The Hammer Museum has tapped Anne Ellegood and Erin Christovale as curators for the 2018 edition of Made in LA.  “Anne Ellegood and Erin Christovale are both fierce champions for artists, and we are excited to see the fresh perspectives and discoveries these two will bring forward in Made in L.A. 2018,” museum director Ann Philbin said in a statement. “Our biennial changes with each iteration, and the combined talents of Anne and Erin promise to reveal new dimensions of both Made in L.A. and Los Angeles.” (more…)

A group of masked men attacked Kiev’s Visual Culture Research Center exhibition space this past week, hammering holes in the walls and defacing the work of anarchist artist Davyd Chychkan’s The Lost Opportunity show, which reflected on the country’s 2014 Maidan Revolution.  “According to the artist, Maidan is a lost opportunity for the Ukrainian society to accomplish a social revolution, which would mean not only to defend dignity, but rather finally gain dignified living conditions,” a text regarding the exhibition read. (more…)

Andrew Goldstein, former editor-in-chief at Artspace, will take over as editor-in-chief of artnet News.  “We are very excited for Andrew to be taking the helm at artnet News,” Jacob Pabst, CEO of artnet, said in a statement. “With Andrew’s exceptional experience as both a journalist and leader in the world of art and fast-paced digital media, he is the perfect fit to further develop this key aspect of artnet and keep us on the cutting edge of a rapidly changing international landscape.” (more…)

The Garage Museum has announced the artist list for its first Triennial of Russian contemporary art.  The list, compiled by museum’s chief curator, Kate Fowle, features 68 artists working across Russia.   (more…)

The Art Newspaper has a piece on the increased focus on forensic science employed by auction houses, and its potential to improve authentication for works on sale.  “There is a hole that hopefully someone will fill, but it takes entrepreneurial nerve to leave a museum job and do this… it’s not for the faint of heart,” says John Cahill, a lawyer who represented two plaintiffs in suits against the Knoedler gallery. (more…)

The New York Times has a piece this week reflecting on the work of the Pictures Generation, bringing together a group of the artists from the 1980’s for a photo shoot, and tracing their technological interests into the pervasive visual media formats of today.  “Such works created a nervous sense of how representation operates in the everyday world — almost subliminally much of the time,” writes Gary Indiana, reflecting on the era, “tapping into myths and illusions sunk deep in our brains, influencing the way we act, how we dress, behave in public, occupy space, choose and attract sexual partners, spend money, make friends and enemies.” (more…)

Raf Simons has collaborated with artist Sterling Ruby once again for the designer’s first show at the helm of Calvin Klein, inviting the artist to design a permanent installation in the brand’s New York offices consisting of hanging quilts and other ephemera echoing Simons’s collage of fashion signifiers. (more…)

The Guardian notes an increased market emphasis on German post-war art in recent months, and the impressive number of works by German artists hitting the auction block in the coming weeks.  “There is an unprecedented interest being shown in German contemporary art,” says a Sotheby’s spokesman. “To have such a representation from one country is remarkable given today’s globalized art world.” (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans is profiled in The Guardian this week, as the artist reflects on the cultural fallout of the Brexit vote, and the critical reception of his work over the course of his career.  For a long time in Britain,” he says, “there was a deep suspicion of my work. People saw me as a commercial artist trying to get into the art world, and the work was dismissed as shallow or somehow lightweight. There are still many misconceptions about what I do – that my images are random and everyday, when they are actually neither. They are, in fact, the opposite. They are calls to attentiveness.” (more…)

The UK has placed a temporary export bar on the sale of a Parmigianino work recently sold for £24.5 million.  “It is in pristine condition, has a very distinguished ownership history and, unusually for the period, has the additional fascination of being painted on paper, which opens up new avenues for scholarly research and technical investigation,” says Aidan Weston-Lewis, a member of the reviewing committee on the export of works of art and objects of cultural interest (RCEWA).  “Its permanent export overseas would be a major loss.” (more…)

MCH Group, the Swiss Conglomerate that owns Art Basel, has announced its purchase of a 25% stake in Art Düsseldorf.  “MCH Group’s participation in Art Düsseldorf constitutes a further step in the implementation of our strategic initiative for the worldwide expansion of a new portfolio of regional art fairs in important art locations,” says Marco Fazzone, MCH Group’s managing director of design and regional art fairs. “We are convinced that Art Düsseldorf will be a success. Art Düsseldorf in the Areal Böhler will become the leading regional art fair in Germany, the Benelux region, and the Rhineland—and thus also have an international radiance.” (more…)

