James Turrell at Dorotheenstadt Chapel (Installation View), via Art Observed

The memorial chapel of the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery in Berlin is temporarily home to James Turrell’s most recent light installation, a gradually shifting arrangement of colored lights that fills the space with a gentle glow.  Every Monday and Saturday through December, the chapel will fill with light in time with the setting sun and envelope attendees in the otherworldly, immersive experience, as a series of LED lights hidden in the architecture of the chapel turn on as the sun begins to set, and change over the course of the next hours to correspond to the light outside of the space. (more…)

Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 10 (1910), via Fondation Beyeler

In terms of the various rejections of painterly convention that defined the early decades of the 20th Century, few schools of thought left the same lasting imprint on the act of painting as “Der Blaue Reiter” (The Blue Rider).  The internationally distributed group of artists, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc chief among them, were early entries in the varied schools of thought and practice that sought to change the aesthetic and political energies of their craft through a combination of dynamic invention in their craft, and iconoclastic, ideological fervor in their writing and organization.  Making the case for a practice divorced from rote representation, the pair of artists instead relied on color and line themselves, affording these essential elements a much broader range of expressive capacity and spiritual evocativeness that would ultimately pave the way for much of the century’s adventures into abstraction.

Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau—Obermarkt with Mountains (1908), via Fondation Beyeler

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Shio Kusaka’s prints at Karma, via Art Observed

For eleven years, Printed Matter’s annual Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1 has ushered in the fall art season with its unique and enigmatic selection of small press publishers, gallery bookmakers, artist-run presses, and other producers of small-scale works, antiquities, multiples, and other ephemera.   Offering an intimate and often far more portable selection of works by a wide range of artists and authors, the show, which runs through Sunday, offers a broad snapshot of the further reaches of the city’s arts community, where graphic arts, design, writing and studio practice have one of their few opportunities to mingle and show work in the same context, making for a unique look at New York’s fertile and expanded creative communities.

The David Zwirner Booth, with art by Oscar Murillo and Yutaka Sone, via Art Observed

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David Breslin, the chief curator of the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, will join The Whitney as the director of the museum’ s collection.  “I really wanted a partner in thinking about the collection,” says chief curator Scott Rothkopf. “To me, this is about investing in leadership around our collection displays in terms of how we collect, what we collect and what we publish on the collection.” (more…)

A group of four early works by Rembrandt are set to be reunited at the Ashmolean Museum, the Guardian reports.  “It is the first time these paintings will ever be on show together so it is an amazing thing,” says the gallery’s curator of northern European art, An Van Camp. “As a curator, this is the stuff you dream of … a world first. Even the owners of the paintings have never seen them together.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the increasing number of artists forgoing full-time gallery representation, and galleries’ efforts to adapt to the new landscape.  “As long as an artist is selling well, they can undoubtedly act more as a free agent than we’ve seen over the past several decades,” says dealer Ed Winkleman.  “If collectors are not as eager to be on the best terms with dealers, it gives artists more flexibility in how they set the terms of their relationship with dealers.”  (more…)

A U.S. Senate panel is advancing a bill that would make it easier for heirs seeking to reclaim Nazi-looted art.  “For the families of those who lost everything at the hands of the Nazis, hopefully today serves as an important and symbolic step to reclaiming not just artwork, but familial legacy,” says Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who sponsored the legislation alongside Ted Cruz. (more…)

A Wassily Kandinsky work previously held in the collection of the Guggenheim will hit lead Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale in New York this fall.  A later work, from 1935,“ranks alongside the biggest pictures of his last years,” says Conor Jordan, the auction house’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art. (more…)

The Guardian joins Tracey Emin at Tate Liverpool this week, as the artist rebuilds her infamous work My Bed for an upcoming exhibition, and charts the process in creating and conserving the piece, including many of the spoiled materials (a twenty year old bottle of Orangina for instance) still used in the installation of the work. (more…)

Marian Goodman is opening a another gallery in Paris at 66 Rue du Temple, just across the street from her current exhibition space, the New York Times reports.  “It does extend the possibility of the gallery,” she says. “This is an addition that gives us more opportunity.” (more…)

Eddie Peake, Head (2016), via Art Observed

Jeffrey Deitch is back in New York.  Following several years of one-off projects, rumored re-openings and pop-up exhibitions, Deitch touched down at his former space at 18 Wooster for good, kicking off his renewed tenure in the building last week with a series of celebratory performances by British-born Eddie Peake.  The artist, whose neon and glitter encrusted works have long been a staple of Deitch’s exhibition program, brought a fittingly enthused atmosphere to the exhibition, as his work Head left a literal mark on the gallery itself. (more…)

Mexico City–based artist Pedro Reyes will be first Dasha Zhukova Distinguished Visiting Artist at MIT, the institution announced this week.  Reyes is currently preparing Doomocracy, a political “house of horrors” at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, will host a course titled “The Reverse Engineering of Warfare: Challenging Techno-optimism and Reimagining the Defense Sector (An Opera for the End of Times),” and will also receive funding for research during his tenure. (more…)

