It was 100 years ago this week that the first Armory Show brought the avant-garde of Europe to the United States, turning conceptions of painting and art-making on its ear.  Lasting only four weeks, the show offered American art-goers some of the first glimpses of work by Picasso, Edvard Munch, Duchamp, and many more.   (more…)

Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery

“My grandfather died when I was fourteen and became an abacus. In the way ice turns into water, he became this object he left behind.”  So begins the performance of Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto’s Talking in Circles Talking, an immersive performance and installation at Soloway Gallery in South Williamsburg.  Exploring the notions of value and vibrancy at play in the space between human relationships and physical objects, Sasamoto effectively fuses personal discourses with her surrounding environment.

Aki Sasamoto, Talking in Circles Talking (Installation View), via Soloway Gallery (more…)

In a new twist, New York’s now defunct Knoedler Gallery, which has faced several lawsuits in the past few years for selling forged works attributed to Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others, is now being sued by its investor David Mirvish for failing to sell two authentic works.  The gallery shut down after allegations of selling a fake Pollock for $17 million came to light, effectively breaching an agreement between Mirvish and the gallery to sell two Pollock masterpieces.  “David Mirvish, one of the world’s foremost art collectors, fervently believes in the authenticity of the works and is determined to receive that to which he is entitled,” said Mirvish’s lawyer, Nicholas Gravante Jr. (more…)

Christie’s Deputy Chair Amy Cappellazzo appeared on Bloomberg TV this week, discussing the weeklong online auction of works by Andy Warhol to benefit the Warhol Foundation, as well as sharing some of her favorite works from the auction.  “There’s a very beautiful 60’s unique print of Marilyn Monroe’s lips, which I think is just spectacular.”  She says. (more…)

Vanity Fair Magazine sat down with curator and dealer Vito Schnabel (son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel), to talk about finding his way into the art world, his recently opened group show “White Collar Crimes” at Acquavella Galleries, and his practice as a curator: “It’s very personal; it’s just what I like and what I’m drawn to and what I get enthusiastic or excited about, and what I feel like working with or putting my time into.” (more…)

Billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen has donated a selection of works to the Museum of Modern Art, including paintings by Cy Twombly, Ed Ruscha and Martin Kippenberger.  The gifts come while Cohen is currently under investigation by the U.S. Government for allegations of insider trading. (more…)

Sarah Lucas, Sitation Classic Pervery (Installation View), via Sadie Coles

In February 2012, Sarah Lucas opened her first Situation exhibition in a project space above Sadie Coles headquarters in Burlington Place. This was the beginning of a project that Lucas has continued as curator and artist ever since.  Her most recent installation, Situation Classic Pervery, was a continuation of this project.

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The rapidly skyrocketing rent prices in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood is driving out many of the galleries that brought the area to prominence a few years earlier.  The neighborhood’s rapid growth has attracted a number of high-profile clients that have caused fierce competition over much higher rent prices, and middle-sized galleries are feeling the pinch.  “The mid-range galleries are going to just vanish from Chelsea,” says gallerist Magdalena Sawon of Postmasters Gallery, effectively eliminating “anything radical or experimental.”   (more…)

26 Years after his death, the art market for American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat is at an all-time high, with the artist’s works totaling over $161 million in sales last year.  According to online art database ArtNet’s index generation system, his remarkable growth puts him in the top 10 artists by volume sold in 2012, and gives his work a sell through rate of 85%. (more…)

Several works by painter Francis Bacon have been discovered on the backs of amateur paintings, and are expected to sell for at least £100,000 at auction next month.  The works, which bear similar elements to Bacon’s “Pope” paintings, were found on the back of several works by Guildford painter Lewis Todd.  Both artists had been given supplies by Cambridge’s Heffer Gallery, but it is uncertain how Bacon’s canvases ended up at the gallery.   (more…)

DIS Image Studio at Suzanne Geiss Company (Installation View), via Daniel Creahan for ArtObserved

The stock photo library has a long and complex history in the world of photography.  Pioneered as a money-saving convenience for commercial advertisements and small publications, the stock photograph has had countless ups and downs as both financial godsend and ironic fetish object as its demand in the world of commercial photography fluctuates.  Examining this intriguing commercial industry and its artistic implications, DIS Magazine is currently hosting the DIS Image Studio at Suzanne Geiss Company in New York.

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Late art historian and collector Denis Mahon has left 57 works, valued at over £100 million, to the British nation, including many works by Italian masters Guercino, Guido Reni and Luca Giordano, under one condition: Britain must never sell them or charge admission for their viewing.  Mr. Mahon reportedly built his collection without paying more than £2,000 for most of his works, and was adamant on their public accessibility.  If these conditions are not met, public arts institution The Art Fund is legally able to take them back; an attempt to “keep up the pressure for governments to do the right thing by museums and galleries” says Art Fund Chief Executive Stephen Deuchar. (more…)

Christie’s announced this week that it will be increasing its buyer’s premium for the first time since 2008.  The increase changes the percentages and value cutoffs for each premium amount to 25% for the first $75,000, 20% on any sale between $75,001 and $1.5 million, and 12% for any sale over that amount.  There has been no response in price increases from the other auction houses, but a spokesman for Sotheby’s was quoted as saying the company was: “studying the matter and haven’t taken any decisions.” (more…)

