Researchers have proven a long held belief that there is a hidden painting beneath Picasso’s iconic The Blue Room.  Using infrared scanning technology, experts revealed a portrait of a bow-tied man, resting his head on his hand buried under the layers of the finished painting.  “It’s really one of those moments that really makes what you do special,” said Patricia Favero, the conservator of the Phillips Collection.  “The second reaction was, well, who is it? We’re still working on answering that question.” (more…)

Panterapantera’s Zerzura (2014) outside Messe Basel, photo by Maria-Anna Goess for Art Observed

The doors have opened at Messe Basel for the VIP preview of Art Basel this year, launching the sales of the franchise’s flagship art fair into full swing. Despite the crowded schedule of major fairs this year (Basel Hong Kong closed less than a month ago), the first hours of the fair were as packed as expected, as all-star dealers and collectors vowed for the works on sale. Tico Mugrabi, Dasha Zhukova, Steven Cohen, and the Rubell family could all be seen wandering the aisles of the fair, and the brisk pace of sales seemed to match the star power of those in attendance. (more…)

Guillermo Kuitca, Untitled (2013), all images courtesy Sperone Westwater

On view at Sperone Westwater in New York, NY is an exhibition of new works by Argentinean painter Guillermo Kuitca, featuring large scale works with a concept of fragmentation and fractured forms, including a painted, room-like structure visitors can pass freely in and out of. The exhibition will continue through June 21st, 2014.

Guillermo Kuitca, This Way (Installation View) (more…)

Matthew Barney is interviewed in The Guardian this week regarding River of Fundament, which premieres in London later this month. In the interview, Barney discusses his work with Norman Mailer, the public’s incredulous reception to the movie thus far, and Barney’s atypical, cinematic narrative style that will continue to carry out his reputation for producing ambitious works in the future. “It’s to do with the way my brain is wired,” he says. “It’s a type of slowness I have with regard to resolving things and connecting the dots. The specifics really come quite late. There is a willingness for the work to develop organically.”

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Filmmaker Matt Black explores the creative philosophy of Jeff Koons during a studio visit for a new video profile on Nowness, delving into the artist’s work and inspiration.  “Much of his work focuses around the idea of sensuality and being alive,” Black says. “It’s not a cold world he creates.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei has backed the new Digital Arts website The Space which will commission and showcase new art online for website visitors.  The artist has also donated the names of 5,196 student victims from the Sichuan Earthquakes in 2008, in the hope that The Space will use them to create a new work.  “It gives another opportunity and a platform for artists or somebody like me to work with. I believe many, many young people and students will love it,” Ai says.  (more…)

A recent investigation has shown a number of cities across the U.S. failing to enforce a law requiring property developers to allocate a small percentage of cost for any construction project to fund public art, and many organizations are clamoring to enforce the laws.  “It’s really a question of making people aware that this law is on the books,” says Tom Chestnut of the Buffalo Arts Commission, who has pushed to enforce a related law in the Western New York city. (more…)

Venus Over Manhattan’s Adam Lindemann has penned an op-ed for Gallerist today, humorously reflecting on the popularity of Instagram among collectors, dealers, artists and consultants, and his love of those willing to ruthlessly critique any and all contemporary art.  “It’s perfect for people with zero attention span, zero education and zero interest in learning about anything—perfect, in other words, for the art collectors of today,” he writes. (more…)

The New York Times has penned a new report on the ongoing disputes between MoCANoMI and the City of North Miami, with disagreements running all the way up to who is currently the director of the museum.  With both sides filing lawsuits over alleged injustices, and a potential move to Miami Beach being threatened by MoCANoMi, both sides are claiming control over the museum and its collection.  “It is as if a child is born and in turn says it is the mother of its mother,” says Babacar M’Bow, the man appointed as director by the city but disputed by the museum board. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal notes the growing trends for bidding at major auctions to move towards phone and online bids, leaving auction rooms looking much less filled out, even at some of the biggest sales of the year.  “People are busy, they’re working. They don’t want the expense of flying here, waiting four or five hours for their lot to show up,” says Paul Minshull, COO of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. “They can sit at home in their underpants and bid by phone.” (more…)

Outside Art Basel, via Art Observed

The works are hung, the location is set, and the doors will soon open on the 2014 edition of Art Basel’s flagship art fair in its namesake city, bringing an estimated $4 billion in art to the Swiss city alongside an enthusiastic flock of collectors, dealers, artists and visitors.

Paola Pivi, Titled to be determined (2014) at Galerie Perrotin (more…)

Hanna Liden, Let it Go (2014), all images courtesy of the artist and Maccarone, New York

Currently on display at Maccarone in New York is a group of new photographic works by Swedish artist Hanna Liden. Entitled I hope these ruin a perfectly bad day, the series of still life photos repurpose her urban leitmotifs as makeshift vases for brightly colored flowers. The exhibition will continue through June 21, 2014.

