Christie’s has announced that it will offer a selection of works from the Emily and Jerry Spiegel collection for its May sales in New York.  Highlights include a Christopher Wool piece estimated at $20 million.  “The Collection of Emily and Jerry Spiegel is one of the great examples of visionary collecting in Post-War America,” says Alex Rotter, the auction house’s Post-War department chair.  “They successfully combined threads of Pop, Minimalism and photography with cutting edge contemporary to form a collection that conveyed a deep representation of post-war art.” (more…)

Joe Bradley, Out Joy (2017), via Art Observed

Currently on at Gagosian Beverly Hills, artist Joe Bradley is presenting a body of new works, continuing the artist’s complex and occasionally irreverent visual language through a wide range of formats and materials.  Marking the gallery’s most recent entry in its annual Oscars Weekend exhibition series, the exhibition is the artist’s first solo show with the gallery in Los Angeles, a fitting introduction to his work that draws widely from his recent output.

Joe Bradley, Eric’s Hair (Installation View), via Art Observed

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James Rosenquist, via Art Observed

James Rosenquist, one of the foremost voices in the landscape of American Pop Art, has passed away at the age of 83 after a long illness.  Rosenquist’s work, known for its dizzying movements and explosive combinations of forms, marked him as a stand-out in the Pop discourse, balancing his interest in the language of advertising and marketing with a studied awareness of the art historical.  His innovative and often surreal juxtaposition of images pioneered new approaches to his medium during the late 1960’s, and would continue to evolve over the next several decades. (more…)

Ryan McGinley, Dash (Manhattan Bridge) (2000), via Team Gallery

Over nearly two decades, photographer Ryan McGinley has explored the deep emotional character and vivid energy of American youth, capturing its subcultures, heroes and creative communities in moments of joy and exuberance, desire and rebellion.  This long engagement with the broad cultural underground of the United States has seen the artist build a striking and diverse oeuvre, one which receives a well-deserved reflection in the artist’s most recent show at Team Gallery, Early, a survey of the artist’s work between 1999 and 2003.

Ryan McGinley, Early (Installation View), via Team Gallery

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A ruling by a French court this week has stipulated that artist’s resale rights must be paid by sellers, responding to recent moves by Christie’s asking buyers to pay these fees.  “If everyone follows the law and Christie’s decides not to, it obviously gives the company an unfair advantage in attracting collectors,” says Patrick Bongers of Galerie Carré. (more…)

Artists Shen Jingdong and Cao Zhiwen were involved in a confrontation with Beijing police this week, after authorities moved in to demolish their residence and studio.  Government officials claimed the building had taken part in illegal construction. (more…)

August Sander, Untitled (Group for Sherrie Levine Composed by Gerd Sander in 2012), all photos by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Currently occupying the top floors at Hauser & Wirth’s temporary 22nd Street space, Serialities provides the viewer with an ample range of works adopting visual repetition in photography, sculpture, and drawing as a manifestation and elaboration of their conceptual and narrative crux.  Organized with French art dealer Oliver Renaud-Clément, the exhibition finds its source of inspiration in August Sander’s decades-spanning photography project People of the 20th Century, a massive collection of 600 photographs in which Sanders chronicled German daily life through images of individuals of his home country between the 1910’s and the beginning of the 1950’s.  While Sanders sub-categorized his collection based on occupation or social class, People Who Came to My Door, one of his more personal and intimate groupings, anchor this group exhibition.  Through Sanders’s mellow, balanced approach to his subjects, he captures poses of deliberation and vulnerability, exposing their inner selves for the artist’s lens and viewer’s eyes.  His interest in depicting various social and economic groups in Germany before and after World War II delivers an inquisitive social landscape overall. (more…)

A performance of On Kawara’s One Million Years (Reading) piece, where a pair of readers list off names of years from a massive book, is set to take place at the Venice Biennale this year.  “In this vein, Venice itself could not be more fitting as a location for the work,” a statement from Ikon Gallery, which organized the show, reads.  “Its fragility and beauty, caught between the sea and sky, is often associated with the transience of human life.” (more…)

Anish Kapoor has commented on the UK invoking Article 50 in order to leave the EU, calling the event “heartbreaking.”  “It’s one of those things that goes against the flow of history,” he says.  “Frankly, nationalism diminishes ourselves. We want more than that, we want a bigger, more open vision.” (more…)

