The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has acquired Yayoi Kusama’s reconfigured version of her first Infinity Mirror Room, Phalli’s Field, Art Newspaper reports.  The museum hosted a number of the artist’s Infinity Rooms in a recent blockbuster show. “The exhibition had such an impact on the museum, and we began to think about adding something to the collection,” says Director Melissa Chiu.  (more…)

The 99% Invisible podcast this week discusses Barnett Newman’s Who’s Afriad of Red, Yellow and Blue II, a painting famed for eliciting violent reactions from viewers, including one man who slashed the piece. “At the time people would write really long and elaborate letters to say how much they hated this painting,” says filmmaker Barbara Visser.  (more…)

Highlights from the collection of S.I. Newhouse will head to Christie’s New York this spring, 11 works expected to tally $130 million. “He had the best eye and the best collection of postwar paintings ever put together,” said his friend David Geffen, “I bought a lot of it.” (more…)

Attendance at Britain’s cultural institutions grew by nearly 9% last year despite a decrease in numbers of overseas tourists, The Guardian reports.  “Our assumption is that the biggest growth here has been in us Brits going to more museums, galleries and visitor attractions across the UK. The really big growth stories have been in the regions of the UK, particularly Northern Ireland, Liverpool and Birmingham, which is absolutely brilliant,” says Bernard Donoghue, the director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. (more…)

MoMA PS1 has settled with curator Nikki Columbus after the curator claimed the museum rescinded a job offer after she had a child. “What happened to me was wrong and clearly against the law,” Columbus said in a statement. “I decided to speak out in order to protect other women at MoMA PS1 and beyond.” (more…)

Renowned art crimes detective Arthur Brand has handed Pablo Picasso’s 1938 painting Portrait of Dora Maar back to investigators, a work stolen from a yacht off the coast of France in 1999, and which Brand has tracked for almost 15 years.  “[Contacts] told me, ‘It’s in the hands of a businessman who got it as payment, and he doesn’t know what to do with it,’” Mr. Brand said in an interview. “I talked to the two guys and we made a plan to get it out of his hands.” (more…)

Algeria has “deferred” its first-time participation in the Venice Biennale until 2021, citing financial and preparatory problems, according to the Art Newspaper.  “In the context of the annual financial support of the Ministry of Culture […], the commission charged with examining the financing of cultural and cinematographic events has decided to defer […] Algeria’s participation in the 58th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Venice […] due to the closeness of the date of this cultural meeting and preparation imperatives,” a statement reads. “The commission has also recommended that the best conditions be gathered for Algeria’s preparation in the next edition of this international event in 2021.” (more…)

Thomas J. Lax has been promoted to a new position as curator of performance and media art at MoMA, Art News reports. “I am thrilled to be named curator at this vital moment, when MoMA is asking renewed questions about how art matters in the world and in our everyday lives,” he says. “I look forward to working closely with artists, collaborating with museum colleagues, and contributing to a history of modern and contemporary art animated by black feminist thought.” (more…)

Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family have settled a lawsuit with the state of Oklahoma, paying $275 million. The news comes just one day after the Sackler Trust announced that it would “temporarily pause” giving gifts to museums and other institutions.  (more…)

Artist Anne Imhof gets a profile in Vogue this week as her new work Sex gets set to open at The Tanks at the Tate Modern.  “We have to create ways of moving through these vast spaces and connect what is happening in one room to another, ” she says of the work.   (more…)

New York’s Appellate Division has granted Linda Macklowe’s motion to stay a court ruling which would have seen her forced to sell her art collection (estimated at upwards of $700 million) as part of her divorce with billionaire developer Harry Macklowe. The ruling was made in part on a decision that the sale would cause irreparable harm.  (more…)

Continuing the recent market focus on David Hockney, Acquavella will offer a $15 million painting by the artist of Met curator Henry Geldzahler this week Art Basel Hong Kong this week.  “Geldzahler was an extremely cocky, controversial person. We got on instantly. Henry was 27. I was 25. He had a fantastic eye. He was always right in sighting talent, he was never wrong,” Hockney says. (more…)

