After announcing her retirement as President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Emily Rafferty sat down with the Wall Street Journal for an interview in which she discusses her time at the Met and her future plans. Although Rafferty maintains her decision to retire as President is the right one for both herself and the Met, she also discusses the possibility of a future position in the public eye, saying in the interview “I came to the decision after a lot of thought. I’d like to have another experience in the public sector; I don’t know what it will be yet. My time clock gave me every possible signal”.  (more…)

The Centre Pompidou may be expanding yet again, with plans to open a temporary satellite in the northern town of Maubeuge, close to the Belgian border.  The extension has yet to be confirmed by the Centre Pompidou, but the Art Newspaper reports that Maubeuge mayor Arnaud Decagny has pledged €500,000 for the project annually. (more…)

The Miami Herald reports that, after months of tense relations, staff from the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami have decided to break ties with the city and relocate to Miami’s Design District as the Institute of Contemporary Art. Among the museum’s staff who have elected to move is interim director Alex Gartenfield, whose appointment over the city-approved Babacar M’Bow has been one of several sources of contention between the museum and the city. Whether MoCANoMi’s permanent collection, whose ownership has been hotly contested, will follow the staff to their new location or remain with the city is unclear.  (more…)

Will Cotton, The Deferred Promise of Complete Satisfaction (2014)

On view at Ronchini Gallery in London is the first UK solo exhibition of work by American artist Will Cotton, a new series of large scale oil-on-linen paintings depicting landscapes of sweets, pastries, ice cream, and pinup models.

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The Detroit News reports that Toyota has promised to give $1 million to the Detroit Institute of Art, a donation that will help the Institute towards raising the $100 million it needs to contribute to the city’s grand bargain and avoid the sale of its collection. It is reported that the museum is close to its goal, having already received $80 million in pledges. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal recaps the early days of the trial surrounding the potential dismantling of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and the outcome of the hearings last week in Washington, D.C.  Despite ample testimony and comment on the state of the museum and its board, the newspaper notes that no one on hand made any statement regarding the future of the art in the museum collection.  This point is significant when considering the museum’s mandate, as any attempt to break up the Corcoran collection would fly in the face of its founder’s request for “the perpetual establishment and maintenance of a Public Gallery and Museum.” (more…)

Scott Benzel, Counterfeit Nike ‘Heaven’s Gate’ SB Dunks (2011) Photo by Joerg Lohse

For the past several years, Arizona-born, L.A.-based artist Scott Benzel has been mining the mundane objects of capitalism and its reflection in the cultural agenda through his assemblage and display-based works, challenging the designated meanings of everyday objects as they enter into dialogue with each other. Approaching  simple and mostly utilitarian commodities as reflections of their collective or individualist identities, Benzel decodes dismissed or undiscovered subtleties in contemporary culture, and allows unspoken connections to come to the fore. (more…)

Artist Ryoji Ikeda has unveiled a new public installation in London, titled Spectra, and consisting of a massive column of light shooting up into the night sky next to the Parliament building.  The installation is part of a series of works commemorating the beginning of World War I in Britain.  “The light spectra throws up into the night sky is a unifying point,” says mayor Boris Johnson. “It echoes how the first world war affected all Londoners, but also how they and the rest of the country came together, standing united during those dark days.”

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Artspace, a start-up digital marketplace for contemporary art, is currently involved in acquisition talks with Auctionata, an online auction house. Although Artspace showed early promise by raising upwards of $12 million in funds, this past year has turned out surprisingly anemic sales figures: just $577,000 in total annual sales, according to a leaked chart. In addition, since Artspace creates income from commissions, the actual annual revenue for the site would presumably be only a fraction of this six-figure sales number. (more…)

In a conversation with the Wall Street Journal, art dealer Marian Goodman discusses her new London gallery, set to open October 14th with an show of recent works by Gerhard Richter, whom she represents. The article describes Goodman’s expansion into the area as a “defensive move designed to protect territory she’s staked out over decades” against potential poachers such as David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth, both of which have galleries in the neighborhood.  In addition to Richter, this “territory” includes artists such as Steve McQueen, John Baldessari, and William Kentridge, an impressive dossier that is testament to Goodman’s reputation as both a good judge of talent and a loyal agent.  (more…)

The New Museum Press Office has announced three new scholarship initiatives designed to promote the study of contemporary art. The new Mellon Grant for Scholarship in Contemporary Art utilizes a $500,000 donation from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the museum’s Research Fellow, a two-year rotating position. In addition, the New Museum will relaunch its publishing partnership with MIT Press with the hope of creating publications that deal with “the making and meaning of art in the twenty-first century” . Finally, the museum also unveiled the MX Curatorial Travel Fund, which consists of over $300,000 meant to encourage research abroad. (more…)

Andy Freeberg, Two Palms (2011) (Mel Mochner, Eizabeth Peyton, Armory Show), all images courtesy Andrea Meislin Gallery

On view at Andrea Meislin Gallery is Andy Freeberg’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, a series of photographic works that mark the continuation of his investigation into the intersections between art, commerce and personality.  Entitled Art Fare, Freeberg’s newest show targets the moments of banality inherent in the blue-chip world of major international art fairs.

