As Kehinde Wiley‘s Rumors of War heads to a permanent installation in Virginia, the artist speaks to New Yorker on his vision and process.  “I recall trying to re-create some Velázquez paintings in which men were on horseback,” he says. “I actually hired Hollywood horses, so they could deal with the flashes.  It turns out, the artists were lying. No man-to-horse is that ratio.” (more…)

The value of guaranteed works in contemporary evening art auctions dropped 18% to $1.08 billion in 2019, according to a recent report from ArtTactic.  “It look like the guarantors in the West are increasingly getting jittery going into the new year,” the report reads. (more…)

The Smithsonian looks back at its recent efforts to evaluate how museums can better relate to the communities it supports and reflects. “Involvement is what is wanted and involvement can only be created if it is the community’s museum,” says former secretary S. Dillon Ripley. “It must be on the spot, participated in by the people who live there. Otherwise, the project will end up nothing more than a museum equivalent of a visiting book mobile.” (more…)

Art Newspaper looks at the upcoming Art Basel Hong Kong fair, and notes how hard it is for dealers to currently find insurance for works shipping to the politically fraught region.  “Insurers are insuring for Hong Kong very sparingly. They are being quite choosy and they are doing so for a lot more money,” says Chris Bentley, a director of underwriting at AXA insurance firm. (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper asks a number of gallerists their predictions for 2020.  “I think next year we will see that the demise of small and medium-sized galleries will turn out to be greatly exaggerated,” Pace head Marc Glimcher says. “The pendulum will swing.” (more…)

A major LS Lowry painting never shown publicly will go on sale at Christie’s in London.  “What’s unusual about this is that it just doesn’t feature anywhere in the literature at all,” says Nick Orchard, the head of modern British art at the auction house. “It is a lovely painting and a great composition. You’ve got everything you want in a Lowry … lots of people doing lots of different things, terraced houses, factories in the background. It ticks all the boxes for Lowry.” (more…)

The former employees of the Marciano Art Foundation have filed suit alleging they were improperly terminated. “The law is the surest way we have to hold the Marcianos accountable,” lawyer Kenneth Moffitt says. (more…)

A Thomas Gainsborough work is the subject of a UK Export bar, preventing it from leaving the country. “Gainsborough is one of the greatest British landscape artists and his work still wows audiences more than 250 years later,” says arts minister Helen Whately. “This piece is a superb example and I hope that a U.K. buyer can be found so we can find a new home for this work in our national collection.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper has an intriguing breakdown on the making of an art world scandal, as it looks back on the uproar over Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian. (more…)

The plan is underway to move 250,000 objects, alongside 350,000 books and thousands more prints, drawings, account books, samples and more from Blythe House to a new storage space by Victoria and Albert Museum’s Easterm outpost in London. “All we ever do in a museum is play God and try and stop time in its tracks,” says Philippa Mackenzie, head of the move. (more…)

Mark Bradford, Sapphire Blue (2019), via Hauser & Wirth

Cerberus, Mark Bradford’s first exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in London extends across the gallery’s spaces in the city, compiling a range of works including film, new paintings and sculptural work, often moving between each format, the show sees Bradford returning to ancient mythology, a consistent source of inspiration for the artist. Engaging in particular with the many headed dog guarding the entryway to Hades, Cerberus, Bradford’s show marks an engaged and intriguing investigation of conflict and healing, trauma and time through works that negotiate states in the same way that the multi-headed creature stands between hell and the mortal realm.

