The winner of the 2014 young architects program at MoMA PS1 has been announced, a striking cylindrical design made of corn stalk and living root structures, designed by New York-based practice The Living.  The structure will be installed this summer as part of PS1’s annual “Warm-Up Series.”  “This year’s yap winning project bears no small feat. it is the first sizable structure to claim near-zero carbon emissions in its construction process and, beyond recycling, it presents itself as being 100% compostable,’ said Pedro Gadanho, curator of MoMA‘s department of architecture and design. (more…)

The historic Franklin School building in Downtown Washington, D.C. will be converted into a modern art museum, called The Institute for Contemporary Expression.  The building will house exhibitions, performances and sculpture, and was pushed forward by collector Dani Levinas.  “With the completion of this selection process we are now a step closer to revitalizing Franklin School and giving it a new life,”  said deputy mayor for planning and economic development Victor Hoskins. (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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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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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…)

Artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s budding practice as an architect is profiled in a recent article by The Wall Street Journal, noting the artist’s published guide to museum architecture, his work renovating and constructing spaces, and his newly conceived Odawara Art Foundation museum, part of which juts out from a cliff to view the Pacific Ocean, and tactfully incorporates its surroundings into its design.  “This is related to memories of ancient culture of the human civilization,” says Sugimoto. (more…)

Jill Kroesen, The Original Lou and Walter Story, performance at The Kitchen, December 21—23, 1978. Courtesy the artist. Photograph by Robert Alexander

Currently on view at The Whitney Museum of American Art is Rituals of Rented Island: Object Theater, Loft Performance, and the New Psychodrama — Manhattan, 1970-1980, an ambitiously titled exhibition that focuses on the underground performance art circuits that made New York City a founding ground for the medium.  Looking at a broad range of performers, exhibition spaces, practices and historical contexts, the exhibition is an intriguing look at the early days of performance, and its impacts on contemporary art. (more…)

Hong Kong’s M+ Museum has received a major gift of 37 contemporary Chinese works from the collection of Guan Yi, one of the nation’s most significant collectors.  The donation includes a number of important works, most notably the entire checklist from the 2003 Venice Biennale Exhibition Canton Express.  “Guan Yi’s generous donation is a marker of the trust and respect that M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for visual culture, already holds within the international artistic community, and signals building global anticipation for the first museum of its kind in Asia – already housing one of the most important collections of Hong Kong and Chinese contemporary art worldwide,” says Michael Lynch, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority’s Chief Executive Officer.  (more…)

As violent protests continue to rock the city of Kiev in the Ukraine, the country’s National Art Museum has issued a statement asking both police and protestors to spare the museum’s cultural heritage.  The statement comes after city police lit a bonfire on the steps of the Museum to stay warm during violent clashes with protestors, and asks protestors and police to “remember their responsibility in preserving the cultural heritage of the state [and] refrain from deliberate or accidental actions that may damage the museum and the surrounding territory”. (more…)

The LA Times has published an in-depth profile of newly announced MOCA Director Philippe Vergne, examining his “collegial” arts background, and his vision for a new, “Artist Enabling” Museum.  Particularly of note is Vergne’s plans to refraine from curating shows himself.  “My role as a director is to enable curators to be what they are at the highest level. By doing that, you enable the artist,” he says. (more…)

Indian artist Subodh Gupta is profiled in the Wall Street Journal, as his first major museum retrospective opens at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.  Titled Everything is Insisde, the show is curated by former Venice Biennale director Germano Celant, and includes a number of new works.   “A good artist starts with his roots and uses that cultural identity to say something larger to the international art world,” Mr. Celant said. “But for an artist like Subodh, it’s also important to come back and be seen at home.” (more…)

Philippe Vergne, the current director of the Dia Art Foundation has been selected to replace Jeffrey Deitch as the head of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.  Vergne has previously worked on the 2006 Whitney Biennial, and also served briefly as the head of the François Pinault Foundation.  “The most important challenge for the new director,” former director Richard Koshalek says, “is to raise the standard of expectations of the museum within this community and beyond, and that means new, original ideas for the future.” (more…)

Colorado collector and philanthropist Frederic C. Hamilton has bequeathed a collection of French Impressionist works to the Denver Art Museum.  The works, which include pieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, and Gustave Caillebotte, have not been formally appraised, but could be worth up to $100 million.  “This is a game-changing gift,” said DAM director Christoph Heinrich. “We will have the biggest collection in the West of Impressionist art.” (more…)

