The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has announced its 2013 SEED Grant recipients, a selection of 16 developing non-profit arts organizations in Boise, Idaho; Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; and Phoenix, Arizona, among others.  Each will receive $10,000 in support each year for three years.  “Young institutions have a whole host of hurdles to clear simply to begin the process of raising money,” says executive director Christy MacLear. “We hope to reach promising start-ups earlier than that, both to acknowledge their initial accomplishments and to ensure their longevity.”   (more…)

Writer Geordie Greig has released a biography on painter Lucian Freud, capping his 30 years pursuing the famously reclusive artist for interviews and insights into his craft.  Titled Breakfast with Lucian, the book charts the writer’s history with Freud, and his occasionally fractious relationship with the artist, including one scene where Freud pointed a serrated knife at Greig.  “‘Lunatic Artist Stabs Editor of Evening Standard is not a good way to be remembered,’ I said,” recounts Greig. “I can think of worse ways,” was Freud’s reply. (more…)

On November 12th in New York, Christie’s will offer a classic triptych by Francis Bacon of fellow artist Lucien Freud, estimated to sell for an artist record of $95 million.  The piece comes from an unidentified European collection, and is one of only two Bacon triptychs of Freud.  It has never been on the auction block before. (more…)

Part of its ongoing artist collaboration series, sneaker company Reebok has announced a series of shoes featuring the art of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.  Screenprinted and embroidered across the upper segments of the shoes, the line features a series of pieces by the artist, and is now available. (more…)

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has unveiled the newest addition to his publicly displayed art collection, Sky Mirror, the $10 million work by Anish Kapoor, which alters the viewer’s perception of height through an enormous slanted mirror.  The 23-ton work has traveled the world, but will finally settle into a permanent home at the Cowboy’s AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.  “The pictures didn’t do it justice, it’s just beautiful,” Jones said.

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The Village Voice has published a rare interview with Banksy, discussing the artist’s ongoing show of street art in New York City, and his views towards his craft.  “There is absolutely no reason for doing this show at all. I know street art can feel increasingly like the marketing wing of an art career, so I wanted to make some art without the price tag attached. There’s no gallery show or book or film. It’s pointless. Which hopefully means something.”  The artist says. (more…)

A 1975 drawing by Joan Miró has been discovered in the offices of a Spanish art handling company.  The work disappeared in 2010, following an exhibition at the Kursaal Arts Centre in San Sebastián, but was not noticed missing until 2011.  An investigation into the disappearance of the work is underway. (more…)

Another Magazine has released an exclusive documentary and interview with artist Doug Aitken, following the conclusion of Aitken’s impressively expansive Station to Station project. “We wanted to create a language that is more nomadic and less materialistic and really empowering for the creators and the audience”  Aitken says. (more…)

Damien Hirst’s newest sculptures, depicting the stages of life for a gestating fetus, have been unveiled in Qatar.  Monumental in scale, the 14 bronze statues are estimated to have cost $20 million, and signal a new step towards acceptance of western art and artists in the country.  “To have something like this is less daring than having a lot of nudity,” said Sheikha al Mayassa Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of the Qatar Museum Authority . “There is a verse in the Koran about the miracle of birth,” she said. “It is not against our culture or our religion.” (more…)

Continuing her flirtations with the world of contemporary art, Lady Gaga has reportedly recruited Robert Wilson to create a video portrait of her.  Wilson will also direct the Marina Abramovic opera The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic this winter at The Armory.  “I’ve been obsessing over stuff from the ’70s like performance art theater. Especially because I’m working with Robert Wilson, who’s doing the lighting and the set for the VMAs. He’s a theatrical legend!”  Gaga said in a recent interview. (more…)

Painter Graham Ovenden has been jailed for 2 years and three months, following an appeals court ruling that his prior, non-custodial sentence was “unduly lenient.”  Ovenden was convicted in April of sexual abuse against children.  “Graham Ovenden committed terrible sexual offences against vulnerable young girls who were in his charge and ought to have felt safe. He manipulated them and abused his position of trust.”  Says Attorney General Dominic Grieve. (more…)

London’s Hayward Gallery has announced plans for a retrospective of the work of Martin Creed, featuring a broad selection of work from the Turner Prize winner.  The exhibition, set to open in January of next year, will also include exhibitions at the Southbank Centre and the Royal Festival Hall.  “If people find the exhibition exciting, that would make me happy.”  Creed says. (more…)

Gallerist Marian Goodman will open her new London space in the fall of 2014, and spoke with Art Info about the size and scope of her third gallery.  “The London gallery was inspired by our artists, many of whom are eager to show there but do not already have working relationships with other London galleries,” Goodman said.  “The London scene is so dynamic that I have been thinking about opening there for a very long time, it was just a question of finding a wonderful space.” (more…)

