A group of Swiss students have designed a skeletal, wooden pavilion on Lake Zurich, which will act as a central part of the Manifesta 11 festival in the city of Zurich, and includes an open-air cinema and reflecting pool.  “The Pavillon of Reflections will offer a place for both encounters and education, a place for both passing the time with physical activity and with intellectual pursuits,” the group from ETH Zurich said. (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art will be on hand at Art Basel this year, selling a series of Andy Warhol-branded skate decks featuring the artist’s famous Campbell’s Soup Cans, and other selections from his catalog.  The MoMA Shop will be on view at the Delano from November 30 through December 6.  (more…)

A massive wall and ceiling painting commission by Tintoretto at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice has been restored using an LED lighting system, and a lengthy cleaning process, the Art Newspaper reports.  “The marbles are just as important as the Tintorettos [to the building’s overall decorative scheme],” says vicar Demetrio Sonaglioni. “[They] celebrated the importance of the buildings with fine carvings and paintings,” he adds.  (more…)

The Guardian has published a special series this week, titled “TheSeven Ages of an Artist,” interviewing a set of artists including Laure Prouvost, Richard Deacon, Rachel Whiteread, and others, as they reflect on the different stages of their career, considered from their varying vantage points in age and experience.  “I’m lucky my work started to be supported in my 30s – it is hard to be picked up really young, because you have not tried enough and have not got lost enough,” Prouvost says. (more…)

In an effort to cut costs, Artforum is reporting that Sotheby’s has offered a series of buy-outs for employees, offering what CEO Tad Smith calls “an attractive economic opportunity to volunteer to resign, should they wish to do so,” while acknowledging that he “certainly understands that announcing a cost reduction program right after two weeks of dazzling sales may be unexpected.” (more…)

CNBC takes a brief look at the underground arts scene in Singapore, where artists have been developing a fertile community off the beaten path of the city-state’s art scene.  “The scene has grown and diversified while maintaining its spirit of mutual respect and collaboration. It’s exciting times for art and music lovers in Singapore,” says Sideshow Collective member Tom Kelly. (more…)

A recent report by Citi has noted an impressive rate of growth for the art market in the past 15 years, when sales totaled about $3 billion.  “Since then, global auction turnover has grown at an average annual compound rate of 13%, reaching $16.1 billion in 2014,” says JPMorgan Asset Management’s Benjamin Mandel.  “Not bad considering that the period was punctuated by the deepest global recession in almost a century.” (more…)

CNN looks at the crop of collectors and investors driving prices up in the market, as fine art becomes one of the most popular categories for the wealthy to put their money.  “No matter what’s happening in the economy you’re always going to have art sales,” says Lamar Villere, portfolio manager at Villere & Co. (more…)

An article in The Guardian explores the recent lawsuit filed against Marina Abramovic by her former partner and collaborator Ulay, who claims she has not paid him for the proceeds of their collaborative work over the past several decades, nor has she credited him in writing for their shared pieces.  “The points I’m asking of her are: every six months, a statement on sales and my royalties. And I’m asking for absolute proper mentioning of my name,” he says. “She has deliberately misinterpreted things, or left my name out.” (more…)

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is preparing a massive exhibition of Western works from the past century, showing off a collection valued at $3 billion that has remained largely unseen in country since the 1979 revolution.  “There’s been kind of a myth about this collection,” says Germano Celant who organized the show with Iranian curator, architect, and filmmaker Faryar Javaherian. “Everybody was talking, and it disappeared after 1978 or 1979. There was a lot of work that I had only seen in pictures. It was this kind of secret, underground situation, where the work is so precious but has been in storage for so long.” (more…)

Graffiti artist NECKFACE has announced a new online store for periodic releases of one-off artworks and merchandise, launched today.  The works are produced from a series of thrift-store sourced objects and clothing the artist purchased while traveling the West Coast.   (more…)

The New York Times profiles editor, curator, writer and downtown mainstay Glenn O’Brien, as he takes up his new position as top editor for Maxim, charting out his vision for the magazine, and his memories of New York during the 1970’s and 80’s, including time spent with Jean-Michel Basquiat.  “He would drop in, and I always had a big stack of paper by my typewriter,” he says. “He would just make drawings and give them to me.”

