Art critic Dave Hickey, a writer known for his keen critical eye and prolific output, has passed away at the age of 82. “People despise critics because people despise weakness,” Hickey was quoted in 2002, “and criticism is the weakest thing you can do in writing.” (more…)
Experts have revealed a fifth version of painter John Constable’s The Glebe Farm, and will go on sale at Sotheby’s. “It’s amazing, really, that in this day and age these things happen and there are still these great masterpieces out there, undiscovered and unknown,” says Julian Gascoigne, director of early British paintings at Sotheby’s. (more…)
The Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Biennale will be handed over to Estonia this year, part of a project to welcome new nations into the Giardini. “The one-time transfer of the pavilion shows our appreciation for Estonia in the field of the visual arts, while at the same time giving the Netherlands the opportunity to step out of our comfort zone and see what freedom it gives us when we step outside the walls of the pavilion,” says Eelco van der Lingen, Director of the Mondriaan Fund, which helped oversee the project. (more…)
Artists Julie Mehretu and Kehinde Wiley will create new credit card designs for American Express’s U.S. Platinum Card, part of a project by American Express that also includes a $1 million gift to the Studio Museun.“We are so thrilled and honored that American Express will support the Studio Museum so we can offer deeply meaningful experiences to audiences in Harlem and beyond,” Thelma Golden, the Studio Museum’s director and chief curator. (more…)
Lehmann Maupin is expanding in Seoul, moving to a larger gallery in the Hannam-dong area of the city. “We have seen a growth in young collectors who’ve been behind their screens for the past 14 months, and they are now contributing to a real buzz in the art scene,” says Rachel Lehmann. “The biggest supporters of Korean artists are the Koreans,” she adds. (more…)
David Salle, Sky King (1998), via Art Observed
Open now at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, painter David Salle is the subject of comprehensive survey of the the artist’s work, exploring a selection of works culled from both the Brant Collections and from a series of international loans. Underscoring the artist’s continued investigation and elaboration on a range of visual languages and histories of painterly craft, particularly in his exploration and visual mash-ups and shifting perceptual frames, the show showcases Salle’s evolution, over 40 years across a broad, yet a tightly controlled visual syntax.
David Salle, Ice Flow (2001), via Art Observed
A Frida Kahlo work has sold for $34.9 million this week at Sotheby’s, making it it the most expensive Latin American work sold at auction. “Painted in the same year her beloved Diego embarked on an affair with her friend, the Mexican golden age actress Maria Félix, this powerful portrait is the painted articulation of her anguish and sorrow,” says Anna Di Stasi, the director of Latin American Art at the auction house. (more…)
Mark Tansey, Resight (2019), via Art Observed
Currently on at Gagosian Gallery in New York, the dealer has compiled a body of new and recent work by painter Mark Tansey, spanning the past six years of work and running through a range of both paintings and graphite drawings mixed with oil and water. (more…)
Dealer Inigo Philbrick will reportedly plead guilty to the alleged frauds he is accused of this week in New York, the Daily Beast reports.“Inigo Philbrick was a serial swindler who misled art collectors, investors, and lenders out of more than $20 million,” reads a statement by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman. “When his schemes began to unravel, Philbrick allegedly fled the country.” (more…)
Etel Adnan, Untitled (2015), via White Cube
Artist Etel Adnan, the artist and writer whose colorful, minimalist landscapes and incisive writing about political conflict, trauma, and the Middle East made her a diverse and expressive voice in the Contemporary Arts landscape, has passed away at the age of 96. Adnan, raised in Lebanon but based in California for the past several decades, was an international literary figure, and a powerful fixture in the exploration and criticism of violence and war.
