Artist Nick Cave has announced plans for a parade utilizing the artist’s colorful and imaginative costumes through the underprivileged neighborhoods of Shreveport, Louisiana, thanks in part to a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. (more…)

The New York Times takes a look at the growing number of services catering to financial investment and speculation in the art market, particularly the tech-focused art storage company Uovo, or the market insights platform ArtRank, both of which seem to prioritize contemporary art as a source of financial wealth over a source of intellectual edification.  These new companies demonstrate “something about the way art is functioning, which is less about the artwork saying something or doing something and more about the artwork representing a value,” says one artist, speaking anonymously. (more…)

The New York Times takes a look at the collection of modern masterpieces soon to go on view at Paris’s Fondation Louis Vuitton.  The exhibition has been in the works for several years but was downplayed when the museum first opened its doors last year, and will feature a number of landmark works, including Edvard Munch’s The Scream on loan from Oslo, as well as Matisse’s The Dance, which has not been seen in Paris in 15 years.  “The foundation indeed aims to be contemporary,” artistic director Suzanne Pagé said. “But it doesn’t want to ignore the history of art, as it is seen in these major works of the 20th century, which continue to be a vital reference for artists today.” (more…)

A canvas by 17th Century French artist Claude Lorrain is the subject of a recent export ban placed by UK Minister of Culture Ed Vaizey, while the government seeks to find a buyer to keep the painting in the country.  “It is of outstanding beauty and it would be tremendous to see it permanently on display in a UK gallery where it can be appreciated by all,” Vaizey said. (more…)

A pair of classic bronze works have been revealed to be the work of Michelangelo, after an extensive research undertaking in Cambridge, a discovery that would make the sculptures the only surviving bronzes by the artist in the world.  “They are clearly masterpieces,” says Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum. “The modelling is superb, they are so powerful and so compelling, so whoever made them had to be superb.” (more…)

A group of protestors, working under the name Liberate Tate, showered the Tate Britain with fake pound notes this weekend, continuing the series of protests over the museum’s British Petroleum sponsorship.  “It’s time for the arts to draw a line,” says one protestor.  “Oil companies are a whole category of unacceptable partners for public arts, like tobacco and arms companies.”  (more…)

Artist Andres Serrano, whose notorious work Piss Christ was removed from the Associated Press image archives after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices, speaks out in Creative Time Reports this week, defending unconditional free expression in the arts and in contemporary political discourse.  “Unfortunately, times like these show us the true limits of people’s taste for debate, even in an ostensibly free society,” he writes.  “We have only to look to our shared human history to find that the artists and thinkers who have most advanced civilization in the direction of freedom and equality were often unpopular in their day. They questioned, they analyzed, they regularly offended. Without them we would surely be lost.” (more…)

In the run-up to this week’s Impressionist and Modern auctions in London, The Guardian looks at the current state of the market, and how works like Claude Monet’s Le Grand Canal (est. £20 milltion – £30 million), have come to be valued so highly in the growing market.  “There is such intense demand for the very best and the rarest,” says Jay Vincze, the international director and head of impressionist art at Christie’s, “This is the kind of painting that will appeal to a masterpiece buyer. Someone who wants the best of everything.” (more…)

A major ring of forgers focused on Old Masters works has been uncovered in Spain, with over 27 pieces priced to sell for over €1.2 million confiscated in the city of Castellón.  The works varied widely in quality, including a number of Goya etchings which were, in fact, photocopies of the artist’s work.   (more…)

The New York Times profiles Dick Polich, the foundry owner and metalworker who has worked closely with some of the world’s most ambitious contemporary artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, and Frank Stella.  “He told me, ‘You’re trying to push the envelope, and I’ll go there with you,’” says sculptor Rona Pondick. “And then he said, ‘And while I’m going there with you, can I show you a few things I’m playing around with?’ ” (more…)

The U.S. Army is searching for a new group of cultural affairs officers to supervise the securing and preservation of important cultural monuments, property and locations in conflicted areas.  The Army had long taken a more lax, reactive approach to cultural preservation, but is looking to strengthen its methods.  “The civil affairs units have always had ‘functional specialists’, but the individuals were often not qualified in any meaningful way,”said Brigadier General Hugh Van Roosen, the director of the Institute for Military Support to Governance (IMSG) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  “At the same time, if you have one person who was just the right fit, you probably didn’t have two of them. It was just a broken system.” (more…)

Artist Kehinde Wiley is profiled in the New York Times this week, discussing his early life in Los Angeles, and his responses to the outrage over police violence in Ferguson, MO.  “I know how young black men are seen,” the artist says in his Williamsburg studio. “They’re boys, scared little boys oftentimes. I was one of them. I was completely afraid of the Los Angeles Police Department.” (more…)

