A strange disagreement has arisen over the authenticity of a site-specific Damien Hirst spot painting, after a homeowner has attempted to remove the work from its location and sell it.  Jess Simpson purchased the home where the work was installed, and attempted to mount the piece on aluminum to resell it, but was met with a statement by Hirst’s Science LTD. which stated the work no longer could be considered authentic as Simpson did not own the certificate, and could not remove a site-specific work to profit from it: “The ownership of a wall painting in the series titled Wall Spots always resides with the owner of the Wall Spots signed certificate, which accompanies the art work.” (more…)

Adrian Ghenie, Darwin and the Satyr (2014) ©Adrian Ghenie Courtesy of The Pace Gallery

Tempestuous, chaotic and captivating are only a few of the many attributions to describe the delirious colors and harmonics of Adrian Ghenie. Born and raised in Romania, the thirty-seven year old artist often experiments with the set techniques of painting through extensions and variations of narrative, conveying eerie tales of decay and disarray throughout his works. On view at Pace Gallery in London until July 25th is Ghenie’s most recent body of work, featuring nine oil on linen paintings and a large-scale room installation, reflecting the artist’s approach to the roots of Western ideology and the impact of intellectual thinking. (more…)

Larry Clark, Knoxville (homage to Brad Renfro) (2011) all images via Osman Can Yerebakan

Currently on view at Luhring Augustine is a career spanning exhibition of Larry Clark, one of the most vocal representatives of the American youth since the early 60’s. Tulsa, the inspiration and the namesake of his infamous photography book, is where Clark began experimenting with photography at an early age with his mother’s camera, using his circle of friends as his object of interest.  Clark started to document the suburban lifestyle through the lens of a generation engaged with drug use, underage sex and violence. Adding further weight to the already graphic nature of his subject matter, the rawness and the honesty of Clark’s perspective as an insider’s point of view has marked him as one of the foremost voices in American photography. (more…)

A 30-inch statue representing the god Sekhemka broke the world record for highest auction price of an Egyptian artwork last Thursday at Christie’s London. The statue, sold by the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, was estimated to sell for $7 to $11 million, but sold for over double its estimate, going to an anonymous bidder for $27 million. The museum has drawn criticism over the decision to sell the statue to fund a future expansion. “No other items from the museum’s collection will be sold off. “Sekhemka was an exceptional case,” said David Mackintosh of the Northampton Borough Council.

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Sterling Ruby has launched his collaborative fashion project with designer Raf Simons this week, with an online store titled inthenameof.be.  The site will look to launch weekly products, starting this week with a  work shirt and jeans spattered with typically messy splashes by Ruby. (more…)

Exhibition View at Kamel Mennour, via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

At first glance, the works of James Lee Byars and Anish Kapoor are vastly divergent in their presentations and practices, particular when compared side by side at Kamel Mennour’s fascinating show of works by the two artists.  Kapoor’s works vacillate between the elegantly transient illusions of his glass and aluminum sculptures and the rugged, roughshod clusters of cement he puts forward as a counterpoint. By comparison, Byars’s work is a decidedly more minimal affair: simple elements covered over in gold leaf or minimalist marble pieces. (more…)

Alexander Calder, Occident (1975) all images courtesy Gagosian Gallery

On view at Gagosian Gallery in London is the second segment of a two-part exhibition of American sculptor and painter Alexander Calder’s gouache paintings. The first part was held in New York at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue location through June 14th, and on June 10th the second part opened in London, slated to continue through July 26th, 2014.

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The Washington Post is selling off its art collection, and allowing employees to have first choice at a discounted sales rate.  The collection includes a number of local artists as well as works by Alex Katz and other major figures.  “We wanted to do this as a farewell gesture to Post employees and to give corporate and newspaper employees an opportunity to own artworks they have enjoyed and loved,” said Rima Calderon, vice president for communications and external relations at Graham Holdings. (more…)

The final valuation of the Detroit Institute of Arts has topped $4.6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports, a figure that could create notable complications for the city in bankruptcy court.  The report also notes that the immediate sales of these works does not appear to be a feasible method of raising funds.  “The report makes it abundantly clear that selling art to settle debt will not generate the kind of revenue the City’s creditors claim it will,” says Bill Nowling, spokesman for Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. (more…)

JR, Au Pantheon! via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

The 31-year-old French photographer and artist JR has completed an impressive installation for his global INSIDE OUT project, which allows participants to express themselves through photographing their own portraits and allowing JR to paste them in a new artistic statement.  The French artist started the project after he was awarded the TED prize in 2011, which gave him $1 million to make a world-inspiring idea to come to life.  Since then, INSIDE OUT has traveled across the country: California, New York, and Minnesota; and the globe: Italy, Brazil, Palestine, etc.  Now in Paris, JR has covered the floor, cupola, and dome of the Pantheon in Paris with 2,500 of his signature black and white portrait posters. (more…)

Pierre Huyghe, L’Expédition scintillante, Act III (Black Ice Stage) (2002), via Museum Ludwig

Working in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou Paris, the Museum Ludwig is showing a major retrospective of Pierre Huyghe, containing over 60 works and projects. When the exhibition was previously set up in Paris, Huyghe took the layout of the previous show, dedicated to Mike Kelley, and transformed it by moving and cutting walls inside the space. When the show moved to Cologne, he cut the pieces out of the walls of Pompidou and reassembled them in a sort of collage. This dissection and reassembly reflects Huyghe’s exploration of the reliance of art on time and specific events. The works he displays carry with them their own physical timelines. (more…)

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, The Four Paintings about Sun, via Thaddeus Ropac

Now through July 12, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is presenting Paintings about the Sun, new work by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. The exhibition will take place in Salzburg at the gallery’s Villa Kast location. The works on view represent a departure from many of the artist’s previous installed and illustrated investigations, with the conversational capacity of an image being tested while form and frame are disrupted then elaborated. The sun is a consistent presence throughout the work, represented as either a blinding impediment to vision or impossibly illuminating.