A painting discovered in a storeroom at Holburne Museum in Bath has been confirmed as a work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, following analysis that uncovered an elaborate underdrawing that echoed the artist’s techniques.  “It has a liveliness and sureness of touch,” Holborne director Jennifer Scott said.  (more…)

Theaster Gates is interviewed in the LA Times this week, while the artist’s current exhibition of work is on view at Regen Projects, and looks at his position as a black artist working on the South Side of Chicago.  “I cannot afford to just be an artist in this moment,” he says. “I have to use my art and my brain to try to imagine solutions.” (more…)

A group of right-wing protestors took to the streets in Dresden this week in protest over a work by Syrian-born artist Manaf Halbouni, a massive barricade formed by three buses, alluding to similar barricades created in war-torn Aleppo.  “We have hit a nerve with this project—an important nerve,” says Christian Mennicke-Schwarz, artistic director of the Dresden Kunsthaus. “It shows how important it is to focus on this subject. We have to be open to the suffering of others.” (more…)

Oprah Winfrey has reportedly sold a Gustav Klimt portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer for $150 million, Bloomberg reports, netting the media executive an impressive return on the $87.9 million she paid for the work in 2006.  The work was sold to an unnamed Chinese buyer.   (more…)

Laurel Ptak, current director of the New York nonprofit Triangle, will take up the executive director position at Art in General, filling the position left by Anne Barlow.  “Artists, now more than ever, have an important role to play in our ongoing public discourse, helping to pave the way for common ground and mutual understanding,” Ptak says.  “I am thrilled to be joining the team, and I look forward to working with the board and staff to extend opportunities to an even broader scope of voices, to engage our audiences on the issues most relevant to art and contemporary life.” (more…)

Christie’s has announced a new flagship location in Los Angeles, a 5,400-square-foot, two-story space in the center of Beverly Hills.  “The expansion of our West Coast footprint is a key growth initiative for Christie’s in 2017,” says Guillaume Cerutti, Chief Executive Officer. “With its vibrant community of major collectors, artists, tastemakers and cultural institutions, southern California has been an important market for Christie’s for nearly four decades and is now one of our most active regions for new buyers.” (more…)

Hauser & Wirth are now representing the estate of August Sander, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th Century.  “Sander’s medium was photography, and he was a bona fide pioneer,” says Gallery VP Marc Payot said. “But we view Sander much more broadly—not as the exemplar of a single medium but as an artist whose formal innovations, humanism, and conceptual bearings have exerted enormous influence on other artists in a lot of other mediums.” (more…)

Christie’s has posted a sales tally of $5.4 billion for 2016, a 27% decline from a year prior, signaling the art market’s continued slump, and nearly matching Sotheby’s 30% drop in sales.   (more…)

As the waterline of Utah’s Great Salt Lake gradually recedes, some are questioning what impact a dried lake could have on Robert Smithson’s famed Spiral Jetty, a work intended to function in concert with changing tide levels.  “We don’t anticipate water back to the lake. We don’t anticipate more precipitation in the future. We anticipate that this drought is a permanent fixture and is likely going to get worse,” says Bonnie Baxter of the Great Salt Lake Institute. “And that’s based on data.” (more…)

Sotheby’s has filed a lawsuit against dealer Mark Weiss and collector David Kowitz, alleging that a Frans Hals painting the pair sold through the auction house is a fake. “The painting was with the experts Mr. Weiss had instructed for a four-month period and was subject to extensive testing by them,” Sotheby’s said on Tuesday. “Mr. Weiss later suggested that additional tests be conducted by a new group of conservators, but Sotheby’s concluded that none of these further tests would change its conclusion.” (more…)

Bendor Grosvenor has a piece in the Wall Street Journal this week, raising concerns over the health of the British art market in the wake of the Brexit vote.  “For now, Britain’s art market is safe,” he writes.  “A weak pound has led to a small boom in London’s art auctions. And through a combination of tradition, solid British law and local expertise, the U.K.’s art-market leadership is difficult to challenge. But the real fear among U.K. art dealers and auctioneers is of a gradual decline in competitiveness.” (more…)

Tracey Emin is one of several benefactors behind a new scholarship at Bard College Berlin that aims to help those fleeing violence in Syria.  “I want to help and try to make things better, but in a way in which I know I can. If just one student makes it through that course and does something great with their life, for me it’s all been worth it,” she says.  “I love being an artist, I love my work and when I see the atrocities taking place in this world I realize how lucky I am.” (more…)

Yayoi Kusama is profiled in the Wall Street Journal this week, as the artist opens a series of major exhibitions, including her exhibition of Infinity Room works at the Hirshhorn opening later this month.  “In my mirror rooms, you see yourself as an individual reflected in an expansive space,” she says.  “But they also give you the sensation of cloistering yourself in another world.”   (more…)