A number of artists are voicing their concern over the Frick’s proposed expansion plan, which would eliminate a garden by the British designer Russell Page.  “As professionals working in the art world,” says an open letter signed by Chuck Close, Rachel Feinstein, Lisa Yuskavage, and Frank Stella, among others, “we strongly believe that the Frick’s effectiveness as a display space lies in its intimacy.  Replacing the hall and garden with an institutional 106-foot tower will indeed destroy the famed Frick experience for artists and art lovers around the world.” (more…)

New research confirming the painting Moulin d’Alphonse as the work of Van Gogh has led to its exhibition for the first time in 100 years, The Guardian reports.  The piece, identified by a series of small numbers on the back of the work (traced to Van Gogh’s sister in law, Johanna), will be unveiled at TEFAF Maastricht, and is for sale for around $10 million.  “Johanna was left with the life’s work of this artist, her brother-in-law who, in theory, she had mixed emotions about. But she set about trying to build a legacy for him,” says lead researcher and art dealer James Roundell.  “She could have just burned the lot because, at that point, Van Gogh had no real market.” (more…)

Egon Schiele, Death and Maiden (1915), via Kunsthaus Zurich

The Kunsthaus Zürich is currently presenting a historical study in portraiture and figuration over the course of a century, comparing the output of Austrian painter Egon Schiele with YBA-affiliated painter Jenny Saville, and tying together the pair’s varying approaches to powerful and, at times, visceral depictions of the human body.  Culling works from across the expanse of both artist’s careers, the exhibition seems to function both as a pair of parallel historical studies in each artist’s inspirations and development, while allowing a certain degree of overlap and cross-referencing into the various techniques each artist employed. (more…)

A rare, vertical Cézanne landscape from the Cortauld collection is set to hit the auction block early next year at Christie’s in London, carrying a sale estimate of up to $12 million. “It’s quite rare to see Cézanne at auction and incredibly rare to have these major motif,” says Jay Vincze, head of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s London. (more…)

David Hockney, Woldgate Woods, November 26th (2010), via Art Observed

David Hockney returns to the Pace Gallery this month, showing a selection of new works that once again focus on the artist’s love affair with his Woldgate home, and the continued expansion of his decades of work as a painter into new media forms.  Titled The Arrival of Spring, the work is another entry in the artist’s documentation and depiction of the landscapes of rural Britain. (more…)

Richard Long, Four Ways (2014), all images courtesy Lisson Gallery

Richard Long’s first solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery in over three decades brings together photographs, text, and natural elements as records of his walks in England, Switzerland, and Antarctica. Working in conjunction with the materials and forces that make up his surroundings, Long brings the fruits of his lone experiences in nature to the imaginations of a gallery audience. Long made his reputation in the 1970s with his sculptures born of days-long walks to remote locations, acting as bridges between natural design and human creation. His present exhibition reveals his persistence in investigating the themes that run through his lifelong body of work. (more…)

Damien Loeb, Tycho (2013), via Acquavella

Acquavella is currently showing a rare exhibition of new works by painter Damien Loeb,  featuring a series of paintings and sketches created over the past year, and focusing on Planet Earth’s unique position in the solar system.  Titled SOL-D, the series of oil paintings and sketches take their inspiration from a series of photographs Loeb made over the past decade, digital images captured on airplane flights, stargazing, and satellite images that document the celestial atmospheres of Earth and beyond. (more…)

Eric Fischl, Corrida in Ronda #4, (2008), via Elene Damenia for Art Observed

The New York Academy of Art is currently presenting The Big Picture, a brief series of large-scale paintings by five artists who embrace the challenge of large-scale canvases and epic scenery.  Curated by Peter Drake, the show has selected works from Neo Rauch, Mark Tansey, Vincent Desiderio, Jenny Saville and Eric Fischl for the show, inviting a comparative look at the varying techniques and approaches to painting on a grand scale.

Vincent Desiderio, Quixote (2008), via Elene Damenia for Art Observed (more…)

Thomas Struth, Ride, Anaheim, California (2013), via Marian Goodman

German Thomas Struth is presenting a series of new photos this month at Marian Goodman’s New York gallery space, presenting a series of recent works, among which are 5 large format photos made at Disneyland, part of a recent series the 59-year old photographer is currently working on.

