Chris Burden, Shoot, (1971), Performance at F Space, Santa Ana, California November 19, 1971

The New Museum’s Extreme Measures, a career retrospective of the work of Chris Burden, begins modestly: an orange flatbed truck sits in the museum’s ground floor exhibition space, holding a 1 ton block of steel on its mounted crane.  Silent and imposing , the work hints at Burden’s preoccupation with scale and weight, his focus on material scale and industrial affect.

Chris Burden, Ghost Ship (2005), Courtesy the artist and Gagosian Gallery (more…)

The sense of alarm surrounding the Detroit Institute of Arts is taking its toll on the museum, the New York Times reports.  Concerned about the future of the museum’s collection, some wealthy patrons are less likely to donate works to the institution, and museum staff are dealing with consistently low morale.  “We can take the threat. It’s the uncertainty we can’t stand. It’s the uncertainty that is clouding everything we do.”  Says Director Graham W.J. Beal. (more…)

A new project aimed at British schools is bringing major art works to the classroom.  Masterpieces in Schools, as it is called, will lend a series of masterworks to schools across Great Britain, in an attempt to attract children who would not normally attend a gallery or museum exhibition.  The project began this week, when a classic Monet landscape was sent to a school in Northern England.  “We hope all the children will be left with the lasting memory of the day a Monet, Turner or Gainsborough came to their school,” says Andrew Ellis, director of the Public Catalogue Foundation. (more…)

Street artist Banksy has announced a monthlong exhibition on the streets of New York City, beginning this week.  In a message posted on the artist’s website, Banksy revealed that his show Better Out Than In, would be spread across the city, with each work accompanied by a toll free phone number viewers can call to hear witty descriptions of the work.  The first piece has already appeared at 18 Allen Street downtown.  “Hello, and welcome to Lower Manhattan,” the recorded message says. “Before you, you will see a ‘spray art’ by the artist Ban-sky (sp). Or maybe not; it’s probably been painted over by now.” (more…)

A Tale of Two Cities, one of the most impressive works on view at Chris Burden’s current New Museum retrospective, was almost destroyed by the artist before the show.  Fearing the requirements of rehabilitating the long unexhibited piece, Burden had planned to destroy the piece as a last conceptual gesture, but museum authorities stepped in to convince him to try saving the work with a small restored section of the original piece.  “Once he saw the first mock-up, it was like a problem had been solved, and he was on to asking about specific toys,” says Donna Williams, the curator of the Orange County Museum (which owns the work). (more…)

The 2014 edition of the Armory Show has announced its commissioned artist for the fair, welcoming Chinese “chameleon of concept” Xu Zhen to exhibit work throughout the fair’s grounds.  The announcement comes as part of the fair’s Focus: China section.  “I am very honored to be named the The Armory Show 2014 Commissioned Artist. The fair offers an strong platform for exchange, and for dialogue around art, the market and its many interrelated institutions and ideas,” the artist says. (more…)

Alexander Calder, Rouge Triomphant (Triumphant Red), (1959–63) © 2013 Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Jean Prouvé, Chaise Métropole n°305 (1953), courtesy Galerie Patrick Seguin.  Courtesy Gagosian Gallery and Galerie Patrick Seguin.

Currently on view at Larry Gagosian’s Paris location is an exhibition focusing on the communications, collaborations, and creative dialogues shared by two of the pioneering minds of art and design: Alexander Calder and Jean Prouvé.  Exploring the pair’s elegant distillation of sculptural and architectural forms, the show catalogues a moment of shared concerns that helped to define the path of mid-20th century modernism.

Installation view, Calder | Prouvé, Gagosian Gallery, Le Bourget, Paris. Artwork by Alexander Calder © 2013 Calder Foundation, New York/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Artwork by Jean Prouvé, courtesy Galerie Patrick Seguin. Photo by Thomas Lannes, courtesy Gagosian Gallery and Galerie Patrick Seguin. (more…)

Hedge Fund Billionaire Daniel Loeb has gone on the offensive towards Sotheby’s Auction House today, calling for the resignation of company chairman, CEO and president William Ruprecht for his alleged lack of leadership and excessive pay.  Loeb recently became a leading stock holder in the auction house with his activist investment firm Third Point, and many forecast that he will use his position to force major changes in Sotheby’s operating model.   “Our research suggests Sotheby’s crisis of leadership has created dysfunctional divisions and a fractured culture. There is a demoralizing recognition among employees that Sotheby’s is not at the cutting edge,” Loeb writes in an open letter. (more…)

Further extending its commitment to live performance work and new media, the Tate Modern has announced plans for additional performance space inside its museum spaces, as well as a website for the broadcasting of performance works live around the world.  “It’s a completely new thing.” Says Dutch artist Nicoline van Harskamp. (more…)

American actor Willem Dafoe has been named to the role of Andy Warhol in the French film Saint Laurent, a biopic about the famous French designer.  The film is already in production for a May 14^th, 2014 release. (more…)

Artist Ai Weiwei, whose scale model recreations of his 2011 incarceration at this year’s Venice Biennale won him critical accolades, has spoken on his ordeal in a recent interview with Salon.  Recounting his experiences with his interrogators, Weiwei recounts conversations in which he began to teach his captors about conceptual art, Dadaism and protest.   “I explained art to them and then many times they said to me, ‘Weiwei, why whenever we talk about art and concepts do you get so excited that you keep talking? And why when we talk about facts, you say, ‘I don’t know’?’ But I say, ‘You know, I like to talk about art, and it makes me joyful and when I get to talk about art and explain I get very high spirits.’”  He says.

