The Guardian looks at the threats of Donald Trump’s proposed plans for arts funding cuts, and the related program cuts he has that may affect artists in unforeseen ways.  “The general feeling is that we are moving into unknown territory,” says Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “It’s changing before our eyes, so we don’t really know. We are in a mode of either assessing opportunity or assessing danger.” (more…)

The Financial Times looks at the increasingly strong market for Jean Dubuffet, as a number of the artist’s premier works head to the auction blocks this March carrying equally premier prices.  “Everything Dubuffet is being looked at afresh,” says Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, Europe. “He was a prolific artist and people are discovering new pockets of interesting work.” (more…)

Mike Kelley, Kandors (Installation View), via Venus Over Manhattan

Venus Over Manhattan is currently presenting a curated review of Mike Kelley’s work in the Kandor series this month, exploring the artist’s work and research into the comic book mythology of Superman, the implications of his origin story, and the broader cultural and psychological frameworks that this story works within and through.  Selecting four of the artist’s works in the series, the show takes a meditative, focused perspective on Kelley’s expansive body of work. (more…)

The Swiss city of Geneva is taking an activist stances against illicit art market activity, working under the Responsible Art Market Initiative to advise and council on buying and selling art.  “The idea is to make sure people understand what the threat is, and it is a real threat facing the art market,” says Mathilde Heaton, a former legal director at Christie’s. “We want to play our role in also combating a much wider problem.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the shortlist for the directorship of the Musée d’Orsay, profiling each replacement for Guy Cogeval, who will step down in March.  Potential nominees include Sylvain Amic, the director of museums in Rouen, and Dominique de Font-Réaulx, the director of the Musée Delacroix in Paris.   (more…)

Christo has canceled the production of his immense Colorado River production in protest over the U.S.’s new president, Donald Trump.  “I came from a Communist country,” he says. “I use my own money and my own work and my own plans because I like to be totally free. And here now, the federal government is our landlord. They own the land. I can’t do a project that benefits this landlord.” (more…)

Liz Glynn, Untitled (after Balzac, with Burgher) (2014), via Art Observed

Spread across two rooms at Paula Cooper’s 21st Street exhibition space, artist Liz Glynn has installed an enigmatic series of sculptures, ranging in form and scale while playing on distinct threads of classical art history, and on the mechanical processes underlying these works.  Continuing a thread of the artist’s practice drawing on critical examinations of the art object, its historical contexts, and the aura conferred on it as a result, the exhibition is a striking, and occasionally comical, examination of function and form in both modern and historical practice. (more…)

The Whitney has hired Marcela Guerrero and Rujeko Hockley as assistant curators, bringing on a pair of young talents who have already built reputations for themselves at the Hammer and Brooklyn Museum, respectively.  “Marcela and Ru have distinguished themselves as two of the brightest and most passionate curatorial voices of their generation,” Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s deputy director for programs and chief curator, said in a statement. (more…)

The Morgan Library and Museum has announced that Jessica Ludwig will join the organization as deputy director.  “The Morgan is currently experiencing some of the most successful years in its history and Jessica’s expertise will be a key asset as the institution looks to extend these gains,” says Director Colin B. Bailey.  (more…)

Japanese collective Chim Pom has offered its creative take on the current border disputes between Donald Trump and the nation of Mexico, building a large tree house looking over the current border line.  “It’s our art,” says artist Ryuta Ushiro, “but it’s also for children.” (more…)

The Smithsonian has named Stephanie Stebich as the Director of its American Art Museum.  “I am honored to have been chosen to lead the national museum of American art in our nation’s capital,” Stebich said in a statement. “I am eager to tell the inspiring stories of American art through the museum’s phenomenal collections and dynamic programs.” (more…)

Zoe Barcza, Fidelio (2016), via Art Observed

Team Gallery has opened 2017 with a commanding group exhibition, The Love Object, a show curated by Tom Brewer that draws on the writings of Roland Barthes to frame a body of works exploring love and the act of love through a more objective lens, delving into relations of bodies, texts and language as a mode of investigating not only the state of emotional attraction, but equally the frameworks we use to understand these forms. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the controversy between artist Pat Lasch and MoMA, which seems to have discarded one of the artist’s works after commissioning for an exhibition during the museum’s 50th Anniversary show.  The work, a five foot high cake sculpture, was thrown out by the museum after it had deteriorated.  “Yes, my art sometimes looks like food,” Ms. Lasch says. “But I wonder if they’d ever let a Claes Oldenburg hamburger or pie sculpture go missing. I highly doubt it.” (more…)

