Manhattan dealers Nicelle Beauchene and Franklin Parrasch will collaborate on a new project space called Parts & Labor in Beacon, New York, Art News reports. “It’s definitely a collaboration,” Beauchene says. “It’s super flexible, and we want everyone to feel good.” (more…)
Lucio Fontana, On the Threshold (Installation View), via Art Observed
Marking the first major U.S. survey of artist Lucio Fontana in more than forty years, The Met Breuer has assembled a landmark show of works from across the artist’s career, unpacking and reassembling disparate threads and conceptual projects from across the expanse of his work to arrive at a roving, exploratory picture of the artist, his career, and his work. Widely known for his Cuts series, slashed paintings that became symbols of the postwar era, Fontana’s work moves in and out of easily framed conceptual projects, and here, his works are allowed to breathe and exchange their ideas, allowing the artist’s work to explore and underscore the depth of his intellectual explorations.
Lucio Fontana, On the Threshold (Installation View), via Art Observed (more…)
Zhang Yu at Pifo, via Art Basel
Opening its doors this past Wednesday at the Hong Kong Convention Center, the Art Basel fair franchise has once again left its mark on the Chinese metropolis, concluding the seventh edition with impressive results and a strong selection of works. As is usually the case for the fair, impressive sales figures and strong attendance was the norm, signaling the fair’s continued impact on the Asian art circuit, and the broader landscape of the contemporary art market. (more…)
One of Francis Bacon’s iconic “screaming popes” will go on sale at Sotheby’s New York on May 16th, The Guardian reports, carrying an estimate of upwards of $20 million. It is being sold from the collection of Seattle couple Richard Lang and Jane Lang Davis. (more…)
A piece in Vanity Fair this week charts the battle between Larry Gagosian and David Zwirner over the Franz West estate, and the messy “We bumped into each other a couple of times, but there was no love lost on either side after he left,” Zwirner says of his prior working relationship with the artist. (more…)
The exhibition of Kaws’s Companion floating in the harbor of Hong Kong has been cancelled after inclement weather. “After a week of relaxing time at the Victoria Harbour Hong Kong, Companion thanks all fans for visiting, with special gratitude to the marine staff who have worked and safeguarded Companion 24-7 non-stop at the harbor,” says curator Lam Shu-kam. (more…)
The Frick Museum has added four new members to its board. “The Frick will greatly benefit from the strong professional and philanthropic experiences of our new Trustees, all of whom are generous supporters and active members of the institution,” says Ian Wardropper, the director of the Frick. “I look forward to working with them more closely through what promises to be a critical and rewarding time for us.” (more…)
Filmmaker Agnès Varda, whose work has long explored the nuances of humanity, has passed away at the age of 90. “I have been a photographer, then I turned into a filmmaker, then I turned into a visual artist,” Varda said of her career, and her ever-shifting oeuvre. (more…)
Artist Natalie Frank has joined Salon 94, Art News reports. “[Salon 94′ has such an incredible legacy of working with women artists and artists of color and artists with working narrative, both personal and political,” Frank says. (more…)
A blockbuster Van Gogh show at The Tate Britain is under pressure from foundering Brexit negotiations, as British and Dutch governments work to assure the show’s lenders that their works would not be subject to hefty import taxes when they are shipped back from the UK following a possible no-deal Brexit. “Going to the UK was never a problem, but some museums were a bit concerned – would their works be able to come back?” a Dutch government source says. “They wanted guarantees that they would have their works back in time, and without having to pay high import taxes.” (more…)
A painting believed to be a copy of a Botticelli piece has been authenticated as an original produced by the artist’s workshop, The Guardian reports. “Botticelli is very recognizable, and if you know even a little bit about art history, you would look at this painting and say, that’s a Botticelli,” says Rachel Turnbull, English Heritage’s senior collections conservator. “But, for sure, there are things out there that purport to be a Botticelli and probably aren’t. So we just wanted to be very careful about what we were saying.” (more…)
A piece in the NYT spotlights The Shed’s potential contributions to New York, and how it can help improve conditions for the city’s artists. “What the city also needs is less the creation of new spaces and more a reorientation toward funding what might fill the ample range of stages we already have,” says writer Zachary Woolfe. “We need a revision of what cultural giving means: Artists creating new work should be the primary beneficiaries of extended support, not buildings.” (more…)
