A car bomb explosion in Cairo has caused major damages to the collections of the Islamic Museum of Art and the Egyptian National Library and Archives, destroying ancient artifacts and artworks from all eras of the country’s history.  “Until now I cannot move freely inside the museum to continue my inspection tour due to safety reasons, as the ceilings are still on the verge of collapsing,” says Egypt’s antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim. (more…)

Wade Guyton, (Installation View), via Art Observed

Seven years have passed since Wade Guyton exhibited a solo show at New York’s Petzel Gallery, an expanse of time that has seen the artist capping a mid-career retrospective at The Whitney Museum, and entering the upper echelons of the American art canon.  Whether intentionally or not, Guyton’s exhibition of new works manages to address the passage of time and his increased status in the international art world through a minimalist series of linen prints, created using the same files from his last show at the gallery.

Wade Guyton (detail), via Art Observed (more…)

Chuck Close, Self-Portrait/ maquette, 1975  © 2013 Chuck Close courtesy of Pace Gallery

Eykyn Maclean is currently presenting the first exhibition to focus solely on Chuck Close’s photo maquettes, examining their relation to the artist’s large-scale painted portraits. Not only do the works in the Photo Maquettes series offer the viewer a better understanding of the technical aspects of Close’s paintings, but also offer an interesting probe into the delineations between the practices of painting and photography. (more…)

The Two Zodiac Heads to be Returned to China, via China Radio International

French president François Hollande has embarked on his first visit to China, accompanied by a number of high-profile French business heads.  Among them is François-Henri Pinault, the Kering CEO and Christie’s head who has brought a gift of two bronze statues looted from the Beijing Summer Palace in 1860.   (more…)