Sarah Lucas, NOB (Installation View), via Secession

Vienna’s Secession gallery is currently presenting a show of new work by artist Sarah Lucas, including a set of large-format sculptures, an immersive installation and a number of large scale photographs that fit well within Lucas’s well-established body of work.  Exploring the political and psychological affects of various objects and sexual innuendoes, this time focused on the male genitalia, Lucas’s exhibition, titled Nob closes next week.

Gelatin, NOB (Installation View), via Secession (more…)

The Cooper Union Board of Trustees has issued a statement that the university will move forward with its plan to begin charging admission, with an attempt to continually provide additional scholarship funds as needed. “The actions taken by the board today and in April are intended to provide The Cooper Union with a financial model that will sustain it into the future, while ensuring both the quality of the academic program and the institution’s ability to enroll students entirely on the basis of their aptitude and achievement and to meet their full financial need,” the school said in a statement. (more…)

A Virginia court has ruled that a Renoir purchased at a flea market for $7 must be returned to the museum it was stolen from in 1951.  Paysadge Bords de Seine, stolen from Baltimore Museum of Art, was discovered by teacher Marcia “Martha” Fuqua, and was valued at $22,000.  “The museum has put forth an extensive amount of documentary evidence that the painting was stolen,” Brinkema said, citing a 1951 police report and museum records. (more…)

A New York court has denied a motion to dismiss the case against Christopher Wool by studio Brand X, which is suing the artist over a series of unfinished prints he contracted through the studio.  Wool had reportedly originally made a deal to collaborate on the series with Brand X in exchange for one third of the works from the series, but allegedly tried to renegotiate when he felt the works would be worth more than originally estimated.  Wool has ceased work on the series “to get the deal he wishes he made rather than the one he did make” as court papers accuse.  “No evidence has been heard in the case yet… In due course, the true facts will emerge and Mr Wool and Luhring Augustine Gallery will be vindicated,” says representing attorney Roger Netzer. (more…)

Artist Doug Aitken has announced a new collaborative project, The Source, examining the genesis and proliferation of ideas among some of the world’s most recognizable artists, musicians and thinkers, to be exhibited as Sundance Film Festival.  Installed on the grounds of the film festival, the work will feature conversations with artists including Mike Kelley, Jack White, Jack Pierson, Jacques Herzog, James Turrell, Liz Glynn and many more.   (more…)

Chinese-Indonesian collector Budi Tek is preparing to open his newly established Yuz Museum in Shanghai, showcasing a broad selection of contemporary Asian works from his collection.  “I don’t have any say, it is done by the curator, who will select from the whole of the collection,” Tek says. “We are very careful to collect and exhibit the best works considered historical to Chinese contemporary art.”  Tek says. (more…)

The much-beloved, floating Yellow Duck Sculpture by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman has burst again in the harbor of Taiwan’s northern port city of Keelung.  This is the second time the duck has burst in Taiwan, and may have been ruptured by eagles, which were reportedly attacking the sculpture.  “We want to apologize to the fans of the yellow rubber duck….the weather is fine today and we haven’t found the cause of the problem. We will carefully examine the duck to determine the cause,” organizer Huang Jing-tai told reporters. (more…)

The finalized plans for the expanded Museum of Modern Art campus have been announced, following a lengthy evaluation process, and the final decision by the organization has been unable to reconcile the preservation of the former American Folk Art Museum building with its new plans.  The new space, which will include a retractable glass wall, new gallery space and the opening of its entire first floor free to the public (including the sculpture garden), requires the destruction of the much-loved space, and goes against protests from a number of premier architects.  “It’s not for lack of trying that we find ourselves at the same pass,” said Elizabeth Diller, a principal at the firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro, which evaluated the new plans. “We can’t find a way to save the building.” (more…)

Sophie Calle, Le Major Davel (1994), via Galerie Perrotin

For her newest exhibition at Galerie Perrotin, Sophie Calle returns to themes of absence and presence, memory and “the real” through the exploration of three situations in which iconic artworks were stolen or destroyed, and the subtle emotional and structural fallout caused by the disappearance of iconic works by Rembrandt, Degas, and others.

Sophie Calle, Dérobés (Installation View), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed (more…)

Collectors Keith and Katherine Sachs, longtime supporters of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, have endowed the institution with 97 works by Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden and Gerhard Richter, among others, valued at over $70 million.  This museum has always been committed to contemporary art,” said Museum Director Timothy Rub. “Now, with the Sachs gift, we will have one of the best collections of contemporary art in the country. It’s transformative.” (more…)

Former Auction House head Simon de Pury has reportedly signed a book deal with St. Martin’s Press after leaving Phillips auction house last year.  The book will be “a look inside the auction world in his voice,” says executive editor Jennifer Weis. “Stories, history, the highlights, the problems, everything.” (more…)

Brooklyn artist Dustin Yellin has created a sculptural tribute to designer Diane Von Furstenberg’s signature “Warp Dress,” mimicking the dress’s iconic form through his own style of collaged paper encased in glass.   The work was created for the 40th anniversary of the design, and was meant to look like “an apparition—as if it just materialized in a dreamlike state,” Yellin says. (more…)

