Peter Saul, Francis Bacon Descending a Staircase (2012), via Mary Boone

Defying critical characterization and classification for the bulk of their careers, artists Jim Shaw and Peter Saul have continually pushed the art of figurative drawing in new directions.  Exploring the multi-generational impact of these two artists, curator Klaus Kertess has brought the two artists together at Mary Boone New York to exhibit a selection of their works on paper.  Bringing the subconscious to the forefront of the viewer’s attention, the artists’ show is packed with images of altered realities, presented in their trademark styles.

Jim Shaw, Dream Drawing (1996), via Mary Boone

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The sale of Berthe Morisot’s Après le déjeuner for £6,985,250 at Christie’s Modern Art Auction this week has set a new record for female painters.  The record highlights a major difference in market value between male and female painters, with top sales for male artists far beyond that sales range.  While institutions like the Museum of Modern Art have pushed for more equitable status for female artists, some speculate that monied interests have still not caught up in appreciation of contemporary female artists. (more…)

An unnamed collector has come forward, claiming that he has found an upper section of Gustave Courbet’s immediately recognizable nude, “Origin of the World.”  The new segment depicts the subject’s head and sholders, complimenting the notorious section of the work primarily depicting her genitalia, that now hangs at the Musée D’Orsay.  The new section has been confirmed by leading Courbet expert Jean-Jacques Fernier, who says that he is “convinced” that the works are two parts of the whole. (more…)

Beginning their eight night run at Tate Modern last night, German electronic museum pioneers Kraftwerk played their debut album Autobahn to a crowd of 1,250 in the museum’s Turbine Hall.  Mirroring their run of shows at New York’s Museum of Modern Art last year, the band will play one of their eight full length albums each night, closing on February 14th with their last album, Tour de France.  “I saw them three-and-a-half years ago at the Manchester Velodrome and now that the whole show is in 3D and with surround sound, it’s incredible. It’s amazing that 40 years into their career, they’re still relevant,” said Andy McCluskey of electronic act Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark. (more…)

Eugène Delacroix’s iconic work “Liberty Leading the People” has been defaced by a vandal at the Louvre Museum in Lens, Northern France.  The famous work was vandalized near closing time on Thursday evening by a woman described by prosecutors as “unstable.”  The museum has already sent restoration experts to examine that damage, and has stated that the work should be “easily cleaned.” (more…)

Fabio Viale, Stargate (Installation View), via Sperone Westwater

Exploring the intricate interrelations between object, environment, product and creator, Italian sculptor Fabio Viale creates staggeringly lifelike marble busts of the the everyday, paying homage to the vast heritage of Italian sculpture while inviting a range of interpretations and correlations between his works.  For his first solo show at New York’s Sperone Westwater gallery, titled Stargate, the artist is exhibiting a selection of recent works that juxtaposes the classic medium against the often banal detritus of contemporary society, in turn exploring the values afforded to each.

Fabio Viale, Souvenir Pieta (2006), via Daniel Creahan for ArtObserved

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Berlin’s annual Gallery Weekend has just announced its lineup of participating galleries.  The event will feautre a number of major Berlin galleries, including Sprüth-Magers, Konrad Fischer and Max Hetzler, as well as a number of newcomers, including Plan B and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler.  Gallery Weekend Berlin will run from April 26th to April 28th. (more…)

Artist Mark Wallinger has just completed work on his installation in the London Underground, cited as the largest ever art commission, for the 150-year anniversary of the British transportation system.  Titled Labyrinth, The work involves 270 unique mazes, each installed in a station in the London Underground system.  “It’s about the everyday, but on such a vast scale of moving people about.  That almost in itself is a colossal, almost mythical sort of function.” (more…)

Michelangelo’s unfinished sculpture, La Pietà Rondanini, is being temporarily installed in a Milanese prison while its original home undergoes some much-needed renovations.  The work’s temporary home at Carcere di San Vittore has raised both criticism and praise from art historians, and is being applauded by foreign prison officials.  “It is welcome to see an example of high culture being moved into a prison. There is a long tradition of art projects aiding the journey of long-term prisoners as they serve their sentence.”  Says Andrew Nelson, of the Howard League for Penal Reform. (more…)

Jim Shaw, Untitled (US Presidents), 2006, Courtesy of the artist and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead

The Baltic Centre in Gateshead is currently holding the first-ever retrospective of works by American Jim Shaw outside the United States. Including over one hundred works in a variety of media, from video and sculpture to paintings and installations, the show explores Shaw’s ongoing examination of American life, and his unique set of aesthetic signifiers at play throughout his career.

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Pablo Picasso, Femme Assise Près D’Une Fenêtre, via Sotheby’s

Last night, Sotheby’s London hosted the first of the spring’s Modern Art auctions, with a number of works quickly soaring to high prices while others struggled to meet their estimates, most notably the centerpiece of the auction, Pablo Picasso’s “Femme Assise Près d’une Fenêtre.” (more…)

Citing poor profit margins, Sotheby’s Canada branch has announced that it will be exiting the live auction market, and focusing on private sales through their Toronto office.  This leaves the Canadian art auction market dominated by only two companies: Joyner Waddington’s and Heffel Fine Art.  “Private sales is the growth area of this business; it’s not the auction part that’s profitable,” said Sotheby’s Canada president David Silcox. (more…)

Neo Rauch, Chor, 2011, All images courtesy Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz

Displayed in the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz Museum am Theaterplatz in Chemnitz, Germany will be large-format paintings by the internationally acclaimed artist Neo Rauch, from the years 2002-2012. Initially, 4 paintings will be presented, including the work SAL (2010) and 3 from 2012: Hohe Zeit (“High Time”), Der böse Kranke (“The Angry Invalid”) and Die Abwägung (“The Assessment”).