Mark Bradford, Dancing in the Street (2019), via Hauser & Wirth

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The Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam will rethink its storage program as it opens a massive, accessible storage space that will place most of its collection on view.  “The first plans were that maybe 20 or 40 percent would be accessible,” says museum head Sjarel Ex. “At a certain moment, we said, ‘Why don’t we make it entirely accessible?’” (more…)

The heirs of painter Thomas Hart Benton are suing UMB Bank, run by the Kemper family, for alleged neglect of a collection of works.  “We take our role as a trustee for art and other assets seriously and will directly address and defend the misguided allegations made in the lawsuit,” UMB Bank said in a statement. “We look forward to this matter being resolved as quickly and fairly as possible.” (more…)

A piece in the New York Times notes that a massive transfer of wealth from the boomer generation to millenials and Gen X is coming, and asks what that might mean for the art market.  “With the global wealthy population at an all-time high, the next 10 years will see the biggest-ever wealth transfer in modern history,” says Maeen Shaban, the director of research and data analytics at Wealth-X. (more…)

Artists Gilbert & George are selling specially-designed plates to benefit outreach to the homeless, The Guardian reports. “We are avoiding being the frowning classes,” says George Passmore. “It’s extraordinary. People actually discriminate. We are the artists of the disenfranchised. We have an extraordinary following amongst them.” (more…)

Artists Space head Jay Sanders speaks to Art News as he prepares to open the institution’s new space downtown. “I feel like so much of the language around alternative spaces is now ubiquitous,” he says. “Everybody says the same thing, like ‘we’re artist-centric’ and blah blah blah—the whole language of sort of ’70s alternative spaces is now the de facto language for talking about contemporary art spaces at all scales. So I’m trying my hardest to think of new language. I do feel that it’s a real practitioner’s space, and that the audience really is artists, curators, students, intellectuals, academics.” (more…)

Olivier Widmaier Picasso, a television producer, author and grandson of Pablo Picasso, gives an interview to the NYT this week, showcasing his collection in his Miami Beach apartment.  “We make purchases based purely on emotion and don’t think about them as investments,” he says. (more…)

The National Gallery in London has succeeded in its £22m bid to buy Orazio Gentileschi’s The Finding of Moses.  “It is great news as we come up to Christmas that this picture will be ours from early next year,” says director Gabriele Finaldi. “We are absolutely thrilled.” (more…)

A piece in Art News this week looks at the continued attempts Art Basel has made to lure galleries to Hong Kong during the trying political climate in the city. “When one sees the images in the media,” says dealer Sean Kelly, “one feels very strongly that one wants to stand for those fighting for democracy and in some cases their lives. But the corollary to that is if one doesn’t attend the fair, one is letting down a much larger percentage of the population who voted resoundingly and definitely supported democracy but at the same time … are people who are trying to support their family. There are taxi drivers, the laundresses, the busboys, all of the people who work in the infrastructure that surrounds the fair who are in dire circumstances financially because of the ongoing issue in Hong Kong. … I think it is a very difficult, very complicated, and nuanced situation.” (more…)

Arts Council England is requiring organizations to provide data on the socio-economic background of their employees, as it takes steps towards remedying working class gaps in the workforce.  According to ACE head Simon Mellor, the data is “an important step in understanding the scale of the problem and helping us to consider what steps we can all take to challenge the barriers that people face in entering and progressing in our industry.” (more…)

The city of Paris will soon have a major arts hub located in the banlieue of Romainville, called Komunuma.  “Paris can grow, and indeed it must grow,” says director-general Joachim Pflieger. “This is quite a new model for France, because we see public and private activities working together.” (more…)

Ashley R. Harris will become the first executive director for Independent Art Fair New York, Artforum reports.  “With the appointment of Ashley Harris, we are entering a new phase of our business,” says founder Elizabeth Dee. “Over the course of the decade, our fair has developed in concert with the demand for new forum that prioritizes contemporary collecting, incorporating a true reflection of the arts ecosystem—and now our attention to this area is growing in truly exciting ways.”  (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper profiles the current VR efforts at The Louvre and asks how the technology might change future exhibitions. “It’s a wonderful tool because it links accurate information on the works of art with imagination,” says Dominique de Font-Réaulx, head of the Louvre’s interpretation and cultural programming department. (more…)

Even as China cracks down on Islam inside its country, collector Budi Tek is steaming ahead on his plans for a partnership with Qatar Museums.  “We have a strong cultural authority here and they will review our programs,” he says. “We have a good relationship with them and we make sure the shows will be in the interest of the public rather than damaging public interest.” (more…)