William Kentridge, The Refusal of Time (2012), all images courtesy the artist via White Chapel Gallery.

Now through January 15th, Whitechapel Gallery in London is presenting a new exhibition of work by William Kentridge, one of South Africa’s pre-eminent artists. William Kentridge: Thick Time features six large-scale works created between 2003 and 2016, spanning a range of mediums and thematics that reflect Kentridge’s intense engagement with theories of time and relativity, the history of colonialism, and revolutionary politics. (more…)

The South Korean government is facing pressures after allegedly taking steps to censor and blacklist left-leaning artists in the country.  “The government’s effort to restrict artists is something that took place several decades ago, but this has been replayed in the 21st century,” poet Ko Un, 83 says.  “The foolish acts of the current administration have resulted in a huge tragedy for the country.” (more…)

New York Magazine has a piece this week on the psychology of auction rooms, and the techniques that auctioneers use to increase the final price for works.  One approach draws on a collector’s sense of ownership, playing their willingness to bid off other bidders.  “Once you bid on artwork it’s yours,” says economist Don Thompson, “and now suddenly, the next bidder wants to take it from you.  Throughout the art auctions you’ll see them say things like ‘No regrets,’ ‘Last bid — are you sure?,’ ‘Are you back in?’ and ‘Don’t let him have it.” (more…)

David Hockney is being honored in his home city of Bradford with a gallery dedicated to his work, the Art Newspaper reports.  “The David Hockney Gallery will house a permanent display of the unrivalled collection of early work owned by the city and will include sketches, paintings, iPad drawings, prints and photographs from Hockney’s life and career, and from when he was living and studying in Bradford,” the museum said in a statement. (more…)

The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is looking to show a major exhibition of works from the collection of MoMA in New York, and has its sights set on Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon as part of the show.  The museum recently opened a show of works from Russia’s Shchukin Collection, another body of work that rarely leaves its home country.   (more…)

Photographer Edward Burtynsky is profiled in the New Yorker this week, as the artist continues his world travels to document the changing face of the planet.  “Farming is the single largest thing we’ve done to transform the surface of the planet,” Burtynsky says at one point, indicating an image of a water reserve. “This aquifer, they estimate, contains eight Lake Eries of water, and they have already nearly depleted one. It’s like draining the Great Lakes, but we don’t see it.” (more…)

The largest private collection of 17th-century Dutch paintings are set for a world tour, as the collection of Thomas and Daphne Recanati Kaplan opens at the Louvre in February. The Kaplans see the tour as a way “to build bridges at a time when so many are being burned all over the world.” (more…)

Berlin has canceled its exhibition of modern and contemporary art from the collection of Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the last shah of Iran.  The museum had been struggling with securing export permits from Iran for the works in the collection, and ultimately was forced to cancel.  “Further delays to the Berlin State Museums’ exhibition plans couldn’t be justified,” says Hermann Parzinger, the president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. (more…)

The Art News has a piece on the collection of Eric Clapton, whose collection of works by Gerhard Richter saw him tally upwards of $77 million after several major auction sales this year.  “As with his music, Mr. Clapton’s taste is eclectic, highly personal and strongly rooted in tradition,” says Brett Gorvy of Clapton’s holdings. “It has been assembled by someone who has not been affected by the vagaries of fashion.” (more…)

An editorial in The Guardian this week traces the impact and critiques of the right on contemporary art, and explores the accusations of pretension many have leveled against contemporary artists in the country in the wake of the Brexit vote.   “The accusation lurking in the wings is that contemporary art is a complicated con visited on the public by a fanatical set of EU-loving, liberal-elite curators headed by Sir Nicholas Serota, who have set about suppressing floral paintings,” the piece jibes. (more…)

The British government may reimburse the owner of a £4m painting by Johann Zoffany destroyed in a fire at Clandon Park, the Surrey mansion owned by the National Trust.  The work was lost after an electrical fire started in the basement and swept through the house, leaving 95% of it destroyed.  The work was indemnified by the government in a strategy that allowed it to more easily borrow works for exhibition. (more…)

A recent research study into the paintings of artists diagnosed with dementia notes that some symptoms of mental degeneration may be discernible in an artist’s brushstrokes.  The study looked at density and pattern repetition over the course of an artist’s career, finding diminished numbers of these patterns as artists like Willem de Kooning (who died after a battle with Alzheimer’s) as their work evolved.  “I don’t believe this will be a tool for diagnosis, but I do think it will trigger people to consider new directions for research into dementia,” says Alex Forsythe of the University of Liverpool. (more…)

Joel Shapiro, Untitled (1980), All images via Dominique Lévy.

