The Financial Times has published an interview with Zeng Fanzhi, the Chinese painter who currently sits as one of the most expensive contemporary Asian artists.  Documenting his unique style, the interview goes on to detail Fanzhi’s early struggles as an artist in China, and his early life in Wuhan, a city known for its prominent role in The Cultural Revolution.  “At the time everyone wore the same clothes but my mother liked beautiful things and she sometimes wore a bit of colour – some pink flowers on her clothes,” Zeng says. “For that she was persecuted for her ‘petit bourgeois sentimentalism’ – that experience affected my whole family deeply.” (more…)

Artist Bassim al-Shaker, who was included as part of the Iraqi Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, is profiled in the New York Times this week, detailing the artist’s story of oppression at the hands of Mahdi Army loyalists, and his life in Arizona, where he is currently working on a business visa to avoid several fundamentalists who nearly killed him earlier this year.  “He’s obviously very talented,” Says Rijn Sahakian an Iraqi expat representing the country’s artists abroad, “but we were also focused on saving his life.” (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is preparing for its first retrospective in thirty years on the work of Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, better known as Balthus.  In anticipation, the Wall Street Journal has published a short series of stories about the artist, as related by his daughter, Harumi.  “He thought you should know what’s been done before, to have respect for all masters, to know how to make your own colors, and he frequently complained that nowadays people don’t really learn the tradition. He also complained that there was too much ego, that it was not about what you make with work but more about who you are.”  She said. (more…)

Painter Eric Fischl sat down with the LA Times this past weekend to discuss his career, the communication of art, his recent memoir, Bad Boy, and his self-described “search for normal.”  “I think the process of aging and using art as a life process for learning, understanding, evolving, etc. … it seemed like I had reached a point where I could take a lot of what I accomplished and I could let go of a lot of things, so maybe it would be recent.”  He says. (more…)

Ronnie Cutrone, Photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, (1998), via Huffington Post

Artist Ronnie Cutrone passed away this past Sunday, at the age of 65. Perhaps best known for his time as pop artist Andy Warhol’s assistant from 1972 to 1982, Cutrone had been a regular at Warhol’s Factory since 1965, when he was still in high school. At the age of 15, Cutrone became a go-go dancer with the Velvet Underground as part of the band’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable show, and befriended many of the artists associated with the West Village arts scene of the 70s and 80s, including Lou Reed and Jim Morrison.

Ronnie Cutrone, Quick Change Artist (2004), via Galerie Gmurzynska, Art Basel Miami 2011

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President Barack Obama’s administration has announced the winners of the 2012 National Medal of Arts, including Ellsworth Kelly on the list of recipients.  Kelly, who turned 90 this year, is currently in the spotlight for a trio of New York shows this spring and summer, spanning the range of his career, and will accept the award tonight in Washington, DC.  Other recipients include landscape architect Laurie Olin. (more…)

Plans have been set in place to move Oslo’s Edvard Munch museum to the city’s waterfront, which had previously been delayed for several years to due location and funding considerations.  The new, glass-lined building, titled Lambda, is projected to open in 2018, designed by Spanish firm Herreros Arquitectos.  The decision  “shows that even the starkest political opponents can put aside their differences for the common good”, said city commissioner for culture and industry Hallstein Bjercke. (more…)

Dealer Matthew Marks is currently selling his West Village apartment, built in 1830 by painter Abraham Rattner.  The building boasts impressive renovations, all made since the building was purchased in 1997.  “At home, we like to move the furniture around, repaint and change the art frequently, but after 16 years, we’ve tried all the combinations and it’s time to move on.”  Marks said. (more…)

Artist David Hockney has broken the silence surrounding the death of his assistant, 23-year old Dominic Elliott.  Elliott’s death, the causes of which remain somewhat of a mystery, sidelined the painter, forcing him to take a break from his prolific work.   “The spring didn’t start until late April this year. I wasn’t doing anything much, had nearly given up, and was still thinking about going to LA when my assistant, Jean-Pierre, said I didn’t really have an option. I had to continue with the work. And he was right. I’m not going to retire. I just keep working and that’s what I think I should do.” (more…)

The Ammersee home of German painter Georg Baselitz has been raided by German tax officials, who seized several crates of files as part of investigation into tax evasion.  The artist was implicated in tax dodging after his name appeared on a list of secret bank account holders with the Swiss bank UBS.  Baselitz had been quoted earlier this year as saying: “Despite all the taxes people pay, there supposedly isn’t any money in this country for art.” (more…)

GQ is currently featuring an interview with painter Kehinde Wiley, profiling the artist on a recent trip to Morocco for his ongoing portraiture series.  Charting the artist’s early life in South Central Los Angeles through his ascension in the art world, the piece offers a studied history of both Wiley’s life and output, including his famous portrait of Michael Jackson.  Initially, “I ignored him, because quite honestly I thought it was a prank,” Wiley says. “Surprisingly, he was really knowledgeable about art and art history.”  (more…)

ArtInfo has posted a feature profiling the early professions of a number of high-profile artists, offering a look at how they made a living before becoming art world mainstays.  The list includes Mark Rothko (delivery boy), Yves Klein (judo master), Matthew Barney (model), and James Turrell (cattle rancher), who famously said: ““I don’t know if it’s harder to make a living as an artist or a rancher.” (more…)

Painter Eric Fischl has published a memoir of the 1980’s New York art scene, chronicling the excesses and darker side of the high-profile art world of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mary Boone.  Titled Bad Boy, My Life On and Off the Canvas, the tell-all book includes a story about an infamous 1983 party thrown by Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, with “lookout towers, armed guards, and a glamorous crowd . . . some naked,” with waiters offering “glasses of Champagne [and] a choice of cocaine or heroin.” (more…)

British artist Graham Ovenden has been convicted of sexual abuse charges, stemming from accusations by former models for the artist over a number of years in London and Cornwall.  While Ovenden, who has had exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has flatly denied the charges, the Truro Crown Court has convicted him of six counts of sexual indecency with a child, and one of indecent assault.  When asked why they had not come forth earlier, one complainant’s mother replied: “I thought if I went to police, she wouldn’t be believed; if I went and confronted Graham myself, he would have flatly denied it. I thought there was nothing to be achieved but a lot of stress for my child.” (more…)

L Magazine has published a a selection of talented, Brooklyn-based artists under 30, highlighting the rising talent coming from the borough.  The list includes 8 young artists, including Brad Troemel, Trudy Benson, and Ann Hirsch. (more…)

The Luck You Collective, a group of young, born and bred New York artists aged 19 to 21, is currently making on impact on the downtown arts scene.  “To me they represent the heart and soul of the young New York creative scene,” says photographer David Mushegain. “They are the ones who grew up here and are continuing the conversation that started so long ago. They are seemingly the last stand in a downtown scene that is surely vanishing, and I love them for that.” (more…)

Tracey Emin has been honored with a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for her contributions to the arts.  Emerging as a leading member of the UK’s 1990’s contemporary arts scene, Emin was recognized for her ongoing contributions to British culture.  “Its amazing that I’ve been given this because its recognition for what I believe in and what I’ve worked for, so it’s a great feeling,” she said. (more…)