The Art Production Fund has launched another collaboration with luxury retailer Barney’s in an effort to raise funds for additional public arts projects.  Launching May 1st, the collaboration will feature a series of products with designs and illustrations by Alex Katz.  “Working with Alex is a dream come true,” says PF co-founder Doreen Remen.  “His work has long been influenced by pop culture imagery, and he’s passionate about getting his work out there to be enjoyed by everyone. Alex is the quintessential New Yorker and Barneys is such an iconic New York retailer, so the pairing was irresistible.” (more…)

Sara Reisman, director of New York City’s Percent for Art program within the department of Cultural Affairs, has been appointed as the new artistic director of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, where she will curate events and oversee the Foundation’s new “Art and Social Justice initiative.”  (more…)

Uta Werner, cousin of Cornelius Gurlitt, is appealing a Munich court’s decision rejecting her claim to Gurlitt’s trove of works.  The German court system is currently reviewing the appeal before it makes its decision to pass the claim on or reject it again. (more…)

The annual Art Critics Association Awards for 2014 have been announced, with Kara Walker’s Domino Sugar Factory project winning for “Best Exhibition in an Alternative Venue,” and Pierre Huyghe’s LACMA Retrospective winning for “Best National Museum Monograph.” (more…)

The annual BP Portrait Award has announced this year’s shortlist, featuring artists from the UK, Israel and Spain.  “It was good to see even more international artists entering and my fellow judges and I were impressed by the different styles of portraiture, some quite new to the exhibition, and intrigued by the stories behind the portraits,” says Pim Baxter, the deputy director at London’s National Portrait Gallery. (more…)

Bloomberg reports on dealer Yves Bouvier, whose arrest earlier this year over alleged price inflation in the $186 million sale of a Mark Rothko reflects the warnings offered earlier this year by economist Ariel Roubini: “There are a number of serious distortions in the art market that suggest that there is some shady behavior going on.  Price opacity in the art market leads to insider information, which makes insider trading in art far more likely.” (more…)

Beginning May 1st, British Airways is launching a new in-flight television channel run by the Tate, featuring interviews and profiles in artists like Grayson Perry, Ed Ruscha and Ai Weiwei.  “We’re excited to be the first airline to have a dedicated Tate channel, offering our customers more entertainment options than ever before.”  British Airways in-flight entertainment manager, Richard D’Cruze, says.  “There is definitely a trend to use your flight time to discover something new and different and feel a sense of accomplishment when you step off a plane.”  (more…)

Another article on the Obama Presidency’s attack on 1031 “Like-Kind” Exchanges is on Bloomberg this week, focusing on collector Steven Edlis and his use of the loophole to acquire works he then donates.  “Stefan Edlis has been generous but many people who will take advantage of this will not be generous,”says critic Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art. (more…)

A pair of Francis Bacon self-portraits that have been considered missing since they were painted in the mid-1970’s have been found, and are going on sale at Sotheby’s this July in London, estimated at £15 million each.  “Marlborough Fine Art kept a photographic archive and so both of these paintings appeared in a book on Bacon’s self-portraits but, apart from being reproduced in books, they’ve not been seen,” says Sotheby’s Oliver Barker. “We knew of the existence of the paintings but simply had no idea where they could be.” (more…)

Part of the celebrations surrounding the opening of the Whitney Museum this week, the Empire State building will display colored lighting schemes centered around famous works from the museum collection.  The lighting, which goes live Saturday, is designed by acclaimed designer Mark Brickman.  “We’re dealing with Andy Warhol and Elizabeth Murray and Rothko,” Brickman says of the challenge. “Giants.” (more…)

Lauren Cornell, the Curator of this year’s New Museum Triennial, is interviewed in Dazed this week, reflecting on her origins in experimental film, her work with Rhizome, and her work in addressing gender and sexuality as a curator.  “I think it seems especially hard or frustrating to come up as a young artist now in an art world that seems to think of itself as ‘over’ inequality, while consistently rewarding white men more than anyone else,” she says.  “In this context, it’s important to create spaces for ongoing inequalities to be named and dealt with constructively.” (more…)

Outside the New Whitney Museum, via Art Observed

When the Whitney’s migration downtown was first announced, the anxiety and anticipation over its move away from the Breuer building on 75th and Madison was palpable, to say the least.  But as the initial reviews of the space begin to trickle in, the move downtown seems to have made all of the difference for one of the bastions of American fine arts.  Sure enough, the museum, which opens its Renzo Piano-designed doors to the public on May 1st, has created the conditions for something truly incredible in the Meatpacking District, an effortless, flowing viewing experience that manages to tie the museum’s impressive holdings together with the skylines and scenic views of its iconic hometown.

