The New York Times has a piece on Berlin this week, spotlighting the city’s long history as a home for artists and liberal-minded thinkers. “There are big spaces, like TriBeCa and SoHo in the old days,” says painter Sean Scully, who keeps a studio in the city. “It reminds me of that.” (more…)

Julian Opie is featured in The Guardian this week, with the artist reviewing recent works and their processes.  “Making art is a fairly odd decision, but people have been doing it since for ever,” he says. “If doodling while on the phone I’m inclined to draw a 3D cube and then another. It’s the fastest way to create imaginary space, another world. I live in London and move through a labyrinth of extruded rectangles like an ant on a computer board. I understand space and see movement by the changing views on these shapes. By simply adding flat squares to the sides of my extruded rectangles I create modern buildings.” (more…)

Sotheby’s will set a new world auction record with Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) at this month’s Impressionist and Modern Sale in New York, with an estimate of more than $150 million. The figure is the highest estimate ever placed on a work of art, and has already been confirmed as a record breaker. “This painting reimagines the nude for the modern era,” says Simon Shaw, the co-head worldwide of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department. (more…)

A piece in the New York Times this week notes the increased focus by museums towards Latinx artists.  “We’re at a really important point in history where plural curatorial voices can show not just a survey,” says Marcela Guerrero, who was recently hired as the Whitney’s first curator specializing in Latinx artists. “We can now go deeper and start unpacking what Latino art really is.” (more…)

Anicka Yi is interviewed in Frieze this week, discussing her practice and what she sees as the next steps for women in the arts. “In general, I learned fairly early on that cisgender, straight-identifying females tend to not help other women,” she says of her early experience in the arts. “It’s not even a conscious malicious act, in most instances. It’s a deep conditioning that somehow distancing yourself from the perceived ‘weaker pack’, with all its attendant baggage, might advance your uniqueness as an individual, making you less prone to be judged as a ‘vulnerable woman’.” (more…)

Cristian Valsecchi will will take over as manager of the Fondazione Prada, Art News reports. Valsecchi is currently secretary general of Fondazione Torino Musei and Associazione dei Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiani (AMACI), and formerly served as a professor of economics for arts and culture at the University of Bergamo. (more…)

LACMA’s annual Collectors Committee Weekend resulted in an unprecedented acquisition of women artists, with new works purchased by Martha Boto, Betye Saar, Jennifer Bartlett and Julie Mehretu, as well as a sculpture by Ruth Asawa. (more…)

Peter Halley, Barbara Bloom, Ashley Bickerton, Joan Wallace and Jeff Koons get together for a piece in the New York Times this week, dining at Katz’s and discussing the 80’s scene downtown. “SoHo had this hierarchy and the gallery structure, but when all these artists opened these fresh, young galleries, there was no hierarchy there,” Koons says of spaces in the Lower East Side. “It was really about showing exciting works. Things weren’t set up as business-oriented. I went through some of the SoHo galleries, but I was never completely accepted there. And as outsiders we finally had a place where we were embraced.” (more…)

The Tate is looking to appoint its first trustee to represent the interests of people aged 16-25, and will lower prices for younger visitors, the Art Newspaper reports. Tate head Maria Balshaw is reportedly seeking “a cultural entrepreneur and digital native” to help represent the interests of a new generation at the museum. (more…)

The newly opened Tate archives get a spotlight in the Art Newspaper this week, profiling the struggle and logistics behind opening the Tate Britain and Tate Modern as separate branches of the same institution. “I was always worried about appearing isolationist in regard to British art,” the piece quotes former Modern head Nicholas Serota.  (more…)

Bloomberg has a piece this week on the market growth for contemporary black artists, including in its piece the news that MoMA has acquired Chris Ofili’s famous Holy Virgin Mary, from collector Steve Cohen. “Collectors are very interested in what artists of color have to say now,” says dealer Jack Shainman. “For many years it didn’t matter.” (more…)

The WSJ spotlights the rise and fall of Tony Podesta, paying particular attention to his lavish spending on art and arts institutions. “When he stepped down from the firm he expressed his ongoing gratitude to all of them and his commitment to continue his advocacy for the issues and ideals he’s always fought for,” says a spokeswoman for the Podesta Group. (more…)