A minimalist portrait of Disney icon Mickey Mouse, done by Damien Hirst, is up for sale next month at Christie’s in London to benefit the Kids Company charity.  Created using Hirst’s signature “dot” technique, the portrait plays on a long history of pop art appropriation of the character.  “Mickey Mouse represents happiness and the joy of being a kid and I have reduced his shape down to the basic elements of a few simple spots. I hope people love it, because it is still instantly recognizable – Mickey Mouse is such a universal and powerful icon.”  Hirst says. (more…)

The Bruce High-Quality Foundation University has announced an ambitious project for early 2014: a full production of the 1957 musical West Side Story.  Directed by artist and thespian Peter Zohore, the West Side Story project is beginning this month, and will run throughout the beginning of the year. (more…)

Reinard Mucha, Before the Wall Came Down (2008) and Lennep (2009), via Luhring Augustine

The first steps into Reinard Mucha’s show of new works at Luhring Augustine are something of a jarring affair.  Enormous wall-mounted pieces, composed from steel beams, glass casings, and cracked wood blocks are stacked on top of each other in bizarre, serial constructions.  In one work, a series of electric trains continually run through a series of stacked, oval tracks, running through metal pipes, joined by a series of boom boxes above the sculpture, all tuned to country music stations.

Reinard Mucha, Hidden Tracks (Installation View), via Luhring Augustine (more…)

Pierre Huyghe at Centre Pompidou, via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

Referred to as “a major figure in the French and international art scene”, Pierre Huyghe, a poet of space and sculptor of time was exposed at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris from September 25th 2013 to January 6th 2014. The exhibition was of retrospective nature, presenting 50 projects spanning over 20 years of Huyghe’s career.

Pierre Huyghe at Centre Pompidou, via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed (more…)

Forbes has published its annual “30 Under 30” list for the worlds of Art and Design, featuring a number of promising young talents.  Among the list are artists Lucien Smith and Oscar Murillo, curator Alex Gartenfeld, and furniture designers Simon and Niki Haas. (more…)

A Long Island art thief, who was captured in a sting operation filmed for reality show Brooklyn DA, says that the reality show has evidence that would clear his name.  After his arrest for stealing a number of works, including a Picasso etching, Vega’s car was searched, where he claims evidence exonerating him was located, but the footage of the search is being withheld by CBS.  “Up until his arrest, Vega didn’t believe that there was anything wrong or illegal with this arrangement,” his lawyer Timothy Parlatore said. (more…)

The Museum of Contemporary Art, following an embattled 2013 that saw the departure of Jeffrey Deitch and a potential purchase of the museum by LACMA, has reportedly reached its $100 Million Endowment fundraising goal.  “This means we can take off the table any questions about MOCA’s future,” said board chair Maria Bell. “The remaining questions are exciting ones concerning our upcoming exhibitions.” (more…)

Sotheby’s London has announced a non-selling exhibition of works from the collection of Alexey Ananiev, the Russian billionaire whose collection of Soviet Era Russian art will look to challenge the often kitschy perception of much work from the the second half of the twentieth century in the USSR.  “The best artists of communist times did work that was a continuation of the Russian realist art from the early 19th century,” Ananiev says. “With a historical pause of 15 or 20 years, we can now see and appreciate their art in full measure.”  (more…)

NPR speaks with Robert Indiana, discussing the artist’s legacy as the creator of the iconic LOVE logo and sculpture, and his perceived neglect in the contemporary arts discourse.  While LOVE remains immediately recognizable, Indiana’s broad body of work is often overlooked.  The artist goes on to talk about his personal ties to his work, and his take on contemporary America.  “The American Dream, that’s our folly,” he says. “That’s our folly. Look where we’re ending up.” (more…)

René Magritte (Belgium, 1898-1967). La clairvoyance (Clairvoyance). 1936. Oil on canvas. 21 1/4 x 25 9/16″ (54 x 65 cm). Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Ross. © Charly Herscovici -– ADAGP – ARS, 2013

The work of René Magritte is nothing if not recognizable.  His subtle, often humorous subversions of painterly convention and semiotic understanding are foundational elements of the early 20th century avant-garde, from  to his classic piece of semantic self-destruction, The Treachery of Images to the dreamlike paintings of imagined worlds and pastiched approaches to conventional subjects.  It’s these iconic works that form the center of the artist’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, examining his early works as the foundations of both his own career, and the vital lifeline of Surrealism in the twentieth century.

René Magritte (Belgium, 1898-1967). La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed). 1938. Oil on canvas. 57 7/8 x 39″ (147 x 99 cm). The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Joseph Winterbotham Collection. © Charly Herscovici -– ADAGP – ARS, 2013 (more…)

A recent Forbes India interview with Christie’s Steven Murphy, following its successful first auction in Mumbai, has indicated the company’s approach to the growing international market.  “The fundamental fact is that the combination of the surge in interest in art, combined with the new connectivity available online, has opened the door to a vast population of new collectors globally. This surge in new buyers, which is continuing, far outstrips any modulation in sales that macro-economic trends would affect.” (more…)

The Tate Gallery is the subject of controversy, after including work by one of its trustees, the Turner Prize-winning artist Tomma Abts.  “This is all very wrong. There are tens of thousands of artists in this country who would give anything to have their work at the Tate. It seems blatant favouritism that works by their own trustees should be repeatedly selected,” said artist Charles Thompson.  “And it goes without saying that having a painting exhibited at a prestigious national gallery can only enhance the artist’s earning power.” (more…)