A group of 29 U.S. Congressmen have signed a letter demanding that German officials accelerate the restitution process on Nazi-looted art, underscoring U.S. opinions that the nation may be dragging its feet.  “The importance of these issues to Holocaust survivors and their families worldwide cannot be overstated,” the letter says. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal profiles artist Robert Ryman and his family, including his three sons, all of whom are artists, as he prepares to open his retrospective exhibition at Dia:Chelsea.  “I don’t think a family of artists like this exists anywhere else in history,” says Arne Glimcher. (more…)

Andrea Rosen is now representing Simon Fujiwara, following the artist’s first one-person exhibition in New York at the gallery in 2013.  “I am always impressed by the way his work is able to simultaneously hold both content and mystery,” Rosen says. (more…)

Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills will launch an exhibition by Alex Israel and Brett Easton Ellis as part of the gallery’s Oscar-week exhibition early next year, featuring large-scale paintings by the artist adorned with text by Ellis.   (more…)

The reinstated Edvard Munch Award was given to Camille Henrot this week during a presentation event in Miami Beach, giving the artist a prize of nearly $59,000 and a solo exhibition at the Munch museum.  “There is always some dimension of challenge in the work that I do, which sometimes I regret because it is really difficult,” she says. “But, I’m more interested in the experience of making work than the final object, and I would like to continue experimenting and challenging myself.” (more…)

Collector Martin Margulies is profiled in the New York Times this week, as he opens a new show of works at his museum, and reflects back on his long work as a collector.  “He lives and breathes art,” says David Leiber, a director at the David Zwirner Gallery.  “From Pop through to the present, he’s put together a kind of unrivaled collection.” (more…)

The Granby Four Estates, via Assemble

The 2015 Turner Prize has been announced, with the 18-member London-based architectural collective Assemble taking home the £25,000 prize for its ambitious redesign and assistance in socially re-engineering a series of derelict residences in the Liverpool neighborhood of Toxteth.  The award was presented this evening at the Tramway in Glasgow. (more…)

Frieze London has announced Swiss curator Raphael Gygax as the new curator for its Projects section.  Gygax currently serves as Curator at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich. (more…)

The exhibitor list for the 2016 edition of Material Art Fair has been announced, continuing its focus on young, experimental galleries while tripling in size this year.  “The layout is super important because it won’t replicate any other art fair,” says co-founder Daniela Elbahara.  “It will be quite different and a little bit like a labyrinth.” (more…)

Billionaire Paul Allen’s Pivot Art + Culture space in Seattle is closing this March, with plans to use the space only occasionally as a gallery, flying in the face of previous plans to turn the exhibition space into a broadly-focused year-round art center. (more…)

The Nahmad Family is currently facing a lawsuit from the estate of a Paris dealer claiming that the family owns a Modigliani work formerly seized by the Nazi’s from the collection of Oscar Stettiner.  The suit claims that the Nahmad’s are allegedly holding the painting through a shell company called the International Art Center.  “This is one large enterprise that is a scheme to move these things around, and they are all alter egos for one another,” says lawyer Joel M. Aurnou, who represents the estate. (more…)

Hauser Wirth and Schimmel is set to open this March, featuring a show of female sculptors, the LA Times reports, including Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Yayoi Kusama, and others.  The show is inspired by gallery founder Ursula Hauser.  “I come from the museum world, where it’s always best to start with what’s in a collection, with the history of an institution and build out from there,” Schimmel says. “This came from a real personal recognition that these are artists who [Ursula] deeply related to, but were under-appreciated.” (more…)

British artist Sonia Boyce is creating a database of artworks by black artists held in public UK collections, seeking to create a comprehensive record of their presence across the nation’s museums and galleries.  “It’s a big job; no one has done this before,” Boyce says. “One of the problems for anyone trying to do research in this area is that the information is there, but it’s hidden. This project will leave a trail for future scholars.” (more…)

The Tehran Museum has announced a historically significant exhibition of the work of Wim Delvoye, the first time the museum has used its entire space, comprising nine galleries and outdoor space, for a show focusing on a non-Iranian artist.  “They are very professional; they are easier to work with than the Louvre,” the Belgian artist said of the museum. (more…)

