Theaster Gates gets an interview in the Guardian this week, discussing his soon to open show at Kunstmuseum Basel, and his ongoing commitment to a practice mixing diverse community efforts and art-making.  “My hope is that people would start to see some through-lines between my works of art,” So even though I was a black man in a black neighborhood, talking about black power, what I was trying to demonstrate is that an artist who reads the dynamics of a situation can change the situation.” (more…)

The Met has set another attendance record for this past year, attracting more than 7.35 million guests. “We don’t chase visitor numbers, but they are one sign among many of whether we are doing a good job in serving our mission and the needs of the public,” says Daniel H. Weiss, the Met’s president and chief executive. (more…)

Installation View. All images via Blain Southern.

Now through July 14, Blain Southern London presents America My Hometown, an exhibition dedicated to the formative years of Edward Kienholz’s career in mid-century America. The works in the exhibition span the years of 1954-1967, at which point Kienholz was living and working in Los Angeles. This historical period was hugely significant for the position of the United States and the spread of capitalism globally, to which Kienholz responded directly in his work. The pieces produced by the artist during this time reflect a concern with the political turmoil and social anxiety that marked the political and social circumstances in which he lived.

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Melissa Brown, Swamp, 2018, courtesy Derek Eller Gallery

“The fantasy that reality is changeable: it’s what keeps us alive,” writes Melissa Brown in an anecdotal text for the press release of “Between States,” her first solo exhibition at Derek Eller Gallery in New York. Brown describes a road trip from Tennessee down south to Summerville, Georgia to visit outsider artist Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden, a kitschy wonderland of mosaics and mirrors, the folk art equivalent of Antoni Gaudi’s Park Güell.

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Difference Engine (Installation View), via Jodie Berman for Art Observed

Meandering into spaces of contradiction and surrealist juxtaposition, artist Cory Arcangel has put on his curator cap for a show organized in collaboration with Art21’s Tina Kukielski, organizing an exhibition of works centered around modernity and technology, and framed equally by ideas of potential and hazard. (more…)

Anish Kapoor, Untitled (detail) (2018), via Art Observed

Currently on view at Kamel Mennour’s Paris exhibition space, artist Anish Kapoor has brought a strikingly powerful body of works, mixing styles and forms through a range of pieces to explore a unique and detailed perspective on humanity.  Much like previous works for the artist, twisting desire, power and image through rigorous visual systems, the show presents the viewer and work as inextricably linked, bound together through their shared states and momentary acts of convergence.

Anish Kapoor, Untitled (2018), via Art Observed

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The LA Times spotlights Michael Govan’s push to speed up LACMA’s fundraising drive, as construction continues on the museum’s new expansion. “We’re steadily raising money and signing pledges. I don’t feel there’s any danger that the project isn’t going forward,” Govan says. (more…)

Art Dubai director Myrna Ayad at the fair in August. “My decision to leave was personal; I am excited to pursue my own endeavours,” Ayad says of her departure.  (more…)

Arts Council England is hiring an economist, part of a plan it feels will make it more able to act effectively in financial advocacy for the arts. “We will work to develop skills in that area. One of the things that has historically happened is that you might have [someone who is] good at a particular art form, they are promoted [to a leadership position] but we have not given them that [leadership training] support,” says Arts Council England chief executive Darren Henley. (more…)

Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman’s For Freedoms project has set up shop in New York, planning a major national billboard campaign in the run-up to the midterm elections. “We’re trying to bring these different artists’ voices more into the realm of public discourse,” Thomas says, “which is part of the way that advertising works—it reaches a very wide audience. So we’re trying to think about art and creativity, beyond just the confines of the art world, but out into contexts around the country on the side of the road.” (more…)

The German government has approved a 9% increase in federal arts money, reaching a total budget of €1.8bn. Additional funding has been earmarked for preserving and protecting heritage buildings, archive materials and memorial sites.  (more…)

Cheim & Read is leaving Chelsea, and will move uptown to start  a “private practice, concentrating on the secondary market, ​sculpture​ commissions​ and special projects,” according to a statement by the gallery.  (more…)

