Nine massive stone sculptures by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone have been installed in Rockefeller center this week, a collaboration between the artist at New York’s Public Art Fund.  Titled Human Nature, the primitivist sculptures each way 17 and 1/2  tons, and were installed by crane.  “My first thought was how big,” said Keith Douglas, managing director for Rockefeller Center. “He was saying ‘huge colossal sculptures,’ and I’m thinking, ‘In comparison to what?’ and multiplying times nine.”  (more…)

Artist Ed Ruscha is on this Times’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people this year, recognizing the artist’s highly influential conceptual practice and ongoing contributions to contemporary American art.  “Even if Ruscha never met a word he couldn’t unsettle, let’s hang on to the one we need sometimes to describe him: genius.” Writes Time art critic Richard Lacayo. (more…)

Over the past two years, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist has sought to bring a controversial piece by artist John Baldessari to realization, which would require exhibiting a human cadaver in a gallery space, viewed through a small peep-hole.  The work has been attempted several times, but has faced staunch legal opposition and considerations over the will of deceased body being included in the final product.  Says Obrist: “It’s not excluded that one day it will happen. You need the consent of the person obviously before they die. At the same time you need the consent of the family as well as legal authorization.” (more…)

Beginning May 1st, The Museum of Modern Art will remain open 7 days a week, following the recent announcement that The Metropolitan Museum of Art would also be opening its doors every day.  MoMA has usually closed on Tuesdays for cleaning and maintenance. (more…)

The New York Times has published a short feature by neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel, showing the links between the biological composition of the brain and the viewer’s understanding of art.  Using the turn of the century works of Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka as his example, Dr. Kandel illustrates how these particular works activated certain cells in the brain, causing a powerful emotional reaction.  New studies, such as the bold brain mapping project announced by President Obama this month, would continue to extend studies of the brain and its reactions to creative stimulus. (more…)

Painter Eric Fischl has published a memoir of the 1980’s New York art scene, chronicling the excesses and darker side of the high-profile art world of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mary Boone.  Titled Bad Boy, My Life On and Off the Canvas, the tell-all book includes a story about an infamous 1983 party thrown by Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, with “lookout towers, armed guards, and a glamorous crowd . . . some naked,” with waiters offering “glasses of Champagne [and] a choice of cocaine or heroin.” (more…)

Members of the now-defunct hip-hop group Das Racist will perform at The Whitney Museum on Sunday, in conjunction with member Himanshu Suri’s Greedhead Music record label.  The event, part of the programming for The Whitney’s current Blues for Smoke exhibition, will feature several musical performances, as well as several installations by Suri, including “hippie culture and spiritual tourism, the films and life of Guru Dutt, the skin lightening cosmetic industry in India, Air India, the Indian diaspora and immigration, South Asian visibility in Western pop culture, international working class labor politics, and much more.” (more…)

Sotheby’s and The Whitney have announced a major auction of works to benefit the construction of the museum’s new downtown location in Chelsea.  Featuring works by Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol and Alexander Calder, the New York auction, held on May 14th and 15th, will attempt to augment the $562.4 already raised by the museum with an expected $8 million in proceeds.  “The Whitney has been there for these artists, especially early on in their careers before people really knew them,” said Whitney Director Adam D. Weinberg. “I think for many of them, they feel that this is a way to give back.” (more…)

Madonna has announced plans to auction off a painting from her personal collection, Fernand Léger’s Trois Femmes à la Table Rouge, and to donate the resulting proceeds education projects for young girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The piece will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on May 7th, and is estimated to sell for $5-7 million. “I have a great passion for art and a great passion for education,’’ Madonna said in a statement. “I cannot accept a world where women or girls are wounded, shot or killed for either going to school or teaching in girls’ schools.’’ (more…)

Peter Fischli and David Weiss (Installation View), via Sprüth Magers

On view at Sprüth Magers Berlin is a solo exhibition of work by the collaboration between artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss (often shortened to “Fischli/Weiss”), which explores themes of transition, globalization and ephemerality through a selection of plastic sculptures and photographic installations. (more…)

Despite public protest, work crews have begun dismantling several sections of the Berlin Wall decorated with large-scale murals, known as the East Side Gallery, making way for a new luxury apartment development.  The wall was removed early in the morning, clearing about 20 feet of art-covered cement from the longest section of the wall still standing..  “If you take these parts of the Wall away, you take away the soul of the city,” said resident Ivan McClostney. “This way, you make it like every other city. It’s so sad.” (more…)

Sotheby’s is currently facing a lawsuit from a past customer, who discovered that a work he had purchased through the auction house was reportedly once owned by Herman Goering, the Nazi leader recognized as the founder of the Gestapo.  The piece, an 18th century painting by Louis-Michel van Loo, was sold in 2004, but was unable to be resold when questions arose about how Goering acquired the piece.  The plaintiff, Steven Brooks, claims that Sotheby’s sold the work fraudulently, knowing about its questionable origins, as well as knowing that the work would be difficult to resell. (more…)

