A piece in the Financial Times notes that the value of the global art market topped €51 billion last year, an astounding figure that comes as Christie’s topped a $1 billion in sales this week alone.  Featuring in-depth analysis, the article notes the U.S. and China as the top shareholders in market value, and as well as the interesting detail that most dealer inventory rarely moves in under 6 months, despite that current clamor for works on the market.    (more…)

A new study on the use of digital technologies in American art museums is set for release this week, an in-depth study that looks at museum projects nationwide and their effectiveness in incorporating new immersive media.  The study covers 41 museum projects, from a “digital census” of French sculpture at Dallas’s Nasher Center to new iPad based wall labeling at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts.   (more…)

Yayoi Kusama has earned the hyperbolic title of the “world’s most popular artist” following the release of Art Newspaper’s annual survey.  “Kusama is the only one of our artists who sells on every continent.  “She’s very rare in that she has this kind of credibility within the art world establishment, but she also has a very broad popular appeal,” says Glenn Scott Wright, co-director of Victoria Miro. (more…)

A survey by Art Newspaper shows that almost one third of US Museum solo shows go to artists represented by just one of the top five galleries worldwide: Marian Goodman, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, or Pace.  “Curators are abdicating and delegating their responsibilities to more adventurous gallerists who, aside from the profit motive and in some respects because of it, seem in many cases to be bolder and more curious than their institutional counterparts,” says Robert Storr, the dean of the Yale University School of Art. (more…)

The annual study by The UK’s Association of Leading Visitor Attractions shows a 7% increase in museum visits by the British in 2014, topped by The British Museum (6.7 million visitors) and National Gallery (6.4 million).  The news comes in the middle of an election season in which many have called for an end to austerity measures affecting British arts institutions. (more…)

In the run-up to this week’s Impressionist and Modern auctions in London, The Guardian looks at the current state of the market, and how works like Claude Monet’s Le Grand Canal (est. £20 milltion – £30 million), have come to be valued so highly in the growing market.  “There is such intense demand for the very best and the rarest,” says Jay Vincze, the international director and head of impressionist art at Christie’s, “This is the kind of painting that will appeal to a masterpiece buyer. Someone who wants the best of everything.” (more…)

A new article by curator Sam Smiles in The Guardian this week studies the perceptions of late-life creativity in famous painters and artists, particularly in contrasts of value between the 19th and 20th century, and cites a number of critics who have noted most master artist’s work comes after their 50th year.  The article comes with concurrent run of three exhibitions exploring late work by Matisse, Turner and Rembrandt in London. (more…)

A study commissioned by the New York Times this week indicates that the perception of a growing trend towards flipping work by young artists for huge profits may only be part of broader historical trends in the art market.  Reports by two separate art market consultancies indicate that the current rate of growth in the market is on par with the market boom during the mid-90’s, and that the overall state of the market shows that collectors are, on average, holding on to works longer than in recent years.  “After all I had read about flipping, when looking at the market itself, it’s really business as usual,” says consultant Fabian Bocart, whose Tutela Capital S.A., prepared one of the analyses for The Times. (more…)

Francis Bacon, Study for a Pope III, (1961), Photograph: © The Estate of Francis Bacon.

In Homage, on view at Skarstedt London through August 8^th, takes as its focus six paintings that embody the elements of inheritance and inspiration that sits at the heart of all creative practice. Francis Bacon, George Condo, Martin Kippenberger, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, and Andy Warhol are the featured artists. Each work was chosen for the strong ties it reveals to a predecessor, reflecting the styles or borrowing as subjects the master painters Velázquez, Picasso, Baselitz, Ernst, Goya, Munch, and de Chirico. Relationship is explored both as a stylistic approach and an inevitability of the creative process. (more…)

A recent Bloomberg article features an examination of the direct correlation between value appreciation and the price of pieces at auction. By studying the auction sales of the top ten artists over the past ten and twenty years, the article suggests that, in the ever-shifting art market, the safest way to ensure a profit is to buy big names like Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, and Damien Hirst at big prices.

