The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art has received a $575,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to support increased collecting of archival materials from African-American artists.  “We are delighted to receive this generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to bolster our collections by and about African American artists and make them available to the world at our headquarters in Washington and digitally,” says director Kate Haw. (more…)

French cultural groups are organizing against conservative Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, with artists Orlan and Kader Attia leading initiatives against Le Pen.  “I believe that Marine Le Pen and culture is like radical Islamists and culture: hatred of freedom and difference,” Attia says. (more…)

The Art News has a piece on Christie’s upcoming May sales, and the “reloaded” auction house’s preparations for what may be a major statement in the secondary market.  The article traces the auction house’s ups and downs over the past year, including the departure of Brett Gorvy.  “The market has changed over the last decade,” CEO Guillaume Cerutti says. “Some fields, like the decorative arts, have seen a decline, and we have to take into account that tastes have changed. There’s a shift toward more modern and contemporary, and we have to reflect and adapt. I thought it was better to do that very quickly and focus on the future—very quickly.” (more…)

Sophie Calle, Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery (Installation View), via Lindsay LeBoyer for Art Observed

Sophie Calle’s work has long dealt with the shadows and specters of intimacy, delving into spaces and sites where the artist’s active engagement with both her subjects and viewers turns the corner from artistic interaction to less easily defined forms.  It’s a messy sense of shared space and time, one which the artist takes great care to reflect both her own engagement and the varied perceptions of her participants in equal measure, and one which feels all the more delicate and immediate as a result.  (more…)

The New York Times takes an even-handed look at recent political work made in the U.S., and how it has fared on the market abroad, focusing in particular on Jordan Wolfson’s Real Violence and recent pieces by Awol Erizku.  “Artists aren’t making political work for the market, it’s for people watching the world,” Paul Schimmel says. “Goya made the greatest political art, but the market wasn’t kind to him, either.” (more…)

Artist Cornelia Parker has been named as the official artist for the UK’s 2017 elections, the first woman to take on the role since it was developed in 2001.  Parker’s work will respond to the country’s general elections, which will take place in June.  “We live in scary but exhilarating times. The whole world order seems to be changing,” she says.  “As an artist, I feel honored to have been invited to respond to such an important election. With all its challenging issues and complexity, it is an event that I’m excited to engage with and I look forward to sharing my finished work.” (more…)

Art News takes a tour of Galerie Perrotin’s new exhibition space on the Lower East Side, a five-floor complex that includes storage, accommodations for visiting artists, and ample exhibition space, much of which was driven by artists’ needs.  “We didn’t decide, exactly, but we had some complicity with the architect,” says Ivan Argote, whose work christens the gallery’s first show this month.  “I wanted to have this open space so we could look at the space, and I worked on the lighting and how it’s structurally built.” (more…)

Thaddaeus Ropac has opened the doors on his exhibition space in London’s Mayfair neighborhood, covering 16,000 square feet over five floors.  The gallery is currently showing a wide range of works by its artists to celebrate its first exhibition in its new home.   (more…)

Jeff Koons is interviewed in the LA Times this week, as the artist opens a new show at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, and reflects on his recent collaboration with Louis Vuitton.  “The idea of the ready-made — something pre-existing for usage — kind of always existed,” he says. “But it’s really about celebrating a vocabulary. If you look at the letters in the alphabet, and all of the sudden there’d be restrictions on those letters, it would really eliminate the world of poetry. It’s the same with the visual world and incorporating the things around us that we’re familiar with. So it’s being able to articulate these familiarities, to be able to create a visual poetry.” (more…)

New Museum curator Lauren Cornell is leaving the institution to take a position as director of the graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and chief curator of the Hessel Museum of Art.  “Our recent expansion broadened our capacity for archival research and contemporary art scholarship, creating greater opportunities for the CCS students, the undergraduate programs at Bard and visitors to the museum,” CCS director Tom Eccles says. (more…)

Frieze New York, via Frieze

As the art world gears up for another busy month in both the U.S. and Europe, the Frieze New York art fair is preparing to touch down once again on Randall’s Island, just off the coastline of Manhattan.  The fair, which turns six this year, is once again returning its signature program of forward-thinking art and on-site projects that stands as one of the final market events before the art world moves into its slower summer months.

