The NYT visits the Canal Street Research Association this week, a project on Canal Street that has served as a home for a series of exhibitions and performances during its short run. “When we first walked past, we were like, oh my God, there’s a Relational art project,” said Tom Finkelpearl, the city’s former commissioner of cultural affairs. (more…)

A piece in the NYT this week asks if the current fascination with NFTs is actually a bubble ready to burst. “We’re in a frenzy of speculation. I don’t know how long these prices will be sustainable,” says Robert Norton, head of blockchain art company Verisart. “We’re living in a moment of collective hysteria.” (more…)

The Getty Museum announced that it has acquired a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi from an undisclosed seller. The work will go on view when The Getty reopens to the public. (more…)

Showing the stark drop in attendance caused by Covid, the annual Art Newspaper museum attendance report shows a 77% drop in attendance at the world’s 100 most- visited art museums. (more…)

The US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that Andy Warhol did not make fair use of a Lynn Goldsmith’s portrait of Prince when he produced his own series of images of the musician. “The Prince Series retains the essential elements of its source material, and Warhol’s modifications serve chiefly to magnify some elements of that material and minimize others,” wrote Judge Gerald Lynch. “While the cumulative effect of those alterations may change the Goldsmith Photograph in ways that give a different impression of its subject, the Goldsmith Photograph remains the recognizable foundation upon which the Prince Series is built.” (more…)

The sale of a Banksy work depicting a child playing with a superhero nurse has raised £16.7m for UK health services. “As a charitable gift it ensures our staff have a say in how money is spent to benefit them, our patients and our community and is a fantastic way to thank and reward them for the sacrifices they’ve made,” says David French, interim chief executive officer of University Hospital Southampton Trust. (more…)

San Francisco is weighing the possibility of a $1000 monthly grant for artists in the city. “The arts are truly critical to our local economy and are an essential part of our long-term recovery. If we help the arts recover, the arts will help San Francisco recover,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “This new program is an innovative effort to help our creative sector get through this challenging time, and come back even stronger and more resilient than before.” (more…)

A piece in the New York Times this week documents the rarely seen photographic work of Ray Johnson. “I felt it was a hidden treasure, and at some point it would be revealed,” says dealer and estate manager Frances Beatty. “If you know Ray Johnson, you know that he never did anything casually and without intention. It was all of a piece.” (more…)

Artist Gary Simmons is heading to Hauser & Wirth, finding a new home with the mega-gallery as his longtime representative, Metro Pictures, closes shop. “Over the past 30 years, Gary has achieved an incredibly rare alchemy of feeling with his paintings, installations, sound works, and sculptures,” says Marc Payot, president of Hauser & Wirth. “Simultaneously depicting and erasing—a process that in itself suggests the strange, willful impermanence of American culture—he’s created a powerful artistic language to express the personal and collective experience of Black Americans.”

The Serpentine Galleries have removed the Sackler name from its North Galleries. “We recently introduced new way-finding terminology to help visitors distinguish between the two galleries. These terms will appear on the website and on all marketing materials,” a spokesperson said. (more…)

The Louvre has put its full collection online, allowing users around the world to browse and view works easily from a digital database. (more…)

After weeks of behind the scenes discussions and rumors, Leon Black will step down from his chair at MoMA. Black will leave the position on June 30th. Black has come under fire in the past months over his close ties to Jeffrey Epstein before the financier’s death. (more…)

A piece in the New York Times this week reports on the return of the Gwangju Biennale, one of the first art world events to reopen as the pandemic continues. “It’s been a long journey,” says curator Defne Ayas. (more…)

Sotheby’s will have a 1982 Basquiat as a centerpiece of its May 12th auction in New York, estimated to sell for $35 million–$50 million. “In Versus Medici, Basquiat melds the political and art historical as he consciously stages a reckoning with the Westernized ideal of visual culture and was intent on mastering and commandeering the accepted ‘rules’ of art history in order to break them,” says Grégoire Billault, Sotheby’s New York head of contemporary art. (more…)

Artist Santiago Sierra is once again causing controversy after announcing plans to immerse a British flag in blood donated by indigenous peoples from former colonies. “The blood will be combined in an aluminum bucket in which the British flag will be immersed,” Sierra said. “The use of the British flag is not about any specific people, but rather seeks to reflect on the material on which states and empires are built. The use of First Peoples’ blood from different populations, and its indiscriminate mixing, has impact within the act itself—all blood is equally red and has the same consistency, regardless of the race or culture of the person supplying it.” (more…)

Gerhard Richter has permanently loaned 100 works to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, a to-be-completed museum complex in the city. “I am delighted the paintings are coming to Berlin,” Richter said in a statement. (more…)

The French government will return a Gustav Klimt landscape stolen from its original owner by the Nazis in 1938. “It is in recent years that the true origin of the painting has been established,” says French culture minister, Roselyne Bachelot. (more…)

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Painter Pat Lipsky has won a ruling against her gallery, with a New York Court ruling that artists’ work cannot be distorted in online reproductions. “This ruling should help artists to protect their legacies and reputations, particularly in this pandemic-induced time of virtual art exhibitions and fairs,” Lipsky counsel William Charron of Pryor Cashman says. (more…)

Marina Abramovic will launch a “digital manifestation” of The Abramovic Method  on WeTransfer, making the work “available to everyone, all day, every day, reaching 70 million people worldwide.”  (more…)

Dutch Museums are pushing ahead on a €4.5m plan to build a practical guide advising on colonial collections and repatriation. “We will examine the diverse routes that objects took to enter museums—were they sold under duress or looted in times of war, traded or exchanged or given as gifts, and if so, was this in a colonial context?” says Wayne Modest, the director of content at the National Museum of World Cultures. “We will also look at how to jointly decide on the future of an object and whether there are various modes of return that are possible. And, finally, this is about reconciliation—how do modes of return or restitution help us to reconcile with the past?” (more…)

A piece in the New York Times this week catalogs a series of outside investigations and complaints at the Detroit Institute of Arts, particularly around a “lack of facility with race-related issues.” “The Board wants anyone with concerns, new or lingering, to come forward, and be heard,” the museum said in a statement.  (more…)

Financier Leon Black is currently in discussions with the trustees of MoMa regarding his future with the museum and ties to Jeffrey Epstein. “I would love to show at MoMA but you have to stick to your ethics,” says Nan Goldin. “How can MoMA stand by Leon Black?” (more…)

Six artists and one collective have pulled their work from a show at Chicago’s MCA over complaints about access, equity and labor.“I was very disappointed to learn how employees were being treated and did not want to lend my work to a show whose sponsoring institution was operating in contradiction to the show’s very premise,” said the artist Folayemi Wilson. (more…)