Artist Kehinde Wiley recently spoke with The Economist about a new series of his immediately recognizable portraits, made during his travels in Israel.  Part of his World Stage series, the new works explore new facets of the complex mesh of ethnic identities and personal politics at play in the Middle Eastern state.  “Mostly I worked with friends of friends,” Mr Wiley says. “I wanted to work with males, ages 18 to 35, who in some way were dealing with or challenging the anxiety and narcissism of youth-entertainment culture.” (more…)

In his largest U.S. exhibition to date, Los Angeles-based artist Paul McCarthy will present a re-imagining of Snow White at the Park Avenue Armory this summer as part of the institution’s 2013 season.  The season also includes a staging of Marina Abramovic’s opera, and a performance of Stockhausen’s “Licht,” with a moonscape designed by Rirkrit Tiravanija.  According to Rebecca Robertson, the armory’s president and executive producer, the varied calendar of works is intended to “blur the line between high art and popular culture” and “ask tough questions about the world in which we live.” (more…)

China is currently considering legislation that would guarantee artists royalty payments anytime their art is resold at auction.  These rights to a percentage of an artist’s resale price, referred to as “droit de suite” rights, are part of a new copyright law proposal that would bring China closer to European copyright standards, and is already causing fierce debate in the Chinese art market.  “Droit de suite may stifle the development of the market,” wrote Ji Tao, an auction industry expert at China Culture Daily, but: “From the point of view of the artists and authors, droit de suite is a good thing, because every transaction means gains.” (more…)

Song Dong, Facing the Wall (1999), via PACE Gallery

On view at both of Pace Gallery’s New York exhibition spaces is an exhibition of work by Chinese artist Song Dong, compiling the artist’s recent work from dOCUMENTA 13 and the Kiev Biennial, as well as older work.

Song Dong, Doing Nothing Mountains (2011-2012), via PACE Gallery (more…)

#AIWW: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei, a new play detailing the arrest and detainment of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in April of 2011, will open this year in London.  Based on conversations between the artist and author Barnaby Martin following Ai’s release in June of 2011, the show will depict the series of events leading up to and during his detainment.  “Weiwei is a natural raconteur and although he was still deeply traumatised by his experience inside, he went back through the experiences of his detention and recounted, in his inimitable English, the most incredible and bizarre story I have ever heard,” says Martin. (more…)

The French government has validated claims to seven works of art taken from Jewish owners during World War II, and has promised to return them.  The works include Henri Matisse’s  Le Mur Rose, de l’Hôpital d’Ajaccio, and will be returned to Tom Seldorff, the 82-year old grandson of original owner Richard Neumann.  This is incredibly rare. It’s the largest number of paintings we’ve been able to give back to Jewish families in over a decade,” said Bruno Saunier of the National Museums Agency. (more…)

An interior by French post-impressionist Henri Le Sidaner has been discovered in an office of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania School District.  The work, which was purchased in 1933 and donated to the school system, has been considered missing for 80 years, and is valued at $500k.  “It was really great it turned up and we know where it is now,” said Louise Lippincott, curator for fine arts at Carnegie Museum of Art.

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Aspasia Zaimis, niece of Greek Shipping Magnate Basil Goulandris, is pursuing a lawsuit to recover a selection of paintings from her uncle’s estate, including works by Van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet.  Her current investigation has already turned up a long paper trail of documents that have raised suspicions about the ownership of the works, and has also resulted in a criminal investigation of her late aunt Elise Goulandris’s philanthropic organization.  “I am determined to find the paintings which were in the Gstaad home before my aunt’s death,” Zaimis said. “I believe with all my heart that the paintings were part of my inheritance.” (more…)

A fresh series of tests on a Swiss-held portrait of the Mona Lisa has bolstered claims that it is in fact an earlier version of the famous portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci.  The “Isleworth Mona Lisa” was recently examined by experts of Da Vinci’s sacred geometry techniques, and also underwent a series of carbon dating tests, both of which supported evidence of the work being an earlier version of the immediately recognizable painting.   “When we add these new findings to the wealth of scientific and physical studies we already have, I believe anyone will find the evidence of a Leonardo attribution overwhelming,” said David Feldman, vice-president of the Mona Lisa Foundation. (more…)

Financier and art collector Richard Hollander has donated a large block of photographs by the prominent photographer Edward Steichen to a trio of U.S. museums, ensuring that the artist’s work will be available to the public across the United States.  The photographs were purchased at directly from Steichen’s estate, and will be given to the Whitney Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Block Museum in Chicago.  “I’ve gotten the bug,” Hollander said. “Now I want to share my vision.” (more…)

David Salle/ Francis Picabia (Installation View), via Galerie Thaddeus Ropac

Currently on view at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac’s Marais location in Paris is a trans-Atlantic exhibition, featuring the works of David Salle and Francis Picabia, and focusing on a dialogue between the US-born Salle’s contemporary paintings and the French surrealism of Picabia. (more…)