An unnamed man in a suit plunged 100 feet to his death off the Tate Modern‘s members-only balcony yesterday, leaving hundreds of onlookers shocked.

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Jackson Pollock, “Ocean Greyness” (1953), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

This summer, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum celebrates a groundbreaking period in its history with “Art of Another Kind,” an installation featuring works collected primarily from 1949-1960. This era began with Solomon R. Guggenheim’s passing. The movement caught fire under new director James Johnson Sweeney’s affinity for the explorative and abstract work of artists he referred to as “tastebreakers,” and ended soon after the museum’s 1959 relocation to Frank Lloyd Wright‘s iconic white structure docked in the Upper East Side.

Judit Reigl, “Outburst” (1956), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

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Tino Sehgal via The Independent

Anglo-German artist Tino Sehgal opened ‘These Associations’ in the Tate Modern‘s Turbine Hall yesterday. As the 13th Unilever Commission, the performance art installation is the museum’s first live commission. ‘These Associations’ features shifts of around 50 participants at a time, partaking in different games, dances, and social interactions designed by Sehgal.

Turbine Hall, the venue for ‘These Associations’ via BBC News

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Unilever‘s sponsorship of the Tate Modern‘s yearly art installation in the Turbine Hall has expired. The decision for renewal will be put on hold, as the venue is set to close for construction in 2013.

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Banksy releases three Olympic-themed works in anticipation of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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All photographs taken by Lisa Marsova for Art Observed

For the past two months, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has housed a sizeable abstract installation by Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno on its rooftop terrace.  The structure, titled “Cloud City”, is Saraceno’s first site-specific commission in the United States.  With a production spanning only the past decade, Saraceno is a relative newcomer to the art world, but his interdisciplinary investigations in environment have already generated wide attention.  As a complex fusion of architecture, geometry, and the cosmos, “Cloud City” is a continuation in Saraceno’s study of the overlay of art and science.

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ArtInfo published a list of “The 50 Most Exciting Art Collectors Under 50, part 1.”

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In a strongly titled article, “A Los Angeles Museum on Life-Support” The New York Times analyzes the recent fall-out and standing of LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, examining director Jeffrey Deitch‘s role in the recent happenings.

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Rafael Lozano-Hemmer‘s ‘Open Air,’ featuring 24 searchlights controlled by a mobile app and the voices of the visitors, will open at the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia on September 20th of this year.

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Ellsworth Kelly’s Dartmouth Panels, a large external wall piece, commissioned by Leon Black, the recent buyer of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’, has been installed on Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts, preceding the opening of the Black Visual Arts Center in September.

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The New York Times reports on the strange case of Robert Rauschenberg‘s Canyon and the legal dispute involving the heirs of Ileana Sonnabend, the famed art dealer and previous owner. Because Canyon features a dead bald eagle, the current owners are unable to sell the Rauschenberg due to the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Although, due to its selling restriction, the work has been appraised at zero dollars, the IRS insists on taxing the family $29 million.

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Gabriel Orozco, Sandstars (2012)

Exploring qualities of taxonomic classification, Mexican-born artist Gabriel Orozco frequently picks his subjects apart, examining numerous elements before assembling or arranging them in the gallery context.  His pieces have explored the interaction between nature and culture on micro and macro levels, using scientific forms to classify and categorize these encounters.

Gabriel Orozco, Astroturf Constellation (2012)

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Katie Koti, The Pull (2011). All photos taken on site for Art Observed by Ryann Donnelly

Yale’s Photography MFA thesis show, presented by Wirth Art Advisory is on view at Ana Tzarev gallery in New York City through July 21. Curated by Sabrina Wirth, the show entitled Group Portrait features 9 emerging photographers: Peter Baker, Richard Choi, Felix R. Cid, Thomas Gardiner, Pao Houa Her, Katie Koti, Kate A. T. Merrill, Sarah Muehlbauer, and Maayan Strauss.

Opening of Group Portrait Yale Photography MFA Thesis Show

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‬Herb Vogel, the postman who, along with his librarian wife, amassed a collection of over 5,000 important minimalist artworks, has died at age 89 in New York.

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‬The New York Times Magazine compares paintings of Edward Hopper, on what would have been his 130th Birthday, to photos of the original houses that inspired the works. “We know it’s time to put up the awnings each year when we’re eating on the porch and we turn around and see a big tour group watching us eat dinner.” Greta Bagshaw, an owner of the “Mansard Roof” home says.

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‬Larry Gagosian is set to host a major sculture exhibition in Rio de Janiero to coincide with the ArtRio Fair. Gagosian’s eponymous gallery will have a separate booth at the fair. Both sites will be designed by Claudia Moreira Salles, the Brazilian designer. The fair will run from September 12-16.

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‬In a new interview with The Independent, Sarah Lucas does little to restrict her opinion of the art of fellow Young British Artists including that of Tracey Emin “[her work is] a bit second-rate, really, to exploit all that personal stuff”. “Tracey likes a lot of drama, which I don’t really.”

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‬In the midst of a major mid-career retrospective at Tate Modern, Damien Hirst is profiled by Forbes magazine. Considering the boundaries of a contemporary art market, the article suggests “nobody seems to misunderstand his genius more than Damien Hirst himself.”

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Amidst the resignation of chief curator Paul Schimmel and artist-trustees Catherine Opie, Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari and Ed Ruscha,MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch responds to recent criticisms in an open letter and also an interview in which he rejects the notion of a more “celebrity-driven” exhibition program. “I believe that an art exhibition can be engaging, fun and deeply intellectually satisfying and serious,” Deitch said. “These are not contradictory concepts in art.”

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Princeton University to display a yearlong installation of Ai Weiwei‘s 12 sculpture ‘Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads’.  The school has also invited the Chinese artist and activist to campus this Fall.

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Doug Aitken awarded this year’s Nam June Paik Art Center Prize, which recognizes artists who have made creative impacts in their artistic field with their experimentation and innovation. The American artist is the sole 2012 recipient and is invited to have a featured solo exhibition.

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All photographs taken by Zoe Zabor for Art Observed

Coinciding with the recent unveiling of her newly designed Louis Vuitton displays and last week’s opening of her Retrospective at the Whitney, Yayoi Kusama has spread her signature red and white dots to the lawn of Hudson River Park. Presented by the Gagosian Gallery and the Hudson River Park Trust,  “Guidepost to the New Space” (2004) features unique, amoeba-shaped forms at Pier 45 on West 10th Street, close to the Whitney’s future location in the Meatpacking District.

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A Matisse painting was recovered in an undercover sting operation in Miami. The two individuals, attempting to sell “Odalisque in Red Pants” for $740,000, unknowingly admitted that they knew the piece was stolen to FBI agents, and could face up to 10 years in prison.

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Tracey Emin to carry the Olympic Torch today, completing her 400 meter leg at the Turner Contemporary in her hometown of Margate.

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