The £20 million private collection of late dealer Leslie Waddington is set for the auction blocks this fall at Christie’s in London, the Telegraph reports.  The sale includes landmark pieces by Jean Dubuffet, Alexander Calder, and Agnes Martin.   (more…)

Previously detained, Iranian artist Parviz Tanavoli has been allowed to leave Iran for Vancouver, where he operates a studio.  “I am accused by the police,” Tanavoli says.  “The accusations are that my art is based on ‘spreading the falsehood’ and ‘creating public anxiety’. On 10 July I went to court with my lawyer and I was given the above allegations.” (more…)

MoMA has acquired and hung an early Faith Ringgold piece from 1967 in its galleries, a searingly critical piece that echoes a renewed critical and institutional appreciation of her early career.    (more…)

Kimberly Drew, social media manager at The Met and founder of the popular Black Contemporary Art blog, is profiled in The New Yorker this week.  “I built the blog as a critique of the art world, and now it has a seat in that world,” she said. “There’s a lot of work I post that I don’t particularly like, but maybe it will resonate with someone else’s experience.” (more…)

Sam Lewitt, Less Light Warm Words (Installation View), via Art Observed

The news that Swiss Institute would leave its location at 18 Wooster this summer joined a slow but steady list of high-profile departures from SoHo that included Artist’s Space and other longtime residents of the neighborhood.  With this movement from its home soon to be underway, Swiss Institute has turned its attention to a pair of exhibitions dealing with concepts of the institution, infrastructure, and urban locales as it takes its final bow in the space.  Giving the space upstairs over to artist Sam Lewitt’s installation Less Light Warm Words, while German artist Mathis Altmann takes over the gallery’s basement exhibition space, filling it with a bizarre series of pieces that mix the abject with the structural.

Mathis Altmann, Untitled (2016)

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Asger Jorn, Portrait of Odilon Redon (1958), via Art Observed

Despite a remarkably expressive hand and a pioneering range of styles, Asger Jorn’s work has long been somewhat under-appreciated in the United States. The Danish artist and COBRA co-founder’s work ranges across a broad series of compositional techniques and practices that defined him as a founding voice of post-war abstraction, yet his reputation seems almost underemphasized by comparison to his stature in Europe.  It’s this contrast that makes his show currently on view at Petzel Gallery feel like such a well-kept secret, a balanced, well-organized exhibition that spans a wide range of the artist’s practice.  (more…)

Yayoi Kusama has unveiled a recently completed version of the Hans Christian Andersen classic, The Little Mermaid, featuring her illustrations for a collaboration with Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.  “In the past few years there have been many exhibitions of my work touring the world,” Kusama said recently.  “I would like people to feel my creation and its message. Once they manage to feel it, I am reminded of the greatness of the hymn of being human and the mystery of it and that makes me very happy.” (more…)

The New York Times has further details on the return of Nazi-looted artworks to the families of Nazi officials who had looted the pieces in the first place.  “The basic element of this story is this: They stole from my family,” says John Graykowski, the great-grandson of collectors Gottlieb and Mathilde Kraus, “and then they gave it back to the guy who stole it from them. How does that work?” (more…)

Anonymous sources have reported that Jeff Koons’s studio has allegedly laid off a group of painters after the group attempted to unionize, Art F City reports.  Legal proceedings are reportedly underway, but no sources were available to comment on the case.  If proven that the lay-offs were the result of a unionization attempt, the studio is in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. (more…)

The UC Board of Regents is set to approve the UCLA Art School expansion, funded in part by gallerist Margo Leavin.  “We’ve had these plans, but it sat fallow there for the longest time,” says painter and UCLA educator Lari Pittman.  “But Margo drove it. She asked questions. She wanted to know things. She wanted to meet the dean. That’s how it slowly got its legs.” (more…)

The recent report that Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde sculptures are potentially harmful to viewers’ health has been retracted by its author, who now claims the findings are “inaccurate and unreliable.”  “Science Ltd and the authors of the paper co-operated to conduct further tests on formaldehyde works using the equipment referred to in the paper as well as commercially available equipment used by Science Ltd to test the presence of formaldehyde fumes,” a spokeswoman for Hirst said. “It was agreed that there cannot have been formaldehyde present at the dangerously high levels originally cited in the paper and, accordingly, there was never any risk to the public.” (more…)

The Met’s job cuts could likely reach 100 in core areas after its buyouts, as the museum continues to seek relief from a $10 million operating deficit.  “There is no letting up on the quality and the commitment we have to excellence — nothing we’re doing will be discernible or visible to the public,” says the museum President and COO Daniel H. Weiss. “We’re planning to streamline our budgets but not to diminish our mission.” (more…)

