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

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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…)

Fred Sandback, Untitled, (1977-2008), via David Zwirner

Currently on display at David Zwirner’s London Gallery is a matrix of acrylic yarn evoking an eerie experience that heightens the spectator’s spatial awareness. Across the gallery, colored and blackened fibre is stretched into 3D geometrical forms that carry an uncanny resemblance to a two-dimensional line drawing in mid air. The viewer is literally immersed into the surreal world of Fred Sandback as he challenges our perceptions of dimension and reality.

Fred Sandback, Untitled (four part vertical construction) (1988), via David Zwirner

(more…)

The Christie’s-owned Haunch of Venison Gallery has announced that it will close both its Chelsea and London galleries, and will focus exclusively on the secondary market.  While Christie’s owner Francois Pinault has not commented, some speculate that the galleries were never intended to be permanent in the first place.   (more…)

The Tate Modern has announced that it will screen Roy Lichtenstein’s only film work, titled Three Landscapes, as part of the artist’s upcoming retrospective, opening next month.  Filmed at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, the film was part of an ambitious project for Lichtenstein in the early 1970’s, but was quickly abandoned after the completion of one film.  “When he finished the project, in a way he lost interest. What fascinated him was his painting. It was the first time and the last time he used film.”  Says co-curator Iria Candela. (more…)

Collector David L. Bryant has spoken out against accusations that he is reneging on an agreement to donate Jasper Johns’s Tantric Detail triptych to the Museum of Modern Art.  The dispute was made public after billionaire Henry Kravis, who purchased the works jointly with Bryant, filed a lawsuit alleging that Bryant was attempting to back out of an agreement to donate the works after a set period of time.  “I have always planned to give my half of the paintings to MoMA.” Bryant said.  “I have never said nor do I have any intention of reneging on my agreement with the artist to do so.”  (more…)

Sol LeWitt, Cut Torn Folded Ripped (Installation View), via James Cohan

A pioneering force in post-war American art, Sol LeWitt’s geometric explorations of space, image and meaning was foundational in the development of both the conceptual and minimalist schools of artistic practice.  Perhaps most famous for his “wall drawings,” the artist also explored a range of paper and sculptural techniques over the course of his career.

Sol LeWitt, A Square of Chicago without a Circle and Triangle (1979), via James Cohan

(more…)

The National Museum of China has opened a new exhibition, featuring a large collection of works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Earth, Sea and Sky: Nature in Western Art is the first large-scale collaboration between the two major arts institutions, and pulls from the American museum’s vast collection.  “Never before has an exhibition of this scope and theme, drawn entirely from the Met’s holdings, traveled to China.” Says Met director Thomas Campbell. (more…)

Street-artist JR spoke with Nowness Magazine this week, elaborating on his ongoing, collaborative street art project.  The artist has been printing large-scale photographs for contributors around the world, and empowering them to paste these images in their communities.  “It’s true art. That’s why people want to participate.” says photographer Matt Black. (more…)

The Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas has installed Tulips, a large-scale stainless steel sculpture by Jeff Koons, in its ground floor rotunda.  Acquired at auction in November for $33,682,500, the work is one of the largest and most complex of Koons’s Celebration series, and will sit near the hotel’s showroom lobby.  “Many people believe that Jeff Koons is one of the most important living artists on canvas and in sculpture in the world today,” said CEO Steve Wynn. “I’m happy to be one of those people and particularly delighted to share with our guests his magnificent creation of the Tulips sculpture.” (more…)

Air de Pied-à-terre (Installation View), via Lisa Cooley

Walking into  Air de Pied-à-terre, the newest show on display at artist Lisa Cooley’s gallery, one is reminded of an otherworldly hotel lobby. With the help of fellow artist and curator Alan Reid, Cooley has created an “Air de-Pied-à-Terre” (an alternative living space, located away from one’s home). The gallery has numerous articles that evoke a nostalgic atmosphere within the show – mobiles that dance around the room, paintings that mimic children’s creations, and homely looking text juxtaposed against more classical looking portraiture. The entirety of the show is punctuated by stereotypically domestic constituents such as chairs and potted plants that engulf the viewer and invite them to make themselves at home. (more…)

New York’s now-closed Knoedler Gallery is being sued by a family trust for allegedly selling them a forged painting by Mark Rothko for $5.5 million.  The gallery has faced similar lawsuits in the past, and is accused of withholding information that may have discouraged the sale, including telling the buyers that the work came from the secret collection of a “Mr. X.”  “At all relevant times, defendants knew that the Mr. X story was untrue,” lawyers for the trust stated. “Indeed, defendants privately equated Mr. X to the fictional ‘goose that laid the golden egg.’”  (more…)

A small statuette stolen in 1901 from the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai, France has been discovered and returned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  The statue’s origins were uncovered during a routine history check, and was promptly handed back to the French institution.  “We don’t want to hold onto, nor do we have any business holding onto, stolen objects,” says the MFA’s full-time provenance researcher, Victoria Reed. (more…)

The Art Dubai fair has announced its commissioned projects for 2013, including works by Mary Evans, Mohammed Kazem and Fatima Al-Qadiri.  The works range in scope and size, from a festival wide radio project to a video gallery installed within a narrow stairwell, and reflect the blend of Arabic and global artworks on view at the fair.          (more…)

The Office for Contemporary Art Norway has announced that it will send a special exhibition to Venice this year, titled Beware of the Holy Whore: Edvard Munch and the Dilemma of Emancipation.  Featuring several rare works by Edvard Munch and a newly commissioned film by Lene Berg, the exhibition will explore the dichotomy of freedom and isolation found in the state of emancipation, and will take place from 31 May to 22 September 2013 at Galleria di Piazza San Marco of Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. (more…)

Lost in LA (Installation View) All photos by Art Observed unless otherwise noted

Los Angeles’ Municipal Art Gallery recently exhibited Lost in LA, a group show featuring artists of both American and French origin working in a collaborative dialogue. The immensely popular television show “LOST,” which throughout the last decade acted as both a source of inspiration and speculation for these artists, serves as the backdrop to the themes presented in the exhibition. (more…)

British artist Tracey Emin will exhibit her first American public art installation next month, taking over the enormous LCD billboards of Times Square with a selection of the artist’s handwritten text pieces on love.  The six works will be on view each night from 11:57PM to Midnight in February, coinciding with Valentine’s Day, and presented by the Times Square Alliance. (more…)