Jenny Holzer, I was called (2013), via Art Observed

Running in conjunction with the events of the Biennale, and fittingly tying itself to themes of political action and structural instability, Venice’s Museo Correr is opening a new exhibition of works by the artist Jenny Holzer, focusing on the artist’s recent explorations into the aesthetic underpinnings of U.S. interrogation policy, declassified military and governmental documents, and other visual devices of the political war machine.  Titled War Paintings, the exhibition is a welcome examination of the artist’s most recent body of work, a stark departure from previous practice that still feels appropriate in the context of her career. (more…)

This year’s Armenian pavilion at the Venice Biennale will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the massacre of more than one million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War.  The exhibition, titled Armenity and held on San Lazzaro degli Armeni island (home to the Armenian Catholic Monastery), will feature works by artist Sarkis, and is curated by Adelina Cüberyan von Fürstenberg, who has often worked with the artist.  “It is very important for me to keep the production going, for culture but also to keep the dialogue open,” Sarkis  says.  “We are the link between two pavilions. We are the breath. Whoever thinks otherwise is free to think so, of course.” (more…)

US Museums are joining forces with the Syrian Interim Government’s Heritage Task Force to assist in the preservation of the country’s cultural heritage against the tide of its ongoing civil war, training civilians in preservation techniques and strategies for securing important art objects and artifacts.  “Local communities are best equipped to identify heritage in need of preservation and protection, and this is precisely what is happening in Syria,” says Richard Leventhal, the executive director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center. (more…)

Heidi Bucher, Untitled (Herrenzimmer), (undated) via Osman Can Yerebakan

Known for her ongoing focus on the relationship between the body and architectural space, the late Heidi Bucker is being commemorated with an exhibition at the Swiss Institute. The exhibition, running through May 11th at the gallery’s SoHo space, stands out being the first solo exhibition of the artist in the United States in more than forty years.

Heidi Bucher, Untitled (9 Objects), (1972-1987), Courtesy Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (more…)

Sue Williams, Philip Zelikow, Historian (2013) All photos courtesy of 303 Gallery

303 Gallery presents Sue Williams WTC, WWIII, Couch Size, on view through February 22nd, 2014. Williams’ ninth solo exhibition with the gallery, this show features six new large-scale paintings, of ‘couch-sized’ proportion.  This titular reference to the commercial appraisal of artworks marks the comic butt of a seemingly sinister thematic program, which proclaims the World Trade Center and World War III as its subject. Williams’ nominal list introduces the ironic tone that colors her paintings, their dark subject matter bursting with chromatic brilliance and her signature comic levity.

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The Guardian reports on the exploits of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the Nazi art theft division that was responsible for the theft of over 5 million works during its existence, including loot from the Uffizi, the Louvre, and countless churches across Europe.  It is reported that one of the group’s most infamous prizes, the Mona Lisa, was rumored to have been recovered from an Austrian salt mine after the war, although recent research has determined that this loot was in fact a copy of the original work. (more…)

In response to heated demands by Jewish political groups and advocates, the German government has disclosed information on the collection of over 600 works found in the apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt.  At least 590 of the works may have been looted during World War II, the government announced.  At least 25 have already been listed in the Lost Art Internet Database.  “We can well understand that especially Jewish organisations are asking many questions. They represent older people who were treated very badly,” said spokesman, Steffen Seibert. (more…)

Marc Chagall, Time is a River without Banks (1930-39), via The Jewish Museum

A new exhibition entitled “Chagall: Love, War, and Exile” is currently on view at The Jewish Museum in New York, reviewing the part of Marc Chagall’s career during the rise of European fascism in the 1930s through 1948 while he was living in Paris and New York. The exhibition includes 31 paintings and 22 works on paper.

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Artist Bassim al-Shaker, who was included as part of the Iraqi Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, is profiled in the New York Times this week, detailing the artist’s story of oppression at the hands of Mahdi Army loyalists, and his life in Arizona, where he is currently working on a business visa to avoid several fundamentalists who nearly killed him earlier this year.  “He’s obviously very talented,” Says Rijn Sahakian an Iraqi expat representing the country’s artists abroad, “but we were also focused on saving his life.” (more…)

Alexander Calder, Calder After the War (Installation View), courtesy of Pace London

Currently on view at Pace Gallery London, from April 19th through June 7th, is an exhibition of over fifty works by Alexander Calder, created between 1945 and 1949, one of his most well-known periods during which he pioneered many of his sculptural abstractions through movement in three dimensions, particularly via his mobiles and stabiles.

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Sabine Moritz, Mother (2010), via Marian Goodman

Limbo, the state of being suspended in time, between past and future, repose and action, is the title of Sabine Moritz’s first solo show with Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris.  Spread over two floors, the exhibition includes eighteen oil on canvas paintings, and over sixty drawings, a dense body of work started in late 2001.  Moritz, who lives and works in Cologne, Germany, was on her way to New York City on September 11th, when her plane was diverted up to Nova Scotia. For three days she was stuck in this remote landscape, with thousands of other displaced travelers, watching the events and its aftermath unfold. This period of waiting and disconnect, gave her time to reflect about the changing nature of borders, conflict, and the technology of war.

Sabine Moritz, Limbo (Installation View), via Marian Goodman

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Adel Abdemessed, Le Vase Abominable (Installation View), via David Zwirner

Upon entering the ground floor of David Zwirner’s gallery space in London, visitors are immediately greeted by the surreal image on a massive explosive device, upon which rests an equally enormous gold vase.  This is Le Vase Abominable, the sculpture by French-based, Algerian born artist Adel Abdemessed that serves as the title piece for the artist’s current show, exploring dichotomies of violence and creation through poignantly composed sculptural, video, and drawn works.

Adel Abdemessed, Le Vase Abominable (2012-2013), via David Zwirner (more…)