of Art has created a complex, interlocking staircase installation on the grounds in front of the Tate Modern.  Endless Stair will open on Friday, and is open to the public during the day.  It closes on October 10th. (more…)

Opening September 16th, a former Getty filling station in West Chelsea is scheduled for conversion into a temporary public art program, beginning with an exhibition of sheep sculptures by the late French artist Francois-Xavier Lalanne.  The project was initially conceived by dealer Paul Kasmin, who represents the Lalanne estate, and real estate developer Michael Shvo, whose company purchased the station this summer.  Sheep Station, as it is called, will feature 25 of Lalanne’s “Mouton” sculptures, each made of epoxy stone and bronze.

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As tensions mount in the Middle East over a potential war with Syria, the Italian government has cancelled a museum loan that would have sent Botticelli’s The Annunciation of San Martino alla Scala to the Israel Museum.  The Italian Ministry of Culture has cited logistic and safety concerns regarding the work, and expressed hope that the work would soon be exhibited in Jerusalem. (more…)

Outside at Riverfront Studios, via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

Station to Station, the traveling art happening organized and led by Doug Aitken, kicked off Friday night at Riverfront Studios in Brooklyn, featuring a vibrant array of music, performance, video, installations and appearances that launched Aitken and his traveling band of artists and musicians on a nationwide tour, which will conclude in Oakland at the end of September.  With different artists and performers appearing on each stop, the event will continue to shift and evolve with each subsequent event. (more…)

In the run-up to his career retrospective at the New Museum next month, Chris Burden is profiled in the New York Times, detailing his diverse and challenging body of work, his position as a highly influential, yet elusively underground figure in the American art world, and his Topanga Canyon home where he lives and works with his wife, sculptor Nancy Rubins.  “One of the reasons Nancy and I have lived up here is so we can just leave lots of junk lying around, and it doesn’t bother anyone that much,” says Burden. “Money has come into this canyon in the last few years. By our standards, it’s starting to get a little too crowded.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal reports on the current state of Sotheby’s auction house going into the fall art season, detailing the company’s increasing stock price despite sales that have been less than exemplary.  With a series of high-profile investors now on board, including the recent addition of Daniel Loeb’s Third Point, Sotheby’s has a number of options standing before it to increase its value for shareholders. (more…)

Moscow Biennale Curator Catherine de Zegher has spoken on the current calls for a boycott of Russian art and art events, stating that she has no intent on a boycott or cancellation of the event to protest the current state of civil rights for Russian LGBT citizens.  “I’m not a big believer in provocation,” De Zegher says. “Art that is very provocative is like fast food almost. It flares up, then it’s finished. Of course I do believe in activist gestures, and movement and action, but I think art works in a different way.” (more…)

From Cy Twombly to Robert Rauschenberg, artist foundations have been seeing a high number of internal turmoil, as trustees and advisors lob claims of unpaid compensation, outlandish salaries, and nepotism that place the foundations’ ostensibly noble missions into question.  “The private foundation world is a wild, wild west,” said Trent Stamp, founding president of Charity Navigator, which evaluates nonprofits. “There’s an opportunity for great abuse.” (more…)

Fashion designer Jeremy Scott has unveiled a new series of prints for his Spring and Summer 2014 line, featuring collaborative artworks made with Kenny Scharf.  Featuring Scharf’s signature cartoon imagery, the pieces are part of a series called “Teenagers from Mars.” “Jeremy is the first person that I ever let take my art and do whatever he wants. I wasn’t nervous about it not being the greatest most fun thing and I wasn’t let down for one second.”  Says Scharf. (more…)

A recently discovered painting has been confirmed as an authentic Van Gogh, and is set to go on view at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam later this month.  The work, Sunset at Montmajour, was identified as a Van Gogh by the materials and through personal letters, in which the artist describes the work to his brother Theo.  The work had sat in an attic for years, held by a discouraged Norwegian man who had been told the work was not authentic almost twenty years prior.  Researcher Teio Meedendorp commented that he and his fellow researchers “have found answers to all the key questions, which is remarkable for a painting that has been lost for more than 100 years.” (more…)

Over the past several years, the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas has built a museum-caliber art collection, on view at the hotel’s CityCenter campus.  Featuring works by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Henry Moore, Isa Genzken, Frank Stella and others, the center’s collection is intended to serve the city as a widely accessible collection of artworks, tucked away among the sights and sounds of The Strip.  “What makes a city successful? What makes people want to live there?” Says MGM CEO James Murren. “We do not have an art museum. I thought that was a big quality of life gap.” (more…)

Henrique Oliveira, Baitogogo (2013), courtesy André Morin, Palais de Tokyo

In a myth which circulated amongst the Bororo people of central Brazil, an early chief named Baitogogo flees into the forest after avenging the rape of his wife. While running through the wood, he is attacked by his son, who flies above him as a bird and bombards his father with droppings which germinate into a tree. At first shamed and burdened by the tree, as he wanders the forest, Baitogogo eventually becomes enchanted by his surroundings, and lives from then on in his newly found paradise.  While refusing a direct correlation between the myth and his latest work, contemporary Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira has created his own “Baitogogo” in the form of a knotted, anthropomorphic forest, currently on view at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo. Interested in the same dream logic, binary oppositions, and unexpected life explored in the myth of Baitogogo, Oliveira’s work is hybrid and transformative, fantastic and unexpected. (more…)

Artist Rob Pruitt has launched a website for voting in the third Rob Pruitt’s Art Awards, tallying votes for fields including “Artist of the Year,” “Critic of the Year,” Art Fair Booth of the Year,” and more.  Winners will be announced in the December 2013 issue of Art In America.  “Conceived as a performance-based artwork, Rob Pruitt’s Art Awards are modeled after the Oscars and the Grammys as high-profile, industry-specific prizes that celebrate the achievements of their respective constituents.”  The site says. (more…)

The Princeton University Art Museum has announced plans to install 12 billboards around the University, city and state, featuring the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres.  The selected work, Untitled (1991), features an empty, but once occupied bed, evoking powerful emotions of intimacy and loss.  “Apart from its sheer beauty, Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s work invites us to consider issues of love and searing loss, and to become more aware of the meaning of private emotion and public space,” says Museum director James Steward. “In an age in which the scourge of AIDS remains with us globally, Felix’s immersive vision remains essential, and is a potent reminder of how this disease ravaged the art world twenty years ago.”  (more…)

As he prepares to open his first exhibition in Russia, the Financial Times has sat down with artist John Baldessari to discuss the artist’s ongoing work, and his irreverent view for the art-industrial complex: “I was getting mildly irritated by artists getting branded – ‘This is a Warhol’, ‘This is a de Kooning’ – and you don’t even look. It just has to look like a brand,” He says.  “And I said, I wonder if I can slow that down.” (more…)

Conrad Shawcross, ADA (2013), Courtesy Palais de Tokyo

On view at Palais de Tokyo in Paris is a major exhibition, organized by 21 young curators from 13 different countries, who were in turn selected from a candidate pool of 500. Nouvelles Vagues occupies all of Palais de Tokyo’s exhibition space as well as around 30 galleries throughout Paris. (more…)