John Houck, Peg and John, (2013), via On Stellar Rays

John Houck’s latest show at On Stellar Rays, A History of Graph Paper is a subdued, disquieting display of one artist’s innovative approach to the medium of photography. Houck’s images of neon rectangular prisms, swatches of colorful paper, and household objects take on the feeling of collage, as if each element were cut out from some other context and pasted into his composition. His keen attention to color, combining saturated oranges and reds with gauzy seafoams, and his strong focus on line and juxtaposition make the photographs in “A History of Graph Paper” stand out from the increasingly crowded field of contemporary photography. (more…)

The ongoing dispute over the future of the Detroit Institute of Arts has the museum considering a transfer to state ownership.  As DIA’s collection is appraised at the behest of emergency manager Kevyn Orr, the museum is weighing options that would allow it to accept state funding while providing needed monetary support to the city, including through long-term leases of art works.  “I’m deferring to them to save themselves,” Orr said. (more…)

An auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong location has set a new record for the highest selling Asian contemporary artwork, after painter Zeng Fanzhi’s The Last Supper achieved a $23.3 million final price, more than doubling its estimate.  It sold as part of an evening contemporary art auction that achieved an impressive total of $145 million in sales. (more…)

Tourists visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York spent over $401 million at the museum this spring and summer, the museum’s annual visitor survey reports.  With 77% of visitors coming from outside the city’s five boroughs, the museum continues to stand as a major tourism draw, and marks a slight increase in visitor spending from last year’s tally of $398 million. (more…)

The ongoing government shutdown has had far-reaching implications for national museums and galleries, many of which rely on major donations from private patrons to keep their doors open the rest of the year.  Unable to welcome important guests or potential donors, the current shutdown has kept museums like the National Gallery of Art from attracting new donors (whose contributions make up to 30% of the institution’s operating budget).   (more…)

Tacita Dean, c/o Jolyon, 2012-2013 (detail), courtesy Frith Street Gallery

The current exhibition on view at Frith Street Gallery in London features Tacita Dean’s 2012-2013 projects, JG  (a 26.5 minute film shot on 35mm anamorphic film) and c/o Jolyon, a series of 100 original postcards of pre-war Kassel in Germany, overpainted with contemporary scenes from the same place.

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Las Meninas, the classic work by Diego Velázquez which hangs at the Prado Museum in Madrid, may in fact be a later version of the work, a Spanish art expert argues.  At a recent event at the Royal Academy of Art in Spain, Dr Matías Díaz Padrón maintained that a version hanging in Dorset, England may be an earlier version of the painting, overturning current opinion that the work was in fact a copy.  “Today, the moment has arrived to revise these judgments, and restore the painting’s authorship to Velázquez.” Díaz Padron said.
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As auction houses clamor to enter the Chinese art market, a number of independent auction houses have already sprung up in Hong Kong.  Focusing on narrow, more focused thematic sales, companies like Spink Phila China, China Guardian and Bonhams have sought to capture a larger size of the already thriving market for art and antiques.  “Once I was in London visiting Sotheby’s, and I was told they are jealous of China Guardian since some of their international markets are narrowing while our market is expanding,” said Kou Qin, director and vice president of China Guardian. “China’s economy is booming while other countries have been depressed over many years.” (more…)

A collaboration between Robert Motherwell’s The Dedalaus Foundation, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Jamestown Charitable Foundation has resulted in Come Together, a selling exhibition benefitting artists and New York residents affected by Hurricane Sandy last year.  Including works by Alex Katz, Mark di Suvero and the Bruce High Quality Foundation, the show opens on October 20th.  “Hurricane Sandy affected the art community more directly than 9/11,” says Phong Bui, an artist and the publisher of the Brooklyn Rail, who is organising the show. (more…)

The Enchanted Pose, a Magritte painting long thought to have been lost or destroyed, has been discovered in segments below the surfaces of two other Magritte works.  Using X-Ray imaging, researchers discovered the painting while working on the Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938, focusing on the artist’s work.  “It’s very exciting. Here is this Magritte that’s been believed to be missing, that was clearly a large and important work for him at one point in time.”  says MoMA curator Anne Umland. (more…)

Experts have identified a work found in a private Swiss collection to be a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, which has been considered lost for over 500 years. The portrait, depicting noblewoman Isabella D’Este, is believed to have been painted by Da Vinci and several of his assistants.  “There are no doubts that the portrait is Leonardo’s work,” said Carlo Pedretti, an emeritus professor of art history at the University of California. (more…)