Jonas Wood gives the New York Times a tour of his East Hollywood Studio, showing off a series of works from his own practice and his personal collection. “I’ve been all-in on painting since I was younger, and I realized that it was because of a lot of fear that it would all go away,” he says. “That’s not how I want to paint in the future. The pressure and psychology of that setup isn’t totally right. I would like to build bodies of work outside the calendar schedule of art fairs and shows for a little while. I love painting, and I think I can paint without having a giant carrot in front of me. I don’t think that I’m the best at painting, and I want to get better at it.” (more…)

The Serpentine Gallery is facing criticism over reports that the architect for this year’s pavilion, Junya Ishigami + Associates, uses unpaid interns working 12-hour shifts. “I considered [the internship] for a second, but then later I just realized how ridiculous the terms are,” one student said of the internship. “I can’t afford to do that, considering that Tokyo is not at all a cheap place to live.” (more…)

The Guardian has a piece this week on the logistics and challenges of shipping masterpiece artworks.  “At the end of the day, you have to make your peace with that,” one conservator says of the stressful and threatening conditions that works being shipped occasionally face. “You have to think what art is for.” (more…)

Arts protest group Decolonize This Place has launched an ambitious protest at The Whitney, calling for the ouster of Board Vice Chair Warren B. Kanders. “Direct actions work,” says Megan Kapler of the group P.A.I.N.  “We don’t want dirty money. We want transparency. We want accountability.” (more…)

Research into a Van Gogh landscape currently being restored for a show at Tate Britain has uncovered a far brighter, more vibrant color palette than previously thought, The Guardian reports. “It is amazing, isn’t it,” says lead curartor Carol Jacobi. “The thing that fascinates me is that he has got this particular effect you get at the end of the day when the sky is lighter than the landscape but it will light up in the water that’s in the landscape.” (more…)

The Sackler Trust has announced that it is suspending “all new philanthropic giving,” Art Newspaper reports.  “They are pulling back before anyone else can pull back from them,” artist and vocal critic of the Sackler’s Nan Goldin said of the news. “I would appreciate the news if I heard [that Sackler] money was going to pay reparations…for all the damage they’ve done…I don’t know that this shows that they’re really taking responsibility.” (more…)

The PinchukArtCenter in Kiev, Ukraine, has named Emilija Å karnulytÄ— as the winner of its Future Generation Art Prize, a $100,000 award with $60,000 in the form of an unrestricted cash prize. “Her use of video expands into a multi-dimensional experience, confronting many of the major issues facing humanity which are often left unspoken,” the award’s jury said in a statement. “Without being overtly didactic, the work stays open-ended and poetic while raising fundamental questions about where we come from, who we are and where we might end-up.” (more…)

A still life of poppies from the collection Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut has been authenticated as an authentic Van Gogh, the Art Newspaper reports.  The piece was reviewed by the Van Gogh Museum, which evaluated multiple elements of the work to arrive at its decision to authenticate. (more…)

The launch of the inaugural Kazakhstan pavilion in Venice is facing controversy after the curators hired for the project were dismissed with a press statement posted on Facebook. “Was the project censored? Why did the incoming museum director decide that artists, curators and partners were simply not worth the basic professional courtesy of knowing if the project was on or off?” curator Nadim Samman asks of the project, noting ongoing confusion and miscommunication over the project. (more…)

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled a plan to identify, protect and develop cultural performance and rehearsal space in the city.  “There is no single answer, and many of the conditions and challenges are outside the Mayor’s control,” the report reads. (more…)

South London Gallery returned a £125,000 award from the Sackler Trust last year, Art Newspaper has reported. The news comes after the city’s National Portrait Gallery also publicly rejected funds from the Sackler Trust.  (more…)

Mary Boone is profiled in The Guardian this week, exploring her recent jail sentence and her hopes for the future.  “I had 49 wonderful years in art,” she says. “If I’m going to be the Martha Stewart of the art world, I would hope to do it with the same humility, humor, grace and intelligence that she did. I’m trying to be optimistic and see this as a learning experience.” (more…)