Art Basel is offering support to dealers exhibiting in its Hong Kong fair this coming year, with a 5% to 10% discount on stand fixtures such as walls, flooring and lighting, which some speculate is an attempt to lure uneasy galleries in the wake of the protests in Hong Kong. “The $200,000 cost of doing Art Basel in Hong Kong is the difference between a small or mid-tier gallery going under. We are prepared to take the risk but we would like that properly acknowledged,” said one anonymous dealer. (more…)

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles will voluntarily recognize its employee union, the LA Times Reports.  “This is a smart move,” says Lylwyn Esangga, organizing director at AFSCME’s District Council 36. “At the end of the day the workers want a voice and a seat at the table…. It shows a willingness to recognize that seat at the table. This is unique in that many employers will go through an election or do an anti-union campaign.” (more…)

Financier, philanthropist and collector Donald B. Marron, who sat on the board of MoMA and helped pioneer the UBS Collection of art, a major corporate collection, has passed away at 85. (more…)

Raque Ford at Martos Gallery, via Art Observed

Art Week Miami is underway, and the city itself seems to have slowly built its own counterpoint to the sprawling complex of fairs across Biscayne Bay at the Miami Beach Convention Center.  While Miami Beach continues to draw massive crowds of both buyers and visitors, its luxe appointments have long found a compelling counterpoint at NADA Miami, set up inside the Ice Palace Film Studios, where the focus is on showcasing new art and to celebrating the rising talents from around the globe. Exploring new or underexposed art that is not typical of the “art establishment,” by their words, NADA Miami is also the one of the only major American art fairs to be produced by a non-profit organization, and is recognized as a much needed alternative assembly of the world’s youngest and strongest art galleries dealing with emerging contemporary art.

Anneke Russden at Galerie Tatjana Peters, via Art Observed

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A piece in the Smithsonian this week looks at the recent trove of Marcel Duchamp works given to the Hirshhorn Museum.  “This is a real milestone in our museum’s history,” says museum director Melissa Chiu. “This is in fact the most important donation by individual collectors since our founding gift from Mr. Hirshhorn which founded our museum in 1974.” (more…)

A piece in GQ this week looks at the outsize impact of Berlin’s art scene on the look and popularity of Balenciaga in the broader art world.  “There’s so much crossover that it feels like the art world and Balenciaga are a part of the same conversation,” says Carly Busta of New Models. (more…)

The Freelands Foundation has awarded the Hepworth Wakefield as the fourth recipient of its $132,000 Freelands Award, which will support a major exhibition of photographer Hannah Starkey. “This project comes at an exciting moment when Starkey is reassessing her art in the light of recent political events, such as the MeToo movement, that have such a vital bearing on her new work,” says museum director Simon Wallis. (more…)

Bloomberg has a piece on the massive Portia Munson work on view at P.P.O.W.‘s Art Basel Miami Beach booth, and efforts to sell it during the fair.  “This is really why we do this, “ says collector Steve Wilson, who ultimately bought the work. “I love exposing the world to this kind of art, and helping living artists, and putting it all together.” (more…)

Camille Kachani at Zipper Galeria, via Art Observed

Turning the corner onto the iconic drag of Ocean Drive, one’s attention is immediately drawn to the slender white tent laid out along the ocean skyline, a gleaming structure that houses the Untitled Art Fair underneath its minimalist structure.  Its annual home, placed squarely in the midst of boozey beachgoers, restaurant soundsystems, and the annual flood of Art Basel Miami Beach visitors, the fair has one of the more unique positions in a week full of unique offerings, one that balances some of the most familiar sights of the city with the impressive work on view inside.  Compounded by the floor to ceiling windows in the fair tent, the fair is an annual must-attend for those looking to get their dose of dynamic contemporary art and Florida sun in one go. (more…)

A number of museums are closed in France this week as protests and strikes over President Macron’s retirement reforms continue nationwide.  Other museums are choosing to operate only partially, like the Grand Palais.  “Because of the circulation problems, a lot of people can’t come to work so we can only keep one exhibition open,” says a spokesperson. (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper spotlights the continued efforts of the Yuz Museum and LACMA to show Yuz founder Budi Tek’s collection of Chinese contemporary art in Shanghai despite a government crackdown on Islam.  “I do not consider that to be a problem at all,” Tek says. “It is never in my mind that whatever happens in Hong Kong will affect our program, or our [future] achievements.” (more…)

