Tom Sachs, Crawler (2003), all photos via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

The group exhibition Space Age, which closed yesterday at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris-Pantin, took up all four of the gallery’s spacious halls to examine historical and commissioned works by twenty contemporary artists, drawing on the astrological, the exploratory, and the untapped potential of outer space.  The artworks on view explored one of humanity’s most archaic collective dreams: the conquest of the skies and the immersion in the cosmos.

James Rosenquist, An Intrinsic Existence (2015), via Art Observed (more…)

A CNN article looks at the factors causing astronomical jumps in price in the art market recently, and the extended efforts of the auction houses to entice buyers.  “You bring as many people as you can into the headquarters through dinners and cocktail parties, and your global specialists center there and try to sell the work,” says Lisa Dennison, Chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America. (more…)

Allegations have been lodged that a set of Degas sculptures in the collection of the Chicago Art Institute are forgeries.  “All Degas bronzes are non-disclosed second to third generation forgeries with counterfeit signatures and bogus editions,” says critic Gary Arseneau. (more…)

A new study by economics professor Kathryn Graddy at Brandeis University has shown that depression does not actually result in an artist’s best work.  Looking at sales data and museum acquisition histories for 12,000 works executed between 1900 and 1920, Graddy noted that sales prices were notably lower for works that followed traumatic events or depression in an artist’s life.  “The concept of a ‘flow state’ that people enter when being very creative has gained acceptance by psychologists,” Graddy writes in her report, “death and bereavement can reduce creativity.”  (more…)

Brice Marden, Eastern Moss (2012-2015)

Brice Marden is the subject of a solo exhibition that spans three all three 22nd street locations for Matthew Marks Gallery, unveiling a new body of paintings and drawings that continue a number of the artist’s ongoing interests with the narrative potential for color.  The works on view here possess a demure yet captivating appeal, underlining the New York-based artist’s continued interest in the intersections of 20th Century abstraction, broader art histories, and the use of color-field composition in varying applications. (more…)

Ken Griffin, the billionaire head of Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, has donated $40 million to MoMA in a non-specific gift, which the museum will use for education and exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, and will see a wing of the institution’s new expansion named after him.  “It is my hope that visitors, artists and students from around the world will experience all that MoMA has to offer for generations to come,” Griffin, 47, said in the statement. (more…)

Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (Fragonard Young Girl Playing with her Dog) (2014-2015)

Challenging the established notion of history as linear entity, art history often manifests itself as an intergenerational pattern, embedding variant heterogenous theories, movements and phenomena onto compound structures, while just as often disregarding its most sound chronological hierarchies. Jeff Koons, whose current exhibition at Gagosian Gallery continues his entries in his series of Gazing Ball works, takes this opportunity to scrutinize the constellation of art history, drawing his own threads and theories through a diverse and complexly interrelated series of works. (more…)

A trial against the executors of the Daniel Wildenstein estate in Paris this month is set to cast light on the often murky ownership and backdoor dealing that goes on in the highest echelons of the art market, the New York Times reports.  French authorities allege that over $250 million in art was shipped from the late dealer’s holdings days before his death, in an attempt to avoid a sizable estate tax.  “It is really the first time that a trial like this in France is exploring the use of trusts and determining whether they are legal or illegal,” said Claude Dumont-Beghi, a lawyer who represented Daniel Wildenstein’s widow, Sylvia. “How did the family build its fortune and empire under this system?” (more…)

Artist Marilyn Minter has relaunched her Choice Works project, a nonprofit organization in collaboration with NYC’s Planned Parenthood locations.  The project raises funds for the organization and helps initiate advocacy programs around the nation.  “You know, I think there’s this whole thing where people are embarrassed by abortions,” Minter says.  “I want to say, ‘Yeah, they do abortions. I’m proud of it.’ Places are suing them because of those lying video tapes and edited video tapes. It’s just getting worse and worse and worse, and I think we have to fight back.” (more…)

With the first of the trials over the Knoedler Gallery’s fraudulent sales set to begin on January 25th, the Art Newspaper notes over twenty motions filed by both sides over the admissibility and reliability of various pieces of evidence by both Ann Freedman and collectors Domenico and Eleanore De Sole, who are suing for over $25 million in damages.   (more…)

Mark Bradford, Deimos (2015)

Over the past several years, Mark Bradford has had something of a meteoric rise in the art world, garnering impressive recognition, critically and commercially for his exhilarating painterly style and vivid shifts in form and technique . Committed to creating uncompromisingly grandiose and ambitious works of art, Bradford has been the subject of rightfully increasing acclaim, most recently proven by his solo exhibition Scorched Earth at the Hammer Museum in his hometown Los Angeles, and his recent commission for a massive installation to accompany his upcoming retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. (more…)