John Storr, via Art Observed (more…)

The New York Times looks at the current practices of “Like-Kind Exchange” on the fine art market, a tax provision allowing collectors and art flippers to defer taxes on sales income by using proceeds to buy an even more expensive work, and the attention it’s currently receiving from tax regulators.  “If you are doing five transactions over 25 years,” says advisor Josh Baer, “each time buying something more expensive, each time you don’t pay the capital gains tax on the way. At the end of the day you are way ahead.” (more…)

A new study on the use of digital technologies in American art museums is set for release this week, an in-depth study that looks at museum projects nationwide and their effectiveness in incorporating new immersive media.  The study covers 41 museum projects, from a “digital census” of French sculpture at Dallas’s Nasher Center to new iPad based wall labeling at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts.   (more…)

The MAK Vienna has purchased artist Harm van den Dorpel’s Event Listeners screen-saver work with Bitcoins, making it the first museum in the world to use the digitally-centered currency.  The work will be shown at this year’s inaugural Vienna Biennale, running June 11 to October 4. (more…)

Bloomberg takes a look at the difficulties behind financing large-scale art projects, including the issues often facing galleries when it comes to selling the completed pieces, focusing the study on artist Alice Aycock’s public installation on Park Ave.  “It’s a long-term financial investment,” says Aycock’s gallerist, Thomas Schulte. “One work by Aycock cost $350,000 alone in production costs, and took over a year to make, and in that particular case we needed another year to sell it.” (more…)

The Financial Times profiles Iranian artist Shirin Neshat as she prepares to open a career retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. and Baku, Azerbaijan.  “As an Iranian in exile, she has always been very articulate about the idea of a condition of diaspora and, with that, the complexity of feeling connected to a culture, but living outside it,” says Director Melissa Chiu. “It’s a very personal approach to history, through Shirin’s own eyes.” (more…)

Printed Matter is leaving its current space at 195 Tenth Avenue, which is has occupied for the last 10 years, and moving to a new, two-level space at the corner of Eleventh Avenue and 26th Street this September, the organization announced this week.  The new building will double its current space, and will allow a more diverse series of events to be held on-site.  “Printed Matter’s new location will provide us with the much-needed space to facilitate our many different programs and services,” says Printed Matter Board Chair Philip Aarons. “In the past 10 years we’ve more than doubled in size as an organization, and it has become clear that we have simply out-grown our current space. We are thrilled by the prospects and opportunities our new home will provide in the fulfillment and furthering of our mission.” (more…)

James Meyer, the former assistant to Jasper Johns convicted of stealing and plotting to sell works from the artist’s studio, has been sentenced to over a year in prison.  “I am truly devastated that I destroyed the close relationship that I had with the man who was my mentor, employer and friend since I was 21-years-old,” Meyer said in court. (more…)

The fully realized design proposals for the Guggenheim Helsinki are set to be unveiled at the Kunsthalle Helsinki today, marking the next step in the museum’s proposed expansion to Finland.  “We hope this exhibition and its programs will inspire the Finnish public to engage with the possibilities of a Guggenheim museum in Helsinki, and to think about the potential of a prominent site on their waterfront,” says Guggenheim Director Richard Armstrong. (more…)

The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year’s Venice Biennale will go to Ghanian artist El Anatsui.  “The Golden Lion Award acknowledges not just his recent successes internationally, but also his artistic influence amongst two generations of artists working in West Africa,” says Biennale Director Paolo Baratta. “It is also an acknowledgment of the sustained, crucial work he has done as an artist, mentor and teacher for the past forty-five years.” (more…)

Christo has announced a new project aiming to create long immense, yellow fabric walkways spanning Lake Iseo in Lombardy, Italy.  The work will be the artist’s largest since his 2005 piece in New York’s Central Park, and the first since the death of his wife Jeanne-Claude. (more…)

The Institut Giacometti, the foundation museum dedicated to the life and work of Alberto Giacometti, is set to open next year in Paris, featuring a meticulous recreation of the artist’s small, 270 square-foot studio.  The opening of the museum is the result of settled disputes over the estate of the artist, as brokered by Institut head Catherine Grenier, former deputy director of the Centre Pompidou.  “When I got here a year ago,” Grenier says, “this foundation was not at all well known, for one essential reason: It was closed to the public. My priority is to make its activities and its extraordinary collection accessible.” (more…)

Piotr Uklanski, The Nazis (1998), via Art Observed

Currently on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a retrospective focusing on the work of Polish-born artist Piotr Uklanski, many of which are pulled from the rarely seen Joy of Photography series that the artist executed in the years following his move to the United States following the fall of Communism. (more…)