Paul Chan, Sock N Tease (2013), via Art Observed

For a semi-retired artist, Paul Chan has been busy in past years.  Following his step back from creating video and installation work in 2010, the artist dove headfirst into the world of publishing with Badlands Unlimited, an imprint responsible for a broad variety of works that have included Saddam Hussein’s On Democracy, and even a recent series of erotic works inspired by Olympia Press, the Paris-based smut peddlers that also published some of the Twentieth century’s most significant works of literature (Lolita and Henry Miller’s Rosy Crucifiction Trilogy).

This diversity of practice was what earned him the 2014 Hugo Boss Prize, one of the U.S.’s top honors, and an exhibition at The Guggenheim.  Given his output over the past decade, the artist is presenting a new series of sculptures that combine his recent publishing ventures with his particular approach to ready-made, object-focused sculpture. (more…)

Gabriele Finaldi, the deputy director of the Prado museum in Madrid, will take over for Nicholas Penny as the head of the UK’s National Gallery this August.  “I feel deeply honored to take on the directorship of the National Gallery after Nicholas Penny,” Finaldi, who formerly worked as a curator at the museum from 1992 to 2002, says.  “This is a world-class collection in a world-class city and I eagerly look forward to working with trustees and the staff to strengthen the gallery’s bond with the public and its international standing.” (more…)

Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Sales in New York this May will be lead by a series of works from the art collection of the late John Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs.  Whitehead built a museum-quality collection over the course of his career, and will offer works from Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Amedeo Modigliani and Pierre Bonnard, among others, anticipated to bring over $40 million.  “I remained enough of a financier that I took an interest in the prices, and I tried to predict what price an individual piece would go for at auction,” he wrote in his biography. (more…)

The annual study by The UK’s Association of Leading Visitor Attractions shows a 7% increase in museum visits by the British in 2014, topped by The British Museum (6.7 million visitors) and National Gallery (6.4 million).  The news comes in the middle of an election season in which many have called for an end to austerity measures affecting British arts institutions. (more…)

The New York Post details the intrigue and deception surrounding dealer Yves Bouvier’s arrest this past month in Monaco.  Bouvier recently sold an Amedeo Modigliani, Nude on a Blue Cushion, for hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen to Dmitry Rybolovlev, allegedly charging the Russian $118 million when Cohen had only received $93.5 million from the sale, sparking an investigation that ultimately led to his arrest.   (more…)

MoMA has acquired the iconic Jasper Johns’s work Painted Bronze, a work that has sat in the Philadelphia Museum of Art for three decades, and which was purchased recently by collectors Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis.  Kravis, who serves as MoMA’s Board President, gifted the work shortly after purchase directly from the artist’s personal collection.  “It’s not easy to convince someone who’s kept something for himself for more than 50 years,” says dealer Matthew Marks. “It’s a big deal for him, emotionally. And one can imagine all the people over all the years who have asked, all the institutions, all the collectors who have been told no, since I was a kid.”

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Sotheby’s has named Tad Smith as its new company CEO, taking over from William Ruprecht.  Smith, formerly the CEO of Madison Square Garden and a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, will look to calm some of the turbulence at the company between stockholders and its board. (more…)

Gabriel Orozco, Cats and Watermelons (1992), all images courtesy MoCA Tokyo

Inner Cycles is an exhibition of new works and historically significant pieces by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, who has been an influential figure in the international contemporary art community since the early 90’s.  Composed of found objects, photographs, and sculptures, the exhibition is meant to show a “universe in flux” as objects are constantly appropriated and re-appropriated for new uses.

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Prominent German dealer Helge Achenbach has been sentenced to 6 years behind bars for his role in 20 counts of art fraud, allegedly overcharging clients on a number of sales.  The dealer also currently owes over €20 million to the Albrecht family in damages, but is unlikely to pay after his companies insolvency. (more…)

Ebay has launched a new section of its website this week, making good on its long-hinted-at art sales collaboration between the auction giant and Sotheby’s.  The site will stream all sales from the auction house save its major biannual sales.  Early highlights include an offering modern and contemporary photographs by Man Ray, Paul Strand and László Moholy-Nagy on April 1st. (more…)

Daniel Arsham at Galerie Perrotin, via Art Basel

Following a hectic weekend of events and openings, today caps the final day of Art Basel Hong Kong, bringing strong sales and attendance at the sixth edition of the massive Asian market event. (more…)

Philip Taaffe, Choir (2014-2015), all photographs by Farzad Owrang, © Philip Taaffe; Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York

In his large-scale paintings on display at Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick Gallery, Philip Taaffe blends historical and cultural motifs in dizzying collages full of color and life. His exploration of shapes and designs spanning space and time draw on historical narratives to bring overlapping cultural archetypes into view.

