Andreas Gursky, Alba (1989), C-Print, Diasec, 87 x 108 7/8 x 2 3/8 inches (framed), Copyright: Andreas Gursky / DACS, 2014, Courtesy Sprüth Magers Berlin London

On view at Sprüth Magers London is an exhibition of important early landscapes from German photographer Andreas Gursky, created between the late 1980s and early 1990s. The photos were taken before Gursky began exploring the use of digital photography, and are simple in form and content, often titled after the location where they were taken. The exhibition will continue through June 21st.

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Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, L’Ètrange Cité (Strange City), via Art Observed

In 2010, Christian Boltanski spread piles of clothes reaching to fifty tons around the interior of Grand Palais. Three years before Boltanski, Anselm Kiefer brought in cement and metal along with dust and debris into this patriarchal symbol of French industrial awakening. Richard Serra, Daniel Buren and Anish Kapoor are among the other superstar artists who have marked their signatures in this historical building in response to France Ministry of Culture’s annual Monumenta project, which invites an artist to create a new body of work to be exhibited inside the impressive architecture of Grand Palais. On view through June 22nd is this year’s commission L’Ètrange Cité (Strange City) by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, arguably Russia’s most celebrated names in contemporary art.

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, L’Ètrange Cité (Strange City), via Art Observed (more…)

Lee Bul, Via Negativa II (2012), via Art Observed

On view at Lehmann Maupin in New York is an exhibition of works by South Korean artist Lee Bul, exploring “the intrinsic tension within utopian idealism,” and composed of sculptural works and large-scale installations.  Addressing humanity’s vision of an ideal future, the works focus on formal, architectural, and theoretical concepts, moving away from her former focus on the human form and into a consideration of the larger human environment.

Lee Bul, Untitled sculpture (M5) (2014), via Art Observed

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The Miami Beach Convention Center will undergo a renovation project that will include more than $5 million saved up for art commissions that are to be integrated throughout the site. It is uncertain how the rebuilding will affect Miami Art Basel, as well as other art fairs such as Design Miami. The physically expansive exhibition of Design Miami’s current show “Design At Large” presents more instances of big spaces. “Having a big, dramatic space was a real impetus, because it enables us to show something unexpected,” Design Miami’s executive director Rodman Primack said.

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Many of Vincent van Gogh‘s works have been in Arles, France for around a decade since the artist worked there, but due to absence of exhibition space, no one was able to see them. After a three-year remodeling project, the antiquated Hôtel Léautaud de Donines has been officially transformed into a modernized gallery that will contain and display van Gogh’s treasured works to the public. “There was no space like this in Arles before,” said Maja Hoffmann from the Fondation van Gogh. “We can host van Gogh at anytime now. This is what we really call the permanent home for van Gogh.”

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Ai Weiwei is set to launch a new project in Poland next month, consisting of three pits filled with broken crockery and covered over.  Installed in Brodno Sculpture Park, the hidden crockery are replicas of vases from a previous project made in 2005.  “In reaching out to the history of this precious object, Ai was interested in the fetishisation of certain artefacts and their complex history encapsulated in the colonial logistics of robbery and appropriation,” says park curator Sebastian Cichocki. (more…)

A Wall Street Journal article notes a recent study showing that art stimulates areas of the brain involved in vision, pleasure, memory, recognition and emotions, evidence of how strongly and naturally inclined the brain is towards enjoying art.   (more…)

A Long Island art seller is being sued by a pair of galleries after allegedly losing a $3 million Degas sculpture.  Rose Ramsey Long accompanied a set of works earlier this year to San Francisco, where real estate mogul Luke Brugnara was supposed to purchase them.  However, Long left the works in an empty house as Brugnara directed, and when Brugnara was arrested for fraud in the sale, the Degas sculpture had disappeared.   (more…)

MoMA has announced an upcoming career retrospective for Björk, spanning the artist’s work across a broad expanse of fields including sound, film, visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance.  The show will also feature a brand new music and film experience  made in collaboration with director Andrew Huang and 3-D design leader Autodesk. (more…)

Walton Ford, Windsor, May 1829 (2014), via Art Observed

On view at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York is a series of watercolors by Walton Ford, exploring the iconography of traditional natural history painting, while focusing on encounters between human culture and the natural world, and featuring for the first time words written in the margins from Ford’s imagined perspective of the animal subjects.

