A Berlin exhibition of works from Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art has been postponed, after Iranian authorities have failed to allow the collected paintings to leave the country.  “We had signed contracts with the TMoCA and relations are on a good footing, but we are told someone needs to give the green light for the artworks to leave Tehran, and that signature is still missing, though the current signals we’re getting indicate we’ll get them soon,” a spokesperson for exhibition organizers the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation said. (more…)

The Detroit Institute of Arts has appointed Laurie Ann Farrell as the new Curator of Contemporary Art, signaling an increased focus on more recent work by the museum.  “We need to catch up,” says director Salvador Salort-Pons. “Contemporary art is what resonates best with our community right now. We have a great collection of contemporary art that needs to be exposed and displayed in ways that are relevant. There is the possibility of doing things in the neighborhoods and the three counties with contemporary art.” (more…)

Josef Albers, Homage to the Square: Zwischen Zwei Blau (Between Two Blues) (1955), via David Zwirner

As 2016 winds into its final weeks, the art world will once again head south for the annual fairs and festivities of Miami Art Week, headed by Art Basel Miami Beach, its satellite fairs, and other openings, events, parties and performances spread across the Biscayne Bay.  Taking up almost a full week this December, the increasingly diverse offerings should offer a packed last week of major sales and shows before the art world closes out the fall season.

Gao Ludi, Untitled (2015-2016), via White Space

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Arts Organizations have saved a total of £8.7m by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, a new report says.  “This report demonstrates the ongoing success of light-touch policy to prompt environmental understanding and meaningful actions that reinforce national and international climate targets,” it reads. “Tackling climate change has never been more urgent.” (more…)

Gagosian and Almine Rech will share representation of the estate of Tom Wesselmann, the New York Times reports.  “You want to have engaged dealers,” Wesselmann said in an interview. “Not creating an artificial market, but they can motivate their client base and bid themselves. We had no one protecting the market for a number of years.” (more…)

Pipilotti Rist, Pixel Forest (2016), via Art Observed

Pixel Forest, the first New York City museum survey dedicated to the work of Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, has opened this month at the New Museum, turning three floors of the museum into a swirling progression of images and senses, colors and lights.  Twisting and moving through a series of works from the full breadth of Rist’s career, the show melds classic pieces with new commissions, well-regarded installations with new information and conversations across the expanse of her practice. (more…)

David Hockney has been commissioned to design a stained-glass window at Westminster Abbey, commemorating the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  “I’m not atheist, but I’m not a supporter of any organized religion. You can’t legislate religion. There’s always that question,” he says. “What happens when we die?” (more…)

The Tate is set to open a new show next year that will envelop the museum in a dense fog, while inside a series of performances, installations and other works will expand the concept of the museum exhibition.  “People love the feel of fog on their skin, immersed, wet and cold, but gentle and soothing. It’s a primary experience,” says artist Fujiko Nakaya, who will create the fog. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the continued strength of the auction houses’ marquee sales, and the strategies that have been underwriting these prices.  “The air has got quite thin at the top,” says adviser Wendy Cromwell. “There used to be at least two bidders on most of the lots, but now there is usually only one. Guarantees do provide cover for the lots and give a sense of security. But what do the totals mean in terms of profit? We’re blind.” (more…)

The New York Times has more on the unauthorized Anselm Kiefer show at CAFA Beijing, as the artist weighs in on the show and the academy running it.  “Throughout my career I have been heavily involved in all my major international exhibitions, and it is a matter of deep regret and frustration that the organizers of my first show in China have seen fit to exclude me from the process,” the artist said in a statement. (more…)

Jenni Lomax is stepping down from her position at the Camden Arts Center after 26 years, a tenure that saw Lomax revitalize the organization, and help launch the careers of Martin Creed, Mike Nelson, and others.  “I never intended to stay 25 years,” Lomax said in an interview. “When I started, the organization was completely at a crossroads: it had lost half of its funding from Camden council and it was a great period of change and great challenge. I feel very proud of where we are now and all we have achieved since then, seeing the place grow and becoming somewhere that I think a lot of artists feel is their artistic home.” (more…)

Jeff Koons has gifted a new sculpture, an immense hand holding a series of the artist’s signature balloon tulips, to the city of Paris, commemorating the one-year anniversary of the ISIS attacks in the city.  “I hope the work is life-changing to people,” Koons says. “I hope that the Bouquet of Tulips can communicate a sense of future, of optimism, the joy of offering to find something greater outside the self.” (more…)

William Eggleston, Untitled from The Democratic Forest, (c. 1983-1986), via Art Observed

There are few photographers who have left a mark on their medium in the way that William Eggleston has over the course of his career.  Pioneering an approach to the photograph as meticulous as it is seemingly effortless, Eggleston’s work has charted a path and progression through both his own chosen craft and the American landscape.  Capturing subdued, yet sublime moments of life across the country, from momentary pauses in urban bustle to the somber stillness of the American rural South.  Now, the Tennessee-born artist is revisiting his landmark project The Democratic Forest at David Zwirner in New York, a look back at the artist’s career that simultaneously marks his first exhibition since joining the gallery for global representation.