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has acquired Yayoi Kusama’s reconfigured version of her first Infinity Mirror Room, Phalli’s Field, Art Newspaper reports. The museum hosted a number of the artist’s Infinity Rooms in a recent blockbuster show. “The exhibition had such an impact on the museum, and we began to think about adding something to the collection,” says Director Melissa Chiu. (more…)
The 99% Invisible podcast this week discusses Barnett Newman’s Who’s Afriad of Red, Yellow and Blue II, a painting famed for eliciting violent reactions from viewers, including one man who slashed the piece. “At the time people would write really long and elaborate letters to say how much they hated this painting,” says filmmaker Barbara Visser. (more…)
Highlights from the collection of S.I. Newhouse will head to Christie’s New York this spring, 11 works expected to tally $130 million. “He had the best eye and the best collection of postwar paintings ever put together,” said his friend David Geffen, “I bought a lot of it.” (more…)
Attendance at Britain’s cultural institutions grew by nearly 9% last year despite a decrease in numbers of overseas tourists, The Guardian reports. “Our assumption is that the biggest growth here has been in us Brits going to more museums, galleries and visitor attractions across the UK. The really big growth stories have been in the regions of the UK, particularly Northern Ireland, Liverpool and Birmingham, which is absolutely brilliant,” says Bernard Donoghue, the director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. (more…)
MoMA PS1 has settled with curator Nikki Columbus after the curator claimed the museum rescinded a job offer after she had a child. “What happened to me was wrong and clearly against the law,” Columbus said in a statement. “I decided to speak out in order to protect other women at MoMA PS1 and beyond.” (more…)
Renowned art crimes detective Arthur Brand has handed Pablo Picasso’s 1938 painting Portrait of Dora Maar back to investigators, a work stolen from a yacht off the coast of France in 1999, and which Brand has tracked for almost 15 years. “[Contacts] told me, ‘It’s in the hands of a businessman who got it as payment, and he doesn’t know what to do with it,’” Mr. Brand said in an interview. “I talked to the two guys and we made a plan to get it out of his hands.” (more…)
Algeria has “deferred” its first-time participation in the Venice Biennale until 2021, citing financial and preparatory problems, according to the Art Newspaper. “In the context of the annual financial support of the Ministry of Culture […], the commission charged with examining the financing of cultural and cinematographic events has decided to defer […] Algeria’s participation in the 58th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Venice […] due to the closeness of the date of this cultural meeting and preparation imperatives,” a statement reads. “The commission has also recommended that the best conditions be gathered for Algeria’s preparation in the next edition of this international event in 2021.” (more…)
XU ZHEN®, The Glorious (Installation View), via Perrotin Hong Kong
Art Basel Hong Kong is squarely in the center of Asia’s international art scene, a major recurring event that has left its mark as an important touchpoint for artists, collectors and galleries in Asia and the broader Pacific Rim, connecting this already thriving scene with the galleries and artists of the Americas, Europe and Africa. Tying together a broad range of locales outside the U.S./Europe market orbit, ABHK is an annual look to the East for much of the art world, tracing the region’s influence and contributions to the contemporary art landscape today. The Hong Kong show, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre as an outcropping of the Art Basel fair franchise, features premier galleries from Asia and beyond, with half of the participating galleries based in Asia and Asia-Pacific. The show provides an in-depth overview of the region’s diversity through both historical material and cutting-edge works by established and emerging artists. (more…)
Thomas J. Lax has been promoted to a new position as curator of performance and media art at MoMA, Art News reports. “I am thrilled to be named curator at this vital moment, when MoMA is asking renewed questions about how art matters in the world and in our everyday lives,” he says. “I look forward to working closely with artists, collaborating with museum colleagues, and contributing to a history of modern and contemporary art animated by black feminist thought.” (more…)
Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family have settled a lawsuit with the state of Oklahoma, paying $275 million. The news comes just one day after the Sackler Trust announced that it would “temporarily pause” giving gifts to museums and other institutions. (more…)
Artist Anne Imhof gets a profile in Vogue this week as her new work Sex gets set to open at The Tanks at the Tate Modern. “We have to create ways of moving through these vast spaces and connect what is happening in one room to another, ” she says of the work. (more…)