Sigmar Polke, Untitled (Palermo) (1976), all images via Leo Koenig, Inc.

“Sigmar Polke: Photoworks 1964-2000” is currently on view at Leo Koenig, Inc. in New York City through September 3^rd, 2011.  Developed in collaboration with Winckler Fine Arts, Berlin, the exhibition displays a carefully curated slice of the thousands of photographs Sigmar Polke made throughout his lifetime.  The images chosen demonstrate his enthusiasm for photographic experimentation and the subjects captured range in tone from humorous to serious.  The exhibition reveals Polke’s chameleon-like aptitude and capriciousness.

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David Hockney, composite from “Me Draw on iPad” (2010), all Hockney images are via the Louisiana Museum

On view at Denmark’s Louisiana Museum is “Me Draw on iPad” featuring several hundred of David Hockney’s most recent drawings. Created on his iPhone and iPad using the Brushes application, these drawings make clear both Hockney’s characteristic whimsy and  dedication to exploration of new creative methods and media. Curated by Charlie Scheips, “Me Draw on iPad” is on view through August 28^th 2011.

David Hockney, composite from “Me Draw on iPad” (2010)

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Trailer released for Anselm Kiefer: Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow by Sophie Fiennes [AO Newslink]

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Assume Vivid Astro Focus and Lady Gaga to collaborate on a holiday window at Barney’s New York [AO Newslink]

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Edward Hopper’s 1935 painting The Long Leg to become a US Postage Stamp [AO Newslink]

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Chelsea’s Luhring Augustine gallery establishes new storage and exhibition space on Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn [AO Newslink]

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Eva Rothschild, Empire (2011). All images courtesy are via Public Art Fund.

Installed at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park, New York, “Empire” is Irish sculptor Eva Rothschild’s first commissioned public art work in the United States. Appearing at once ominous and playful, “Empire” greets pedestrians at the southeast entrance to the park. The sculpture joins the ranks of past Public Art Fund art installations that have been displayed in the plaza.

Eva Rothschild, Empire (detail) (2011)

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$250,000 Rembrandt drawing stolen Saturday evening from private art exhibition at Ritz Carlton Marina del Rey in Los Angeles [AO Newslink]

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Hague government pays €1 million to heir of Jewish art dealer for painting looted by Hermann Goering [AO Newslink]

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Architectural artist Daniel Arsham to design sets for Merce Cunningham Company’s final performance at Park Avenue Armory [AO Newslink]

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On Friday Aug. 5th, the same woman who attacked an $80 million Gauguin work months ago dismounted and repeatedly slammed a $2.5 million Henri Mattisse work against the wall at the National Gallery in Washington and was subsequently sent to a psychiatric facility [AO Newslink]

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Fred Sandback, Broadway Boogie Woogie (Sculptural Study, Twenty-part Vertical Construction), 1991/2011. Courtesy of Abstract Critical.

Whitechapel Gallery is exhibiting work of the late artist Fred Sandback, who passed away in 2003. Departing from the somewhat mystical notions of the unreality of objects and the malleability of empty spaces, Sandback’s yarn sculptures slice the gallery’s spatial emptiness with straight angles, mimicking geometrical shapes, which, to the observer’s eye, appear and disappear into thin air.

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Installation shot of Vanessa Beecroft’s “Performance VB70 – VB Marmi” in Milan. All images courtesy Galleria Lia Rumma unless otherwise noted.

In a sprawling gallery space in Milan, women with marbled skin mingle with marble plinths. One hundred and fifty people at a time streamed in to take in the sight of the vivid hues– green onyx, French red ochre, Portuguese pink marble, lapis lazuli, sodalite blue, macaubus light blue, and black Belgian– glowing against a white cube setting. As Roberta Smith said in a 1998 New York Times review of the artist’s work, “It’s art; it’s fashion. It’s good; it’s bad. It’s sexist; it’s not. It’s Vanessa Beecroft‘s performance art.”

