Erwin Wurm, Butter (Fridge) (2015), via Thaddaeus Ropac

Erwin Wurm returns to Thaddaeus Ropac’s Paris Marais location this month for an exhibition of new works, continuing his bizarre and occasionally disturbing interpretations of the materials of everyday life, broken down and perverted by momentary inversions and surreal inflections of force.  The show, titled Lost, enters further into the vocabulary of objects the Austrian artist has developed over the course of the past 20 years, narrowing his focus to the objects and landscapes of the domestic interior.   (more…)

Outside of Art Los Angeles Contemporary at Barker Hangar, via Art Observed

Art Los Angeles Contemporary opened its doors this past evening at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, bringing the city’s art scene, as well as many from New York, London and further afield to the sunny haze of the California metropolis.  The fair, which has seen increasingly high praise over the past years, saw strong attendance and packed aisles in the early hours as visitors occasionally paused to look towards the sound of planes taking off just overhead.

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A rightwing group in Israel has drawn criticism for attacks on Israeli artists and writers, who they have accused of being “infiltrators inside [Israeli] culture.”  “Every time publicly elected officials in the state of Israel try to undertake the task they were given in the most democratic and legitimate way by the people,” says Matan Peleg, the head of the group, “we encounter an automatic smear campaign by ‘people of culture’ who try to paint themselves as enlightened, as progressive and as ‘knowing better’ than the public.”  (more…)

Sotheby’s narrowed the sales gap on the Taubman estate this week with a strong sale of Old Masters works this week, bringing in a total of $24,128,750 which fell squarely within estimate.  The auction house has estimated a shortfall of several million on the original $515 million estimate. (more…)

Pyotr Pavlensky, the Russian dissident and artist who last year set fire to the doors of the Federal Security Service in Moscow, has reportedly been sent to Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry for evaluation.  The center has a reputation for diagnosing political activists as insane during the Soviet era.  “The Investigative Committee wants to demonstrate that I am crazy,” Pavlensky said in an interview several months ago. “And to show their own craziness, I do what they want, but my way.” (more…)

Jean Dubuffet will be the subject of a two floor exhibition at the Acquavella Gallery later this Spring, the New York Times reports.  “A lot of people don’t realize how good he is,” says curator Mark Rosenthal. “We’re hoping this will change that.” (more…)

The Indonesian capital of Jakarta is set to open its first international contemporary art museum, Museum MACAN, in 2017.  It is being funded by businessman and collector Haryanto Adikoesoemo.  “I want the Museum MACAN to develop and advance the understanding of Indonesians about art and the appreciation of art,” he says. “I also want this museum to help cross-pollinate exchanges with Indonesia and the world, to provide a platform for Indonesian art internationally and to bring international art to Indonesia.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal’s Kelly Crow diagnoses the symptoms of the market’s “cooling off” this week, pointing to falling oil prices and unsteady stock prices as deleterious to buying confidence.  “We’ve been hoping for a slight correction to bring some sanity to this market,” says Suzanne Gyorgy, head of Citi Private Bank Art Advisory and Finance. “The way prices were climbing, the whole thing was starting to feel artificial.”  (more…)

A survey released this week by the city’s Cultural Affairs Department shows that New York City’s cultural sector fails to match the diversity of the city populace.  “When it comes to making sure that every resident has an equal opportunity to contribute to this extraordinary cultural community, we need to lead by example,” Mayor de Blasio says. “This survey will help us find ways to foster a creative sector that opens doors for every New Yorker, regardless of their background.” (more…)

Erwin Wurm is interviewed in The New York Times this week, as he prepares to open a show of his One Minute Sculptures at the MAK Centre’s Schindler House this week.  “What I like here is the minimal, nearly Japanese structure,” Wurm says. “He was escaping a powerful social structure in Austria, and my work also deals with questions of freedom: freedom of choice, free will, economic dependence.” (more…)

Hauser and Wirth, Massimo de Carlo and Andrea Rosen are partnering together to present a trio of shows focused on the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, organized by artists Roni Horn and Julie Ault. “Our engagement with Gonzalez-Torres’s work focuses on the essence and function of particular forms integral to his practice, distinct from curatorial modes often applied to his work that use a ‘one of these and one of that’ method to present a multiplicity of forms,” the artists said. (more…)

Marcel Dzama & Raymond Pettibon, Beware Diamond Dog (2016)

