The Whitney Museum has set the opening date for its new, Renzo Piano-designed building in the  Meatpacking District location on May 1st of next year.  The news came this week during the Museum’s annual gala benefit. (more…)

A recent article in Financial Times by writer Bendor Grosvenor takes a discerning look at the specter of price speculation in the contemporary market, and notes some of the more manipulative practices in guarantor purchases.  “To liven things up, they are allowed to bid the work up during the sale too. But if they happen to buy it, their presale negotiation (again, undisclosed) means they will not pay anything like the “price” reported by the auction house, and nor will the new ‘value’ of the work be representative,” says Grosvenor.  “Almost half of the lots in Christie’s sale last week were guaranteed.” (more…)

A recent article by the New York Times cites the newest trend among today’s ultra-rich art collectors is the founding of their own boutique museums to house their collection, tracing the trend back to François Pinault’s purchase of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 2006.  Other museums covered include Bernard Arnault’s Fondation Luis Vuitton, and Eli Broad’s Los Angeles museum currently under construction. (more…)

London-based artist Jonty Hurwitz has unveiled a series of 3-D printed sculptures so small that they can not be seen with the naked human eye, works that are so small they can be placed inside the eye of a needle.  “The challenge is that these works exist beyond the limits of our perceptual capabilities, and as a consequence beyond the realms of what we can visualize,” Hurwitz says. “The thickness of a single hair is something that every person has pondered at some point in their childhood.” (more…)

The inaugural Los Angeles edition of Paris’s FIAC art fair has been pushed back to 2016 in an effort to give galleries more time to prepare for the event.  “FIAC has listened to the recommendations of its participants to modify the launch of its Los Angeles endeavor to provide both organizers and galleries sufficient time for optimal preparation,” the organization said in a statement. (more…)

Mass MOCA has announced a series of important collaborations with James Turrell, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Laurie Anderson and Jenny Holzer, among others, each of which will be included in the museum’s newly constructed exhibition spaces, which will be completed in 2017.  “We’re teaming up with people who have great bodies of artworks that we are hosting,” says Director Joseph C. Thompson. (more…)

Mickalene Thomas is on Nowness this week, talking about her recent film profiling the life of her late moth, Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman.   “It allowed me to look at her not only as a subject—as my muse—but as a person. I really tried to understand her world, her own sexuality and femininity and beauty,” Thomas says. (more…)

The New Museum has announced the list of artists for its 2015 Triennial, Surround Audience, which will be curated by Lauren Cornell and artist Ryan Trecartin.  The exhibition will include work by DIS, Casey Jane Ellison (who will be filming her web series Touching the Art at the museum), and Ed Atkins, among others.  According to the press release, Surround Audience “explores how artists are currently depicting subjectivity, unpacking complex systems of power, and claiming sites of artistic agency.” (more…)

An article in Forbes traces the conclusion of the modern and contemporary art auctions over the past two weeks, and places the overall sales during the two series of sales at an unprecedented $1.78 billion.  “We’ve seen a trend over the last few years where clients are going into hard assets, from real estate to art, which is a neutral currency,” says Citi Bank head of art advisory and finance, Suzanne Gyorgy.  “We continue to see U.S. collectors discretely buying at a high level.” (more…)

The Frick Museum’s proposed expansion plan has met with a new challenge by opposing forces, this time from a group called Unite to Save the Frick which is citing a 1973 agreement by the museum not to alter a garden designed by celebrated landscape architect Russell Page.  This same garden would be demolished in the new expansion, giving the protesting party a stronger case.  “It would have to be taken very, very seriously, because there is no qualitative need for this expansion,” said Roberta Brandes Gratz, a former panel member with the Landmarks Preservation Commission. “This is not really necessary for exhibition purposes. Given that, the permanence issue will be more important.” (more…)

The Victoria and Albert Museum is preparing to unveil a cast of Michelangelo’s David, which was given to Queen Victoria in 1857, after a lengthy restoration.  The 16-foot statue will go on view November 29th inside the the newly renovated Weston Cast Court.  (more…)

