Daugavpils, the Latvian birthplace of artist Mark Rothko, opened a new museum dedicated to the artist yesterday.  The Mark Rothko Arts Center is the first permanent collection of the artist’s work in Eastern Europe, and includes six works from the collection of the artist’s son and daughter.  “This centre, I think, is going to become an important archive, an important resource for Rothko scholars to draw on, and also for Rothko’s public.” said Rothko’s son Christopher. (more…)

The Financial Times has published a profile of painter George Condo, tracing the artist’s early work in New York, his early meetings with Andy Warhol, and his dedicated approach to his practice.  “I can’t stand a white canvas,” Condo says. “If someone wanted to drive me insane, they could put one in front of me and not give me any art materials to work on it. That would be the perfect torture.”   (more…)

The Sacrifice of Polyxena, a painting by 17th century artist Charles Le Brun recently rediscovered in a suite at The Ritz Hotel, has been purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the price of $1.9 Million.  The museum had searched for a Le Brun for over 50 years, and seized on the chance to own the painting when it went up for auction on April 15th at Christie’s.  “No really famous expert of 17th-century painting has ever stayed in the Coco Chanel suite, apparently,” specialist Olivier Lefeuvre said when asked how the painting had hund undiscovered for so long. (more…)

The current strength of the contemporary art market has drastically raised the price for works by female artists.  Nine of the top ten prices for women painters has been set in the last five years, including a new top record for Berthe Morisot’s After Lunch.  “Whereas before we looked at female artists as the land of opportunity, with prices like these, collectors say the window is closing for gender-specificity bargain buying,” said Gabriela Palmieri, a senior vice president and contemporary-art specialist at Sotheby’s. (more…)

Glenstone, a private museum established by industrialist Mitchell P. Rales and his wife Emily in Potomac, Maryland, is planning a major expansion to its exhibition spaces.  Costing $125 Million, the new galleries will offer more public access to what National Gallery director Earl A. Powell III calls “one of the most important collections of postwar art.” (more…)

Vasily Kandinsky, Murnau: Street with Women (1908), Courtesy The Neue Galerie New York

Currently on view at The Neue Galerie in New York is a survey of German Expressionist works, taken from the gallery’s permanent collection, that explores the opposing but connected themes of primitivism and modernity throughout the work of the era, including work by Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Paul Klee, among others.

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This May 14th, Barnett Newman’s Onement VI will go on sale at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction, projected to sell for $30 to $40 million.  While Sotheby’s has declined to name the seller, several dealers have identified the current owner as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who purchased the painting in 2000.  “Several conservators have seen it and said it is in good condition,” says Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Worldwide head. “It is unlined and on its original stretcher.”  (more…)

Rosy Keyser, Hungry Shepherd Honeypot (2013), Courtesy Peter Blum Gallery, New York

Rosy Keyser‘s new group of works, Medusa Pie Country, is currently on view at Peter Blum Gallery in New York.  Consisting almost exclusively of materials she found in the upstate New York hamlet of Medusa, where she occasionally works, Keyser’s works on view grapple with the idea that art is always being made, both inside the studio and out.

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Creative Time is honoring artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel this year during its annual Spring Gala, and has just released a video of actor Al Pacino, recounting his personal experiences with Schnabel.  “He came to my house once and looked at a couple of my paintings.”  Pacino said.  “I thought: ‘he’s looking at a painting I did.  If he likes, it I know he’s a real phony.  He didn’t like it, and with Julian, he lets you know right away.” (more…)

The New York Times has published a short feature by neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel, showing the links between the biological composition of the brain and the viewer’s understanding of art.  Using the turn of the century works of Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka as his example, Dr. Kandel illustrates how these particular works activated certain cells in the brain, causing a powerful emotional reaction.  New studies, such as the bold brain mapping project announced by President Obama this month, would continue to extend studies of the brain and its reactions to creative stimulus. (more…)

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea (1952), Courtesy Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc., on extended loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. © 2013 Estate of Helen Frankenthaler/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

In 1951, at the age of twenty-two, American painter Helen Frankenthaler appeared in her first solo exhibition in New York.  It was a fitting introduction to the artist, who, over the next ten years, developed a uniquely evocative style that would define her as a major talent of mid-twentieth century New York City.  Sixty years later, Gagosian Gallery is exhibiting some of Frankenthaler’s works from this decade, showcasing the creative practice of the artist’s pivotal early years, and offering perspective on her ever-evolving style.

Helen Frankenthaler, Untitled (1951), © 2013 Estate of Helen Frankenthaler/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery. Photography by Robert McKeever”. (more…)

Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (1872), via Royal Academy of Arts

London’s Royal Academy of Arts is currently exhibiting an ambitious retrospective of portraiture by iconoclastic French painter Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883), collected from across Europe, Asia and the United States.  This is the first-ever exhibition of work by Manet that focuses on his broad body of portraiture, tracing the artist’s artistic evolution in the format throughout his life, as well as his contributions to modern portraiture in the contemporary era.  While Manet worked across a range of subjects in figurative painting, portraiture makes up about half of his body of work, offering perhaps the strongest evidence of the artist’s creative motivations throughout the course of his life.