The New York Times notes an increased interest in artists over recent years in concerns of space, perception and dimensionality, drawing lines between the study of quantum physics, spatial politics, and work by artists like Rachel Whiteread and Matthew Ritchie.  “The formulation of the laws of perspective in the 14th century gave artists permission to see everything in a new way,” Ritchie says. “Now your sky isn’t flat. You’ve got a proper sky with depth, and now your angels can get up to some real mischief.” (more…)

The Tate Modern has appointed two new curators, Clara Kim and Nancy Ireson.  Kim takes on the role of Daskalopoulos Senior Curator in International Art (Africa, Asia, and Middle East), with Ireson apointed as a curator of international art. (more…)

The New York Times profiles Sheena Wagstaff, The Met’s new head of Modern and Contemporary Art and former Tate Modern Chief Curator, in her mission to transform the museum’s offerings for more recent work, focused around its new exhibition space at the Breuer Building, former home to the Whitney.  “My work at the Tate Modern, along with my colleagues, too, was very much about re-addressing the Western canon, re-addressing the idea of what modernism actually means, and broadening and expanding that scope,” she says. (more…)

The dual galleries Feuer/Mesler and Mesler/Feuer are consolidating their exhibition spaces downtown, moving all operations to their Chinatown space at 319 Grand Street.  “It’s a really great time for the gallery,” Joel Mesler says.  “We have the possibility in the next few months to make a thoughtful expansion. The Lower East Side has changed so much, and we actually prefer that location.” (more…)

A number of Parisian cultural institutions are reporting sizable drops in attendance following the attacks in the French capital this month.  The Louvre has reported a 30% decrease in attendance, and the Centre Pompidou has seen a 50% drop.  “1000 visitors per day versus the 2000 per day that had been coming to see the current Wifredo Lam exhibition,” says Benoît Parayre, director of communication. (more…)

A recent UK survey has found that the arts are widely dominated by those with a middle-class upbringing, due mainly to the precariousness of early years in the field (often requiring free labor among other financial sacrifices) that lower class artists are less likely to be able to take.  “What’s most alarming is how things are going to get harder for young people in the arts who haven’t got family support, because of how much more precarious the situation is looking like it will become,” says Hadrian Garrard, the director of Create, an organization which conducted the survey in conjunction with Goldsmiths. “The scale of people who have worked for free or are working without a contract is pretty scary. And given how much more expensive it is to live in London, it is more and more likely that people without money will just not be able to follow careers in the arts.” (more…)

Robert Irwin has been commissioned for a full-room installation at the Hirshhorn, bringing more than 100ft of scrim to respond to the museum’s uniquely circular architecture.  “The 1960s is a crucial decade in the history of contemporary art, and Irwin’s investigations into the ways our perceptual processes are shaped and framed were at the forefront of the developments unfolding then,” says Evelyn Hankins, the Hirshhorn curator in charge of the exhibition. (more…)

Following the Detroit Institute of Art’s preservation of its collection as part of the city’s “Grand Bargain” to leave bankruptcy, the museum is facing the challenge of building up a $400 million endowment by the time tax funding expires in seven years.  “Now that we can tell the story about the role we played, along with foundations and the state, in creating and successfully bringing the grand bargain to fruition, that’s an impactful message to take to prospective donors,” says DIA Board Chairman Gene Gargaro. (more…)

Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh has been sentenced to death by the Saudi Arabian government, following the artist’s abandonment of Islam, and his outspoken stance against the national government.  “We condemn these acts of intimidation targeting Ashraf Fayadh as part of a wider campaign inciting hate against writers and using Islam to justify oppression and to crush free speech,” an online petition pushing for his release. (more…)

Henri Matisse’s Portrait of Greta Moll is the subject of a lawsuit in the UK, after the sitter’s descendants threatened to file a lawsuit over ownership of the work against the National Gallery.  Moll’s heirs claim that the work was sold from her collection without permission, but the museum states it has no obligation to return it even if these allegations were true.  “If it is true that the painting was stolen in 1947, then the family did suffer an injustice, but not at the hands of the National Gallery, who bought the painting in good faith over 30 years later,” a National Gallery spokesman said. (more…)