Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh has been sentenced to death by the Saudi Arabian government, following the artist’s abandonment of Islam, and his outspoken stance against the national government.  “We condemn these acts of intimidation targeting Ashraf Fayadh as part of a wider campaign inciting hate against writers and using Islam to justify oppression and to crush free speech,” an online petition pushing for his release. (more…)

Henri Matisse’s Portrait of Greta Moll is the subject of a lawsuit in the UK, after the sitter’s descendants threatened to file a lawsuit over ownership of the work against the National Gallery.  Moll’s heirs claim that the work was sold from her collection without permission, but the museum states it has no obligation to return it even if these allegations were true.  “If it is true that the painting was stolen in 1947, then the family did suffer an injustice, but not at the hands of the National Gallery, who bought the painting in good faith over 30 years later,” a National Gallery spokesman said. (more…)

Art Market Monitor takes a look at what it calls a cooling market for Andy Warhol works, noting the trends of expansion and contraction of the artist’s median price over the past decade and a half.  “The Warhol market, and by extension the Contemporary art market, has moved far and fast in a short period,” the article reads.  “Taking time to consolidate would not be a bad thing for art or the art market.” (more…)

Urs Fischer and Tara Subkoff are profiled in New York Magazine this week, as the couple reflect on Subkoff’s new film #Horror, which premiered this week in New York, and documents the fraught emotional relations of young children.  “One of the things I love about the movie is its harshness — the harshness of the girls against the other girls, the harshness and brutality, which is not a male brutality,” Fischer says. “The movie reminds me a little of Stand by Me â€” as a romanticized girl version. Basically, I see your movie as the contemporary-girl version of Stand by Me.” (more…)

Artist Gary Hume is parting ways with White Cube Gallery, the Art Newspaper reports, partially due to the artist’s increasingly limited time spent in the UK.  As [he] is spending more time working in the US, by mutual agreement, he will no longer be represented by [us],” says a White Cube spokeswoman, who referred to the relationship between Hume and White Cube as “close and extremely positive.” (more…)

Verona’s Castelvecchio is the victim of a $16 million art heist, after four men entered the museum this past Thursday, making off with a series of works including pieces by Rubens, and five pieces by Jacopo Tintoretto.  Italy’s art theft police task force is leading the investigation. (more…)

An Indian artist was briefly detained this week in Jaipur, after unveiling a work depicting a cow hanging suspended in mid-air, a work that some Hindu viewers found offensive.  The local police chief who ordered the detainment has been “removed and I have spoken to the artist personally,” Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje says. (more…)

Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks, drawings and letters have been acquired by the UK from the estate of Lucian Freud, allowing the artist’s estate to sidestep its tax bill as part of the country’s Acceptance in Lieu Scheme.  “This rare collection of Lucian Freud drawings and letters provides a fascinating glimpse into the work of one of our most pioneering artists,” Culture Minister Ed Vaizey says.  “Bringing these never seen before treasures into public collections means that everyone can enjoy and see the early beginnings that shaped his most celebrated work.” (more…)

The powerful new WoofbertVR app, used to digitally simulate immersive 3-D environments, has launched with a look into a room at the Cortauld Gallery, where the user can view works by Renoir, Gauguin, and Monet.  “What museums are excited about — among other things — is access,” says co-founder and chief executive, Robert Hamwee. “Pretty soon a kid with the smart phone in India can visit the Louvre.” (more…)

An article in Town and Country chronicles the ongoing case between Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev and dealer Yves Bouvier, and the intertwined social and personal histories that underscore the case.   (more…)

2015:1947 (Installation View), all photos via Equity Gallery

Founded in 1947 by a group of over 160 prominent American artists, among them Thomas Hart Benton, Philip Guston, Edward Hopper, Louise Nevelson and Jacob Lawrence, Artists Equity was formed to advocate for artists’ rights and provide collective resources for economic, legal and health benefits. Following WWII and the end of the WPA Federal Art Projects, amid a political climate growing more conservative and reactionary, artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi began to discuss with other American artists, primarily in New York and Woodstock, the idea of a collective advocacy organization. (more…)

France has awarded Adam D. Weinberg, the Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, with the insignia of Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.  Weinberg’s work has involved a number of collaborations with French institutions including the Centre Pompidou, Grand Palais, and Le Consortium in Dijon. (more…)

