VP candidate Kamala Harris spoke last night at a benefit for Joe Biden yesterday, outlining her experiences with the arts at the Studio Museum and SFMoMA as a child.  “All of those experiences through my childhood, and as I was growing up, really reinforced for me the importance of giving children, and as we go on, giving artists,” she says, “the ability to have these vehicles where they can not only express themselves and their feelings, but also build their confidence.” (more…)

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum will cut 103 jobs, 10% of its workforce, Art Newspaper reports. “Final decisions will be made once the consultation is complete,” says a museum statement. (more…)

A new study of the Mona Lisa has revealed a charcoal underdrawing, indicating a sketch of the work before its completion. “These discoveries increase and increase the mystery of its creation, in the end we understand that it is the work of a very long ‘creative act’—which spans more than a decade and in several stages,” says researcher Pascal Cotte. (more…)

A new study into the work of Edward Hopper by a doctoral candidate at the Courtauld Institute in London shows that some of the artist’s early works are copies of works from a magazine for amateur artists.  (more…)

Bruce Nauman speaks with The Guardian this week, as the artist prepares to open a major retrospective at Tate Modern. “I remember someone coming to the studio and saying, ‘You must be very depressed,’” he notes. “I said that I didn’t think so, otherwise I wouldn’t be making work. A lot of things got worked out through the work. Different kinds of anger and frustration.” (more…)

Following Paddle 8’s bankruptcy, the company’s bankruptcy trustee Megan Noh has filed suit against former board member John Textor, alleging “reckless disregard” for the company, and seeking $6 million in damages. “Neither I nor the companies mentioned have been involved in quite some time, though it is standard practice for a trustee to cast a wide net in filing speculative claims for recovery,” Textor claims. (more…)

Auction houses are reporting massive upticks in online sales as galleries and auctions shutter due to Covid-19. “No longer will we have the joy and pain of crowded art fairs and gallery openings,” says Robert Head of the Hiscox agency. “Dealers will have to find new ways to create the buzz that makes us have to buy now, lest we dwell and lose yet another treasure that we can’t live without.” (more…)

David Zwirner Gallery has appointed Ebony L. Haynes, formerly of Martos Gallery, as the head of a new gallery space in Manhattan, which will employ an all-black staff. “While you could argue that strides have been made on the artist side, the art world acts almost shamefully on the employment side,” Mr. Zwirner says. “Something has to happen.” (more…)

Controversy is mounting over the decision by four major museums to shelve a show of works by Philip Guston over his depiction of figures in Ku Klux Klan robes, with many in the art world, including the show’s curator, condemning the move.  “As art museums, we are expected to show difficult art and to support artists. By cancelling or delaying, we abandon this responsibility to Guston and also to the artists whose voices animate the catalogue such as Glenn Ligon [and] Tacita Dean,” says Tate Modern curator Mark Godfrey, who was set to organize the show at the museum. (more…)

Sotheby’s is launching a new financial services division, with Alexander Klabin as Executive Chairman. A statement from Klabin emphasized his role as helping “to accelerate the future of authenticated asset-based finance.”  (more…)

The Guggenheim has received Maurizio Cattelan‘s iconic banana work Comedian, shown last year at Art Basel Miami Beach, as an anonymous gift.  “We are grateful recipients of the gift of ‘Comedian,’ a further demonstration of the artist’s deft connection to the history of modern art,” says museum director, Richard Armstrong. “Beyond which, it offers little stress to our storage.” (more…)

Gerhard Richter has created a series of impressive stained glass windows for Tholey Abbey in Germany. “Abstract art is not normally my thing,” says Abbot Mauritius Choriol. “But you don’t need to be an art expert to appreciate the qualities of these.” (more…)

LACMA has finally unveiled the gallery plans for its new, Peter Zumthor-designed building. “I did ask for and got something that would be very different,” says director Michael Govan. “I think it’s going to be absolutely sublime, but that’s for the public to see.” (more…)

