A scheduled Kanye West video projection at Houston’s Rothko Chapel was shut down last week by police, closing down the event before it started.  Another screening was also closed down by police after technical difficulties later that night.  The video projections, done by West for his new single “New Slaves,” is part of a worldwide series of projections to promote his new album, Yeezus. (more…)

Hong Kong Convention Center, site of the Art Basel Hong Kong Art Fair, via Forbes

With the closing of the doors at the Hong Kong Convention Center this past Sunday, the first edition of Art Basel Hong Kong was brought to a conclusion after a flourish of strong sales, critical praise, and notable attention for the art fair giant’s first foray into the Asian continent.

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Stuart Davis, Egg Beater No. 1 (1927), via The Whitney Museum of Art

On view currently at the Whitney Museum is a showcase of some of the museum’s deeper holdings of American artwork from the first half of the twentieth century, exploring the years before the mid-century advent of Abstract Expressionism. This part of the rotating exhibition, which began in December 2012, will continue through May 2013 before moving on to a new selection of works.

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The Venice Biennale

Every two years, the floating city of Venice floods with with the multitudes of art visitors, customers, gallerists and exhibitions that are all a part of the Venice Biennale. This year, marking the 55^th edition of the world’s largest art fair, sees the continuation of an event that first began in 1896. Between June 1^st and November 24^th over 300,000 visitors will travel to Venice for the expansive installations of exhibitions of work from artists in 88 nations, at both official and fringe sites. Art Observed will be on-site this week, with photos from variety of events around the city.

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“Francis Bacon in Raincoat,” 1967, photo by John Deakin, (c) The Estate of Francis Bacon, all images courtesy the National Museum of Art Tokyo and The Estate of Francis Bacon

Recently concluded at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo is a solo exhibition of works by Francis Bacon. Marking the first viewing of Bacon’s work in Japan in 30 years the exhibit is a retrospective focusing on the theme of the body, as well as the first exhibition of the artist’s work since his death in 1983.

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Marianne Vitale, Diamond Crossing (2013), courtesy of Zach Feuer Gallery

Marianne Vitale (b. 1973, East Rockaway, N.Y.) works across various medias; drawing, sculpture, video and performance.  Her art is versatile, often large-scale and ambitious, playing with intonations of humor and aggression in equal measure.  Part of the collaborative performance piece Invasionistas (2006) with artists David Adamo, Agathe Snow, Rita Ackerman, and Michael Portnoy in which they  “invaded” Reykjavik, Iceland; Vitale was in charge of propaganda, reading an original World War II evacuation plan as she and Portnoy evacuated a group of kindergarten students out of the city.  Throughout her work, Vitale uses her art as an inquiry into the fundamentals of society. (more…)

Artist James Turrell recently spoke with the Financial Times as he prepares for his three museum retrospective at LACMA, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as well as a solo show at LA’s Kayne Griffin Corcoran space. The artist is still vigorously involved in his Roden Crater Project, as well as his early career in Los Angeles. “I would describe Los Angeles as actually not having taste. In New York there’s taste. But you have to remember that taste is censorship. It’s a form of restriction.” In Los Angeles, he said, “there wasn’t any party line so you could do what you wanted.”

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In response to a city proposal to sell off work from the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection to cover a city debt of $15 billion, the Detroit Institute’s director has stated that the work is held “in the public trust,” and cannot be bought or sold. “They’re interested in making a healthy and viable Detroit,” the director, Graham W. J. Beal, said on Friday in a telephone interview. “We believe that that kind of action — diminishing our collection, the cultural value — would not be in the long-term interest.”

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Hirshhorn Museum Director Richard Koshalek will resign from his position by the end of the year, following a split vote decision on the future of the museum’s proposed architectural “bubble,” which was planned to emerge from the top of the building’s circular structure. The project has faced a series of major delays and budgetary setbacks since its 2009 announcement. “The board was divided and could not reach a decision,” said Smithsonian Undersecretary Richard Kurin. “I think Richard was looking for a very broad endorsement, and that didn’t happen. It wasn’t about the Bubble and what it could do architecturally or what it could do for the Hirshhorn. It was much more about finances going forward.”

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Renowned art historian Sir John Richardson is profiled in a long interview with the Financial Times this week, speaking about his life, his career, and his expansive biography of Pablo Picasso. “I used to bounce out of bed to write. In the old days I shinned up a ladder, got a book down, looked in the index – I can’t do that now. But the chance is that I won’t be able to get to the end of the Life [of Picasso], not because of my health or my eyes but because, well, I know too much. I know where the bodies are buried. I think I’ll stop in 1962, when Picasso and Jacqueline got married.” (more…)

Artist David Hockney has broken the silence surrounding the death of his assistant, 23-year old Dominic Elliott.  Elliott’s death, the causes of which remain somewhat of a mystery, sidelined the painter, forcing him to take a break from his prolific work.   “The spring didn’t start until late April this year. I wasn’t doing anything much, had nearly given up, and was still thinking about going to LA when my assistant, Jean-Pierre, said I didn’t really have an option. I had to continue with the work. And he was right. I’m not going to retire. I just keep working and that’s what I think I should do.” (more…)

