A Nazi-instituted law from 1938 is complicating the situation in the return of the works discovered in the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, the New York Times reports.  Allowing the government to seize non-German or Jewish artworks deemed “degenerate,” the law is still on the books, and has made it more difficult for German and European museums which previously had work removed from its collection.  “The legal situation is relatively obvious and clear,” said Wolfgang Büche, of the Moritzburg Foundation in Halle. “With art taken from Jewish collectors, there are sometimes legal or at least moral circumstances under which they can seek to have their works restituted. We can only seek to buy them back.” (more…)

The New York Times profiles Adam Szymczyk, the current curator of Kunsthalle Basel, examining his current contributions to contemporary art, and some of the groundbreaking work he has done in the past years.  “He is able to identify what is happening in the zeitgeist,” said Iwona Blazwick of Whitechapel Gallery, “to have his finger on the pulse and create the intellectual framework within which to understand it.” (more…)

Isa Genzken spoke with the New York Times recently, discussing her current retrospective at MoMA, her long career, and the public reception of her art.  “I think my work is very difficult to understand. Sometimes people do and sometimes they don’t. I can’t do much about that.” (more…)

After 20 years on the podium for Sotheby’s, Chief of Contemporary Art and auctioneer Tobias Meyer  has announced that he will be leaving his position in order to pursue work as a private dealer.  Mr. Meyer has been on the stand for some of the auction house’s most significant sales, including the record sale of Andy Warhol’s Car Crash painting earlier this month. “Contemporary art has become a little too much like ‘American Idol,'” he told said. “We’re an overvisualized culture, and young artists can find themselves with a real career only six months after starting to paint.”
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John Baldessari, Double Play: Eggs and Sausage (2012), Courtesy of Champagne Holdings, LLC © John Baldessari

On view at Garage Moscow, co-curated by Garage’s new Chief Curator Kate Fowle and International Advisor Hans Ulrich Obrist, 1+1=1 is the first exhibition of work by John Baldessari in Russia. The exhibition is a compilation of Baldessari’s most recent series of paintings, exploring the relationship between text and image in visual art.

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Brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman are the subject of the Financial Times’ ongoing “Lunch with the FT” series, talking about their early work, and response to criticism that their work has scarcely changed in the past years.  “But it’s the same criticism you could level at Mark Rothko,” The brothers collectively ask. “Is it imperative for the artist to be novel?” (more…)

Donald Judd,  Untitled (DSS 216) (1970), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

Currently on view at Mnuchin Gallery’s uptown location is a two-floor exhibition focusing exclusively on the stack sculptures of the late Donald Judd, one of the defining voices of New York minimalism in the 1970’s and beyond.

Donald Judd, Untitled (DSS 154) (1968), via Mnuchin Gallery (more…)

Richard Serra, Inside Out (detail) (2013), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

Rounding out a gallery year that included exhibitions by Jeff Koons, Basquiat and more, Gagosian Gallery has opened the doors to both its Chelsea locations for a major showing of new work by Richard Serra, including an enormous new torqued steel structure, Inside Out in its 21st Street location, and a series of smaller, albeit no less impressive works at the gallery’s 24th Street space.

Richard Serra, Grief and Reason (for Walter) (2013) © Richard Serra. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photograph by Robert McKeever (more…)

The controversial “Playboy Marfa” sculpture previously on view along U.S. route 90, has been dismantled, and will be placed on view at the Dallas Contemporary.  The move comes after heated protest over the piece, opposed by Marfa residents for its attempt to turn the town into a space for art-driven marketing and promotion.  “We are happy this has been resolved and that Texans will still get to enjoy this piece of art,” said Veronica Beyer, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation. (more…)

Museo Jumex, via Museo Jumex

Museo Jumex, the long-anticipated home of the Jumex Collection, opened its doors yesterday with a major opening event that drew art world celebrities, collectors and curators from around the world to the Mexico City suburb of Polanco.  Established by food and juice magnate Eugenio López, the Jumex Collection is considered the largest private contemporary arts collection in Latin America, and features works by  Tacita Dean, Sarah Lucas, Donald Judd, Olafur Eliasson, Gabriel Orozco, Damien Hirst, Robert Gober, Andy Warhol and Bruce Nauman to name a few. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the private life of German collector Cornelius Gurlitt, whose huge trove of Nazi-looted art, including works by Otto Dix and Pablo Picasso, left him leading a secluded existence in his Munich flat.  “There is nothing I have loved more in my life than my pictures,” he said. (more…)

Mime, via Art Observed Staff

Last week, in the midst of auction week hustle and bustle, Creative Time held its annual fall gala at Williamsburg’s Output Nightclub, bringing together a varied group of artists, musicians, designers and nightlife mainstays for an event celebrating the size and diversity of New York’s current creative community.

Creative Time Fall Ball, via Art Observed Staff (more…)

Dia Fall Gala, atmosphere (during Matmos commission). All images courtesy Dia Art Foundation.

