Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art will open to the public tomorrow with exhibitions of the work of David ­Altmejd, David Hammons, Katherina Grosse and Gordon Matta-Clark. The director of the museum is Jill Snyder. The architect, Farshid Moussavi, designed the building to change depending on conditions of light and atmosphere. “MOCA Cleveland isn’t a grand museum with a historical collection; it’s all about temporary exhibitions, which change constantly—so does contemporary art, and so should the architecture.”  (more…)

Lehmann Maupin Gallery has announced that it will open in Hong Kong’s Pedder Building in early spring 2013. Although the gallery has a strong stable of Asian artists, it plans to show work by Western artists in the new location as well. The gallery has hired Rem Koolhaas’ OMA team to do the renovations. (more…)

Sotheby’s has several high-profile works being offered in its November sales. Works from the Embiricos estate are expected to bring $30 million; among them Francis Bacon‘s “Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne” has a presale estimate of $9 – $12 million. Picasso‘s “Nature Morte aux Tulipes” from 1932 is being offered from a separate unidentified “important private collection” at $35-50 million, under an irrevocable bid. (more…)

Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Pablo Picasso’s grandson, announced that the Picasso heirs have consolidated authentication efforts in the formation of an organization under the direction of Claude Ruiz-Picasso. Previously, due to the large number of Picasso’s heirs, authentication was difficult. The Picasso Administration is based in Paris. (more…)

Image: Eleanor Antin – 100 Boots Facing the Sea, Del Mar, California. February 9, 1971, 2:00 p.m. (1971-1973), via Brooklyn Museum

In 1973, art critic and curator Lucy R. Lippard published Six Years, a defining book that catalogued and described the emerging field of conceptual art during the years 1967-1972.  Widely read and referenced as a fundamental exploration into Conceptual Art and the new aesthetic vocabulary that it contributed to the artistic lexicon, Lippard’s book has become an iconic document in the shifting artistic focuses of the 20th and 21st century.

The Brooklyn Museum has opened the door for a new reading of Lippard’s fundamental text, assembling a a vast array of artists championed in her writing. The exhibition provides a vantage point for understanding how Lippard’s perceptive thesis opened the door to new approaches in curating, engagement and criticism.

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Austrian art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac is interviewed in the Financial Times, and speaks of his new 4,700 sq meter space in Pantin, Northeast Paris. “You have to create the market for monumental works but that gives me a kick. Today you are defined by your square-footage”.  Anselm Kiefer, ‘Die Ungeborenen’ (The Unborn) will open at the space on October 14th. (more…)

Image: Alex Katz, White Roses I, 2011, courtesy Timothy Taylor Gallery

Now in its final week at Timothy Taylor Gallery in London is a new series of portraits and still lifes by 84-year-old American artist Alex Katz. The exhibition is comprised of large-scale portraits of family and friends and still lifes of flowers that he bought from street vendors near his New York studio.

Image: Installation view, courtesy Timothy Taylor Gallery

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The now-defunct Knoedler & Co. gallery agreed to settle the lawsuit over an allegedly fake $17 million Jackson Pollock. The terms of the settlement are undisclosed. Pierre Lagrange, co-owner of London-based GLG Partners Inc., sued in 2011 over a the painting, Untitled 1950, because neither Sotheby’s or Christie’s would consign the work without its prior inclusion in the catalogue raisonné. The gallery, which had been in business since 1846, closed the day after the lawsuit was filed. (more…)

White Cube announced that it will close its East London Hoxton location (established 2000) at the end of 2012. The gallery plans to focus on the Mason’s Yard, Mayfair and the Bermondsey Street locations. The gallery says that “no decision had been taken on the future of the former industrial building.” (more…)

Hauser & Wirth announced that the opening date for its Chelsea location will be January 22, 2013 in the former Roxy building at 511 West 18th Street. The new space is 24,700 square feet of warehouse style exhibition space. The public opening will culminate a year of activities celebrating the gallery’s 20th anniversary. (more…)

Another modern and contemporary fair is being formed: ArtInternational Istanbul, which is due to open in September 2013. The organizer is Sandy Angus, co-founder of ArtHK. (The parent company of Art Basel and Miami Basel owns a 60% stake in Art HK). It will be in Istanbul’s Hasköy Yarn Factory in the central Beyoglu district, coinciding with the Istanbul Biennial and running concurrently with the Istanbul Contemporary fair. (more…)

Image: Rita Ackermann, Fire By Days: The Fool I, 2012, oil on canvas
All images courtesy Hauser & Wirth Gallery

On view at Hauser and Wirth’s London Picadilly space is the exhibition entitled Fire By Days, Rita Ackermann’s latest series by the same name.

It is comprised of three miniseries: Fire by Days, Fire by Days Blues and Fire by Days The Fool. The first two contain numerous diptychs that have been created by initially pressing the works together to form a ‘reflective pair’ but then working each piece separately yet simultaneously to distort the reflective essence of the duos.

