Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse (1901), all photos via Sotheby’s

The first week of sales is in the books in New York, as Sotheby’s concluded its Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale last night, following up on a somewhat lackluster sale the prior evening with a briskly paced sale and solid results that lost momentum in the late minutes of the event, ultimately selling 36 of 47 lots for a final tally of $306,712,000. (more…)

Frank Stella is the subject of a profile in The Economist this week, as the artist opens his retrospective exhibition at The Whitney Museum.  The article traces Stella’s ongoing formal inventions and investigation of the act of viewing and experiencing his work.   “What you see is what you see.” he quips. (more…)

Richard Serra has been named the 2015 WSJ Art Innovator of the Year, and is profiled in the magazine discussing his practice, and the recent completion of his work East-West/West-East in the deserts of Qatar.  “A lot of people wanted to reduce sculpture to object making,” says art critic and historian Hal Foster, “but he reclaimed sculpture for space making.” (more…)

Sara Friedlander

RxArt‘s annual benefit gala took place Tuesday night at Stephan Weiss Studios in the West Village, honoring Swiss artist Urs Fischer. The ceiling was decked out in colorful elephant mobiles designed by the artist, tying into RxArt’s mission of transforming the often sterile halls of children’s healthcare facilities and hospitals into engaging visual environments for young patients.

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In a letter to stakeholders this morning, ArtPrize has announced that it will be withdrawing from its first attempt at a franchised event outside of Grand Rapids, MI, and that ArtPrize Dallas will no longer be taking place.  “During the process of planning and working with stakeholders it became clear that many were thrilled and excited to see new avenues of growth and opportunity for all,” the organization wrote.  “Despite the visionary understanding of our supporters, there were a few who saw the concept as threatening to the status quo.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the increased rates of giving by wealthy collectors to museums in recent years, and questions the motives, speculating whether increased philanthropy is merely a cover for ever-larger tax write-offs.  “Every donor I’ve ever worked with has been interested in the tax incentives and implications of their philanthropy,” says Scott Stover, head of philanthropy advisory Global Art Development. (more…)

Blue Checkers, a recent painting by artist and director Harmony Korine, has been stolen from the lobby walls of Soho’s Puck Building this week.  The work is valued at $120,000, and was shown in the artist’s last show with Gagosian Gallery on Park Ave.   (more…)

Artist Jonas Mekas has received an apology from lawyer Gerald Harris over his 1963 prosecution for obscenity, following Mekas’s screening of Jack Smith’s iconic avant-garde film Flaming Creatures.  “I feel I owe you an apology,” Mr. Harris wrote. “Although my appreciation of free expression and aversion to censorship developed more fully as I matured, I should have sooner acted more courageously.” (more…)

The Whitney Museum has named Christopher Y. Lew and Mia Locks as the co-curators for the 2017 Biennial, first Biennial presented in the Whitney’s new building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District.  “Every Whitney Biennial is a galvanizing process for the Museum, a tradition that goes back to the institution’s roots while retaining its freshness and immediacy,” says Director Adam D. Weinberg.  “Endeavoring to gauge the state of art in America today, the Biennial demands curators who are attuned to the art of the current moment and there is no question that Chris Lew and Mia Locks have their fingers on the pulse.” (more…)

Joe Bradley is reportedly leaving Gavin Brown’s Enterprise and Eva Presenhuber for Gagosian Gallery, the Observer reports.  The news comes on the heels of the artist’s inclusion in last year’s Forever Now painting show at MoMa, and a recent profile in W Magazine.   (more…)

Frank Stella, Harran II (1967), via Art Observed

Upon entering Frank Stella’s career retrospective at the Whitney, one is immediately assailed by a flourish of color and form, with the artist’s massive mural work Das Erdbeben in Chili spanning almost the full length of the fifth floor wall.  The show, which marks one of the largest for the artist in the US since his 1987 MoMA Retrospective, is a fitting introduction to his work, spanning his nearly seventy year career. (more…)

Frank Stella, Delaware Crossing (1961), via Sotheby’s

The New York auction weeks are underway in New York, following the conclusion of a lackluster sale at Sotheby’s this evening, where the premier works from the estate of Alfred A. Taubman took the block, spread across a 77-lot auction that saw 8 works fail to find a buyer, including several top lots, while reaching an underwhelming auction tally (given the presale estimate of $500 million) of $377,034,000, with a considerable percentage of works selling well below estimate. (more…)

