Controversy is roiling at the San Francisco Art Institute over the planned sale of a Diego Rivera mural that has students and faculty outraged. “Our first choice would be to endow the mural in place, attracting patrons or a partner institution that would create a substantial fund that would enable us to preserve, protect and present the mural to the public,” says board chairwoman, Pam Rorke Levy. (more…)

Artist McArthur Binion‘s efforts to support young artists in Detroit through his foundation gets a spotlight in the Art Newspaper this week. “Detroit visual artists have been overlooked and underrated nationally,” he says. “We’re now seeing that start to change. That’s the narrative that we’re focused on supporting.” (more…)

March Avery, Houseplants (1974), via Blum & Poe

Currently on view at Blum & Poe’s Los Angeles exhibition space, the New York-based artist March Avery is presenting a solo exhibition of works spanning forty years of practice, following up on the recent announcement of the artist’s addition to the gallery’s roster, and marking her first show with the gallery in its spacious Los Angeles home. (more…)

The New York Times charts the art world’s plans for 2021, as a shaky schedule towards easing out of the coronavirus pandemic and challenges to art world logistics makes for a complex picture. “There is room for local fairs if they have a good focus — I’m not so worried about them,” says collector Alain Servais. “The big international fairs are most exposed this year. People will travel less, and these fairs count on international attendance for their success.” (more…)

Artist Yinka Shonibare is creating a Leeds memorial to David Oluwale a Nigerian who drowned in the 1960s after police harassment in that city. “It’s a fitting legacy to an ordinary man, who will no doubt leave an extraordinary legacy,” he said. “We have to honor him with this small event and hopefully, if people can learn about history, and the mistakes of history, they won’t repeat them.” (more…)

After previously being dismissed in 2018 over a lack of evidence, France’s highest court has ordered the retrial of the Wildenstein family over allegations of tax fraud. (more…)

Kim Jones, Untitled (1958-59, 2004, 2020), via Bridget Donahue

Artist Kim Jones has been working in sculpture and performance for over 50 years, unifying a range of complex political and social sentiments through his challenging and unique works.  In his first exhibition at Bridget Donahue this month, RATS LIVE ON NO EVIL STAR, Jones fills the gallery with selections from five decades of work. Jones’s experience as a soldier in the Vietnam War has influenced his artistic production, as well as his experience using leg braces after an illness restricting his ability to walk at the age of seven. (more…)

As part of the recent National Defense Authorization Act passed in Congress, greater oversight will be applied to the Antiquities trade. “We believe this type of legislation is long overdue,” said John Byrne, a lawyer specializing in anti-money-laundering rules. “This is an area where clearly organized crime, terrorists, and oligarchs have used cultural artifacts to move illicit funds.” (more…)

Reclusive fashion designer Martin Margiela is staging a Paris exhibition of his artworks this year, The Guardian reports. “This exhibition celebrates the idea that Martin Margiela has always been an artist, whose work has played out since, within and outside the art world,” says a statement by exhibitors Lafayette Anticipations. “[He] has always made us look at things with fresh eyes. Going against the grain he cultivated an obsession for discreet people, abandoned objects and forgotten places and events, bestowing on them a new dignity.” (more…)

The SF Chronicle notes that Gagosian Gallery seems to have abandoned its outpost in San Francisco, noting that gallery signage has been removed and phones disconnected.  The company has done little to publicize any such change in strategy at the museum. (more…)

A piece in the New Yorker this week documents the U.S. Army’s holdings of Nazi art and sculpture, rarely seen outside of its storage facility in Virginia’s Fort Belvoir. “It’s Hitler as a Teutonic knight,” says Sarah Forgey, the Army’s chief art curator of one work. “It’s showing there’s a connection between the Third Reich and Germany’s feudal past.” (more…)

A painting of Jesus Christ has been authenticated by a work by El Greco.  “It has been more than two years of exciting work, studies and analysis,” says art professor and researcher Ximo Company. (more…)

