A painting in the Gurlitt horde, Thomas Couture’s Portrait de jeune femme assise, has been identified as Nazi loot after conservators identified a tiny repair hole in the surface of the piece. “The fact that the researchers managed to identify this painting as Nazi loot with scholarly meticulousness and persistence shows how important it is to persevere with provenance research,” says the German culture minister Monika Grütters in a statement. (more…)

Art Basel Hong Kong has announced its exhibitor list, featuring 249 galleries from around the globe, and special projects from artists including Timur Si-Qin, Carlos Motta, and Morgan Wong. (more…)

In a uniquely ironic twist, a group of artists and squatters are being forcibly removed from a train station in Lagos, Nigeria as the Nigerian Railway Company pushes to stage an art exhibition in the building about the precarious lives about so many of Nigeria’s residents. “It’s called Living on the Edge, and then you just push them off the cliff,” says Folakunle Oshun, the biennial’s founder, who worked against the evictions. (more…)

Film Still. Image courtesy Sprüth Magers.

Now through December 22, Sprüth Magers Berlin presents Jon Rafman’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Dream Journal ’16-’17 is an hour-long, freeform and loosely connected series of narratives examining the impact of technology on society and consciousness. Jon Rafman’s work examines the impact of technology and virtual reality on contemporary consciousness. He is recognized for his use of interdisciplinary and multi-medial forms, including various virtual platforms and online worlds, to critically explore the present moment. For this work, Rafman has designed an immersive viewing experience, complete with shag carpet and anthropomorphized sculptural seating.

Installation View. Image by Anna Corrigan for Art Observed.

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Artist Tehching Hsieh is profiled in The Guardian this week, after representing Taiwan at the Venice Biennale. “My impression of the Venice Bienniale is that it is the Olympic Games of the arts,” he says. “I’m in the category of marathon.” (more…)

Russian artists Pussy Riot staged a protest at Trump Tower this week, calling for the release of Ukranian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov. “We came to occupy Trump Tower to call attention to political prisoners,”the group said in a statement. “We believe that political prisoners and their protection are more important than the sexist bullshit that people have been focused on.” (more…)

A Francis Bacon triptych depicting his lover and muse George Dyer will be shown in public for the first time in 50 years this week, before it heads to the auction block at Sotheby’s New York next month. “This is Bacon at his most spontaneous and intense,” Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s European head of contemporary art, says. “His stated aim was always to bring his observers closer to the nervous system of his sitters.” (more…)

Judy Chicago is profiled in W Magazine this week, as she prepares to open an exhibition this fall at Salon 94, and reflects on her famous work The Dinner Party. “One of the reasons I included Sojourner Truth is because she’s probably the first example of intersectionality—she spoke in the 19th century about the intersection between race and gender,” she says, calling this aspect of modern feminism “an incredible advance that we’ve begun to understand the complexity of identities.” (more…)

The Mugrabi Family is currently suing the Mana Contemporary Art Storage Company over a series of Andy Warhol works they claim are being “held hostage” in its New Jersey storage center, Bloomberg reports. Mana’s “reprehensible and intentional misconduct” is “destroying the business,” according to the filing. (more…)

The family of Pierre Matisse, the youngest son of Henri Matisse, has won a battle against a French dealer over a series of cut-outs by the artist, claiming them as the rightful owners. French expert and dealer Jérôme Le Blay was found to have not acted “in good faith” over a sale of the works at Sotheby’s. (more…)

The New Yorker has a profile in the Sackler family this week, the reclusive family who has donated to many of the world’s most prestigious arts institutions, and whose fortune stems at least in part from the current proliferation of opioid pain medication currently causing widespread addiction problems in the United States and around the globe. “Their name has been pushed forward as the epitome of good works and of the fruits of the capitalist system,”Allen Frances, the former chair of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine says. “But, when it comes down to it, they’ve earned this fortune at the expense of millions of people who are addicted. It’s shocking how they have gotten away with it.” (more…)

Gilbert & George, The General Jungle or Carrying on Sculpting (Installation View), all images courtesy Lévy Gorvy