A large-scale march against climate change has been scheduled for Friday 6 December, outside the government centre in downtown Miami.  “We are reaching an irreversible tipping point, beyond which glacier ice melt will raise sea levels to catastrophic levels here in Miami, where more than 2.4m people live less than 4ft above the high-tide line,” says activist Will Charouhis adds. “Even the most conservative estimates show that some Floridians will soon be forced to move and will become some of our nation’s first climate refugees.” (more…)

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Pace Gallery and its artists get a feature and large-scale photoshoot in Vanity Fair as the gallery celebrates its new complex in Chelsea. (more…)

Jim Dine at Ben Brown, via Art Observed

Closing its doors this evening, the week of sales at Art Basel Miami Beach has kicked off, capping off a strong week for galleries in South Florida, and a strong opportunity to close out the year with a flourish.  Commanding a roster of over 200 galleries from around the world, the marquee event of the fall market season in the U.S., and one of the biggest social events of the art world calendar has gotten underway, with thousands flocking to the sun and sand of the Florida metropolis. (more…)

Andrea Fraser gets the profile treatment in the NYT this week, as she looks at an art world that has adopted and implemented activist practices that seem to echo her pioneering work during the 1980s.  “I’m on three boards and two councils, so it feels like I’ve gone to seed or something,” she says. “But it’s sort of the part of the evolution of what I do and institutional critique — realizing that you also have to step up.”   (more…)

Starting in 2020, New York non-profit Artadia will significantly expand its grant-making programs, providing funds to artists based in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Houston. “Funds are fantastic, but it’s really about validation—being told that your work matters,” Carolyn Ramo, Artadia’s executive director says. “Our goal is to celebrate these artists in the cities they live and work and also create a national conversation around their practice.” (more…)

In an unexpected twist, this year’s Turner Prize will go to all four artists nominated, after the group asked to be judged as a collective.  The gesture, a show of solidarity amidst a fractious election season, was praised by many.  “In coming together and presenting themselves as a group, this year’s nominated artists certainly gave the jury a lot to think about,” says Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain. “But it is very much in the spirit of these artists’ work to challenge convention, to resist polarized world views, and to champion other voices. The jury all felt that this made the collective a worthy winner of the Turner Prize.”  (more…)

A Paul Gauguin work made during his time in Tahiti has sold for €9.5 million (about $10.5 million) at a Paris auction.  The work had previously been on loan to the Met, and was sold to “an international collector.” (more…)

David Hammons gets a profile in the New Yorker this week, as the artist prepares his monumental installation outside the Whitney.  “I had met David, but I didn’t really know him,” says president Adam. “He was looking at the river, so I went over and said, ‘You know, Gordon Matta-Clark did his famous pier cut right down there.’ David didn’t say anything, but a few days later we got a small drawing by him in the mail, with no explanation, no message of any kind.”  (more…)

Protests turned violent outside the Hong Kong Museum of Art just one day after the museum reopened, with police firing tear gas onto crowds nearby.  “It was all peaceful and we walked towards Hung Hom. Then the police blocked the road and we had to head back here, and now we just got tear-gassed for no reason,” said one protester. (more…)

Byron Kim has won the Robert De Niro, Sr. Prize, an award given annually to mid-career American painters. “It was really surprising,” the artist says.  (more…)

A piece in The Guardian this week notes museum-goers increasing dissatisfaction with the crowds of visitors at museums, as many start to give up on trying to see shows.  One visitor describes a visit to London’s National Gallery as “like being in a nightclub. You couldn’t even see the pictures – you were being pushed around by the crowd. It was scary.” (more…)

Artist Michael Rakowitz has spoken out against the relationship between MoMA and “toxic philanthropy,” requesting that his work in a MoMA PS1 be paused.  “It is not the artists who need to depart,” reads a protest statement, “it is museums’ dysfunctional and abusive relationship to toxic philanthropy that should go away.” (more…)