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On Kawara, 5 Feb. 2006

Artist On Kawara, whose ongoing artistic project involved the painting of each day of his life, has passed away at the age of 81.

Born in 1933 in Japan, Kawara worked in Tokyo until 1965, when he moved to New York City.  Shortly after arriving, Kawara began his famous “date paintings” series, painting the calendar date for each day of his life, meticulously recording the passage of his life on canvas through a simple, tracing of dates and time.  His absurdist, heavily conceptual bent opened a new engagement with the processes of time and context in art, making him an unlikely air to the work of early Dadaists like Duchamp and Magritte. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the growing arts scene in Uruguay’s Punta del Este, a coastal resort town on the nation’s eastern coast, as well as the nearby villages of José Ignacio and Pueblo Garzón. A new generation of artists, bolstered by the increased traffic of wealthy collectors buying homes and vacation villas in the area, has resulted in a quickly growing arts scene.   “A few years ago I began to see that Uruguay started moving in a very interesting direction,” says dealer Renos Xippas. “There’s a new generation with fresh, ironic ideas.”  (more…)

A recent Wall Street Journal interview with Agnes Gund reveals the former MoMA President’s views on the current state of the art world, and its movement towards greater accessibility and access.  “The market will start to correct as more collectors, in it for the game, will drive the prices of women artists up as will buyers recognizing the talent that has been there all along,” she says. (more…)

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome (Macro) is reportedly facing a financial crisis, after government officials slashed the museum budget from from €350,000 in 2013 to €61,000 this year.  “The exhibitions are programmed, and funded, until spring 2015… We spend very little on the shows as we have several sponsors,” says former president Alberta Campitelli. (more…)

Josh Kolbo, Untitled (2013), all photos via Emily Heinz for Art Observed

There was a vibrant buzz around Hauser & Wirth in Chelsea as one of the gallery’s smaller exhibition space filled in for the opening of the group show Fixed Variable, featuring the work of Lucas Blalock, Ethan Greenbaum, John Houck, Matt Keegan, Josh Kolbo, Kate Steciw, Chris Wiley and Letha Wilson, and examining the relationship between the nature of the photograph, the nature of the object, and the intersection between the two.

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An Henri Matisse painting stolen 10 years ago from a Venezuelan museum has been returned to its home in Caracas.  Odalisque in Red Trousers was recovered in Miami Beach in 2012 after a couple tried to sell it to undercover FBI agents for $740,000. (more…)

The Rauschenberg Foundation has launched a competition for young curators, inviting proposals for exhibitions using works from the Foundation’s extensive collection.  Winners will be selected by a panel of judges, including curator John Elderfield and artist Shirin Neshat. (more…)

Several artists have redesigned classic British battleships in London and Liverpool commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the start of WWI.  The designs pay homage to the practice of “dazzle” paint jobs on battleships, designed to confuse attacking German U-Boats.  (more…)

The New York Times reports on the city of Oslo, and its role in the life of painter Edvard Munch after the artist spend several years healing from the abuse of his alcoholism.  Known for his tortured, dark works, Munch’s later canvases exude a certain brightness achieved as the artist returned to a degree of mental clarity.  “My mind is like a glass of cloudy water,” he wrote to a friend during his treatment in Copenhagen.  “I am now letting it stand to become clear again. I wonder what will happen when the dregs settle at the bottom.” (more…)

Carlito Carvalhosa, Possibility Matters (detail), 2014

Carlito Carvalhosa’s works, similar to early Renaissance church paintings, have the potential to make viewers feel equally enclosed and daunted by scale. The artist’s installations look upon the viewers, asking their submission and surrender towards their magnitude in structure and constructive. Utilizing a broad range of materials in conjunction with his work’s scale and size, Carvalhosa’s practice includes wood, plaster, wax or glass in forms that seem challenging or exceedingly fragile to execute.  It’s this delicately immense style that Sonnabend Gallery is currently presenting with Possibility Matters, a two-room installation transforming wood columns into a room-sized piece in Carvalhosa’s hands. (more…)

The New York Times has published a by-the-numbers review of the recently opened Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney, charting the show’s contents in figures and facts, like the heaviest work (Gorilla, which weights 15,000 pounds), the number of gallons of water in his Equilibrium series (117 and 1/2), and the number of shipments to deliver all of the works (75). (more…)

Dealer Yvon Lambert will close his Paris gallery at the end of the year, the Gallery announced this week in a press release.  The dealer has made the decision to focus on editioned works, bibliophilia and other printed works, and will open a new venue dedicated specifically to these disciplines.   (more…)