Now through November 18, Lévy Gorvy’s London exhibition space is hosting The General Jungle or Carrying on Sculpting, a collection of seminal works by artist duo Gilbert & George. This show is comprised of 23 monumental, multi-panel pieces, one of the first manifestations of Gilbert & George’s ‘Art for All’ manifesto, and a landmark entry in their early collaborations, which began fifty years ago this month. This is the first exhibition in the United Kingdom to feature this body of work, first presented at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York in the early 1970’s. (more…)

David Zwirner is preparing to open a massive exhibition of new works by Yayoi Kusama at its New York locations, including a body of paintings, and an Infinity Mirror Room. Kusama’s work is currently part of a retrospective show on view at The Broad. (more…)

Antony Gormley is profiled in the Financial Times this week, as the artist prepares to release a biography on his life and work, while reflecting on his early years training as an artist. “I thought this was an incredibly precious time, and I had to use every minute of it,” he says of his time in school.

The New York Times has a piece on the increased demand that both Frieze and FIAC are placing on collectors, often forcing them to choose between one or the other. “Frieze is very established at this point and is the second big name after Art Basel,” says advisor Chrissie Shearman. “FIAC is nevertheless the grande dame of art fairs in all the right ways and attracts the most discerning collectors.” (more…)

Artist Ai Weiwei was prevented from boarding a plane from New York to Sao Paolo this week, after ground staff claimed his Brazilian visa had expired. “They apologized but gave excuses such as unclear visa descriptions, reversed European date stamps, oversight in checking the dates, and blaming the construction noise for affecting the mood of the crew,” the artist said. (more…)

Christie’s has announced works from the Bass Collection will come to auction next month in New York, including a marquee lot, van Gogh’s Farmer in a Field, Saint Rémy, which carries a $50 million estimate. “They’re looking at the market, seeing good prices and feeling like it’s the right time to make a move,” Jussi Pylkkanen said of the sale. (more…)

A pair of vases looted from Greece went on sale at Frieze earlier this month, with authorities allowing the sale to take place as legal.  “The people involved in the transaction are all known to have previously been involved in other antiquities cases,” says Dr. Christos Tsirogiannis, a lecturer at the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (Arca) and the American Center for Archaeology at Mycenae. “It’s the usual pattern that I have identified in trafficking of antiquities internationally several times during my career.” (more…)

Artist Mary Kelly is profiled in the New York Times in a piece exploring her latest works running her pieces through her dryer. “I hope this exhibition doesn’t seem too eccentric and people see it has some relevance to the current moment,” she says. (more…)

Painter Laura Owens is the subject of a spotlight this week in the New Yorker, as she prepares a body of new work for a show at the Whitney this fall.  “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as innate talent,” she says. “It’s about desires and passions that lead to a focus on certain things and seeing the world in a certain way.” (more…)

Pat Steir, Little Red One (2016), all images via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

In ancient Greek, the word kairos defined the moment of opportunity to make a decision.  Kairos, which lends its name to New York-based painter Pat Steir’s current exhibition at Lévy Gorvy, encapsulates a Proustian interpretation of time that is subjective and cerebral, as opposed to a sequential grasp. Although they represent binary notions at first sight, chance and precision are two pivotal elements in Steir’s work, and given her decision to name her exhibition after a term associated with philosophy of time, she tends to perfect the balance between these two opposites. Created over the last two years, paintings at Steir’s first exhibition with the gallery after the Upper East Side powerhouse announced representation of her last year. (more…)

Artist Omer Fast is facing a backlash over his current installation at James Cohan in Chinatown, which replicates a shuttered Chinese business. “Chinatown is a 150-year-old thriving community that people built on their own,” says protest organizer Betty Yu. “When an artist equates our culture as garbage, it’s really insulting to the community.” (more…)

An article in Bloomberg this week profiles the young women artists seeing their stars rapidly on the rise in the current market, and the increased demand for women artists that has many wondering if a sea change is underway in the market. “Maybe this is the time of the women,” says galleries Rachel Uffner. “They are really good artists. They’ve been working for a while. And they keep making better and better works.” (more…)

Carolee Schneemann is featured in Harpers this week, as the artist prepares to open a retrospective exhibition at MoMA PS1 in New York, and reflects on her early life dealing with sexism while training as a writer and artist. “Only an ideal physical body could manage to subvert the traditional expectations of pleasing the male gaze,” she writes. “If our bodies didn’t look appealing we couldn’t have gotten subversive messages through them. We would’ve been laughed away or dismissed as feeble pornographers.” (more…)