Cecily Brown, Untitled (The Beautiful and the Damned) (2013), Courtesy Gagosian Gallery

A collection of new and recent paintings by London-born artist Cecily Brown, is currently on view at Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills through October 12. The show includes fifteen paintings primarily focusing on the the human form as an abstraction, and follows up on a previous body of work shown in at Gagosian’s New York gallery earlier this year.

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As exhibitions of Balthus prepare to open in New York, critic Jerry Saltz writes on the history of one of the artist’s more sordid works, The Guitar Lesson.  Only exhibited once in 1977, the work has moved through the back channels of the art world in the past 40 years, finally coming to rest in the collection of shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.  “I don’t love Balthus’s work, but I grant that all parts of the best examples are charged with something wild, almost half-human, some sleeping need, rage, frustration, and restraint. What makes the banishment of The Guitar Lesson so bitter isn’t only that MoMA came this close to owning a second take on the blatant sexuality of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.”  Saltz writes. (more…)

Phillips has announced plans for a first-ever digital art auction, held this October 10th in New York, featuring a number of online works including one website, a YouTube video and a number of digital files able to be exhibited on a number of different devices.  Featuring work by artists Brenna Murphy, Addie Wagenknecht and Clement Valla, the auction is curated by Lindsay Howard of Bushwick’s 319 Scholes gallery. (more…)

With the first career retrospective of artist Pierre Huyghe set to open at Centre Pompidou this week, the French artist sat down Art Newspaper to discuss his selection of works for the show, the act of exhibition, and the focus of his work.  “I look at how things change, are transformed, or metabolise. The word might not be perfectly appropriate and I might change it. But I am trying to find a word to say ‘something that is alive.'”  He says. (more…)

The shortlist for the next installation on London’s Fourth Plinth has been released, calling on the public for “lively debate.”  Featuring works by David Shrigley, Hans Haacke, and Ugo Rondinone, among others, small maquettes of the sculptures are currently on view at The Crypt, St Martin-in-the Fields.  “The placing of challenging artwork amidst the historic surroundings of Trafalgar Square creates a delicious juxtaposition that gets people talking and debating, underpinning London’s reputation as a great world city for culture.”  Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, said. (more…)

A new development on the Lower East Side has been green lighted by city authorities, and will include a New York outpost for Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum.  Essex Crossing, a $1.1 billion development planned by L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners and Taconic Investment Partners, will include a community center, rooftop garden, as well as the 10,000 square foot space occupied by the museum. (more…)

The same statute that forced the removal of a Playboy installation in Marfa earlier this year is currently threatening the well-known Prada Marfa installation, The Guardian reports.  Texas officials have declared the Elmgreen and Dragset installation an illegal advertisement, and is currently exhibited without permits or licenses, but are searching for an amiable resolution to the issue.  “We want to find a solution to this,” said Texas Department of Transportation Spokesperson Veronica Beyer. “We know people want to see art in this great state, but it has to be legal.” (more…)

A recent article in The Economist analyzes Amazon’s entry into the art marketplace, pointing out the ongoing history of art sales online, and the still paltry percentage of the market’s total sales (less than 2% according to insurer Hiscox).  Noting a desire for face to face interaction in high price sales, the magazine points out that large scale sales often happen as a result of longtime client-dealer relations, instead of broad demand for a more accessible purchasing platform. (more…)

The chairman of the Pace Gallery, Arne Glimcher, has been appointed to the rank of Officer in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the French Republic.  The highest honor bestowed on either French citizen or foreigner, Glimcher joins the ranks of fellow Americans Thomas Edison, Simon Newcomb, and John Singer Sargent, as thanks for his “exemplary commitment to the vitality of art worldwide.” (more…)

Sotheby’s auction house has appointed Patrick S. McClymont, a former partner and managing director at Goldman and Sachs, as its new Chief Financial Officer, beginning October 7th.  McClymont replaces current CFO William S. Sheridan at the post, who has served the company for 17 years.  “I have had the privilege of working with a highly skilled, highly professional finance, investor relations and information technology team at Sotheby’s that I invested in and helped build, and they deserve an enormous amount of credit for all that we accomplished. It has been a true pleasure to be part of Sotheby’s and now I look forward to spending more time with my family and focusing on charitable work,” Sheridan remarked. (more…)

The New York Times profiles the tactics and approaches of the Art Loss Register, an independent investigation agency that specializes in locating and returning stolen or lost works of art around the world.  Accused of occasionally crossing ethical and legal lines, the agency has nevertheless maintained a reputation for its top-notch database and effectiveness. “When you’re doing a sting operation, for example,” Says company owner Julian Radcliffe, “you don’t say, ‘By the way, I’m lying to you.’ ” (more…)

The Financial Times has published an interview with Zeng Fanzhi, the Chinese painter who currently sits as one of the most expensive contemporary Asian artists.  Documenting his unique style, the interview goes on to detail Fanzhi’s early struggles as an artist in China, and his early life in Wuhan, a city known for its prominent role in The Cultural Revolution.  “At the time everyone wore the same clothes but my mother liked beautiful things and she sometimes wore a bit of colour – some pink flowers on her clothes,” Zeng says. “For that she was persecuted for her ‘petit bourgeois sentimentalism’ – that experience affected my whole family deeply.” (more…)

John Riepenhoff, Physical Pizza Networking Theory (2013), with the artist, right, in conversation with Andrew Kuo, and director, Pascal Spengemann, in conversation behind them, via Ben Richards for Art Observed

Everybody loves pizza, but the Marlborough Broome Street Gallery loves it even more. With PIZZA TIME!, the new downtown project space from one of New York’s most recognized galleries gives a multimedia homage to the pizza pie.  Supervised by Marlborough Director Pierre Levai’s young son Max, the show signals another step forward for a gallery in the midst of reinventing itself, signing new talent like Rashaad Newsome and duo Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, and pursuing new ground for the storied institution.