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Image: Installation view, Gerhard Richter, PAINTING 2012, Marian Goodman Gallery. All photos by Maya Steward unless otherwise noted.

“The status of painting in [Richter’s] new works is figured as exceptionally fragile, yet it is powerfully formulated in its assimilation to its technological challenges, as though painting was once again on the wane under the impact of technological innovations,” writes Benjamin H.D. Buchloch of Gerhard Richter’s new works on view in the exhibition PAINTING 2012 at Marian Goodman Gallery. Working within the realm of digital imaging, Richter redefines the concept of painting once again, challenging the traditional application and boldly ascertaining both its methods and practice.

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Video artist and photographer Alex Prager has won an Emmy for news and documentary for directing the mini-scenes for The New York Times Magazine’s feature, “Touch of Evil”.  The print version was edited by Hugo Lindgren and Adam Sternbergh, in consultation with A.O. Scott, who also wrote the introduction. Prager is self-taught, often referencing pulp fiction masters and fashion photography in her work. (more…)

Vanity Fair and Cadillac have commissioned artist Barry McGee to create a mural for the Mark Morris Dance Center in Fort Greene, which has just been completed. The untitled 96 x 67-foot piece is part of its “Art in the Streets” program, and took ten days start to finish. It will be featured in the December issue of Vanity Fair.
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Image: Installation view of Rothko/Sugimoto: Dark Paintings and Seascapes.
All images courtesy The Pace Gallery unless otherwise noted

The Pace Gallery opens its new London flagship gallery on Thursday, October 4th at No. 6 Burlington Gardens in the Royal Academy building. On view will be an exhibition of the work of Mark Rothko and Hiroshi Sugimoto entitled Rothko/Sugimoto: Dark Paintings and Seascapes. It will be the first private gallery exhibition of Rothko’s work in London in nearly fifty years.

Image: Installation view of Rothko/Sugimoto: Dark Paintings and Seascapes

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The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles announced that Ari Emanuel, Hollywood power agent and broker, has been elected to its board. The museum also re-elected Maurice Marciano, art collector and founder of the Guess clothing brand. Mr. Emanuel is co-chief executive of the William Morris Endeavor agency and is involved with arts nonprofits, although he is not known to be an art collector. (more…)

Uta Barth, An-My Lê and filmmaker Natalia Almada have been named 2012 MacArthur fellows. Each artist will receive $500,000 over the next five years, with no restrictions on its use. Uta Barth is a conceptual artist whose work deals with the photographic perception and the subject’s relation to the image-making process. (more…)

Grayson Perry, Turner prize-winner, plans to build an art-encrusted holiday residence resembling a shrine in Essex, which will be devoted to a mythical Essex woman named Julie. The elaborate house will be rented out from 2014 onward as part of Alain de Botton’s effort to introduce a type of avant-garde experience into travel. (more…)

Image: Mickalene Thomas – Din, une très belle négresse #2, 2012, Via Brooklyn Museum

Currently on view at The Brooklyn Museum is a selection of recent work by Mickalene Thomas.  Her first solo museum exhibition, Origin of the Universe, features a selection of the artist’s most recent works, examining imagery of the female form, African-American identity and her childhood in 1970’s New York City. (more…)

Four Turner Prize shortlisted artists showcased their work last night at the show’s inauguration.  For the first time a performance artist has been nominated, Londoner Spartacus Chetwynd.  When asked about if her art is contemporary, the artist, who lives and works in a nudist colony, and who arrived in a beard, stated, “We’re all alive at the moment so that would make it contemporary.” Once again on display at Tate Britain, the show also presents the work of Glaswegian Luke Fowler, Londoner Elizabeth Price and Londoner Paul Noble and runs through Jan 6th. (more…)

Christie’s will dedicate a full day of sales to work from the Andy Warhol Foundation on Nov 12th. Around 350 works, with estimates ranging from $2,500 to $1,500,000, will be offered in 3 separate sales. The foundation is de-accessing 20,000 artworks to pay for grants through multiple auctions at Christie’s.
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Fake Cultural Development, Ai Weiwei’s company which handles his affairs, is being dissolved by the Chinese government. This may prevent him from having to pay the remaining balance of a 15m yuan (£1.5m) tax fine. The authorities stated that they were closing down the business because it had not met annual registration requirements. Ai represents that they could not do so because police had confiscated all its materials and its stamp when they detained him last year. (more…)

Image: Jasper Johns, Ballantine Ale Cans, 1960 via Artinfo

The Royal Academy of Arts is currently exhibiting over 150 sculptures around the theme of bronze. The selection of works spans the medium’s five-millennial lifespan, which spread from the Near East to Europe and China. Illustrating the complex and nuanced history of bronze as a medium, intertwining historical relevance with artistic production, the exhibition sheds light on the evolution of civilization in the context of these two undercurrents.

Image: Giovanfrancesco Rustici, The Pharisee, St. John the Baptist and The Levite from The Sermon of St. John the Baptist, 1511, Royal Academy of Arts

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