Max Hollein gets a profile in the NYT this week, as he prepares to take the helm at The Met. “Max Hollein set benchmarks in terms of mobilizing citizens for culture and museums,” says Felix Semmelroth, San Francsico’s former cultural affairs director. “He left deep, deep traces in the city.” (more…)

The New York Times looks at the continued growth of private sales at auction houses, noting Sotheby’s private sales growth by 28 percent last year, up to $744.6 million. “It was something that was kept under wraps at most of the houses for some time,” says David Schrader, who joined Sotheby’s last year as its head of private sales for contemporary art. “Now we’re being very vocal about it and putting more energy into it.” (more…)

A recent report notes that online sales could stagnate if market transparency does not improve, the Art Newspaper says. “In a world where online consumers can easily compare prices for most goods, and where ‘value’ is more universally understood, the online art market has a real challenge… when it comes to educating and creating confidence among new online buyers,” says Anders Petterson, founder of ArtTactic. (more…)

Congratulations to Jerry Saltz, who has won the Pulitzer this year for criticism, recognizing “a robust body of work that conveyed a canny and often daring perspective on visual art in America, encompassing the personal, the political, the pure and the profane.”  (more…)

David Hockney is profiled in the New Yorker this week, as the artist opens a show of new work at Pace Gallery, and his recent interest in reverse perspectives.  “If you’re going through a tunnel, when you get out, everything opens up. That’s reverse perspective,” he says. “The problem with perspective is this: you’re an immobile point, here, outside the picture. But, with reverse perspective, you can be a moving person—you can see all sides of things from a single point. And we’re always in movement. The eye is always in movement. It’s never still. Cubism, for example, was really an attack on perspective.” (more…)

Amanda Hicks has joined the Museum of Modern Art in New York as director of communications and public affairs, arriving from the Art Institute of Chicago. “It’s an honor to join MoMA and a privilege to help tell the stories of extraordinary art and artists that inspire, provoke, and connect with millions of people inside and outside the museum,” Hicks said in a statement. “This moment at MoMA—with the visionary renovation and expansion underway—sparks new and exciting conversations about its unparalleled collection, exhibitions, and programs.” (more…)

A Marc Chagall painting, Othello and Desdemona, 1911, has been recovered by the FBI almost thirty years after it was reported missing, Artforum reports.  “Gallery owners are our first line of defense in identifying pieces of art that do not have the appropriate documentation and should be brought to the attention of law enforcement,” says supervisory special agent Tim Carpenter of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. (more…)

Ellen Salpeter will step down as director of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami after joining the institution in late 2015, Art News reports.  “With the new building launched, the museum’s program for the coming seasons set, and the institution on stable financial footing, the timing is right for me to pursue new projects,” she said in a statement. (more…)

Former director of the Tate Modern Chris Dercon is leaving his position as director of the Volksbühne Theatre in Berlin after rampant protests and concerns over his leadership.  “Both parties have agreed that the concept of Chris Dercon did not work out as hoped, and the Volksbühne needs a fresh start immediately. [Following] the amicable agreement between the culture senator [Klaus] Lederer and Dercon, there is now a chance to initiate this necessary reboot,” a joint statement reads. (more…)

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac now represents the estate of Joseph Beuys, Art News reports. “Joseph Beuys is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, a groundbreaking radical thinker in contemporary art whose profound influence endures today,” a statement from the gallery said. “It is a great privilege and honor to represent the works of this visionary artist on behalf of his estate and to work closely with his family.” (more…)

Francis Bacon’s Study for Portrait (1977) will hit the block at Christie’s next month in New York, estimated to sell in the region of $30 million.  The work is a portrait of Bacon’s lover, George Dyer. “I find this work is so powerful—for me it is probably one of the best paintings of their mystical love affair, and that’s what drew me to it,” says collector Magnus Konow, who is selling the work. (more…)

The Economist charts the challenges to the continually expanding art fair circuit, and the possible limits such an economic model may face for dealers. The piece charts challenges included the sheer scale of work needed to show at each event, and the high costs to attend so many showings. (more…)