The Met and The Brooklyn Museum will reportedly halt the use of Saudi Arabian money for programs on Middle Eastern art, support coming from groups tied to the Saudi government. The move comes after the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after entering the Saudi embassy in Turkey. “While this conversation and a subsequent public colloquium were to be supported by external funds, in light of recent developments we have decided that the Museum will itself fund this event,” says Met President Daniel Weiss. (more…)

Kerry James Marshall gets a profile in the Financial Times this week, with the paper profiling and exploring the impact of his work. “Because I make figures does not mean that making work that appears to be abstract is not available to me, ” he says. (more…)

Carrie Mae Weems gets a profile in the NYT this week, documenting her early life and the evolution of her groundbreaking photographic practice in conjunction with her socially-engaged practice regarding violence in black communities and against the same communities by the police. “There are days, especially when we’re editing, when we just leave the studio in a shambles, or we’re just too mentally exhausted to look at another image of someone being shot,” she says. “But as much as I’m engaged with it, with violence, I remain ever hopeful that change is possible and necessary, and that we will get there. I believe that strongly, and representing that matters to me: a sense of aspiration, a sense of good will, a sense of hope, a sense of this idea that one has the right, that we have the right to be as we are.” (more…)

The New York Times takes a deep look at Okwui Enwezor’s ouster from Munich’s Haus der Kunst, profiling the management issues, flagging sales and strange controversies that led to his termination, including government surveillance after a number of Scientologists were discovered working in the museum. “Enwezor had too many scandals to handle at once,” says Isabell Zacharias, a spokeswoman from the center-left Social Democratic Party in the Bavarian Parliament. “Enwezor is not a manager. He’s a great artist, but artists are not managers.” (more…)

Artist Sophie Calle’s last project is an expansive tribute to her deceased cat Souris, featuring songs and pieces by Laurie Anderson, Jarvis Cocker and Michael Stipe, among many others. (more…)

Collector  J. Tomilson Hill claims that the art market shows no sign of cooling or crashing due to the number of interested buyers from new museums and private collections in China. “In 1949, when Mao took over China, there were 25 museums in China,” Hill said. “Do you know how many museums there are in the United States today? 35,000. There are under 7,000 museums in China but they’re growing at between 500-1,000 museums a year. So there is a massive demand for interesting things to either look at, to talk about.” (more…)

Christie’s is offering 16 pieces from the collection of Herbert and Adele Klapper in its upcoming evening sale of Impressionist and modern art on November 11 in New York, Art News reports. The collection, estimated at $50 million, includes Claude Monet’s L’escalier à Vétheuil, (1881), estimated at $12 million–to–$18 million.  (more…)

Xavier Veilhan at Perrotin, via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

Spread out along the spacious aisles and picturesque dome of the Grand Palais in Paris, the Foire internationale d’art contemporain, also known as FIAC, has returned once again for another year of sales in the French capital.  With Wednesday evening slowly dragging into the late hours, the fair’s VIP opening is now concluded, once again garnering strong praise and enthusiastic response from its attendees.  This year, the list of galleries brings together exhibitors from 25 countries, marking its 45th edition with a fitting reflection of its storied history, one echoed by the prestigious locale of the Grand Palais.  With an exacting selection of modern art, contemporary art, and design galleries, among the most emblematic of the international scene, the fair’s opening hours once again underscored its vitality in the modern fair circuit. 

Alicja Kwade at 303, via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed (more…)

The former Actes Sud CEO Françoise Nyssen has been replaced today as France’s minister of culture following allegations of conflicts of interest.  She will be replaced by Franck Riester. (more…)

The most recent filing in a case between collector Steven Tananbaum and Jeff Koons/Larry Gagosian claims that the collector should have expected to wait several years for the work he paid $13 million for. “Tananbaum is a prominent hedge fund manager, a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, and a sophisticated art collector who regularly invests in exclusive works of fine art,” Gagosian’s attorney Matthew Dontzin notes in court papers. “Mr. Tananbaum was being advised by one of the world’s leading art advisors and fully understood that (i) Mr. Koons is a perfectionist who often takes years to make each sculpture; (ii) Mr. Koons provides only estimated completion dates for the sculptures; and (iii) those estimated dates are often extended by multiple years,” Dontzin adds in the motion to dismiss the suit. (more…)