Sylvère Lotringer, the influential scholar and founder of the book series Semiotext(e), has passed away at the age of 83. “He could meet people on their level and communicate this wealth of ideas to them,” says writer Chris Kraus. “So many people talk about how meeting Sylvère and hearing him made them change their lives. For him, all of this learning and all of this philosophy was a tool for living a more purposeful and meaningful life.” (more…)
Artist Agnieszka Kurant gives the NYT an interview this week, holding court on her work and philosophy. “She has ambitions to make major contributions to the way we understand ourselves, and to how we categorize and organize knowledge,” says curator Maya Ceruti. (more…)
The LA Times has a piece this week reflecting on the art and impact of photographer Gordon Parks, with a group of photographers and artists discussing his influence. “He had the ability to slipstream between high and low culture, rich and poor, to weave in and out of spaces and gain subjects’ trust,” says John Maggio. “But he almost never broke the fourth wall, he almost never became part of the story.” (more…)
Curator Christopher Y. Lew is leaving The Whitney Museum, Art News reports. “It has been an absolute honor to work with such a talented museum staff and so many visionary artists during the first years of the Whitney’s new building,” he said in an email announcing his departure. (more…)
Danh Vo (Installation View), via Chantal Crousel
Currently on view at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris, artist Danh Vo continues a body of work mining disparate historical and biographical threads to realize densely layered environments that challenge and complicate shared understandings of history and meaning. (more…)
The M+ Museum has finally opened in Hong Kong’s Kowloon neighborhood. “Nobody outside can come to the opening but it is an opportunity as well,” says director Suhanya Raffel. “This is an institution for this city. We can really engage with the city now, because we are all here and not traveling. After all this time, after all this waiting, it is very nice to make the museum opening about Hong Kong.” (more…)
Diane Simpson, Roof Shape (Ise), (2019), via JTT
Currently on at JTT Gallery in New York, Chicago-based artist Diane Simpson marks her second show at the gallery with Point of View, a show drawing on a range of architectural sources, as well as her own personal archive of drawings from the early 1980s to render a series of unique objects mixing a fanciful exploration of reality alongside conceptual operations. (more…)
Neo Rauch, Die Pumpe (2021), via Art Observed
Currently on at David Zwirner’s New York exhibition space, artist Neo Rauch has brought forth a body of new works unified under the title The Signpost, a set of new paintings that mark his first show in New York since 2014. Known for his rich color palette and dreamy, surreal motifs, the artist’s work makes a striking return to the city.
Neo Rauch, Wegweiser (2021), via Art Observed
The Salvator Mundi that sold at Christie’s has been downgraded by curators at The Prado to “attributed works, workshop or authorized and supervised by Leonardo.” “It is to be hoped that a future permanent display of the work will allow it to be reanalyzed with greater objectivity,” says curator Vincent Delieuvin. (more…)
Two men, including the executive director of Mana Contemporary, have been indicted in connection with a tax evasion scheme at Moishe’s Moving. The indictment states that director Eugene Lemay, as well as bookkeeper Joel Lingat, and “other co-conspirators perpetrated a scheme to defraud the U.S. government of payroll and income taxes due and owing to the IRS.” (more…)
Sean Kelly Gallery is opening a permanent Los Angeles space, helmed by the dealer’s son, Thomas. “It’s not just a lateral shift, it’s also a generational shift,” Kelly says. (more…)
Ron Gorchov, MOCKINGBIRD (2020), via Cheim and Read
Currently on view at Cheim & Read in New York, the gallery turns its attention to the late works of artist Ron Gorchov, exploring the last works the artist made between 2017 and his passing in 2020. Marking a concise summary of the artist’s work and a final look at his single-minded, painterly practice involving a curved, saddle-like stretcher that creates a painting surface that is simultaneously convex and concave, the show underscores his work in a unique and long-lasting mode of practice. (more…)
Ella Kruglyanskaya, Entrenched (2020), via Bortolami
Bortolami Gallery opens its latest exhibition this month with a body of works by artist Ella Kruglyanskaya, marking the artist’s first show with the gallery, and a continuation of her continued explorations of the human body and varied notions of femininity. (more…)