Forgetting the Hand, a novel collaboration between Marcel Dzama and Raymond Pettibon, is currently on view at David Zwirner Gallery.  The show pulls together two artists, who, though emerging from vastly different generations and backgrounds, share noted parallels in the conveyance of the ridicule of contemporary culture.  Even the exhibition title emphasizes the interconnectedness between the two artists’ practices, where distinction of authorship between the two evaporates. Both represented by David Zwirner since the 90’s, Pettibon and Dzama embarked on this collaboration in the summer of 2015 on the occasion of New York Art Book Fair, where David Zwirner Books presented a zine printed with many of these pieces. (more…)

Marianne Vitale, Beam Work (2016), via Art Observed

Venus Over Los Angeles has brought artist Marianne Vitale to exhibit in the West Coast for the first time this month, offering its ample exhibition spaces east of the river to the New York artist for a pair of monumental installations that continue her intuitive blend of simple sculptural gestures and massively-scaled material to open a space for reflection on force, structure and time.

Marianne Vitale, Thought Field (detail) (2016), via Art Observed (more…)

The Tate Modern has set the opening date for its new expansion at June 17th, announcing that its new space will launch with an exhibition of work by Louise Bourgeois. (more…)

Thornton Dial, the African American artist whose vivid brand of sculptural abstraction and assemblage earned the artist a place in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art at the Met, passed away this week at the age of 87 in his McCalla, Alabama home.  “I’d never seen any artist’s works,” Mr. Dial said in 1997. “I can’t copy off anybody because it’s something I do my own self.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei has pulled his work form exhibitions in Denmark in protest over the country’s controversial new law allowing authorities to seize valuables from refugees.  “I am very shocked about yesterday’s news that the Danish government has decided to seize refugees’ private property,” he wrote in an open letter to ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, where he is currently showing work.  “As a result of this regrettable decision, I must withdraw from your exhibition ‘A New Dynasty.Created In China’ to express my protest of the Danish governments’ decision. Please accept my regrets and thank you for your long-term support. I apologize for the inconvenience caused,” the artist wrote.  (more…)

Agnes Gund is expanding her Studio in a School arts education program nationally, founding a Studio Institute to lead arts education initiatives around the country for low income students. (more…)

Christie’s announced its total sales for 2015 this week, tallying a total of $7.4 billion that sees sales down 5 percent from the previous year, although the company also notes that figure as second-highest total in company history.  “You never know going into 2016, because you always start from scratch,” said Stephen Brooks, Christie’s deputy chief executive. “But at the moment we’ve entered the year with the wind in our sails.” (more…)

The Swiss government is investing over $2 million to aid museums in determining the ownership of artworks that may have been stolen by Nazis during WWII.  “Switzerland is one of the first countries that offers financial assistance for provenance research,” said spokesperson Anne Weibel. (more…)

The Art Institute of Chicago has received a cash bequest of thirty-five million dollars from Dorothy Braude Edinburg, the largest single donation of money to the school in its history.  The money will be used to build the school’s collection of Asian art, and to acquire new paintings and drawings.  “We will use this incredible funding to carry Dorothy’s vision forward—to inspire, educate, and delight future generations through the collection and presentation of exceptional art,” says Art Institute president Douglas Druick. (more…)

David Zwirner is reportedly looking for exhibition space in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reports.  “A couple of years ago, we thought we would just come to the art fair. Now, I’m convinced we need a gallery here,” he said. (more…)

The Art News reports from the early days of the Knoedler Gallery trial, noting early testimony and opening arguments from both sides, including an interesting piece of evidence that director Ann Freedman had allegedly traded an authentic Rothko from her personal collection to fraudulent dealer Glafira Rosales for a fake one, and kept it hung in her apartment for 15 years.   (more…)

MoMA has scaled back its ambitious expansion plans for its museum, the New York Times reports, abandoning the “art bay” entrance that would have allowed direct access to galleries from the street, and the fourth floor performance space.  “The goal is to be larger and clearer,” says Ann Temkin, chief curator of paintings and sculpture. “You think these two things might be opposed, but we’re going for both. As you travel through the building, the relationship among galleries is more evident, and the choices for places to go are more obvious.” (more…)

An article in Art Newspaper this week notes a gradual cooling of the art market, but also points to an increasingly competitive market for Modern pieces, as seen in last year’s record-setting sales by Picasso, Gauguin and Modigliani.  “Throughout last year we saw increasingly high sell-through rates in the middle market across categories, including post-war and Impressionist and Modern,” says Christie’s CFO Stephen Brooks. “Christie’s is just as much about a $15m Warhol as a £15,000 chandelier sold in South Kensington.” (more…)