This year’s edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 has been released, with artists Martine Syms, Chloe Wise and Bunny Rogers featured among the list.   (more…)

The next Documenta, set for 2022, will not face any budget threats after this year’s massive deficit, its team has said in a statement. . “Documenta is a great stroke of fortune and a cultural treasure for the state of Hesse, and we must preserve it,” Boris Rhein, the state’s culture minister, said of continuing the event. (more…)

LACMA has changed its pricing structure, charging $20 for Los Angeles County Residents, and $25 for everyone else, a flat price covering special exhibitions. “I’ve never liked the extra price for special exhibitions. We put some of the biggest efforts into the ticketed exhibitions and ironically, they’re the ones that are the most inaccessible, price wise,” LACMA Director Michael Govan. (more…)

A piece in New York Magazine this week sees a series of artists, curators and gallerists naming their favorite art books and most desired books for the holiday season.  Topping the list is Rob Pruitt, who shows off his copy of the Pantone Solid Color Guide. “When I was a kid, about 7 years old, my dad who was in the printing industry gave me his loop and his used Pantone book. I loved, obsessed over, and treated it as a sacred object. I continue to love the Pantone books and it’s an essential tool in my studio,” he says. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the long lines outside Christie’s this week, as visitors crowd to get one look at the Leonardo da Vinci piece set to go on sale at Christie’s this Wednesday. “Standing in front of that painting was a spiritual experience,” says visitor Nina Doede. “It was breathtaking. It brought tears to my eyes,” she added, as she left the sepulchral chamber where the painting is displayed. (more…)

Jeremy Deller is launching a new project in Newcastle this week, commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s honorary degree from Newcastle University with a project in which citizens of the Northern city recite bits of his speeches to those passing by. “Everybody else seems a bit worried. There was a lady with a pram who hustled away, frightened that I was some loony in the library,” says one participant. “But I think when they understand what it’s all about, and what it means to Newcastle, they’ll understand what a special event this is.” (more…)

Renewed research into a painting long thought to be a fake Cranach the Elder painting in the British Royal Collection has proven the work is authentic, the Guardian reports. “It is an absolute thrill,” says Nicola Christie, the head of paintings conservation at the Royal Collection Trust. “It doesn’t happen very often and it is such a pleasure to know that it has been reattributed.” (more…)

Olga Viso will leave her position as executive director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Art News reports. “We are grateful for Olga’s leadership and celebrate her significant contributions to the Walker Art Center during the past 10 years,” says Monica Nassif, the board’s president. “We wish her well for her next career opportunity.” (more…)

Mark Bradford gets a profile in The Guardian this week, as the painter wraps up his installation for the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and prepares for an installation reflecting on the Civil War at the Hirshhorn. “I became really fascinated by the romanticism around the civil war,” he says. “I’d never really investigated it. I’m black, the civil war was a good thing, the north won – that’s all I knew. I thought it was going to be textbook, ‘OK, this was bad and let’s move on.’ But it wasn’t cut and dried.” (more…)

Laura Copelin, associate curator at Ballroom Marfa, will take over the West Texas center’s leadership as executive director. “Marfa really seems to be a beacon,” Copelin told ARTnews. “It’s been a transformative experience, being on the edge of these centers of the art world of New York and Los Angeles.”  (more…)

Gallerist Mary Boone has settled her lawsuit with actor Alec Baldwin over a Ross Bleckner painting, the New Yorker reports. The piece features an interview with Baldwin in which he outlines his doubts over a work he thought was a copy of the piece he originally wanted.  “When I called up Mary and asked, ‘Why do these paintings look so different?’ she said the owner was a heavy smoker, so Ross had taken the painting off the stretcher and cleaned and repaired it for me, as a courtesy, before delivering it,” he says. “At first, I was not prepared to tell myself it was a fake. I was inclined to believe them, partly because it was Ross, who I respect and whose work I love.” (more…)

An unidentified woman has been caught on film mailing back a series of Carolee Schneeman works stolen from an exhibition at MoMA PS1, CBS New York reports. “Maybe they were really just in love with her artwork that they wanted it for herself, and that maybe they had a change of heart and decided to mail back,” said museum patron Kelvi Diaz. (more…)