Billionaire hedge fund manager and collector Ken Griffin has stated his concern about the health of the market, as increased focus at the top end of the market has covered an increased price disparity around middle level works.  “We’re seeing the tier one artists with their best works setting all-time record highs,” he said. “But we’re seeing second-tier artists and second-tier works by the best artists starting to slide down in price.” (more…)

The continuing legal struggle between Dmitriy Rybolovlev and Yves Bouvier has now drawn in HSBC bank, after the bank’s reportage of Bouvier’s name on several accounts further supported allegations of money laundering and fraud.  The bank later reported the inclusion of his name as a “clerical error,” which allowed Bouvier’s release.  Both Bouvier and Tania Rappo, who was also arrested in the case, are now filing suit against the bank. (more…)

Phillips president Michael McGinnis is leaving the company to pursue interests in the “non-auction side of the art business.”  “My tenure with Phillips has been nothing short of phenomenal, but the time has come for me to broaden my horizons and pursue new challenges,” he says. “So far my entire twenty-two year career has been in the auction business, and it’s time to experience the art industry from a different perspective.” (more…)

MoMA has officially filed its plans to expand onto the adjoining lot, which formerly housed the Museum of American Folk Art, with the New York City Department of buildings.  The $93 million expansion plan is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. (more…)

Oscar Murillo, Lucky Dip (2015), via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Continuing his process of intricate, labor-intensive installations and performances, Oscar Murillo has set up shop at the Alexander Hamilton Custom House on Bowling Green, bringing his new work, Lucky Dip.  The performance, which places a series of laborers at the service of his own aesthetic and political interests, sees the artist reprising his interests in national identity, globalized labor and their exchange with the world of contemporary art. (more…)

Brant Foundation

Dash Snow’s work came of age during the dark years following 9/11 in New York City, a time when paranoia, violence and empire had written themselves large against the American consciousness.  Turning this dark, visceral atmosphere back outwards in his body of sculptures, installations, photographs and other works, Snow’s pieces demanded attention as much as his behavior did, part of a downtown ensemble of artists including Dan Colen, Ryan McGinley, Nate Lowman, Hanna Liden, and others, each of whom brought their own take on urban grit and anarchic living to their work. (more…)

Juliana Huxtable, There Are Certain Facts that Cannot Be Disputed (2015), all photos via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Last Friday, MoMA played home to artist Juliana Huxtable’s There Are Certain Facts that Cannot Be Disputed, one of the marquee performance works commissioned this year for the Performa 15 biennial.  The sold-out set of performances, set in the museum theatre, featured a slew of the transgender writer, artist, DJ and promoter’s (whose recurring event ShockValue played home to the performance afterparty) compatriots and collaborators, winding its way through notions of parallel histories, white-washed narratives, and the ubiquity of digital technologies, all turned through the artist’s unique poetic and aesthetic inclinations. (more…)

The Guardian profiles the work of Robert Smithson this week, particularly his movement from his brash, colorful collage and drawing works of the mid-60’s to the epic land art and natural inversions of masterworks like Spiral Jetty. (more…)

 The Smithsonian will present its first Portrait of a Nation Prize, created “to celebrate the achievements of individuals who’ve contributed significantly to the United States’s cultural imagination” this month, with artist and architect Maya Lin included among the honorees. (more…)

San Francisco’s development tax, which is designed to take a 1% fee from new real estate developments in order to fund public art, is not living up to potential, the SF Examiner reports, as developers are using a loophole merely to place art on the premises of their new buildings. “The Department has limited documentation on the installation of public art in private downtown developments,” a city report reads. “Without public information and documentation the public does not know where all of the art is located and the department does not have a way to evaluate overall if the 1 Percent for Art program is achieving its goals.” (more…)

Jesper Just and FOS, in the shadow/ of a spectacle/ is the view of the crowd (Installation View), all photos via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Part of this year’s Performa proceedings, attendees at Danish artist Jesper Just’s performance In the shadow/ of a spectacle/ is the view of the crowd, found themselves suddenly guided up to the 43rd floor of a towering Financial District skyscraper, the downtown home of Time, Inc. on Liberty Street.  There, in an empty office floor, abstracted from the usual goings-on in the city’s bustling hub of banking and investment, a series of works presented themselves, continuing the artist’s investigations of structure and function, related to the movements of the modern urban context.

Jesper Just and FOS, in the shadow/ of a spectacle/ is the view of the crowd (Installation View) (more…)

A report by The Telegraph places Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas as the buyer of the record-setting $7.7 million Felix Gonzalez-Torres candy work at Christie’s this month, sold by Dallas Collector Howard Rachofsky.  (more…)