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The High Line will experiment with exhibiting painting this summer, showing a selection of works along the expanse of the elevated park.  “Usually painting is not a medium that is associated with public art, so we wanted to challenge artists that we wouldn’t necessarily work with because they typically work with painting or two-dimensional mediums,” says curator Cecelia Alemani. “We wanted to bring those artworks into the parks and see what would happen.” (more…)

Roman StaÅ„czak will represent Poland at the 2019 Venice Biennale, Art News reports, and will turn an airplane inside out for the piece. “‘The scale of the undertaking and the boldness of the concept guarantee a monumental quality of the project and its visual appeal,” the jury said.  “The artist is not afraid to see his statement associated with questions of fundamental importance for the divided political community.” (more…)

The New Yorker profiles artist Pat Steir’s current show at the Barnes Foundation, noting the artist’s chance-based approach and her pieces spread throughout the institution.  “It’s a joy to let a painting paint itself,” she says. “It takes away all kinds of responsibility, because I can come in in the morning and say, ‘Oh, look what the paint did!’” (more…)

Ruth Asawa is profiled in Art News this week, as she reflects on her time at Black Mountain College. “Art was at a high level and living was very difficult,” she says. “We lived in crude beds and we were so poor we had to scrounge around with leaves and rocks. We were forced to go back to natural things rather than having good paper and good materials that we bought and I think that was very good for us.” (more…)

Jeff Koons gets a profile in The Guardian this week, as the artist prepares a show in Oxford, and reflects on the nature of his work “The reason I work with readymades,” he says, “is to remove judgment and hierarchy. Every object is a metaphor for yourself. I try to make work to make you think everything is perfect in itself. It’s all a metaphor.” (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper this week charts the ongoing drama over the proposed L-Train shutdown in North Brooklyn, and how its potential shutdown has affected galleries. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” says Celine Mo, of Victori & Mo. (more…)

The EU Commission has put increased pressure on the Luxembourg Freeport over accusations of money laundering, with German MEP Wolf Klinz calling on European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to close loopholes that welcome financial crimes, and Juncker relaying the request to European commissioner for economic and financial affairs. (more…)

Art News charts the problems caused by the polar vortex sweeping across the Midwest, noting the closures of a number of art museums to protect against the bitter sub-zero temperatures, save Minneapolis’s Walker Center, which remained open for its usual free Thursday admission.  (more…)

A still life painting in San Francisco many experts had written off as a fake Van Gogh has now been authenticated, Art Newspaper reports.  Held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the work has been dated to 1886. “Van Gogh’s experimentation with techniques learned from studying Flemish old masters as well as the Impressionists,” says museum head Thomas P. Campbell. (more…)

Sean Kelly gallery now represents the work of Belgian artist Kris Martin.  “There were conversations with several different galleries, and luckily, he’s chosen to work with us,” the dealer says. It’s almost scary how perfect his work is—certainly for my aesthetic and my taste, but also for the gallery as well.” (more…)

Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun’s 1788 painting Portrait of Muhammad Dervish Khan, Full-Length, Holding His Sword in a Landscape has sold for $7.18 million, a record for a pre-modern painting by a woman.  Vigée Le Brun showed the work in the Salon of 1789 in Paris, and it wound up in the collection of the artist’s husband, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun. (more…)

Phillips Auctions achieved sales of $916.5 million in art and collectibles last year, a 29 percent increase from 2017 and the most in its 220-year history, Bloomberg reports.  “Our strategy of focusing exclusively on the 20th and 21st centuries, our continued expansion in Asia, and our move to increase our modern art offerings have all played a role,” says CEO Edward Dolman. (more…)

Olafur Eliasson’s installation Your blind passenger, a lengthy tunnel of blinding fog, will be installed at the Tate Modern, The Guardian reports. “It shows that the relativity of our senses is much higher than we think, we have it in our capacity to recalibrate or at least stop being numb,” the artist says. (more…)

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will begin offering free general admission to all city residents on Saturdays, Art News reports.  The new initiative was announced by FAMSF director, Thomas P. Campbell, who took over November 1 after helming the Met for almost a decade. (more…)

Nato Thompson, the curator and director of Philadelphia Contemporary, will reprise his role as artistic director of the Seattle Art Fair. “After meeting such great artists and organizations, I am eager to build on the work to make something altogether different and wild for this fifth edition,” he said in a statement. “[The] Seattle Art Fair gives artists a powerful spotlight, and I’m revving up to put together a program that is as captivating, inspiring and beautiful as the Pacific Northwest.” (more…)

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., has extended its Charline von Heyl show to make up for the government shutdown.  (more…)

A Lucian Freud painting of the heir to the Guinness fortune is set to go to auction this March at Sotheby’s London, estimated at  £4.5m-£6.5m. “It is funny with Freud, you don’t really get a grip of how good he was until you see these things in person, especially these works from the 1950s which you don’t see very often,” says  Tom Eddison, a contemporary art specialist at Sotheby’s. “It is so precise and so beautifully executed. It is a really extraordinary painting, a very tender and beautiful portrait.” (more…)

Cecily Brown has donated an immense painting to the Louisiana Museum in Denmark after holding a show at the museum.  According to Brown, the painting was donated  “to express my gratitude for the great cooperation I’ve had with the museum around the exhibition.” (more…)

The British Museum is taking on the role of “global watchdog” in the examination and regulation of antiquities dealers, a new piece reports. “We have become alarmed at widespread practices in the art market. The more you pay attention, the more you notice patterns of laxity, misconduct or obfuscation,” says curator Marcel Marée.  (more…)

The Guggenheim Museum is deaccessioning a Zao Wou-Ki painting from its collection to sell at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, valued at around $7.7 million–$10 million.  “With its distinguished provenance and impeccable quality from the artist’s critical ‘Oracle Bone’ period, this masterwork will no doubt generate interest and excitement from collectors worldwide,” says Vinci Chang, Sotheby’s head of modern Asian art. (more…)

David Zwirner Books has partnered with Simon & Schuster, one of the largest and most high-profile publishers in the world, making it the first gallery to have mainstream distribution for its books in North America. “We have been impressed by David Zwirner Books’s editorial focus, the quality and range of its titles, and its traction both within the art world and beyond. We are eager to bring their impressive titles to readers across the U.S.,” says Michael Perlman, the vice president and general manager of Simon & Schuster Publisher Services. (more…)

MoMA has added 800 instruction drawings by more than 300 artists to its collections after a gift from Gilbert and Lila Silverman.  “I had a wonderful life with Gilbert,” Lila said, “and I am just delighted that the works are now at MoMA.” (more…)

James Turrell has closed his Skyspace work, Meeting, at MoMA PS1 indefinitely after the scaffolding of new condominium development interfered with its view.  “After further conversation with James Turrell, we have closed Meeting at the artist’s request and it will remain closed until the temporary construction scaffolding is no longer visible from the work,” the museum said in a statement. (more…)