Around 700 artists are being evicted from their studios in Moscow following the announcement of a government renovation plan. “The lease contract drawn up by Moscow city has a clause stipulating that if the buildings are demolished, we cannot demand replacement studios,” says Yuri Kurshakov. “It’s hard to stomach because we’re not just talking about a few studios here, but entire clusters that will disappear.” (more…)

A piece in Town and Country documents the allegations against art advisor Angela Gulbenkian, who is alleged to have swindled dealers out of millions in sales, while spending the money. “I don’t think she was very active in the art market,” says Kenny Schachter. “It would be hard to find people who had dealings with her. She was more of an upstart.” (more…)

Joyce Pensato, Fuggetabout It (Redux) (Installation View), via Petzel

Marking the gallery’s first show of works by Joyce Pensato following the artist’s passage in 2019, Petzel’s current show, Fuggetabout It (Redux) marks a fitting summation and reflection on the work of an artist who long mined the languages of pop culture and mass media to create her supercharged mode of painting and sculpture.   (more…)

The collection of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee is currently being appraised after his passage last year. “Prices of some of the works have probably surged drastically since Lee purchased them,” says an anonymous source. (more…)

The Prado in Madrid will rehang its collection to focus more on non-Spanish artists and women. “There are artistic phenomena and artists who have been totally excluded until now – not just women but aspects as important as social painting, which hadn’t found a place in the 19th-century collection,” says director Miguel Falomir, “or painting from different parts of the world, such as the Philippines, whose art is finding itself more and more appreciated.” (more…)

A piece in the Architectural Digest this week takes a tour of artist Sarah Sze’s home with her husband, Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, who writes on the experience of viewing their personal art collection during the pandemic. “We learned to look afresh at Rauschenberg’s Hoarfrost—of a man caught in mid-dive, not knowing where he might land or fall;” he writes. (more…)

A piece in the Art Newspaper asks if Biden’s inauguration will finally galvanize the US art world to take action on climate change. “The arts sector is going to have to contribute and institutions are where you are going to start to see that more,” says Ellen Langan of the New York-based climate change and arts org Art to Zero. (more…)

Alex Ayed, Untitled (Sail XII) (2020), via Balice Hertling

Currently on at Galerie Balice Hertling, although temporarily closed due to Covid-19, artist Alex Ayed has brought together a unique range of works exploring notions of travel, exploration and interconnectivity.  The show, consisting of a series of stretched sail works and a series of sculptural objects, draws on a range of notions regarding the passage of bodies, and the impacts it has on humanity’s conception of the world. (more…)

The sale of a Botticelli estimated at $80 million this month at Sotheby’s has drawn speculation and questions over the attribution and origin of the work, Art Newspaper reports. “It is surprising how often scholars have questioned its attribution to the master,” says author David Alan Brown. (more…)

Critic Antwaun Sargent has joined Gagosian as a Director and Curator, the New York Times reports. “It’s a wonderful platform,” Sargent says. “It’s a place where you come and view art, but it’s also a place where discussion happens.” (more…)

Art Basel has once again been postponed from June to 23 to 26 September as the coronavirus pandemic continues to pose threats this year. “The decision was made after extensive discussions and analysis in consultation with gallerists and collectors, as well as external experts, putting foremost the health and safety of all concerned while aiming to achieve the broadest possible international attendance for the show,” a statement reads. (more…)

John Bock, Ohne Titel (2020), via Anton Kern

Taking on his tenth exhibition with Anton Kern Gallery, German sculptor and performance artist John Bock has turned towards a smaller scale, bringing out a series of 25 new three-dimensional collages that underscore his ongoing interests in the form and representation of performance and performers in modernity.  While constructed out of simple materials, these works contain the entire Bockian universe, twisting a range of signifiers and iconographies into concise statements.   (more…)

A piece in the NYT details the recent efforts of financier Roberto Polo to open a pair of museums, the Center for Modern and Contemporary Art of Castilla-La Mancha, in the Spanish city of Cuenca. “Spain has a particular talent to create public museums for private collections,” Polo says. (more…)

Dior and Peter Doig will collaborate for the brand’s AW21 Men’s line. “Paintings with fascinating colors condense and reflect powerful meaning with a singular, poignant vision, in particular in terms of the relationship between mankind and nature,” the brand said of his work. (more…)

Reggie Burrows Hodges, Community Concern (2020), via Karma

Currently at Karma, a string of minimal, subdued figures and landscapes stretch across the walls, dotting the gallery space with a string of delicately rendered scenes and situations.  The work is that of artist Reggie Burrows Hodges, marking his first exhibition in New York, and offering an introduction to his lyrical, singular approach towards the canvas.   (more…)

NEA Chair Mary Anne Carter has resigned as the Biden administration takes over, the Washington Post reports. “Understanding that the arts play such a crucial role in everyday life. That’s how you expand the arts, broaden the support for arts funding,” she says of her time in the position. (more…)

Tony Oursler speaks with the Hong Kong Tatler this week, as he opens a show in Taiwan.  Television was really a drug, but it was never controlled like a drug. People are realizing the same thing about smartphones,” he says. (more…)

Sotheby’s will auction off the collection of the late French illustrator Pierre Le-Tan, which includes a portrait by David Hockney.  “We’re trying to stay true to his spirit. It’s not one of these collections where you’re going to have a $20 million Picasso. It’s a universe we want to re-create, one we hope will appeal to all kinds of collectors around the world. There’s something for everybody,” says Etienne Hellman, the auction house’s senior director of modern art. (more…)

Carla Accardi, Grande Rosso Scuro (1974), via Art Observed

Embracing a unique conversation around texture and perception, 55 Walker, a space shared by Bortolami Gallery, Andrew Kreps and Kaufmann Repetto, presents an impressive dual artist show around the works of Carla Accardi and Elisa Sighicelli.  Mixing media and approach to impressive effect, the show marks an engaging exploration of varied approaches and presentations of shared aesthetic concerns.   (more…)

The UK is considering laws to protect statues from being removed from public spaces.  “Our view will be set out in law, that such monuments are almost always best explained and contextualized, not taken and hidden away,” says Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick. (more…)

A piece in the New York Times looks at the work Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer by Frans Hals, and looks into why the work has been stolen three times from its place of exhibition.  “It’s really that painting for some reason, and I don’t know why,” says Christa Hendriksen, an alderman in charge of culture in Leerdam, the Netherlands. (more…)

A 16th-century copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi  stolen from a museum in Naples has been recovered by Italian police, the Art Newspaper reports. (more…)

The NYT has a piece this week on Donald Trump’s attempts to defund the NEA, and the resultant push by both parties to keep the organization funded. “The years and years of work that we had done to create a pro-arts Congress, whether Republican or Democrat, really came through,” says Nina Ozlu Tunceli, executive director of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund. “Congress became a firewall to prevent that termination from happening.” (more…)

The Castello di Rivoli will become the first museum in Italy to function as a Covid-19 vaccination site. “Art has always helped, healed, and cured—indeed, some of the first museums in the world were hospitals,” said Castello di Rivoli director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev in a statement. “Now we are repaying the favor, so to speak, and opening Castello di Rivoli’s galleries for the vaccine effort.” (more…)