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Lisson Gallery announced this morning that it will be building a new, 8,500 square-foot gallery space underneath the Highline on 24th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, bringing the London-based gallery to Manhattan for the first time.  The space will be led by Alex Logsdail. (more…)

Jerry Saltz is in New York Magazine this week analyzing the state of abstract painting in the current market, and the increased popularity of what he deems “diluted” abstract works.  The piece is accompanied by a slideshow of several works, tracing markedly similar trends in the current market.  “The artists themselves are only part of the problem here,” Saltz writes. “Many of them are acting in good faith, making what they want to make and then selling it. But at least some of them are complicit, catering to a new breed of hungry, high-yield risk-averse buyers, eager to be part of a rapidly widening niche industry.” (more…)

Researchers have proven a long held belief that there is a hidden painting beneath Picasso’s iconic The Blue Room.  Using infrared scanning technology, experts revealed a portrait of a bow-tied man, resting his head on his hand buried under the layers of the finished painting.  “It’s really one of those moments that really makes what you do special,” said Patricia Favero, the conservator of the Phillips Collection.  “The second reaction was, well, who is it? We’re still working on answering that question.” (more…)

Panterapantera’s Zerzura (2014) outside Messe Basel, photo by Maria-Anna Goess for Art Observed

The doors have opened at Messe Basel for the VIP preview of Art Basel this year, launching the sales of the franchise’s flagship art fair into full swing. Despite the crowded schedule of major fairs this year (Basel Hong Kong closed less than a month ago), the first hours of the fair were as packed as expected, as all-star dealers and collectors vowed for the works on sale. Tico Mugrabi, Dasha Zhukova, Steven Cohen, and the Rubell family could all be seen wandering the aisles of the fair, and the brisk pace of sales seemed to match the star power of those in attendance. (more…)

Guillermo Kuitca, Untitled (2013), all images courtesy Sperone Westwater

On view at Sperone Westwater in New York, NY is an exhibition of new works by Argentinean painter Guillermo Kuitca, featuring large scale works with a concept of fragmentation and fractured forms, including a painted, room-like structure visitors can pass freely in and out of. The exhibition will continue through June 21st, 2014.

Guillermo Kuitca, This Way (Installation View) (more…)

Matthew Barney is interviewed in The Guardian this week regarding River of Fundament, which premieres in London later this month. In the interview, Barney discusses his work with Norman Mailer, the public’s incredulous reception to the movie thus far, and Barney’s atypical, cinematic narrative style that will continue to carry out his reputation for producing ambitious works in the future. “It’s to do with the way my brain is wired,” he says. “It’s a type of slowness I have with regard to resolving things and connecting the dots. The specifics really come quite late. There is a willingness for the work to develop organically.”

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Filmmaker Matt Black explores the creative philosophy of Jeff Koons during a studio visit for a new video profile on Nowness, delving into the artist’s work and inspiration.  “Much of his work focuses around the idea of sensuality and being alive,” Black says. “It’s not a cold world he creates.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei has backed the new Digital Arts website The Space which will commission and showcase new art online for website visitors.  The artist has also donated the names of 5,196 student victims from the Sichuan Earthquakes in 2008, in the hope that The Space will use them to create a new work.  “It gives another opportunity and a platform for artists or somebody like me to work with. I believe many, many young people and students will love it,” Ai says.  (more…)

A recent investigation has shown a number of cities across the U.S. failing to enforce a law requiring property developers to allocate a small percentage of cost for any construction project to fund public art, and many organizations are clamoring to enforce the laws.  “It’s really a question of making people aware that this law is on the books,” says Tom Chestnut of the Buffalo Arts Commission, who has pushed to enforce a related law in the Western New York city. (more…)

Venus Over Manhattan’s Adam Lindemann has penned an op-ed for Gallerist today, humorously reflecting on the popularity of Instagram among collectors, dealers, artists and consultants, and his love of those willing to ruthlessly critique any and all contemporary art.  “It’s perfect for people with zero attention span, zero education and zero interest in learning about anything—perfect, in other words, for the art collectors of today,” he writes. (more…)

The New York Times has penned a new report on the ongoing disputes between MoCANoMI and the City of North Miami, with disagreements running all the way up to who is currently the director of the museum.  With both sides filing lawsuits over alleged injustices, and a potential move to Miami Beach being threatened by MoCANoMi, both sides are claiming control over the museum and its collection.  “It is as if a child is born and in turn says it is the mother of its mother,” says Babacar M’Bow, the man appointed as director by the city but disputed by the museum board. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal notes the growing trends for bidding at major auctions to move towards phone and online bids, leaving auction rooms looking much less filled out, even at some of the biggest sales of the year.  “People are busy, they’re working. They don’t want the expense of flying here, waiting four or five hours for their lot to show up,” says Paul Minshull, COO of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. “They can sit at home in their underpants and bid by phone.” (more…)

Outside Art Basel, via Art Observed

The works are hung, the location is set, and the doors will soon open on the 2014 edition of Art Basel’s flagship art fair in its namesake city, bringing an estimated $4 billion in art to the Swiss city alongside an enthusiastic flock of collectors, dealers, artists and visitors.

Paola Pivi, Titled to be determined (2014) at Galerie Perrotin (more…)

Hanna Liden, Let it Go (2014), all images courtesy of the artist and Maccarone, New York

Currently on display at Maccarone in New York is a group of new photographic works by Swedish artist Hanna Liden. Entitled I hope these ruin a perfectly bad day, the series of still life photos repurpose her urban leitmotifs as makeshift vases for brightly colored flowers. The exhibition will continue through June 21, 2014.

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