The Turner Prize has changed its eligibility rules, allowing artists over the age of 50 to qualify for the award for the first time.  “The Turner prize has always championed emerging artists,” says Alex Farquharson, the director of Tate Britain. “It has never been a prize for long service but for a memorable presentation of work in that year. Now that its reputation is so firmly established, we want to acknowledge the fact that artists can experience a breakthrough in their work at any stage.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal has a piece on Donald Judd’s design work this month, focusing on the artist’s desks, chairs and other furniture often made for his studio and home, and which are now seeing renewed interest by curators and designers.  “I would put Judd’s furniture together with his sculpture, his writings, his houses,” says curator Ann Temkin. “The idea that a whole room would contain one simple steel box and Judd would consider it full has had a huge influence on the architecture and design world over the last 25 years.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper notes the dominance of contemporary art in recent museum exhibitions, with its annual survey showing “44% of the more than 2,300 shows organized by 29 major US museums between 2007 and 2015” dedicated to artists active after 1970.  (more…)

Lynn Hershman Leeson is profiled in Art News this week, as a show at Bridget Donahue and a retrospective at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco reflects the artist’s unique approach to digital art, gender and sexuality.  “I think her influence is strong, but I think it’s going to be stronger now that her work is more visible,” says curator Chrissie Iles. “Paradoxically, you run a great danger of disappearing when you’re young. Lynn never disappeared. She was hiding in plain sight, and now she’s appeared.” (more…)

Jimmie Durham, At The Center of the World (Installation View), via Art Observed

For nearly fifty years, artist Jimmie Durham has worked at a unique junction of material and focus, exploring the modern world through his haphazard material sensibility.  Compiling works from broken planks of wood, reclaimed oil drums, signs, blown glass and other objects, the artist’s assemblages delve into the modern landscape, repositioning one’s perspective on the landscape of modernity, and the often challenging disconnects between human progress and the day to day world.  Currently presenting a survey of his work at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the artist gives the viewer a moment to catch up to the times, bringing together a range of interests in history and politics that constantly undergird his approach to his work.

Jimmie Durham, Homage to David Hammons (1997), via Art Observed

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Thomas Krens, the former director of the Guggenheim Foundation in New York and original leader in the museum’s expansion project, says that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project should be downsized or postponed.  “The world financial crisis and the Arab Spring has changed the equation radically,” he says. “It may not be such a good idea these days to have an American museum…with a Jewish name in a country [that doesn’t recognize Israel] in such a prominent location, at such a big scale.”  (more…)

LACMA Director Michael Govan has been invited to join the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents, the Washington Post reports.  The institution’s 17-member Board of Regents includes the chief justice of the United States, the vice president, three members of the House, three members of the Senate and nine citizens. (more…)

Kerry James Marshall is interviewed in NPR this week, as he opens his retrospective in Los Angeles, and reflects on the energy and spirit of his works.  “What you’re trying to create is a certain kind of an indispensable presence,” he says. “Where your position in the narrative is not contingent on whether somebody likes you, or somebody knows you, or somebody’s a friend, or somebody’s being generous to you. But you want a presence in the narrative that’s not negotiable, that’s undeniable.”   (more…)

The numbers are out for Art Newspaper’s annual attendance survey, which charts Christo’s Floating Piers installation in Italy as the world’s most-visited work of art, while the Whitney Museum gained ground against the traditional leaders in attendance for the city, The Met and MoMA.   (more…)

The Thomas Gainsborough painting attacked last week at London’s National Gallery is already back on view, following a quick restoration procedure.  “Any painting of that age will almost always have had a history of interventions,” says the museum’s Conservation Director Larry Keith.  (more…)

The LA Times spotlights an indemnity program offered by the N.E.A. that saves museums millions in insurance fees, and which could create one of the largest impacts if the organization is defunded.  “The U.S. indemnity program is vital to the museum community,” says Alicia Thomas, director of exhibitions and collections management at the Palm Springs Art Museum. “It enables us to mount exhibitions that we might not otherwise be able to afford.” (more…)

The construction on a performing arts center at the World Trade Center is facing a $100 million shortfall if officials from Housing and Urban Development try to reclaim funds previously provided to developers.  “If I’m HUD and I’m looking at this entity that has publicly stated it’s hoping to wind down and there is uncommitted funding available to be swept back to HUD,” says Lower Manhattan Development Corp board member Peter Wertheim, then officials may say, “why do I have to leave $100-plus million for LMDC to use on these projects?” (more…)

Koenig & Clinton Gallery is moving from its home in Chelsea to a new space in Bushwick, located at 1329 Willoughby.  “The gallery will be situated near many of the artists around whom our work takes shape and many of the audiences that keep an exhibition space relevant,” the gallery said in a statement. (more…)

Construction is set to begin on the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s $196 Million expansion project, with the official breaking ground ceremony slated for Thursday.  “The core project, as it suggests, really starts at the heart of the museum.  It’s an extraordinary design and one that both respects the building, but makes it ready for the next 100 years,” says Museum Director Timothy Rub of the Frank Gehry design. (more…)

Zurich’s Eva Presenhuber is preparing to open a gallery in New York, Art News reports, taking over a space at 39 Great Jones Street that formerly served as the home of Karma.  The space “will function as an important extension of the Zurich gallery,” the gallery said in a statement. (more…)