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Elad Lassry, Russian Blue (2012), via White Cube

Transforming White Cube Gallery’s Hong Kong space into an an erratic mix of color and space, Elad Lassry has created a paradoxical challenge to viewer’s 2^nd and 3^rd dimensional perceptions.  Framed cats with piercing aquamarine eyes dot the room, gazing out at toys guarded by a luminous pink shielding. In another frame, viewers are presented with a tantalizing pair of raw steaks — the blood, emphasized by the disturbingly deep red background, but withheld from reach by its frame. Almost all the images observed in the gallery however, are flat: 2D photographs which are given depth only by the prisons they are situated in.

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The Brooklyn Museum is currently attempting to overturn an agreement made in 1931 that specified that a large donated collection be kept together after the owner’s death, despite the issue that a quarter of the works have since been determined forgeries, misattributed, or “not of museum quality.”  The case highlights the thorny issue of donor intent, which can occasionally hold an institution to untenable standards with regards to its collection and gifts.  “A respect for donor intent is essential for philanthropic integrity.” said Adam Meyerson, president of the Philanthropy Roundtable.  However, “You’re not serving donor intent if you go bankrupt.”

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New York Magazine sat down with Iwan Wirth at the opening of Hauser and Wirth’s new space in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea last month, spotlighting the global arts enterprise he has built from the gallery’s modest Swiss origins, as well as his active encouragement of his impressive stable of artists.  “I think with Iwan it’s not a commercial venture. It’s very much about the artists and what they need and what they want,” says Paul McCarthy. (more…)

The Art Basel festival has announced the gallery list for its 44th edition in Basel, Switzerland, welcoming 304 galleries from across the globe.  The festival will also feature several special exhibitions, including presentations by  Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City,  Parra & Romero in Madrid, and Take Ninagawa in Tokyo, alongside its usual lineup of talks, exhibitions, installations and special commissions. (more…)

Total sales at China’s largest auctions houses more than halved last year, showing major instability in what was by some reports the world’s largest art market.  The slowdown in sales may not augur well for the global market, which has looked to China to mask reduced buying in the Western hemisphere.  “Certain factors, including political uncertainty, did see buyers press the pause button.” says Steven Murphy, the chief executive of Christie’s.  (more…)

Daniel Buren, “Electricity” at Petzel Gallery (Installation View) Photo by Elene Damenia

This January, Daniel Buren presents his third solo exhibition across two New York gallery venues; his work will be showcased at the Bortolami Gallery at 520 West Street and Petzel Gallery at 537 West 22^nd Street. The galleries will simultaneously exhibit works from the series Electricity, Paper, Vinyl – WORKS IN SITU & SITUATED WORKS. Bortolami is showing Buren’s recent works from 2012, while pieces from 1968 – 2012 will be on view at Petzel through February 16th.

Daniel Buren, Projection, travail in situ (2012) at Petzel Gallery, Photo by Elene Damenia

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Joseph Mallrond William Turner, Heidelberg With a Rainbow, via Sotheby’s

It was an unpredictable time for the art auction this past week, as collectors descended on New York City  for Christie’s and Sotheby’s spring auction of Old Masters and Renaissance art work last week, driving up prices on a number of works while other pieces failed to command bids.

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A Delaware judge has been asked to step in on a dispute between the board members of a foundation established by late American painter Cy Twombly.  The complaint, filed by Twombly’s lawyer Ralph Lerner, seeks to reinstate Twombly’s son Alessandro to the board in order to break a deadlock between the current members over the forced removal of treasurer Thomas Saliba.  Lerner claims that the dispute has left the foundation unable to manage its $1.5 billion in assets. (more…)

The late Lucian Freud has left a number of works from his collection, including a late work by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot and several sculptures by Degas, to Great Britain as a token of gratitude for the country’s welcoming of his Jewish family, who fled Nazi Germany in 1938.  The Corot work is now on view at the National Gallery, in room 41.  “Although we have a very strong collection of Corot’s works, we have no example of a late figure painting like this,” says National Gallery director Nicholas Penny. “Its rough-hewn monumentality and abrupt transitions anticipate Picasso’s exercises in the classical manner and make it one of the most modern looking pictures in the collection.” (more…)

A recent court ruling has challenged the practice of keeping auction sellers anonymous in New York State, and could fundamentally challenge how art auctions are conducted in the future, allowing buyers to avoid payment if the seller is not identified.  “As of now you can back out of any transaction where the name of the seller is not provided,” said Peter R. Stern of McLaughlin & Stern. (more…)

Cyprien Gaillard, Artefacts (2011), via MoMA PS1

Over the past several years, French artist Cyprien Gaillard has created a body of work that negotiates the complex spatio-political, geographical and cultural maps of contemporary culture.  Continuously revisiting themes of decay, flux, erosion and conflict, his work picks through the saturated visual landscape of modernity, and exposes the interlocking mechanisms of destruction and creation at work, as well as the grey area between these polar states. (more…)