Collector and dealer Asher Edelman has filed a lawsuit claiming he has been victimized in a fraudulent deal for the sale of more than 100 works claimed to be by Picasso, Matisse, and more.  The lawsuit states that Swiss company Artmentum convinced Edelman’s company that a Japanese museum was seeking to sell $400 million in art, a statement that Edelman claims was wholly false.  “Each defendant, acting individually and in concert with each other, participated in an elaborate, fraudulent scheme in the guise of an international art transaction designed to deprive ArtAssure of hundreds of millions of dollars,” the lawsuit says. (more…)

Juan Gris, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux (1915), via Christie’s

After the beginning of the February auctions in New York last week, attention will shift across the Atlantic to London, where the Impressionish and Modern art auctions will commence today, February 4^th with Christie’s evening sale.  This year, the modern sale will offer some strong works from both auction houses, boasting impressive estimates that belie a strong offering across the board, rather than a handful of big ticket works. (more…)

The trailer for the Penn Gillette-directed film Tim’s Vermeer has been released, charting a computer graphics designer’s inquiry into the painting technique of Johannes Vermeer, and the impact it makes on the art world. (more…)

Reporter Doreen Carvajal has published an article in the New York Times, detailing her independent efforts to track down the potential heirs to paintings lost or stolen during the Nazi occupation of much of Europe.  The search was inspired by the French government’s increased efforts to return confiscated paintings, and the legal challenges it faces.  The article also addresses a perceived indifference to the process of returning the works, which is in part caused by a need for thoroughly exhaustive research.  “There is no French omerta to refuse to return the paintings,” says Cultural Minister Aurélie Filippetti.  “On the contrary, I am committed to move faster and further.” (more…)

The construction of an enormous tower next door to the Art Students League has raised fierce debate among members and supporters of the institution.  The soon to be built Extell Building will stand as one of the tallest buildings in the world, with several cantilevered segments hanging over the school, for which developers will pay the organization $31 million.  While many at the Art Students League are eager to accept the money, others worry about rushing into a deal that may ultimately endanger the school’s future.  “The League is too beautiful and too venerable to be messed with like this,” says member Beth Karts. “Some things in this world, like the League, are worth a lot more than money.” (more…)

Christie’s auction house will auction a series of 45 never-before exhibited works from the early career of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a collection held by his former lover Alexis Adler from when the pair shared an apartment in the East Village from 1979 to 1980.  The online-only sale will be held in March, and features a mural the artist painted with the words “Olive Oyl” as the top lot, priced to sell for just over $400,000.  “He left this trail of art everywhere he went,” said Ms. Adler. (more…)

Part of artist Doug Aitken’s The Source series of art conversations, the artist speaks with Liz Glynn, talking about the artist’s approach to her immersive environments.  “I think about functioning as somewhere between an architect and a scientist,” she says. “So I create the space and set up an experiment, but then I get out of the way and sort of see what happens.” (more…)

Michael Beutler, Weaving Workshop (2009-2013) all images courtesy Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

At the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is the largest ever textile show presented by the museum to date, including more than 100 woven works by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger, as well as several contemporary artists. The show will remain on view through February 9th.

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El Greco, The Annunciation, via Sotheby’s

The past week of Old Masters auctions in New York has concluded with a series of successful auctions at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s this week, bringing respectable sums that set the stage for the next two weeks of Modern and Contemporary Works at both houses.  Notably more subdued than last year’s competitive sales, a number of works still managed to drive the auctions beyond their anticipated figures.  Sotheby’s capped a series of well-attended auctions that brought in a total sum of $71 million, while Christie’s closed a series of auctions bringing in just over $65 million. (more…)

Frank Stella, The Big Flea Tower (2013), all images Courtesy Peter Freeman Inc.

On view at Peter Freeman, Inc. is a solo show of recent sculptures by Frank Stella, drawn mostly from his series Scarlatti K and Circus which were created using 3-D printing technology and metal pipes and rods. The exhibition will continue through February 22, 2014.

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The government of Qatar has purchased the former East 64th Street gallery previously owned by the Wildenstein international art dealing family, with an estimated sale price of over $100 million.  “In many ways, it’s a little bit the soul of this company and the soul of this family, so seeing it go will be difficult,” dealer David Wildenstein said. (more…)

In a particularly apropos wager, the city art museums for both Denver and Seattle have placed thematically-fitting artworks on the line over the result of this Sunday’s Super Bowl game between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks.  Denver has wagered one of Frederic Remington’s Bronco Buster statues, and Seattle will put forward Sound of Waves,” a 12-foot-wide drawing of a hawk by Japanese artist Tsuji Kako. (more…)

Albrecht Dürer, Bildnis der Mutter des Künstlers, Barbara Dürer, geb. Holper (1490) Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg Foto: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt is currently presenting an exhibition of around 250 works focused on the art and influence of German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, including 190 works by the artist himself, a massive project which required many loan negotiations with museums around the world. Dürer: His Art in Context gives an overview of the artist’s entire career, including 25 panel and canvas paintings, 80 drawings, and 80 prints and books. Also on display are works by some German, Italian, and Dutch artists who inspired Dürer, both contemporaries and those who worked before him, providing a context through which viewers can see the world of Dürer including Martin Schongauer, Hans Baldung Grien, Hans von Kulmbach, and Lucas van Leyden.

Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I (Die Melancholie) (1514), Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main Foto: Städel Museum – ARTOTHEK

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An article in the New York Times documents painter Martin Wong’s early contributions to the patronization and encouragement of New York Graffiti art, financially backing struggling artists and buying some of their works for his own personal collection.  The story comes as the Museum of the City of New York prepares to open a show on the artist’s early collection of street art pieces.  “He always thought those first pieces, in a fundamental way, were the legs of a major art movement,” artist Lee Quiñones said. (more…)

Sotheby’s auction house has released its capital allocation report this morning, with the announcement that it will pay out $300 million in dividends, as well as initiate a $150 million stock buyback plan, responding to investor pressure to shore up ownership in the company’s stock.  The company also announced its intent to sell its York Avenue headquarters, and has indicated attempts to add additional debt-financing to its loan department.   (more…)

ArtNews offers an inside look on the secret market for Nazi-looted artworks, an underground network of curators, dealers and collectors who maintained a market for looted works long after the war.  With little involvement from occupying American forces, former influential Nazi art officials quickly attained positions of prominence again after the war, often maintaining ties to collectors with little qualms in purchasing formerly confiscated works.   (more…)

2050 5th Avenue, via Art Observed

There’s something particularly fitting about the conversion of Harlem’s Mt. Moriah Church by artist Ugo Rondinone.  Long interested in conflations of the human and the spiritual through physical sculpture and architecture (particularly the artist’s ongoing Human Nature series of human rock sculptures installed last year at both Rockefeller Center and Gladstone Gallery), the space fuses its towering facade with both studio and exhibition space inside.  Last week, Rondinone opened his studio and gallery, still under construction, for a private tour, showcasing the artist’s impressive architectural project, and his new exhibition in the space, a series of monochrome paintings by artist Wesley Martin Berg.

 A work by Wesley Martin Berg, via Art Observed (more…)

Street artist JR has unveiled his recent collaboration with the New York City Ballet, an expansive vinyl photograph of 80 dancers installed on the floor of the Koch Theatre’s marble promenade.  The image, twisted to look like an enormous eye, is best viewed from higher up, in the cheaper seats of the theatre, and acts as something of an equalizing project for the space.  “Now you’re inviting everyone to come up there,” the artist said. “And I like that, that it breaks boundaries — that anyone should be on any floor, it doesn’t matter.” (more…)

The proceedings over the alleged forgery of Jasper Johns‘ 1960 work Flag has ended with a guilty plea by Brian Ramnarine, the Queens foundry owner who admitted to copying the artist’s work and attempting to sell it for $11 million.  Ramnarine’s admission of guilt means he will not challenge any sentence of 10 years or less in prison, but could spend an additional 20 years for admitting to additional sculpture frauds after his arrest. (more…)

A car bomb explosion in Cairo has caused major damages to the collections of the Islamic Museum of Art and the Egyptian National Library and Archives, destroying ancient artifacts and artworks from all eras of the country’s history.  “Until now I cannot move freely inside the museum to continue my inspection tour due to safety reasons, as the ceilings are still on the verge of collapsing,” says Egypt’s antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim. (more…)

The British Government has placed an export ban on The Infant Moses trampling Pharaoh’s Crown, a 17th century painting by Nicolas Poussin which was originally purchased for £14 million by a private collector as part of a sale to raise funds for the renovation of Woburn Abbey.  “It would be a terrible shame if this dramatic work by Poussin was to be moved abroad permanently,” says Cultural Minister Ed Vaizey. “I hope that a UK buyer can be found and that the painting remains here in the UK where it can be enjoyed by the British public.” (more…)

Kazimir Malevich, Mystic Suprematism (red cross on black circle) (1920-1922), via New York Times

Kazimir Malevich’s impact on the early-Twentieth century Russian avant-garde is difficult to ignore.  Pushing forward the “new art,” he pioneered early minimalist practices and pushed the rupture of modernist art almost simultaneously with the Cubist deconstructions happening further west.  But it was Malevich that ultimately took these same processes to new abstractions, and perhaps what could be considered their limit, rendering pure geometric forms in contrasting, minimal explorations of color and space, ultimately developing the language that would come to define much of Twentieth century fine art.

Kazimir Malevich And The Russian Avant-Garde (Installation View), Via Stedelijk Museum Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij (more…)

The Wall Street Journal has published a feature article on artist George Condo’s collection of rare and custom stringed instruments, which the artist has ordered to his own specifications.  The artist, who studied music theory at the University of Massachusetts, is an avid musician and collector.  “I don’t want to simply collect instruments and not know how to play them,” Condo says. “It’s a great way to take my mind off the here and now—all the aspects of what goes on in the art world.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Stacked (2002), Installation view Pérez Art Museum Miami Photo credit: Daniel Azoulay photography

The doors of Miami’s newly completed Perez Art Museum opened this past December with a landmark exhibition of works by Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, the first major international retrospective of the artist’s work.  Charting the artist’s signature blend of irreverence, scale, architectural techniques and sculptural conceptualism, the exhibition is a remarkable introduction to Ai’s challenging and oftentimes difficult work, drawing on political aggression and irony to open dialogues on contemporary politics around the world.

An Ai Weiwei Zodiac Head outside the PAMM, via Art Observed

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