Andrew Kuo, 100% (9/25/2016) (2016), via Art Observed

Andrew Kuo’s work functions at an intersection of the cognitive and formal.  His paintings, jagged and winding swirls of color executed in meticulously arranged grids, draw on histories of formally precise, minimalist painting from across the 20th century.  Yet at the same time, his work twists these forms through a framework of subjectivity, using corresponding texts at the bottom of his paintings to turn them into charts and datasets of sorts.  The amount of time dwelling on various subjects, personal details or grand metaphysical questions are implied through his works, often tinged with a wry sense of humor.

Andrew Kuo, TRIP (7/15/2016) (2016), via Art Observed

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President Obama has signed the bill granting immunity to foreign states loaning art works and antiquities to the U.S., a bill that has seen strong support from American art institutions.  “It will help to ensure that foreign government lenders are not discouraged from lending works of art to American museums,” says Christine Anagnos, executive director of the American Association of Art Museum Directors. (more…)

Vanity Fair has a piece on the ongoing battle over the estate of Peggy Guggenheim, and the contentious family relations that underscore the fight for her impressive collection of works.  “It was rather a joke,” the piece quotes Guggenheim on leaving her collection to the Guggenheim Foundation, “since I wasn’t on very good terms with my uncle.” (more…)

The St. Louis Art Museum is facing criticism for its loan of a George Caleb Bingham to serve as the backdrop for Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony.  “We object to the painting’s use as an inaugural backdrop and an implicit endorsement of the Trump presidency and his expressed values of hatred, misogyny, racism and xenophobia,” a petition by art historian Ivy Cooper reads. “We reject the use of the painting to suggest that Trump’s election was truly the ‘verdict of the people,’ when in fact the majority of votes — by a margin of over three million — were cast for Trump’s opponent.” (more…)

Artist Mark Dion is featured as part of the New York Times’ “Show Us Your Wall” series, taking the newspaper on a tour of his Upper Manhattan home and studio, which is filled with antiques, oddities and ephemera the artist has collected over the years, and which makes up a portion of his practice.  “Every weekend, I’m at the flea market,” he says. “Pretty much every day, I stop into thrift shops and antique stores and Goodwills. It’s a long battle to acquire the materials that have the right kind of patina.” (more…)

David Gursky, the president of global development and publisher of Art & Auction for Louise Blouin Media, has left the company, following the layoff of Modern Painters editor-in-chief Scott Indrisek. “It was voluntary,” Gursky told the New York Post. (more…)

Artspace has laid off nearly its entire office, signaling further turbulence in the online art marketplace, and cutting its core team to around 5 members. (more…)

Julian Rosefeldt, Manifesto (2015) © Julian Rosefeldt and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Following its Australian and German debuts throughout 2016, Manifesto, German artist Julian Rosefeldt’s highly anticipated multi-channel video installation starring Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett, comes to Park Avenue Armory’s cavernous Drill Hall.  Projected on soaring screens dispersed around the empty space, Rosefeldt’s tour-de-force recites a range of influential manifestos from the history of art and philosophy through an impressively diverse range brought to life by Blanchett’s virtuosic and versatile acting ability.

Manifesto at Park Avenue Armory Photo by James Ewing (more…)

Jonathan Laib, a senior vice president and senior specialist at Christie’s, will leave the auction house to join David Zwirner, the Art News reports.  “I started as an auction specialist and I felt as though my role was changing, and I was becoming more of a private sales dealer,” Laid says. “I was taking the lead on putting together private selling exhibitions, and that experience lead me on a different path.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper notes the continued investment by U.S. Universities in art institutions and museums, as schools see benefits and appeal for having spaces centered around accessible art events.  “We’re seeing significant numbers of students who aren’t arts majors taking more than six of these classes and, for some, it’s causing shifts in their trajectory,” says Matthew Tiews, associate dean for the advancement of the arts at Stanford.  (more…)

The French government has placed an export bar on a recently discovered â‚¬15m Leonardo da Vinci drawing, giving the state 30 months to buy the rare, double-sided piece at market value.  The piece was brought to Tajan auction house unexpectedly by a retired doctor. (more…)

Luhring Augustine is now representing the estate of British painter Jeremy Moon, and will open its first exhibition of the artist’s work this month.  “His use of the grid as a structural device was central to his working method; its rigid organization, yet flexible expandability, allowed him to bracket fields of color in a manner that was exploratory and effectual,” the gallery said in a statement. (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the potential for loans between U.S. and Russian museums to resume, both following the recently passed Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, and during the presidency of Donald Trump.  “It is shameful that there are no exhibitions,” says State Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky. (more…)

