ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Plans Bold Future Under Max Hollein

San Francisco Chronicle / November 27th, 2016

Max Hollein, the somewhat new director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, has some ideas that could be "leading to a rebirth of the Bay Area’s largest visual arts organization," reports Charles Desmarais of the San Francisco Chronicle. Clearly defining the concepts of the two ...

Ancient City Discovered in Egypt

MSN / November 23rd, 2016

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed what they describe as a city that dates back more than 7,000 years, containing huts, tools, pottery and huge graves. It lies by the river Nile, close to the Temple of Seti the First in Abydos. Experts say the size of the 15 newly discovered graves ...

Competition for Van Gogh Lookalike Surfaces Living Doppelgänger

I am Vincent / November 27th, 2016

An artist put out a call for a Vincent Van Gogh lookalike to pose for a sculpture commission. Some 1,250 entries from 37 countries pored in and 500,000 votes cast, ultimately selecting a red-headed Englishman named Daniel Baker. An actor, Baker seems to be the spitting image of the famed ...

Jeff Koons Gives Giant Bouquet Sculpture to Paris in Honor of Terror Victims

France 24 / November 22nd, 2016

Artist Jeff Koons announced Monday that he will give a monumental sculpture to France in honor of 130 victims lost in November 2015's jihadist attacks on Paris. The 34-foot bronze, stainless steel and aluminum "Bouquet of Flowers" will depict a bunch of tulips in a hand resembling the Statue of ...

Germany Buys $13.25 Million Thomas Mann Home in California for Artist Residency

Los Angeles Times / November 22nd, 2016

To save a landmark from possible demolition, Germany has purchased the former Southern California home of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann who fled the Nazi regime in the 1940s. The coastal Pacific Palisades residence was built in 1941 by modernist architect J.R. Davidson. It was ...

A Subterranean Museum in Poland Wins World Building of the Year 2016

Dezeen / November 20th, 2016

A museum built in precast concrete almost entirely underground with a vast public space above won the title World Building of the Year 2016 at the World Architecture Festival. Polish architect Robert Konieczny of KWK Promes designed the National Museum in Szczecin which ...

Powerful Images of Climate Change Effects at COP22 Conference

CNN / November 20th, 2016

An exhibition of 100 photographs showing the effects of climate change around the world  -- from floods in India to melting ice in Antarctica -- went on display at the United Nations' climate summit in Morocco. World leaders and scientists have converged in Marrakech for the ...

De Kooning Snags Record $66.3 Million, Richter's War Jet Gets $25.6 Million at NYC Auctions

AP / November 16th, 2016

From Willem de Kooning’s most productive periods, “Untitled XXV” set a new auction record for a work by the abstract expressionist artist at $66.3 million at Christie's contemporary art sale Tuesday evening in New York. The sale total brought a solid $277 million. When the painting was ...

Van Gogh Museum Refutes Rediscovered Arles Sketchbook

CBC / November 16th, 2016

Canadian art historian Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov's new publication Vincent van Gogh: The Lost Arles Sketchbook (Abrams) was unveiled in Paris on Tuesday. But with all the fanfare, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam was notably not on board with the supposed discovery of some 65 ...

Munch Painting Brings $54 Million at Sotheby's

AP / November 14th, 2016

“My pictures are not art, but life itself.” - Edvard Munch A seminal work by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch brought over $54 million at Sotheby’s auction of impressionist and modern art on Monday. In a statement, Sotheby's described "a buoyant atmosphere in the saleroom" for the sale in New York ...

This Week's New York Auctions Test Post-Election Mood

New York Times / November 13th, 2016

Cautious sellers put few masterworks on the market during this U.S. Presidential election season. Top-tier works that are hitting auction floors this week for the big sales of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art in New York will test the post-election mood --- albeit at the very high end ...

Sotheby's Reports $54.5 Million Loss, Adds New Board Member

Bloomberg / November 7th, 2016

Sotheby’s announced its third-quarter results on Monday and sales were a loss due to a contracting market.  Its net loss grew to $54.5 million, or 99 cents a share, from $17.9 million, or 26 cents, a year ago. Revenue was down 34 percent from a year ago, coming to $91.5 million. In ...

Art Institute Chicago and Cleveland Museum of Art Played Artful World Series

Ohio.com / November 2nd, 2016

After six games led to a tie, the final game of the World Series between the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs dragged on with a rain delay on Wed. night. For the Cubs, victory came with a 8-7 win. The whole suspenseful series also played out most artfully between the Cleveland Museum of Art and ...

Denmark Plans Immersive Hans Christian Andersen Museum

VOA / November 2nd, 2016

A "magical" new museum based on the works of Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen will be built in his birthplace of Odense. City officials said Monday that A. P. Moller Foundation, main owner of the shipping and oil group A. P. Moller-Maersk, has donated $33 million for the ...

Basquiat Moment: 1980s Works in Milan Prior to Major London Showing

ArtfixDaily / October 31st, 2016

Haitian-American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is getting the star treatment in Italy and the UK from this fall to next. The Warhol friend, known for his singular and direct style, died of a drug overdose at 27 in 1988. He came of age in the post-punk underground art scene of 1970s Lower Manhattan ...

Art Dealer Mary Boone Strikes Back at Alec Baldwin With New Lawsuit

Wall Street Journal / October 28th, 2016

New York art dealer Mary Boone has filed a lawsuit against actor Alec Baldwin in response to his legal filing over the sale of a $190,000 Ross Bleckner painting. Baldwin had sued Boone and her gallery for fraud last month over "Sea and Mirror," claiming she sold him a later version of the 1996 ...

Lucas Museum Reveals Dual Designs for Possible LA and San Francisco Sites

ArtfixDaily / October 27th, 2016

Two designs from MAD Architects have been released for a museum to be built by filmmaker George Lucas for his collection of American art, illustration, and memorabilia. Months after the Chicago site was abandoned following opposition that stalled the project, San Francisco and Los Angeles are now ...

Court Rules Miami-Dade College to Pay Art Dealer's Legal Fees Over Disputed Museum Bid

Miami Herald / October 26th, 2016

Miami Herald reports that "Miami-Dade College must pay art dealer Gary Nader’s legal fees in litigation related to his frustrated bid to build a cultural center at the school’s downtown campus, a state appeals court has ruled." An unsolicited bid for a Latin American art museum topped with ...

London Gallery Files Lawsuit Against Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné

The Art Newspaper / October 25th, 2016

The Art Newspaper reports that a "new authentication dispute has cropped up around the work of the Canadian-born American abstract painter Agnes Martin, whose minimalist paintings are currently the focus of an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (until 11 January). The Mayor Gallery ...

Art Historian Decries Toledo Museum of Art's Sale of Antiquities

Toledo Blade / October 24th, 2016

Toledo native Joan Connelly, a renowned art expert, nationally known archaeologist, professor, and winner of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award, is vocally opposing the Toledo Museum of Art’s deacquisition of nearly 70 antiquities from its collection at a current auction. A professor of ...