Yayoi Kusama at Victoria Miro, via Andrea Nguyen for Art Observed

Spread out along the spacious aisles and picturesque dome of the Grand Palais in Paris, the Foire internationale d’art contemporain, also known as FIAC, has returned once again for another year of sales and exhibitions in the French capital. With Wednesday evening slowly dragging into the late hours, the fair’s VIP opening is now concluded, once again garnering strong praise and enthusiastic response from its attendees. This year, the list of galleries brings together exhibitors from 25 countries, marking its 46th edition with a fitting reflection of its storied history, one echoed by the prestigious locale of the Grand Palais. With an exacting selection of modern art, contemporary art, and design galleries, among the most emblematic of the international scene, the fair’s opening hours once again underscored its vitality in the modern fair circuit. (more…)

Artist Sharona Franklin is accusing Gucci of ripping off the style and techniques in her work, after the artist was approached and signed an NDA for the company. “I gave them my full name, and then after that I never heard from them again,” she says, noting that she has suffered from multiple chronic illnesses that have caused issues with employers in the past. “I lost so many opportunities in the past by disclosing my disability to employers.”  (more…)

Reversing a prior ruling, an Italian court has ruled that da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man to Paris for the massive Louvre exhibition set to open soon.  The last ruling stated that the work was too fragile to travel. (more…)

The Centre Pompidou is planning an “art factory” in the suburb of Massy, with 237,000 square feet for storage and exhibition space.  The space is estimate to  cost around €50 million, or about $55.6 million, to build.  The space will also hold works from the Musée National Picasso-Paris. (more…)

Former Institute of Contemporary Art Miami head Ellen Salpeter will take on leadership of Westbeth Artists’ Housing, a New York–based nonprofit providing affordable housing and studio spaces to artists, Art News reports.  “It’s a nice time to reflect on its story, which is pretty extraordinary, but it also offers us an opportunity to look forward to the next phase of Westbeth and position us as a resource for a future generation of artists,” she says. “I think we have a fundamental role in keeping cultural producers in New York.” (more…)

New York officials are threatening to cuts to funding for the art storage and handling company UOVO over “aggressive and coercive tactics” to prevent its workers from unionizing. “Immediately cease and desist your campaign of intimidation and misinformation against your employees,” reads a letter to UOVO chairman Steve Guttman from New York state senator Julia Salazar. (more…)

Chinese-French artist Sanyu’s Five Nudes will go on sale at Christie’s Hong Kong, with a record-setting presale estimate of HKD 250 million, or about $33 million. (more…)

Following Desert X’s partnership with Saudi Arabia on its next exhibition, an early donor for the project, The MaddocksBrown Foundation will withdraw funding.  “It’s like inviting Hitler to a tea party in 1943 — I see a simile here,” says artist Ed Ruscha. “I see Saudi Arabia as being in desperate need of cultural legitimacy, and this is a way to move the spotlight away from their other problems.” (more…)

The Louvre is putting the finishing touches on a virtual reality tour that focuses on the Mona Lisa as it prepares its landmark show on Leonardo Da Vinci. “She is seated, and spectators will be facing her like a conversation, face to face,” says Dominique de Font-Réaulx, the Louvre’s director of mediation and cultural programming. (more…)

A piece in the NYT recognizes the German art center Z.K.M. in Karlsruhe, which has a reputation for spotting new and dynamic creative ideas, and which was an early supporter and collector of visual art.  “No other institution has a track record of really looking at the medium in depth,” says Christiane Paul, a media studies professor at the New School. (more…)

Nick Cave gets a profile in the NYT this week, part of a series celebrating “The Greats,” and discusses his career, including the construction of his first sound suit after the 1992 Rodney King beating.  “I felt like my identity and who I was as a human being was up for question. I felt like that could have been me,” he says. “Once that incident occurred, I was existing very differently in the world. So many things were going through my head: How do I exist in a place that sees me as a threat?” (more…)

