Barcelona gallery Mayoral is bringing a replica of Joan Miró’s studio to the 2016 Armory Show, placing the artist’s work in the context of his creative process.  “The Studio offered Miró a suitable working environment,” says the artist’s grandson Joan Punyet Miró. “When he closed the door behind him he knew he was cutting all contact with the outside world and entering into his imaginary universe.” (more…)

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang is set to premiere his documentary Sky Ladder at Sundance this week, documenting the artist’s magnum opus performed in 2014.  “His story is not just that of a Chinese artist becoming successful and going international,” says producer Wendi Murdoch. “His is a story that reflects the changes in China over the past 15 years.” (more…)

The ICA in London is embarking on a mission to find and help develop the future of the British avant-garde, led by Director Gregor Muir, known for his early championing of the YBA’s.  “If we are looking for something radical, it is not always about shocking people. It is about being more pernicious, about getting under people’s skin,” he says. “Finding a real sub-culture is more important now than just calling something the new ‘avant-garde’. We need to hear a voice from cultures that are not represented well elsewhere.” (more…)

The Hammer Museum has announced its artist list for the 2016 edition of Made in L.A., its biennial event, featuring a list of 26 artists ranging from Dena Yago and Martine Syms to Sterling Ruby and designer Eckhaus Latta.   (more…)

Collector and hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen has taken out another large loan using his own collection as collateral, evidence that he may be planning another considerable purchase in the coming auction sales.  Cohen sold his Andy Warhol Mao last November for $47 million.    (more…)

Sotheby’s announced a fourth quarter loss this week, noting that it would scrap its year end dividend in favor of a stock buyback.  The loss was caused in part by charges for a previous buyback, and by the sizable guarantees made to secure the Taubman collection sale last year, which failed to live up to estimates.   (more…)

The City of Dresden has bought back Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Strassenbild vor dem Friseurladen, a work which was seized by Nazis as “degenerate art” from Dresden City Art Gallery almost 80 years ago.  “The acquisition of Kirchner’s work has a special significance for Dresden,” says Hilke Wagner, the director of the Albertinum museum, which will show the painting. (more…)

While some warn of a potential bubble burst, auction houses remain confident in Asia, pushing Chinese buyers in particular as a strong bet in the upcoming sales, particularly as new collectors expand their tastes.  “They go within one year from general purchases to sophisticated purchases, such as Surrealism and Max Ernst,” says Giovanna Bertazzoni, Christie’s deputy chairman and senior director of global auctions. (more…)

One in five UK Museums has been forced to make partial closures in the past year, or will do so in 2016, Artforum reports.  “We know from previous research that funding cuts are changing the way museums are managed with many forced to cut jobs, introduce admission charges, reduce opening hours and cut back on other services,” says  Museums Association director Sharon Heal.  (more…)

The Judd Foundation and David Zwirner have announced a plan to publish an expansive collection of Donald Judd’s writings and criticism, part of an effort to extend the artist’s intellectual legacy.  “In order to understand Don and his work you have to put things together, you have to look at furniture, architecture, art and everything else all at once,” says the artist’s son Flavin, who alse serves as co-president of the Judd Foundation.  The writings are part of that, and with this book people will finally have access to what Don was thinking as he developed his work and his life – the writings interweave his activities. We are very excited to be getting this out and, plus, we just like books.” (more…)

A trailer carrying over $250,000 in artworks by Matisse, Chagall, Miro, Haring and others has been stolen from a Los Angeles industrial park, the LA Times reports.  Police are still investigating the crime. (more…)

The Ellsworth Kelley Foundation has given a gift of $250,000 to the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, part of a fund that will help maintain and preserve 2,300 works located in 140 countries.  “We are profoundly saddened by his loss, but we are honored and grateful for this extraordinary gift, which guarantees that FAPE’s entire collection will be cared for in perpetuity at no cost to the government,” said FAPE chair Jo Carole Lauder. (more…)

Analysts in Luxembourg are predicting a “severe correction” to art market prices in coming months, drawing their conclusions from a compiled study of auction figures and trends.  “A certain part of the art market, especially postwar and contemporary, is in bubble territory,” said Anders Petterson, managing director of the research and analysis company ArtTactic. “The really difficult question is to predict when the bubble might burst. I guess if you wait long enough, you will eventually be proved right.” (more…)