Police in Mumbai have arrested four suspects in the murder of Indian artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani earlier this month, including one suspect who has confessed to killing the artist over what he claims was an unpaid debt to a warehouse owner.   (more…)

Paris Museums are still reeling from attacks in the nation’s capital last month, with attendance at the Louvre down 35% from the same two month period last year. The drop is in part attributed to “instructions issued by the ministry of education forbidding schools from visiting museums,” says a museum spokeswoman. (more…)

The New York Times covers the efforts of archivists to preserve the public artworks and installations created in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks this fall.  “We need to leave some of the objects, and at the same time, we need to make room for the sidewalk, sometimes even the road, so that life can go on,” says Guillaume Nahon, director of the Paris archives.  “It’s a day-to-day process, and a contradictory one too, because these memorials are supposed to be ephemeral, but people still need a place to mourn for now.”  (more…)

Gilbert and George are interviewed in a short video by Art Info this week, discussing their opening retrosecptive at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania, and their perspective on making and showing work.  “We believe that we are all part of a great big Western triumph, but we want to take things forward,” the duo says. “We realized that people were using taste and preferences in art as a weapon against people they believed to be socially or educationally inferior to them.” (more…)

Sotheby’s CFO Patrick McClymont will leave the company, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, noting some analyst’s perspectives that the move is part of an increased push by activist investors to boost profits. “Patrick brought financial discipline and transparency to the company,” Kristine Koerber, a senior analyst at Barrington Research. (more…)

The Brooklyn Museum has appointed Nancy Spector to the dual positions of deputy director and chief curator, making her the first senior staff member hired by new director Anne Pasternak.  “The Brooklyn Museum’s past is rooted in vision, courage, and a good measure of chutzpah,” Pasternak says. “With Nancy Spector as our chief curator, we can count on a trailblazing future that charts new territory for our museum. We can expect Nancy to explore the important questions of the role of art and museums for the twenty-first century, shaking up old canons and proposing new ones, while sharing our love of art and artists with ever-expanding audiences.” (more…)

Benjamin Genocchio, the newly minted head of the Armory Show, is interviewed by Art News this week, discussing his views on art fairs, and his vision for the fair moving forward.  “What does it mean to be an art fair in 2016?” Genocchio says. “Don’t you think they’re all so stale? They’re all so stale and there is very little excitement. And I don’t know why that is, but come on, we should be able to make it more exciting.” (more…)

The Smithsonian has announced its reception of an important David Smith sculpture, Agricola IV from 1952, a work from one of the artist’s most renowned series.  “‘Agricola IV’ is a transformative acquisition, one that anchors the story of sculpture in America and shows how Smith changed the arc of visual expression in three -dimensions in the 20th century,” Elizabeth Broun, director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, said. (more…)

The Art Newspaper reports on the strange goings-on behind the $37 million sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s The Field Next to the Other Road (1981) at Christie’s this year.  The work was sold by Tony Shafrazi, but documents show that he still owned the work two months later, raising speculation that the buyer backed out.  “We can confirm the lot was sold at auction,” said a spokeswoman for Christie’s.

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George Baselitz, Untitled (2015), via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Intertwining his own personal artistic process with distinct threads of historical reference, wry humor and disparate aesthetic threads, Georg Baselitz is currently on view at Gagosian Gallery’s 980 Madison space for a small exhibition of new works, positioning the artist’s drawings and watercolors as a “visitation,” as the artist terms it, by Japanese ukiyo-e master Katsushika Hokusai.

Georg Baselitz, Visit from Hokuskai (Installation View)

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Current Editor-In-Chief of Artnet News, Benjamin Genocchio, has been announced as the successor to Noah Horowitz at the Armory Show.  “Unfortunately, the price of success is opportunity,” Genocchio says, which first reported the story. “This is an opportunity that was too good to pass up.” (more…)

Joseph Kosuth is interviewed in the WSJ this week, as the artist reflects on his work and his current show at Sean Kelly Gallery.  “If you begin with the presumption that artists work with meaning, not with forms and colors, you get a whole other approach for seeing art,” he says. “The idea was to get rid of the aura around the work of art. It’s a burden, and we don’t need it.” (more…)

Willem de Kooning, Clamdigger (1972), via Art Observed

It’s an interesting trajectory to follow when an artist, late in their career, strikes out into new media, carrying over a fully articulated, steady aesthetic sensibility that has been honed over decades of work.  The results are often dynamically contrasted against the artist’s broader body of work, and often evinces a renewed creative energy and a fresh vigor for formal investigation or subversion.

Willem de Kooning, Seated Woman on a Bench (1972), via Art Observed (more…)