The MFA Boston is planning a $24 million overhaul of its conversation center, centralizing a series of distinct departments into a central space.  “It’s not just about treatment any more,” Matthew Siegal, the chair of conservation and collections management, says. “Our department has an equal amount of technicians and conservators. People responsible for conservation engineering, specialist collections care, preventative conservation, etc. The whole discipline has changed to look at everything that goes on prior to the actual treatment. The idea is to keep objects from needing treatment.” (more…)

David Hockney was welcomed to Costaño Elementary and 49ers Academy in East Palo Alto, California, where he mentored young students in fine arts.  The program, headed by architect Frank Gehry, seeks to encourage arts education for high-needs students.   “I haven’t been inside a school for 40 years or more, and it’s very nice,” the artist said.  “The kids give off energy and I get it back.” (more…)

The second half of the Bronx Museum’s exchange of artworks with the nation of Cuba will not go ahead, after Cuban officials declined allowing works to leave the country, which some speculate may be the result of the new presidential administration.  “We pushed as hard as we could,” says director Holly Block.  “I don’t want to call it disappointment because it’s been such a long process that we’re hopeful that it’s going to continue to foster cultural exchange.” (more…)

Romania’s Culture Ministry has selected 90-year-old artist Geta Brătescu to represent the Eastern European nation at the Venice Biennale this year, Art News reports.  This will be Brătescu’s third Biennale, having participated previously in 1960 and 2013.   (more…)

The College Art Association has issued a statement condemning Donald Trump’s stated intent to shutter the National Endowment for the Arts.  “Given that the respective budgets of the NEA and NEH represent only a tiny fraction of the entire federal budget, their planned elimination cannot logically be seen as a cost-saving measure,” the statement reads.  “Rather, it appears to be a deliberate, ominous effort to silence artistic and academic voices, representing a potentially chilling next step in an apparent effort to stifle and eradicate oppositional voices and cultural output from civic life. By eliminating the support for these agencies, the government undermines the unifying potential of the arts, culture, and education that encourages and nurtures communication and positive discussion.” (more…)

Omer Fast, Still from August (2016), All images via Martin-Gropius-Bau.

Now through March 12th, the Martin-Gropius Bau presents the first large solo exhibition of the work of Omer Fast, compiling seven of the artist’s projects from the course of his career, including CNN Concatenated (2000), Looking Pretty for God (after G.W.) (2008), 5000 Feet is the Best (2011), Continuity (2012), Everything that Rises Must Converge (2013), Spring (2016), and a new piece entitled August (2016).  Fast’s art straddles the border between fiction and fact, probing the concept of reality created by one’s own personal narratives versus that created by media or collective narratives, often allowing the two poles to co-mingle and blur together. (more…)

Brad Troemel is the subject of a profile in the New Yorker this week, which reflects on the artist’s recent work both in and outside the traditional gallery system, and his approach towards making art that often defies categorization.  “At what point do artists using social media stop making art for the idealized art world audience they want,” the piece quotes from one of his essays, “and start embracing the new audience they have?”  (more…)

The New York Times profiles the increased potential in recent years for Instagram as a marketing tool, noting a considerable uptick in works sold through the platform.  “It has hit a sweet spot in the market for sharing information,” Anders Petterson, one of the contributors to the Hiscox Online Art Trade Report says, “but no one saw this coming as a sales tool.” (more…)

The LA Times has a piece today on the participation of a number of artists and gallerists in the Los Angeles protests against Donald Trump, counting Catherine Opie and a range of gallerists from across the city.  “Artists need to bring that voice of opposition to this cause — with every drop of blood and every tear,” Opie says. (more…)

Egypt’s Museum of Islamic Art has reopened for the first time since being badly damaged by a car bomb in 2014.  “I’m amazed. I haven’t been to the Louvre, but I feel like I’m somewhere a lot more beautiful,” said Hussein Ismail, a visitor to the museum. (more…)

Seventy-five people have been arrested across Europe as part of a crackdown on the trafficking of illegal art and artifacts, the New York Times reports.  Over 3,000 objects were recovered as part of the operation, which focused around works smuggled out of war-torn regions.  (more…)