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The court case over payment to three trustees of the Robert Rauschenberg Revocable Trust has been settled this week by a Florida judge, who approved a payment of $24.6 million for “extraordinary services” in preserving the artist’s legacy, much to the disappointment of Rauschenberg’s estate, which is considering its options in the face of the ruling.  “We are reviewing our legal options and will pursue the course of action that is in the best interest of the foundation,” says Christopher Rauschenberg, the artist’s son and president of the foundation. (more…)

In a conversation with The Independent, artist Jake Chapman discusses crowdfunding art shows and the more general role of the public in the art world. The conversation was precipitated by the Chapman Brothers‘ unorthodox funding strategy for their upcoming show at the Jerwood gallery: offering tattoos in exchange for donations.  One of the leading figures of the Young British Artists, Chapman promotes the need to “defend art from popularity and popularity from art” and maintains that “popular decisions are not always the right decisions”.  (more…)

The New Museum has collaborated with Chapman Skateboards to create 150 skateboards inspired by the museum’s architecture. The limited edition skateboard mimics the angular profile and silver facade of the SANAA-designed building. Chapman Skateboards describes the skateboard as “a nod to the ingenuity of skate culture” and “a tribute to the narrow, skated backstreets of the neighborhood the New Museum calls home”. (more…)

John Myatt, the famous forger who spent years behind bars for his fraudulent versions of works by Monet and other artists, is interviewed this week in The Independent, and comments on the state of fraud investigations in the current art landscape.  “The art industry has been nodding through paintings with extremely dubious histories,” he says. “It’s been colluding with galleries and auction houses for 50 to 60 years and I know the Police Art & Antiques Unit even went to one museum with evidence of fraud and they weren’t interested – they said they were happy that the contagion [of fakes] had now been removed from their archives.” (more…)

A collection of photographs formerly owned by the late Howard Stein will head to auction later this year at Sotheby’s New York, in what may be one of the largest sales in the medium ever.  The presale estimates range from $13 million to $20 million for a group of works that include prints from Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray and Irving Penn.  (more…)

Yusuke Suga, Mediator (2013), Courtesy of Friedman Benda and the artists

The inarguable force of nature and its fearful destructive impact hit Japan in March 2011 during the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, afflicting millions of lives and causing billions of damage. The number one earthquake in terms of strength in the history of Japan and the fifth in world records, and its resulting tsunami left the coast of Japan reeling from its physical and psychological damage, particularly after the meltdown of three plants at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  Aside from the massive physical devastation it caused, the catastrophe carried charged memories and impacts to those who witnessed the disaster, either first-hand or indirectly. (more…)

Mickalene Thomas, Carla (2014), via Lehmann Maupin

Tête de Femme, a show of new work by artist Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann Maupin, places the exploitation and regulation of the female form at its center, exploring the female figure and visage through eight large-scale portraits. Making use of screen-printing, collage, and candy-colored swatches of fabric, Thomas creates and re-creates the elements of a face in order to deconstruct a coherence presumed and projected into measurements of personhood.  Through bold geometric and material choices, Thomas approaches the question of identity as an problem to be solved through a concentrated treatment of each element, much in the same nature of Picasso’s work of the same name.

Mickalene Thomas, Tête de Femme (Installation View), via Lehmann Maupin (more…)

Gilbert & George, The World of Gilbert and George (still) (1981), all images courtesy Lehmann Maupin

On view at Lehmann Maupin New York is a group of films and “Living Sculptures” by the 1986 Turner Prize winners Gilbert & George. The exhibition is the artists’ fifth show with Lehmann Maupin, and represents a transitional link between their early pieces and their later, better known large-scale works.

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John Knight, Work, in situ, Galerie NEU:MD72:Gladstone Gallery (2013)

One of Berlin’s most notable galleries, Galerie Neu, is Gladstone Gallery’s guest for this summer, presenting a reflection from the German capital’s vibrant contemporary art scene. Known for its avant-garde art spaces and affordable living conditions for emerging artists, Berlin has been one of the most influential cities for the European art scene, and the selection at Gladstone Gallery, mainly focusing on the notion of place and displacement, gives the opportunity to catch up with the city’s recent art trends. (more…)

Interior designer William Pearce created a living room inspired by and centered around Francis Bacon’s “Triptych 1974-77” for his client’s Atlanta apartment. Everything from the drapes to the carpet to the cadenza was either designed or chosen with the paintings in mind. Pearce sourced materials from around the world to create a worthy home for the triptych, which sold for $46.1 million at a 2008 auction to an anonymous buyer. (more…)

In the midst of a recent “boom” in art funds, The Art Newspaper looks back at André Level’s La Peau de l’Ours, a fund founded in 1904 that purchased works like Picasso’s Les Bateleurs and successfully sold them at markedly higher prices.  The fund was inspired by the 1903 Salon D’Automne, which greatly inspired Level.  “I had seen there the canvases that seemed to me, without the slightest doubt, the authentic art of our time and the near future,” he wrote.  “I believed in it; I had faith.” (more…)

Christie’s will auction Manet’s iconic Le Printemps (1881) this fall at its Impressionist and Modern sale in New York, the New York Times announced today.  The 1881 portrait has remained in the same family for over a century, and is estimated at $25 to $35 million.  “We’ve given museums advance notice,” says Impressionist and Modern Director Adrien Meyer. (more…)