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A new study has found an interesting link between a synthetic dopamine used to treat Parkinson’s Disease, and sudden bouts of intense creativity. “I started painting from morning till night, and often all through the night until morning. I used countless numbers of brushes at a time. I used knives, forks, sponges … I would gouge open tubes of paint–it was everywhere,” says one patient.  “But I was still in control at that point. Then, I started painting on the walls, the furniture, even the washing machine.”  (more…)

The Art Newspaper investigates the current payscales for independent curators, from Milan Expo 2015’s €750,000 salary for Germano Celant, to much lower rates for small-scale fairs and biennials.  “We’re not talking about the kind of field where you say, ‘A senior vice-president makes this and a schoolteacher makes that,’” says consultant András Szántó. “One of the interesting things about the art world as a labour market is that it is so fragmented.” (more…)

A Wall Street Journal article notes a recent study showing that art stimulates areas of the brain involved in vision, pleasure, memory, recognition and emotions, evidence of how strongly and naturally inclined the brain is towards enjoying art.   (more…)

An ongoing art research project is working to identify air pollution in past centuries, using landscapes and other paintings for clues as to the era’s atmospheric makeup.  In one case, the eruption of the Tambora Volcano in Indonesia caused several years of bright red and oranges sunsets around the world, most notably documented in the paintings of J.M.W. Turner.  “From Turner you see that in this specific year he starts painting sunsets a little more reddish, compared to two or three years before,” says lead researcher Dr. Andreas Kazantzidis. (more…)

A recent investigation into the collection of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has uncovered 139 works looted during World War II.  The results of a 4-year study, the works have been placed on a website, inviting prior owners to make claims on the return of the work, including pieces by Matisse and Isaac Israels.  “We know that there were doubtful transactions concerning works acquired before 1940, after Kristallnacht,” said Siebe Weide of the Dutch Museum Association. (more…)

Tourists visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York spent over $401 million at the museum this spring and summer, the museum’s annual visitor survey reports.  With 77% of visitors coming from outside the city’s five boroughs, the museum continues to stand as a major tourism draw, and marks a slight increase in visitor spending from last year’s tally of $398 million. (more…)

A report on behavioral economics in art, as summarized in The Economist, examines the link between the experience of viewing art, and its effects on the viewer’s desire to see more art.  Through repeated exposure in a blind study, subjects were found to grow more partial to works they had repeated experience with, particularly with works that were considered high quality versus works that are generally regarded as trite or “poor” (in this case, Thomas Kinkade). (more…)

Henri Labrouste, Bibliothèque Sainte‐Geneviève, Paris, (1838‐1850) View of the reading room, Photograph Michel Nguyen © Bibliothèque Sainte‐Geneviève Michel Nguyen, courtesy of MoMA

Moving beyond mere architectural details, The Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition, Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light,is not simply a survey of the French architect’s (1801-1875) work and influence, but also something of a meditation and retrospective on the library’s role in society.  As information continues its march from papers to servers, and books are routinely traded in digital form, Labrouste’s vision of the library as a central mechanism for the dissemination of knowledge offers an intriguing meditation on the significance, symbolism and vitality of the library today.  The show is also apropos here in New York as the city’s Central Public Library, in response to these changes, prepares for a potentially devastating renovation.

Henri Labrouste, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, (1838-1850) Southwest corner elevation and section (Late 1850), Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris

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Mika Rottenberg, Still from Sneeze (2008), via Magasin 3

Sneeze to Squeeze is the first solo exhibition of work by New York-based video artist Mika Rottenberg in Sweden. Exploring the themes of labor, production and contemporary body-image, this major exhibition captures the spirit of the artist’s broad range of filmic work, while also offering a thorough, studied look at her work in installation and photography.

Mika Rottenberg, Still from Squeeze (2010), via Magasin 3 (more…)