The restoration of artist William Morris’s home in London has uncovered a full wall, Pre-Raphaelite mural, believed to have been painted by Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, Ford Madox Brown and Morris himself.  The work was discovered under layers of paint, completely unbeknownst to those working on redeveloping the house.  “In the morning we had one and a half murky figures, in the evening we had an entire wall covered in a pre-Raphaelite painting of international importance,” property manager James Breslin. (more…)

A budding artist residency program at Mount Tremper in the Catskills is featured in the Wall Street Journal this week, profiling the 6-year old program as it caps off its season with a barbecue celebration and performance by the Brooklyn-based Catch Performance Series.  “We’re sleeping all over the place,” says Catch artist Andrew Dinwiddie. “There are bedrooms in the farm house, a room in the dance barn, a loft in the studio, two Airstream trailers.” (more…)

German television station ikono has announced a 3 week, 24/7 video art festival, streaming on their channel and online next month.  The On Air Art Festival will begin September 6th, and will feature work by Bill Viola, Alfredo Jaar, William Kentridge, and A.K. Dolven, among others.  “I thought why not achieve for the arts with TV as radio has been achieving for music? Why not use this mass medium for bringing the entire world of arts into the homes of an international public? ” Says station founder Elizabeth Markevitch. (more…)

Pat Steir, Last Wave Painting: Wave Becoming a Waterfall (1987-88), via Cheim and Read

The 1980’s have long been marked for their resurgent focus on the painted canvas.  Led by a dynamic group of New York artists, and a supportive system of gallerists and collectors, the decade saw an explosive body of work emerge that blended expressive technique with a new vision towards abstraction and figuration, breathing new life into a medium many were labeling dead in the water.

Carroll Dunham, Horizontal Bands (1982), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

In anticipation of the upcoming Istanbul Biennial, opening later this fall,the New York Times has published a profile on the emerging contemporary art scene of the Turkish metropolis, exploring both the largest new galleries like SALT, and the fervent underground political arts scene of artists like Ha Za Vu Zu. (more…)

Monika Grzymala, Volumen (2013), via Daniel Creahan for ArtObserved

Currently installed on the ground floor of The Morgan Library and Museum in midtown Manhattan, Monika Grzymala’s Volumen is an impressive flurry of paper and string, flowing up from a corner of the museum’s glass atrium, and spreading out as it flows upwards towards the ceiling.  Part of the museum’s annual “Summer Sculpture Series,” the piece forms an illusively rich tapestry of colors, mixing homemade paper with copied texts from the museum’s vast collections of manuscripts and books. (more…)

The accusations and investigations surrounding the Knoedler Gallery, and the arrest of dealer Glafira Rosales have taken a new turn, with the identification of the forger of at least 63 works attributed to Modernist masters like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.  Artist Pei-Shen Qian, is a Chinese painter living in Queens, who fled his country in the wake of the cultural revolution, and who has eked out a living selling forged works to Rosales for over 15 years.  His payment for these works rarely exceeded several thousand dollars, even though some of the works sold for millions.  “I didn’t know he had this kind of a good technique,” said Qian’s friend and fellow artist Zhang Hongtu. “He had some talent, but I don’t believe he can paint in the same style as a Jackson Pollock; it’s not easy to copy this kind of style.” (more…)

Painter Ed Ruscha has been elected to a three-year term serving on the board of trustees for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, almost exactly one year after he left his same post at Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art.  The move comes as SFMoMA begins a landmark $610-million expansion that will leave its main building closed until 2016.  Ruscha also voiced his support for departing MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch.  “I thought he would add some unconventional touch to the picture. Maybe it didn’t work out for him. But he started to get the engine rolling.” (more…)

James Meyer, an assistant to Jasper Johns, who worked for the artist for over 27 years, was arrested on Wednesday, accused of stealing at least 22 unfinished works from his employer, and selling them through an unnamed New York gallery for over $6 million. Meyers was arraigned in a Hartford courtroom, and pleaded not guilty to the charges.  He was released on an unsecured $250,000 bond.  “Jasper has taught me to think about what I’m making before I make it.” Meyer once said of his employer and mentor. (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly,  Chatham I White Black (1971), Courtesy of MoMA

Coming off the wide success of his early experiments in shaped canvases, pure color fields and architectural investigations in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, artist Ellsworth Kelly withdrew from the New York City art world that had helped him attain such a high degree of success, settling in the upstate villa of Spencertown.  It was here, painting at a rented studio in nearby Chatham, that the artist would begin a new series of works that would help develop and refine his artistic practice to a fine point.

Ellsworth Kelly,  Chatham XII Yellow Black (1971), Courtesy of MoMA (more…)

The Denver Art Museum has received a donation of 50 paintings and sculptures from the collection of Henry Roath, a former Denver lawyer and banker.  The donation, which includes works by Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Frederic Remington and Ernest L. Blumenschein, is helping to bolster the Denver institution’s already impressive collection of Western Art.  “As my finances got better, my collection got better.” Roath said, but “it seemed that artwork of that quality should be seen by people other than just its owners.” (more…)

German artist Jonathan Meese has been acquitted of making a Nazi salute gesture during a performance last year, winning out with a defense claiming constitutional protection for artistic freedom.  The accusations stemmed from a performance Meese gave at “Megalomania in the Art World” last year at Kassel University.  “Art has triumphed,” Meese said. “Now I am free.” (more…)

Artist Lia Chavez and Surrealist-attired guests at A Surrealism Salon

On Monday July 29th, Performa presented A Surrealism Salon at the downtown loft of artist Lia Chavez, who presided over the event and moderated the eclectic panel discussion with speakers Dr. Megan Fleming, therapist Heide Banks, Performa 13 artist Shana Lutker, Peforma assistant curator Summer Guthery, and Marc Arthur, Performa research and archives. Modeled on the salon discussions among André Breton, Max Ernst and other early surrealists which helped to develop and continually reshape the 20th century artistic movement, the panel endeavored to “explore dreams and desires.” Addressing a diverse range of topics, the panel used their art historical subject as an unexpected but welcome entry point into more current subjects surrounding the “digital revolution,” such as Facebook and the dating app Tinder.