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The most recent issue of Vanity Fair is causing a commotion in the art world this week, following its nude photograph of Jeff Koons exercising on a fitness machine.   “Koons, at 59, has already begun a strict exercise-and-diet regimen so that he will have a shot at working undiminished into his 80s, as Picasso did,” the article notes. (more…)

Following concerns over possible damages during a renovation at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York, Pablo Picasso’s immense stage curtain painting Le Tricorne will be moved to the New York Historical Society.  “It’s going to be at a good home, where even more people will see it,” Landmarks Conservancy President Peg Breen said. (more…)

The New York Times notes an increased trend for galleries around the world to embrace unique exhibition spaces and showing rooms, favoring houses, industrial spaces and other new spaces over the traditional gallery.  “A house feels more exclusive and private than standing around in a gallery,” said Stuart Lochhead, the director of Daniel Katz Ltd., which recently set up shop in a 5-story townhouse in London . “Someone would feel comfortable in a space like this after stepping off a G5 from Los Angeles.” (more…)

The Swiss Art Awards have kicked off the proceedings around Art Basel this week, as eight artists, one architectural collective, and one curator have received the prize’s $27,765 award.  Winners include: BITNIK (Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoji Smolji), Vancessa Billy, Kim Seob Boninsegni, Claudia Comte, Emilie Ding, Andreas Hochuli, Emanuel Rossetti, Jules Spinatsch, CKÖ (Daniel Lütolf and Sarah Widmer), and Emilie Bujès. (more…)

The Telegraph takes a look inside the former home of late artist Louise Bourgeois, which will be reopened as a research center and exhibition space next year, and which was the site of the artist’s legendary work ethic.  “She would stay up for three days in a row, hyper,” says her former assistant Jerry Gorovoy. “We tried different sleeping pills, nothing worked. My days would start at ten, and sometimes she’d been sitting there since six waiting for me. ‘You’re late’ she’d say, in the black skirt and shirt she wore every day.” (more…)

The Independent profiles Celia Paul, a painter who for years has lived in the shadow of her former lover Lucian Freud, and who has worked tirelessly in pursuit of her craft, including sending her young son to live with his grandmother so that she could continue her work.  “An artist has to be very selfish,” she says. “Being ruthless has been painful at times but my son is very close to me, and he has a very close relationship with his grandmother.” (more…)

Bloomberg takes a look at the current arts community in Cuba, and its long, robust tradition of arts over the past century.  The article also goes on to discuss a loophole in the U.S. embargo which allowed America collectors to purchase artworks and prints under the classification of “informational material,” and which led to a surge in the market during the 1990’s.  “The arrival of foreign collectors sounded an alarm for the Cuban government,” says dealer Luis Miret Pérez. (more…)

Writer Paul Levy is in The Telegraph this week, writing on the unique experience of seeing his own portrait put up for auction later this month at Christie’s in London.  Levy was the subject of two portraits painted by artist Howard Hodgkin, one of which led to a bizarre encounter with Charles Saatchi, the original purchaser of one of the works.  “I greeted an old friend who was then secretary of the RA,” Levy writes.  “He was talking to someone vaguely familiar, who turned to me and said: ‘You don’t recognise me. But you’re the first thing I see every morning.’ That is how I learnt that my portrait hung in Charles Saatchi’s bedroom.” (more…)

Glenn Brown, Cactus Land (2012), via Osman Can Yerebakan

In his first solo show in New York in seven years, Glenn Brown delivers a large scale body of work, focusing on sculptural works besides his widely recognized paintings. Palatially spread across Gagosian Gallery’s twenty-first street location with an array of exuberant colors, Brown’s selection of artistic references in this exhibition include nods to Rococo, Baroque and Mannerist techniques, alongside the likes of Frank Auerbach and Pieter Bruegel. (more…)

Jayson Musson, Sculptural Allegory for a Specific Cultural Sphere (2014), via Osman Yerebakan

Jayson Musson first came into prominence with his online personality Hennessy Youngman, a character commenting on different topics related to art from a wry perspective, while satirizing the clichés of the art world and the hip-hop culture at the same time.  Played by Musson himself for his Youtube series Art Thoughtz, Hennessy Youngman can be seen comparing the dance style of Yvon Rainer to the moves in A-Ha’s Take On Me video or flirting with Carolee Schneemann. Similar to Musson’s articles for his short-lived column Black Like Me on Philadelphia Weekly, his online persona/alter ego Hennessy Youngman is an outpost of the artist’s investigation of racial stereotypes and the making of sub-cultures in today’s society. (more…)

When the famous artist Lucian Freud died in 2011, he left behind assets of £95 million, none of which went to his daughter Lucy Freud nor her siblings. Allegedly enduring a difficult childhood with a detached father of multiple affairs, Lucy Freud still believes she is a rightful heir to the fortune and continues to speak up for her siblings,”I don’t believe Dad had it in him to be specifically derogatory to us as a group. I don’t believe he would have done it.”

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Artist Shirin Neshat has ventured into the field of choreography, planning an an interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest alongside Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor for the Dutch National Ballet.  The dance will feature Pastor’s choreography alongside video footage captured by Neshat.  “We shot most of the film in Holland and now we’re watching the rehearsals and carefully going back between the dancers and the editing room,” she says. (more…)