The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been given ownership of architect John Lautner’s masterpiece home above Beverly Hills.  The home’s slanted angles and glass facade is most memorable for its appearance in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, and will be part of an expansion project including an installation by James Turrell.  “For me it ranks as one of the most important houses in all of L.A.,” LACMA head Michael Govan says. “And as one of the most L.A. houses, because of its connection to the view, that long view toward the ocean.” (more…)

Despite initial reports that it had reopened, Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery is still shuttered, awaiting official permission to open its doors.  “Staff are currently working on future programming but will not be able to open doors officially until permission is granted by the appropriate authorities,” says Director William Wells. (more…)

Catherine Opie is interviewed in the New York Times this week, on the heels of opening a number of shows in both New York and Los Angeles.  “I realized for me that non-space was the subconscious, and for the figure to emerge from it, while kind of having a conversation with Renaissance lighting in painting,” she says of her recent portraits.  “I could create a portrait that has presence as well as functions from a potential dream state in my mind.” (more…)

Photographer Dennis Morris is considering a lawsuit against painter Elizabeth Peyton, who he claims infringed on the copyright for his photographic of the Sex Pistols’ John Lydon in her work John Lydon, Destroyed (1994).  The work was removed from Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Sale on February 11th. (more…)

The National Court of Spain has decided to extradite Jesús Ángel Bergantiños Díaz, one of the dealers fingered in the Knoedler Gallery Art Fraud case.  His brother, José Carlos, is also awaiting a decision on extradition. (more…)

Chris Burden, Buddha’s Fingers (2014-15), all images via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Spanning two uptown locations of Gagosian Gallery is a series of recent works by the late artist Chris Burden, who passed away last year at age of sixty-nine soon after his large scale New Museum retrospective. Burden, who started his career with avant-garde performances that played a significant role in furthering body art on a global scale, alongside his other American peers Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman, then shifted towards idea-based practice later in his career.  Challenging in terms of execution rather than physical fortitude, these projects Burden undertook emphasized a concretized, material practice. (more…)

Diana Thater, Knots and Surfaces (2001), via Art Observed

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has invited Diana Thater to open her first U.S. retrospective, currently on view in the museum campus’s Art of the Americas building, and pulling a focused, yet nuanced exploration of much of Thater’s early work, tracing the intersections of her various aesthetic and conceptual interests as they converge in her environmental installations here. (more…)

Pace Gallery is opening another space in Chelsea, taking over the building at 537 West 24th Street, part of its continued expansion plan that will see a new flagship location open in 2018.  The new space will be inaugurated with a show of work by Tim Hawkinson. (more…)

Mark Grotjahn, Untitled (Captain America Drawing in Ten Parts 41.17) (2008–09) (part three), Photo by Douglas M. Parker Studio © Mark Grotjahn

After exhibiting this body of work at Kaikai Kiki Gallery in Tokyo in 2010, Gagosian Gallery is presenting Mark Grotjahn’s ten part surrealist drawing exercise Untitled (Captain America).  The title of this show is a play on the original comic book series, where Captain America was intended to fight against the Axis Powers during World War II.  Seventy years later, the motif of Captain America is still significant and commonly used as a symbol of fighting for the American Dream.  (more…)

The WSJ again trumpets a cooling art market following last week’s auctions in London, noting a decreased interest in mid-priced lots, and a greater focus on reliable bets.  “It’s a correction we’ve all been waiting for,” says Nazy Vassegh, CEO of London art fair Masterpiece. “There’s been no frenzied bidding in the sales room. The market seems to be highly price sensitive and really selective.” (more…)

Continuing his work around the Syrian refugee crisis, Ai Weiwei has installed 14,000 lifejackets around the columns of Berlin’s Konzerthaus.  The project coincides with the annual Cinema for Peace gala, which was held last evening in the venue.   (more…)

The Museo del Prado in Madrid has cancelled a pair of loans for a retrospective of Hieronymous Bosch, following dissatisfaction with research that claimed the works were not in fact painted by the artist himself.  The museum criticized researchers for basing their decision on “extremely subjective stylistic aspects.”
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Reed Exhibitions France, the company behind both FIAC and Paris Photo, has withdrawn its plans for Los Angeles editions of both fairs, pointing at what it calls an “absence of a mature market.” “We are extremely grateful for the support that we have received since the launch of Paris Photo in Los Angeles, and during the research and development phases of FIAC LA,” the company said in a statement. (more…)