As the museum plans to reopen, the Guggenheim Museum has laid off 24 employees, with an additional 8 taking separation agreements. “The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Guggenheim has been devastating to our finances,” said museum’s director, Richard Armstrong in a letter to employees. “I am deeply saddened to say that the museum will not have the ability to support our previous number of staff members.” (more…)

In the midst of COVID-19-related financial pressure, the Brooklyn Museum will sell off 12 works from its collection to fund maintaining the rest of its holdings. “We expect this consignment to generate considerable interest from collectors who will not only respond to the paintings’ great quality, but will also be reassured by their distinguished provenance,” says Joshua Glazer, Specialist of Old Master Paintings at Christie’s New York. (more…)

Banksy has lost a court case against a greeting card company this month, with the court putting the artist’s copyright at risk over his anonymity. “Banksy has chosen to remain anonymous and, for the most part, to paint graffiti on other people’s property without their permission, rather than to paint it on canvases or his own property,” the panel said. (more…)

David Zwirner has brought on former Gavin Brown Director Kyla McMillan as director, focusing on sales and artist management. “At Gavin Brown’s Enterprise I worked with so many artists who will forever inform how I think,” she says. (more…)

Christie’s is selling Picasso’s Femme dans un fauteuil (1941) as the leading lot in its merged 20th/21st Century sale this October, with the lead lot tapped to fetch $20 million–$30 million. “By turns anguished and lyrical, aggressive and despondent, the works all share an urgency, making them as much expressions of Picasso’s state of mind as portraits of Dora,” says Conor Jordan, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and modern art. “Sequestered in the cool light and pressing angles of the attic space, Dora is depicted on a grand scale as proud and unbending, an image of stately defiance, a modern Marianne.” (more…)

Dealer Max Levai has filed suit against his former colleagues at Marlborough Gallery, alleging a scheme to discredit him and take over his personal Instagram account. “The Company and defendants Bergman and Plutschow’s defamatory statements have harmed [Levai] by causing, among other things, third parties to refuse to engage in any new business dealings with plaintiff, lost revenue and profits, increased expenses, legal fees, and costs expended to mitigate the impact of the Company and defendants Bergman and Plutschow’s dishonesty,” the suit reads.  (more…)

Damien Hirst and Fondazione Prada are launching a round of print sales to benefit an international nonprofit dedicated to providing free access to educational, economic, and healthcare opportunities to children. “COVID-19 has been devastating for many people and families all over the world and lockdown has been really difficult, but especially difficult for children who haven’t been able to go to school,” Hirst said in a statement. “I wanted to find a way to raise money to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds who have been most affected by school closures and the support they provide.” (more…)

Erich Marx, a collector whose holdings stand as the basis of the Hamburger Bahnhof museum of Modern art has died at the age of 99. “Without him, the Hamburger Bahnhof would not exist,” says Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. “Erich Marx was a great man who was also modest. He undertook everything with great passion—including his love of art and collecting.” (more…)

The FIAC Art Fair has been cancelled after a spike in Coronavirus cases in Paris.  “Despite its deep determination to organize FIAC–this unique rendez-vous bringing together specialists in the field of modern and contemporary art—in 2020, and its efforts to overcome the difficulties caused by the health crisis, the fair is not in a position to organize an event that meets the legitimate expectations of its exhibitors,” said the organizers, who are refunding all fees already paid by exhibitors.  (more…)

Researchers are laser-scanning the city of Venice to create a digital replica, as rising floods threaten the city.  (more…)

Joe Thompson is leaving his 32-year directorship of MASS MoCA.  “After more than three decades as director, it is high time for me to step away from day-to-day management of the museum, focusing for the next year on transition planning, institutional advancement, and capacity-building,” Thompson said in a statement. “While we’ve achieved much over the past few decades, there remains programmatic innovation, still to come.” (more…)