‪‬Top Australian art dealer faces 87 charges for art investment fraud of 43 clients with losses of $8 million [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Anne Collier’s photo of a developing photo, ‘Developing Tray #2,’ to be displayed throughout February on High Line Billboard [AO Newslink]

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Jeff Wall, Boxing (2011)

Jeff Wall’s latest solo show at the Marian Goodman Gallery, New Photographs, consists of seven large scale photographs and four smaller ones. Most made within the past two years, the works are a continuation on the neo-realistic, documentary style parameters the artist has been working within in recent years, reflecting various pieces of a collective cultural fabric that Wall weaves throughout his ouvre.

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‪ In anticipation of The India Art Fair, a look into a growing foundation of India-based collectors [AO Newslink]

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‪‬NY Times on artist Dustin Yellin’s soon to open $3.7 million 24,000-square-foot “utopian art center” in Red Hook [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Musée d’Orsay threatens legal action against French lingerie company Etam for publicity stunt, “a serious infringement of the Orsay’s rights and the rights of others.” [AO Newslink]

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New York City amateur art dealer pleads guilty for forging authentication papers for fake Damien Hirst prints he had purchased on ebay: “LSD,” “Opium” and “Valium.” Silver reaped and ultimately repaid a total of $84,000, with an additional $20,000 on reserve and $7,000 in taxes. [AO Newslink]

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James Franco slated to play photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in Eliza Dukshu’s production, replacing her now-director brother. [AO Newslink]

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S.A.C Capital founder and art collector Steve A. Cohen joins Museum of Contemporary Art’s board of trustees, in addition to his current duties at the Painting and Sculpture Committee of the Museum of Modern Art [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Chinese artist Zhang Daqian tops auction market at $507 million, on top of Warhol and Picasso. Regarding Chinese artists, “They are on top because China is the No. 1 country at auction and the Chinese are buying their own artists,” says Artprice economist Martin Bremond [AO Newslink]

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‪‬The Velvet Underground sues Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts over trademark rights to Warhol’s banana image, claiming earned ownership by association [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Guggenheim and city of Helsinki conclude study for possible waterfront site for €140 million ($179 million) museum, to feature “a stronger focus on architecture and design than other Guggenheim affiliates” [AO Newslink]

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Francis Picabia, Printemps (1942-43)

Currently being shown at Michael Werner Gallery in New York is an exhibition of the French surrealist/Dadaist painter Francis Picabia. The exhibition has a particular focus on the artists’ later works, during which he explored methods of painting beyond the conventional and expected of the time. While Picabia’s work stands alongside the exploratory French artists and thinkers of the early 20th century, it is also branded in his unique sensibilities, constantly changing and seemingly never satisfied.

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David Hockney, A Bigger Splash (1967). All images via Artnet.

Not only is the Getty the hub of activities for the Southern California-wide Pacific Standard Time (PST) programming, but it is also host to a number of events and exhibitions, including Greetings from L.A.: Artists and Publics, 1950-1980, From Start to Finish: De Wain Valentine’s Gray Column, In Focus: Los Angeles, 1945-1980, and performances for the Performance and Public Art Festival that will take place later in January. It has also mounted the large-scale, historical exhibition Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950 -1970. With 79 works by 47 artists, the exhibition charts the unique artistic innovations that have come to define the Los Angeles art scene as well as helped to shape some of the most important art movements from the second half of the 20^th century.

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Tate Modern’s Chief Curator Sheena Wagstaff moves to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum Board, in anticipation of appropriating the former Whitney Building on Madison Avenue for contemporary art exhibitions in 2015. [AO Newslink]

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T Magazine features Chinati Foundation artists in Marfa, Texas [AO Newslink]

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All photos on site for Art Observed by Elene Damenia.

Five tons of porcelain sunflower seeds—made in China—cover the floor of Mary Boone Gallery in Ai Weiwei‘s latest installment of Sunflower Seeds. Ai Weiwei employed nearly 1,600 artisans for two years in the traditional porcelain-producing city of Jingdezhen in northern Jiangxi, China, to individually craft and paint each actual-size seed by hand. Proclaimed one of the most influential artists of 2011 by several authorities, the work explores social, political, and economic issues of contemporary China. The seemingly uniform floor covering is composed of millions of the unique seeds, drawing attention to the role of the individual versus the masses, as well as China’s history of mass-production and export.

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Billy Childish, Sibelius Among Saplings (2011). All images courtesy Lehmann Maupin gallery.

Lehmann Maupin in New York is currently presenting work by Billy Childish, a cult artist who has been an integral part of the contemporary cultural landscape for the past 35 years. Curated by Matthew Higgs of White Columns, the exhibition is appropriately christened I am the Billy Childish, presenting a series of the artist’s recent paintings alongside a selection of his copious musical and literary projects.

Billy Childish sings at his opening at Lehmann Maupin

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‪‬George Clooney to make movie of art historians involved in World War II, an adaptation of the 2009 book “The Monuments Men” by Robert Edsel [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Yayoi Kusama collaborates with Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton for a range of goods to debut this July [AO Newslink]

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With an 11% investment return for 2011 the Mei Moses Art Index shows the art market beating the S&P 500 for the second consecutive year, and the sixth overall since 2001 [AO Newslink]

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Gert and Uwe Tobias, Untitled (2011). All images courtesy of Maureen Paley, London.

The work of Gert and Uwe Tobias is currently on view at Maureen Paley, London. The identical twin brothers collaboratively create large scale woodcuts, mixed-media works, and ceramic sculptures. The artists draw from a multitude of inspirational sources to create pieces that are visually stunning and technically innovative, appearing at the same time both playful and haunting. Decorative patterns, bold colors, and textile qualities are visual characteristics ever present in their abstracted cartoon-like figures, heavily influenced by the Eastern European folk art of their homeland, Transylvania.

Installation View

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Andy Warhol, Shadows (1978-79), installation view. All photos via Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Andy Warhol’s silkscreened series Shadows is on view now at Washington’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Shadows was created during the last decade of Warhol’s life and consists of 102 prints of shadows produced in his studio. The paintings are exhibited on an uninterrupted wall, providing a unique opportunity to view the series curving through the museum’s galleries. The Shadow series departs from Warhol’s usual pop style as he generated the shadows himself in his studio, creating abstract forms not normally seen in his work.

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Two French art advisers resign from the Louvre’s committee after Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” was deemed overcleaned, thus too bright to retain Renaissance sfumato and overall art historical accuracy [AO Newslink]

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