The dispute between Third Point and Sotheby’s has taken a new turn, as the fund launches Value Sotheby’s, a website dedicated to stating the case against the current management at the auction house.  “Despite management touting a “record year” in 2013, Sotheby’s company health is not what the Company would lead you to believe,” the site notes, before citing figures from the embattled company’s past year. (more…)

Dan Graham, Slice (2013), via Art Observed

It’s been some time since Marian Goodman has hosted solo exhibitions in New York by Dan Graham, Giuseppe Penone, Danh Vo or Jeff Wall, and the gallery seems to have noticed, opening a four-artist show with a considerable amount of new work from each of the aforementioned, offering a welcome opportunity to catch up on the recent work of these significant artists.

Jeff Wall, Monologue (2013), via Art Observed (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art has officially filed its $1.6 million plan to demolish the former home of the American Folk Art Museum to expand its midtown campus.  The announcement comes almost a year after the Museum announced its initial plans to raze the building, after purchasing the building in 2011 for $31.2 million. (more…)

The Guardian has published an imaginative profile on Marcel Duchamp, noting some of the artist’s quirks and passions, including his avid chess-playing, his daring transportation of his art materials out of Nazi Germany posing as a cheese vendor, and his takes on quickly produced artworks: “Quick art, that’s been the characteristic of the whole century from the cubists on, ” he once said.  “The speed that’s being used in space, in communications, is also being used in art. But things of great importance in art have always to be slowly produced.” (more…)

Damien Loeb, Tycho (2013), via Acquavella

Acquavella is currently showing a rare exhibition of new works by painter Damien Loeb,  featuring a series of paintings and sketches created over the past year, and focusing on Planet Earth’s unique position in the solar system.  Titled SOL-D, the series of oil paintings and sketches take their inspiration from a series of photographs Loeb made over the past decade, digital images captured on airplane flights, stargazing, and satellite images that document the celestial atmospheres of Earth and beyond. (more…)

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has named Tom Finkelpearl, current executive director of the Queens Museum, as the city’s cultural-affairs commissioner.  “He’s a visionary museum director,” says Robin Cembalest of ARTnews magazine. “You need an advocate to come out to explain how art can help people, create communities. He totally fits.” (more…)

The Park Avenue Armory will extend its annual residency program this year, dedicating 10 rooms on its second floor to a group of artists including New Yorker writer Sasha Frere-Jones, percussionist Ulysses Owens, Jr., dancers  Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey, and artist/choreographer Jason Akira Somma, among others.  “We are thrilled to be able to expand our program and to dedicate our entire second floor to our Artist-in- Residence program, allowing artists working in such a rich variety of genres, and at different points in their career, to explore and present new ideas,” says President and Executive Producer Rebecca Robertson.  (more…)

The New York Times has published an expansive gallery guide for the spring art season, profiling a selection of new shows, young galleries and interesting works across Brooklyn, Chelsea, Soho and both the Upper and Lower East Side.  Among the editors picks are Clearing Gallery in Bushwick, Participant Inc. downtown, and Franklin Parrasch uptown. (more…)

A new lawsuit in the ongoing Knoedler Gallery investigation has drawn Swiss art historian and curator Oliver Wick of the Kunsthaus Zurich into the fray, holding him allegedly responsible for the sale of a $7.2 million forged Rothko to casino owner Frank J. Fertitta III.  Wick was paid a $300,000 consulting fee by the Gallery for his opinion that the work was original, and also showed the piece at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, where he was working at the time. (more…)

The New York Times reports on Christie’s auctioneer Loic Gouzer’s new evening auction event, focusing on contemporary and emerging artists.  Gouzer’s first auction of the project, to be held on May 12th in New York, will compete with Phillips Auction House’s contemporary sale on the same night, and features work from Richard Prince, Wade Guyton and Cady Noland.  “When I look at the quality and the buzz,” Gouzer says, “I think people will want to be there.” (more…)

Three Pieces from Mira Schendel’s Spray Series, via Art Observed

Late last year, when Hauser and Wirth opened its show of Brazilian Neo-Constructivist, Concrete and Neo-Concrete works, the few works on view by Mira Schendel immediately stood out.  Light, effortless prices of rice paper printed with China ink and left hanging encased in glass, the works sat somewhere between linguistic deconstruction, minimalism and light art, tracing slight reflections of light over the multi-surface piece.  Among a show of boldly colored works and large, impressive sculptures, Schendel’s work stood out for its soft focus and minimal exertions of color.

Mira Schendel, Untitled (from series Discos) (1971-73), via Hauser and Wirth (more…)

Christie’s New York Impressionist and Modern Auction on May 6th will sell off over $34 million in art from the collection of late collector Edgar Bronfman, Bloomberg reports.  The sale will feature strong works from Picasso, Matisse and Monet, among many others. (more…)

Trevor Shimizu, Girlfriend Wants a Baby, (2010), all images Courtesy 47 Canal

Again, a solo show of the work of Trevor Shimizu, is currently on view at 47 Canal now through April 6.  From the work itself to the press release of this show, the dry wit and intense self-awareness of Shimizu’s voice reverberates throughout each work.

