The Louvre’s new storage facilities in the northern French city of Liévin will host works salvaged from war-torn regions in Syria and Iraq.  “In Abu Dhabi the international community will decide to protect, to promote and even to finance the restoration of a certain number of works,” president François Hollande said in a statement.  “And we are going to suggest that the Liévin conservation site is where such works can be protected.” (more…)

Former Culture Minister Ed Vaizey spoke out this week on the art world’s staunchly left-leaning approach to politics, and the limitations that it puts on the arts’ ability to reach broader audiences or expose alternative viewpoints.  “As a Remainer [myself], there is no pro-Brexit play attacking unaccountable Brussels bureaucrats building a European superstate,” he says.  “There’s no play exposing the corruption and abuse in a country like Venezuela – why not?” (more…)

The Art Newspaper reviews the recent $100 million fundraising success of Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery, one which achieved its goal before the campaign had been officially launched.  “Our objective was to launch the campaign in September of this year,” director Janne Sirén says. “We never came to a point of launch because by the time the silent phase of the summer ended, we had reached our target and beyond.” (more…)

Neo Rauch, Der Störfall (2016), via David Zwirner

Marking his first solo exhibition in the UK, painter Neo Rauch has brought a series of new compositions to David Zwirner, marking a new entry in the artist’s unique explorations of figuration, Central European art history, and the shifting surrealist language that mixes epochs and styles over the range of his practice.  Rendered in his signature  palette of subdued oils on canvas, the works continue Rauch’s exploration of the past as an open framework for interpretation and juxtaposition.

Neo Rauch, Rondo (Installation View), via David Zwirner

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The Art Newspaper looks at each American presidential candidate, and their respective positions on the arts.  Hillary Clinton’s campaign pointed to the Senator’s Americans for the Arts National Arts Award for Arts Advocacy as one point of evidence, while little information could be found on Donald Trump’s public support for the arts.  “I believe that the arts and culture are important in their own right, but they’re also important drivers for economic growth, tourism and attracting young people,” Clinton said during a recent defense of the National Endowment for the Arts.   (more…)

New York firm Architecture Research Office has been tapped for a renovation of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, including a new reflecting pool outside the building, and a skylight in the space.  “For more than forty years, the Chapel has been a deeply moving experience of personal contemplation that furthers the Chapel’s mission of social action,” Stephen Cassell, partner at Architecture Research Office, said. “We feel enormous responsibility toward its future.” (more…)

The Clark Art Institute in Western Massachusetts has received the library of the late Allen Sekula, courtesy of the artist’s wife, Sally Stein.  “It is a rare and distinct privilege to receive the library of an artist and thinker that is so rich and varied,” Olivier Meslay, the Felda and Dena Hardymon director of the Clark, said of the gift. “The totality of his personal library gives us insight into the diverse intellectual interests of Allen Sekula, while the individual titles add an important new resource to strengthen our library’s collection” (more…)

The Guardian profiles the ongoing dispute over a series of Agnes Martin works excluded from the artist’s catalog raisonné, and the economic motives driving the lawsuits around the pieces.  “Art has become such a commodity, and there’s so much money at stake, that [if] a painting that belongs to you or as a dealer you may have sold is declared essentially worthless, you’ll do anything to turn the decision around,” says art authenticator Richard Polsky. (more…)

Bloomberg looks at the trend towards portraits of men frequently selling for less than those of women, noting a historical shortage of high-selling precendents to spark the market.  “There have really only been two major male portraits that have come to auction,” says Jeremiah Evarts, the head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern evening sales. “When there are only two options, it’s hard to create a market out of that—you can’t point to many results to justify a price.” (more…)

An article in The Guardian this week notes the often comically grisly images of Hans Holbein’s woodcut pieces as a sort of early political cartoon, noting its frank political critiques and satirical position towards the powerful figures of the artist’s day.  “The judges, the notaries, all those who should help poor people, it’s clear [from his woodcuts] that Holbein thought they were open to bribes and dismissive of those they should help,” says Ulinka Rublack, professor of early modern history at the University of Cambridge.  “The invisibility comes through of those at the margins of society. I don’t know any other graphic work of the period that does that, that speaks so strongly for the poor, for those who are invisible,” she said. (more…)

Art Basel Miami Beach will feature a documentary on the life and work of Maurizio Cattelan this year as part of its Film section.  The work, Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back, will join a selection of over 50 videos and films in the fair’s ongoing series of time-based pieces, Curated by David Gryn, director of Daata Editions. (more…)

Theaster Gates is launching a new initiative called Dorchester Industries, “a workforce training and apprenticeships initiative for un- or underemployed people across the South Side of Chicago.”  The program will partner with tradespeople and artists in residence to create new objects and artworks for sale, with funds going to those working for the company.  The program will launch publicly November 5th with an auction of works from the first round of participants at Gates’s Stony Island Arts Bank. (more…)

James Rosenquist, Reflector (1982), via Thaddaeus Ropac

Over the last 40 years, painter James Rosenquist has continued to mine and manipulate the languages of consumer capitalism, mass-market branding, and the formal techniques of sign-painting, creating works that push these same linguistic elements to points of near-disintegration.  His pieces, huge swirling arrangements of color and line, smash commodities and natural forms together, combining food, buildings, and other objects into confounding, hybridized arrangements.  This ongoing experimentation with the canvas as a space of critical examination and surrealist detuning takes up the full expanse of Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery’s Pantin exhibition space, joined by a series of collages at its space in The Marais.

James Rosenquist, Coup d’Oeil – Speed of Light (2001), via Thaddaeus Ropac

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The New York Times writes on the cultural divide between art’s economic benefits, and the public perception of the field’s elitism, and the power of curators trained in the field still wield even in the face of this disconnect.  The piece goes on to explore the work of Hans Ulrich Obrist in particular, and his attempt at bridging this gap through his use of technology and social media.   (more…)

Handyman Pierre Le Guennec has offered a new version of the events that led to the discovery of over 300 works by Pablo Picasso in his garage, claiming that the artist’s wife, Jacqueline, gave him the works to hide them from her family.  Le Guennec is facing jail time for possession of stolen goods over the paintings. (more…)

Greece has opened its first contemporary art museum in Athens this week, part of a long-running cultural development project.  “We are very used to feeling proud about our past. Now I think the moment has come to bridge the past with the present,” says director Katerina Koskinas. (more…)

A gift of $2 million to the SAIC has funded a new position for artist Nick Cave as the school’s first Stephanie and Bill Sick endowed professor of fashion, body and garment.  “Nick Cave is an exceptional artist and teacher who has had a momentous impact on his students and his community, and we are so proud that he is the first recipient of this professorship,” Stephanie Sick.   (more…)