Christie’s will offer a 1913 work by Fernand Léger from the artist’s influential “contrastes des formes,” series this June in London, carrying an estimate of £25 million. “[The] contrastes des forms changed the direction of art as we know it,” says Jason Carey, Christie’s head of impressionist and modern art in London. With this series, executed between 1912 and 1914, Léger went beyond the Cubists and Futurists of the time by “completely deconstructing representation,” Carey says. (more…)

The New York Times has a piece this week on budget woes at the Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion-Winning Lithuanian Pavilion, which have caused performances of the “beach opera” to be cut back to once a week. “Going into the vernissage week, we didn’t have enough money to guarantee us until the end of the Biennale, even performing once a week,” said curator Lucia Pietroiusti. (more…)

Seth Price, Self as Tube (Installation View), via Galerie Chantal Crousel

Marking an ongoing continuation and elaboration on his recent works dwelling on the body, shared and public space, production and the self, Seth Price has launched a show of new works on view at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris this month. Featuring a recent series of mixed media paintings and back-lit photographs, as well as a series of light-boxes and light tubes, the show continues Price’s recent work wrapping digital imagery around the bodies and the spaces they share, then translating those images to specific art contexts, forms, and functions.

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The State Hermitage Museum is exploring a possible outpost in Saudi Arabia, Art Newspaper reports. The Museum is also looking to expand its footprint in the Crimea.  (more…)

The Iraqi Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities has stated intent to recover thousands of antiquities from the United States, including “5,500 artifacts from the Hobby Lobby company and 10,000 clay figurines from Cornell University as well as artifacts from the University of Pennsylvania.” (more…)

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the first head of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, will serve as the next secretary of the entire Smithsonian, the NYT reports. “I want to help it transform America,” he said. (more…)

Virginia Overton, Untitled (Cement Mixer/Water Fountain) (2019), via Bortolami

Marking her first solo outing with Bortolami Gallery, the American artist Virginia Overton has brought her unique blend of repurposed materials, ready-made sculptural interventions and a distinct sense of personal history to New York once again. The artist’s transformative capacities with raw materials and her enigmatic sense of shared purpose and convergent social spheres makes for a fascinating and wide-ranging body of work. (more…)

Sharis Alexandrian has joined Lévy Gorvy as its new senior director, following a seven-year run as director at White Cube. “What really drew me to Sharis is her fierce loyalty to the collectors and the clients she works with,” Lévy says. “She has their best interests at heart in a way that can at times mean fighting the gallery for the client, and I really appreciate that.” (more…)

The recently expanded Glenstone Museum, founded by the Rales family, gets a profile in Washington Post this month, examining its claims of public accessibility and vision of a new public art museum.  (more…)

Marianne Boesky Gallery has tapped Bradford Waywell as senior director of sales and acquisitions, starting in September. “His keen eye and wide-ranging relationships with collectors, curators, and artists are incredible assets,” Boesky says. “With my vision to grow equally the gallery’s primary and secondary market business, I know Brad’s experience will prove invaluable.” (more…)

Robert Longo, Death Star 2018 (2018), via Metro Pictures

Over the past few years, Robert Longo’s work has grown increasingly preoccupied with the stature and language of the current American political crisis, exploring gun violence, political absenteeism, police oppression and a range of other cultural motifs indicative of our current political/cultural epoch. Marking a new entry in this ongoing investigation, the artist’s current show at Metro Pictures, Amerika, marks the beginning of a two-part exhibition by the artist and a continuation of his Destroyer Cycle series, an investigation into the politics of power, futility, and aggression. (more…)

A Swiss court has ruled that a $123 Million Da Vinci will not have to return to Italy over import disputes, noting that the illegal import/export of a cultural good is “only if the object in question” can be found “corresponding Italian inventory, which is not the case.”  (more…)

Swiss-based MCH Group, which owns Art Basel, has sold its 25% stake in Art Dusseldorf to Sandy Angus and Tim Etchells of ArtHK, Art Newspaper reports. “It’s about giving a broader context to Art Düsseldorf through our contacts in Asia, but at the same time we are hoping to build a rapport with more German galleries, which might lead them into our Asian and other fairs,” Angus says. “Building confidence and relationships with galleries is key.” (more…)

