MoMA has launched a new online platform, Magazine to feature various pieces of scholarly writing, commissioned projects and features.  (more…)

A piece in Popular Mechanics this week charts the challenges and issues with maintaining pieces of avant-garde work, and early techonologically-driven pieces. “The first person was hired to do something like this in 2005,” says Glenn Wharton, a time-based media conservator at MoMA. “Now there are about a dozen. I think we need about 100. There’s a huge need, and it’s growing fast.” (more…)

David Zwirner is expanidng its digital footprint, as the gallerist’s son, Lucas, currently editorial director of David Zwirner Books, is appointed head of content for the entire gallery. “We have this incredible online platform that’s more than just a sales platform, it’s an exhibition space,” Zwirner told ARTnews. “It’s a space where we can curate shows, highlight artists, and tell stories. In that respect, it’s also a kind of publishing platform.” (more…)

The NYT looks at the different versions of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and the differing materials used to create some of his most iconic works. “Though the basic palette is the same, there were different colors that were used, differences in paint texturing, and his brushwork is different,” says Ella Hendriks, a professor of conservation and restoration at the University of Amsterdam. (more…)

Artist Amy Sherald, who was tapped to create the official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama has erected a massive mural in Philadelphia, showing local resident Najee Spencer-Young.  “Given Philadelphia’s cultural landscape, I think it’s important to also have that diversity represented within its visual landscape,” she said. (more…)

Curator Peter Selz, who organized several major shows at MoMA before serving as the first director of University of California’s Berkeley Art Museum, has passed away at the age of 100. “Over the course of his tenure as our founding director, Peter transformed BAMPFA from a modest university art collection into the internationally renowned art and film institution it is today,” said Lawrence Rinder, BAMPFA’s current director and chief curator. “Generations of Bay Area art lovers have benefited from his insight, knowledge, independence, and boundless energy, and his legacy will reverberate across and beyond our museum for decades to come.” (more…)

Adam Pendleton, Ishmael in the Garden: A Portrait of Ishmael Houston-Jones (still) (2018), via Max Hetzler

On view at Berlin’s Galerie Max Hetzler, artist Adam Pendleton is presenting a body of new works under the title Who We Are, spread between both locations in the German capital: Bleibtreustraße 45 and Goethestraße 2/3, and marking Pendleton’s first show with the gallery.  The show, drawing on a range of cultural and aesthetic touchstones, presents itself as a sort multi-layered cultural history, intersecting music and film, dance and personal narrative through a series of video and wall-mounted works. (more…)

David Berliner, the Brooklyn Museum’s president and chief operating officer, gives New York Magazine a tour of his office and the works he selected for its walls.   “I was inspired by Anne [Pasternak, his predecessor]’s office. It was gorgeous. So that was my point of departure.” (more…)

Frieze has unveiled its exhibitor lists for its London and Frieze Masters fairs, this fall in Regent’s Park from October 3 to 6. The show will feature a range of curatorial projects alongside its standard selections.  (more…)

The Met is commemorating World Refugee Day this year by covering artist Marc Chagall’s The Lovers, posing the question of a world where refugees were not welcomed from the violence and crises they fled. “The Met is newly aware of its responsibility to not have a neutral position,” says Sheena Wagstaff, chairman of modern and contemporary art at the Met. (more…)

Night Gallery in Los Angeles has added Han Bing, Robert Nava, and Brie Ruais. to its roster. “The gallery is thrilled to continue to support emerging artists,” says Brian Faucette, Night Gallery’s senior director. “As we head into our 10th season in 2020, we feel that these three artists, each with their own distinctive practices, will reflect that mission.” (more…)

Gagosian has hired Sebastian Cwilich, the co-founder of Artsy, as a part-time senior adviser, continuing a recent push towards tech first embrace by the hire of chief technology officer Gareth O’Loughlin, formerly the vice president of technology at Casper. “Gareth and Sebastian are both leaders in the field, with a broad range of skill sets and unique perspectives on technology, business strategy, and operations,” Larry Gagosian, the gallery’s founder, told ARTnews in a statement. “They will be great additions to the gallery, enhancing and expanding our innovative work.” (more…)