Alexis Rockman, The Rime (2020), via Sperone Westwater

Currently on at Sperone Westwater in New York, artist Alexis Rockman is presenting a selection of new watercolors that mark a continued investigation of the medium in relation to the impending climate disaster and resulting crises in human migration and social/political responses.  Marking his fourth solo show with the gallery since 1992, the show takes a lyrical and metaphorical tone in addressing these concepts, marking natural signifiers and moments of mythological crisis as deeply resonant notes in the current state of humanity.  (more…)

Bendor Grosvenor has a piece in Art Newspaper this week, praising the efficiency and appeal of online auctions by the major auction houses. “For the first time, we can begin to imagine a purely online auction world, with no need for printed catalogues, in-person auction views, or expensive premises in central London,” he writes. (more…)

Gunther Uecker, Lichtbogen (2020), at Levy Gorvy

Marking a new wrinkle in the artist’s already boundless body of work, artist Gunther Uecker has brought forth a new selection of pieces on view currently at Lévy Gorvy recently inaugurated Paris exhibition space.  The show features a range of new pieces, a dramatic development in the artist’s seven-decade practice, radiant paintings that vibrate with the energy of their creation, embodying fluidity and light. (more…)

A piece in the Art Newspaper looks at how the new Brexit deal will affect the art market.  “This is a dismal deal for the UK art market,” says Bendor Grosvenor.  “It is now more difficult and expensive for UK companies to trade in art in Europe than at any time since the 1970s. In fact, thanks to the Northern Ireland Protocol, it is also more difficult for UK companies to trade in art within the UK.” (more…)

Xinyi Cheng, Julien (2017), via Palais de Tokyo

Marking one of the more engaged and critically-considered reflections on the past year in and out of quarantine, Palais de Tokyo in Paris is currently presenting Antibodies, a show delving into new projections and perceptions of the body, touch, closeness and proximity in the era of the pandemic lockdown.  On view through the end of the weekend, Antibodies looks at the state of the world, and the human bodies that move and interact within it, questioning how social and political conception of the body itself have changed in the past year.

Forensic Architecture, Cloud Studies (Still), via Palais de Tokyo

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The UK’s Royal Collection Trust will lay off the curators tasked with managing the Queen’s art collection. “Following a restructure that was necessary due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, 130 roles at Royal Collection Trust are to go by the year, including that of the Surveyor,” says a RCT spokeswoman. (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper documents US Museums continuing to add to their collections during the pandemic thanks to restricted acquisition funds. “It is imperative to reiterate that these acquisition funds cannot be used for other purposes,” says Thomas Campbell, the director of FAMSF. “We are doing everything in our power to retain as much of our full staffing as possible during these trying times, so I want to avoid any confusion on that front.”  (more…)

A piece in the New York Times details non-profits continued attempts to cover funds lost due to Covid with donations. “It’s a long way to make up for the gap, and I think we should all be realistic about the fact that this is nowhere near a substitute,” said Henry Timms, the president of Lincoln Center. (more…)

Sue Williams, Betsy Ross Composite (2020), via 303 Gallery

Marking her eleventh solo exhibition at 303 Gallery, painter Sue Williams has brought a selection of dynamic new paintings to bear on the New York space, continuing her particular brand of incendiary, uncompromising social critique through her craft. In a body of work that expands across a range of varied technical approaches and materials, the show outlines Williams’s impressive capacity carry her themes and concepts across a broad framework.   (more…)

Critic Barbara Rose has passed away at the age of 84, an important voice in the early years of minimalism and conceptual art. “I don’t invent art movements,” she once said. “I just notice coincidences, and those coincidences began to make sense to me as a worldview, which the Germans call weltanschauung.” (more…)

The recently deceased Ulay gets a profile in the NYT this week, after the artist’s expansive career retrospective at the Stedelijk opened this year. “Till the last, we were working,” says his wife, Lena Pislak. “He was really enjoying the process.” (more…)

The Met has reopened its European Paintings wing, after renovating and replacing the wing’s skylights.  (more…)