Louvre head Jean-Luc Martinez sits down with Art Newspaper this week, discussing the ambitious reshuffling of the museum collection as the institution completes a vast new storage and conservation space in Liévin, 200km north of the city of Paris. “We must completely revise our conception of the collections,” he says.  (more…)

Jacolby Satterwhite has an interview in Art News this week, as the artist prepares to open an ambitious new show at Pioneer Works, and a release of a full-length album. “I was raised on listening to deep house records that my mother liked,” the artist says. “What I love about making music is that it feels very similar to painting or 3-D animation where you have a bunch of tracks and a palette and you have to find a way to consolidate them to build a harmonious vision. It’s the same thing I do when I make a painting or an animation.” (more…)

Eike Schmidt, the director of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, has caused an uproar after ducking out of a new job post at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna just weeks before he was expected to start.  “Florence is too close to my heart,” he said. (more…)

Another work attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci is drawing controversy as it heads to the auction block, and commands strong condemnations from scholars. “Sometimes a work is so ridiculous and impossible that a scholar like me feels authorized to speak,” says Francesco Caglioti, an art history professor at the prestigious Scuola Normale Superiore. “This thing has nothing, nothing, nothing to do with Leonardo. I can’t imagine it was done before the late 19th century. It looks like a revivalistic work by the hand of somebody who tried to imagine a Renaissance horse and rider.” (more…)

A piece in the NYT this week looks at the challenges to museum boards mounted by protests and activists in recent months, and how these actions are shaking up the world of the wealthy.  “We need to define trusteeship beyond people of financial wealth,” says Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, which supports and advises nonprofits. “Expand the number of board members and bring in people with other assets besides money that the museum needs. What’s interesting to me is the lack of energy, focus and creativity to figure this out.” (more…)

The Rubin Museum is restructuring, cutting its staff by 25% and increasing the number of days the museum is closed during the week. “These new initiatives will allow the Rubin to better serve our audiences in New York City and around the globe and will ensure our financial health as we continue to share the richness of Himalayan art and ideas,” says board president Robert Baylis. “While hard choices accompanied these changes, the board is confident in the direction of the Rubin.” (more…)

Artist KAWS has come under fire in China after a 2002 work depicting Chairman Mao in his trademark style was put up for sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. “I would never create an artwork that tries to offend any individual person, group, or country,” the artist wrote on Instagram. “I have always worked with popular imagery, just as I did in 2001 when the artwork was created. The [Mao] artwork was not politically motivated then, and should not be used politically now.” (more…)

Artist Walid Raad will receive the Aachen Art Prize, despite initial reports that the city would not recognize him due to his support of the BDS Movement.  Initial statements attempted to paint the artist as an anti-Semite for his opposition to the Israeli state’s treatment of Palestine, but the Ludwig Forum for International Art in the city ultimately rejected these claims, and awarded the artist regardless. (more…)

Superstar curator Germano Celant will curate an exhibition of work by KAWS at the Garage Gallery in Doha, Qatar, Art News reports.  “If there are art world gatekeepers intent on excluding [KAWS], it should be clear by now that they are fighting a losing battle,” says Art in America’s September William S. Smith. (more…)

Longtime Getty Foundation director Deborah Marrow has died, Art News reports. “No one has contributed more to the life and mission of the Getty than Deborah, and we will miss her deeply,” says James Cuno, the president and CEO of the Getty Trust. “She brought clarity, vision, and selfless dedication to her work, and made loyal professional friends around the world.” (more…)

Christie’s will lead its November 13th Sale in New York with Ed Ruscha’s Hurting the Word Radio #2, which carries a presale estimate of $30 to $40 million, and which could shift the artist towards market leadership. (more…)

A Delhi judge has ordered Facebook and Google to remove posts related to allegations of sexual harassment against artist Subodh Gupta, Art News reports. Judge Rajiv Sahai Endlaw called the posts “defamatory,” and ruled they “cannot be permitted to be made in public domain.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper has a piece this week on the most exhibited artists in the history of London this millennium, with Lucian Freud topping the list with ten shows, followed by David Hockney with eight.  While Freud is “considered one of the greatest figurative painters of the 20th century,” according to curator Andrea Tarsia, “his first institutional solo exhibition only happened when he was in his 50s.” (more…)

A piece in the NYT this week charts the opening of Frieze London, and its place among the changing face of a Britain that may soon crash out of the E.U. “No one really knows anything about the implications,” says Frieze director Victoria Siddall,  “but London is very strong. It would take a lot to change that.” (more…)

New Museum’s newly founded Union and the institution have agreed on a contract, following months of actions. “This is really going to change things for the better,” says Dana Kopel, a senior editor and publications coordinator. (more…)

Pace Gallery is reportedly considering opening a space in Paris, Art News reports, as many gallerists consider how Brexit may affect business in the UK and access to the EU market.  (more…)

Artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist’s piece exploring horrific conditions at a Syrian jail opens at the Turner Prize exhibition. “The only way we can access much information about the site is through acoustic memories,” he says, “because people were blindfolded when they came in and held in darkness.” (more…)

Kanye West will release a new film October 25th, in collaboration with IMAX, that features footage of his Sunday Service performance series set in James Turrell’s ongoing Roden Crater project. “This one-of-a-kind experience features songs arranged by West in the gospel tradition along with music from his new album Jesus Is King—all presented in the immersive sound and stunning clarity of IMAX,” a statement reads. (more…)

The Drawing Center will waive admission fees for the run of its show on work by incarcerated artists.  According to Laura Hoptman, the center’s director: “Our hope is that free admission will foster increased engagement with the content of the exhibition and encourage visitors of all backgrounds to come back and experience the show on multiple occasions.”  (more…)

Emma Lavigne, president of the Palais de Tokyo, gas dismissed a leading donor, Bernard Chenebault, after he called for the death of sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, saying “I hope an off-center person shoots her.”  (more…)

Henriette Huldisch is the new curator at the Walker Art Center, Art News reports.  “Since the beginning of my career I have watched the trailblazing programs at the Walker with admiration,” Huldisch says. “I am truly thrilled now to join the institution and help move forward this legacy of innovative and forward-thinking exhibition making together with Mary Ceruti and the Walker’s staff.” (more…)

Artist Otobong Nkanga is the inaugural winner of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Program, a biannual prize carrying $100,000 in cash, an exhibition at the The Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Museum in Norway, and a budget to acquire work by the artist for the museum’s collection. “Otobong Nkanga is an artist of unshakeable integrity and vitality,” says Tone Hansen, museum director. “The impact we have upon our environment and one another constitutes the essence of her work.” (more…)

Art logistics company Atelier 4 has announced a new annual competition for “Registrar of the Year,” which comes with a $5,000 cash prize. “When exhibitions come around, they’re the ones that have to make it all happen while they’re working under very last-minute conditions,” says company CEO Jonathan Schwartz. “The registrar is the one who actually carries the standards for how things are supposed to happen.” (more…)

Artist Elias Sime has been commissioned to design a a large public garden for the Grand National Palace in Addis Ababa, a space that was previously off-limits to citizens. “Once [prime minister Abiy Ahmed] saw it, literally the next day he called Elias up and said, ‘You need to come to the grounds of the royal palace, which I’m going to open to the public for the first time since 1976. It will become our national pride, and you need to build a garden for us,’” says dealer James Cohan. (more…)