The BBC is claiming it has identified a lost Lucian Freud work, despite the fact that the artist had repeatedly claimed he never painted the work over the course of his lifetime.  “Freud is a colossus of 20th-century modern art, and challenging his word was something we undertook with some trepidation,” says Fiona Bruce, host of Fake or Fortune, where the show was analyzed. (more…)

The Financial Times looks deeper on recent market strength, noting a drop in both the volume and value of sales at Sotheby’s after the auction house released its first half earnings for 2016.  Sotheby’s will release its private sales figures in August. (more…)

Ai Weiwei has installed one of his life jacket sculptures in the pool outside of Vienna’s Belvedere Palace this month, continuing his work advocating for and exploring the crisis of Syrian refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos.  “There are more than 500,000 life jackets left on [Lesbos] and it looks like a landscape,” he says. “It is something so related to individuals. It could be the last thing you grab when you have to escape.” (more…)

Liz Larner, xv (caesura) (2016), via Max Hetzler

Exploring recent trends in the use of ceramics and pottery in contemporary art practice, Galerie Max Hetzler has launched a group exhibition exploring not only current approaches and interests in the ancient art of ceramics, but equally placing it in the context of 20th and 21st Century practice.  Delving into the historical undertones and evolutions of the ceramic craft in the hands of those not originally trained in the medium, the show moves from the early explorations of Lucio Fontana, through to a range of works made in the past five years.

La Mia Ceramica (Installation View), via Max Hetzler

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The LA Weekly reports on recent conflicts between art galleries and neighborhood activists in the East LA neighborhood of Boyle Heights, where a group of residents are calling for all art galleries to leave the neighborhood.  “We’re not against art or culture,” says Maga Miranda, who spoke at a recent community meeting . “Obviously, the Eastside has been an incredibly active place when it comes to art and culture. But the art galleries are part of a broader effort by planners and politicians and developers who want to artwash gentrification.” (more…)

LACMA has posted a attendance total of 1.4 million visitors for the past year, marking the continued impact of Michael Govan’s programming and perspective.  Since taking over in 2008, Govan’s projects have grown the museum attendance from 800,000 visitors yearly.  (more…)

David Bowie’s personal art collection is set to go on view this fall in London, shortly before hitting the auction block in November at Sotheby’s.  Rarely seen, the collection includes works by Damien Hirst, Henry Moore and Marcel Duchamp.  “David Bowie’s collection offers a unique insight into the personal world of one of the 20th Century’s greatest creative spirits,” says Oliver Barker. (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans, The State We’re In, A (2015), via Art Observed

Few artists have served as such fervent and enigmatic documentarians of the modern landscape as Wolfgang Tillmans, the German-born, London-based photographer who mixes astute and often empathetic images of nightlife and youth culture alongside his more exploratory projects, mixing natural photos, landscapes, and even surreal images of technological innovations, massive building projects, or the iconography of international commerce.  For his current exhibition at Maureen Paley in London, Tillmans has allowed each of these elements to take their moment in the spotlight, creating an expansive catalog of works that feels remarkably perceptive in the context of current events.

Wolfgang Tillmans, I refuse to be your enemy, 2 (2016), via Maureen Paley

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The Louvre has launched its own museum browsing app, which will, among other things, help viewers to locate themselves within the institution’s sprawling layout.  “The Louvre is a palace and doesn’t have the logic of a museum,” says Museum President Jean-Luc Martinez. “The little revolution here is that our application instantly gives your location in three dimensions.” (more…)

The Walker Art Center has received a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which has been earmarked for artist commissions, projects and research.  “Contemporary artists have blurred the lines between artistic disciplines for decades, and museums and performing art centers like ourselves must remain responsive to these evolving practices,” The Walker’s executive director, Olga Viso, said. (more…)

Jerome Bêl has been invited to perform a work in the MoMA atrium this October, and will feature 25 Museum staff performing the artist’s unique choreography.  “Bel has invited each participating member of staff to choreograph a brief solo dance of their choice,” a release says. (more…)

The New York Times writes on the recent life and work of Chuck Close, who has suddenly filed for divorce from his wife, moved out to Long Beach, New York, and dealt with health issues that have made working increasingly difficult.  “I’ve been in a struggle with my children to see which of us was going to be a grown-up first, and they won,” Close says. “I still live entirely in the moment. I don’t think about the past. It drives the people around me crazy.” (more…)