(more…)

London’s Frieze Art Fair has announced its program of talks for the 2013 edition of the fair.  Leading the names on the list are appearances by Jérôme Bel, Meredith Monk and Stephen Shore, among many others at the October art fair in Regent’s Park. (more…)

Both Christie’s and Sotheby’s are planning exhibitions of smaller works by Andy Warhol in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong, respectively.  The exhibitions, which are set to open next month, will include a number of the artist’s lower-priced works, intended to encourage private sales.  “In our first online Warhol sale in February, 8 percent of bidders were Chinese, a higher percentage than we have previously seen,” says Amelia Manderscheid, associate specialist on e-commerce for Christie’s. (more…)

“Art Within One Mile,” a new project by artist Bundith Phunsombatlert, has made its debut on New York City Streets.  Aiming to increase New Yorker’s awareness of art around the city, the series of taxicab yellow signs directs pedestrian’s attention to nearby sculptures and murals.  “It’s a form of generosity, a gesture toward an environment, like New York, that’s rich in a way that sometimes we take for granted,” says Prerana Reddy of the Queens Museum. “It’s a way of recuperating our hidden heritage, our hidden richness.” (more…)

Paul Klee, New Harmony (Neue Harmonie) (1936), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 71.1960. © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

On view at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, is a unique exhibition of abstract works taken from the museum’s 20th century collection, intended to show the trends present between the years of 1919 and 1939, during which time a variety of abstract artists flourished, pioneering new techniques and creative philosophies across the mediums of painting, sculpture and drawing.

(more…)

Announced this week, the Getty Museum has launched the beginnings of the Open Content Program, a fully catalogued library of over 4,600 hi-resolution images from its personal collection, allowing site visitors to use, modify and publish these images in any capacity.  “Artists, students, teachers, writers, and countless others rely on artwork images to learn, tell stories, exchange ideas, and feed their own creativity. In its discussion of open content, the most recent Horizon Report, Museum Edition stated that ‘it is now the mark—and social responsibility—of world-class institutions to develop and share free cultural and educational resources.’ I agree wholeheartedly.”  Said J. Paul Getty trust President James Cuno on the Museum’s blog. (more…)

The Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas has announced that it will soon welcome its one millionth visitor since opening in 2011.  Founded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, the museum has exceeded all visitor estimates, seeing annual attendance well over 500,000 annually.  “Reaching one million visitors just 21 months after our opening is a huge milestone for us,” said Executive Director Rod Bigelow. “From the day we opened our doors, our goal has been to welcome visitors to experience the power of art and the beauty of nature, and we’re thankful to have been able to create these connections with such a vast audience.”  (more…)

As the trial for the suspects in the 2012 theft from the Kunsthal Rotterdam looks to begin, Romanian director Tudor Giurgiu has begun work on a feature film about the suspected thieves, an action adventure that documents their rise to art world infamy.  “The subject sells itself, it is an excellent pretext for an action movie.”  Giurgiu said. (more…)

The value of art exports exported from the United Kingdom has reached the highest level since the 2008 financial crash, the BBC reports.  In a report by Sweet and Maxwell, exports were charted at £2 billion in 2012, an impressive number that defied a new law entitling artists and their heirs 4% of the resale price on any work.  “Art experts and dealers were concerned that London’s position in the art world could suffer compared to New York or Hong Kong, which haven’t introduced any such levy on the resale of modern and contemporary art,” said editor Massimo Sterpi of Sweet & Maxwell. (more…)

Artists Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin are profiled in The Guardianthis week, recounting their early exploits running “The Shop,” a small East London gallery and boutique that served as a launching pad for the pair’s artistic ambitions.  “It was just an idea we had at an Indian restaurant on Brick Lane, but we were excited about it right away. We both had an anti-art slant, and this was always more than just a shop: it was a social thing. I remember we wanted it to be in the Brick Lane area mainly because of its bagel shop! But both of us were marketgoers and had sold stuff there when we needed a few bob.”  Lucas says.

(more…)

Dealer Glafira Rosales, who was being held without bail in New York in connection with the sale of dozens of forged and fake paintings claimed to be works by Rothko, Pollack and Motherwell, was released from prison Monday under new bail terms.  A federal court in Manhattan set the new terms at $2.5 million, with $250,000 cash and four properties, which were promptly paid by the dealer.  Under the terms, Rosales is also prohibited from leaving the state, and will be monitored electronically. (more…)

Anish Kapoor, The Death of Leviathan (2011-2013), via Martin-Gropius-Bau

Covering more than 3,000 square feet in the Martin-Gropius Bau, Kapoor in Berlin is one of the Berliner Festspiele’s tentpole events this summer, examining the pioneering work of Anish Kapoor’s sculptural practice against the backdrop of his German contemporaries and influences.  Composed of almost 70 works, the exhibition serves as an examination of the Turner Prize winner’s work of the past 30 years.

Anish Kapoor, Shooting Into the Corner (2008-2009), via The Guardian (more…)