The LA Times traces the path of 8 Cézanne canvases originally intended for donation to the White House, and the political maneuverings that eventually sent the majority of them to the National Gallery. Through a series of closed door meetings and forceful persuasion, then chief curator John Walker III convinced the donors (who had previously intended to give the works to the White House), to instead donate them to his museum.  “I still feel ashamed,” Walker once wrote. “I behaved abominably and frightened a dear friend nearly to death.”   (more…)

Gianfranco Gorgoni, Francesco Clemente and detail of General Animal (1984), Courtesy Thomas Ammann Fine Art AG, Zurich

The work of Italian contemporary artist Francesco Clemente is as diverse in style and influence as the life of its creator.  Transcending traditional borders of culture, artistic movements, intellectual spheres and even medium, Clemente has developed a sense of decentered lexicality; his work standing as a testament to the synthesis of his personal travels and influences – among them, the artists he met and collaborated with in New York City in the 1980s. Portraits of the 1980s, currently on display in the Thomas Ammann Fine Art Gallery in Zurich until September 27, chronicles this engagement with New York’s intellectual and social community through a series of portraits, speaking to the friendships which both redefined Clemente’s own style and thrust him into the limelight of the international art scene. (more…)

A recent exhibition of work featuring a portrait of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wearing women’s underwear has been shut down by state authorities in St.Petersburg this week, with the offending artist fleeing the country for asylum in France.  “We are powerless facing the despotism of authorities,” says Tatiana Titova, director of the Museum of Power, where the exhibition was held. “The museum was closed for no reason.”  (more…)

New York Magazine has published an exclusive interview with Ann Freedman, the president of the now shuttered Knoedler and Company, who has been exonerated of any criminal involvement in the fraudulent sale of 63 forged artworks through the gallery.  “The story was credible,” she says, speaking on Glafira Rosales’s mysterious seller, “Mr. X,” a fabrication she used to justify the sudden appearance of the works. “Dealers often do not know the specifics of origin or background, or how the art left the artist’s studio. You cannot turn the pages of an auction catalogue or museum publication without seeing a majority of the works labeled ‘private collection.’ The chain of ownership is often out of order and incomplete.” (more…)

Art advisor Lisa Jacobs has been accused of deceiving a wealthy client, skimming $1 million off the top of the sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s Future Science Versus Man, from the collection of the late collector Hannelore Schulhof.  The suit, filed by Schulhof’s son, Michael, seeks the return of the $1 million deficit, as well as punitive damages. (more…)

Ellen Gallagher, Don’t Axe Me (Installation View), Courtesy New Museum, New York. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Currently occupying multiple floors of the New Museum is a series of works by artist Ellen Gallagher, a painter and multimedia artist whose work is layered and deeply informed by contemporary and historical references, not only from modern art historic and literary canons but also politics, popular culture and sub-cultures such as Black Power and Detroit Techno.  Represented by two major galleries, Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth, Gallagher’s intellectually conversant work has tantalized critics and collectors alike for the past 20 years.

Ellen Gallagher, Watery Ecstatic (2001-2005), Courtesy New Museum, New York. Photo: Benoit Pailley (more…)

A $2 million painting by Arshile Gorky has been ruled to be the property of tennis legend John McEnroe, and must be returned, a New York Judge has decided.  McEnroe purchased the piece Pirate II in 2004 with gallery owner Lawrence Salander, who is currently serving a six year sentence for grand larceny, and sued for the recovery of the works from dealerJoseph Carroll after they were sold without McEnroe’s knowledge.  “Carroll acquired Pirate II in a grossly undervalued transaction in which he chose to make no inquiry as to Salander’s authority to sell the work,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich wrote in her decision.

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The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia has announced its intent to sell East Wind Over Weehawken, a 1934 canvas by Edward Hopper, to raise funds for the purchase of new, contemporary works for its museum.  The sale, set for Christie’s December auction, is estimated to earn between $22 and $28 million, marks a return to the museum’s tradition of buying contemporary art.  Harry Philbrick, the museum’s director, remarks:  “We had a very strong tradition of doing that until the 1950s when we pulled back.  In recent years, we have been trying to be more active.” (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…)

Roy Lichtenstein, Woman Drying Her Hair (1980), Courtesy Gagosian Paris

On view at Gagosian Paris is an exhibition exploring the work of Roy Lichtenstein, who remained the motifs and stylistic tropes of Expressionism motifs using his signature primary colors and flat geometry, a style he had slowly developed and refined during the 1960’s and early 1970’s.

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Gary Hume, Blackbird (1998), all images courtesy Tate Britain

The Tate Britain is currently presenting an exhibition of works by British painter Gary Hume, created throughout his career. On display are 24 recent paintings, rare works never before seen in the UK, as well some of his most well-known pieces, offering a pointed view of his minimalist style and challenging aesthetic practice.

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Pat Steir, Last Wave Painting: Wave Becoming a Waterfall (1987-88), via Cheim and Read

The 1980’s have long been marked for their resurgent focus on the painted canvas.  Led by a dynamic group of New York artists, and a supportive system of gallerists and collectors, the decade saw an explosive body of work emerge that blended expressive technique with a new vision towards abstraction and figuration, breathing new life into a medium many were labeling dead in the water.

Carroll Dunham, Horizontal Bands (1982), via Daniel Creahan for Art Observed (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly,  Chatham I White Black (1971), Courtesy of MoMA

Coming off the wide success of his early experiments in shaped canvases, pure color fields and architectural investigations in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, artist Ellsworth Kelly withdrew from the New York City art world that had helped him attain such a high degree of success, settling in the upstate villa of Spencertown.  It was here, painting at a rented studio in nearby Chatham, that the artist would begin a new series of works that would help develop and refine his artistic practice to a fine point.