In a study conducted by the London Art Fair, over a third of participating dealers said that rising rents and business rates are the most considerable threat to the UK’s prime position in the art world.  A sizable percentage also stated that 2016 would continue to see strong results for the contemporary market.   (more…)

South Korea has topped the list of countries with the most private art museums, boasting an impressive 45 institutions, out of 317 in the world.  “Before our research, we found a lot of guessing and exaggeration on the situation of private contemporary art museums and at the same time we found very little data available,” says Christoph Noe, the founder of Larry’s List and an author of the report. “Our motivation for the study was to get the facts first and to conduct a study as detailed as possible, directly also engaging with the private museum founders.” (more…)

The NYT reviews the ongoing struggle at the Art Students League, where almost 300 members are part of a lawsuit against the school demanding information on the school’s sale of the air rights above the institution several years ago for $31.8 million.  “The sense of collegiality that formerly existed between art students, instructors and administrators, in an ‘open-door’ policy, has disappeared,” says artist and member Marne Rizika, “and been replaced with autocratic rule, which has included hiring armed guards for members’ meetings.” (more…)

The New Yorker looks at the Met’s current push for more emphasis on contemporary art, and its impending opening of the Breuer building uptown.  “Something like ninety-nine per cent of all collectors—the rich, those who are interested and will support museums in the future—are collectors of contemporary art,” Director Thomas Campbell says. “The Met is not, as an act of volition, going to cut itself off from the supporters of the future.” (more…)

Duane Hanson’s former apartment at 184 Grand St. is on the market with an asking rent of $29,000 per month.  The three-bedroom, four-bathroom building boasts a graffiti tag from Jean-Michel Basquiat in the building stairwell.  (more…)

The Tate Modern has named Frances Morris as its new director.  Morris has worked with the Tate for the past 16 years, serving as head of displays from 2000 to 2006, when she was appointed director of collection for international art. (more…)

After two years and over $2 million invested in the project, the German government has only identified five works from the Cornelius Gurlitt trove as Nazi loot, and returned them to their rightful owners.  “The results are much better than this number indicates,” says Culture Minister Monika Grütters.  “One lesson we have learned will stay with us, namely that speed and thoroughness are not both possible in provenance research.” (more…)

Arts Council England has announced a series of 8 new commissions to celebrate the collection’s 70th Anniversary, including works by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Ryan Gander and Mark Leckey.  “Our 70th anniversary commissions demonstrate what we do best – putting artists at the heart of the collection,” says Jill Constantine, head of the ACC.  “We are thrilled that the artists, half of whom are joining the collection for the first time, will all be represented by such significant pieces.” (more…)

An article in the Guardian reflects on the late David Bowie’s ruse during the 1990’s, in which the musician and former editor for Modern Painters magazine invented a fake artist with writer William Boyd. “He published the book, he organized the launch party (on April Fool’s Day, 1998) in Jeff Koons’s studio in Manhattan – Koons was a friend of Bowie,” Boyd writes, “and it was Bowie who read out extracts of the book, absolutely deadpan, to the assembled New York glitterati.” (more…)

A Los Angeles artist is selling shadowy stand-ins for artist’s iconic works, including Jeff Koons and Constantin Brancusi, billed as a “sustainable” art appropriation.  “Ideas are extremely valuable,” artist Ana Prvacki says of her work. “And making thinner things should have more value than making huge things.  If you can get something to be super thin and really poetic, that should be really valuable. We have to stop thinking in a Costco way.” (more…)

A former schoolteacher and volunteer at the Detroit Institute of Arts gift shop has willed $1.7 million to the institution.  Elizabeth Verdow, who passed away in 2014, gave her full estate to the museum, with $1.26 million intended to buy contemporary art paintings and sculpture, and the additional $450,000 set aside for the museum’s endowment.  “We were delighted and thrilled,” says museum giving officer Deborah Odette. “I have learned never to underestimate people. Just because someone had a long career as a schoolteacher doesn’t mean they might not have means of amassing wealth, if they invest wisely and carefully and live modestly. She obviously loved her work at the museum.” (more…)