Jordan Wolfson, (Female Figure) (2014), via Art Observed

How does memory function in the 21st century?  How does nostalgia?  These are questions bound up in the work of Jordan Wolfson, on view now at David Zwirner.  Spread along a series of assemblages, video, and the artist’s notoriously eerie animatronic robot, the show is a striking step for the artist, showing his unique approach to art-making in an ever-stronger expressive capacity.

Jordan Wolfson, Raspberry Poseur (2012), via David Zwirner (more…)

Heidi Bucher, Untitled (Herrenzimmer), (undated) via Osman Can Yerebakan

Known for her ongoing focus on the relationship between the body and architectural space, the late Heidi Bucker is being commemorated with an exhibition at the Swiss Institute. The exhibition, running through May 11th at the gallery’s SoHo space, stands out being the first solo exhibition of the artist in the United States in more than forty years.

Heidi Bucher, Untitled (9 Objects), (1972-1987), Courtesy Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich (more…)

As the art market continues to see record highs at auctions each season, many collectors are digging deeper into the history books to find historically significant artists that may command a high price at auction. “Whether the artists are old, dead or overlooked, people are turning over all the stones,” says Wendy Cromwell of Cromwell Art LLC and president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors. “It’s a function of a global market. Dealers have to have new material all the time.” (more…)

Claes Oldenburg, Model for a Mahogany Plug, Scale B (1969), via Art Observed

On view through April 12 at Hauser and Wirth Gallery’s 18^th Street location is a selection of works collected by Reinhardt Onnasch, one of the first German art dealers to open a gallery in New York after World War II, and a skilled curator who helped to launch the career of a number of New York’s most definitive post-war artists. Re-view: Onnasch Collection provides a glimpse into the work done by this collector and enthusiast, reflecting overlapping art movements that bridged the American and German art worlds of the time.

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New research has shown that a set of watercolors by J.M.W. Turner, previously thought to depict the burning of Parliament, are in fact paintings of a fire at the Tower of London.  The note was discovered by Matthew Imms, a cataloguer at the Tate.  “We could tell that the works were fairly late in Turner’s career so I cast around for other events at that time, and came across various images, popular prints and so on of the Tower of London fire in 1841,” Imms says. “It immediately clicked, because the various uncertain features of the architecture and so on matched quite well.” (more…)

Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

Camille Henrot’s Grosse Fatigue seeks an experience akin to the slow trawls of internet message boards, Wikipedia pages, and Google searches that mark the contemporary search for information, a compartmentalized seeking after discrete bits of data.  Running from image to image, many culled from the archives of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Henrot’s project offers a condensed experience of information overload, cramming the story of the earth’s creation into 13 minutes.

Camille Henrot, Grosse Fatigue (2013), via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed (more…)

James Franco has written an op-ed piece in the New York Times this week, examining actor Shia Lebeouf’s recent performance piece in Los Angeles.  Noting LeBeouf’s performance as a potential attempt to take back his public persona from the entertainment industry.  “Any artist, regardless of his field, can experience distance between his true self and his public persona,” he writes. “But because film actors typically experience fame in greater measure, our personas can feel at the mercy of forces far beyond our control. Our rebellion against the hand that feeds us can instigate a frenzy of commentary that sets in motion a feedback loop: acting out, followed by negative publicity, followed by acting out in response to that publicity, followed by more publicity, and so on.” (more…)

Calder and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde to Iconic, (Installation View), all images courtesy LACMA

Currently on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is a landmark exhibition of from American sculptor Alexander Calder, including his iconic series of mobiles, as well as his later stabiles. Titled Calder and Abstraction: From Avant Garde to Iconic, the exhibition will remain on view at LACMA for over half a year, from November 24, 2013 through July 27, 2014.

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Georg Baselitz, Ohne Titel – 3.IV.2002 Der Schachspieler im Profil, (2002), via The Albertina

In honor of German-born Georg Baselitz’ 75th birthday, Albertina Gallery, Vienna, Austria, is presenting a cross-section of its broad collection of his work. Baselitz (b. 1938) is of the most easily recognized living modern artists, working as a painter, printmaker, sculptor, and draughtsman. He has had shows at institutions including MoMA, The Guggenheim, The Royal Academy, The Saatchi Gallery, The Gagosian Gallery, and Centre Pompidou.

Georg Baselitz, Untitled, 16 April (2006), via The Albertina (more…)

Josephine Meckseper (Installation View), All images courtesy Andrea Rosen Gallery

On view at Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York is an exhibition of large-scale vitrines, mirrored wall panels and photographs, all by Josephine Meckseper, and alluding to the rise of the Bauhaus and Deutscher Werkbund in Weimar Germany, and their subsequent destruction by the Nazi regime.