Yuji Agematsu, zip: 10.01.03 … 10.31.03 (2003), via Miguel Abreu

Currently on view at Miguel Abreu, Japanese-born, Brooklyn-based artist Yuji Agematsu has brought forth a diverse and expressive body of works to the galleries’ 88 Eldridge space, a selection of works delving into notions of urban space and the dense material fusions that it is capable of producing. Connecting the various processes and movements of the New York City streets into a productive engine of its own, the Agematsu’s work chains together disparate spaces and perceptions of reality. (more…)

Marc Quinn’s upcoming installation for the NYPL is profiled in Forbes this week, as the artist collects blood from 10,000 people to create two sculptures, one with the blood of refugees and one with the blood of other donors. “It’s the type of thing you look at and say: ‘I can’t say which one I am, so I must be both,’” he says. “There’s no difference between them. They’re like a gateway, in a way. They’re about arrivals and departures.” (more…)

Almine Rech, will open in Shanghai next month, sharing a floor on 27 Huqiu Road with Lisson. “The decision to expand to Asia was a natural one for us, as we’ve long been interested in the Asian market and engaged with collectors in the region through our participation in art fairs, as well as institutional outreach, collaboration, and regular visits to the region,” says owner Almine Rech-Picasso. (more…)

Artist Lonnie Holley is interviewed in Artforum this week, speaking on his music and his vision for his broader body of work. “All my work, in any form, comes down to oneness,” he says. “The oneness is important: the oneness goes all the way down to this one universe that we believe in; this one mothership, our planet Earth, that we live in; this one mother that gave birth to us and that we should respect; and then that one gray spot that we’re going to after we are dead and gone.” (more…)

Robert Therrien (Installation View), via Art Observed

Robert Therrien, an artist whose impressively-scaled sculptures of banal objects and everyday scenes was capable of twisting a viewer’s sense of time and space, has passed away at the age of 71 .  The news was broken by Gagosian, which represents him.   (more…)

Curator and deputy director for international initiatives Donna De Salvo is leaving the Whitney museum after 15 years.  De Dalvo organized the institution’s major Andy Warhol show last year, and has been a fixture of its curatorial program. “I hold a deep regard for the Whitney, which has been my home for one of the most fulfilling periods of my career,” she said in a statement.  (more…)

Turner Prize nominee Helen Cammock is profiled in The Guardian this week, spotlighting her recent work, her past work in social services, and her development as an artist.  “In my 20s, when I was desperately trying to find something creative, I had this huge hole. I started to write a novel,” she says. “Then I got burgled and they took my laptop and it was all gone. I didn’t want to write again for a while. So I bought some canvas and some acrylic paints. And it was about making marks, about using color and form. I didn’t take it seriously and I wouldn’t paint now. But now I trust the marks I make and I don’t have to apologize for them.” (more…)

A piece in the SF Chronicle this week looks at the path forward for the Fine Arts Museums of SF following the departure of longtime Board of Trustees President Dede Wilsey.  “It’s like Queen Elizabeth,” says former museum head Harry Parker. “If you’ve got something that ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There has never been a serious opponent or candidate to succeed her.” (more…)

Following controversy over her financial ties to an Israeli spy company, Yana Peel has stepped down as CEO of The Serpentine Galleries in London. “While we have every confidence in the Serpentine’s ability to continue to serve artists, visitors, and supporters in the future, she will be sorely missed,” a museum statement reads. “The arts sector will be poorer without her immeasurable contributions to our cultural lives.” (more…)

Brooklyn Museum head Anne Pasternak has made Crain’s list of Most Powerful Women in NYC, spotlighting her activism and work with the museum and Creative Time.

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The NYT has a piece this week on artist Andrea Bowers’s monumental artwork drawing on the online disclosures of the #MeToo movement, and the controversy when one person included in the work complained of exploitation. “This is a whole new set of questions,” says Prof. Griselda Pollock, director of the Center for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History at the University of Leeds in Britain. “Artists have a right to quote from the world, and they have authorization to present it as their art. But if you use materials that come from one context of use, with its own inherent ethics and politics, into another one, then we find that there are people who are challenging it.” (more…)

Amedeo Modigliani, Jeune homme assis, les mains croisées sur les geno (1918), Final Price: £18,422,000 via Sotheby’s

The first batch of Summer auctions are in the books in London tonight, as Sotheby’s capped off its Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale with results that seemed to emphasize a steadied ship following the announcement of the auction house’s sale to Patrick Drahi earlier this week.  The auction house, capitalizing on a strong offering of works, moved methodically through the evening, selling 23 of the 25 works on offer for a final tally of £98,875,924. (more…)