Alberto Burri, Grande sacco (Large Sack) (1952). Photo: Antonio Idini, Soprintendenza alla Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, courtesy Ministero dei Beni e le Attività Culturali e del Turismo

The chasm between experience and representation seeps through the full expanse of The Trauma of Painting, a major Alberto Burri retrospective at the Guggenheim, an ambitious exhibition that’s as much an exploration in process as it is an embodiment of wartime and its brutal demands on humanity. Born in 1915 in the Italian town of Città di Castello, Umbria, a region steeped in the grandeur of Renaissance art, Burri’s early years were overshadowed by both World Wars.  While beginning his career as a doctor, his capture by the British and his internment in Texas during WWII propelled him into painting.  Without a formal artistic education, Burri developed a practice stemming from his training as a physician, evoking elements of abjection and corporeal tactility. (more…)

The New York Times profiles The 14th Factory, a massive, $3 million installation and exhibition on Wall Street curated and presented by organizer Simon Birch.  “We’re going to splash down in New York,” he says.  “There’s a huge art system here going on already, which we’re not really part of, to be honest.  We’re kind of nobodies.” (more…)

The New York Times reviews the new, $160 million expansion and renovation of the Milwaukee Museum of Art, which adds new exhibition space as well as repairs and fixes to the institution’s older wings.  “People shouldn’t come to a museum just for the architecture, and this brings back the balance to the art,” says Director Dan Keegan.   (more…)

An Egyptian Government crackdown on dissent has resulted in the closure of one of Cairo’s most prominent international galleries, as well as two publishing houses, the New York Times reports.  Authorities raided Townhouse Gallery this week, seizing papers and computers, as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi continues to monitor institutions receiving foreign funding he suspects of subversive action.  “They are scared of Jan. 25,” says Fatima Serag, the legal director for the Association of Free Thought and Expression, referring to the anniversary of last year’s uprising in the country. (more…)

As The Art Newspaper celebrates its 25th anniversary, the paper reflects on the troubled times in contrast with the years following the end of the Cold War, and looks back at some of this year’s defining events, from the destruction of monuments and sites by ISIL to Ai Weiwei’s returned visa. (more…)

The Washington Post takes a tour of La Fabrica del Arte Cubano, a warehouse space repurposed as a nightclub and arts venue in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.  The space is run by musician and artist X Alfonso, who operates it as a community space, giving him a certain degree of autonomy.   (more…)

University of Amsterdam art scholar Frans Grijzenhout is claiming that he has discovered the location of Vermeer’s Little Street painting, placing it in the upscale Vlamingstraat in Delft.   (more…)

Tufts University is reportedly taking over the Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s Art School, the Boston Globe reports.  The deal, effective June 30th, will allow the school’s 700-plus students to become part of Tufts, and will give operational responsibility to the University. “I think it will be more attractive to fine arts students,” says Tufts president Anthony P. Monaco. “The university can offer a lot more to them than the museum school standing on its own.” (more…)

The New York Art, Antique & Jewelry Show has reportedly lost its location at the Park Avenue Armory, part of a push by the institution towards a focus on live programming and events.  “What they’re saying is, they want to push all these shows out of the Park Avenue Armory. The goal is only to have performances,” says fair owner Scott Diament.  “It was a major shock to me.” (NYP)
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Artist Ai Weiwei recently visited refugees living on the Greek island of Lesbos this month, sharing photos and video documenting their precarious existence, and pleading for more international aid to help them in their attempts to enter Europe.   (more…)

Peter Doig, Horse and Rider (2014)

Following his solo exhibition at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa that coincided with the 56th Venice Biennale, Peter Doig is the subject of an exhibition at Michael Werner‘s Upper East Side townhouse with his new body of work.  Featuring works from the artist’s Italian debut, the selection of pieces at the gallery includes works Doig created in 2015, reflecting the Trinidad-based artist’s most recent artistic endeavors, and an expansion of his increasingly fluid and expressive hand. (more…)

Alex Israel is featured in the Brooklyn Rail this week, offering his take on the necessity and/or benefits of continued study at art schools for young practitioners.  “All too often, unsure of oneself, seeking the approval of a favorite professor or influential visiting artist, and/or succumbing to the brand of insecurity that only art schools can breed, an art student will sacrifice what was once the original vision for what he or she thinks the critique—faculty and peers—would prefer the work to be,” he writes. (more…)

The Art News profiles LOMEX, a new gallery by curator Alexander Shulan, based out of the former studio of Eva Hesse.  “I was in here, and it felt like an artist might have been here, and I looked up the address, and decided this was the space,” he says. (more…)

Jenny Holzer is collaborating with Google to create an app commemorating HIV/AIDS victims, made in conjunction with her installation for the NYC AIDS Memorial.  “Excerpts from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman will be the text on the granite paving stones. The Whitman poem is a beauty from a man in full and glad possession of his body,” Holzer said. “The app should add content from visitors and from other authors—I’m thinking a lot about David Wojnarowicz, for example—for a rich mix.” (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly, Curves on White (Four Panels) (2012), via Art Observed

Ellsworth Kelly, a pioneer of 20th Century abstraction and an early voice in the development of color field painting and cut-canvas work, has passed away at the age of 92.