Three Georgia O’Keeffe paintings deaccessioned by her namesake Museum in Santa Fe will head to Sotheby’s in New York this November, Art Newspaper reports. “Removing an artwork from the collection is never an easy thing for any museum to do, but it is an integral part of good collections management to continually build and refine our holdings,” Museum Director Robert A. Krets says. (more…)

Five pieces from the collection of filmmaker and architect François de Menil will join the Christie’s New York postwar and contemporary art evening sale in November, including a 1964 Mark Rothko painting that is estimated to sell for between $35 million and $45 million. (more…)

After many years of rumor and preparation, e-flux is opening Bar Laika, a restaurant and bar that will host readings, screenings and more alongside food by chef and artist Hsiao Chen.  The space will open for the first time with a screening by Anri Sala. (more…)

Paul Allen, the relentless art collector and a cofounder of Microsoft, has died at 65, due to complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Allen poured parts of his fortune into his personal art holdings, and was instrumental in trying to build a deeper infrastructure for the arts in Seattle. “As time goes by, you start to understand the history of the progression of art and how art evolved, and your tastes and your eye develop over that period of time,” he said of collecting. “Some of these works are so amazing . . . so you do feel a real responsibility to keep them safe. You are the custodian. It is a serious responsibility, and I take it as such.” (more…)

Bruce Nauman gets a profile in the NYT this week, as he prepares to open an expansive retrospective at MoMA PS1 this month. “I’m not sure how you develop as an artist outside of a major cultural center,” he says, looking back on his life outside New York. (more…)

Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith has canceled an appearance at an investment conference in Saudi Arabia after the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, Bloomberg reports.  The news comes as Saudi Arabia faces mounting pressure over the journalist’s disappearance.  (more…)

The Night Watch by Rembrandt will undergo public restoration at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Guardian reports. “It will be carried out under the eyes of the world, and people will be able to follow the conservation wherever they are, whenever they want,” says director Taco Dibbets. (more…)

The British Museum is launching a new initiative designed to push back against perceptions that the expanse of its collection is looted works. “There are a lot of partial histories and they tend to focus on the colonial aspect of the collecting so you have a bunch of people who tend to be quite angry and upset,” Dr Sushma Jansari, the curator of the Asian ethnographic and South Asia collections says. (more…)

Ugo Rondinone, drifting clouds (Installation View), via Sam Covern for Art Observed.

Currently on view at Gladstone Gallery, artist Ugo Rondinone has opened a show work that spans a broad range of his creative output over several years.  Mixing together his practice in installation, sculpture, drawing and performance, the show sees Rondinone reanimating commonplace objects—such as tree branches or window frames—in his signature approach towards the Neo-Romantic. (more…)

The NYT has a piece on the ambitious renovation plans of the Judd Foundation, including a makeover of its Marfa headquarters.  “We were left with a lot of direction, and it’s just taking a long time to extend and finish it all,” his daughter Rainer Judd says. (more…)

The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has awarded the Carnegie International Prizes to both Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, who received the Carnegie Prize, and Postcommodity, who was awarded the Fine Prize.   (more…)

Ivy Haldeman, Chartreuse Suit (2018), all images courtesy Downs and Ross

Ivy Haldeman’s body of new paintings, on view currently at Downs and Ross, have a distinctly playful quality, poetic and energetic while referencing surrealist twists on the everyday.  The current show, on now through October 21st, presents itself as a playful update on prior work, filling the canvas with the same colorful, enthusiastic energy.  (more…)

Jeff Koons’s monumental public sculpture Bouquet of Tulips will officially be installed in the gardens of the Petit Palais, Art News reports. The work will be privately financed, but “public money will be used for the maintenance of the work,” according to Paris’s deputy mayor, Chirstophe Girard. (more…)

Roya Sachs, the new curator of Lever House, gets a profile in the NYT this week, and speaks on her vision for immersive, challenging works in the iconic space. “All the exhibitions I do I try to create that emotional-physical-mental reaction,” she says, referring particularly to her early exposure to artist Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project piece at The Tate. (more…)