W Magazine Profiles Xin Li, the Deputy Chair of Christie’s Asia, and her unique career path as both a basketball player and model.  “I’ve always played better during the real game than in practice,” Li says of her focus in the auction room. “It’s something I learned from being an athlete and model. I feel the lights and the camera, and I know how to stay focused. But when you are working as a model, it’s all about you. Working in an auction house, nothing is about you. I learned how to switch off my past and become a different person.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper has interviewed a group of artists, T.J. Wilcox and Deborah Kass among them, to offer their perspectives and suggestions for the opening of the Met’s Breuer Building for exhibitions.  “There is some of that overdue revisionism going on and I will be thrilled to see Kerry James Marshall’s retrospective [at the Met Breuer this autumn], one of the most important painters of my generation,” Kass writes.  “But until this re-evaluation includes women, incredibly important pieces of art history continue to be willfully, almost petulantly omitted.” (more…)

Robert Ryman, Untitled (1960), via Art Observed

Walking through the doors of Dia: Chelsea, one is immediately struck by a lack of lighting, with the halls and open floor plans of the building lit only by dull sunbeams streaming down from the open skylight and onto the works of painter and conceptualist Robert Ryman.  The show is a notable fusion of history in both the immediate and the general for the artist, a point that makes considerable sense giving his subject matter, presented here in a span of works focusing primarily on his career in the 1960’s through the 1980’s. (more…)

MoMA has announced plans for the U.S.’s first major retrospective on the work of Francis Picabia, set to open in November of this year.  The show is presented in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Zürich, which will show the exhibition this summer before it travels across the Atlantic. (more…)

The Financial Times profiles the founders of Sprüth Magers this week, as the gallery prepares to open its Los Angeles exhibition space in West Los Angeles.  “Our gallery is a very traditional one,” says Monika Sprüth, discussing their focus on artist development over sales. “We think our job is to serve the artists.  We do sometimes disturb one or other of our male colleagues. They don’t understand how it can work the way we are. They are irritated. Which is nice, to irritate them a little bit.” (more…)

The Met has announced a new logo in the run-up to the opening of its exhibition space in the former home of the Whitney Museum, part of an attempt to convey a more open, welcoming institution.   “It’s the right direction,” Daniel Brodsky, the museum’s chairman, said. “It’s a changing institution; the world is changing around us, and I think it’s time for the Met to move forward.” (more…)

Artist Tania Bruguera will stage her work Referendum in Union Square this coming March, offering New Yorkers a public forum to voice their opinion on U.S. immigration policy.  “It’s a very personal interaction,” says Sara Reisman, artistic director at the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation “She’s trying to gauge people’s opinions… she’ll probably do some advocating.” (more…)

Art Info takes a cursory look at the immigration process for artists applying to live and work in the United States, and the varying issues that U.S. immigration officials take into account when reading applications.  “The problem is the interpretation of that regulation. The people who are actually looking are not in the arts industry,” notes BoBi Ahn of Warshaw Burstein, LLP.  “So they might apply arbitrary standards.” (more…)

The recently completed Düsseldorf U-Bahn line is set to open this month, featuring intuitively designed installations and design concepts spearheaded by artists and completely devoid of advertisements.  “Normally the construction part happens first and then the artists are commissioned. Here the architects, artists and engineers worked together from the beginning,” says artist Heike Klussmann. (more…)

Initial reports are circulating about a major sale of American Post-War expressionism, after Josh Baer broke news that Willem de Kooning’s Interchange and another work by Jackson Pollock sold to a Midwest Hedge Fund manager (assumed to be Chicago-based Citadel head Kenneth Griffin) in a private transaction for $500 million. (more…)

The Cabaret Voltaire, birthplace of Swiss Dada, is currently seeking financial support to the tune of $13.1 million to remain open and independent.” It would be good to transform the Cabaret Voltaire into a centre for artists to manage the place and give it a more international dimension,” says director Adrian Notz.  (more…)

