This December, collectors Mera and Don Rubell will present Year of the Artist, a showcase of contemporary Chinese art at the 2013 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach.  Featuring 20 artists, including Ai Weiwei and Zhang Huang, the show will look to bring a major focus to the Chinese nation’s vibrant arts scene.  “There’s a new generation of Chinese artists that is interesting to us,” said Mera Rubell in a telephone interview. “They have the world view and they are also dealing with the transformation of China itself.” (more…)

This Sunday, Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson will present A Lot of Sorrow, a performative sound piece that will present the band The National, playing its song “Sorrow” for six consecutive hours at MoMA PS1.  Embracing duration and endurance as fundamental to the piece, the work explores the line between pop music and sonic sculpture.  As stated in the press release: “the idea behind A Lot of Sorrow is devoid of irony, yet full of humor and emotion. It constitutes another quest to find the comic in the tragic and vice versa.” (more…)

Embracing performance and creative theatrics, a group of protestors converged on the Tate Modern yesterday, protesting the ongoing sponsorship of the institution by petroleum giant BP.  Chanting snippets from the corporation’s court proceedings over the Deepwater Horizon spill (yesterday was the disaster’s three-year anniversary), the group sought to underscore the corporation’s ties to the art community. “It’s not only BP that’s on trial for the devastation it has caused to Gulf Coast communities and ecosystems, it’s also Tate and other cultural institutions that provide BP with the social legitimacy to continue operating with such destructive consequences,” said performer Paul Brady.  “We’re making a performance that brings the BP trial into Tate Modern because BP’s arts sponsorship cannot be separated from the irrevocable damage it does to communities and the climate.” (more…)

Cooper Union, via Architecture Paper

After almost two years of debate and discussions, The Cooper Union announced yesterday that it will begin charging tuition on a “steeply sliding scale” for undergraduate students.  The tuition will range from $20,000 a year to nothing for those with “the greatest needs.”

A past protest at Cooper Union, via NBC

“The time has come to set our institution on a path that will enable it to survive and thrive well into the future,” said Cooper board chairman, Mark Epstein. “Under the new policy, the Cooper Union will continue to adhere to the vision of Peter Cooper, who founded the institution specifically to provide a quality education to those who might not otherwise be able to afford it.”

Students Circle the Cooper Union for a Symbolic Embrace, via New York Times

While the institution has strived to find an alternative to charging tuition, its sizable debts and interest on property and loans has caused major deficits in its endowment.  The vote for tuition is an attempt to defray those costs.

Class at Cooper Union, via New York Times

While the tuition still places the school’s cost of attendance well below that of other private art schools, such as the Rhode Island School of Design or Pratt Institute, some fear that the increased price will still encourage inequality among students.  “It’s a real tragedy,” said professor Peter Buckley. “It reflects the condition of higher education as a whole. Costs are out of control.”

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The Economist is reporting on the Dallas Art Fair, a young art fair looking to do for the Texan metropolis what Art Basel Miami Beach did for Florida’s South Beach.  Growing from a small 37 exhibitor event in its first year, a number of local and international galleries and institutions, including the Dallas Contemporary, are now participating in what is being billed as Dallas Art Week, showcasing the city’s emergence as a major American arts hub.  “It is the opportunity to reach out to the rest of the cities across America and say that you can participate in this appetite we have for art,” says mayor Mike Rawlings. (more…)

A number of prominent architects have called on the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish its recent acquisition, the former home of the American Folk Art Museum.  In an open letter to the museum, Richard Meier, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Hugh Hardy and Robert A.M. Stern, among others, called for the Museum to reconsider razing the building, which it purchased in 2011.  “The Museum of Modern Art—the first museum with a permanent curatorial department of architecture and design—should provide more information about why it considers it necessary to tear down this significant work of contemporary architecture,” the letter says.  “The public has a substantial and legitimate interest in this decision, and the Museum of Modern Art has not yet offered a compelling justification for the cultural and environmental waste of destroying this much-admired, highly distinctive twelve-year-old building.” (more…)