The New York Times spotlights the new Swiss Institute space on St. Marks Place. “The ability to engage with such a vibrant, high-traffic neighborhood is unprecedented for S.I.,” says director Simon Castets. “There are many schools, cultural and community organizations in the neighborhood, as well as an incredible history of art making and experimentation.” (more…)

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has approved the Frick Museum’s expansion plan, capping a years-long effort that saw four different proposals. “They recognized the strength of the plan to upgrade the building to ensure the long term vibrancy of the Frick,” said Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s director. “The public process can be painful, but we listened and I think the project is better because of that.” (more…)

A piece in Bloomberg this week charts the challenges around stealing fine art, delving into the factors making art theft a far less profitable field than many imagined. “Criminals don’t understand that, because their knowledge of art crime is based on fiction and films,” says Noah Charney, a scholar and author. (more…)

Bloomberg has a piece this week on the fortune of the Roche family, whose wealth built on the cough syrup Sirolin, and the art collection held by the family, has become one of the city of Basel’s arts cornerstones. “I learned how to collect with the family collection,” collector Maja Hoffmann, who has been on the board of the family collection for decades, says. “This I’ve continued to do for all these years.” (more…)

Martin Kippenberger, Ohne Titel (aus der Serie Das Floß der Medusa) (1996) final price: £8,446,500, via Phillips

With another auction in the books, Phillips has rounded out a pair of high-profile evening sales in the British Capital of London this week, running through a well-managed auction that ultimately capped aa strong tally of £34,811,000, with all works selling.  (more…)

Lucian Freud, Portrait on a White Cover (2002-2003) final price:£22,464,300, via Sotheby’s

Trumpeting the sale as a “vote of confidence” following an unsteady Impressionist Evening Sale the week prior, Sotheby’s concluded its Contemporary Evening Sale tonight, marking a more balanced, even-handed outing with a £110,239,550 final tally.  Spread over 44 lots, the sale was a solidly-appointed affair, with only one work going unsold in an outing that aimed to put fears over market weakness to bed.   (more…)

Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery has announced a new design for its expansion that would spare the 1962 building by Buffalo-born architect Gordon Bunshaft. “You see a tip of an iceberg, and there are a lot of complexities and contradictions underneath that tip,” says Albright-Knox Director Janne Sirén. “But this is one of those special moments for us.” (more…)

Artist Olafur Eliasson is partnering with Swedish furniture retailer Ikea to produce a series of sustainable electrical systems and projects, based around the artist’s Little Sun project.  “Little Sun makes solar energy tangible and your world a little bit more sustainable,” Olafur said. “We are excited to collaborate with IKEA, raising awareness for energy access and the need for global togetherness. Together, we want to connect the world by sharing the power of the sun with everyone.” (more…)

The Art Dealers Association of America has added five new members: Honor Fraser Gallery, Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Jessica Silverman Gallery, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, and Venus Over Manhattan. “It is especially exciting to expand the Association’s representation on the West Coast and add to the range of dynamic programming, expertise, and connoisseurship of our membership across the country,” says Andrew Schoelkopf, the president of the ADAA.

Read more at Art News

More protests have raised challenges to the Frick’s new expansion plan, the New York Times reports, as preservationists have challenged the sincerity of alternative construction models for the museum. “The plan would destroy or irrevocably alter many historic elements of the Frick Collection, including the landmarked Russell Page Garden and renowned Music Room,” the Stop Irresponsible Frick Development coalition said in a statement. “The public has not been given a fair opportunity to provide feedback on the harmful proposal, and alternate plans that have been submitted have only been partially considered.” (more…)

Anish Kapoor has filed a lawsuit against the NRA, citing copyright infringement over the organization’s usage of a photo of his Cloud Gate sculpture in a recent ad campaign. “These sadly are times in which it is urgent for us all, in whatever way we can, to stand up to the dark and aggressive forces in society that seek, out of fear and hatred, to lead us backward into a primitive, paranoid, and defensive worldview,” Kapoor says. (more…)

The Whitney is preparing to open a major exhibition on the work of Andy Warhol, the first Warhol retrospective organized by a United States museum since 1989. “Warhol was a myth when he was alive, and he’s even more of a myth now,” says Donna De Salvo, deputy director and senior curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. “To humanize Warhol and get people to actually look at what he made is not as easy as it might sound.” (more…)