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Lorna Simpson, all images via Art Observed

As the early hours of the second Frieze Los Angeles Art Fair draw to a close this evening, and the sun sets over the Pacific, the fair seems to have once again hammered home its vital engagement with the city, and with its thriving art scene, launching another strong event spread across the grounds of the Paramount Studios.   With strong sales reported and an energetic atmosphere across the fair, it would seem that the small-scale and focused approach of the fair had once again seen the fair brand making its case as an arbiter of thoughtful, curated approaches towards the market and its participants.

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Artist Amoako Boafo criticizes Stefan Simchowitz over the collector’s attempt at flipping one of his works at auction tonight at Phillips. “Now he wants to make profit from it,” he says. “It’s only sad. The painting is so recent.” (more…)

A piece in the Art Newspaper this week documents a series of court cases around gallery-artist splits, noting the various ways and legal issues around the break of a business relationship in the art world. (more…)

Artist Luchita Hurtado gets a profile in the WSJ this week, as she finds a more responsive market for her work. (more…)

Residents of the luxury flat next to the Tate Modern, who sued over the the museum overlook’s vantage point into their apartments, have lost their court appeal.  “These properties are impressive, and no doubt there are great advantages to be enjoyed in such extensive glassed views, but that in effect comes at a price in terms of privacy,” the ruling judge stated. (more…)

David Hockney, The Splash (1966), final price: £23,117,000, via Sotheby’s

With the bustle of LA’s numerous art fairs opening their doors across the Atlantic and all the way across the country, one could be understood for overlooking the string of auctions taking place in London this week.  Yet a trio of sales went over all the same this week, testing the secondary contemporary market just as the primary market was having a test of its own in Los Angeles.  The results were mixed, with a number of strong performances, but a sense of stagnation also seems to have set in over some artists, particularly with the future of British trade with Europe looking so unsteady.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Mosque (1982), final price:£3,951,729, via Christie’s (more…)

As part of its summer show Automania, MoMA will park a series of cars in its outdoor sculpture park.  The exhibition will include a series of automobiles in the museum collection never shown before. (more…)

Barbara Kruger is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing her work and the contemporary moment. ”There are moments of recognition and significant changes but we’re living at a time where global white grievance is rampant,” she says, “and there is also a reaction against those symbolic changes. In these brutal and threatening times, I believe it necessary to vote strategically – to push back against the emboldened tide of white grievance and vengeance-driven populism.” (more…)

Collector Pamela Joyner is interviewed in Art Newspaper this week, discussing her collection and her passion for the works she owns. “My favorite part of the response is when I go to the museum and encounter really young people interacting with the art,” she says. “So in the first venue where we opened, I will never forget a school group of about 40 kindergarteners sitting on the floor looking up at my Mark Bradford waterfall painting. They were not squirming–it was like their mouths were dropping. It was just adorable: They were very orderly, asking questions. (more…)

Blain Southern is closing all of its current spaces, after several high profile departures.  “Despite the support of dedicated gallery staff, I deeply regret that I have been unable to secure the gallery’s future long term,” says Harry Blain. “I want to thank all the artists, collectors, institutions, museums, staff and everyone who has worked with the gallery over the last decade.” (more…)

A piece in Art in America this week looks at how museums are working to make their collections more accessible to the blind.  The piece details various naming strategies and techniques for describing and representing works. (more…)

The NYT has a powerful interview with Anselm Kiefer this week, as the artist takes Karl Ove Knaussgard to his studio, and his childhood home of Donaueschingen, as he reflects on his life and the evolution of his work. “What we see is a picture constructed with workmanlike clarity,” he says. “And yet we are moved, overwhelmed even. Despite the simplicity of the composition, the picture speaks to us. And we feel that our own uncertain approach to the world has been laid bare.” (more…)

In the latest twist behind the case of the Gustav Klimt work discovered in the walls of the the Ricci Oddi modern art gallery in Piacenza, prosecutors in Piacenza are questioning Rossella Tiadina, the widow of former gallery manager Stefano Fugazza. “The decision to question his widow was prompted by a diary entry discovered by police in which Fugazza contemplates a fake robbery to gin up controversy around the show. “I wondered what could be done to give the exhibition some notoriety, to ensure an audience success like never before,” he writes. “And the idea that came to me was to organise, from the inside, a theft of the Klimt, just before the show (exactly, my God, what happened), for the work to then be rediscovered after the show began.” (more…)

As Desert X AlUla prepares to open, the NYT profiles the festival and the fraught politics behind its operation, as Saudi Arabia faces continued criticism and looks to open its culture to the West.  “Engaging people to people, being able to start that dialogue, was something we were brave enough to take on, and I do think brave is the word,” says Desert X head Susan Davis. (more…)

Mat Collishaw becomes the latest artist to depart Blain Southern Gallery, as announced on his Instagram today.  No comment was offered on his reason for departure. (more…)

Sonia Boyce has been tapped to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale, making her the first black woman to show for Britain at the event. “There is this question about nations and nationality and that is how [the biennale] was set up; to promote the so-called best of what was happening any given country or nation,” she says. “I don’t know if it is anachronistic but I still think it is important in the time we are in to think about what nation means.” (more…)

Artist Adam Pendleton is readying a new work, Who is Queen? for the atrium of MoMA this summer “It’s looking at blackness as an open-ended idea, not just related to race but in relationship to politics, to art, specifically to the avant-garde,” he says. (more…)

Uniqlo is launching a new series honoring the works of Japanese artists, among them Keiichi Tanaami and Hajime Sorayama. The works will include a range of images from each artist’s oeuvre.  (more…)

Edvard Munch’s Scream is fading, and scientists in Norway and New York are working to unravel the issue with the painting, the NYT reports. “There tends to be an interest in the bigger-name artists, for obvious reasons,” says Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh, founder and chief scientist at Art Analysis & Research. “But actually these are problems that will affect all artists of that period if they are using these materials.”  (more…)

Museum workers at the British Museum have issued a statement in support of climate activists BP or Not BP after the group staged a weeklong protest at the museum over its sponsorship from British Petroleum.  “The climate crisis is here, and urgent, widespread action is needed to minimize the devastation being wreaked on peoples’ lives,” it reads. (more…)

The Rothko Chapel in Houston is set to reopen to the public in June of 2020.  The institution announced its new dates this month, preparing to unveil its restoration work and enhanced security systems. (more…)

Bonhams’s CEO Matthew Girling is out after 32 years, Art Newspaper reports. “I am proud to have led a management team that successfully attracted new investors into the business,” he says in a statement. “Compared to the company I first joined, Bonhams has changed beyond recognition, becoming an international forward-thinking art auction business.”  (more…)

Susanne Vielmetter has an interview in Art Newspaper this week, as she talks about her experiences selling in Los Angeles, and her early years in the city  “There was no difference between pop culture and high art, it was very uncatholic,” she says. “I had my hierarchies very firmly in place and all of that was thrown right out the window when I got here.” (more…)