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Brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman are the subject of the Financial Times’ ongoing “Lunch with the FT” series, talking about their early work, and response to criticism that their work has scarcely changed in the past years.  “But it’s the same criticism you could level at Mark Rothko,” The brothers collectively ask. “Is it imperative for the artist to be novel?” (more…)

The Economist profiles the recent release of Geordie Greig’s Breakfast with Lucian, a biography of the famously reclusive painter Lucian Freud.  Delving into the artist’s private, occasionally impulsive lifestyle, the book is proffered as an intriguing read, recalling stories of sordid love affairs, and Freud’s notorious gambling streak.   (more…)

Jon Rafman, I am alone but not lonely, (2013), via Zach Feuer

The artist Jon Rafman continually explores processes of archiving and history-making, storytelling and expression online, trawling the deeper recesses of gaming and message board communities to explore how these groups express senses of their own identities, their own mythologies, and their own senses of being.  It’s this sense of recording and presentation that marks Rafman’s current show at Zach Feuer, which sees the artist examining the shared sense of history and presentation for various communities through written dialogues, amateur film, and image.

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As exhibitions of Balthus prepare to open in New York, critic Jerry Saltz writes on the history of one of the artist’s more sordid works, The Guitar Lesson.  Only exhibited once in 1977, the work has moved through the back channels of the art world in the past 40 years, finally coming to rest in the collection of shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.  “I don’t love Balthus’s work, but I grant that all parts of the best examples are charged with something wild, almost half-human, some sleeping need, rage, frustration, and restraint. What makes the banishment of The Guitar Lesson so bitter isn’t only that MoMA came this close to owning a second take on the blatant sexuality of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.”  Saltz writes. (more…)

John Baldessari, Man Fixing Curlers in Woman’s Hair (2013), all images by Sophie Kitching for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

On view at Sprüth Magers Berlin is a solo exhibition of new works by L.A.-based John Baldessari: large-format storyboard canvases he created in 2013.

The opening for John Baldessari’s Storyboard (in 4 Parts)
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During research on a book about Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, writer Martin Bailey stumbled across a Parisian newspaper article, detailing the artist’s public severing of his left ear following a row with Gaugin.  The article, which reported the artist merely as “someone named Vincent,” also details Van Gogh’s later arrival at a “house of ill repute,” where he presented the doorman with the piece of his ear.  “Take it, it will be useful.”  The artist told him. (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art has announced a new show, opening this December, focusing on the life and patronage of collector Ileana Sonnabend, a Romanian emigré who at one time was married to Leo Castelli, and presided over the New York art world, eventually developing a collection valued at well over $900 million, and championing artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Mario Merz.  “For us, the emphasis will clearly be on the history she made.” Says Chief Curator Ann Temkin. (more…)

Gilbert & George, We Are (1985), courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

On view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in both of its Salzburg locations (Villa Kast and Halle) is “30 Years,” an exhibition of works intended to be both “retrospective and prospective” of the gallery’s own history and future.  Presenting a series of works by artists who have passed through the lens of Ropac’s thorough gallery practice, the show is at turns a celebration and forecast of what’s to come for the expanding gallery brand.

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Barry Bergdoll, MoMA’s Architectural Curator for the past six years, has announced that he will be leaving the position to return to Columbia University as chair of the Art History Department.  “The university has now requested that I return to teach full time,” Mr. Bergdoll said in a letter to journalists. “It is for me a great honor that I feel also recognizes the scholarly work that I have continued to pursue most recently in exhibitions and publications here at MoMA.” (more…)

Empire State (Installation View), via Palazzo Delle Esposizioni

“Empire State,” a classic nickname denoting New York’s central position in the art world, takes a new spin in Rome this summer, thanks to the curatorial talents of Alex Gartenfeld and Norman Rosenthal. (more…)

This fall, The Tate Britain will present an exhibition exploring iconoclasm in British art.  Art under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm opens this October, and will include a number of works that have been damaged, defaced or otherwise physically attacked as part of an ideological agenda, including the Statue of the Dead Christ, a 16th Century statue that survived the purgations of religious reformers.  “We wanted to look at things that had gathered significance over time and not something that happened to be topical.” Penelope Curtis, director of Tate Britain, said.  (more…)

Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (Snowman), (2013), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed

The counterpoint to Gagosian Gallery’s survey of recent work by Jeff Koons, David Zwirner is currently presenting a markedly more subdued set of works by the American artist.  Consisting of a cohesive series of plaster and steel sculptures, Gazing Ball fuses Koons’ signature approach to American kitsch and the art historical with a new sense of minimalism.

Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (Farnese Hercules), (2013), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

Renowned art historian Sir John Richardson is profiled in a long interview with the Financial Times this week, speaking about his life, his career, and his expansive biography of Pablo Picasso. “I used to bounce out of bed to write. In the old days I shinned up a ladder, got a book down, looked in the index – I can’t do that now. But the chance is that I won’t be able to get to the end of the Life [of Picasso], not because of my health or my eyes but because, well, I know too much. I know where the bodies are buried. I think I’ll stop in 1962, when Picasso and Jacqueline got married.” (more…)

In the wake of the Museum of Modern Art’s decision to demolish the former home of the American Museum of Folk Arts, The New York Times has published an exhaustive survey of MoMA’s expansion over its 100-plus year history.  As the article shows, the museum has a long reputation of demolishing surrounding buildings, including the destruction of a former Rockefeller home, and the George Blumenthal mansion, both of which would be considered landmarks by today’s standard. (more…)