Max Beckmann’s The Egyptian Woman (1942) has set a record for any work sold in Germany, after selling for €4.7m in Berlin this week. The piece was purchased by a private Swiss foundation. (more…)
Helen Frankenthaler is remembered by her step-daughter Lise Motherwell in a piece in the WSJ this week, as the artist’s work goes on view in her former summer retreat of Provincetown. “I understand how enamored she would have been of Provincetown, being near like-minded people—and also its sheer physical beauty,” Motherwell says. “It must have fed her artistic imagination unbelievably. But Helen could paint anywhere.” (more…)
Wade Guyton, Patagonia (Installation view), All images via Petzel Gallery.
Now through June 16, Petzel Gallery’s Chelsea location presents Patagonia, an exhibition of 11 new works by Wade Guyton. As the brief and succinct Press Release states, this show features images of paintings drying, scraps of linen, lunch remains, and other details of the studio. The images featured are large-scale prints made from an Epson UltraChrome K3 inkjet printer, complete with glitches and streaks left from this printing process. The use of the inkjet printer to produce large-scale images on canvas has become a signature feature of the work of the artist’s ‘post-conceptual’ ouevre, much like the color black and X symbol had previously been incorporated into his works. (more…)
Matthew Marks and Greene Naftali are returning the ambitious Painting: Now and Forever series for a third iteration, held this summer. “The show always attempts to address a shifting landscape of ideas and material concerns in the world, and how painting specifically can [be involved in] this,” Carol Greene says. (more…)
Okwui Enwezor is leaving his position at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany, for health reasons. “There is never an ideal time to leave, but I am stepping down when the Haus der Kunst is in an artistic position of strength,” he said in a statement. “It has been a great privilege to lead this exceptional institution and work with such a dedicated and talented team.” (more…)
Oscar Tuazon, (Installation View), via Art Observed
For the last few years, artist Oscar Tuazon has meandered ever closer to a unique framework in socially-engaged sculpture, and art-making more broadly. Creating sites and objects dedicated towards folds and fissures in public space, his pieces have delved into the act of living; how bodies animate space, or ultimately serve to preserve or reify distinct functions and/or patterns of use within a defined space. For his first exhibition at New York’s Luhring Augustine this month, Tuazon brings this unique philosophy to bear in the gallery, erecting a series of works that draw on past projects and seek to explore functionality in new spheres. (more…)
Photographer John Houck is now represented by Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco, Art News reports. Houck will share representation with Marianne Boesky. (more…)
Philippe Vergne is leaving his post as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the New York Times reports. “A search committee for a new director has been formed, and there are artists from the board on that committee,” says museum spokeswoman, Sarah Stifler. “Artists plural.” (more…)
Following a public outcry, Jeff Koons will not install his Bouquet of Tulips sculpture in front of the Palais de Tokyo. The artist is in discussions with the city about finding an appropriate place for the sculpture. (more…)
The District Attorney of New York has filed a motion with the State’s Supreme Court calling for the return of an ancient limestone relief to Iran, the Art Newspaper reports. The piece was confiscated from dealer Rupert Wace last fall. “Based on the absence of reasonable inquiry by Wace and Fogg, a jury may infer that both or either of [them] knew that the Persian Guard Relief was stolen,” writes assistant district attorney Matthew Bogdanos. (more…)
Dan Colen, Merope (2018), via Levy Gorvy
It’s been some time since there was a full show of works by Dan Colen on view in New York. Having decamped upstate to explore a more deliberate, meditative practice in conjunction with running his own farm, the artist’s modes of practice, and now even his representation, has undergone a slow but deliberate shift. Now, with a body of new works in tow, the artist has opened his first exhibition with his new gallery, Lévy Gorvy. Grouping together a body of sculptures and paintings, the artist returns to familiar ground, exploring and manipulating previous modes of working to create a striking, and mature, selection of pieces.