Sven Loven, OL Rebellion (2017), via Jan Kaps (more…)

The Tate is facing criticism after the museum reportedly asked staff to chip in money towards buying a sailing boat as a going away present for Nicholas Serota.  “The staff at Tate are underpaid and overworked, and haven’t had appropriate pay rises, and this just demonstrates how divorced from reality the management at Tate are,” says Tracy Edwards, the PCS union representative for Tate staff. “It seems to me they’ve made a big error of judgment.” (more…)

A Hermann Nitsch performance using a slaughtered bull is set to move forward in Tasmania, despite protests from animal rights activists.  “Art sometimes has the power to influence a community, and although it would be an indirect outcome of this performance, we would consider a reduction in the consumption of meat a positive result,” a statement from the Museum of Old and New Art, where the performance is set to take place, reads.  “If we cancel this event, not one bull will be saved…Yes, we could select a random animal to live peacefully in a paddock for the rest of its life. This would amount to no more than a futile attempt to reduce our guilt, and in the process further suppress the truth and reality that we are seeking to understand.” (more…)

Bloomberg takes a look at recent collecting trends in the global market, including advisers increased focus on art as part of a broader asset strategy.  There are opportunities to plan around art that don’t exist around other asset classes,” says Dan Desmond, executive director with the Blue Rider Group at Morgan Stanley. (more…)

Brooklyn gallery American Medium is profiled in the New York Times this month, as its founders prepare for a move to Chelsea, and reflect back on the gallery’s early years translating digital artworks to a physical exhibition space.  “At this point we’ve staged at least over a hundred shows,” says partner Josh Pavlacky said, “so we know: This will look good here, this is what you do, this is a faux pas. And that information is really helpful for someone who only makes collages on the computer.” (more…)

As Berlin prepares for the construction of the Museum of Modern Art in its Kulturforum, a petition is calling for a more open and public discussion of the merits and risks of the project.  The petition also calls for transparency in the project’s budget, stating that the current money pledged to the project is likely not enough to cover its completion.   (more…)

Hauser & Wirth has announced that it will now represent the estate of Romanian artist Geta Brătescu internationally.  “I have been collecting Brătescu’s work in-depth for many years and have closely followed her artistic journey, so am now particularly excited to become intimately involved in the artist’s story in a professional capacity,” says Manuela Wirth.  “She joins a family of strong women artists at the gallery who share a dialogue grounded in bringing intense physicality into their art making processes.” (more…)

Mark Bradford is profiled in the New York Times this week, as the artist prepares to open his solo exhibition in the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.  “I felt like a lot of the progress we’ve made to be inclusive, to make sure young little trans kids are safe, was gone in the blink of an eye,” he said of the work and the concurrent election of Donald Trump. “Making this body of work became very, very emotional for me. I felt I was making it in a house that was burning.” (more…)

Artist Donald Sultan welcomes the New York Times into his home, and shows a series of works and objects collected over the course of his travels.  “I like things that are handmade,” he says.  “I found this guy in England who makes pancheons, old-fashioned bread bowls. He’s probably the only guy in the world that makes these things and he makes them for me when I need them.” (more…)

The Met is currently weighing the possibility of charging a mandatory admission fee to those living outside of New York City, a measure that may help the museum’s budget struggles.  “I don’t think we have an assumption about city funding,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said of the issue. “It’s about them being able to sustain their operations long term and would actually mean they wouldn’t need additional city funding, in theory. But no, the real issue is just to allow them to defray some of their costs in a way that’s fair to city residents.” (more…)

Marisol, the late Venezuelan-American artist known for her unique blend of pop art techniques with sculptural approaches, has left her entire estate to the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo.  “There are entire aspects to this extraordinary woman’s career that I think will become apparent as the full spectrum of this bequest is displayed,” Janne Sirén, the director of the Albright-Knox says. (more…)

Vito Acconi, via Huffington Post

Vito Acconci, the groundbreaking artist, architect and performer whose impact on the field of contemporary art counts among the most influential of the 20th Century, has passed away at the age of 77.  Acconci suffered a stroke this week, from which he did not recover.

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LA Magazine profiles the soon to open Marciano Art Foundation on Wilshire, and the long-running efforts to open the converted Masonic Temple. “I wanted to have a place not just to exhibit art but rather for the artists to come and get inspired and do whatever they want. We’ll just let things happen,” says Maurice Marciano. (more…)

The Art Newspaper profiles the contrasting policies towards the arts of French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, who are set for a run-off on May 7th.  Macron is pushing to maintain the arts budget, and will embrace EU-centered policies, while Le Pen’s staunch isolationism sees her pushing for increased funds for conservation and a halt to the sale of buildings to foreigners.  (more…)