Josh Smith, Untitled (2020), via David Zwirner

Marking a new entry in his ongoing practice of obsessive painterly documentation and flowing, lyrical canvases, artist Josh Smith has opened a string of shows at David Zwirner in New York and London, continuing his exploration of landscape and space, here focusing on a series of empty streetscapes.   Reflecting on the experience of creating these new works during the 2020 pandemic, the artist’s work explores the meaning of creativity and artistic purpose in the midst of global crisis.   (more…)

Germany and France are facing another round of extended museum closures as lockdowns begin in the countries. “We have to act in order to avoid an acute national health emergency,” says German Prime Minister Angela Merkel. (more…)

The MoMA PS1 leadership is shifting, with longtime chair Agnes Gund heading over to manage the museum’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. Former board co–vice chair Sarah Arison is taking over as museum chair. “I am honored to take on this role as Chair of the PS1 Board of Directors, and humbled to continue Aggie Gund’s legacy of inspirational leadership,” Arison says. (more…)

In an interview this week with the Guardian, Tracey Emin revealed she is in remission after a cancer diagnosis and surgery this summer, an experience she says has renewed her passion for work.  “At my age now, love is a completely different dimension and level of understanding,” she says. “I don’t want children, I don’t want all the things that you might subconsciously crave when you’re young. I just want love. And as much love as I can possibly have. I want to be smothered in it, I want to be devoured by it. And I think that is OK.” (more…)

Michelangelo Pistoletto gets an interview in the NYT this week, as the artist discusses a fraught battle with COVID-19, and a string of new shows the artist has opening this fall.  “I’m still alive,” he says. “It was very, very hard to retake life.”  (more…)

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #609 (2019), via Metro Pictures

The ever-shifting visage of Cindy Sherman touches down once again at Metro Pictures this month, installing a selection of new works that continue her explorations of iconographies and cultural trappings, bodies and time as suspended within the frame of the photograph.  Considered among the most influential voices of her generation, Sherman opens the show as she installs a major body of work at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #611 (2019), via Metro Pictures

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After harsh criticism, the postponed Philip Guston show has been moved up to 2022, the NYT reports. “We never would have identified 2024 as a possible timeline if we were not serious about doing the show,” says National Gallery spokeswoman, Anabeth Guthrie. (more…)

In a last-minute decision, the Baltimore Museum of Art called of its decision to sell a set of works from its collection, removing them from the sale just hours before it sits start time. “On behalf of AAMD, I am gratified to learn that the Baltimore Museum of Art has decided to reverse course,” says Brent Benjamin, president of the AAMD, said in a statement. “As we have said consistently, our April 2020 resolutions were not intended to address needs beyond current, pandemic-related financial challenges.” (more…)

Galeria Nara Roesler is moving its New York gallery to West 21st Street in Chelsea next year.  “We know that artists are working to create objects that are meant to be experienced in the flesh,”Roesler says. “The digital channels have kept the conversations and connections with our audience going. We found a way without a physical space, but we still need a space to keep the gallery healthy in the future.” (more…)

Mark Godfrey, a senior curator of international art at Tate, has been suspended following criticism of the museum over its decision to postpone the Philip Guston show. “If you work at Tate, you are expected to toe the party line,” a source says. “There is very little tolerance for dissent and an increasingly autocratic managerial style.” (more…)

Frieze New York announced a pared down version of its fair for 2021, moving across town to The Shed for a scaled-down edition. “The Shed is committed to developing new partnerships and approaches to support the arts and our city at this critical time,” says artistic director and executive Alex Poots. (more…)

Klara Liden, Kahba (2020), via Sadie Coles

Currently on view at Sadie Coles HQ’s Davies Street location in London, artist Klara Liden has orchestrated a body of new works drawing on the urban landscape, its moments of improvised and recontextualized materiality, and peculiar interrogations of these spaces through the body and through the body populace.  At the center of the show is an investigation of cities and landscapes, and how human agency slowly transmutes and transfigures much the space within it.   (more…)

Lehmann Maupin will open a temporary exhibition space in Palm Beach, Florida next month, Art News reports. “We’ve learned a lot of lessons in the last seven months,” says gallery partner Carla Camacho, who will run the space. “Smaller markets are really hungry to have high quality art in their hometowns, and it’s time to bring high-level art and treat these regional cities with a more elevated experience.” (more…)

Jenny Holzer is working with students in Chicago as part of her You Vote program, placing messages on a series of LED billboard trucks.“Students wanted more, they wanted to participate in getting out the vote,” says Christine Mehring, a professor of art history at the college and an adjunct curator at the Smart Museum of Art who worked on the project. (more…)

Artist Sarah Sze has an interview in The Guardian this week, as she prepares an installation at Fondation Cartier in Paris. “I’m interested in the idea of sculpture as a tool to understand where we are in time – in the world, you know?” she says. (more…)

As a curfew continues in France, the government has announced a series of measures to support its struggling culture sector. “We are going to lose another month, a month and a half, maybe two. A private business that doesn’t have any money cannot afford this cost”, says Loïc Bonnet, the president of the private theaters association. (more…)

Artists Adam Pendleton and Amy Sherald have departed the board of the the Baltimore Museum of Art. “Adam Pendleton and Amy Sherald determined that they could not fully participate in board activities due to other commitments and have resigned. We are grateful for the time they invested and for the perspectives and ideas that they brought to the BMA,” a museum spokesperson said.

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Danh Vo, Chicxulub (Installation View), via Art Observed

Taking over the full expanse of White Cube Bermondsey, artist Danh Vo presents a selection of new works that continues his uniquely deep interrogations of the politics and materiality of language, drawing together a show of fragmentary items and momentary encounters that build and amplify their respective elements.

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The New York Times asks just how long museums can survive being open at 25% capacity. “We want to be open, but we don’t want to push the envelope,” says Met president Daniel H. Weiss, “especially as, throughout the country, we’re seeing that the pandemic is on the rise precisely through the lack of adherence to social-distancing rules.” (more…)

Congolese activist Emery Mwazulu Diyabanza has been arrested in Paris for attempting to remove an artifact from the Louvre. “I came here to take back what was stolen and plundered from us…” Diyabanza can be heard saying as he removed the item, “to take back what was pillaged from Africa.” (more…)

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Phillips will sell a $35 million David Hockney landscape this winter, the 1980 work Nichols Canyon. “Nichols Canyon is, without question, the most significant landscape by Hockney to ever appear at auction,” says Jean-Paul Engelen, Phillips’ deputy chairman and co-head of 20th century and contemporary art. (more…)

For the last two weeks, the Hammer Museum has quietly been putting up parts of its Made in LA Biennial, The LA Post reports.  “We were waiting for more of the projects to be installed before we invited people to experience them,” Hammer Museum representative Nancy Lee said.  (more…)

Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Prick up your) (2020), via Regen Projects

For its fall exhibition, Regen Projects has tapped the voluminous body of work produced by Raymond Pettibon, presenting a range of new drawings and collages by the artist to round out his 11th exhibition with the gallery since joining in 1993.  Uniting his various interests in literature, sport and art, Pettibon’s most recent selection of works continues his investigations into the landscape of modern culture. (more…)