A pair of missing Henri Matisse cut-outs valued at $4.5 million sit at the center of a claim in France, with the artist’s heirs claiming the works disappeared while in storage and showed up at a sale at Sotheby’s in 2008. The lawsuit was filed “out of respect for the artist, because many were never intended for commercial sale, and finally for the integrity of the art market,” according to the artist’s great-grandson, Georges Matisse. (more…)

Amy Yao, Foreign Investments (Good Ramen) (2017), via Art Observed

For the last several years, the artists represented by 47 Canal have stood at the forefront of contemporary sculpture. It is easy to see the influence of artists like Josh Kline, Anicka Yi, and Amy Yao when looking at the work of younger artists exhibiting at galleries like Hotel Art Pavilion and Real Fine Arts, and their investigations of materials inextricable from the landscape of modernity makes them a distinctly notable entry in the evolution of New York’s arts history.  Amy Yao, who splits her time between Los Angeles and New York, brings her work back to 47 Canal this month with her new exhibition, Weeds of Indifference. Though Yao has had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Oslo, and Paris within the last two years, Weeds… is her first solo show in NYC since 2013. In that interval, Yao’s work has lost none of its bite, but that is not to say that things are still the same.

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Hélio Oiticica, P15 Parangolé Cape 11, I Embody Revolt (P15 Parangolé Capa 11, Eu Incorporo a Revolta) worn by Nildo of Mangueira, 1967. Courtesy of César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro. © César and Claudio Oiticica. Photograph by Claudio Oiticica

One of the most innovative artists and thinkers of the past century, Hélio Oiticica is currently being honored with an in-depth survey that breaks down key moments and artistic endeavors from the artist’s short but impressive career at the Whitney Museum of American Art. From his early days as part of the Neo-Concrete movement in his native Brazil to his time in New York’s East Village during the 1970s’, Oiticica’s inventive practice unfolds in sequences and segments throughout To Organize a Delirium, offering the audience a nuanced and participatory experience that exceeds traditional limits of art viewing experience, a point that strengthens his own conceptual engagement with art itself. (more…)

Artist Brian Belott is selling a body of works at museums across the city this weekend, pricing the works at arbitrary price points from 5¢ to $5,000, with the funds going towards his upcoming Performa project. “We expect to be kicked out of museums pretty quickly,” says curator Jens Hoffman. (more…)

Pierre Huyghe, After ALife Ahead (2017), via Art Observed

Placing monumental works and nuanced environmental engagements across the city of Münster once each decade, the Skulptur Projekte touched down in the city again this summer,  spreading its wings over the German city for its fifth edition. Offering yet another take on the massively-scaled European art festivals, biennials and other curated events, Münster’s entry in this summer’s calendar is noteworthy in its engagement with the city itself. Embracing the location-sensitive capabilities of sculpture and public art, Skulptur Projekte welcomes meditations on what art might be capable of when inserted into the fabric of daily life, presenting a city where nuanced, conceptually-rich pieces of art can be encountered and experienced at almost any turn. (more…)

The Nuevo Museo, a small, egg-shaped exhibition space from Guatemala City has arrived in Los Angeles, and is currently installed outside of LACMA. “Our interest is in giving visibility to others,” says founder Stefan Benchoam, “a balance of Guatemalan artists and international artists who would resonate locally.”  (more…)

MoMA’s associate director Kathy Halbreich is leaving the museum to lead the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the NYT reports. “It’s a foundation focused on doing the best for artists,” she says. “The more I learned, the more perfect the match felt as my next chapter.” (more…)

As Grand Rapids, Michigan’s annual ArtPrize event gears up for another year, artists are responding to the event’s ties to the DeVos Family, who helped fund the early years of the event. “People try to pin ideologies onto ArtPrize but it’s really about open access to public space and free expression,” says exhibition director Kevin Buist. “There’s this persistent myth that anyone involved is in ideological lock step with one another. That’s completely untrue.” (more…)

Simon Sakhai and Aya Mousawi, founders of the itinerant Moving Museum project, will join Art Basel’s new Cities initiative as consulting strategists. “In so many respects, Art Basel Cities was the opportunity to explore all of the same themes and questions we were trying to answer with the Moving Museum, but on a much bigger scale, and the mobilization of so many additional stakeholders beyond what was possible in our own capacity,” Sakhai says. (more…)

Andeas Schulze, Vacanze 15 (2016)

While today painting may often present draw critique as something of an exhausted genre, Cologne-based painter Andreas Schulze‘s surreal arrangements of bodies in space always manage to serve up a convincing protest.  This contrarian approach is perhaps best seen at Team Gallery where Schulze has arranged a series of smoky, slender depictions of beachgoers, bearing the apropos title Vacanze 365. Focusing particularly on torsos and pelvises, the painter captures vacationers sporting different types of beach attire in catchy patterns and bright colors, carrying smoke dispensers emerging as puffy clouds from belt-like stripes on waistlines. The gallery walls—covered in bright blue with traceable painterly gestures—bear an efficiently immersive installation, playing each work’s spry bodies against the soaring walls, with works hanging in untraditional angles in proximities to the ceiling. (more…)