Ellsworth Kelly,  Chatham XII Yellow Black (1971), Courtesy of MoMA (more…)

The Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles is nearing completion on a yearlong restoration of Jackson Pollack’s Mural.  Using new technologies and approaches on the $140 million work, the work has been analyzed by a series of noninvasive x-rays and other approaches to determine not only the original composition of the work, but also other efforts in doctoring or restoring the work in the past.  “From the chemical composition and buildup of paints, we are unlocking evidence of Pollock’s creative process, his choice of materials, and any alterations through time,” says conservation analyst Alan Phenix. (more…)

KAWS, Wooden Companion (2013), via More Gallery

Opened during Basel Week Switzerland, More Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition by American artist KAWS, entitled “GISWIL,” composed of paintings and two large-scale wooden sculptures culled from the artist’s recent output.

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A group of friends in the Canadian province of Ontario are convinced that a painting they purchased on eBay for $585 is actually a work by American master Edward Hopper.  The group of Canadians, who had previously made money buying and reselling paintings online, have spent over six years and $40,000 to try and authenticate the work, and are currently waiting for approval from a leading Hopper expert.  The work is of particular note, as it bears a strong resemblance to Hopper’s High Noon, questioning whether this disputed piece may have been a study or forgery. (more…)

A 1903 portrait painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, stolen from a Tokyo home last decade, was reportedly sold at Sotheby’s this past February, Japan Times reports.  The portrait, titled Madame Valtat, had disappeared from its original owner’s home along with works by Marc Chagall and Ikuo Hirayama in 2000.  Sotheby’s has stated that the work had been legally acquired by the seller, and that it will continue to investigate the sale, but the case may prove difficult to fully resolve, as the auction house keeps the names of its sellers confidential. (more…)

The New Yorker has published a story on the relationship between Bill Arnett, a white art dealer and archivist of black vernacular art, and Thornton Dial, an 84-year old, self-trained black artist who has had  his highly praised work included in major exhibitions and events, including the 2000 Whitney Biennial.  Facing Dial’s facile categorization as an “outsider artist,” Arnett is currently pushing for mainstream acceptance, not only of his work, but of 20th century African-American Art in general.  “I’m trying to create some documents to leave behind, so that when the system changes, just a little bit, somebody would say, ‘Wow, you mean we had this going on in America in the twentieth century?’  That’s all.” (more…)

In the buildup to his upcoming show at the Scottish National Galleries, Peter Doig recently sat down with The Telegraph to discuss his work, his high prices at auction, and the multifaceted appearance of much of his work.  “You try to create scenarios and atmospheres in your paintings,” Doig says. “I don’t set out to be deliberately sinister, but I always wanted to make paintings that told stories and suggested things.” (more…)

Gilbert & George, We Are (1985), courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

On view at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in both of its Salzburg locations (Villa Kast and Halle) is “30 Years,” an exhibition of works intended to be both “retrospective and prospective” of the gallery’s own history and future.  Presenting a series of works by artists who have passed through the lens of Ropac’s thorough gallery practice, the show is at turns a celebration and forecast of what’s to come for the expanding gallery brand.

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A woman who openly criticized painter Eric Fischl at the Art Southampton art fair this past weekend later received a call from the artist himself, apparently incensed that she did not care for his work.  Isabel Barnard-Biderman, a former gallery owner, had left her phone number in hopes of getting a signed copy of Fischl’s book, Bad Boy, and instead received a call from the artist. “I went home and the phone rings and it’s Eric saying, ‘What do you mean you don’t like my paintings?’ ”Bernard-Biderman said. “I don’t really know him. He said, ‘Maybe when you come back you’re going to like them.’”  (more…)

Edward Hopper, Study for Nighthawks, (1941 or 1942), via The Whitney

An Edward Hopper painting inevitably leads the viewer to contemplation of the meaning and purpose of the simple and mundane moments that make up the majority of our lives. His scenes depict the usual, the all-too-familiar, and even the occasional melancholy moments of existence.  Empty gas stations, coffee shops, movie theaters, and bedrooms communicate the paradoxical isolation of American society;  while many of the inhabitants are depicted in social settings, in crowds or social establishments, they convey overwhelming feelings of remorse, isolation and resignation. Through his brushstrokes and pencil marks, Hopper provides a commentary on the American life of mid-20^th century, a commentary that is in many cases still applicable to the America of today.

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, (1942), via The Whitney (more…)

Artist Jonathan Yeo’s portrait of Damien Hirst, depicting the artist sitting in one of his own formaldehyde cubes, will go on view this fall at the National Portrait Gallery in London.  The work is part of a show of Yeo’s recent paintings, including portraits of other artists and British political figures.  “Even when we realize it’s a chemical dry suit, which he uses to make his formaldehyde works, it’s not entirely clear if he is making something or whether he is being pickled in one of his own tanks. This power balance is something of which we were both conscious through the creation of the portrait.” Yeo says of the work. (more…)

Hilma af Klint, The Swan, No. 17, Group IX/SUW, The SUW/UW Series (1915), courtesy Hamburger Bahnhof

The first-ever retrospective of the pioneering Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) is currently on view at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof museum. The exhibition includes 200 of Klint’s most revered abstract works, as well as several lesser-known paintings and works on paper, some of which have never been publicly displayed.

Hilma af Klint, Buddha’s Standpoint in the Earthly Life, No. 3a, (1920), courtesy Hamburger Bahnhof

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