Artist Kenny Scharf spent 20 hours behind bars last weekend, after being arrested for drawing a graffiti snake on the wall of a private property in Brooklyn.  The artist took to his Facebook to recount his arrest by two officers who were already fans of the artist’s work.  “The cops who arrested me were fans and wanted to talk about ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ and even liked the tag,” Scharf said. “At the first holding cell in Williamsburg (there were only 5 people in the cell) the police were googling me and asking about things like the Tunnel nightclub.” (more…)

Danh Vo, Mother Tongue (Installation View), via Marian Goodman

The recipient of the 2012 Hugo Boss Prize, Vietnamese-German artist Danh Vo creates works that feature a layering of significances, interrelated meanings tied together through the conception, production and presentation of his work.  It is this practice of appropriation and representation that informs his recent show of new work, Mother Tongue, at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York.

Danh Vo, Lot 12. A Vietnamese Carved Ivory Tusk (2013), via Marian Goodman

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The Financial Times has published a profile of painter George Condo, tracing the artist’s early work in New York, his early meetings with Andy Warhol, and his dedicated approach to his practice.  “I can’t stand a white canvas,” Condo says. “If someone wanted to drive me insane, they could put one in front of me and not give me any art materials to work on it. That would be the perfect torture.”   (more…)

The Sacrifice of Polyxena, a painting by 17th century artist Charles Le Brun recently rediscovered in a suite at The Ritz Hotel, has been purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the price of $1.9 Million.  The museum had searched for a Le Brun for over 50 years, and seized on the chance to own the painting when it went up for auction on April 15th at Christie’s.  “No really famous expert of 17th-century painting has ever stayed in the Coco Chanel suite, apparently,” specialist Olivier Lefeuvre said when asked how the painting had hund undiscovered for so long. (more…)

The current strength of the contemporary art market has drastically raised the price for works by female artists.  Nine of the top ten prices for women painters has been set in the last five years, including a new top record for Berthe Morisot’s After Lunch.  “Whereas before we looked at female artists as the land of opportunity, with prices like these, collectors say the window is closing for gender-specificity bargain buying,” said Gabriela Palmieri, a senior vice president and contemporary-art specialist at Sotheby’s. (more…)

One by one, the indicted suspects in a case involving money laundering and illegal gambling, among them art dealer Helly Nahmad, plead not guilty in court on Friday.  Underlining the size and complexity of the case, over 30 were indicted as part of two separate but connected gambling and money laundering rings.  Mr. Nahmad is charged with helping to bankroll the operation.  “We do not believe that Mr. Nahmad has knowingly violated the law.” Said Nahmad’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman. “We anticipate that he will be fully exonerated.” (more…)

Glenstone, a private museum established by industrialist Mitchell P. Rales and his wife Emily in Potomac, Maryland, is planning a major expansion to its exhibition spaces.  Costing $125 Million, the new galleries will offer more public access to what National Gallery director Earl A. Powell III calls “one of the most important collections of postwar art.” (more…)

Vasily Kandinsky, Murnau: Street with Women (1908), Courtesy The Neue Galerie New York

Currently on view at The Neue Galerie in New York is a survey of German Expressionist works, taken from the gallery’s permanent collection, that explores the opposing but connected themes of primitivism and modernity throughout the work of the era, including work by Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Paul Klee, among others.