Center548, the current home of Zach Feuer Gallery and the Independent Art Fair, as well as the former location for the Dia Foundation, has been purchased by Property Markets Group, a real-estate development group.  The galleries are seeking new exhibition space outside the building. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal has published a piece this week detailing the advantages and drawbacks to gallery sales, private sales and auctions for collectors looking to sell their work, and notes an almost 1000% increase in private sales across the board in the last decade. (more…)

The New York Times covers the impact philanthropist and MoMA Board President Emeritus Agnes Gund has had on the cultural landscape of New York City, and her ongoing commitment to arts patronage, including selling works in her collection to cover her charitable giving.  “I get income, but I don’t have a big swath of money to invest in things,” she says” “I’ve had to sell a lot of art, which I’ve hated to do because I really love the art I have.” (more…)

The New York Times profiles the British-born, Los Angeles-based Thomas Houseago, whose work is notoriously unpredictable and has on occasion fallen apart in the midst of its construction.  “I believe in these broken sculptures,” he says. “I love that. Sculpture is a constant dance with gravity. In my case, anyway.” (more…)

The New York Times profiles the development of Vantablack, a new surface material that uses carbon nanotubes to trap light more effectively than any previous material, and which is currently being tested by artist Anish Kapoor.  “When you look at Vantablack on some wrinkled aluminum foil, it looks like a black, flat, featureless void, even with your eyes right up to it,” says developer Ben Jensen. (more…)

Artist Kara Walker is interviewed in the Wall Street Journal this week, as she prepares a new exhibition in New York.  “I’ve always been a bit restless in the work,” she says. “I have to look this way and that way, just to see what my limitations are, or if they are limitations. Maybe they’re assets.” (more…)

The New York Times highlights the challenges faced by a growing online auction market, including a relative unwillingness by collectors to exceed certain prices when bidding for work, and concerns about work authenticity and provenance.  “They feel comfortable up to about $10,000,” said Ben Hartley, a managing director at Auctionata, an online auction company. “Beyond that, people are still needing levels of trust. Online purchases are going to take time reaching the upper limits.” (more…)

Artist E.V. Day’s Brooklyn home is the subject of a recent profile in New York Magazine this week, an open design which she shares with her husband, food writer Ted Lee.  “Everything we put in was very clean—new and crisply detailed, to contrast with the industrial materials,” says architect Elizabeth Roberts. “The best features of the existing space were the unpainted wood ceiling and columns.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper reviews the case of Pierre Le Guennec, a retired electrician accused of stealing and hiding a vast collection of works by his former employer Pablo Picasso before attempting to sell them in 2010.  Mr. Le Guennec has been ordered to appear in French court in February of next year on charges of receiving stolen goods.   (more…)

Yoko Ono is profiled in the Wall Street Journal this week, as the artist reflects on her career, and offers advice for young artists following in her footsteps.  “Artists should adhere to what we are, instead of being sidetracked by other desires,” she says.  “We’re supposed to have that independence. But many artists today are, you know, going with this gallery, with that museum, and thinking too much about monetary success, which means they can’t be free. A life of not being challenged and only hearing what you want to hear is being dead.” (more…)

The Telegraph takes a special look inside the home of late painter Lucian Freud’s home in Kensington, where the artist spent the last twenty years of life.  “He was a good cook, very fond of game, but he never ate carbs,” says former assistant David Dawson. He knew he needed to be light on his feet.” (more…)

The Hirshhorn’s new director, Melissa Chiu, is profiled in the New York Times this week, highlighting her aims at expanding the Hirshhorn’s international and experimental art offerings, and her efforts at placing the museum in the spotlight as a major patron of experimental works and forms.  “The whole art world ecology has changed,” says Ms. Chiu. “The art world has become truly transnational.” (more…)

Peter Brant has announced the focus of his newest exhibition at the Connecticut-based Brant Foundation Art Study Center, which will center around the works of Cady Noland, Larry Clark, Richard Prince and Christopher Wool.  Deliverance, as the show is titled, will open November 10th, and will feature work from 1970 through 1997.  “It’s when they were really exploring the same kind of themes, and when they each produced some of their best work,” Mr. Brant says. (more…)