Phillips president Michael McGinnis is leaving the company to pursue interests in the “non-auction side of the art business.”  “My tenure with Phillips has been nothing short of phenomenal, but the time has come for me to broaden my horizons and pursue new challenges,” he says. “So far my entire twenty-two year career has been in the auction business, and it’s time to experience the art industry from a different perspective.” (more…)

MoMA has officially filed its plans to expand onto the adjoining lot, which formerly housed the Museum of American Folk Art, with the New York City Department of buildings.  The $93 million expansion plan is designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. (more…)

The Guardian profiles the work of Robert Smithson this week, particularly his movement from his brash, colorful collage and drawing works of the mid-60’s to the epic land art and natural inversions of masterworks like Spiral Jetty. (more…)

 The Smithsonian will present its first Portrait of a Nation Prize, created “to celebrate the achievements of individuals who’ve contributed significantly to the United States’s cultural imagination” this month, with artist and architect Maya Lin included among the honorees. (more…)

San Francisco’s development tax, which is designed to take a 1% fee from new real estate developments in order to fund public art, is not living up to potential, the SF Examiner reports, as developers are using a loophole merely to place art on the premises of their new buildings. “The Department has limited documentation on the installation of public art in private downtown developments,” a city report reads. “Without public information and documentation the public does not know where all of the art is located and the department does not have a way to evaluate overall if the 1 Percent for Art program is achieving its goals.” (more…)

Jesper Just and FOS, in the shadow/ of a spectacle/ is the view of the crowd (Installation View), all photos via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Part of this year’s Performa proceedings, attendees at Danish artist Jesper Just’s performance In the shadow/ of a spectacle/ is the view of the crowd, found themselves suddenly guided up to the 43rd floor of a towering Financial District skyscraper, the downtown home of Time, Inc. on Liberty Street.  There, in an empty office floor, abstracted from the usual goings-on in the city’s bustling hub of banking and investment, a series of works presented themselves, continuing the artist’s investigations of structure and function, related to the movements of the modern urban context.

Jesper Just and FOS, in the shadow/ of a spectacle/ is the view of the crowd (Installation View) (more…)

A report by The Telegraph places Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas as the buyer of the record-setting $7.7 million Felix Gonzalez-Torres candy work at Christie’s this month, sold by Dallas Collector Howard Rachofsky.  (more…)

Curator Florence Derieux, who previously worked with the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in Reims, and with Art Basel, has been appointed Curator of American Art, in New York, and curator at large for the Centre Pompidou Foundation and Museum. (more…)

Artist, musician and writer Kim Gordon will be present the Turner Prize award on Monday, the 7th of December 2015, at the Tramway in Glasgow.  “Kim Gordon has been at the cutting edge of culture for many years and we are delighted to welcome her to Scotland to present this prestigious contemporary art prize,” says Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts, Creative Scotland, said. (more…)

Olafur Eliasson is currently negotiating with French officials to install his massive work Ice Watch at the Climate Change summit in Paris.  The work showcases over 120 tons of ice harvested from Greenland as it melts, a comment on the scale and urgency of climate change.  “It makes global warming manifest and raises awareness of the urgency. It is better than a speech,” says French ambassador to Denmark François Zimeray. (more…)

The Francis Bacon catalog raisonné is set to be released next spring, featuring over 100 works never seen publicly before.  “The stuff that has been written about Bacon, some good and much of it less good, is based on about a third of his work,” says art historian Martin Harrison, who has spent the last decade attempting to track down every work. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the recent x-ray investigations of Kazimir Malevich, and the racist joke uncovered as part of the work’s title in the bottom corner of the piece, and the work’s historical ties to the French avant-garde.  “It was believed that this work was done spontaneously, but the results of our investigation reveal that the process of its creation was complex and took a long time,” Irina Vakar, the Tretyakov Gallery’s chief researcher of the Russian avant-garde (more…)

President Hollande has announced that France will offer “asylum” for works threatened by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.  “The right to asylum applies to people… but asylum also applies to works, world heritage,” Hollande says. (more…)

The Guerilla Girls art collective are embarking on a new campaign against billionaire art collectors, beginning next years and commenting on the dissonance between the immense prices paid for contemporary art, the increasing financial-focus of the market, and the struggles of lower class workers at the hands of the hyper-wealthy.  “Cartels of collectors get behind the work of a few selected artists; galleries are paying for exhibitions of their artists at museums; and art fairs are showing the same bankable work over and over,” the group said in a statement. (more…)

The Atlantic challenges easy distinctions of “American Art” as globalization and increased international migration blur easy distinctions of nationality or singular cultural heritages.  “Place is very important to us, so an artist has to have a substantial connection to the American experience. We recognize that can manifest in different ways,”says Margaret Conrads, the director of curatorial affairs at Crystal Bridges. (more…)

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art has opened its doors to Bloomberg, giving the publication a rare glimpse by Western media into its impressive collection of Western contemporary work.  “This is one of the great unseen collections of postwar European and American art in the world,” says Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu. “We haven’t seen these works in 40 years.” (more…)

An article by the BBC profiles the increased number of projects by contemporary artists taking place in culturally historical locales like Versailles, noting in particular Lawrence Weiner’s new installation at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.  “There is no clash between historical and contemporary,” Weiner says. “It is all contemporary. This was my home and Blenheim Palace is still living.” (more…)

The New York Times interviews collector and billionaire Liu Yiqian, the buyer of the Amedeo Modigliani that smashed records this past month to become one of the most expensive works sold at auction for $170 million.  “I was on the phone with a girl from Christie’s Hong Kong who was bidding on my behalf, and she kept dropping the phone because she was so nervous,” Mr. Liu he says. “I told her, ‘Why are you so nervous? I’m the one paying, and I’m not even nervous. Just buy it.’  ” (more…)

MoMA has announced that it will return a contested painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner to the heirs of the German art collector Max Fischer, following evidence that the work was t

MOCA Director Philippe Vergne sits down with Architectural Digest’s West Coast editor, Mayer Rus, reflecting on his vision for the museum, and his first time in Los Angeles.  “The driving! Chris Burden kept saying, ‘You can’t drive through the riot areas,’ but I’d get lost and be afraid that I was somewhere I was not supposed to be. Plus, I was going to meet these guys who were absolute legends to me. It was pure adrenaline the whole time.” (more…)

Representatives of the European Biennial Manifesta have announced that the 2018 edition of the event will be held in Palermo, Italy, on the island of Sicily.  “The City of Palermo was important for Manifesta’s selection board for its representation of two important themes that identify contemporary Europe: migration and climate changes and how these issues impact our cities,” the organizers said in a statement. (more…)

The BBC takes an inside look at a London performance held by The Belarus Free Theatre, a group of performers who are banned from performance in their home country.  “We thought that we needed to create a list of taboos in Belarus,” Nadia Kaliada, a troupe performer says. (more…)

The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami has broken ground on its permanent location, less than a year after opening in a temporary space in Miami’s design district.  The new space is set to open in 2017.  (more…)

Paris’s museums have reopened to the public following a two day closure in the wake of Friday’s terrorist attacks in the city.  “These attacks targeted places of entertainment, togetherness and leisure,” said Ministry of Culture head Fleur Pellerin. “I call on everyone to show unity and solidarity. It is the best response that the Republic, the Ministry of Culture and Communication and its agents can bring to those who threaten us.” (more…)