Thomas Struth, Mountain, Anaheim, California, (2013) via Marian Goodman (more…)

The Whitney Museum has loaned a pair of Cape Cod landscapes by Edward Hopper to the White House, where they have been installed in the Oval Office.  “We are pleased and honored to lend two paintings by Edward Hopper—the artist with whom the Whitney Museum of American Art is most closely identified—to The White House for display in the Oval Office,” said Director Adam D. Weinberg. “We hope these beautiful Cape Cod landscapes will give great pleasure to President Obama and to all who see them.”  (more…)

Pat Steir, Last Wave Painting: Wave Becoming a Waterfall (1987-88), via Cheim and Read

The 1980’s have long been marked for their resurgent focus on the painted canvas.  Led by a dynamic group of New York artists, and a supportive system of gallerists and collectors, the decade saw an explosive body of work emerge that blended expressive technique with a new vision towards abstraction and figuration, breathing new life into a medium many were labeling dead in the water.

Carroll Dunham, Horizontal Bands (1982), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

Alex Katz, Yellow Seagull (2000), courtesy MdM Mönchsberg

The Museum der Moderne Mönchsberg in Salzburg, Austria has collaborated with the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine to present a comprehensive view of work by Alex Katz. Mostly drawn from the collection of over 700 of Katz’s works held by the Colby College Museum of Art, the exhibition also includes a number of paintings on loan from European museums and private collections.

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Nadja Frank, Red Headed Stranger (2013), via Denny Gallery

Creating links between the exterior world and the white cube of the gallery space, artist Nadja Frank’s work explores the intersections of natural forms and fabrication through her sculptural and painted works.  Often creating works around samples and materials culled from natural landscapes, Frank’s pieces express an attempt to bridge the distance between her experience and practice, while sitting firmly between the two.  For her first solo show at Denny Gallery in New York, Frank has turned her focus to the landscapes of the High Desert, exploring the rich hues and striking forms of the American West.  (more…)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Englishman at the Moulin Rouge (1892), courtesy The Frick Collection

The Frick Collection is currently displaying a series of nineteenth-century French drawings and prints by a variety of Realist, Impressionist, and Post-impressionist masters, made possible by the Florence Gould Foundation.  Exploring the varying approaches of figuration, depiction and ornamentation throughout 19th century drawing and prints, the exhibition is on view through June 16th.

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The Tate Britain has purchased “Salisbury Cathedral from the Water Meadows,” a 1831 master work by painter John Constable, for the price of $23.1 million.  Previously held by the National Gallery, the work will embark on a national tour, through Colchester, London, Salisbury and Cardiff.  “It is unimaginable that this particular painting could have ended up anywhere except a British public collection.”  Said Heritage Lottery Fund chair Jenny Abramsky, who helped fund the purchase. (more…)

Nick van Woert, Microscope (2013), (Nick van Woert in Ted Kaczynski’s clothes), courtesy of the artist and OHWOW

Since his first solo exhibition at Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam in 2010, Brooklyn-based artist Nick van Woert has quickly risen through the ranks of the contemporary arts scene, creating a prolific and experimental body of work informed by his unique interests in history, architecture, environment, and philosophy.  From ancient Rome to the Unabomber, van Woert casts an eye on the past as a means of understanding the present and inquiring into the future. His work blends an emphasis on sculptural craft and process with the use of found objects and readymades, resting between aesthetic value and conceptual statement. While preparing for the opening of No Man’s Land, his first exhibition at OHWOW in Los Angeles, (open through April 6, 2013), the artist sat down to answer some questions for Art Observed.

Nick van Woert, No Man’s Land (2013), Courtesy of the artist and OHWOW

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Portage Falls on the Genessee, a painting by Hudson River School Founder Thomas Cole has been removed from the Seward House Historic Museum in Auburn, NY by its owner, citing poor protection of the work by the institution.  The removal of the painting, given to then New York Governor William Seward by the artist in thanks for his work o the Erie Canal, has caused a stir in the upstate town, with many describing its removal and potential sale as a “betrayal.”  “You’re giving away the centerpiece of the Seward House. The picture is integral to the museum. It doesn’t make any sense.”  Says Hudson River Museum director  Michael Botwinick. (more…)

David Hockney – A Closer Winter Tunnel, February–March (2006), Guggenheim Bilbao

British painter David Hockney has, over the course of his 50 year career, continually pushed the conceptions of landscape painting, exploring various approaches to form, color and composition that mirror his ongoing fascination with shifting technologies and cultural perception. Now, his work is being shown at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao as the second venue of a major exhibition of the Yorkshire native’s work, including a large collection of works done in his home town.

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