Vasily Kandinsky, Circles within a Circle (1923), Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950
Photo Credit: The Philadelphia Museum of Art / Art Resource, NY © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Compiling one of the more ambitious exhibitions of work recently shown on the Russian avant-garde, the recently closed exhibition on the work of Vasily Kandinsky offered perhaps one of the best perspectives on the developing voice of one of the 20th century’s most vital painters.  Charting his move from early impressionist works to the conceptually rigorous formalism that he developed as a consequence of his broader exposure to the European art world after his move to Germany, From Blaue Reiter to the Bauhaus, 1910-1925 is a fitting origins story for this influential artist.

Vasily Kandinsky (Installation View), via Art Observed (more…)

Andisheh Avini, Untitled (2013), Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York © Andisheh Avini, photo credit: Jason Wyche

For his first solo exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery since joining in 2012, artist Andisheh Avini presents a refined selection of recent works, informed by the artist’s own personal experience of his Iranian heritage, a subjective approach that he ultimately uses to explore broader and more collective notions regarding the relevance of both memory and imagery.

Andisheh Avini (Installation View), Courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York © Andisheh Avini, photo credit: Jason Wyche (more…)

A New York Judge has placed a hold on the removal of a delicate Picasso tapestry from the wall of the Four Seasons Restaurant at the Seagrams Building.  The work was scheduled for removal to make repairs to the wall behind it, but will stand until a more cautious plan can be developed.  “I don’t want to be the judge who has a Picasso destroyed,” said Justice Matthew F. Cooper.  “If some damage were to occur, no amount of money could make up for the loss of any Picasso.” (more…)

Francis Bacon, Portrait of George Dyer Talking (1966), via Christie’s

Following the first two weeks of the annual set of early-year auctions in New York and London this year, the market will focus its attention this week on contemporary works, with a trio of auctions taking place this week in London.  This year, the proceedings will kick off at Phillips in London on February 10th, and will see a day day break between auctions, with Sotheby’s joining the auction fray on the 12th, and Christie’s wrapping up the week on the 13th.

Roy Lichtenstein, Interior with Painting of Trees (1997), via Sotheby’s (more…)

The New York Times Magazine publishes an interview with Matthew Barney, leading up to the premiere of the artist’s River of Fundament at BAM this week, discussing the artist’s inspiration, and his time with writer Norman Mailer, on whose death much of the film is based.  “When Mailer said to me that I should really read “Ancient Evenings,” I thought, Wow, this is so much like the beginning of “Cremaster 3.” I’ve already done this.” (more…)

A new project to reimagine the city flag for New York has drawn submissions from John Baldessari, Francesco Clemente, Tom Sachs and more, to be auctioned at Sotheby’s later this month to benefit the Fund for the City of New York.  “The idea is, in an increasingly virtual world in the 21st century flags are one of the remaining symbols of shared virtues and beliefs,” Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, chairwoman of the alliance and of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center said. (more…)

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…)

A Picasso tapestry currently hanging at the Four Seasons Restaurant on Park Avenue is facing a dangerous removal from its current installation.  The work is being removed following a contractor’s estimate that the wall behind it is at risk of collapse, but the fragile nature of the work could make it difficult to remove.  “No matter how cautious they are, the work is so brittle and fragile that it could, as one of them put it, ‘crack like a potato chip,’ ” said Peg Breen, President of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. (more…)

A New York judge has ruled that the lawsuit filed by collector Ron Perelman against dealer Larry Gagosian can proceed, following Gagosian’s request that the suit be thrown out.  While rejecting several of the claims regarding breach of contract and other complaints, the court ruled that Perelman’s fraud lawsuit will be able to move forward. (more…)

Gregory Edwards, Steady Work (Installation View), via ArtObserved

Gregory Edwards’ approach to abstraction is oddly figurative. For his latest solo show at 47 Canal, entitled Steady Work—the Brooklyn artist’s first since his solo debut in 2011—Edwards riffs on the inspirational sloganeering of the self-help genre. Featuring single words or short phrases painted amidst garishly colored, textured backgrounds, the show’s six works perhaps most strongly recall the increasingly vintage aesthetic of MS PowerPoint slideshows and WordArt.

Gregory Edwards, Steady Work (2013), via 47 Canal (more…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

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 Sotheby’s New York auction this coming Thursday will feature three works recovered by the famous “Monuments Men” after Nazi confiscation during World War II.  The works by Apollonio di Giovanni, Jean-Baptiste Pater and Francesco Guardi are expected to sell between $150,000 and $500,000, and bear rare markings from their Nazi owners.  “The front is an artwork, and the back is an artifact,” says Lucian Simmons, of Sotheby’s restitution department. (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…)

 Martha Beck, New York curator and founder of the Drawing Center, has passed away at the age of 75.  Ms. Beck, a champion of  both emerging artists and the more rugged, experimental drawing works of masters like Michelangelo and architect Antonio Gaudi, established the Drawing Center in the late 1970’s, using a small, publicly-funded budget to put on world-class shows of drawings and works on paper that earned her museum a reputation of quality and adventurousness.  “Amazingly, she would ask the most important museums all over the world to lend their precious rare old master drawings to this funky warehouse space in Lower Manhattan — and they would — because its reputation for innovation, connoisseurship and excellence preceded it,” says Ann Philbin, a former director of the museum. (more…)

The criminal proceedings against a Long Island City foundry owner over the purported sale of a fake Jasper Johns sculpture will see the artist taking the stand to testify.  Johns will testify that he did not give foundry owner Brian Ramnarine a version of his sculpture Flag in 1990, but that he used a mold that the artist contracted him to create in order to create an unauthorized copy, which he then attempted to sell for $11 million.  Ramnarine is also accused of selling copies of works by Robert Indiana and Saint Clair Cemin, the latter of whom has also testified in the case.  Cemin, in fact, claims that he found an illegally duplicated version of one of his works, and confronted Ramnarine at his studio.  “I smashed [the sculpture] to the floor, breaking it, and I left,” Cemin testified. (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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The New York Times profiles Industry City, the business incubator and artist studio space in Sunset Park that played home to Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year 1 late last year.  Despite its populist appeal, the space has been drawing continued criticism over its rapidly rising rents, which have already pushed out a number of artists from the building.  “Part of why we moved to Industry City was because of the community of artists, of art lovers,” said Krista Saunders, the director of programs and communications at Art Connects New York.  “It’s really beneficial that we are located within an artistic community, and now that this is dissolving, we are considering our options,” Ms. Saunders said. (more…)