The Swiss Institute has announced that it will reopen at 38 St. Mark’s Place, with Maja Hoffmann taking over as chairperson for the gallery’s board.  “I am thrilled to begin my tenure as Chair with the support of such a stellar, expanded and international Board of Trustees, at the start of an exciting new era for the organization. I am looking forward to working with the exceptional Swiss Institute team as they thoughtfully develop the institution and its program in the context of such a storied, creative neighborhood.”  The new space will open in Spring of 2017. (more…)

The New York Times reports on designer Thomas Heatherwick’s soon-to-be constructed installation Vessel for Hudson Yards, a massive, intricately-woven series of staircases that will allow visitors to thread their way through the piece to reach its top.  “We know ‘Vessel’ will be debated and discussed and looked at from every angle, and Thomas,” Bill deBlasio said of the work during an announcement program, “if you meet 100 New Yorkers, you will find 100 different opinions on the beautiful work you’ve created. Do not be dismayed.” (more…)

Photographer Edward Burtynsky is featured in the Guardian this week, as he shares a body of new works exploring the environmental ravages of the planet today, and reflects on the conditions that make his photography possible.  “We’re at a critical moment in history where we’re starting to hit the thresholds of human expansion and the limits of what this planet can sustain. We’re reaching peak oil, peak fish, peak beef – and the evidence is all there to see in the landscape.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the expansion of the Victoria and Albert Museum into Scotland, as the institution plans an exhibition space in the city of Dundee.  The expansion is “part of an ambitious program to make our collections and expertise more widely available to the public and to promote…the UK creative economy,” according to museum director Martin Roth. (more…)

Peter Zumthor has been tapped to design an extension for Fondation Beyeler, Artforum reports, an $82 million building in Iselin-Weber Park in Riehen.  “The interaction of human beings, nature, art, and architecture is one of the keystones of the Fondation Beyeler’s success, and was also essential for the development of Renzo Piano’s award-winning museum,” says Fondation Director Sam Keller, “Peter Zumthor possesses the sensitivity and experience that are needed to create a building of outstanding quality in this very special location.” (more…)

Doug Aitken is profiled in The Guardian this week, as the artist opens a new show of work at the MOCA in Los Angeles.  “I think in working with Philippe [Vergne]  we were able to make the exhibition become an artwork,” says Aitken. “It made me become really engaged in thinking about how you see a museum so it’s less passive and more empowering and more mysterious.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei is wrapping Florence’s Palazzo Strossi in rubber life boats, continuing his projects commenting on the plight of Syrian refugees.  The work is part of an exhibition by the artist at the space, which will include a body of new works alongside older pieces. (more…)

MoMA is set to make thousands of images documenting various installations and exhibitions from the full range of the museum’s history available online.  Visitors to the MoMA website will be able to browse the images and search for exhibitions from across the museum’s almost 100 year history.  “This is like a dream come true for me,” says Michelle Elligott, chief of the museum’s archives, “because I’ve been playing around with this material for 20 years and I know the depth of what’s here.” (more…)

Sophia Al-Maria, still from Black Friday (2016). Digital video projected vertically, color, sound; 16:36 min. Collection of the artist; courtesy Anna Lena Films, Paris, and The Third Line, Dubai.

Currently showing on the first floor of the Whitney Museum is Black Friday, the American-Qatari artist Sophia Al-Maria’s solo debut in the United States.  Born in the U.S. and educated in London and Egypt, Al-Maria has been a central voice in the Gulf region’s burgeoning contemporary art scene.  At the helm of the art collective Gulf Cooperation Council as a founding member, Al-Maria’s work drives at a concept of “Gulf Futurism,” a term she coined to define the rapidly evolving economic and social landscape of the region.  As a writer, researcher and filmmaker, Al-Maria has been delivering a substantial body of work on oil-fueled wealth and its political/social consequences in the Middle East.

Sophia Al-Maria, still from The Litany (2016). Digital video projected vertically, color, sound; 16:36 min. Collection of the artist; courtesy Anna Lena Films, Paris, and The Third Line, Dubai. (more…)

Bloomberg reports that collectors Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu are set to open an art space dedicated to Arte Povera in the Hudson Valley town of Garrison.  “The only drawback to collecting Arte Povera is that much of the work is huge in scale and certainly cannot be shown in a house made of glass walls,” Nancy Olnick says. “This led us to look for an appropriate space to display the artwork.” (more…)

Taryn Simon, An Occupation of Loss (Installation View), courtesy Park Avenue Armory Image © Naho Kubota

In the midst of the Park Avenue Armory, a series of immense silos tower up from the floor, part of artist Taryn Simon’s landmark performance An Occupation of Loss, which brings a series of funeral mourners from around the globe to the Drill Hall for an overwhelmingly powerful performance meditating on loss, political agency, and common human experience. (more…)

The WSJ interviews Takashi Murakami on his recent work, and his incorporation of Japanese spirituality into his subject matter.  “I’m not making fun of Zen,” he says. “I respect it. This is more about the feeling of painting, and how I can generate proper energy as a painter.” (more…)