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The New York Post reports on the story of Tracey Hejailan-Amon, who recently filed a lawsuit against estranged husband Maurice Alain Amon, claiming that her husband removed a $25 million collection of artworks from their home shortly before beginning divorce proceedings, including pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.  “These illegal and unlawful removals of the works of art is and was a strategic predicate for the service of a divorce action by Amon,” Hejailan claims. (more…)

Sotheby’s announcement that its quarterly loss narrowed 35 per cent in the third quarter has resulted in a 6.1% drop in share value as the auction house prepares its Contemporary Evening sale tonight.  “The buyers are getting more discerning,” says CEO Tad Smith.  “That is emblematic of a market that is solid. It creates buyers that are discerning, quality-oriented, but careful.”  (more…)

Hours after her appointment, Mélanie Joly, Justin Trudeau’s new minister of Canadian heritage, has pledged to double the annual federal contribution to the Canada Council of the Arts from $180 million to $360 million.  “I like to think that the Ministry of Canadian Heritage is the ministry of symbols, and after a Harper government of nine years, which was a Conservative government, it’s time to have a government that shows symbols of progressiveness,” she said. (more…)

James Turrell is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing his recent work, and the legion of people who have recently discovered his work thanks to Drake’s “Hotline Bling” music video.  “I’m sort of astonished by it, I have to say. It’s humbling that more people have probably heard about me through this than anything else,” he says. (more…)

The Independent art fair has announced its dates and gallery list for the 2016 New York edition of the fair, its first in Tribeca, as well as plans for another edition of Independent Project in November of next year.  The fair includes a number of frequent attendees, including The Modern Institute and David Kordansky, but has also added some considerably larger spaces this year, including Mitchell-Innes & Nash and Maccarone. (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist reflects on his long career and his desire to continue working, even at age 92.  “I give what I’ve got. It’s harder. I can’t work on really big pictures any more, so the ideas are blocked a bit,” he says. “But then, the visions were always too much.  I feel like the world is over there, and it keeps coming at me, and I want to do it, respond to it.” (more…)

French-born, Shanghai-based Alexandre Ouairy has stepped forward after more than a decade making and exhibiting work under the name Tao Hongjing, although the “conceptual project” of the artist had long been acknowledged by both artist and gallery.  “At the beginning, the first year or two, only the gallery and myself knew that I was Tao Hongjing,” Mr. Ouairy says, “but after that, it was always revealed that this was a project by a French artist.” (more…)

A series of works attributed to Jackson Pollock are being contested, after an analysis of the work uncovered paints not commercially available until after the artist’s death.  “The earliest forms of this class of pigment appeared on the commercial market in 1910 (PY1), with others following in the 1920s (such as PY4-6),” the report reads.  “However, the date of introduction of PY74 is commonly given in the literature as 1957. This consequently raises a number of issues.” (more…)

Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, who previously gained notoriety for nailing his genitals to Red Square in Moscow, for torching the wooden doors of the FSB security service building.  The artist could face at least 5 years in prison for the act.  “I think it will be a criminal case, everything points to that. It’s hard to say what charge: anything can happen in our country,” his lawyer said. (more…)

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An unidentified Italian man in Piacenza has contacted police, demanding â‚¬150,000 for the return of a Gustav Klimt work stolen in 1997.  While police declined the ransom, some local sources are considering raising the funds.  “It happens more and more,” says Belgian art expert Jacques Lust. “Not all details make it to the media, of course. If a case is solved there’s no mention of the amounts paid, nor of the works having been stolen. But there’s an increase in such cases.” (more…)

Frank Stella is the subject of a profile in The Economist this week, as the artist opens his retrospective exhibition at The Whitney Museum.  The article traces Stella’s ongoing formal inventions and investigation of the act of viewing and experiencing his work.   “What you see is what you see.” he quips. (more…)