The New York Times profiles Yayoi Kusama’s newly opened museum in Tokyo, and the artist’s push to preserve her legacy as one of Japan’s foremost Post-war artists. “Until now, I was the one who went overseas,” she says. “But I now recognize that there are more people coming to Japan to come to see my work.  And that is why I decided to establish a place for them to see my work.” (more…)

Having just pulled works from a show on Chinese conceptualism, the Guggenheim is now facing harsh criticism over giving in to protests. “When an art institution cannot exercise its right for freedom of speech, that is tragic for a modern society,” artist Ai Weiwei said of the occurrence. “Pressuring museums to pull down artwork shows a narrow understanding about not only animal rights but also human rights.” (more…)

Bowing to a wave of criticism, the Guggenheim will remove three works from its show on Chinese conceptualism.  The pieces, which featured live animals, draw strong condemnation over their use of live animals. “Although these works have been exhibited in museums in Asia, Europe and  the United States, the Guggenheim regrets that explicit and repeated threats of violence have made our decision necessary,” the museum said in a statement. “As an arts institution committed to presenting a multiplicity of voices, we are dismayed that we must withhold works of art. Freedom of expression has always been and will remain a paramount value of the Guggenheim.” (more…)

Gavin Brown’s Enterprise will host a fundraiser event to benefit the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico. “What can we do?” it said in a statement. “We need to pool together resources to rebuild the island as soon as possible. Each of us has to put our talents to use towards the goal of getting Puerto Rico back on its feet again.” (more…)

The New York Times has a profile on Thelma Golden this week, as the Studio Museum head steers the institution towards its new home on 125th Street. “What she has done is to simultaneously foreground the Harlem-ness in Studio Museum but also enabled it to become a national institution,” says MoMA Director Glenn Lowry. (more…)

Joanne Carson, via Art Observed

As the month of September nears its conclusion, the 11th year of Bushwick Open Studios returned to Brooklyn this past weekend, with artists around the neighborhood opening the doors to their project studios, galleries, rehearsal spaces and even their homes to intrepid viewers. Presenting a broad look at the city’s young and practicing artists in their native environment, this year offered a series of surprises and strong works that once again underscored the fair’s reputation as a first-hand look at the Bushwick art scene in close focus. (more…)

Frieze Art Fair has named Loring Randolph its new artistic director of the Americas. Randolph joins the fair after serving as a longtime partner at Casey Kaplan in New York. “I have participated for many years in Frieze Art Fairs as an exhibitor and my perspective in this regard offers some unique insights into my new role,” Randolph says. “Frieze is a progressive organization that is poised for growth, and I greatly look forward to working with my colleagues—the array of world-class galleries, curators, writers and collectors that partner with the Frieze fairs—to present an unparalleled experience at Frieze in the quality of gallery presentations by today’s most significant international artists.” (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on challenging works of contemporary art that decay and break apart, presenting unique challenges for collectors and conservators. ‘‘Contemporary art’s job is to wreck, to ruin what came before,’’ artist and director John Waters says of such demanding work. (more…)

Working to shore up defense of its Cultural Property Protection Law, Germany has created an internet database offering resources and information on recording, securing and reporting cultural artifacts. The site is part of an ongoing effort by Culture Minister Monika Grütters to ensure greater protection for artifacts moving from destabilized countries, and those circulating in Germany and the rest of Europe.  (more…)

Hauser & Wirth is opening a new exhibition space in Hong Kong, alongside offices in Shanghai and Beijing. “Our expansion into China marks the beginning of a new chapter for Hauser & Wirth,” gallery co-founder, Iwan Wirth says. “We have spent the past two years carefully researching the most appropriate ways to expand in these places, to become a fully present part of the art scene in China and engage meaningfully.” (more…)

As the Barbican opens its Basquiat retrospective this month, the New York Times looks back on the artist’s enduring love for music, and the inspiration his paintings took from records by Curtis Mayfield, David Bowie, and more. “The main thing for us was having big speakers and a blasting stereo. That was the only furniture I purchased myself,” says his former girlfriend, Alexis Adler of their time living together. “Music was playing all the time.” (more…)

Artist John Houck, whose hyper-dense photographs walk the line between photo and object, is now represented by Marianne Boesky. “John’s practice is such a beautiful combination of meticulous technique and creative play,” Marianne Boesky said in a statement. “His fluid movement between a variety of approaches and genres pushes the boundaries of understood artistic hierarchies and frameworks, and arouses a sense of boundless possibility.” (more…)

Despite budget woes and political controversies, this year’s edition of Documenta is being praised as a massive success, according to the New York Times, with officials in both Athens and Kassel expressing satisfaction with the public response to the event. “Documenta is one of the biggest strokes of cultural fortune for Hesse, Kassel and beyond,” says Hesse Culture Minister Boris Rhein. “It is our duty to ensure that it continues.” (more…)

NYABF, via Art Observed

Opening its doors once again this Thursday evening at MoMA PS1, the 2017 NY Art Book Fair got underway with a bang, marking its 12th edition with a new selection of exhibitors, shows, projects and installations that have made the fair a compelling part of the fall art calendar. Inviting well over over 350 booksellers, antiquarians, artists, institutions, and independent publishers from twenty-eight countries to the event, this year’s edition of NYABF continued its engaging work connecting both small press publishers, artists and zine-makers with a broader network of special interest publishers from across the spectrum of both art and writing.

NYABF, via Art Observed

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