Artist and musician Nick Cave’s Heard•NY opened at Grand Central Terminal in New York yesterday, filling the terminal with actors dressed in surreally designed horse costumes.  Bloomberg spoke with the artist about his practice, and his goals for the installation, which will remain open all this week.  “I’m looking at the station as a platform to get people back to that place where we dream. We’re in a world where we’re trying to do what we can to exist and hold on to our jobs. So I’d like to transmit this dream-state feeling, to get us out of our day-to-day routine for a moment.”  Cave says. (more…)

The New York Times has published a profile on art forger Guy Ribes, whose remarkably accurate forgeries of works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir are being used in the biographical film exploring the life of the late artist (Watch Trailer).  Ribes, who served several years in prison for forging works by renowned artists and selling them to a criminal art ring, was brought in to recreate works by Renoir, as well as works the artist may have painted.  “It’s funny, isn’t it,” Says writer Jean-Baptiste Péretié, “that the same thing that led to his conviction is what he’s being paid legally to do?” (more…)

The New York Times has published an in-depth look at Brooklyn’s newly founded Cultural Recovery Center.  Comprised of a task force of 106 volunteers, this rapid response team works to salvage work in the wake of major disasters like last year’s Hurricane Sandy.  “We’re not doing any big conservation,” says studio manager Anna Studebaker. “We are a kind of MASH unit.” (more…)

The New York Times has published a profile of the recently deceased Lisa de Kooning, daughter of 20th Century American painter Willem de Kooning.  The article traces her youth in New York City, her active championing of her father’s estate after his death in 1997, and her struggles with alcohol and drugs, which ultimately led to her early death.  “She had an immense amount of talent,” says actor Alex Kilgore, “but she knew what genius was and she could never free herself from her own eye.” (more…)

Coming off Tracey Emin’s presentation with a CBE, the artist has designed a limited-edition cover for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine.  A tribute to David Bowie in celebration of his new album, the cover features one of her signature neon hearts with the lines “You Loved Me Like A Distant Star.”  The 200 copies of the magazine will be available in advance of Bowie’s retrospective show at the Victoria and Albert Museum. (more…)

Tracey Emin has been honored with a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for her contributions to the arts.  Emerging as a leading member of the UK’s 1990’s contemporary arts scene, Emin was recognized for her ongoing contributions to British culture.  “Its amazing that I’ve been given this because its recognition for what I believe in and what I’ve worked for, so it’s a great feeling,” she said. (more…)

Angus Fairhurst, Un-titled (Installation View) via Sadie Coles HQ

Sadie Coles HQ‘s current exhibition by the late Angus Fairhurst (1966-2008), Un-titled, explores notions of “doing and undoing, absence and presence, thinking and feeling.”  Culling from Fairhurst’s broad body of sculpture, painting, collage and photography, the show is a testament to the artist’s brief but impressive output.

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An interior by French post-impressionist Henri Le Sidaner has been discovered in an office of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania School District.  The work, which was purchased in 1933 and donated to the school system, has been considered missing for 80 years, and is valued at $500k.  “It was really great it turned up and we know where it is now,” said Louise Lippincott, curator for fine arts at Carnegie Museum of Art.

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Aspasia Zaimis, niece of Greek Shipping Magnate Basil Goulandris, is pursuing a lawsuit to recover a selection of paintings from her uncle’s estate, including works by Van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet.  Her current investigation has already turned up a long paper trail of documents that have raised suspicions about the ownership of the works, and has also resulted in a criminal investigation of her late aunt Elise Goulandris’s philanthropic organization.  “I am determined to find the paintings which were in the Gstaad home before my aunt’s death,” Zaimis said. “I believe with all my heart that the paintings were part of my inheritance.” (more…)

David Salle/ Francis Picabia (Installation View), via Galerie Thaddeus Ropac

Currently on view at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac’s Marais location in Paris is a trans-Atlantic exhibition, featuring the works of David Salle and Francis Picabia, and focusing on a dialogue between the US-born Salle’s contemporary paintings and the French surrealism of Picabia. (more…)

The New York Times reviews The Cooper Union‘s current struggle to find solutions to their financial deficits.  While the famed art-educational institution has not charged tuition for over one hundred years, current budgetary issues have forced the school to re-evaluate its position.  Now, as a decision on charging undergraduate tuition nears, faculty, students and alumni are immersed in a fervent debate over the school’s future.  “There will be some tough decisions,” says president Jamshed Bharucha said. “There have to be. Because the model that has been in place cannot be sustained.” (more…)

Sotheby’s is being sued by a past seller for damages over a work they allegedly misattributed.  The Cardsharps, attributed by the auction house to a “follower of Caravaggio,” was sold for £42,000, and later identified as an authentic Caravaggio by its purchaser, scholar Denis Mahon, increasing its value to an estimated £10 million.  The claimant, Lancelot William Thwaytes, seeks unspecified damages, interests and costs for the value of the painting above its original selling price, but Sotheby’s is standing by their attribution.  “Our view is also supported by the market, which gave its verdict on this painting when it set the price at £50,400. ”  The company said in a statement. (more…)