The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation is offering grants to artists for projects addressing the issues of mass incarceration in the United States.  Almost half the 2.2 million people in American prisons are African American, the foundation cited in a statement, making as incarceration rate increase of over 500% in 30 years.  “One in three black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime,” the foundation continues. “This constitutes an epidemic.” (more…)

The Guardian details the story and industrial efforts behind the move of Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn installation from the English Lake District to Newcastle, featuring the original news article detailing both the creation and movement of the work.  “Today and tomorrow all 23 tons of it will be eased on skids down a 150-yard slope to the road and loaded on to a transporter which will take at least two days to cover the 120 miles to Newcastle,” the article reports. (more…)

Kara Walker has been named the Tepper Chair of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.  “If anything, I can foster an environment of openness and maybe willingness to live with contentious images and objectionable ideas, particularly in the space of art,” Walker said in a statement. “For me, it gets us to a place where we can talk to those concerns and how as artists we can creatively solve problems when problems arise.” (more…)

The heirs of Peggy Guggenheim have lost their case against the Guggenheim Foundation, seeking to prevent the organization from changing how works are hung at its Venice exhibition space.  The Foundation issued a statement claiming it was “proud to have faithfully carried out the wishes of Peggy Guggenheim for more than 30 years by preserving her collection intact in the Palazzo, restoring and maintaining the Palazzo as a public museum.” (more…)

The ongoing conflict between Dmitriy Rybolovlev and Yves Bouvier takes a new twist this week, as Rybolovlev prepares to return a pair of Picassos he purchased from the dealer in 2013, but which have since been disputed at the property of Catherine Hutin-Blay, the artist’s step-daughter.  Hutin-Bly had been storing the works in one of Bouvier’s warehouses, a move critiqued by Larry Gagosian.  “I’d consider it a terrible conflict of interest and would never keep art long term in the warehouse of a dealer,” he says. (more…)

Anish Kapoor has covered the graffiti on his work Dirty Corner with strips of gold leaf, refusing to remove the graffiti as a French court had ordered, while still concealing it.  The artist noted that the new action turned the piece into “something else, a room still with a painful past, but a piece that first claims the beauty of art”. (more…)

Frieze London has announced its series of artist commissions for the 2015 edition of the fair next month in Regent’s Park, including Brazilian artist Tunga’s recreation of a 1987 work, Siamese Hair Twins, featuring a pair of young girls joined together by their hair.  “It is quite extraordinary, a sight to behold,” says Victoria Siddall, the director of the fair. “There is something ethereal and wonderful about it. People who have seen it when it was originally created say it was something special.” (more…)

The Detroit News has a story on Geoff George this week, the owner of the building Shepard Fairey’s offending artwork appeared on earlier this year, noting the problems of fines and unwanted public attention that the art has brought to his real estate.  “The artist in me was just thrilled. But, almost immediately the building owner side of me kicked in,” George says. “I started to worry … is the city going to hit me with a blight violation? How badly is my building going to be targeted?” (more…)

The Musée D’Orsay closed today following a worker strike, protesting a proposal to keep the museum open to the public seven days a week, beginning this coming November.  A decision will be reached in the coming day whether or not the strike will continue. (more…)

An oil painting on a wooden board is suspected to be an early work by Rembrandt, after it sold for $870,000 in a New Jersey auction, estimated originally at $500-$800.  The painting is suspected to be part of the artist’s early Five Senses series, his first painted works, possibly executed while studying under Pieter Lastman. (more…)

Luxembourg’s Le Freeport is the subject of a profile in the Wall Street Journal this week, noting the site’s susceptibility to illicit activity and renewed attention on its activities following the arrest of Yves Bouvier.  “I can’t see any better way for people to launder money than to go through a freeport,” says James Palmer, founder of Mondex Corp., which aids in recovering looted art. (more…)

The Tate Modern has set June of 2016 as the opening date for its massive expansion project, and will embark on a massive rehang of the museum collection.  “There will be old friends and new friends – Pablo Picasso, Joseph Beuys and Mark Rothko will be joined by artists introduced to the public by Tate Modern in recent years,” says Nicholas Serota, “including Saloua Raouda Choucair, Meschac Gaba, Daidō Moriyama and Cildo Meireles.”  (more…)

The Dutch government has pledged €80 million in order to purchase a prime pair of Rembrandt paintings, sold from the collection of Éric de Rothschild.  “Rembrandts like these, I mean they just don’t happen,” says Taco Dibbits, director of collections at the Rijksmuseum.” (more…)