The Guardian has a piece documenting some of Keith Haring’s most iconic designs scrawled across automobile and motorcycle exteriors.  The artist had done a number of pieces on cars and trucks, including one on a vintage Land Rover, and another on a 1990 BMW Z1.   (more…)

The Marciano Art Foundation will open its doors in Los Angeles this year, the LA Times reports.  “The way I see it, L.A. is probably the major contemporary art center in the world, not just in museums but also — and more importantly — because of all the artists living here and moving to L.A.,” founder Maurice Marciano. “I believe the more museums there will be, the more every museum will be successful in having a lot of visitors because more and more people will come to L.A. to visit them.” (more…)

Kirklees council in West Yorkshire is considering the sale of a Francis Bacon painting from the 1940’s to help keep several museums open.  “I can’t see any value of owning a painting which is stuck in a cellar most of the time. I know recently it has been on tour, but there have been times where it has been in storage for a very long time,” David Sheard, leader of the council, said.  “It is an issue that we need to have an open debate about as it is a problem if it is costing us so much to insure yet we’re not able to display it.” (more…)

An article in the New York Times reflects on the current state of the art market, and notes an increasing number of private sales as collectors seek to avoid commission fees and higher taxes.  “The auction houses have created some huge margins at the midlevel,” says collector Howard Rachofsky. “A lot of that trade is going to migrate to the private side.” (more…)

Rita Ackermann, Kline Nurses (2015), via Art Observed

Taking over Hauser & Wirth’s temporary exhibition space at 548 West 22nd Street, Rita Ackermann is currently presenting a broad range of new works drawing on her ongoing investigations into the modes and structures of mainstream painting.  A relentless experimenter with the conception, construction, and presentation of the painted canvas, Ackermann’s work here spans a range of varied approaches that further her dual interrogations of the material bounds of the painting, and the gestural or technical conceits used in its realization.

Rita Ackermann, Kline Rape III (2016), via Art Observed

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MoMA PS1 curator Jenny Schlenzka will take the helm at downtown performance space PS122 as its artistic director, the NYT reports. Ms. Schlenzka was the organizer behind PS1’s popular Sunday Sessions program.  “The theater world is very patriarchal,” she says. “To change that is going to be exciting, and it’s going to release a new energy. New ideas will come up.” (more…)

The Polish government has acquired the collection of Polish-Spanish aristocrat Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski, which includes Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Good Samaritan, for the price of $118 million, a move which led to the resignation of the Princes Czartoryski Foundation in protest over the “illegal” sale, and over fears that the nation may break the collection up for resale.  “It was only a deposit and the Czartoryski foundation could sell them or replace them,” says a spokeswoman for the National Museum in Krakow. “Now the collection is owned by the Polish nation.” (more…)

Curator June Yap and project manager Neo Kim Seng have withdrawn from Singapore’s organizational team for the country’s pavilion at the Fifty-Seventh Venice Biennale over “differences in operational approaches.”  Singapore’s National Arts Council stated that the departure was a “a mutually agreed upon decision.” (more…)

The Guardian examines the health and strength of the art market moving into 2017, noting a 30% drop in market volume and major questions over auction houses’ processes for due diligence that have added to already unstable market conditions.  “The art market went down primarily because a small number of high-value objects did not trade hands as they had in 2015 and that reduced the overall market volume,” says Art Market Monitor’s Marion Maneker. (more…)

British art critic, producer and writer John Berger has passed away in his Paris home this week, at the age of 90.  The creator of the popular television series and book, Ways of Seeing, Berger’s work examined both social and political contexts for art works in relation to their purely visual modes, making him one of the most visible intellectuals of British counter-culture during the 1970’s and onwards.  Berger continued to write and experiment with varied forms of critique and fiction until his death.   (more…)

The Guardian profiles Aaron Angell, a young artist working in ceramics and painting, and the pottery studio he built, which has become a central hub for a group of forward-thinking young artists.  “The process is frustrating. Anyone can buy a bag of clay and a readymade glaze,” he says.  “But to do it properly, to make your own glazes as we do, you have to fail sometimes. That makes it a romantic, fatalistic thing. You’re almost working blind. Even the weather can affect a firing.”  (more…)