Staff at the Louvre went on a daylong strike this past Monday, forcing the museum to close.  The protest was over insufficient support for staff in the face of the museum’s massive number of daily visitors. “Due to a strike by reception and security staff linked to high visitor numbers, the Louvre will exceptionally be closed on Monday,” the museum said on Twitter. (more…)

A piece in The Guardian this week reports that the Louvre is not pursuing the Salvator Mundi for inclusion in a major Leonardo da Vinci show this year, as museum curators do not believe the work can be solely attributed to the artist.“If they did exhibit it … they would want to exhibit it as ‘workshop,’ says art historian and writer Ben Lewis. “If that’s the case, it will be very unlikely that it will be shown, because the owner can’t possibly lend it … the value will go down to somewhere north of $1.5m (£1.2m).” (more…)

A piece in The Guardian this week charts the damage caused by neglect and looting at many of Italy’s cultural and historical sites. “Anywhere else in the world, this site would have been transformed into a museum, attracting millions of visitors. And instead, there it is, a 6th-century BC treasure falling apart before our eyes,” says said Mimmo Macaluso, an EU researcher speaking of one site in San Marco. (more…)

Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Amerika – For Karl (1989), via Lehmann Maupin

When artist Tim Rollins passed away in December of 2017, the public commemoration for the artist seemed to touch every corner of the art world. Countless figures from across the spectrum of New York’s diverse creative communities paid tribute to Rollins’s impact on New York, and in many cases, personally on their practice, particularly younger artists with experiences either collaborating with him or working closely on past projects. (more…)

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has hired Carla Acevedo-Yates as its new curator, Art News reports. “The MCA consistently features the most relevant contemporary voices of our time, and I look forward to contributing to that legacy,” Acevedo-Yates said in a statement. “Chicago is a vibrant city with a rich and diverse cultural history, and I am excited to connect with the many communities that the museum serves.” (more…)

John Waters‘s art collection gets a profile in the NYT this week, as he tours the paper through his apartment and talks about his vision for collecting. “It has to sometimes, at first, make me angry,” he says. “It has to delight me and surprise me and kind of like, put me off a little bit at first, and then I embrace it. The kind of art I like is the one that makes people angry, that hate contemporary art — the ones that easily fall for the bait of it. I always go to that first.” (more…)

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery has added Chinese artist Wong Ping to its roster of artists. The artist was recently included in the 2018 New Museum Triennial and in the exhibition One Hand Clapping, a survey of work by emerging Chinese artists held at the Guggenheim Museum. (more…)

The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a ruling allowing the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, meaning that the museum will retain possession of two masterpieces by Lucas Cranach the Elder that were looted by the Nazis. “We are pleased that the US Supreme Court denied plaintiff’s petition for review and finally put an end to this lawsuit. The unanimous decision of the Ninth Circuit is now final, confirming that the Norton Simon Art Foundation has proper title to these paintings,” the museum said in a statement.  (more…)

Nate Lowman has joined David Zwirner, Art News reports. “The gallery is excited to represent Nate Lowman, an artist whose career I have been following with interest for many years,” Zwirner said in a statement. “His critical engagement with contemporary culture as much as with art history is evident in his strikingly relevant works.” (more…)

Sanya Kantarovsky, Beach (2919), via Luhring Augustine

Luhring Augustine has mounted a show of new works by painter Sanya Kantarovsky this month, the first solo exhibition by the Russian artist with the gallery.  The show, titled On Them, presents vignettes from the lives of a strange group of real and imagined subjects. An anguished killer, a hospice patient, a headless infant accordionist, and a disenfranchised snowman, assembled into a painted tragicomedy, simultaneously unnerving and seducing the audience.

Sanya Kantarovsky, Fracture (2919), via Luhring Augustine

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Frank Stella, Jasper’s Split Star (2017), via Marianne Boesky

Currently on at Marianne Boesky Gallery, a body of recent sculptures by renowned artist Frank Stella presents an intimate look at the artist’s ever-evolving and innovative approach to form. Ranging from the monumental to attentively-rendered small-scalle works, the pieces on view underscore Stella’s ongoing exploration of the spatial relationships between abstract and geometric forms and the ways in which they behave in and engage with physical space.

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