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been given ownership of architect John Lautner’s masterpiece home above Beverly Hills.  The home’s slanted angles and glass facade is most memorable for its appearance in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, and will be part of an expansion project including an installation by James Turrell.  “For me it ranks as one of the most important houses in all of L.A.,” LACMA head Michael Govan says. “And as one of the most L.A. houses, because of its connection to the view, that long view toward the ocean.” (more…)

Despite initial reports that it had reopened, Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery is still shuttered, awaiting official permission to open its doors.  “Staff are currently working on future programming but will not be able to open doors officially until permission is granted by the appropriate authorities,” says Director William Wells. (more…)

Catherine Opie is interviewed in the New York Times this week, on the heels of opening a number of shows in both New York and Los Angeles.  “I realized for me that non-space was the subconscious, and for the figure to emerge from it, while kind of having a conversation with Renaissance lighting in painting,” she says of her recent portraits.  “I could create a portrait that has presence as well as functions from a potential dream state in my mind.” (more…)

Photographer Dennis Morris is considering a lawsuit against painter Elizabeth Peyton, who he claims infringed on the copyright for his photographic of the Sex Pistols’ John Lydon in her work John Lydon, Destroyed (1994).  The work was removed from Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Sale on February 11th. (more…)

The National Court of Spain has decided to extradite Jesús Ángel Bergantiños Díaz, one of the dealers fingered in the Knoedler Gallery Art Fraud case.  His brother, José Carlos, is also awaiting a decision on extradition. (more…)

Pace Gallery is opening another space in Chelsea, taking over the building at 537 West 24th Street, part of its continued expansion plan that will see a new flagship location open in 2018.  The new space will be inaugurated with a show of work by Tim Hawkinson. (more…)

The WSJ again trumpets a cooling art market following last week’s auctions in London, noting a decreased interest in mid-priced lots, and a greater focus on reliable bets.  “It’s a correction we’ve all been waiting for,” says Nazy Vassegh, CEO of London art fair Masterpiece. “There’s been no frenzied bidding in the sales room. The market seems to be highly price sensitive and really selective.” (more…)

Continuing his work around the Syrian refugee crisis, Ai Weiwei has installed 14,000 lifejackets around the columns of Berlin’s Konzerthaus.  The project coincides with the annual Cinema for Peace gala, which was held last evening in the venue.   (more…)

The Museo del Prado in Madrid has cancelled a pair of loans for a retrospective of Hieronymous Bosch, following dissatisfaction with research that claimed the works were not in fact painted by the artist himself.  The museum criticized researchers for basing their decision on “extremely subjective stylistic aspects.”
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Reed Exhibitions France, the company behind both FIAC and Paris Photo, has withdrawn its plans for Los Angeles editions of both fairs, pointing at what it calls an “absence of a mature market.” “We are extremely grateful for the support that we have received since the launch of Paris Photo in Los Angeles, and during the research and development phases of FIAC LA,” the company said in a statement. (more…)

The Art Market Monitor takes an interesting approach in analyzing the auctions of the past few weeks, noting a continued surge in Chinese buyers, and paralleling that with a recent New York Times article charting continued efforts by wealthy Chinese citizens to move their money out of the national currency.  “Individuals can move $50,000 a year across China’s borders,” the article quotes from Keith Bradsher’s original piece. “Companies and sophisticated investors have more freedom to send out money legally for big-ticket purchases and investments.” (more…)

American Airlines, alongside a group of art handling companies, are the subject of a lawsuit by art insurers Lloyd’s of London, following damages to a Lucio Fontana work in transit to the Armory Show in New York last year.  Lloyd’s is seeking $116,000 in damages and legal fees. (more…)

An article in the Telegraph this week continues the tale of differing positions on the health of the Contemporary market, emphasizing that while auction prices are in adjustment, private sales are still booming, often obscured by alarmist headlines.  “Yes, the auctions were not the same as last year,” says dealer Thaddaeus Ropac. “But I had a sense the market was ok. I can’t understand why the press has been discussing a crash in the art market. I’ve had the best January ever in my galleries.”  (more…)