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The New York Times looks at the history of the Middle Eastern art magazine Bidoun, which has traced a unique voice in contemporary art discourse over the past 11 years.  “Our vision of the Mideast extends to India, it extends to L.A. It certainly doesn’t fulfill the expectations of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ vision that’s so pervasive,” says Senior Editor Negar Azimi. (more…)

Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, Exotourisme (néon) (2002-2013), all photos via Daphné Mookherjee for Art Observed

The work of Dominique Gonzales-Foerster often combines media, spatial arrangements and video within the prism of time to explore links and lines of intersection between literature, film, architecture and music.  For her retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, she takes over the Galerie Sud as a spatial timeline, superimposing temporal strata to create an installation that serves as both a retrospective and forward-looking journey into the body of her work, questioning the viewer on fragmented identities and fictions, notions of inside and outside or absence and presence, and even the idea of time travel. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the plans for the M+ Museum, an anchor of the West Kowloon Cultural District on Hong Kong’s waterfront, and the issues the city is facing in fully realizing its impressive scope after delays, infighting departures of key project members.  “We have achieved everything we set out to do so far,” says Lars Nittve, the executive director of M+. “But it’s probably taken four to five times more work to make it happen compared to my experience in the London and Scandinavian situations. Almost every day and night is spent arguing.” (more…)

An article in The Chicago Reader this week notes the difficulties facing public art and installations in neighborhoods and areas where funding does not exist to maintain them, focusing on the destruction of acclaimed muralist Bill Walker’s All of Mankind at Chicago’s Stranger’s Home Missionary Baptist Church.  “We had five and a half years to repair those murals and nothing happened. We got no support. The money wasn’t there,” says a Church spokesperson.  “And our demographics have moved out. So we had no choice. The only logical decision was to paint [over] the murals.” (more…)

Fabio Mauri, Oscuramento (Darkening) (1975), all photos via Art Observed

Fabio Mauri’s work is defined by trauma.  The Italian artist spent his early years growing up alongside the rise of the Italian Fascist Party.  His childhood was defined by the images of war and violence, not merely through the scope of WWII, but in the violent political structures of the era that sent his family and countrymen to war.  In his maturity, the late artist frequently returned to the sites and encounters with the images and iconography of that era in the Italian Nation, staging sculptural environments that placed domestic signifiers and human actors into contact with the objects of war: uniforms, helmets, weapons and scenes of twisted metal or military planning.

Fabio Mauri, Picnic o Il buon soldato (Picnic or The Good Soldier) (Installation View) (1998)

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The negotiations for Germany’s exhibition of works from the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art may include a $3 million price tag, the Art Newspaper reports.  “We are in early discussions on bringing these great treasures to the Hirshhorn—a first-time exhibition in the US. No loan fees have been discussed as yet,” a spokesperson from the Hirshhorn (which is also in talks with the museum) said.  (more…)

Andy Warhol’s Hamptons estate has sold to dealer and collector Adam Lindemann for $50 million, the WSJ reports.  The record price for the Montauk home, which has been held by J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, was a dream buy for Lindemann, who has collected Warhol for years. “It was like seizing the opportunity,” Lindemann says.
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Asad Raza with work by Jordan Wolfson, Jessica Dickinson and bedsheets from his childhood selected by Rachel Rose, via Art Observed

“Hey, I’m Asad,”  Asad Raza greets the viewer at the ground floor of his apartment building on Spring Street, before leading them up the stairs to his modest one-bedroom.  Over the past month, Raza has brought a number of visitors through the space for Home Show, a group exhibition of site-specific and performative works that he compiled from a close group of friends, including Tino Seghal, Camille Henrot, Rachel Rose and many more, guiding them through the show with an enthusiastic flair that intertwines his own personal history and life with the work of his friends and collaborators.

A heart pump loaned to the artist from his father, via Art Observed

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The Rubell Collection in Miami has seen recent inquiries by the Senate Finance Committee over their public mission and finances, the Miami Herald reports.  “We were very happy that the Senator was aware of our mission and what we do,” Mera Rubell says. “I didn’t see it as any kind of accusation or attack. They were conducting a broad spectrum of research. They took a sampling of non-profits across the country and wanted to learn more about how they perform their mission.” (more…)