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In the wake of the Pratt Institute fire that destroyed several floors of the school’s historic Main Building, along with the work and materials of 35 art students, dealer Larry Gagosian has stepped in to arrange a show of work by affected students.  Hosted at the Seagram’s Building, the selections for the show will be made by Brooklyn Museum curator Eugene Tsai, and will be on view from May 9th to the 14th.  “The students wanted a show in Manhattan, and this is like a dream come true,” said Pratt president Thomas F. Schutte. (more…)

Study for Portrait of P.L.(1962), the Francis Bacon painting of his lover Peter Lacy, will go on the auction block next month as part of Sotheby’s May 14th Contemporary Art Auction in New York.  Expected to sell between $30 and $40 million, the painting could serve as a test of the art market’s current health.  Bacon’s current record at auction is $86.2 million. (more…)

Ugo Rondinone, Pure Moonlight (Installation View), via Almine Rech

Almine Rech Gallery Paris is currently hosting its 7th installation of work by the Swiss-born Ugo Rondinone, exploring the interplay of time and creative practice on the artist.  Titled Pure Moonlight, the show consists of a series of Rondinone’s concentric “date paintings,” as well another set of small-scale candle sculptures.

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A UK tax judgement this week has challenged the taxation of art works in the country, allowing Portrait of Omai by Sir Joshua Reynolds to be taxed as a “wasting asset,” thereby avoiding capital gains tax.  The painting had hung in North Yorkshire’s Castle Howard for over two hundred years, and was recently sold by owned Simon Howard, who claims the work contributed to the appeal of the castle for tourists.  “The case could give vendors savings of 28 per cent on the sale of works of art that fulfil the same criteria,” said art agent Robert Holden. (more…)

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pistoletto Politico (Installation View), via Luxembourg and Dayan

The Years of Lead, between the late 1960’s and early 1980’s, were a divisive, violent time for the nation of Italy, reflecting the severe growing pains of a country recovering from the horrors of World War II while contending with rapidly shifting power flows and political ideologies that split much of Europe.  With the economy at a standstill, and bloodshed in the streets, the country was forced to take a hard look at itself, evaluating its own identity and divided society.

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pistoletto Politico (Installation View), via Luxembourg and Dayan

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Jackson Pollock’s No. 19, 1948 will be on the auction block at Christie’s next month, part of the auction house’s May 15th sale of  Contemporary and Post-War Art in New York.  A classic “drip-painting” by the artist, the work last sold at auction for $2.4 million in 1993, and is estimated to sell between $25 and $35 million.  “You can see the circular movement of Pollock’s hand,” Said Worldwide Post-War and Contemporary Art Chairman Brett Gorvy said. “It’s one of those paintings you get lost in.” (more…)

The family of late Paris gallery owner Paul Rosenberg has demanded that the Henie Onstand Arts Center in Oslo return a number of paintings seized from him during the German occupation of Paris during World War II .  While the family has provided documents claiming a number of works, including Matisse’s Woman in Blue in Front of Fireplace, the Norwegian museum claims it had no indication that the work was plundered when it was purchased 60 years ago, and that the painting is now the property of the museum under Norwegian law. “We need to investigate this matter properly,” Says museum director Tone Hansen. “It is too early to draw any conclusions. We are in dialogue with the family and will continue to be so. This case has other aspects than pure legal aspects that have to be taken into consideration.” (more…)

After breaking auction records for the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat twice last year, Christie’s will look to set the bar even higher for the Brooklyn-born artist’s work.  Basquiat’s Dustheads will be offered at the auction house’s May 15th Contemporary Sale in New York, with an asking price of $25 to $35 million.  The artist’s current record is $26.4 million, and a buyer has reportedly already agreed to pay $25 million.  “Collectors used to be snobbish about Basquiat since he started out painting on the streets,” Says Christie’s specialist Loic Gouzer. “But now his myth just seems to be getting fresher and more relevant with younger collectors.” (more…)

Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager and prodigious Art Collector Steven A. Cohen has issued a statement clarifying the details behind the purchase of Picasso’s Le Rêve from casino owner Steve Wynn.  Despite reports of the sale coming to light only recently, the deal was reportedly made last October, at the purchase price of $150 Million, when dealer William Acquavella contacted Cohen about the work’s availibility.  “We were at the gallery the next morning,” Says Sandy Heller, Cohen’s art advisor. “In three minutes we had a deal.”   (more…)

Madonna has announced plans to auction off a painting from her personal collection, Fernand Léger’s Trois Femmes à la Table Rouge, and to donate the resulting proceeds education projects for young girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  The piece will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on May 7th, and is estimated to sell for $5-7 million. “I have a great passion for art and a great passion for education,’’ Madonna said in a statement. “I cannot accept a world where women or girls are wounded, shot or killed for either going to school or teaching in girls’ schools.’’ (more…)

Domplatz, Mailand, the 1968 photo-realist painting by Gerhard Richter, will be the preeminent highlight of Sotheby’s spring Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York, carrying an estimated price of $30-40 million.  The sale comes months after the artist’s Abstraktes Bild (809-4) set a new record for his work at auction, and has a history of impressive sales at auction, setting a previous sales high for Richter 15 years ago.  Says Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, Tobias Meyer: “The work represents the pinnacle of Richter’s technical achievement and its scale, power and visual impact rivals his celebrated abstract works. This is the work the market has been waiting for and its sale is certain to be an historic event.”  (more…)

A major dispute between board members of the Hilma af Klint Foundation is casting a pall on the first major retrospective of the artist in her home country of Sweden.  The dispute arises over several board members’ desires to  sell of works to fund a museum to “anthroposophy,” a school of thought originated by Rudolf Steiner. Ulf  Wagner, one of the accused board members has responded, saying “Legally we would not be allowed to sell her works,” before continuing that this would only apply to major works.  (more…)