Dan Colen, Mother (2017-2018), via Levy Gorvy
Germany’s Kunsthalle Mannheim opens this week, following a large donation towards expansions from software billionaire Hans-Werner Hector. “The enthusiasm and excitement of the public has surprised us,” says Ulrike Lorenz, the Kunsthalle Mannheim’s director. (more…)
Contentious arguments at a meeting the New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission has delayed a vote on the new expansion of The Frick. “This is an incredibly respectful and sensitive proposal,” says LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan. “Even as a mansion, there was always the intent that it would be a museum. The development at the site shows that there is a history of development, and this addition seems like the next logical step.” (more…)
The New York Times visits the sprawling studio complex of Shio Kusaka and Jonas Wood this week, showcasing the couple’s impressive art collection, and some of their favorite works. “We’re really into the Frimkesses, who are Los Angeles ceramists,” Wood says. “He threw these vessels, the ones on the top shelf, and she painted them. I’ve made drawings of paintings out of their pots and included them in larger still-life paintings.” (more…)
NADA will debut its first non-fair exhibition on Governors Island in New York this July, featuring work by artists represented by eight NADA galleries. “We look forward to amplifying NADA’s year-round programming by creating new opportunities to showcase contemporary art in fresh environments,” Heather Hubbs, the executive director of NADA, said in a statement. “It’s a unique opportunity for NADA to organize a show on Governors Island, and we’re excited to welcome visitors to this beautiful historic landmark, and to continue to collaborate with Governors Island in the future.”
The Guardian spotlights efforts to save Van Gogh’s sunflowers after X-Ray imaging showed the flowers’ light-sensitive paint was withering and fading. “It is very difficult to say how long it would take for the change to be obvious and it would depend a lot on the external factors,” said Frederik Vanmeert, a materials science expert at the University of Antwerp. (more…)
303 Gallery now represents artist Sam Falls, an artist working broadly across sculpture, painting, photography, and performance. Falls has shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and is currently showing in the Biennale of Sydney. (more…)
Hauser & Wirth now represents the estate of Günther Förg, Art News reports. “A critical component of our gallery’s mission is to serve as custodians of artists’ estates and stewards of their ideas and contributions,” says Iwan Wirth, the president of Hauser & Wirth. “We are particularly excited to work on furthering Förg’s reputation in Asia and the United States, and to develop internationally the great passion for the artist’s work that exists in his homeland of Germany.” (more…)
A Luta Continua (Installation View), via Hauser and Wirth
Over the course of his life, diamond magnate Sylvio Perlstein has built up one of the most ambitious collections of contemporary art in the world, spanning the full history of the avant-garde from Dada and Surrealism to Abstraction, Land Art to Minimalism, Arte Povera, Nouveau Réalisme, and more, all united by his unwavering eye for strong pieces and equally strong concepts. Shining throughout the collector’s holdings, however, is his passion for the work, a fascination with the artist’s practice that shines well above and beyond any single work on view. (more…)
Urs Fischer, SoÌ„tatsu (detail) (2018)New York, Artworks © Urs Fischer, Photo Rob McKeever
Throughout the career of Swiss artist Urs Fischer, space and form have long worked in lock step with acts of repetition and iteration, allowing his myriad approaches towards studio process to create ever-evolving forms and bodies of work that change as much from piece to piece as they do series to series. For his most recent body of works on view now at Gagosian Gallery‘s uptown location, the artist takes this interest to a natural conclusion, creating a series of panel-based paintings that draw on a gradual evolution in the painter’s improvisations on single images. (more…)
Andreas Slominski (Installation view), all images via Metro Pictures, New York. Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York. Photo: Genevieve Hanson.
Known for his intriguing humor and sleek aesthetic, German artist Andreas Slominski presents artifacts of consumerist desire in their most pristine forms, well before their wearing out over time through consumer use. His most recent exhibition at Metro Picture presents a group of fresh-from-the-factory portable plastic toilets, complete with stainless surfaces and bright colors. Instead of the foreseeable contrast they would orchestrate with a hygienic white cube space, these non-used bathrooms comply with the all-white atmosphere thanks to their immaculate exteriors and unusual display concepts. (more…)
The German Lost Art Foundation will begin developing guidelines for funding projects in provenance research for museums, collections and basic research, the Washington Post reports. The funding continues the organization’s attempts to provide restitution support for lost and looted art pieces. (more…)
The Guardian spotlights an ambitious and expansive body of performance works set to take place at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, organized by a group of artists including Jack Jelfs and Haroon Mirza. “It’s like the way people look at Stonehenge,” says the DJ Elijah, who is part of the project. “That could be like Cern 1,000 years in the future – maybe not even that far ahead. ‘Why were people smashing particles together to work out how the universe started?’ This is the biggest machine ever created, maybe nothing will ever be bigger. So it might be seen as a ritual site.” (more…)
A painting that sat for more than 100 years in the basement of the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo will be credited as a work by master Andrea Mantegna, placing its value at around $30 million. “It’s a wonderful surprise,” says Dr.Keith Christiansen, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of the Department of European Paintings at the Met. “An absolutely top-quality work by one of the defining artists of the early Renaissance.” (more…)