The Guggenheim’s proposed outpost in the Finnish city of Helsinki seems to moving forward, with the museum posting an international call for architectural proposals following the city’s agreement to set aside a parcel of land on the city’s South Harbor waterfront.  The competition “will provide an opportunity to deepen public discussion surrounding the proposed museum,” the institution said in a statement. “We also believe it will bring Helsinki the heightened level of international attention the city deserves as a vibrant cultural center.’’ (more…)

Chinese-Indonesian collector Budi Tek is preparing to open his newly established Yuz Museum in Shanghai, showcasing a broad selection of contemporary Asian works from his collection.  “I don’t have any say, it is done by the curator, who will select from the whole of the collection,” Tek says. “We are very careful to collect and exhibit the best works considered historical to Chinese contemporary art.”  Tek says. (more…)

Pierre Huyghe at Centre Pompidou, via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed

Referred to as “a major figure in the French and international art scene”, Pierre Huyghe, a poet of space and sculptor of time was exposed at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris from September 25th 2013 to January 6th 2014. The exhibition was of retrospective nature, presenting 50 projects spanning over 20 years of Huyghe’s career.

Pierre Huyghe at Centre Pompidou, via Sophie Kitching for Art Observed (more…)

René Magritte (Belgium, 1898-1967). La clairvoyance (Clairvoyance). 1936. Oil on canvas. 21 1/4 x 25 9/16″ (54 x 65 cm). Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Ross. © Charly Herscovici -– ADAGP – ARS, 2013

The work of René Magritte is nothing if not recognizable.  His subtle, often humorous subversions of painterly convention and semiotic understanding are foundational elements of the early 20th century avant-garde, from  to his classic piece of semantic self-destruction, The Treachery of Images to the dreamlike paintings of imagined worlds and pastiched approaches to conventional subjects.  It’s these iconic works that form the center of the artist’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, examining his early works as the foundations of both his own career, and the vital lifeline of Surrealism in the twentieth century.

René Magritte (Belgium, 1898-1967). La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed). 1938. Oil on canvas. 57 7/8 x 39″ (147 x 99 cm). The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Joseph Winterbotham Collection. © Charly Herscovici -– ADAGP – ARS, 2013 (more…)

Elmgreen and Dragset, Tomorrow (Installation View) via Art Observed

Snaking through the hallways of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s London space is an immersive, illusory installation by Danish artists Elmgreen and Dragset, a multi-room piece realizing the home and studio of a fictional, disillusioned architect named Norman Swann.

Elmgreen and Dragset, Tomorrow (Installation View) Courtesy the Artists and Victoria Miro, London. © Elmgreen & Dragset. Photography: Anders Sune Berg (more…)

The first episode of Ambiance Man, a project by artist Alix Lambert for MocaTV, has gone up on the Museum’s YouTube page, starring Fred Armisen as the titular superhero, with Jack Black and Jibz Cameron taking on the role of his nemeses “Unidentified Odor” and “Buzz Kill.” (more…)

Philanthropist and longtime Los Angeles arts supporter Eli Broad is currently developing his contemporary art museum, The Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, and has offered a first look at the space.  Costing over $130 million, the 120,000-square-foot museum is set to open late next year. (more…)

A recent article by the Telegraph examines the theft of iconic artworks, and their fate on the black market.  Often, journalist Alaistair Sooke notes, the works have a black market value of about 3% to 10% of their real market value, and are often used as collateral in dangerous illegal activities like drug trading and/or gun-running. (more…)

Honoré Daumier, The Sideshow (Parade de Saltimbanques) (1865-66) Courtesy Royal Academy of Arts

On view at the Royal Academy of Arts is an exhibition of 130 works by 19th century artist Honoré Daumier, composed primarily of paintings, drawings, watercolors, and sculptures, that strengthen the artist’s history as both a perceptive and nuanced painter, as well as a truly comic satirist.

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The Qatar Museums Authority has announced that Sheikha Amna bint Abdulaziz bin Jassim Al-Thani will take the position of Director for the National Museum of Qatar.  While an opening date for the new museum has yet to be announced, the museum’s construction is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2014. (more…)

A Dublin man who put his fist through a €10 million painting by Claude Monet has stated in court that the incident was a complete accident.  Andrew Shannon was at Dublin’s National Gallery of Ireland last year, when, feeling faint, he fell forward, putting his hand directly through the canvas of Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat, and tearing it.  However, other testimony was less forgiving.  “It was no accident. I did not believe what he was saying as regards his condition. His whole manner was unconvincing. His behavior didn’t ring true to me,” said Christian Clotworthy, the guard at the museum who detained Mr. Shannon. (more…)