The Art Market Monitor takes an interesting approach in analyzing the auctions of the past few weeks, noting a continued surge in Chinese buyers, and paralleling that with a recent New York Times article charting continued efforts by wealthy Chinese citizens to move their money out of the national currency.  “Individuals can move $50,000 a year across China’s borders,” the article quotes from Keith Bradsher’s original piece. “Companies and sophisticated investors have more freedom to send out money legally for big-ticket purchases and investments.” (more…)

American Airlines, alongside a group of art handling companies, are the subject of a lawsuit by art insurers Lloyd’s of London, following damages to a Lucio Fontana work in transit to the Armory Show in New York last year.  Lloyd’s is seeking $116,000 in damages and legal fees. (more…)

An article in the Telegraph this week continues the tale of differing positions on the health of the Contemporary market, emphasizing that while auction prices are in adjustment, private sales are still booming, often obscured by alarmist headlines.  “Yes, the auctions were not the same as last year,” says dealer Thaddaeus Ropac. “But I had a sense the market was ok. I can’t understand why the press has been discussing a crash in the art market. I’ve had the best January ever in my galleries.”  (more…)

LAABF, via Thisbe Gensler for Art Observed

This weekend, MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary space in Little Tokyo opened its doors again for the West Coast edition of the rabidly popular Printed Matter Art Book Fair.  The fourth iteration of the fair in the sunny metropolis, this year’s event saw strong attendance, and benefitted from a staggered scheduling that avoided the bustle of Los Angeles Art Week this past month.   (more…)

Judith Bernstein, Cockman Always Rises Gray (2015)

Seminal New York painter Judith Bernstein is the subject of a solo exhibition, titled Dicks of Death, currently on at Mary Boone Gallery, shortly after her 2015 exhibition Voyeur at the gallery’s midtown location.  Subverting the fixations of male chauvinism and patriarchal discourse that have deep-seated roots in public realm, including an art community that ostensibly has an equitable façade, Bernstein emerged in the late ‘60s alongside a group of female artists who raised their defiant voices against subtly pervasive misogyny. (more…)

Marc Quinn is parting ways with White Cube Gallery after more than 20 years.  Quinn was the first artist Jay Jopling worked with at the gallery, and just recently closed an exhibition late last year with the space.  “We are not representing him anymore,” says a gallery spokeswoman.  “We wish him every continued success with his future projects.” (more…)

The New York Times notes the thriving scene in Downtown Los Angeles, where a number of galleries and spaces have seen success in cultivated a connected community of talented young artists.  “It’s very similar to what I was doing at my spaces in New York,” Jeffrey Deitch says. “The social aspect is essential for artistic innovation. Artists working in isolation rarely have the same achievement.” (more…)

Zhu Jinshi, Ten Object 2 (1990), all photos via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Culling together a body of work spread over the past 25 years of the artist’s practice, Blum & Poe’s 66th Street New York location is currently presenting a show by Zhu Jinshi, offering an intriguing and wide-ranging perspective on the artist’s historical development. (more…)

Brian Belott, Baarpyp (2015), via Art Observed

Walking into the doors of Moran Bondaroff in LA, the viewer is immediately greeted with a swarm of colors, massive chunks of colorful canvas often swelling into distended forms that only hint at their original, rectangular shape.  These pieces, the work of Brooklyn-based painter Brian Belott, make up his first exhibition in Los Angeles, as well as his first with the gallery.   (more…)

The New York Times reports that Sotheby’s is quite eager to hire top talent from Christie’s, noting that the auction house has offered waive standing noncompete obligations for former employees in order to hire former executives from Christie’s.  The proposal centered around former Christie’s America head Marc Porter, whom Sotheby’s had recruited as chairman of its new Fine Arts Division. (more…)

Creative Time has appointed Katie Hollander, longtime deputy head of the organization, to take over for Anne Pasternak as its director.  “The thing I’m most committed to,” Hollander syas, “is thinking about new platforms to help amplify artists’ voices.” (more…)