Last Monday’s Dia Art Foundation Fall Gala was a striking affair. Video projections, sound, light-play, chatter, and music gave the cavernous venue its mystical feel, all accompanied by a commission by experimental electronic music duo Matmos, whose performance was reminiscent of a spiritual journey. Even so, the full series of events and installations fell in line with the framework of minimal and progressive art that the Dia Art Foundation specializes in bringing to the public through an array of different channels.

Dinner, atmosphere. (more…)

The Independent reports on the history of artist Jeff Koons, noting his time as a Wall Street commodities trader, and the artist’s immense market popularity, underscored this week by the sale of his Balloon Dog sculpture for $58 million.  The article notes the rising of wealth of the “new asset class,” and the appeal of Koons’ sculptures to collectors with a ” large deficit of social and cultural capital.” (more…)

This weekend marks the seventh edition of Pinta NY, an international art fair dedicated to Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese art. Founded in 2007, the fair has moved around the city and taken a few different shapes as it has grown into the can’t miss event it is today. This year, the fair is located at 82MERCER, a “downtown loft-style building located in the heart of SoHo,” and is comprised of two floors and features both contemporary and modern art. Additionally, Pinta has revamped its layout by breaking down exhibitions into platforms, organized by theme and period, and hand-picked by a team of internationally recognized curators. For visitors with limited time, this breakdown will help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

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William Eggleston, At Zenith I (1979-2013), © Eggleston Artistic Trust. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery

On view at Gagosian in New York is a unique exhibition of works by William Eggleston photographed during a road trip he took from Georgia to Tennessee in 1978. These photos of the sky taken with an early disposable camera are meant to evoke the feeling and aesthetics of classical paintings. (more…)

The recent disclosure of hundreds of looted Nazi artworks discovered this past month in Munich has families around the world digging through archives and records in an effort to fulfill their claims to a number of masterpiece works confiscated or sold during World War II.  “It’s a little out of the respect for the memory of my grandfather that I pursue it,” says Michel David-Weill, former banker whose grandfather’s Canaletto etching appeared in the first round of works placed on the Lost Art Database. (more…)

David Salle, Ghost 1 (1992), © David Salle, VAGA, NY. Courtesy, Skarstedt New York

Currently on view at Skarstedt Gallery’s uptown space is a series of 13 works by David Salle, from his Ghost Paintings series.  Executed in 1992, these busy, color-inflected works were created from a series of photographs, documenting improvised actions with an enormous white sheet.  Taken as a whole, the works create a dialogue on the image as the result of a series of practices, processes and flows, rendering a final piece that belies its mode of creation in subtle ways. (more…)

The British government export ban has been placed on a 17th century self-portrait by Anthony Van Dyck, giving time for British galleries to raise the £12.5 million needed to keep the painting in the country.  “I hope that placing a temporary export bar on this magnificent painting will allow time for a UK buyer to come forward and ensure it remains here in the UK.”  Said British Cultural Minister Ed Vaizey.

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The upcoming Whitney Biennial, opening next March, has announced its initial list of artists for the 2 month exhibition.  Featuring work by Triple Canopy, Uri Aran, Bjarne Melgaard, Charlemagne Palestine and more, the 2014 edition of the Biennial will be the final in the museum’s current building before moving to the Meatpacking district in 2015. (more…)

Georges Braque, Compotier et Cartes (1918), Courtesy Grand Palais

On view at Grand Palais, Galeries nationales in Paris is a retrospective covering the full life and output of French painter and sculptor Georges Braque’s career, beginning with Fauvism to his later works, particularly his birds series. The exhibition will continue through January 6th 2014.

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The Guardian reports on the exploits of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, the Nazi art theft division that was responsible for the theft of over 5 million works during its existence, including loot from the Uffizi, the Louvre, and countless churches across Europe.  It is reported that one of the group’s most infamous prizes, the Mona Lisa, was rumored to have been recovered from an Austrian salt mine after the war, although recent research has determined that this loot was in fact a copy of the original work. (more…)

Constantin Brancusi, Mademoiselle Pogany II (1925-2006), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

In 1913, Constantin Brancusi sent 5 sculptures to the now-infamous Armory Show, gently loping sculptural works that set the stage for the revolutionary sculptural abstractions that would change the face of contemporary art for good.  It was the beginning of a long and occasionally rocky relationship with the United States, including a defining court case in which the artist successfully proved his work’s position as art, and breaking the long-held definition of an artwork asbased on a model or subject, opening the door for the proliferation of American abstraction. (more…)

The long-anticipated collaboration between Damien Hirst and British design house Alexander McQueen has finally been revealed, featuring a number of variations on the designer’s iconic skull scarves. The collection consists of 30 scarf designs, utilizing designs and concepts from Hirst’s celebrated Entomology series. (more…)