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Chuck Close, Untitled Torso Diptych (2001), all images courtesy Pace Gallery

Taking an inside look at the meticulous creative process of artist Chuck Close, Pace Gallery in New York presents an exhibition featuring Polaroids, daguerreotypes and an acrylic painting exploring the artist’s continually shifting approach to the human figure.  The exhibition focuses on “the body,” a subject long-investigated by the artist.  Born in 1940 in Monroe, Washington, Chuck Close is best known for his many renditions of the human face. Mostly large in scale and based on photographs, his works are in the permanent collections of major museums and galleries around the globe, and have been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions in more than 20 countries.

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The Rauschenberg Foundation is profiled in ArtNews this week, following the institution’s ambitious Marfa Dialogues event last fall, and its ongoing commitment to ambitious commissions and artist projects.  ““We look at our grant making through the lens of the values that defined Bob,” says Executive Director  Christy MacLear.  “So you don’t only say, ‘What would Bob do?’ Instead, you set up a framework so that a hundred years from now you can ask: Is it collaborative? Is it boundary-breaking? Is it risk-taking?”  (more…)

Kiki Smith, Rogue Stars (2012), all images courtesy Pace Gallery

On view at New York’s Pace Gallery is artist Kiki Smith’s first major New York exhibition in four years, presenting new works made from aluminium, bronze, fine silver, textile, stained and hand-blown antique glass, and paint.

Kiki Smith, Crescent Bird (2011), (more…)

W Magazine has published a profile on dealer Maxwell Graham and his Essex Street Gallery space.  Having worked previously with Greene Naftali, Graham has run Essex Street for the past several years, and discusses his approach to running his space.  “It’s good to not do things properly sometimes,” he says. “I don’t always like the shows that happen here—but sometimes it’s not about me. It’s okay if something fails, as long as it’s taking a risk. I don’t want my artists to rely on art to make a living. I almost wish my younger artists would take after the older ones and disappear for 30 years. And, hopefully, I’ll be here for them to come back to.”  (more…)

Larry Gagosian is preparing to add another pair of New York exhibition spaces to his already impressive set of spaces, including a new space at Park Avenue and 75th, and a temporary exhibition space on Delancey Street in the Lower East Side, both of which will open next month with shows of new sculpture by Urs Fischer.   (more…)

Photographer Nan Goldin is profiled in The Guardian this week, as the artist prepares for the release of her new book, Eden and After.  Reviewing the impact of her early series The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Goldin discusses ties between her work and the ubiquitous nightlife photography present on Instagram today.   “Most of that stuff is so easy and lacking in any kind of emotional depth or context,” she says. “Nowadays, people forget how radical my work was when it first appeared. Nobody else was doing what I did.” (more…)

One of two paintings exchanged by artist Jackson Pollock for the convertible he ultimately crashed and died in will be on sale at Christie’s later this year, the Wall Street Journal reports.  Pollock reportedly exchanged his work Number 5 (Elegant Lady) for art dealer Martha Jackson’s Green Oldsmobile, which he crashed two years later.  The work is valued between $15 million and $20 million.   (more…)

Brendan Fowler, (That) hat on bedspread (countries of origin:my deposition was postponed and Matt’s took all day) (2014), via Half Gallery

Brendan Fowler’s new works, currently on view at Half Gallery uptown, are nothing if not elusive.  The show, on view last month at Los Angeles’s LAXArt, to New York as a follow-up of sorts to the last showing of photographic works by the artist at MoMA’s survey of new photography late last year (a series of Fowler’s highly-popular crash works).  Here, Fowler seems more interested in the image itself, rather than the potentials for combination and assemblage of the modern image.  The works are created entirely using a commercial grade embroidery machine and thread, leaving layered, textured works that offer a striking commentary on the photographic image. (more…)

Dustin Yellin is profiled in the New York Times this week, focusing on the artist’s close ties among the expansive New York arts scene, and his work founding the Pioneer Works exhibition space in Red Hook.  “Dustin does amazing things for the community,” says Red Hook resident and friend Billy Durney. “The amount of charity he does would set a record.” (more…)

Skarstedt Gallery will open its new Chelsea space on May 8th, the gallery reports.  Designed by Selldorf Architects, the exhibition space will take over the previous home of Haunch of Venison on 21st Street.  “We have an ongoing commitment to mounting key historical exhibitions,” founder Per Skarstedt said in a statement. “I’m delighted to open this new gallery space in Chelsea with an exhibition of incredible works by these quintessential modern masters. This approach suits the collaborative way we have always worked with artists and their estates.” (more…)

Dealer James Fuentes will launch a show next month reflecting on the infamous Real Estate Show held in the Lower East Side in 1980, a seminal exhibition in protest of the city’s dealings with low-income neighborhood residents that ultimately led to the formation of the famous ABC No Rio space.  The show will include many artists from the original show, as well as videos and films documenting the event. (more…)