The Dia Art Foundation hires architect Roger Duffy to construct its new Chelsea home, “We want to make sure that 22nd Street will re-engage with new generations of artists,” says Dia’s director Philippe Vergne.

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Robert Ryman at PaceWildenstein Gallery at 32 E 57 Street in New York.  Installation View.  All images via PaceWildenstein Gallery unless otherwise noted

Currently on view at PaceWildenstein Gallery is “Robert Ryman: Large-small, thick-thin, light reflecting, light absorbing” – the exhibition of thirty new paintings of the renowned minimalist American artists. Executed in Ryman’s signature monochromatic palette the paintings on display measure ten to thirty square inches and represent a wide gamut of experimentation in materials, including wood, MDF board, aluminum, and stretched cotton. The works appear strong and indestructible, although painted on the paper-thin material Tyvek. In addition to traditional graphite and ink, Ryman employs such painterly materials as acrylic varnish, enamel and epoxy. To hang the paintings to the walls, the artist will use regular staples, which are a traditional integral part of his aesthetics.

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Robert Ryman at Pace Wildenstein. Installation View

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Walter De Maria: The Broken Kilometer via Dia Art Foundation

On long term display in Soho since 1979 under the Dia Foundation, The Broken Kilometer (1979) consists of “500 highly polished, round, solid brass rods, each measuring two meters in length and five centimeters (two inches) in diameter.” The rods are placed in five parallel rows, with 100 rods making up each column. This monumental sculpture weighs 18 3/4 tons and would measure 3,280 feet, if all 500 rods were laid end-to-end. The rods’ placement increases by 5mm, with the first two rods placed a mere 80mm apart and the final two rods positioned 580 mm apart. The work is placed in a spacious room illuminated by metal halide stadium lights. Altogether, the piece is approximately 45 feet wide and 125 feet long. De Maria completed The Broken Kilometer in 1979, and it has been on long-term view to the public ever since.

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A detail view of literary texts within a dessert terrain diorama, from Gonzalez-Foerster’s exhibition at the Hispanic Society of America.  Via Dia Art Foundation.

Currently showing at the Hispanic Society of America is an exhibition by Paris and Rio de Janeiro based artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster.  The show, which  functions as a kind of expansion of the society’s renowned research library,  consists of a range of twentieth-century literature installed in a series of three dioramas, by reference to their place of origin. The various texts, written by some 40 authors, hail from three distinct geographical regions: the dessert, the tropics and the North Atlantic. Entitled “chronotopes and dioramas,” the site-specific project is the third in a series of contemporary art exhibitions commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation for the Hispanic Society of America, which rests in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. Organized by the Dia Art Foundation’s curator at large, Lynne Cooke, the exhibition marks Gonzalez-Foerster’s first major solo show in the United States.

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An installation view of one of Gonzalez-Foerster’s modeled oceanic terrains, (2009) Via Dia Foundation. “I always wanted to be a writer, but writing is very difficult for me,” the artist has said. “Slowly I accepted the idea of a kind of expanded literature, you might say.”

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Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Trophy Wife,’ depicting Stephanie Seymour, currently going through a messy divorce from Peter Brant, who owns the piece

-Recent court filings in the divorce of Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour reveal disputes over nearly 50 works by Andy Warhol, as well as works by Richard Prince, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel, and a bust of Seymour made by Maurizio Cattelan [Vanity Fair]

-And in related, Udo Fritz-Hermann Brandhorst, an heir to Germany’s Henkel AG & Co. fortune, settled out of court a dispute with his former mistress over two works by Damien Hirst [Bloomberg]

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Allison Schulnik’s music video for Grizzly Bear’s ‘Ready, Able’

– Painter Allison Schulnik’s claymation music video for Grizzly Bear’s ‘Ready, Able’ via The Flog

-Tracey Emin reading her new book of poems “Those Who Suffer Love” and “Strangeland” at University Settlement as part of Performa 09 [Supreme Being]

-Also related, a round-up of Performa 09 includes a “Pasta Sauna” based on the Futurist Manifesto, Tacita Dean, William Kentridge, Merce Cunningham and more [Financial Times]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week…

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Starry Night over the Rhone, Van Gogh via NYTimes

‘Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night’ coming to The MOMA [NYTimes]
Details of contract for the Louvre Abu Dhabi revealed [TheArtNewspaper]
In industry executive news: MoMA’s Chief Curator of Paintings and Sculpture says ‘Good-Bye’ [NYSun]
In other executive moves, DIA Art Foundation has a New Director, Philippe Vergne [NYMag]
More executive news: Neil MacGregor, of the British Museum, declines directorship of the Met [TIME]
In page six today: Andy Warhol criticized in memoir by former friend and Ahn Duong, former flame to Julian Schnabel and Simon de Pury, ends her marriage [NYPost]

Pieces by artist Robert Rauschenberg via USA today

Artist Rauschenberg sues over sale of discarded art [USA Today]
World’s largest art fair opens March 7th in Dutch city of Maastricht [Bloomberg]
Chinese art claims new presence in volatile market [The New York Sun]
Iranian artist hits new record in million-dollar sale at Dubai auction [Bloomberg]
Jeffrey Weiss ends brief stint as Dia Art Foundation Director [The New York Times]