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Louise Bourgeois, Anatomy (1998), all images courtesy Galerie Lelong

On view at Galerie Lelong is an exhibition featuring graphic works, sketches and drawings made early the career of the late French-American artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), whose work often incorporated autobiographical elements.

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Brad Troemel, Wall Mount for Vintage Furby Collection (2015), via Art Observed

For the past several years, The Jogging co-founder Brad Troemel has been pushing his focus on commodity consumption, appropriation and use to new highs.  There were his works during a residency The Still House Group, vacuum-sealed fish and wild grasses on canvas that pushed notions of the still-life to a shockingly immediate result, not to mention his first show with Zach Feuer last year, when the artist showed a series of Semiotext(e) publications combined with organic raw beans and fake dreadlocks.  For his second exhibition with the gallery, Troemel drives his work forward yet again, examining the palimpsestic ideologies of the art world from both inside and out. (more…)

Bill Viola, Transformation (Installation View), all images courtesy Farschou Foundation

On view at Farschou Foundation Beijing is a solo show by American video artist Bill Viola. Known for his large-scale, high definition, ultra slow-motion moving images, the artist has served as an innovator in the technological execution and exhibition of video art. His show in Beijing, titled Transformation will continue through March 22nd.

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Aaron Curry, Vertical Wood Sculpture (2013), via Almine Rech

Just one week after The Armory Show closed its doors in New York, the sixth edition of Art Basel Hong Kong is preparing to open halfway around the world, with many familiar names vying to court collectors from Asia, Oceania and abroad.  The fair, which shuffled its calendar this year in response to the Venice Biennale opening in early May, is presenting something of a scaled-back experience this year, running just three days from Sunday to Tuesday, but should nevertheless prove successful as one of Asia’s largest art fairs. (more…)

Francesca Woodman, I’m trying my hand at fashion photography (Installation View)

I’m trying my hand at fashion photography is the title of the current Francesca Woodman exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery. Named after one of the many notes the artist inscribed on her photographs, the selection focuses on Woodman’s fashion photographs, a genre the artist worked on during her New York years between 1978 and 1980.  The works are also notable in their oftentimes stark reflection of the final years of the RISD graduate who committed suicide in 1981 following severe depression, possessing elements from her signature photographic style against the backdrop of her own life. (more…)

Economist Clare McAndrew gave her annual report on the art market this week at TEFAF, noting an all-time high €51 billion in art changing hands last year, and an increased focus on an ever-smaller number of works dominating these sale figures.  “It continues to be a highly polarized market, with a relatively small number of artists, buyers and sellers accounting for a large share of value,” McAndrew says.  (more…)

The Met has announced a major redesign plan, with David Chipperfield Architects developing a new design for the museum’s southwest wing, housing its modern and contemporary collections.  “The project will run concurrent with the Met’s installations in the Marcel Breuer-designed building that formerly housed the Whitney,” says current director Thomas P. Campbell, “allowing us to regenerate our permanent spaces in the Met’s main building while maintaining a vibrant program for modern and contemporary art just blocks away.” (more…)

Barbara Kruger Untitled (Business as usual) (1987), all images courtesy of Skarstedt Gallery

On view in London’s Skarstedt Gallery is an exhibition of early large-scale, black and white photographic works from artist Barbara Kruger, early entries in Kruger’s ongoing project to challenge the visual language and power structures of consumerist culture and print advertising, always under the understanding that her works will themselves enter the marketplace as commodities.

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This fall MOCA in Los Angeles will play home to the traveling exhibition focusing on the work of Matthew Barney, as well as a screening of the artist’s most recent film River of Fundament, marking the only time the show will take place on U.S. soil.  “I thought it should be seen in America,” says MOCA head Philippe Vergne. (more…)

Photographer Laurie Simmons is interviewed in Art News this week, as she prepares to open her exhibition of new work this week at The Jewish Museum, and continues production on her first feature film.  “My goals are twofold: to present an accurate picture of a 60-something woman—somebody who isn’t either a teenager or on the verge of dementia, which are the two Hollywood polarities” Simmons says, “as she lives in the world and, at the same time, to realistically convey how that somebody might go about making her work.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper notes the developing challenges for museums and curators as video installations and video pieces get longer in length and greater in quantity.  The article points to last year’s Turner Prize exhibition in particular, where three of the four nominees presented video works, and some noted a cramped nature to the works’ presentations. (more…)

Mark McGuire, head of Marcato Capital, was on CNBC this week, d for the disclosure of court documents from the case between Third Point and Sotheby’s last year.  “We want to make sure that the decisions that are being made at Sotheby’s are decisions that are in the best interest of the company and the shareholders, and not being driven by other motivations that should not be factors in board level decisions,” he says.  “The litigation uncovered a significant amount of correspondence and deliberation on behalf of the board, so it’s a unique opportunity to get a real window into the logic and motivations of the board members. (more…)