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The new airport currently under construction in Doha, Qatar is commissioning major art pieces by some of the world’s most prominent artists, says an undisclosed source.  While contractors, staff and dealers are bound by a non-disclosure agreement, a Qatar Museums Authority official confirmed 14 new commission projects from highly recognized international artists recently on a local blog. (more…)

Recognized contemporary artists Ryan Gander and Cory Arcangel have both announced the launch of their own lines of clothing.  Gander’s line is a collaboration with Japanese clothing line A.Four Labs, while Arcangel’s, titled “Arcangel Surfwear” is “all designed for comfortably surfing…. the web of course,” says a project manager. (more…)

This May 14th, Barnett Newman’s Onement VI will go on sale at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction, projected to sell for $30 to $40 million.  While Sotheby’s has declined to name the seller, several dealers have identified the current owner as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who purchased the painting in 2000.  “Several conservators have seen it and said it is in good condition,” says Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Worldwide head. “It is unlined and on its original stretcher.”  (more…)

New York’s Park Avenue Armory has released its list of Artists-in-Residence for 2013, including singer-songwriter Somi, choreographer Faye Driscoll, the Trusty Sidekick Theater Company and artists Ralph Lemon, Okwui Okpokwasili and Alex Dolan.  The artists will present works during the Armory’s 2013 calendar year, including an immersive mystery theatre piece, and a curated night of Nigerian music created during Somi’s 15-month residency in Lagos. (more…)

The Tate Modern in London has announced its plans for a show of the final works completed by Henri Matisse.  Slated for Spring of 2014, the show will feature 120 pieces by the artist, primarily using his large-scale, cut-out technique, including his famous Blue Nudes.  “They are more like installations or environments than paintings; and they seem very contemporary now. Part of the point of the show is to reconsider them in this light,” said Tate curator Nicholas Cullinan. “They were a way of collapsing line and colour; at the same time they were a kind of sculpture – carving into pure colour.” (more…)

Jake and Dinos Chapman, The Sum of all Evil, (2012-2013), Courtesy of the artists and White Cube via Pinchuk Art Centre

Jake and Dino Chapman are currently presenting Chicken, their first solo show in the Ukraine, at the Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev. The exhibition is centered around a new installation, titled The Sum of all Evil (2013), that confronts violence, death and the Holocaust through a series of comically perverse tableaus. Additional works from the Chapman brother’s oevre are also on display, providing an artistic context to the brothers subversive black humor and embrace of taboo subject matter.

Jake and Dinos Chapman, The Sum of all Evil, (2012-2013), Courtesy of the artists and White Cube via Pinchuk Art Centre

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Preview
Chuck Close, Prints: Process and Collaboration (Installation View), via White Cube

As part of a global tour featuring Chuck Close’s graphic works, curated by the Parrish Art Museum, USA, are currently on view at the White Cube Bermondsey South Galleries in London. Featuring a particular focus on Close’s prints, the exhibition brings a series of meticulously time-consuming works by the artist to light that stand strongly alongside his better-known, large-scale paintings.

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Rosy Keyser, Hungry Shepherd Honeypot (2013), Courtesy Peter Blum Gallery, New York

Rosy Keyser‘s new group of works, Medusa Pie Country, is currently on view at Peter Blum Gallery in New York.  Consisting almost exclusively of materials she found in the upstate New York hamlet of Medusa, where she occasionally works, Keyser’s works on view grapple with the idea that art is always being made, both inside the studio and out.

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Nine massive stone sculptures by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone have been installed in Rockefeller center this week, a collaboration between the artist at New York’s Public Art Fund.  Titled Human Nature, the primitivist sculptures each way 17 and 1/2  tons, and were installed by crane.  “My first thought was how big,” said Keith Douglas, managing director for Rockefeller Center. “He was saying ‘huge colossal sculptures,’ and I’m thinking, ‘In comparison to what?’ and multiplying times nine.”  (more…)

This spring, Christie’s auction calendar will feature a broad selection of works from the estate of the late Dr. Mona Ackerman, a psychologist and writer who counts works by Giacometti, Picasso, and Arp in her collection, as well as a number of fine antiques and pieces of furniture.  Her wide collection of pieces will be auctioned in the weeks leading up to Christie’s Modern Art Evening Sale on May 8th in New York.  Says Paul Provost, Christie’s Deputy Chairman: “Dr. Ackerman’s collection reveals her exquisite taste and wide interests. Her collection was striking and elegant, emanating the grace and passionate enthusiasm for life, for which Ackerman was well-known.”  (more…)