Tom Finkelpearl, NYC’s Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, is taking a leave of absence to treat a health issue, the New York Times reports.  “As some of you know,” Finkelpearl wrote later in the day, “I have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma. Serious, indeed, but I am expecting to recover and be back at my job after several courses of Chemo over a number of months.” (more…)

Concerns over shipping and insurance have delayed the opening of a Titian exhibition in Prague, the Art Newspaper reports, following concerns that the exhibition space at Prague Castle’s Imperial Stables were unsafe for the works.  “We decided to postpone the opening as we were not sure the Castle would be ready,” says organizer Monika Burian Jourdan, the president of Art for the Public. “From our side, we had everything set, including all export and shipping permits, and the paperwork from the Italian Minister of Culture.” (more…)

Over £7 million in funding has been earmarked by the UK as part of a drive to exhibit British art in China, including a series of exhibitions and programs in Beijing presented by a coalition including the British Library, the Southbank Centre and Shakespeare’s Globe.  “I think the British people are fascinated by China; they have a combination of curiosity about this great force in the world and frankly a bit of anxiety,” says Chancellor George Osborne.   “And one of the best ways people’s cultures express themselves is through their theatre and their paintings and their art… and what better way to explain to many, many Chinese people about Britain than letting them hear a Shakespeare play in Mandarin or see a David Hockney picture…there in China?”

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One of the sculptures from Antony Gormley’s Land installation at Clavell Tower, Kimmeridge Bay in the UK has been toppled by a storm, the BBC reports.  “We are aware that the “Land” sculpture has come down in the storm at Kimmeridge Bay and we are taking steps to deal with it asap,” says the UK building conservation charity Landmark Trust. (more…)

Brian Sewell, the London Evening Standard’s art critic, has passed away at the age of 84.  “Simply, Brian was the nation’s best art critic, best columnist and the most brilliant and sharpest writer in recent times,” the newspaper said in a statement. (more…)

The Guardian notes the convoluted history of a John Constable painting in the collection of the Tate, as a recent export license raises questions as to whether or not the work should be classified as Nazi loot.  “The Spoliation Advisory Panel have reviewed the new information which came to light in 2014 regarding John Constable’s Beaching a Boat, Brighton, 1824,” the Tate said in a statement.  “They have made a recommendation, which will be taken to Tate’s Board of Trustees at their next meeting.” (more…)

Anish Kapoor has been ordered by a French court to repair the damage to his Dirty Corner sculpture at Versailles, after the work was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.  “From my perspective, this is a triumph for the racists. The right thing is to carry on,” Kapoor says. “We will start working on Monday; this will be an act of transformation which turns the nastiness into something else. I want something active, not reactive.” (more…)

An exhibition at La Monnaie de Paris, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Christian Boltanski, will allow users to take away the works.  “Just like currency, the works are destined to be dispersed. This is what is suggested by the title of Christian Boltanski’s piece Dispersion, which encourages the public to leave the exhibition with a bag filled with clothes,” says Chiara Parisi, the director of cultural programmes at La Monnaie de Paris. (more…)

Matthew Barney is interviewed in the New York Times this week, as the artist prepares to open an exhibition of River of Fundament and its surrounding works at MOCA.  “In many ways, the real leads the artificial in ‘River of Fundament,’ ” he says. “I’ve always had an interest in colliding the natural and artificial, but I think what makes this work different from what I’ve done before is that the natural is foregrounded.” (more…)

CNN notes the growing popularity of African contemporary art on the market today, noting major increases in prices for African artists in the past several years.  “I’ve studied the movement of the prices of artwork sold in auctions in Nigeria since 1999,” says Prince Yemisi Shyllon, one of Nigeria’s largest art collectors. “And I can tell you how much the artworks have grown over time, of different artists — if we draw a correlation analysis we come up with a positive graph about the growth, and therefore it can form a solid basis for investment.” (more…)

The Artes Mundi Prize, offering the largest purse award for UK Contemporary Art, has announced its shortlist, including Neïl Beloufa, Hito Steyerl, Lamia Joreige, Nástio Mosquito, and Amy Franceschini.  “This group of artists…demonstrates the importance and usefulness of art and culture in our everyday lives as it challenges our preconceptions and gives us new ways of engaging with the world around us,” says Karen MacKinnon, Artes Mundi’s director and curator. (more…)