The New York Times looks at the evolving role of Berlin in Europe’s arts ecosystem, and how the city’s rising rents and greater wealth have changed a notoriously scrappy arts community. “Berlin is an über-cool city. The economics of the city allow dealers to have really great spaces,” says collector Danny Goldberg. (more…)
Two Italian scientists are preparing a DNA test on a lock of hair they think may belong to Leonardo Da Vinci. “We found, across the Atlantic, a lock of hair historically tagged ‘Les Cheveux de Leonardo da Vinci’ and this extraordinary relic will allow us to proceed in the quest to carry out research on Da Vinci’s DNA,” says Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of the museum and Agnese Sabato, president of the Leonardo da Vinci Heritage Foundation in a statement. (more…)
Frieze New York is presenting an entire section devoted to Augmented and Virtual Reality projects this year, raising the question of how ready the market is for tech-based works like those at the fair. “There’s a new generation of artists who can actually write code,” says art critic and director of Acute Art Daniel Birnbaum, the curator of the program. “But there are others who want to translate their traditional artistic and intellectual abilities to this new world.” (more…)
French newspaper Le Figaro has published an open letter signed by 1,169 academics and curators urging President Emmauel Macron avoid rushing a difficult process of restoration for Notre Dame Cathedral. “Let’s take the time to diagnose,” the letter reads. “A number of [experts] can be found in your administration, in the Ministry of Culture. Let us remind you of their expertise, take the right path to find them, and then, yes, set an ambitious deadline for an exemplary restoration not only for the present but also for generations to come.”
The Asia Society is opening its own arts triennial, with the first edition, titled “We Do Not Dream Alone,” scheduled to open on June 5, 2020. “We must value art because it not only allows us to dream without fear, but also because it is one of the few spaces where we can disagree without explicit conflict,” says Museum Director Boon Hui Tan. (more…)
Los Angeles’s David Kordansky Gallery now represents Linda Stark, Art News reports. “We’re thrilled to represent Linda. Her singular approach to paint as a sculptural medium fascinates me,” Kordansky said in an email. “Since the early 1990s, she has created precise, sincere, tactile pictures that are immediately spellbinding but also slow-burning: their material inventiveness builds into a critical inquisitiveness of the political, the mystical, and the personal.” (more…)
A piece in the New York Times this week traces the increased tendencies of artists towards collective practice, a response to rising rents and other challenges to the solitary contemporary artist. “Sectie-C is a different kind of factory,” artist Sander Wassink says of the studio he started in the Netherlands with a group of fellow artists, “a human-scale laboratory that is adaptable and flexible.” (more…)
Artist Derek Fordjour has joined the roster of Petzel, Art News reports. “After a series of visits and conversations, it was very clear after a while that Petzel was a good fit,” the artist says. “I knew several people at the gallery independently, and I just found them to be really committed to art and very honest. I’m glad to have a home now in New York.” (more…)
Adrien Meyer has been named chairman of global private sales at Christie’s and will also continue working as co-chairman of Christie’s Impressionist and modern art department. “While Christie’s private sales have regularly increased since 2017, we wanted to appoint a well-respected and versatile specialist to spearhead our team’s efforts and improve our communication to our clients,” Guillaume Cerutti, CEO of Christie’s, said in a statement. “Adrien Meyer has all the qualities to reinforce our focus on private sales, and to help Christie’s increase both the volume and contribution of this channel.” (more…)
A Bowery loft that once served as the studio of artist Mark Rothko is up for rent in the neighborhood, carrying a monthly rent of $15,000. (more…)
An Italian prosecutor is claiming that an 11th-century missal in the collection of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York was stolen in 1925 from a parish church in the Italian town of Apiro, Art Newspaper reports. “Written proof of the legitimate change of ownership of the missal to [owner William S.] Glazier by the seller is missing, and the seller in turns claims to have purchased it in Switzerland (without written documentation in this regard).” (more…)
Protestors have called on the Museum of Modern Art and Larry Fink, one of its trustees and the CEO of the investment firm BlackRock, to divest from companies involved in private prisons, Art News reports. “These prisons think of immigrants as a market. This is just the beginning,” a written statement reads. “They are seeking to expand into other markets.” (more…)
Urs Fischer has a piece in Interview this month, showing the magazine his camera roll, including shots of his pets. “We have two pet rats. They’re really smart. They’re such awesome creatures. They hang with us on the couch and they watch TV,” he says. (more…)
This summer, at its School location in Kinderhook, New York, Jack Shainman Gallery will host a show exploring the collaborative works of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. “I think the collaborative paintings are so interesting to see 30 years later,” Shainman says. “They’re so strong and so fresh.” (more…)
A German court has fined a man for taking works discarded by Gerhard Richter and trying to sell them. “He just wanted his peace. The whole thing seemed to bother him,” a police officer told the court of Richter’s response. (more…)
Ross Bleckner gets a profile in the NYT this week, as he prepares for his first show of paintings in NYC in five years, and discusses his part in the recent arrest and sentencing of Mary Boone. “Lot of people evade taxes,” Mr. Bleckner says. “A lot of people don’t get caught. I was surprised. Mary’s a very smart woman. She shouldn’t have done it. And she’s paying the price.” (more…)
NADA is opening a new fair in Chicago this fall during EXPO Chicago, Art News reports. “Historically, Chicago has been a hotbed of artist-run galleries and alternative spaces,” Heather Hubbs, the executive director of NADA, said in a statement. “The city then and now embodies the experimental spirit of NADA, and we look forward to connecting our exhibitors with this audience.” (more…)
Beginning Monday, the Andy Warhol Foundation will share rare photographs from the Andy Warhol Photography Archive at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center. The photos will be united around the hashtag #IntimateAndy. (more…)
The Louvre will begin timed ticketing in an effort to manage the throngs of visitors to the museum each day. “This will enable us to manage the flow of visitors and prevent them from queuing,” says Jean-Luc Martinez, the Louvre’s president-director. “It’s about changing our visitors’ habits.” (more…)
Sotheby’s Evening Sale this May in NYC will potentially set a new auction record for Lee Krasner, as the artist’s work The Eye is the First Circle (1960) will hit the block with an estimate of $10 million to $15 million, double her current estimate. “This painting represents a critical turning point for Krasner—a rebirth in a sense—as it was executed following a period of great personal loss and tragedy,” says Saara Pritchard, senior vice president and senior specialist of Sotheby’s contemporary art department. (more…)
The Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India is facing controversy over the sale of equipment and materials from the exhibition’s latest edition, which closed this March. The injunction follows a claim the organization could not sell a series of air-conditioning units until it had paid for them in full. “Kochi Biennale Foundation has received an interim injunction from the district court pausing the auction of the ACs,” a spokesperson for the Biennale said in a statement. “The auction of all other materials will proceed as planned. The legal response to the injunction is being drafted.” (more…)
Phillips has hired American art specialist Elizabeth Goldberg from Sotheby’s, appointing her senior international specialist in American art and deputy chairman for the Americas.“As with other auction house categories, the market for American art has changed rather dramatically over the past 15 years, becoming highly selective at the high end with quality being key, ” Goldberg says. “Given this trend, there are certain artists who have emerged as having the power to hang alongside other titans of the twentieth century.” (more…)
MoMA has announced that its long-anticipated show on the work of Donald Judd will open in 2020. “For someone in their 20s or 30s, there hasn’t been the opportunity to see more than one or two examples of his work at a U.S. museum at any given moment,” says Ann Temkin, MoMA’s chief curator of painting and sculpture. “Now, for a couple generations of younger people, it will be their first opportunity to see a large gathering of his work.” (more…)