Now through January 7th, Dominique Lévy is hosting the major first survey of early wood reliefs by American sculptor Joel Shapiro, an exhibition that seeks to demonstrate the trajectory and development of Shapiro’s career, while foregrounding his work with pieces from the late 1970’s and ultimately culminating in a recent body of room-sized sculptural assemblages.  The wood reliefs, presented alongside a new site-specific installation, trace a practice constantly in pursuit of uses of color and mass to shape perceptions of space while exploring individual material interactions.  This marks the first time the series of wood reliefs will be comprehensively surveyed.  (more…)

Paul McCarthy, White Snow Dwarf, Dopey (Affected Original) (2016), via Art Observed

Returning to his ongoing fascination with the iconography and commodification of the legend of Snow White, in conjunction with reprisals of varied other series from the past 15 years of his practice, Paul McCarthy’s newest exhibition at Hauser & Wirth is a flurry of both subject matter and materials.  Massive, flaking and chipping sculptures are spread throughout the gallery’s cavernous exhibition space, each one drawing on threads of both the historical and cultural in the American psyche.  Pulling from a wide range of works that define the artist’s sculptural practice (in conversation with his video and film productions), the show offers an expansive exploration of both his sense of humor, and his keen eye for commentary.

Paul McCarthy, Puppet (2005-2008), via Art Observed

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Kai Althoff, Untitled (2015), Courtesy the Cranford Collection, London © Kai Althoff

Situated atop the Museum of Modern Art, Kai Althoff’s current survey exhibition, and then leave me to the common swifts (und dann überlasst mich den Mauerseglern), first presents itself as an elaborate visual pun, turning the sixth floor of the museum into a veritable attic space for the artist’s body of watercolors, drawings and sculpture, each shown alongside other objects in an approach to the work that opens new, and often disturbing, narratives in the progression and aesthetic explorations in the artist’s career.

Kai Althoff, and then leave me to the common swifts (Installation View), Courtesy MoMA, Photograph © Kai Althoff

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The Observer looks at the landscape for museums in the coming years, as large-scale expansions and expenses contend with struggles to connect with new audiences.  “Museums are striving for larger and more diverse audiences, looking to increase accessibility and remove the economic barriers to visiting, and they are creating new programs to engage people,” says Zannie Voss, director of the National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. (more…)

Isa Genzken, Rose III (2016), via Art Observed

Giving considerable real estate in its Los Angeles complex to the works of German artist Isa Genzken, Hauser Wirth & Schimmel has embarked on a striking reflection on the artist’s personal history, her engagement and adoption of elements of the conceptual project embraced in Los Angeles during the late 20th Century, and the evolution of her craft over the past 40 years.

Isa Genzken, I Love Michael Asher (Installation View), via Art Observed

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The Art Newspaper takes a look at Robert Rauschenberg’s Monogram, and the story behind the angora goat that sits at the center of the work, including the process of getting the work to London for the artist’s retrospective at the Tate Modern.  “Because of the work’s fragile construction and these stories we felt a need to investigate and make a thorough condition check prior to agreeing to the loan request,” My Bundgaard of Stockholm’s Moderna Museet says. (more…)

The New York Times profiles Chi-Tien Lui, an electronics repair store owner and technician who previously worked with Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman and Nam June Paik, and is currently assisting with a number of conservation projects for early new media works.  “I can’t do what he does,” his daughter Jennifer says.  “I’ve been telling all the museums, use him or lose him, because he is a resource.”    (more…)

Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois, the son of Louise Bourgeois, has given the artist’s West Village home to the Lenape tribe, which counts the island of Manhattan as its historical home.  The home may become a prayer house for the tribe.  “This building is the trophy from major theft,” Bourgeois, an activist for Native American causes, says. “The right thing to do is to return it.” (more…)

A group of canvases stolen from a Verona museum, valued at $17 million, have returned to Italy from the Ukraine.  The works, including works by Rubens and Tintoretto were recovered on an island on the Dniester River, and were returned in a ceremony this week.  “The theft of masterpiece paintings is akin to stealing part of the city’s heart,” Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said during the event. (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the history and reputation of Gustave Courbet’s Origin of the World, charting stories of the work, including one in which the artist responded to praise over the beauty of his image.  “You think this beautiful …and you are right. …Yes, it is very beautiful, and listen, Titian, Veronese, Raphael, I myself, none of us have ever done anything more beautiful.” (more…)

The Financial Times traces the recent push by auction houses and other arts businesses towards consulting for artist’s estates, as a group of baby boomer artists get older.  “We’re witnessing the first wave of baby-boomer artists that are beyond retirement age and have not prepared for their artistic legacy or the financial wellbeing of their beneficiaries,” says Allan Schwartzman, chairman of Sotheby’s Fine Art Division. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Roots and Branches at Lisson (Installation View), via Art Observed

Ai Weiwei has returned to New York City for the first time since the return of his passport from the Chinese government, opening a quartet of exhibitions across its urban expanses that offer a strikingly deep and varied series of perspectives into the artist’s practice over the past few years.  Spread out across both locations of the Mary Boone Gallery, in addition to a show at Lisson, and one at Jeffrey Deitch Projects, the artist’s selection of works presents a nuanced look at his ongoing investment in the defense and articulation of universal human rights, moving from China, to Syria, and beyond.

Ai Weiwei, Roots and Branches at Mary Boone (Installation View), via Art Observed

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