William Eggleston, Untitled from The Democratic Forest, (c. 1983-1986), via Art Observed

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An unexpected drop in UK Lottery sales has arts organizations bracing in a cut in available funding.  “With the current climate of economic uncertainty and signs that consumers are being more cautious with their spending, we expect the next six months to be similarly challenging,” says Andy Duncan, the CEO of Lottery operator Camelot.

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Artist Helen Marten is profiled in The Guardian this week, as the artist reflects on her recent Hepworth Prize win, and the upcoming announcement of the Turner Prize winner, for which she is also nominated. “The notion that the artist wants to be a public figurehead and immersed in spectacle is just nonsense for me,” she says. “The artist has a responsibility to communicate in a way that is egalitarian in a world that is increasingly hermetic – but that’s also the job of the institution and the curator. I love talking about my work – but I don’t want to do it in a forum that is a corrupted, dumbed-down version of my words. No one wants to be paraphrased to sound like an idiot because that’s accessible. That’s depressing.” (more…)

The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami has announced that it will open the doors of its permanent space in Miami’s Design District December 1st, just in time for Art Basel Miami Beach, the organization announced this week.  Designed by Aranguren & Gallegos Arquitectos, the new location features “more than 20,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, and a 15,000 sq. ft public sculpture garden.” (more…)

An article in the New Yorker profiles efforts by conservationists to create digitally scanned facsimiles of archaeological sites and art works in an effort to drive more effective preservation efforts.   “It’s verisimilitude, not falsity,” says Adam Lowe, who runs a “digital mediation” workshop designated to this project. “What we’re trying to do is to actually study something close enough that we can remake it.” (more…)

German price database and auctioneer Artnet has acquired Tutela Capital SA, a boutique analytics firm, signaling its intent to strengthen its data analysis abilities in the modern market landscape.  “This seemed to be a natural supplement and evolution of the price database,” says founder Hans Neuendorf. “When we first tried this, 15 years ago, we couldn’t find a data specialist who had knowledge of art. It was a reasonable price, after having tried for many years to find the right person to do this.” (more…)

The Armory Show has announced its 2017 Exhibitor List, bringing 207 galleries to the West Side Piers, as well as an updated floor plan that sees a number of lounge areas and VIP accommodations, and a pair of new curated sections that will expand the fair’s offerings in an increasingly competitive landscape for premier fair events.  “The Armory Show team has spent the last year listening to our gallery clients and visitors, and in response, we have made many radical changes and improvements to the show,” says Benjamin Genocchio, Executive Director of The Armory Show. “Two new curated sections and an updated floor plan with more spacious aisles and larger booths will make for a better, more enjoyable show. Quality of art and experience defines The Armory Show 2017 and remains our goal.” (more…)

Richard Prince is facing another lawsuit for copyright infringement over the use of a photograph of Kim Gordon, which was recently shown at Blum and Poe.  Prince’s attorney Josh Schiller claims that the suit “fundamentally misunderstands fair use.” (more…)

The New York Times reports on the city of Dallas’s threat of bankruptcy, which has been driven in part by the ongoing conflict between the Nasher Sculpture Center and a nearby condo tower, which was funded substantially by money from the city pension fund for firefighters and police officers.  “We all know some of the benefits, guaranteed, were just probably never realistic,” says Senator John Whitmire. “It was good while it lasted, but we’ve got some serious financial problems because of it.” (more…)

Maurizio Cattelan, Novecento (1979), via Art Observed

“This exhibition is the very first, after the Guggenheim show, that has more than three of my works altogether: it is a special editing of things I’ve done before retiring. Let’s say it is a post-requiem show, where, like in a Poe’s novel, I’m pretending to be dead, but I can still see and hear what happens around.” So states Maurizio Cattelan in the opening of his press release for Not Afraid of Love, a “comeback at work” that brings together a sizable collection of the artist’s irreverent sculptures and installations at the Monnaie de Paris, a show that stands as both a look back at the artist’s work and a renewed perspective on just what the art world has been missing since Cattelan took a step back from producing art several years ago.

Maurizio Cattelan, Untitled (2007), via Art Observed

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The German government is funding research into the Nazi’s repression of “degenerate art,” after a non-profit organization was unable to continue funding research on the era’s political and social conflicts.  “The Gurlitt case showed us how important research into this bitter chapter of Nazi art policy remains.”   (more…)

The New York Times reports on Doug Aitken’s underwater sculpture off the coast of Catalina Island.  “The moment the first pavilion entered the water, it stopped being a sculpture for me,” Aitken says. “It became this living system — constantly in flux, constantly changing, whether that’s the sea life entering it, the kelp pushing at it or swimmers interacting with it.” (more…)