The New Museum has announced the list of exhibiting artists for next year’s New Museum Triennial, culled together under the title Songs for Sabotage.  “The exhibition amounts to a call for action, an active engagement, and an interference in political and social structures urgently requiring them,” the museum said in a statement.  (more…)

A judge has ordered the Mana Contemporary Art Storage facility to turn over all art from the collection of the Mugrabi family, after a judge ruled for the family. “The warehouse has to deliver all the art that they have to the Mugrabis now,” says the family’s lawyer, Aaron Richard Golub. (more…)

Curator and editor Shannon Michael Cane, who curated Printed Matter’s fairs and editions, has passed away.  He was a central figure in the non-profit bookstore and exhibition space’s vibrant engagement with art publications and printed art. “Shelley and I join with the Printed Matter family and the entire artist publications community in mourning the sudden and devastating loss of our friend and colleague Shannon Michael Cane,” says Phil Aarons, Printed Matter board chair. “His unparalleled passionate commitment to helping artists bring their printed materials to the public was crucial to Printed Matter and so many others. Vibrant, fearless, and larger than life, he will be profoundly missed.” (more…)

Gilbert & George are profiled in the Evening Standard this week, as the pair continue work on 3,000 square-foot exhibition space in a former brewery off Brick Lane in London’s East End. “Why? Because the Tate never shows our work and they will never, because nothing is good enough for them,” says Gilbert Proesch. (more…)

Another lawsuit over Seated Man with a Cane, the 1918 Amedeo Modigliani work claimed as Nazi loot by Phillip Maestracci, the grandson of Parisian art dealer Oscar Stettiner, will go forward in New York.  Maestracci is suing the Nahmad family to reclaim the work.  (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on the Hong Kong arts scene this week, spotlighting the city’s location and role as a central piece in the international art circuit, particularly as more Western galleries seek to engage with the city’s wealthy elite. “Hong Kong is a big art market, but there’s a huge gap between the art market and practices in the community,” said Vivienne Chow, an art critic and founder of the Hong Kong-based Cultural Journalism Campus. (more…)

Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch will once again join forces at Miami’s Moore building to present an exhibition during Miami Art Week.  This year’s edition will be titled Abstract / Not Abstract, and feature works exploring the lines defining abstract painting. “The theme and title of ‘Abstract / Not Abstract’ was Larry Gagosian’s suggestion,” Deitch says. “Millions of abstract paintings have been made since 1910, but the concept of abstraction continues to be expanded and reinvented by each generation of artists. There is an especially strong and diverse generation of painters working today in a mode that opens the definition of abstraction.” (more…)

Los Angeles’s Underground Museum gets a profile in W this week, spotlighting its contributions to the arts communities of underserved Central LA. “There’s something coming out of that place that is so radical in its potential that you can feel it,” says sculptor Thomas Houseago. “And it draws a mix of people that I don’t find anywhere else in the world.” (more…)

Allison Janae Hamilton, Tschabalala Self, and Sable Elyse Smith have been named the 2018 Studio Museum’s artists in residence. The artists all currently have work on view in impressive exhibitions at museums around New York.  (more…)

Garage Magazine has a lengthy interview with Whitney curator Scott Rothkopf on the catalog for the just opened Laura Owens show, topping 600 pages and including a number of personal financial documents and letters. “Laura’s made herself very vulnerable—she’s kind of running through the streets naked here—and there’s a there’s a tremendous amount of bravery and generosity about doing so because she hopes this book will be an inspiration for younger artists, a peek behind the curtain of what an artist’s life can be,” he says. (more…)

Josh Smith is now represented by David Zwirner, the Art News reports. “I make art for myself, to see what it will look like. I also effectively let viewers, myself included, take or leave what they want,” the artist said in a statement. “The message is indefinable, but the gist of it is; we are alive, and here together….Here is a group of painted poems, if you like…take a look and absorb what you want from them.” (more…)

National Gallery of Art Director Earl “Rusty” Powell will step down in 2019, bringing to close a tenure that saw steady growth and development for the museum. “I think I have run a pretty good race here, and it seems sort of a logical time,” Powell said. “I turn 75 next year. And this will be after that. I still have some gas in the tank. I’m not particularly interested in sitting on the porch looking at sunsets.” (more…)