Employees at The National Gallery in London have planned a five day strike in response to the museum’s privatization of their positions, which union general secretary Mark Serwotka claims “risks damaging the worldwide reputation of what is one of the U.K.’s greatest cultural assets.” (more…)

The BBC looks at the early career of Vincent Van Gogh, and the artist’s decision to enter divinity school in his mid-20’s.  It was during this time that the artist visited the depressed Borinage region, and where his work among the laypeople inspired him to draw and paint.  “The people were poor and illiterate, and their work was hard and dangerous,” says curator Sjraar Van Heugten. “Yet for Van Gogh, there was some kind of bigger truth in their simple way of life. After he became an artist, he chose to find his subject matter there. Like artists that he admired, such as Jean-François Millet, he wanted to portray the life of working-class people, and he remained interested in doing so certainly for the first half of his career.” (more…)

Hauser and Wirth has announced that it will serve globally as the representative for the Mike Kelley Foundation.  Established by the artist in 2007, the organization issues grants to artists working on challenging projects among Kelley’s preferred mediums.   (more…)

French filmmaker Pierre Bismuth is going in search of a long-forgotten sculpture by Ed Ruscha, a fake rock that was created and then abandoned in the Mojave desert.  The work, titled Rocky II, does not have a confirmed location, but Bismuth is determined to locate it, and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the completion of the film.  “We will answer the questions ‘Where is this rock?’ ‘Why is it hidden?’ and ‘What is there to hide?'” says Bismuth. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal profiles collectors Aaron and Barbara Levine, whose focus on collecting conceptual art has led to an impressive collections of 20th century art focused around works by On Kawara and Marcel Duchamp, among many others.  “The first time I saw the early 20th-century abstractions of Kazimir Malevich, I was in tears,” Ms. Levine says.  (more…)

As Sotheby’s prepares a new round of auctions in the upcoming weeks, the company has announced a series of increases in its sales percentages.  Buyers at upcoming auctions will now pay 25 percent on the first $200,000 of a work’s hammer price, 20 percent on the value between $200,000 and $3 million, and 12 percent on any amount remaining above $3 million, up from the previous upper threshold of $2 million.  “This will improve Sotheby’s revenue, strengthen the company’s profit margins,” says current CEO Bill Ruprecht. (more…)

The recent arrest of artist Tania Bruguera after her performance in Cuba has raised a number of questions regarding the freedom of artists in the country, the New York Times reports.  “You never know how far you can go,” says well-known novelist Leonardo Padura.  “Sometimes it seems as if spaces open and then close again.” (more…)

Pointing to concerns over security, the Victoria and Albert Museum has attempted to withhold information on its ownership of a devotional image of Muhammad following the terrorist attacks in Paris earlier this month.  “Unfortunately we were incorrect to say there were no works depicting the prophet Muhammad in the V&A’s collection,” said spokeswoman Olivia Colling. “As the museum is a high-profile public building already on a severe security alert, our security team made the decision that it was best to remove the image from our online database (it remains within the collection).” (more…)

Claude Monet’s L’Embarcadère will hit the auction block next week during Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist and Modern works next week in London.  The “museum-quality” work featuring the landscapes of Zaandam in the Netherlands, is estimated to sell for between £7,500,000 and £10,000,000.    “Monet captures the Dutchness, not merely externally…but also the delicate enveloping light and atmosphere, subtly different from the Ile de France,” writes art historian Ronald Pickvance.  “The superb manner in which he registers the immense and often changing Dutch skies is sufficient proof of this.” (more…)

The Guardian looks at the current labor struggles at London’s National Gallery, as the museum transfers staff management over to a private company, leaving little in terms of real job protection.  “I came to work at the National Gallery, but I could be transferred to a supermarket car park,” says one assistant. (more…)

The Storm King Art Center in Upstate New York has announced a new residency program, opening in conjunction with the long-running Shandaken Project Residency, which is putting its own program on hold during the partnership.  The new program will “encourage artists to engage with Storm King Art Center in new ways.” (more…)

New information released by the Tate this month has revealed that the museum accepted between £150,000 and £330,000 in annual sponsorship funds from British Petroleum over the course of 17 years, totaling over £3.8 million in funds.  The relatively minor amount of funding each year underscores claims by the activist group Platform, which accuses BP of using the donations to help “greenwash” its reputation.  “The BP sponsorship figures are even lower than we had estimated,” says Anna Galkina of Platform. For nearly a decade, Tate provided a veneer of respectability to one of the world’s most controversial companies for just £150,000 a year.” (more…)