Emilie Gordenker will serve as the next director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, signing on from the Mauritshuis museum in the Hague. “After 12 wonderful years at the Mauritshuis, it is time for a new challenge,” Gordenker said in a statement. “I am absolutely thrilled to move to the Van Gogh Museum. It will be an honor to lead such a successful museum and I look forward to building on that success in the future.” (more…)

Stefan T. Edlis, the Chicago of postwar and contemporary art, has died at the age of 94.  “There are thousands of good artists,” he once said. “If you try to understand more than what you can get through your head, you won’t give them the proper attention.” (more…)

Christie’s will offer a rarely-seen David Hockney valued at a $25 million-to-$45 million estimate this November in New York.  The work, Sur la Terrasse, from 1971, was painted at almost exact scale. “This work marks a momentous turning point in the artist’s personal and professional lives,” says Ana Maria Celis, Christie’s head of evening sale, postwar and contemporary art. “We are very pleased to be bringing Sur la Terrasse to market and into the public eye after residing within a private collection for nearly 40 years, where it went unseen by the public for almost as long.” (more…)

Sotheby’s will offer Francis Bacon’s Pope on to benefit the Brooklyn Museum‘s collection this November in New York. “Pope offers a rare glimpse into the psychology of the artist and the influences behind the works he created during a passionate yet volatile love affair with Peter Lacy,” the auction house writes in its statement. (more…)

A massive crowd of protestors descended on the steps of The Met yesterday, part of a protest against Columbus Day. “I want to remind you that this was not brought to you by the Met,”says Amin Husain, a member of Decolonize This Place. “This was brought to you by the comrades who came together to say Columbus Day is a sham.” (more…)

Gavin Turk gets a profile in The Guardian, discussing his recent activism and protest, and how he sees the art world unfolding in the face of climate crisis.   “Art is bound to get caught up in what’s happening in the wider world,” he says.  (more…)

Nayland Blake gives the NYT a tour of their Flatbush apartment, showcasing work from fellow queer artists and the clutters of material and work that adorn their one bedroom space. “The only way that queer or marginalized cultures survive is through somebody loving them and somebody acting as the curator of their own museum,” Blake says. “That kind of intimate culture is just as valid as the high cultures that museums often traffic.” (more…)

A Salvador Dalí print valued at $20,000 was stolen from a San Francisco gallery this weekend. “He was in and out of there in a shot,” says Rasjad Hopkins, gallery director at Dennis Rae Fine Art, where the work was stolen.   (more…)

Sadie Benning, Blow Up #26 (2018), via Kaufman Repetto

Returning to the French capital for another year of exhibitions inside the iconic expanses of the Grand Palais, the Foire International Art Contemporain, or FIAC, opens its doors today in Paris.  The fair, which has operated for over 45 years in the city, has undergone several facelifts over the course of its lifetime, with its most recent editions courting a healthy mix of contemporary and modern works alongside more classical and historical modes, making it one of the world’s more ambitiously curated programs. (more…)

John Giorno, via Sperone Westwater

Artist John Giorno, the poet and artist whose practice turned poetry towards a living, breathing mode of art, separated from the page, has passed away at the age of 82 in his home in Lower Manhattan.  A longtime fixture in the New York art scene, Giorno would explore a range of techniques and modes for promoting his work outside the book or magazine.  He founded Giorno Poetry Systems, a nonprofit foundation, and designed a mass communication system called Dial-A-Poem, which allowed for people to call in and hear orated poetry over the phone.   (more…)

The Italian Culture Ministry has renewed Eike Schmidt’s contract as director of the Uffizi after he cancelled plans to take the helm at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum at the last minute. (more…)

Hans Haacke gets the profile treatment in the New York Times this week, as he prepares to mount a major retrospective at the New Museum. “To introduce something that deals with the social and political world that we live in — that was alien,” Haacke says of his early work. “Maybe I was naïve, but I did not expect that this would cause problems.” (more…)

Paul Chan, Khara En Tria (Joyer in 3) (2019), via Greene Naftali

On view this month at Greene Naftali in Chelsea, artist Paul Chan makes his fourth solo entry in the gallery program, featuring a new series of works Chan calls “Bathers.” Marking new iterations and elaborations on his prior work, the show explores space and movement through simple materials. (more…)