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…)

Inka Essenhigh, Untitled (2019), via Kavi Gupta

With the increasingly packed schedule of the spring art season in New York, attention and anticipation once again turns to the opening of this year’s edition of Frieze New York, set to open its doors in just a few days at its annual haunt at Randall’s Island. This year, as the fair reaches its eighth edition, some adjustments and tweaks to the schedule will look to expand the fair’s offerings and appeal in an increasingly crowded circuit. (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…)

Raqib Shaw, Lament on Narscissus to Icarus (2017-2018), via Art Observed

For pure opulence, it’s hard to match the canvases of artist Raqib Shaw. Pulling together disparate traditions in Indian and Western portraiture and epic painting, the artist’s work mines each historical mode in pursuit of a lush, swirling iconography that simultaneously entrances the viewer and overwhelms them with visual excess, a negotiation of forms that encourages a lingering consideration of each work. (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…)

Planned Parenthood of New York has partnered with the Keith Haring Foundation to create a traveling health clinic designed to provide access to New Yorkers struggling with homelessness and other health and safety concerns, emblazoned with the artist’s designs. “We know many New Yorkers, especially LGBTQ communities, communities of color, and marginalized New Yorkers such as those experiencing homelessness, lack access. This brings care to New Yorkers, to meet them where they are,” said Laura McQuade, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood of New York City. (more…)

The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is expected to open around 2022, Richard Armstrong has said. “We are on track, we are on budget and we are looking forward to the commencement of the building construction soon,” he said in an interview this week. (more…)

The Creative Time Summit is returning to New York for its 10th year, scheduling a series of events focused on injustice and resistance under the title “Speaking Truth: Summit X.” “For the past decade the Summit has been a cornerstone of Creative Time’s annual program—an opportunity for a meeting of the minds where we pause and reflect upon our current socio-political reality, take a hard look at the past, and envision a path forward,” says Justine Ludwig, executive director of Creative Time. “I am thrilled to celebrate the Summit’s tenth anniversary with a new, expanded format.” (more…)

Takashi Murakami is no longer represented by Blum & Poe. Murakami had shown at the gallery for more than 20 years, and is also currently represented by Gagosian, Perrotin, and Kaikai Kiki Gallery. “After 25 years of a mutually successful partnership, we have come to the decision that it is in both of our best interests that we no longer continue our working relationship. We wish Takashi all the very best moving forward,” a Blum & Poe rep said in a statement. (more…)

Henry Wollman Bloch, a co-founder of H&R Block Inc. and a major supporter of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, has died at age 96. “Henry is irreplaceable,” Julián Zugazagoitia, the director and CEO of the Nelson-Atkins, said in a statement. “His leadership and dedication have been vital to the success of the Nelson-Atkins. But beyond the museum, Henry has been an outstanding citizen whose generosity and vision have had a transformative impact on Kansas City being the great city it is today. . . . We will miss him very much.” (more…)

The Rothschild family will send a selection of works and objects from their holdings to auction, sending 57 lots to Christie’s July 4 auction in London.  “There’s something mythical about the Rothschilds that’s attached to whatever they owned,” says Robert Couturier, an interior designer in New York. “They created their own world of taste and elegance. There’s an abandon of luxury that few other families had.” (more…)

                                      Alec Soth, Simone. Los Angeles, 2017 (2017), Via Art Observed

Currently on view at Sean Kelly’s spacious Chelsea exhibition space, photographer Alec Soth is presenting a body of new works. Comprised of recent large-scale color portraits and images of interiors, the exhibition, “I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating,” focuses on Soth’s depiction of the individual, posing questions about what these images reveal about both the sitter and photographer. (more…)

The Louvre is planning to buy Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Standard Bearer (1636) following France’s culture minister Franck Riester classification of the work as a “national treasure.”  The Museum now has 30 months to find the funds to buy the work. (more…)

Gagosian has tapped Kelly Huang as director of its San Francisco space, heading its operations alongside Charlie Spalding. “It’s a small community,” Huang said of San Francisco. “I’m really excited to continue working with the clients I worked with at Zlot Buell. It’s definitely a different role, being on a different side of things, but I’m looking forward to serving [Bay Area collectors] just as well as I served them before.” (more…)

LACMA’s annual Collectors Committee Weekend took place this past weekend, with eight works being added to its collection while adding $2.4 million in donations.  “I think everyone knows this is a momentous weekend for LACMA,” says director Michael Govan. (more…)