In the run-up to this year’s Venice Biennale, curator Massimiliano Gioni spoke with the New York Times, discussing the event, his approach to curating, and his perspective on the event’s long history.  “Klimt showed there in 1905,” he says. “That is mind-blowing to me. Since then there has been Morandi and Picasso, Rauschenberg, Johns and so on. Maybe I’m romanticizing, but the past is still very present.” (more…)

Former MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel has joined gallery Hauser and Wirth to help develop a space in Los Angeles.  Schimmel, who has never worked at a commercial gallery, will bring his experience to what is initially described as a museum-like exhibition strategy.  “I think it’s going to be quite different in the respect that it will be done on a larger scale, have fewer exhibitions and a combination of selling and non-selling exhibitions,” he said. (more…)

The Getty Museum, in response to critiques over its painting collection, has acquired Édouard Manet’s “Portrait of Madame Brunet.”  The purchase is the first major acquisition under new president and CEO James Cuno, and was made through New York gallery Luhring Augustine.  “This is a significant addition to what I would call the greater museum of Los Angeles, which is how I present any picture to the board,” said curator Scott Schaefer.  (more…)

A new article in the Guardian is questioning the lack of gender parity in the contemporary art world, noting the lack of any females on the list of top 100 auction sales, and a small percentage of female artists in public collections.  “People are saying: ‘I find I can’t even have this conversation about equality in the art world’,” says curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley, “because so many people think it’s already been achieved. Because figures like Tracey Emin have defied the statistics, their rare success misleads people into thinking women get an equal shot.” (more…)

Tracey Emin recently sat down with The New York Times for a brief interview, discussing aging, her current show at Lehmann Maupin, and the valuation of her work as a woman.  “My work rarely comes up in secondary market, so it means that my prices stay low. But I’ll tell you about my contemporaries — if I sold every single thing in my whole show, it is still not as much as one painting of my male contemporaries.” (more…)

Jeff Koons (Installation view), © Jeff Koons. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by Robert McKeever

This past week, Jeff Koons opened a show of recent work at Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, continuing the artist’s exploration of new forms in printed works, sculpture and assemblage.  Facing off against David Zwirner’s show of new Koons pieces several blocks away, the show was seemed to make its show-stopping intentions explicit, showcasing a number of Koons’ stainless steel balloon animals, and a series of hyper-kinetic prints alongside recent inflatable sculptures and takes on classical art works. (more…)

The Tate Britain has purchased “Salisbury Cathedral from the Water Meadows,” a 1831 master work by painter John Constable, for the price of $23.1 million.  Previously held by the National Gallery, the work will embark on a national tour, through Colchester, London, Salisbury and Cardiff.  “It is unimaginable that this particular painting could have ended up anywhere except a British public collection.”  Said Heritage Lottery Fund chair Jenny Abramsky, who helped fund the purchase. (more…)

Long Island Art Dealer Glafira Rosales has been charged with tax fraud and the sale of several millions of dollars in forged art.  Rosales reportedly failed to disclose over $12.5 Million she had learned form the sale of the works, made through the already embattled Knoedler Gallery in New York.  Authorities assert that in many cases, Rosales had acted as a mediator for sales of work, although in some cases she reportedly fabricated the selling client, and kept the sales profits for herself.  “As alleged, Glafira Rosales gave new meaning to the phrase ‘artful dodger’ by avoiding taxes on millions of dollars in income from dealing in fake artworks for fake clients,” Manhattan United States Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. (more…)

Pablo Picasso,  Absinthe Drinker (1901), via Courtauld Gallery

The Courtauld Gallery is currently presenting Becoming Picasso, once again bringing together paintings from Picasso’s 1901 debut exhibition in Paris. The works in this exhibition offer a striking view of Picasso’s early work, and his transformation from his early work in the vocabularies made famous at the time by artists such as Van Gogh, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec. That early Paris exhibition successfully launched Picasso’s career, and several of the works included in the original exhibition are now considered to be some of his first masterpieces. (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will open its newly renovated European Galleries this Thursday, and the New Yorker’s Peter Schjeldahl has published a brief review of the new wing, praising its appointments and rehang.  “I had an eerie sense, while surveying the results the other day, that here was a brand new major institution which, somehow, had plundered the holdings of the Met.”  He writes. (more…)

The future Pérez Art Museum Miami has received a large contribution from an anonymous donor, the museum announced this week.  The donation will see the museum getting $12 Million in cash, and $3 Million in art.  “I can say almost nothing about it except that I’m thrilled,” said Museum Director Thom Collins. (more…)

Online mega-retailer Amazon has outlined plans to launch Amazon Fine Art Gallery this summer, a new branch of its site that will allow users to purchase art directly from partnering galleries.  “We have received overwhelming support from the galleries that have already joined the platform and we would love the opportunity to offer your gallery’s selection in the Amazon Art store.” says an email from Amazon to potential new galleries. (more…)

François Pinault, the Christie’s owner and art collector was recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal, highlighting the executive’s passion for contemporary art, and the current show of work by Rudolf Stingel at Pinault’s recently purchased Venetian palace the Palazzo Grassi.  “He is a sponge. He is willing to learn all the time,” says Elena Geuna, the former director of Sotheby’s Europe. (more…)