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC has launched initial talks with the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art over a the possibility of borrowing works from the Iranian museum’s collection.  “We have received a number of requests,” said Ehsan Aghaei, deputy director of the museum. (more…)

The Guggenheim has launched its first online arts initiative, the Ã…zone Futures Market, which allows participants to play an imagined market influenced by the emergence of various new technologies, including innovations in space travel and green energy.  “I see the museum as a machine for making sense of history for a public audience, both distant histories and those unfolding in the present” says curator Troy Conrad Therrien.  “For museums to fulfill their mandate in this environment, they need to experiment with new types of exhibitions to address contemporary issues that will shape our future.” (more…)

Amedeo Modigliani, Paulette Jourdain (circa 1919). All photos by Rae Wang for Art Observed.

A marathon auction calendar is set to open in New York this week, bringing a massive trove of premier works to the city’s top auction houses.  With 7 major sales over the course of the next week and a half, spectators can expect an almost unprecedented number of high value works changing hands, with major records already forecasted to fall during the proceedings at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips. (more…)

The Italian culture ministry is making moves to classify museums and historical sites in the country as “essential services,” limiting workers’ rights to strike, and complicating already tense relations between the organization and union workers.  “It is a question of whether the strike call responds to the need to protect workers, or if it is nothing but the continuation of an arm wrestle between the unions and the government over culture, to the detriment of consumers,” Roberto Alesse, the president of the Commissione di Garanzia per gli Scioperi, which acts as arbitrator between the unions and the government, said of recent clashes between the sites. (more…)

The Telegraph notes the increased popularity of the Impressionist and Modern sales this week in New York, as a strong trove of works shifts focus away from the recently popular Contemporary auctions, charting over $1 billion in pre-sale estimates among the three major auction house. (more…)

MoMA has announced that it will be moving over to a timed-ticket program for its blockbuster Picasso Sculpture exhibition, currently on view.  “The reaction to the exhibition has been overwhelmingly positive,” Margaret Doyle, a spokeswoman for the museum, says, “so we anticipate that it will grow during the busy holiday season.” (more…)

Artist Christo has been announced as a 2015 recipient of the Insignia of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.  The award presentation will take place next week at the Payne Whitney Mansion in New York, the headquarters for the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.   (more…)

The Washington Post notes Director Melissa Chiu’s unprecedented fundraising since taking her position as head the Hirshhorn last year, having raised $1.55 million from this year’s museum fundraiser gala (a tally several times higher than the museum has ever achieved), held in New York City.  “I would characterize my first year as doing all the tough foundational work that is largely invisible to the public,” Chiu says. (more…)

Ai Weiwei has begun his three-year tenure as a visiting professor at Berlin’s University of the Arts this month, and introduced himself to the student body with some unique musings on the nature and definition of art.  “It’s a bit like with sex,” Ai told the gathered audience this week. “One can have a lot of experience, and nevertheless find it extremely difficult to define.” (more…)

Richard Bell, Embassy (2015), via Performa

Performa, New York’s iconic and ongoing performance art Biennial has returned to the city this month, kicking off this past Sunday with a full calendar of events running through the 22nd.  The 15th edition of the event, Performa is offering a particularly strong calendar of events over the coming weeks, mixing high art stage performances, conceptual exercises, live poetics and confrontational pieces across the city’s range of venues, institutions and galleries. (more…)

Doris Salcedo is the recipient of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s first $100,000 Nasher Prize.  “Through her use of meaningful, everyday materials, often in unexpected and socially-charged public spaces in her native Colombia and elsewhere around the world, Doris Salcedo has created a body of work that is both aesthetically striking and politically resonant,” says Nasher Sculpture Center director Jeremy Strick. (more…)

The Rodin Museum is spearheading the sales of newly cast bronze sculptures from the artist’s original molds, in an effort to finance a $17.7 million restoration of the Left Bank exhibition space.  “They don’t have many more big pieces, because most editions are sold out,” says Gilles Perrault, an art expert for France’s high court. “They may have a few more examples left. But today, what the Rodin museum makes are mostly little pieces and variations.” (more…)