Opening in Milan

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Shepard Fairey assaulted in Copenhagen while being called an”Obama illuminati”: “I have a black eye and a bruised rib” [AO Newslink]

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Thief steals $100k KAWS work from Marc Ecko “during business hours” [AO Newslink]

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Michelangelo Pistoletto, Installation view (2011), all images via Serpentine Gallery

Currently showing at the Serpentine Gallery is Michelangelo Pistoletto‘s sprawling labyrinth of one continuous roll of corrugated cardboard. Custom made for the space, the chest-high installation snakes in and out of each room, constantly diverting the viewer’s course and occasionally taking them to one of several main focus points at which large mirrors (a motif repeatedly used by the artist) are located.

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An analysis of Ai WeiWei’s possibly censored statements to the press [AO Newslink]

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Talk with Ryan Trecartin “the most consequential artist to have emerged since the 1980s” Thursday, August 25th at MoCA NOMI [AO Newslink]

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New Film on Anselm Kiefer premiers at the Film Forum in New York [AO Newslink]

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Nicolas Poussin, Seven Sacraments: Confirmation, ‘Twombly and Poussin: Arcadian Painters’ (1637-1640), all images via Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery in London exhibits the recently deceased American contemporary artist Edwin Parker “Cy” Twombly  (April 1928-July 2011) with 17th century classical French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) in an exploration of the Arcadian style. The exhibition opened on June 29th, just 6 days before Twombly’s death on July 5th, 2011, and will run through September 25th, and is exhibited alongside Tacita Dean‘s Film “Edward Parker”.

Cy Twombly, Quattro Stagioni: Inverno, ‘Twombly and Poussin: Arcadian Painters’ (1993-5)

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AO was on site Saturday, August 6th for the opening of James Franco‘s new project at Terence Koh‘s Asia Song Society. The exhibition features installations of three films: “Three’s Company: The Drama,”  a reconsideration of the popular television show (previously shown at Sundance), “Road Trip,” in which Franco reads excepts from Rob Lowe’s autobiography West Wing aloud as he visits notable land art sites in the United States, and “High/Low, Rob Lowe”installed on fifty monitors and showing footage recorded by the artist/actor/student, etc., moving throughout his daily life.  Despite the rain, the opening was well attended, with appearances by PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach, artist Laurel Nakadate and, of course, James Franco himself.

James Franco: High Low/Rob Lowe at ASS – Asia Song Society from Art Observed on Vimeo.

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Installation view of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Caro on the Roof”, 2011. All images via The Metropolitan Museum

Currently on view at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art is “Caro on the Roof”, an installation featuring selected works of renowned British sculptor, Anthony Caro (b.1924). The installation culls together five large scale steel sculptures spanning the artist’s sixty year career, and will be open until October 30th, 2011. The Met’s roof has in the past shown work by Jeff Koons and Doug and Mike Starn, whose popular Big Bambú installation is currently showing at the Venice Biennale.

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Robert Longo, The Haunting (2005), all images via Kunsthalle Weishaupt

On display at Kunsthalle Weishaupt through September 25 is Robert Longo’s first solo exhibition in a German museum since 2005. Covering two floors, the exhibition presents over forty drawings from the museum’s collection — including pieces from his Magellan series — as well as works from Longo’s estate. Longo is known primarily for his drawings and sculpture, though he also works in film. More recently, Longo has been working with charcoal to make photorealistic drawings of images taken from the media which highlight such themes as environmental disaster, violence, and kitsch – a cynical look at modern American life.

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Gregory Crewdson, Railway Children, ‘Beneath the Roses’ (2003-2007), all images courtesy C/O Berlin

Gregory Crewdson‘s solo exhibition In a Lonely Place, which opened at C/O Berlin on July 1st, encompasses 3 separate series separated into different rooms: Fireflies (1996), Beneath the Roses (2003-2007) and his most recent work Sanctuary (2009-2010).  The artist is known for his large-format photos, often depicting empty, stagnant, desolate landscapes with solitary, introspective characters. Extreme detail and sheer size make the viewing experience nearly simulate the real setting in reproduction.

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