Andrew Kuo, Slice 8/23/13 (2013), via Ben Richards for Art Observed

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The Morgan Library has announced an ambitious plan to digitize its full collection of drawings and make them available online.  The project is expected to reach completion by October of next year, and will yield over 10,000 individual images by the likes of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Dürer, for free access on the Morgan’s site.  The digitization “is critical to our institutional goal of promoting drawings scholarship and reaching out to an ever larger audience,”said William M. Griswold, the museum’s director. (more…)

Charline von Heyl, Carlotta (2013), via Petzel Gallery

On view at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery is an exhibition of new works by German abstract painter Charline von Heyl, marking her seventh solo exhibition at the gallery, and a continuation of her intricately layered practices on canvas.   (more…)

Philanthropist and collector Leonard A. Lauder, who recently donated an impressive selection of early Modernist works to the Metropolitan Museum, has added another masterwork to his gift, Fernand Léger’s The Village.  “Leonard Lauder is dedicated to creating the greatest collection of Cubist art in the world and to ensuring that these works will be accessible to the millions of people who visit the Met.”  said Museum director and CEO Thomas P. Campbell. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal reports on the recent opening of Galerie Perrotin’s New York space, which shares the building at 909 Madison Avenue (a former Bank of New York branch) with Dominique Lévy Gallery.  With three spaces in Paris, and one in Hong Kong, Emmanuel Perrotin’s growing gallery network has finally found root in New York’s fertile art world. “For many artists around the world, their New York show is their most important,” He said.  It is, according to him,  “the dream of every ambitious gallerist, because within one kilometer of this gallery, you have more collectors than anywhere else in the world.” (more…)

The 27 year-old, Columbian-born Oscar Murillo is the focus of a spotlight in Bloomberg, detailing his recent addition to the David Zwirner roster, and the quickly rising prices for his works.  “He’s had the quickest upward trajectory for his age of any artist I’ve seen in 25 years,” said dealer and writer Kenny Schachter. “There’s a lot of money to be made trading Oscar Murillo at this point.” (more…)

Los Angeles collector and patron Eli Broad is at the top of a new list detailing the top art collectors around the world, titled Larry’s List.  Contrasting with the annually published ARTnews assessment, Larry’s List ranks collectors based on Internet presence, institutional engagement, art fair participation, communications platforms, and the physical visibility and scale of their collection.  A full 60-page report will be published later this year. (more…)

Smithsonian Institution director G. Wayne Clough has announced his intentions to step down as the head of the national museum and research network next year, providing the institution with time to find his successor.  “When I became secretary in 2008, I believed strongly that the Smithsonian had enormous untapped potential, especially in digital technology, to reach millions of people and serve as a resource for those who cannot visit Washington,” He said. “I am confident that with our initiatives under way in bioconservation, education, digitization and fund-raising, this is the right time to announce my plans for next fall so that an orderly transition can begin.” (more…)

Speaking on the state of contemporary art, Grayson Perry has called the majority of contemporary art “rubbish.”  Speaking during the inaugural Radio 4 Reith Lecture, Perry began by discussing his own appeal as an artist.  “Although we live in an era where anything can be art, not everything is art.  I think the art world is happy to dig down into the lower regions of society for a bit of gritty reality, but what it’s frightened of is the middle classes with good taste, often. Maybe I appeal to too many of those people.”  He continued:  “At any one moment most of the art being made is awful.” (more…)

John Baldessari, Man Fixing Curlers in Woman’s Hair (2013), all images by Sophie Kitching for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

On view at Sprüth Magers Berlin is a solo exhibition of new works by L.A.-based John Baldessari: large-format storyboard canvases he created in 2013.

The opening for John Baldessari’s Storyboard (in 4 Parts)
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With the Eli Broad Museum set to open across the street from MOCA sometime next fall, the high-profile collector and patron has announced his intentions to withdraw his annual contribution of $3 million to MOCA, effectively stepping back from his longtime role as the museum’s leading supporter.  Even so, Broad has expressed excitement about the potentials for his museum and its effects on MOCA, noting that it will increase the draw of art lovers to the area.  “They’re excited about it. They know that we’re going to be a great attraction, we’re going to spend time and energy and marketing getting attendance, and they’re going to be the beneficiary of all that,” he said. (more…)

This year’s ArtPrize awards are now underway, with the public voting on works in 16 categories to distribute over $560,000 in prizes.  Held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the award was created by one Rick DeVos, a philanthropist looking to shake things up in the small town. “I wanted to help develop a creative culture, one that’s open to new experiences and ideas,” DeVos said. “We’re very Midwestern here in Grand Rapids. Everybody does their thing and goes about their business. ArtPrize disrupts that.” (more…)