Shirin Neshat is curating an exhibition in New York this autumn of Iranian women artists at the High Line Nine galleries. “As well as individual focuses, there are strong communal themes in the show,” Neshat says. “These works contribute significantly to the contemporary art world at large, but the lives and artistic visions within each work reflect aspects of Iranian history, which has determined the destiny of Iranian lives, including that of the artists.” (more…)

Apple has announced plans for a series of augmented reality projects with work by Nick Cave, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, and Cao Fei, among others. “Today at Apple offers a window into the creative arts made possible by our products and customers,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People. “We hope attendees are inspired by the incredible AR creations in the [AR]T Walk and in-store installation, and we can’t wait to see what our visitors learn to create in the [AR]T Lab.” (more…)

The New Yorker has a piece on Jackson Pollock’s Mural, an eight-by-twenty-foot painting completed in 1943, which has been on a continuous world tour since 2014.  The piece charts both the piece’s path around the globe, and the process in the work’s creation.  (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on the current Picasso show at the UCCA in Beijing, and the broader Chinese art scene, even as the country faces a censorship crackdown. “People are coming in part because he is very famous and very expensive,” says director Philip Tinari.  (more…)

Gagosian Gallery is set to open a show this fall of works by Chinese master Zao Wou-ki, capitalizing on the artist’s recently hot market in the West. (more…)

Art News has a piece today on gallerist Mitchell Algus, and the recent business-problems that might cause the long-standing and ground-breaking gallery to shutter.“He was like a fairy godmother for us,” says artist Betty Tompkins. (more…)

Five Parisian galleries will open spaces in a new four-building arts complex in the suburb of Romainville, an 11,000-sq m industrial venue named Komunuma. Among the galleries are Air de Paris and Jocelyn Wolff.  (more…)

A drawing by Egon Schiele has been found in a Queens thrift store, estimated at $100,000 to $200,000. “If you look at the way this girl is lying on her back, and you look at the foreshortening both on the rib cage and on her face, and the way you see that little nose pointing up—think about how difficult that is to do,” says Jane Kallir, the world’s foremost Schiele scholar. “There are very few people in the history of art who can draw like that.”  (more…)

The Guggenheim Museum has received an endowment from the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to establish a conservation fellowship to preserve, care for, and research the photography in its collection. “We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Mapplethorpe Foundation and applaud its commitment to the long-term research and stewardship of the Guggenheim’s growing photography collection,” says director Richard Armstrong. “This endowment allows the Guggenheim to create a professional fellowship program, instilling conservators and curators with the knowledge to safeguard our collection for future generations.” (more…)

A piece in the NYT this week asks if the transgressive character of Robert Mapplethorpe’s images have lost their power in the modern age of image distribution.  Mapplethorpe “was a pretty good commercial photographer who photographed things people weren’t accustomed to seeing in mixed company,” according to John Szarkowski, MoMA’s influential photography director at the Museum of Modern Art.  “It’s not photographically interesting.” (more…)

A new study on activist and about climate change points to art’s effectiveness as a form of activism, specifically when the works offer hope for the future.  Effective works “have the potential to retell the stories of climate change in a way that activates the slumbering potential in our societies,” say Laura Kim Sommer and Christian A. Klöckner of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. (more…)

Damián Ortega has won ICA Miami’s first sculpture prize. which includes fabrication of a new commission installed in the ICA’s Sculpture Garden and $15,000. “We see this as a wonderful place to honor the achievement of an artist who has innovated with sculpture throughout their career,” says Alex Gartenfeld, the museum’s artistic director. “Damián has been an artist who has consistently reinvented the form of sculpture, considered the role of the work in public, and experimented with materials and forms, perhaps like no one else of his generation.” (more…)

As Marlborough Gallery continues its plans consolidate its Manhattan and London together as one operation, the gallery has appointed New York dealer Jay Gorney as senior director. “Marlborough is a gallery with a long and rich history, and it’s shown an extraordinary roster of artists over the years,” Gorney says. “This is a pivotal time for the gallery, and presents an exciting moment for me. I’m looking forward to exercising creative energy and helping usher the gallery into an interesting new chapter.” (more…)

The J. Paul Getty Trust has purchased the archive of images from Ebony and Jet Magazine from Johnson Publishing, for a price of $28.5 million. The archive includes millions of shots of African-American figures like Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., and Billie Holiday. (more…)

Almine Rech now represents New Jersey–based artist Vaughn Spann, a young artist who has received impressive attention of late. He will open his first show with the gallery in January 2020. (more…)

Warren Kanders has stepped down as Vice Chair of the Whitney, following months of pressure to oust him from the position. “The targeted campaign of attacks against me and my company that has been waged these past several months has threatened to undermine the important work of the Whitney,” he wrote in his resignation letter to the board. “I joined this board to help the museum prosper. I do not wish to play a role, however inadvertent, in its demise.” (more…)

A piece in National Geographic looks at the work of conservation scientist Eric Breitung at The Met. “My focus is the environment of the whole museum,” he says. “Conservation started by looking at how to treat objects that have been damaged…Now we’re thinking about how to set up displays and storage so that kind of damage doesn’t happen in the first place.” (more…)

David Hammons has designed a special limited edition release of jazz figurehead Ornette Coleman’s music. “It took me almost 10 years to understand abstract music,” he says.  (more…)

A number of artists have raised concerns about Boris Johnson’s record on the arts after assuming Tory leadership and the position of Prime Minister.  “When Boris Johnson campaigned to become mayor of London first time, one of his pledges involved cutting budgets for art projects like the Fourth Plinth; that was until he realised that culture for London was actually a good [thing],” says Michael Elmgreen of Elmgreen & Dragset. “Typically, he had strong opinions about subject matters he didn’t have any clue about, and then later he had to change his mind when he was finally confronted with the facts. However, that didn’t really make him interested in the arts.” (more…)

Marianne Boesky now represents the work of Gina Beavers, Art News reports.  “Gina’s works are incredible in their articulation of critical conversations in both contemporary art practice and in our wider society,” Boesky said in a statement. “She has an innate ability to play with and push the limits of our understanding of artistic hierarchies and disciplines, as well as to reflect to us our own cultural ideals—for better or worse.” (more…)

The Louvre Museum will partner with french luxury cruise company Ponant to organize two culture cruises in 2020.   The first chartered trips will cover the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.  (more…)

UK Parliament’s DCMS Committee will investigate how lotteries are “having an impact on the way people choose to spend their money”, and consider how the lottery might be restructured for “good causes.”  “Against a background of falling lottery receipts we want to consider the sustainability of the lottery,” DMCS chair Damian Collins says. (more…)

The NYT looks at the challenges faced by museums and employees in the recent struggles over unionization that have roiled institutions in the U.S.  “There’s a really endemic feeling in the art world, that’s definitely maintained by the people in charge of institutions, that we’re lucky to have these jobs,” says Dana Kopel, who helped organize for employees at the New Museum.  “But these are jobs, and we deserve to have rights as workers.” (more…)

Artist Lee Ufan gets a profile in the WSJ this week, exploring his life and practice.  “His studio is a very serene and uncluttered space where he’s probably only thinking about one painting at a time,” says Hirshhorn director Melissa Chiu. “The moment at which he decides to paint or selects the rock, that’s the one brief moment of making, but it’s all the thinking that went into it before that trains and prepares him for the act.” (more…)