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Youssef Abdelke, a notable Syrian painter who has repeatedly spoken out against the Assad regime in his home country, has been released from a two month-long imprisonment by government authorities.  The 62 year old artist and former Syrian Communist Party Member had previously posted on his Facebook page that he “is healthy and in anticipation of leaving the palace of justice, free as [he] has always been.” (more…)

An all-night sculpture park has opened in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, filled with works from the collection of collector Christian Ringnes.  Overlooking the city, the newly appointed Ekeberg Park includes pieces from Marina Abramovic, James Turrell, Jenny Holzer and Louise Bourgeois, among others, and saw attendance at its opening event reach into the thousands.

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Damien Hirst has unveiled his latest project, a children’s ABC’s book featuring a letter for letter survey of own work, and a different, corresponding font.  The artist spoke with The Guardian this week, discussing the book, his inspirations as a young artist, and his thoughts on “painting like a child.”  “The childlike quality of some of Picasso’s drawings is precisely what makes them so masterful and extraordinary; the ability to express complete visions, feelings and portraits through a continuous line.” (more…)

Frank Auerbach was recently interviewed in The Daily Telegraph, discussing his long career as a painter, the solitary life of painting, and his simple, unadorned opinions towards working on his canvases.  “People who turn out pictures and think, ‘How nice,’ and then go to the next picture seem terribly boring to me. You might as well work in a factory. The whole thing is about the struggle and the struggle makes it a fun activity.” (more…)

In an emailed press release today, the Saatchi Gallery in London has announced a broad collaborative partnership with the Tsukanova Family Foundation, a London-based charity organization.  The announcement comes after the highly successfully Breaking The Ice: Moscow Art 1960-80s exhibition at Saatchi earlier this year.  “We look forward to using the Gallery’s vast experience to further expand upon this through a series of shows over the course of the next 5 years,” says Igor Tsukanov, Co-Founder of TFF. (more…)

Elad Lassry, Untitled (Artwork) (2013), via 303 Gallery

“What is the philosophical location of a picture?” asks the press release for Elad Lassry’s current show at 303 Gallery.  It’s a question that Lassry has posed for several years now, using appropriated and self-made photographs, colored frames and sculptural materials to recreate the 2-Dimensional image in a broader dialogue with its surroundings.  Complicating the assemblage of the photograph, Lassry boils it down to its raw elements, placing the viewer in a new awareness of the photograph itself as a physical object.

Elad Lassry (Installation View), via 303 Gallery (more…)

Dealer Virginia Dwan, who earned a reputation for her ongoing support and collection of a number of pioneering “Land Art” works during the 1960’s and 70’s, has pledged the donation of 250 works from her collection to The National Gallery in Washington.  Among the works donated are Marcel Duchamp’s iconic recreation of the Mona Lisa with a mustache drawn on, and Michael Heizer’s Double Negative, a monumental piece in the Nevada desert.  “I want the collection to have the largest audience of people possible, not just art world types who have a to-do list.”  Dwan commented. (more…)

A pre-war bank building in Shanghai has become the home of Bank, an arts exhibition space owned by cultural promoters Mabsociety.  “In the past, we were curating for other institutions and doing some pop-up exhibitions,” founder Mathieu Borysevicz says. “We think of ourselves as ‘post-gallery’.” (more…)

Current New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been named the next chairman of the Serpentine Gallery in London, assuming the post once his mayoral term ends this year.  Bloomberg previously served on the board for the London gallery, which is open to the public, and will assume the post at the start of 2014. (more…)

In an effort to lure new buyers to his oceanfront Miami property, developer Eduardo Costantini has purchased a pair of sculptures by Jeff Koons for $14 million.  Ballerina, and Pluto and Prosperina will be placed outside of the Oceana Bal Harbour condos, at opposite ends of a breezeway.  “Miami is becoming truly a metropolis, and Jeff Koons is a representation of that, with the visibility that he has, and the quality of his art,” Mr. Costantini says. “You have like, citizens of the world, who travel a lot, and have more than two residences, but they have the sensitivity to appreciate good things, good quality.” (more…)

As Christie’s concludes its first auction in mainland China, The Economist has released an article forecasting a rocky road ahead for foreign auction houses entering China’s already competitive market.  With 70 auction houses already operating inside the country, high taxes and rampant concerns over counterfeiting and rigged auctions, the way will not be easy for major international companies looking to cash in on China’s growing market. (more…)

Christie’s November 12th auction in New York will feature a classic Gerhard Richter, on sale from the collection of musician Eric Clapton.  Abstraktes Bild (809-1), which was painted in 1994, is estimated to sell between $20 and $25 million.  “Richter is certainly the greatest abstract painter working today, Abstraktes Bild (809-1) is remarkable for the illusion of space that develops, ironically, out of his incidental process: an accumulation of spontaneous, reactive gestures of adding, moving, and subtracting paint,” says Christie’s Post-War Chairman Brett Gorvy. (more…)

The Financial Times reports on the growing trend for artists seeking large live-work spaces in New York.  Profiling the live-in studios of Vik Muniz, Cai Guo-Qiang and Lawrence Weiner, the article traces the appeal of working from home, especially as Muniz notes: “no matter how you succeed in your career, you will always be nostalgic for the time when your working table and your bed were next to each other.” (more…)